"Yes, the Unicorn Adept conjured us free," she said.
"Where do we go from here?"
"Nowhere."
"But I hardly know how to forage, and I have no place to sleep. I can"t be much use to anyone, here!"
The harpy appeared, perched on a low branch. "Willst share my nest w" me?" she screeched.
Lysander tried to mask his dismay. "No affront to you, but I"m not sure I care for the elevation, even if my weight doesn"t tear your nest out of the tree."
Echo reappeared, her nakedness glorious in comparison. One hand was on the branch, and he realized that she had made a smooth translation because she had contact with it, and could guide herself during the change. "I also have a nether bower you may find more comfortable."
"I"m sure I would," he agreed quickly.
She put her hand to the trunk of the tree, and pulled on the bark. The bark swung out, becoming a panel or door. Now there was a hole in the tree, just about big enough for a man to crawl through. "After you, then," she said, gesturing to it.
"But that"s just a cavity!" he protested. "There can"t possibly be room inside it for me! The trunk is only a meter thick."
She merely waited, her gesture in place.
Lysander shrugged. He walked to the opening, and discovered that it was the entrance to a chute leading down. Oh. He lifted a leg and put a foot in, then worked the rest of his body through, until only his head was outside. His feet now dangled in the darkness; he had no idea how deep the hole was. "Drop," Echo said. "You will not be hurt." Could this be some trap to put him away? But why would they bother to transport him here for that? He had to trust them, because he wanted to achieve their trust. Only when he had it could he learn the most secret details of their plan for resistance-and betray it.
He let go. He fell down-and landed in a moment in a bed of feathers. There was a sliver of light from above, that soon shut off.
Echo was coming down after him. Hastily he rolled to the side so she wouldn"t land on top of him.
He was not quite fast enough. She whomped down beside him, knocking him flat in the darkness.
"Well, now," she said. "This is the way I like my men: laid out." She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed close.
"But we"ve only met!" he said.
"We met months ago. Now hang on while I take your measure."
"Measure?"
"I need to ascertain whether you are truly with us," she said. "Jod"e was supposed to do that, but Tan took her out. I doubt you"re ready to love me on such short notice, but we only have a few days, so it will have to be the crash course."
"I don"t think I understand."
"The prophecy says-"
"Oh, that! But how can you be sure that refers to me?"
"We can"t. But if it does, we want you with us. We think you will be more likely to be with us if you love one of us. That"s why Jod"e had to take you from that spy."
"You know about that?"
"The Adepts did. So they sent Jod"e to-"
"She did! But then Tan-"
"Yes. That really messed us up. They had to scratch at the last moment for another girl, and so I was recruited, because at least we"d met before. I don"t know anything about the plan to free Phaze, except that you may be vital to it, so I must bind you to it. That I shall do."
"Now, wait! Do you think you can just pa.s.s me from woman to woman, and I"ll love any I"m near?"
"Yes. Now kiss me."
It seemed she wasn"t joking. "Forget it! I liked Alyc, until I learned what she was. I was getting to like Jod"e a lot; if I had any time to reflect, I"d be grieving for her. But you-you"re a harpy!"
"And a cyborg. A nice match for your android body with a living brain. You know as well as I do that it is the mind that determines the person. I can make this body do anything your body desires; you won"t care that the body isn"t alive. So we"ll get started."
"We shall not get-"
But she cut him off with her kiss. She was expert, and her body was warm and sleek and pulsing with the seemingness of vitality. Indeed it was easy to ignore the mechanics of it; in the dark she was all woman.
Then there was light, expanding from what looked like b.a.l.l.s of cotton set against the walls. He saw her-and she was still all woman.
"Look," he said as the kiss broke. "I did like Jod"e. I know that"s over. Tan raped her emotion and made her his. But I knew her before that, and I grieve for her loss. I would have stayed with her, perhaps married her in time; we related well. But this business of simply a.s.suming that any woman can take me just by being a.s.signed-doesn"t that turn the stomach of even a harpy, a little? Didn"t you have other plans for your life, before Jod"e got taken out? How can you go along with this nonsense?"
She gazed at him, her eyes spots of midnight. "Actually, I did like you, Lysander. I enjoyed flirting with you, though I never expected anything to come of it. I was between males. But that"s not the point. Our world is at stake, and any personal plans I might have had are vacant. I must love you, and you me. and hope that you are the one who will save Phaze."
"Just like that," he said with irony. "Phaze needs me, so you and I must fall in love. Then I"ll decide in favor of your planet, because I"ll want to stay with you the rest of my life, even though you are made of plastic."
"You"ve got it. Meanwhile, we might as well enjoy ourselves. Let"s kiss and talk for a while, before we start on the s.e.x."
"I am at a loss to comprehend why you think any of this will occur. I may be of alien origin, but everything I"ve learned of your culture indicates that this isn"t the way love normally occurs."
"There are three reasons. Are you sure you want them recited?"
"Yes." He was intrigued. If he had to pretend to love her in order to get close to the source of the resistance, he would do that. But the role he was playing required that he offer natural resistance to such bread-and-b.u.t.ter romance.
"First, your body is handsome and virile and responds normally to stimuli. I am in this form an attractive woman, similarly responsive. Propinquity will normally cause us to merge, in the absence of counterindications."
"Granted. But there are counter-"
"Second, this chamber is sealed. For the next several days, I will be your only companion, and I will be most attentive and obliging to your interests. You will find me very good company indeed-and I trust I will find you the same. Only when the love is firm will we be released."
"So it is a trap!"
"A love trap," she agreed. "But a willing one, for me, and I think not jus! because I love my planet."
She evidently believed in this! "And the third reason?"
"This chamber is suffused with love elixir. It will take perhaps three days to be completely effective, and we have that amount of time available, perhaps more."
"You really think that-" But he broke off, remembering how Tan had changed Jod"e. Magic was operative here, and surely their love potions were effective, though slower than Adept enchantment.
"So you see, we may try to resist it, or we can go along with it. The outcome will be the same, but it will be more pleasant to go along."
"Suppose I just break out now, before any of this can take effect?"
"I hope you don"t do that!" she said, alarmed.
"Why not? I prefer to make my own choice whom I may love." This, again, was consistent with his established personality.
"Because if you emerge without me, my sister harpies will tear you apart. Literally. They are guarding this retreat. Please accept my word, they are mean customers, and fully capable of the act. Even if your android body is resistant to the poison of their claws, it can not withstand their ma.s.sed attack. They intend to keep you in here for the full three days, and to prevent any possible rescue. Since no one else knows where you are-"
"Point made. I think I"m stuck for it."
She sat up. "I can understand your anger, Lysander. But it will pa.s.s. I just thought that since our love is inevitable, and thereafter we may be separated, it would be nice to make the most of it in this time we have. It would be a shame to squander the interim by quarreling."
He had one more objection. "But you are a cyborg! The love potion should not affect you."
"I am also a harpy, and my brain is living. The potion will affect these. It is not purely chemical; it is a magical ambience that can affect even a metal robot. Indeed, I am already feeling it; that is why I am pleading for detente between us."
Lysander shrugged. "Whether I will love you I can"t say. But your arguments are persuasive. I want to save your planet too; I just didn"t care to be cynically coerced into it." That was a half-truth, but it would do. "My anger is fading; let"s give love a try." That was true; it seemed that the potion was already having its effect.
"I"m glad." She leaned into him and kissed him. "We are not always free to choose our destinies or our emotions. I think we can make a good couple, and perhaps save the planet. Then neither of us will be sorry that it wasn"t natural."
"But how can you be sure I don"t just tell you I love you, so that you won"t sick the harpies on me?"
"Unless you are immune to magic, there is no chance of that. Jod"e would have brought you to a similar chamber."
"Jod"e would not have needed to."
"When the fate of our world is at stake, the Adepts do not gamble. They chose her for you, and when she was lost, they chose me. I am not as good a choice, but will have to do; there was no one else convenient. Of course Jod"e will betray you to the Hectare, and they will know about the prophecy and the love, and probably that it is me you love. But we shall try to keep you out of their tentacles, until the prophecy is fulfilled." She paused, gazing at him. "Now you may have the pleasure of using a woman you do not yet love, if you wish, or you may wait until you do. I am amenable to your preference. I have told you all that I know about this matter."
She was certainly being candid! "What is your own preference?"
"Oh, I was hot for you when I first met you. Harpies are l.u.s.ty creatures, being chronically male-starved. I loved it when you handled my legs! But you seemed destined for other things, so I resigned myself. I"d like to discover how many times and in how many ways it can be done in three days, with one man."
"One man?"
"The limitation is male. If I had ten men here-"
"Oh." He considered. He appreciated both her candor and her cynicism; it relieved him of confusion and conscience. He remembered how feminine even the complete robot Sheen had seemed; Echo was interesting despite what he knew of her. "Then let"s find out."
She addressed him with a hunger that seemed even more intense than what Alyc had shown, and in a moment they were in the throes of s.e.x, and in another moment beyond them. Her harpy aspect must indeed be hungry for male interaction! She was evidently ready to continue, but his interest faded, so they talked instead. Her attentions to him continued during the dialogue, restoring his interest more rapidly than would otherwise have been the case.
They continued with both s.e.x and history, in stages and bouts and alternations and mixtures, and time pa.s.sed both rapidly and slowly, simultaneously. It hardly mattered what Echo said; Lysander was increasingly interested merely in listening to her, and in having her listen to him. Their s.e.xmaking became lovemaking, the pa.s.sion less, the satisfaction more. Being with her was sheer pleasure, of a sort he had not experienced before.
"It is true," he said at last. "I have not loved before, but I do love you."
"And I love you," she said. "It is magical in origin, but I think I could have loved you anyway, had you had any natural interest in me. Soon we can emerge, but let"s not hurry."
Lysander was enjoying himself, but something was bothering him increasingly. He did not want there to be a lie between the two of them. He wanted their love to be perfect, and feared it could not be.
"There is something I must tell you," he said.
"That you now believe in love potions? I know it, Lysander."
"That I love you too much to deceive you," he said grimly. "I must tell you the truth, though it destroy your love for me."
"Too late for that. Three days have pa.s.sed, and I am lost. You can only hurt me, you can not destroy my love."
The gravity of his situation suddenly tormented him. "I can lie to you only if you ask me to. I would prefer to do that, so as not to hurt you."
She gazed at him with understanding. "There really is something bad," she said.
"There really is. Please, tell me to lie. It will spare us both pain."
"Does it affect our mission to save our world?"
"Yes."
"Then you must tell me. Maybe the Adepts had this in mind."
"Maybe they did," he agreed, realizing that if the Adepts had known about Alyc, they might have learned about him too. In that case, it would be pointless to conceal his mission longer. It would be better to come out into the open. Maybe the love potion was distorting his judgment, but it did seem to make sense. "But can we wait a little? Love is new to me, and I want to savor it before it is dashed."
"No, you had better tell me now. I was never one to postpone either the best or the worst."
"I am an agent of the Hectare."
She shook her head. "But if you were, why would you tell me? If I said one word to my sister harpies..." She trailed off, her thought evidently bothering her.
"I did not tell you, or anyone else, not even the local Hectare administrators, because it is essential that no one be able to betray my mission. It is my a.s.signment to infiltrate to the heart of the resistance, and then destroy it, so that there is no further threat to Hectare dominance. No coercion could have made me tell. But now I have to tell you, because our love can not be true if what you know of me is false. I am not just an android with a borrowed living brain. I am an android with a Hectare brain."
She stared. "How can it help your mission to reveal this to me?"
"It can not. Now, if you will, a.s.sume your harpy form and kill me. I will not resist you."
"Your love makes you do this?"
"Yes." He smiled briefly. "I see now that the Hectare, having no direct knowledge of love, did not condition me against it. But I am a Hectare, a bug-eyed monster, in human form. Kill me now, because if you do not, you are unlikely to do it later."
"I love a Hectare?" she asked, dumbfounded.
"You love the form of a human being. I knew you for what you were when love took me; you knew only a lie about me. You are not bound. Do your planet the most good you can. Kill me."
"But if you love me, won"t you join my side? Maybe that"s what the Adepts want."
"If you love me, will you join the Hectare?"
"I can"t do that!" she protested. "My world is my nature! All that I am, even the metal and plastic-I can not be untrue to that!"
"You have answered yourself," he pointed out. "I am Hectare. I must serve my species."