Robot Adept

The sentry disappeared. Kinkear hastily rolled up his bed and hauled down his tent. “Just my luck,” he muttered to himself. “She drops dung, and my mission be in deep manure! Tan’ll tan my hide, an I bungle his trap!”

So the Tan Adept was behind this! Already this device was paying off. But why should Tan be after Mach?  His daughter had already verified Mach’s authenticity to her satisfaction; it was Bane she was after.  Now he beard Fleta. She was coming through the grass, evidently looking for just the right place to do her job. She sniffed the air. This camp was downwind from Bane’s body, by no coincidence, and the unicorn’s coming in this direction was no coincidence either; who wanted to spend the night in the breeze from her own manure?

“Get it o’er with, mare!” Kinkear muttered. “Return to thy stud, let him screw thee to the turf—and when he change back to his opposite, then shall we screw him to the turf.”

So it was Bane they were after! They wanted to be on hand after the exchange, and catch him. That was exactly the treachery he was looking for.  The goblins had dispersed through the field, leaving no sign of their camp. But in so doing some of them had strayed beyond the limit of the concealment spell.  Fleta, with her sharp senses in the unicorn form, had to have spotted these, but she gave no sign.  She wandered over to a spot where one goblin cowered under a tangle of grass. For an instant it seemed she would stumble over him. Then she turned around, set herself—and let go her dung directly on top of him.  He couldn’t even curse, lest he give away his presence.  Satisfied, perhaps in more than one sense, she walked back toward her camp.

The goblins busied themselves reforming their camp.  They all had a good chuckle over the fate of the unlucky one. Their crisis was over.

Bane heard no more key remarks. But he had already heard enough. This effort of spying had been worth it!  He returned to his body. Fleta had changed back to girlform, and was lying with his body under her cloak.  “They be setting a trap for Bane, when he returns,” he whispered. “Tan be behind it.”

“Then mayhap will they conjure Tania to eye thee, in the moment thou dost return unguarded,” Fleta whispered back. “That must they do just then, for thou wouldst be else caught not. With Mach loving me, and thou loving Tania, then have they both.”

“Then have they both,” he agreed. “But how can I foil their plot?”

“An thou dost, will not they then know how thou didst know?”

Excellent point! “But an I foil it not, I be trapped, for I fear Tania’s power. She could not hold me long, but she might coerce me into what would compromise me.”

“Such as making love to one thou dost love not?” Fleta asked.

“Such can happen, on occasion,” he said wryly.

“An I be not in a position to know better, I could have thought thy words to me, a day agone, were true,” she said.

Did she suspect? “Just so the Adverse Adepts think so.”

“Aye.” Did she sound disappointed?

“But whate’er I said about thy body, that were true,” he said. “It be sheer delight.”

“Aye.” This time she sounded satisfied.  They did not resume their effort of love-making; the purpose of that had been accomplished. Bane relaxed, relieved on two accounts, concerned on the third. One: he had finally justified his spying effort by uncovering an enemy trap. Two: Fleta did not suspect his true feeling. Three: how could he withstand Tania, if his love for Agape was not secure?

Fleta made good time, and on the third day they reached the Red Demesnes. The goblin party continued to track them, falling behind by day, catching up in early evening, evidently assisted by magic, for no goblin could keep pace with any unicorn otherwise. Apparently the goblins had to keep close enough to be able to pounce the moment Mach exchanged with Bane.  They had, it seemed, tried to capture Agape before; failing that, they were taking no chances with Bane.  A bat flew out to meet them as they approached the castle. In a moment lovely Suchevane stood before them.

Fleta changed to girlform, giving Bane barely time to dismount. The two young woman forms embraced.  “Be thou Fleta?” the vampire asked.

“Dost know me not?” Fleta asked, laughing.

“Last I met Agape, in thy body. I owe her.”

“I know naught of this.”

Suchevane cast down her gaze, coloring slightly. “I be resident at the Red Demesnes, now. To assist the Adept.”

Fleta surveyed her, comprehending. “Thou dost have a thing for ... ?”

“Aye. It were Agape put me on it, speaking the common sense I saw not for myself. And now—“

Fleta hugged her again. “0, Suchy, how glad I be for thee!”

“And not for him?” Bane inquired. He knew the Red Adept to have been the strongest and most lonely of creatures, surely eager to have a creature like Suchevane near, if she but showed the slightest inclination.  They laughed. Then Suchevane escorted them into the castle.