Nepe rolled up to the airport entrance. "I"m going out?" Tsetse asked forlornly.
"Yes," Nepe answered, as any machine would. Suddenly she had her answer: Tsetse didn"t know where she was going! That was why she needed the guide-and why she was afraid. She thought she was being punished for some infraction!
Nepe pondered briefly, and decided to take a risk. It might even lead to valuable input. She overstepped the nature of a normal guidebot and volunteered information. "To the residence of the former Brown Adept in Phaze."
Tsetse pounced on the news with pitiful hunger. "To be his servant there?" She thought Purple had taken over the Brown Demesnes.
"To be her servant there."
"Oh, if only it"s so!" Tsetse breathed, the tension going out of her.
Nepe was glad she had spoken. Tsetse might not be much intellectually, but she didn"t deserve unkind treatment. Purple was a hard master who evidently used her and abused her without concern for her feelings. He could have told her where she was going, but perhaps had preferred to make her suffer. This was true to his form.
Nepe led the way to a seat on the small airplane available. There were no other pa.s.sengers. "Brown Demesnes," she told the control panel, and the plane started moving. Its flight would be coordinated with others, controlled from the ground. They were merely pa.s.sengers.
"But why should I be a.s.signed to the Brown Adept?" Tsetse asked. "The Purple Adept doesn"t even like her!"
That was exactly what Nepe was wondering. But she was in no position to hold a dialogue on the subject, lest she betray her nature. She did not respond.
The flight was a short one, and soon the plane came down in a field beside the wooden castle. Brown had a Proton ident.i.ty, but her Phaze ident.i.ty was dominant, and her Proton self had effectively disappeared during the mergence.
The plane stopped. They got out. The plane took off without them. They were left in the field, gazing at the castle.
A wooden golem came out and approached them. "Who are you?" it asked.
"This is Tsetse, a.s.signed here by Citizen Purple," Nepe said. "I guided her here, and now am stranded." Indeed, Purple had cared no more for the convenience of the machine than for that of the serf.
"Follow." The golem turned and marched back toward the castle.
"I can not," Nepe called, for her little wheels were useless here.
The golem turned again, strode back, bent, and heaved her up. It carried her awkwardly, but with the unyielding strength of wood. It made again for the castle, with Tsetse following.
The Brown Adept met them at the front door. "What be thy purpose here?" she inquired somewhat grimly of Tsetse.
"I am to be your servant," Tsetse replied, surprised.
"I know naught o" this." She glanced at Nepe, who had been set on the floor. "What be thy transmittal orders?"
"To guide the serf Tsetse to the Brown Demesnes," Nepe replied. They had a.s.sumed she was to be a servant; it wasn"t specified in the order.
Brown looked again at Tsetse. "Thou dost work for Purple?"
"For Tania, then for Purple," Tsetse said. "I will do good work for you, if you give me a chance."
Brown was still for a moment, evidently struck by the woman"s eagerness. It seemed that neither party had been told about this a.s.signment. "What type o" work didst thou do for them?"
"I was Tania"s receptionist, and whatever. For Purple, whatever."
"What dost thou mean, whatever?" Brown asked sharply. Tsetse looked down, ashamed to answer.
Then Brown caught on. "Purple had thee for s.e.xual purpose?"
"Yes, for a time."
"And Tania too?"
"Yes," Tsetse whispered. "When she had no man."
"And thou hadst no choice, being a serf," Brown said. "I understand. There will be not such coercion here."
"I didn"t mind, really," Tsetse said. "Tania treated me well."
"And Purple?"
Tsetse was silent.
Brown put an arm around her. "My dear, mine authority be diminished, since the invasion. I remain here only by the sufferance o" mine enemies, and I know not how long that will be. But thou needst have no fear o" me during that interim."
"Thank you, sir," Tsetse said, trying to stifle her tears of relief.
"Nay, not sir. I be an Adept, a Citizen not, and in any event my power now be scant. Come, we shall get to know each other. But first needs must we clothe thee; this be not Proton, and thy fair form will be chilled in the drafts."
"But what of me?" Nepe asked. She did not want to get stranded here; she had other business to do.
Brown glanced at her thoughtfully. "Go to my storage chamber until thy service be needed again."
Nepe headed into the castle and down the hall, making her way to the chamber where the wooden golems stayed when not animated. The matter remained curious. She still had no hint why Purple, who cared little for the welfare of any other person, had sent a pleasant woman like Tsetse to work with Brown. Why did he allow Brown to have even the semblance of freedom? It was obvious that neither woman knew the answer, and Nepe didn"t either. She hoped Mach could make some sense of it. But she didn"t dare send a message from here; Purple was surely monitoring whatever happened at this castle.
She moved back to the darkest recess of the storage chamber. Then she changed slowly back to human form. There was no activity. The two women were probably comparing life histories. Nepe was sure it was lonely here, and the company of another woman would be a blessing to Brown. But that only heightened the mystery: Purple could have sent anyone to watch Brown: a harridan or a cruel man or a machine. He had sent possibly the most compatible person available. That was completely unlike him. Why hadn"t he simply had her locked in a cell?
When her change was complete, she shifted to Flach. He became a flea and jumped through a crack in the wall, working his way outside. When he got there, he became a small snake and slithered through the gra.s.s away from the castle. Only when he was well clear did he conjure himself directly to Hardom, where he returned the body to Nepe.
She wasted no time contacting Mach, joining him again on the baggage route so they could talk. "Report on Brown: Tsetse a.s.signed as servant, unknown to either Brown or Tsetse. Mysterious act of generosity on Purple"s part. He let her keep her Demesnes, too."
"Do the two women get along?" he asked.
"Yes, well."
"Then Purple means to use Tsetse as a lever against Brown. She will have to serve the Hectare."
"Brown wouldn"t do that!" Nepe protested.
"She will have to. How did you exit?"
"I asked Brown what of me, and she looked at me and told me to go to the storage chamber. So I did, and sneaked out from there. No one saw me."
"How did you know where the storage chamber was?"
"Silly! I"ve been there many times before!"
"But you were supposed to be a Proton guidebot."
Now it sank in. "I shouldn"t have known! The machine shouldn"t have known!"
"Which means Brown caught on to your ident.i.ty."
"But she wouldn"t give me away!"
"I"m afraid she would, Nepe, now."
"But why? She"s on our side!"
"She is being blackmailed."
"What?"
"Her s.e.xual preference is for women. Trool knew, but kept his counsel until he realized that Purple and Tan were catching on. Then he told me. Neysa was going to help her, but the invasion came too soon. Now they are forcing her to cooperate with the Hectare, lest her secret be publicized."
"But who cares what she likes?" Nepe demanded. "She"s not the only one! Tsetse-" Then it came clear. "That"s why Purp sent her! To-"
"To make clear that he knows her secret, and will not only keep it, but give her a lover-if she cooperates," Mach said. "Carrot and stick. She can keep her Demesnes and nominal freedom, and have a truly lovely and obliging woman-or she can suffer the humiliation of exposure and unkind imprisonment. Rape by males would no doubt be pan of that punishment. She is a good woman, but sensitive and alone. She can not withstand that combination."
"But do the rest of you really care? I mean, you tied in with an alien blob and a unicorn; what do you care about who she cares about?"
"Nothing. We can accept her as she is. But she can"t believe that. Had we realized how it would be used against her, we would have made our position plain before the Hectare investment. But of course most of us simply didn"t know. She was once smitten with Stile; we had not questioned beyond that. We should have."
"Grandam Neysa-that"s why she hurried us on," Nepe said. "Why she went back. Maybe she told Brown it was all right."
"Neysa is conservative. It took her almost ten years to accept Fleta"s relationship with me."
"So she wouldn"t go for it," Nepe said. "So Brown thinks that"s how we all think!"
"It is an irony of the situation. We were distracted by the coming conquest, and didn"t realize how this would relate."
"So Brown will tell on me, because she has to. I wish I hadn"t given myself away! What do we do now?"
"We shall have to move quickly, before the golems stake out the Poles."
Nepe was baffled. "What are you saying?"
"Something I preferred not to, before. We have set two counterploys in motion. One is the Magic Bomb which Black and Green have made."
"The what?"
"Its detonation will destroy the planet and all on it. So if we lose, we will take the Hectare with us. But we prefer not to lose."
Nepe was daunted by the horror of the notion. "I had no idea!"
"We preferred to shield you from that sort of reality," he replied. "But it is time for you to know, so that you understand the importance of your own role."
"But I"m just a messenger!"
"Your messages are critical. You will have three, and you dare fail in none. Soon all of us will be captive except you. Here is the message capsule. Do not attempt the second until the first is done, or the third until the second is done."
"I"ll try," she said. "But-"
"I have erased my own knowledge of the plan," he said. "I was the only one who knew the full course. Now none of us can betray it to the enemy. I can only say that its details will be completely surprising. If you are caught, destroy the capsule without reading it."
"But then we will all be destroyed!" she protested. "By the Magic Bomb!"
He cracked a small smile. "Get offplanet if you can."
"But Daddy-"
"You are on your own, alien flesh." It was an endearment he used on her, referring to her Moebite ancestry. "On your way, and do not communicate with me again."
She knew he meant it. She scooted away from him, the weight of the planet suddenly on her little shoulders. They were playing what in the game was known as hard ball.
When she was safely alone, she activated the capsule for the first message. It was simple: GO TO NORTH POLE.
That was all. She waited, hoping that there would be some explanation, but was disappointed.
She pondered it, her mind whirling. Tsetse had been delivered to Brown, and suddenly to save the planet Nepe had to go to the North Pole! How could she make sense of that?
Well, she could make a little piece of sense of it. Brown now understood what was at stake for her. Brown had also caught on to Nepe"s presence. That meant that the enemy would be on her trail. But maybe not immediately. Brown might take a few hours to realize what she had to do, and Purple might have trouble tracing Nepe after that, even with magic. So maybe there would be no pursuit. But the Hectare might have devices that no one else knew about, that could sniff out even a magic trail, with a little advice from an Adept. So they couldn"t take a chance. So Mach had given Nepe the full dose, on the a.s.sumption that they would trace him down through her, and take him out of the game. He could not afford to a.s.sume otherwise.
So before she went to the North Pole, she had better mask her trail. But quickly, because she didn"t know how much they already knew. Mach had said they might have Brown"s golems stake out the Poles. What did the Poles have to do with all this? Probably the answer was in the Book of Magic, which Mach had taken somewhere. He must have hidden it where it wouldn"t be found by the enemy, because with it they could overcome anything any Adept tried.
Where would that Book be? Where else: the North Pole! So if she went there and got it, maybe she could use it to do whatever else was needed.
Nepe moved about within the city, crisscrossing her trail so that it would be excruciatingly difficult for anyone to track her by any normal means. She was good at hiding, as good as any creature could be, but there remained that lurking doubt: if Brown had told immediately, and Purple had put a magic tracker on her, that would be impossible to shake by physical means. So she might be wasting her time here.
Still, Flach was experienced at magical hiding, and he could do his best to nullify that tracker spell. So after she was done here, she would turn it over to him, and he would complete the job.
It all seemed reasonably simple. But she very much feared it wasn"t.
8 - North