Robot Adept

“You’re an infernal nuisance to me!” he exclaimed, wrestling her into position for an explosive love-making while she giggled.

Then they talked, lying embraced, and caught each other up on the recent events of their frames. Fleta was pleased to learn that “she” had won two more games in the Tourney, but disappointed with the concluding loss. “But I will coach thee so thou dost not lose thine own tourney,” she swore.

In the morning, Translucent appeared. Trool conducted him and Mach to his study, where the great Book of Magic lay.

“But—” Mach protested, out of sorts.

“First we shall teach you the magic of form-changing,” Trool said. “Be not concerned; thou willst be ready for the filly.”

“That, too,” Mach said. “But—I am the son of Citizen Blue, and my sympathy is with his side. I only went with the Translucent Adept because he gave us sanctuary for our love. I agreed to serve their side for information from Proton. I never expected actually to fight for the Adverse Adepts.”

“This do we understand,” Trool said. “But this matter be beyond such preferences. An the matter not be settled, the frames be in peril. Any settlement be better than none. The need be for fairness in coming to a compromise. Thou dost represent not thine own view, but an instrument in a settlement that can no longer be denied.”

“But how can I do my best for a side with which I disagree? I mean, psychologically I will want to lose.”

“Bane had need to hide his identity,” Trool said. “He did what was needful to keep that secret. Didst 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.”

“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 Mach—”

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 animals 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?”