Split Infinity

Kurrelgyre swiveled on the wall to face Stile. “I believe in thee, friend. But the Lady has a point. The magic of Adepts is beyond the fathoming of simple animals like ourselves. We can prove no necessary connection between Blue’s alternate in Proton and thyself; that double could be dead also, and thou a construct adapted by magic, emulating the mode of Blue when in truth the real power lies in some other mode. We can all be deceived, and until we are assured of thv validity—

Stile was baffled. “If neither my likeness nor my magic can convince her, and she will not take my word—“

 “If I may ask two questions?” Hulk put in tentatively.

Stile laughed. “We already have more questions than answers! Go ahead and throw thine in the ring.”

“For what was the Blue Adept noted, other than his appearance and his magic?”

“His integrity,” the Lady said promptly. “Never did he tell a lie or otherwise practice deceit, ever in his whole life.”

“Never has this one told a lie,” Kurrelgyre said.

“That remains to be demonstrated,” she retorted.

The werewolf shrugged. “Only time can demonstrate that quality. Was there nothing else, subject to more immediate trial?”

“His riding,” the Lady said, brightening. “In all Phaze, only he could ride better than I. His love for animals was so great, especially horses—“ She had to stop, for her emotion was choking her.

To have the love of such a woman! Stile thought.  Her husband was dead, but she still defended him with all her power. She was right: another Adept might well covet her, and not merely for her beauty, and be willing to go to extraordinary lengths to win her.

Kurrelgyre turned to Stile. “How well dost thou ride?”

“I can answer that,” Hulk said. “Stile is the finest rider on Proton. I doubt anyone in this frame either could match him on horseback.”

The Lady looked startled. “This man can ride? Bareback on an untamed steed? I should be glad to put him to that test.”

“No,” Hulk said.

She glanced at him, frowning. “Thou guardest him, ogre, by preventing him from betraying incompetence on a steed?”

“I seek only to settle the issue properly,” Hulk said.  “We have seen that careless application settles nothing—such as Stile’s demonstration of magic. For all the effect it had, he might as well not have bothered. To put him to a riding test now, when he has been weakened and injured—“

 “There is that,” Kurrelgyre agreed. “Yet the importance of this proof—“

“Which brings me to my second question,” Hulk said. “Is the issue really between Stile and the Lady—or between the Lady and the mare?”

Lady and mare looked at each other, startled again.  “He only looks like an ogre,” Kurrelgyre murmured appreciatively. Then, to Stile: “He speaks sooth. Thy destiny must be settled by Lady and mare. They are the two with claims on thee. If thou provest thou art the Blue Adept, one of them must needs suffer. This is what brought both wolves and unicorns here.”

Stile did not like this. “But—“

The Stallion honked from his enclave. “Only the finest of riders could break the least of unicorns,” Clip translated. “This man conquered Neysa; we accept him as the Blue Adept.”

Stile was astonished at this abrupt change on the part of the Stallion. “How couldst thou know I really—“

“We saw thee,” Clip said. “We rooted for her to throw thee, but we can not claim she did. We recognize that whatever else thou art or art not, thou art indeed the finest rider of thy kind.”

“But had she turned into a firefly—“

“She would then have admitted she could not conquer thee in her natural form,” Clip said. “It matters not, now. No man ever rode like thee. The Stallion resented that, but now that he knows that was the mark of Blue—“

“I didn’t really do it by myself,” Stile said, remembering something. “I hummed, and that was magic, though I knew it not at the time. I used magic to stay on her.”

“And unicorns are immune to magic,” Clip said.  “Except the magic of Adepts. Another Adept could have destroyed her, but never could he have ridden her.  There is only one Adept we know of who can ride at all, and that is Blue. All this the Stallion considered before accepting thee.”

“But I do not accept thee!” the Lady flared. “The unicorns could be in league with the false Adept, to foist an impostor on the Blue Demesnes. My love was a horseman, never partial to unicorns, nor they to him, though he would treat them on occasion if they deigned to come to him. The mare could have allowed this impostor to ride—“

Clip reacted angrily, but Kurrelgyre interposed.  “Didst ever thou hear it mooted. Lady, that werewolves would collude with unicorns in aught?”

“Nay,” she admitted. “The two are natural enemies.”

“Then accept this word from this were: I have come to know this mare. She did not submit voluntarily, except in the sense that she refrained from using her own magic to destroy him. He conquered her physically—and then, when she saw what manner of man he was, the kind of man you describe as your lord, he conquered her emotionally. But first he did ride.”