They dismounted. "Thank thee, Franken," Weva said, donning her robe again. "What thou seekst be beneath the Pole, but it be protected by magic, so thou must wait for it to emerge."
The golem stepped into the light and became immobile. It would wait until the end of the world, quite likely. Weva brushed off the Pole, and there was a small spiral stake. It had evidently been taller once, but broken off. She pulled, and it came up, revealing another chamber below.
"Is it safe to go in there?" Lysander asked. "If time is changed-"
"Aye, time be much changed, but needs must we go in." She paused. "I apologize to thee, "Sander, for taking thy love, and will make amend an I be able. I acted before I fathomed honor, but after learning from thee, I know it be in my nature. Thou didst give me as much as I took from thee."
"Echo will be here?" That would put him on the spot.
"Aye, they took another route. We went apart so that they could decoy pursuit from me. Mayhap Flach can help thee."
"No. Say nothing. I"ll play it through as seems best."
"There will be time, for it be magnified greatly here. To others it may seem but one day before the end, but we shall have nigh five years."
"Five years! One day is five years?"
"Aye, almost. So hurry not."
He nodded. Then he followed her down into the hole.
He was not aware of any time change, but did not question that it was happening, because he had seen how Flach and Sirel and Alien had aged in one week under the West Pole, and how Flach had aged again in a mere day. Weva had come into existence and become a dominant young woman in a bit over a month. Now she told him that time was much further accelerated here at the South Pole, and he had to believe her. The Adepts had needed something like this, to give them time to forge their weapon.
"h.e.l.lo, Weva!" a voice called. It was Flach, looking another notch taller and older. "Methought to worry lest thou be lost."
"Nay, Flach, merely distracted," she said. "How long hast thou been here?"
"Six months."
"So thou didst come two and a half hours before me," she said. "Thou couldst have waited."
"Nay, I wanted to meet the elves." Flach glared at Lysander. "Didst enjoy thy session with her?"
"Yes, actually," Lysander said.
"I drew from him all I desired," Weva said. "Now do I know all about honor."
Lysander had the satisfaction of seeing Flach startled. "Honor?"
"Aye. What didst think I meant?"
"Me feared for him," Flach admitted. "When I spent time with Icy the demoness, she-but that be long ago. Be he ready work with us?"
Weva shrugged. "Ask him."
"No," Lysander answered. "You know I represent the other side."
"Then needs we must tell thee the whole o" our plan," Flach said, seemingly unperturbed. "I will bring thee to Chief Ores-mite o" the Iridium Elves."
Iridium Elves! That explained the flutes. But what were they doing under the South Pole? The elves normally mined under the mountain ranges. "There is iridium here?"
"Nay," Flach said as he led the way. "But their expertise were needed, so they came with the Adepts Clef and Tania."
"The Adept Clef!" Lysander exclaimed. "So this is where he came!"
"Aye. But he be with us no longer."
"What happened to him?" Lysander was concerned. He had liked the Adept, with his beautiful and evocative music, and he had liked Tania, who was merely beautiful.
"They died o" age. It were a hundred and fifty years ago they came here."
"A hundred and fifty years!" But he realized it was true. The two must have come here before the Hectare came, antic.i.p.ating the investment. The accelerated time scale-he did a quick calculation, and realized from the hints they had dropped that the ratio was about 1,728 to one, or 12 cubed, just as it was 144 to one under the West Pole. The East Pole was probably a mere 12 to one, and the North was the opposite, slowed by one of those factors. There was indeed a pattern to the Poles!
"Their descendants be here now," Flach said. "They have ne"er seen the outside."
Lysander thought of the couple he had met so recently. They had not died in untimely fashion, so he did not need to mourn them, yet they were gone. Did it matter that they had lived their full lives, perhaps quite satisfactory ones, and had done what they did voluntarily, to save their planet from alien occupation? They were still suddenly dead, and there was a hurting in his mind where they had been.
They came to a pleasant chamber wherein sat an old elf whose beard was the color of iridium. Behind him was a bank of indicators whose nature he recognized: this was a large computer. Yet the other walls of the chamber were rounded stone. Obviously high technology existed here, but the elves did not care about appearances. Or perhaps to them rounded stone was the proper appearance.
"Sir, this be Weva, mine a.n.a.logue," Flach said respectfully, and Weva made a little bow. "And Lysander, o" the prophecy." Lysander nodded.
Flach turned to the two of them. "This be Chief Oresmite o" the Iridium Elves, who governs here. I leave thee here with him, Lysander, while I take Weva to introduce to the local community. Any deal thou dost make with him be binding on us all."
Flach took Weva"s hand and led her from the chamber. She went without protest, like a docile maiden. Lysander was privately amused; she was anything but that!
Oresmite wasted no time. "Have a chair, Lysander. I know thy nature, so I will tell thee mine. I be the last surviving elf in these Demesnes to have known the Adepts Clef and Tania personally; today their great-great-great-great-grandchildren be with us, those o" the sixth generation of descent, though in thy frame little more than a month has pa.s.sed. Our life here be not ill, merely accelerated. Hast questions before we proceed to business?"
"Yes," Lysander said, still relating with difficulty to the time change. He had no reason to doubt it, but also had had no evidence of its reality, here. "How could they have descendants, if there were no others of their kind?"
The old elf smiled. He was in every sense a man, but only about half Lysander"s height. "Others came with them, several families, to establish the community. They be closely inbred, and eager to gain fresh blood; I must warn thee that thou willst be a target for their damsels."
"But my body is android! I can not reproduce."
"Aye. But the urge for fresh blood takes little note o" that. Since thou be already committed-"
"There"s a problem there. May I speak in confidence?"
"Aye. We be here to come to an understanding."
"Is Echo the cyborg here?"
"Aye. She has waited impatiently for thee, despite being pursued by the local males."
"Weva is a creature of extraordinary skills. She nulled my love for Echo, and now I fear my meeting with Echo. If there are other women pursuing me, for whatever reason, I fear for our relationship."
Oresmite stroked his beard. "So Weva truly be Adept?"
"I believe so. Certainly her incidental magic was potent."
"And she made a play for thee?"
"Yes. I talked her out of it."
"Why?"
"It would not have been fair to Echo."
"But an thou hadst no further love for Echo-"
"It was, as I explained to Weva, a matter of honor."
The elf gazed at him for a moment, evidently pondering. "Tell me aught o" honor."
"That would take all day! It did take a day, and a night, to explain it to Weva. It"s no simple concept."
"I be not a nascent girl. Give me one sentence."
"Honor is integrity with a moral dimension."
"And so it were not proper for thee to dally with another, when one who loves thee waited on thy return," Oresmite said. "E"en in the absence o" love and presence o" one who could compel thee. E"en with the planet ending in a day."
"Yes."
"How canst thou feel thus, and thou an agent for the enemy?"
"My brain is Hectare, and Hectare are honorable. I have an a.s.signed mission, which I shall complete to the best of my ability. My relationship with Echo is incidental to that, despite the intent of the Adepts, so my honor applies separately to her."
"Then surely can we deal. But first I offer thee this notion: wouldst thou find it fair an Echo be also nulled o" her love for thee?"
Lysander snapped his fingers. "Yes! I never thought of that! It would make us even."
"Then let me do this now." The elf turned to the bank of equipment behind him. "Mischief, contact Weva, and suggest that she offer to do for Echo what she did for Lysander."
"Aye, Chief," the computer replied through a grille.
"Mischief?" Lysander inquired.
"It be a machine with an elfin humor."
"Thank you, Chief. When I talk with Echo, and have her leave to separate, I will not have a problem with the local maidens."
"Now come we nigh our business," the elf said. "Thou knowest the prophecy?"
"It suggests that only the cooperation of an enemy agent can enable the planet to free itself from the Hectare investment. It does not specify who the individual might be, but there is a strong likelihood that I am the one."
"Aye. An thou be not the one, we be lost, for there be none other here. But we need to guess not, for we can have the answer." He turned again to the computer. "Mischief, be he the one?"
"Aye, Chief."
"Now wait!" Lysander protested. "How can that machine know such a thing?"
"Answer, Mischief," the Chief said.
"I be what thou didst know as the Game Computer," the grille said. " "Cept that I ne"er met thee, Lysander; I were gone ere thou didst come to the planet. Before I left, I was in touch with the Oracle, who knew the prophecy, and it gave me information that enabled me to know thee when I encountered thee. I verified it with the Book o" Magic, which be my current reference."
"The Game Computer!" Lysander exclaimed. "The one that stopped functioning when the frames merged!"
"Aye, Bern brain. We knew o" trouble coming when the mergence occurred, and set about dealing with it then. The formerly deserted Pole caverns were occupied and stable communities established barely before the invader came. A lesser machine was put in my place, unable to handle the complete complexity o" the games, but a.s.sisted at need by the Oracle, and I came here to fathom the technical aspect o" the effort."
That explained a lot! A concerted planetary effort had been made from the outset of the planet"s vulnerability, so that the investment could be nullified before the planet was reduced to trash. It was impressive, but probably futile; the power of the Hectare was overwhelming.
"What identifies me as the one of the prophecy?"
"Thine honor."
"Then you know that I will not help your side, regardless of any inducements you may proffer."
"Nay, not so," Oresmite said. "The prophecy shows thou mayst do it, an thou choose."
"Honor dictates my choice."
"Aye. So must we deal."
"We can not deal."
The Chief leaned forward persuasively. "We need thy help now. An we wait longer, all be lost regardless. Willst not yield the accuracy o" the prophecy so far?"
"So far," Lysander said grudgingly. "But not only do I have no intention of helping you in the key moment, I have no certainty that I can. I a.s.sure you that if I went back to my people now and asked them to depart the planet, they would not heed. I have no authority; I am only a special agent of a type routinely employed."
"But an thou couldst help us, and thou decided to at the last moment, would it be not ironic an thou hadst let the moment pa.s.s and could not? What be best for thou is to keep thine options open, so that an thou dost change thy mind, it will count until the end."
"Keep my options open," Lysander agreed. "Is that possible?"
"Aye. Mischief needs thine input now, for calculations that be beyond it o"erwise. An thou help it now, thou canst prevent them from being used on our behalf until thou dost decide."
"How can I be sure they would not be used without my choice?"
"The honor o" Mischief."
"A machine with honor? Or do you mean it is programmed for it?"
"Aye. Dost think we lack this?"
"You serve the interest of your planet, and this is integral to it. I can trust you only to do what you must to save it."