Anthony, Piers Adept 5 Robot Adept

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thou face a similar challenge in Proton?"
"Yes, but "
"Didst find thyself unable?"
"No, but "
"Canst not do what be needful to effect settlement?"
Mach hesitated. Did he have a double standard?
"Where lies thine honor?" Translucent asked.
Honor. To do his very best for the job he agreed to do, regardless of his personal sacrifice. He found that
his internal conflict, when viewed that way, disappeared.
"I can do it," he said. "But I should think that you would question "
"Mayhap some do," Translucent said. "I have put my trust in thee. An thou dost betray it, I be lost in
more than my cause."
"I suppose I must be like a paid mercenary," Mach said. "I must do the job I am committed to do. My
private feelings have no bearing."
Both the others nodded affirmatively.
"Still "
"Methinks thou shouldst consult with the Blue Demesnes, and be satisfied on this," Translucent said. "I
will conjure thee there."
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"But "
Then Mach was standing outside the neat blue castle that was evidently the residence of Bane's father.
This was the first time he had seen it.
The Translucent Adept had conjured him here. The man had extraordinary confidence!
Yet perhaps it made sense. Translucent had asked him about honor. If he was going-to betray the
agreement he had made, this was the person with whom he would do it: his father's other self. It was
better to settle this private matter now.
"Halooo!" he called.
In a moment a woman came to the bridge at the moat. She was a lovely creature in blue that he knew
immediately was Bane's mother. "Why Bane," she said, surprised. "Back again, without thine alien
friend?"
"I am Maeh '
She gazed at him, taking stock. "Then where be Fleta?"
"She is at the Red Demesnes. I the Translucent Adept conjured me here, to talk with Stile."
"He be not here at the moment," she said. "But come in, Mach; I will talk with thee."
Agape had visited here, and not seen Stile. Where was the man? But perhaps the Lady would do.
"Thank you." He walked across the drawbridge.
The Lady's hair was fair, and her eyes blue. She was of course of a different generation, and her age
showed as he saw her close, but she remained as lovely in her way as his own mother, who was literally
ageless.
The Lady turned and escorted him into the central courtyard. There were flowers and a number of
animals, evidently ill or injured, recuperating. The Blue Demesnes, he knew, had always been close to
animals.
"I love an animal," he said abruptly.
She took a seat at a table in the shade, beside a pleasant pool, and gestured him to the other seat. "We
say naught here against Fleta."
"But you want an heir."
"Aye, Mach. We lose ground slowly to the Adverse Adepts, who would o'erturn what we have done, and
make o' this frame a kingdom o' their own. We hoped Bane would hold them at bay, and his child after
him. Without that, we will surely be defeated, and it matter little whether it be now or in the future."
"But I mean to find a way to breed with Fleta, and for Bane to "
"An thou dost breed with the unicorn, thou has not a human being for a child, but an animal crossbreed.
That be not sufficient, for the animaJs have not the talent for magic that the human beings-do."
"But Bane also might breed with Agape "
"And have an alien child, confined to Proton-frame," she said. "Mach, think not we oppose thy
happiness, or Bane's! Nor would we hurt Fleta or Agape for anything. We be merely aware of the
loss entailed. Where be thy happiness an the frame be ruined?"
"You know that I have agreed to represent the Adverse Adepts, because they support my union with
Fleta," Mach said. "Where are you if power is achieved by those Adepts now?"
"Stile be working on that," she said. "That be why we see him not here."
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"What would you have us do?" he asked, anguished.
She gazed at him levelly. "We would have thee return to thy frame and stay there, and find a woman
there. Perhaps Agape; she be a fine creature. And Bane stay here, and marry a woman o' Phaze." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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