"Thank you." He climbed on her back.
Then he did a doubletake. "I understood you!" he exclaimed.
She laughed with the pealing of bells. "Flach did it. He be the Unicorn Adept. We o" the Herd be proud o" him." She started walking, leaving the man and boy behind.
"Unicorn Adept?"
The bells tinkled again, melodiously. "Clip asked me to clarify our system for thee." These were not her precise words; rather, he was translating the sounds into his own sentences, as he was coming to understand the dialect of Phaze. It didn"t matter; he understood her perfectly. It was apparent that any further effort to resist acceptance of magic was likely to be futile; it was the readiest explanation for what was going on. "There were two frames, one magic, the other science. We unicorns lived in magic Phaze, while the Citizens and serfs lived in science Proton, in their domes, because they had polluted all the air and ruined the land. Many o" us had other selves, but we could cross o"er not."
"Let me see whether I understand," he said. "You were a unicorn, and some person in Proton was the same as you?"
"Nay, some mare," she tinkled. "I have no human form; it were not one I chose. We unicorns can usually learn two other forms, and I chose the heron and the cat. Clip chose man and hawk. So we trot together, and we fly together, but when I go to Proton with him he be a man and I be a horse. But I like it there not, so I remain out on the range."
"The frames merged, and now the domes are Proton, and the outside land is Phaze?"
"Aye, by agreement. So when a Citizen steps outside, he a.s.sumes his Phaze form. If he be Adept, he has great power, but most o" them be just ordinary folk. So the Proton folk mostly stay in their domes, and we Phaze folk remain mostly outside. Many of us have no opposite selves anyway, so it be easier. Things really changed not much, after the mergence settled down, except that the Adept Stile gained power."
"Who?"
"The Adepts be the ones with much magic. They be mostly human, but the Red Adept be a troll, and the Unicorn Adept be pan unicorn. The Blue Adept always supported the unicorns, and the werewolves and vampires, so-"
"But you named a Stile Adept."
"He were the Blue Adept, but he changed selves with Stile, and now he be Citizen Blue, and Stile be the Adept."
"Oh-so Nepe"s grandfather-"
"Aye," she tinkled. "Clip"s sister Neysa had a filly, Fleta, who mated with Blue"s son Mach, the rovot-"
"What?"
"In Proton there be rovots," she tinkled patiently. "Like golems, only made o" metal. Nepe be their child, so she be-"
"Wait! Wait! I"m all confused. I thought the frames were separate. How could a unicorn filly mate with a robot? Even if it were possible physically, they were in opposite frames!"
"Mach crossed o"er, and took Bane"s body, here, and loved Fleta. Their child be Flach. Bane crossed to Proton, and took Mach"s body, and married Agape the alien, and their child be Nepe. But when the mergence came-"
"They became the same!" Lysander exclaimed, the light dawning. "Stile and Blue are the same, and their sons are the same, and their grandchildren! But-" He broke off, troubled by another aspect.
"One child be male and one be female," she tinkled, understanding. "We believed it not either, but it be so. That unbelief were critical in Stile"s victory."
"Just what was this victory? How did it relate to the merging of the frames?"
"The Adverse Adepts were gaining power, and were in league with the Contrary Citizens, and the Purple Adept sought to kill Stile and a.s.sume power. But Blue summoned the Platinum Flute, and Clef to play it, and they piped the frames together. Blue and Stile merged and liked each other, and Fleta and Agape liked each other, and Flach and Nepe, for all were good folk. But the bad Adepts and Citizens were mean folk, each out for himself alone, not sharing power, and they could stand their other selves not, and fell in torment struggling with themselves. By the time they came to accommodation with their opposites, the good folk were firmly in power. Now it be verging on the golden age, for Stile and Blue be reconciled with their sons Mach and Bane and their grandchildren Flach and Nepe, and all value the land and creatures. Ne"er again will evil govern either frame."
"But how can magic work here, when it is unknown in the rest of the galaxy?"
"It be the Phazite," she tinkled. "The magic rock "neath the mountains. It be the source o" magic and energy. The bad Citizens were mining it, and selling it, and depleting it, so our magic were less. They cared for our welfare not, any more than they did for the air they spoiled before. But Stile and Blue stopped them, and now little rock goes out."
"This rock provides magic and energy?"
"Aye. The Proton ships use it and the rovots and "chines, and it be best in the galaxy. The Citizens were getting much wealth, but we were fading." She made a merry serenade of bells. "No more!"
Abruptly she halted. "What"s the matter?" Lysander asked.
"A goblin, spying on us!" she tinkled. "Do thou dismount; needs must I drive him out."
Lysander quickly got off. Then she was a black panther, bounding into the brush.
There was a swirl of motion, and something like a little man leaped up and dodged behind a tree. The panther circled the tree, but evidently the goblin was gone.
The big cat came back. The beautiful unicorn reappeared. "They have no business here," she tinkled indignantly. "These be "Corn Demesnes."
Evidently so. Lysander remounted, and they continued on around the grazing herd. By the time they returned to the boy and stallion, the two had evidently finished their conversation. Indeed, the unicorn was grazing again, and the lad was playing with tiny clouds, making the black one chase the white one in crazy patterns just above the ground. When the two collided, there was a crack of thunder, and flare of lightning, and a bucket of water drenched the soil.
The boy became the unicorn. "We thank thee for thy help, Belle," Flach piped politely. Lysander seemed to understand all music talk now, and he knew he wasn"t imagining it.
"Welcome, Adept," Belle tinkled. "It be fun to rehea.r.s.e the history. Tell the Lady we miss her."
"Aye, I"ll nag her!" the boy said zestfully, reappearing. "Or I will," the girl Nepe added. The changes seemed instant; Lysander could detect no transition. What else could it be but magic?
Then Nepe extended her hand. Lysander took it, knowing what was coming.
Sure enough, the scene changed. They were standing at the edge of a forest clearing where a number of wolves were lying. The wolves jumped up, smelling the intrusion-and beside Lysander was another wolf. "Tear him not, brothers!" Flach growled, this form of communication also now comprehensible. "I be showing him magic at Blue"s behest."
A wolf approached Lysander-and abruptly became a woman. She was of indeterminate human age, no young innocent but also not old. "For thee, Flach, we honor this. But canst be sure he be worthy?"
"I thank thee, Bukisaho," Flach said. "He be new to Phaze, and Blue wants him broken in. I know no more than this, and that he be named Lysander."
"Thy human names be e"er strange," she said. "I would second-guess Blue not, but mayhap thou shouldst include the Adept Tania on the tour."
"Aye, excellent notion, b.i.t.c.h!" the boy exclaimed, startling Lysander.
The woman, noting his reaction, laughed-and so did the surrounding wolves, in their way. "Aye, he be new!" the woman agreed.
A young wolf appeared at the fringe of our, camp. "Sirelmoba!" Flach cried, spying it.
The wolf charged him, leaped into the air with teeth bared- and became a girl about his age, smacking into the boy with her mouth against his for an extremely solid kiss. Her hair was dark, like his, as were her furry jacket and skirt; she could have been his sister, but obviously wasn"t.
After an intense moment, she drew back her head but not her body. The two might be children, but they looked much like lovers, Lysander thought. "O Barel, it be but days but it feels like years!" the girl said. "I feel my age drawing nigh, any year now; be thou ready when I be!"
"But once we mate, we part!" he protested. "I be in no hurry for that, Sirel."
"We will part not, only turn to friendship."
He nodded. "Aye. Still, I be not rushed."
"I will make thee rush, when my heat come," she promised.
They were like lovers! They were talking of mating!
"This be Lysander," Flach said, turning to him as the girl released him. "He be a new serf for Blue."
"Pleased to meet thee, Lysan," the girl said. "Thou hast no Phaze form?"
"No Phaze form," Lysander agreed.
"Then I a.s.sume mine other form, to greet thee," Sirel said-and abruptly a wheeled machine sat in her place. "I am Troubot, the trouble-shooting robot," it said via a speaker. "I love Nepe, but I fear my love is vain."
"Oh, I don"t know," Nepe said, appearing, naked as she had been in the dome. "But unless you want to put on a humanoid body like Daddy"s-"
The wolf-girl reappeared. "It be more fun being a b.i.t.c.h."
b.i.t.c.h: a female dog or wolf. Now Lysander had it straight.
"I must on," Flach said. The changes were so quick and natural that it seemed pointless to try to track them. "We be going to see Tania."
Sirel frowned cutely. "Thou knowest I like thee not with that woman." The way she said it, "woman" sounded the way "b.i.t.c.h" did away from Phaze.
"Dost forget she played the Flute, that we might beat the e"il Adepts?" Flach inquired, smiling.
"Nay, I forget that not, neither her power."
"Which she would waste not on me," he retorted.
Sirelmoba relented. "Aye, why waste anything on thee!"
He made a grab for her, but she turned wolf again and glided away. Flach turned wolf himself, and growled after her, then reappeared as the boy. "Come, Lysan," he said, extending his hand.
Lysander took it-and they were at the base of another section of the Purple Mountains. Partway up was a pleasant cottage, with a thatched roof and plaster walls. An easy path led up to it.
"If I may inquire," Lysander said cautiously, "what is significant about the Adept Tania?"
"She has the power o" the Evil Eye," Flach explained as they walked up the path. "When her brother were the Tan Adept, and sought to destroy what Grandpa Blue had wrought, she fought for us, and helped us prevail, and now she be the Adept while Tan be prisoner."
"But why should I see her? I am of no significance."
The lad glanced at him with a disturbing hint of understanding. "Blue takes serfs not for naught, and sends them to Phaze not for naught. Least does he put us"-Nepe flashed momentarily, showing that he meant the combination-"in charge of such, e"en for an hour, without reason. It be our task not merely to show thee magic, but to fathom thy nature. Tania will do that."
"Fathom my nature? I"m an android!"
"But what is thy mind, Lysan? Thinkst thou to step into the Blue Demesnes unchallenged? An thou be sent to a.s.sa.s.sinate Blue, needs must we know it early."
"I"m no a.s.sa.s.sin!" Lysander protested, appalled.
"An we take thy word on that, be we smart?"
"I see your point. So Tania will know? What is she, a mind reader?"
"Not exactly. She will compel thee with her Eye, which be not truly e"il now, and thou willst tell thy nature."
Lysander felt a chill. If the woman could do that, he was lost! But perhaps it was a bluff. What could a child know, after all?
They completed the ascent to the cottage. Flach knocked on the door. "Adepts, this be Flach! I bring a serf from Proton-frame."
The door opened. A beautiful woman of about thirty stood within, in a tan dress. Her hair was tan, and her eyes too. Suddenly the significance of the name registered. Tan, Tania. The color was a badge.
"Welcome, Flach," she said smiling. "We be e"er pleased to see thee, and any thou dost bring." She glanced at Lysander-and he felt another chill. Her eyes abruptly seemed larger, and intense, as though capable of hideous power. "Come in." She stepped back to give them access.
Inside was a pleasant room with a picture-window view of the mountainside and open field beyond. There was also a man, somewhat older than Tania, bespectacled and of slight build, though healthy. Lysander realized that he must have qualities that didn"t show, to be the companion of such a woman.
Flach performed the introductions. "This be Lysander, new serf o" Blue, from offplanet. This be the Adept Clef."
Clef walked forward to shake hands. "Welcome to Phaze, Lysander. What brings you here?"
Was there any point in telling his story? But he realized that all he could do was bluff it out. "I am an android, trained in games and computer feedback circuitry. I hope to achieve both pleasure and information during my tenure here, and money too, so as to be a person of account on my home planet when I return."
"Yes, I remember my own tenure as a serf," Clef said. "When I washed out in the game, I thought to depart Proton, never to return. But Stile showed me Phaze, and later Tania brought me back." He went to the woman and put his arm around her affectionately. She turned immediately and kissed him with an eagerness reminiscent of that of Alyc. But she was no Alyc; what was it that made Clef a figure to compel her devotion?
"Methought Tania could test Lysander, to be a.s.sured of his constancy," Flach said. "We like strangers not around Blue."
Again Tania glanced at Lysander. She shifted subtly. "Why not put him on a lie detector?" she asked.
"If he"s an a.s.sa.s.sin," Nepe said, "he would be trained to fake through that. But he can"t fake you, Citizen."
Lysander realized that Tania had shifted to her Proton form, which was evidently the same as her Phaze form. So she was also a Citizen! That meant that she had enormous power, if she chose to exercise it, despite her rustic residence.
"You know my wife does not like to use her power carelessly," Clef said. "She can orient on a given subject only once."
"Gee, I forgot," Nepe said, abashed. "I was thinking it was like the weres or "corns, always there."
"Always there for a new subject," Clef said. "If there is any chance that Stile might want him checked at a later date, we should wait on that. But perhaps I can be of service, instead."
"Would you, dear?" Tania asked, evidently relieved.
"For you, anything," Clef said. He seemed to be speaking literally. He walked across the room and fetched an instrument from a shelf.
Lysander wasn"t sure whether to feel relief or increased concern. These people obviously intended to check him out-but how did they propose to do it? Nepe was right: no lie detector would betray him; he had been manufactured to be resistant to the human signals such machines interpreted. Only a direct mind probe could fathom his truth, and his masters had not antic.i.p.ated that on this planet. In immediate retrospect, he realized that he had blundered into accepting employment directly with Citizen Blue; of course the man was careful about his a.s.sociates, being the leading figure of the planet! Had Lysander sought employment with a lesser Citizen, he should have pa.s.sed unnoticed. He had asked for trouble, and now was getting it.
The instrument turned out to be a shining silver flute. No, not silver-platinum. This was the Platinum Flute the unicorn Belle had mentioned, that Clef had played to merge the frames. That had seemed like mythology, but now it seemed literal. But what could a flute really do?
"Sit down," Tania said, indicating chairs and taking one herself. "It"s always such a pleasure to hear him play."
"Aye," Flach agreed. "Ne"er heard I the like!"
Lysander did not antic.i.p.ate pleasure. If the Flute really could somehow fathom his mind, it would be the end of him. Yet maybe it was illusion or bluff.
Clef played. It was immediately evident that he was an expert flautist; the music was sure and sweet. But how could mere music verify whether a man was an a.s.sa.s.sin? Of course that was not the case with Lysander; he was merely a counterinsurgency agent, who would kill only at need. He liked Citizen Blue and his family, and would do his best to avoid doing them harm, so long as his mission was fairly accomplished. Still, the premature exposure of his mission would be fatal to it and probably himself.