Unicorn Point

Suddenly Neysa faltered. Her stride broke, and she ground to a painful halt. Stile was almost thrown from her back, because he had been watching the sky rather than the Lattice, and had not seen the obstruction. Now his eyes wrenched down—and there was no obstruction.

The demons were advancing, appearing from all the inter locking crevices of the demon warren. This was evidently no surprise to them!

“Neysa—what happened?” he cried, dismounting. He could see that she was in pain.

She changed form, becoming a woman of about his own age, petite and fit and attractive, but graying in the forehead, exactly as in her mare form. “Founder,” she breathed in anguish.

Now he saw that her hands were held awkwardly, the fingers gnarling, the joints swelling. Her feet, also, were swollen. She was in serious trouble. “Change to firefly form,” he urged her. “That will take the weight off your feet.” But demons were closing in, and some had nets; they were prepared for this also.

Stile sighed. He knew better than to try to reason with this type of demon. He would have to back them off with magic.  He took a breath.

Abruptly the demons froze in place. Stile gaped; he hadn’t done it! This was very powerful magic; who had interceded?  The griffin landed just above. It changed form. Suddenly a young man stood there, hair tousled, handsome.  “Bane!” Stile cried, surprised and relieved.

“No, Mach,” the man replied. “I am sorry; I did not mean to drive you into the Lattice. I see Neysa ran afoul of the demons’ founder spell. My fault; I will abate it,”

“Mach!” Stile said. Normally he could tell them apart, though they used the same body; their manners differed. His distraction of the moment had dulled his perception. “Why were you pursuing us?”

“You can be hard to locate, Adept,” Mach said with a smile. “The other Adepts watch you, of course, but I never bothered to spy on you. I prefer to search you out at need.  So I assumed a form I knew you would recognize as alien to Phaze. But then you wanted to make a game of it, so I played that game. I did not realize that would put Neysa in the way of the founder spell.”

A game! Stile realized that he had been dull; he should have realized that. Had he just taken the trouble to sing an identification spell, instead of letting Neysa run—

“Dam Neysa, if I may ...” Mach said. Abruptly the woman straightened, her pain gone, her hands and feet unkinking. The Robot Adept had freed her without showing any sign of magic; no sung spell, no gesture. It was a power Stile could only envy. Originally Mach had been clumsy with magic, his attempted spells going awry, but after the Red Adept had trained him with the Book of Magic he had be come the most powerful of all the Adepts, Bane included. He should have been on Stile’s side—had Stile not blundered calamitously.

Neysa resumed her unicorn form, and Stile mounted. They moved out of the Lattice. Mach awaited them at the edge.  “I thought we weren’t associating,” Stile said with a smile as they emerged. “Aren’t you on the other side?”

“Would I be, if we had the past five years to live over?”

“No.” Indeed, the major reason for Stile’s opposition to Mach’s union with Fleta had been nullified by events. He had needed an heir who was Adept, and offspring by that heir who would also be Adept, so as to have the continuing power to hold off the Adverse Adepts. He had thought that there could be no offspring of man and unicorn, and that a robot could not become Adept. Had he known what was to happen, he would have welcomed Mach as a savior, instead of opposing him as an interference.

“I gave my word, and Bane gave his,” Mach said. “We would have chosen otherwise, and still our sympathies lie with you, but our word is sacred, so we work for the other side. Because the Adepts know we can be trusted, we have complete freedom.”

“I would not have it otherwise,” Stile said sadly.

“But there are advantages for you also,” Mach continued.  “Because of this, the Adepts are bound to take no action against you personally, and the children are free to visit you and Citizen Blue. We are also working to make the shift in power more compatible; the status of the unicorns, were wolves and vampires is being safeguarded. There will not be the disaster there might otherwise have been.”

“But once the Adepts achieve power, will their guarantees be honored?” Stile asked grimly.

“Translucent’s will.”

“But how long will he retain power, once the others see no further need for his leadership?”

“That is not our business,” Mach said, frowning.  “But it is mine. We all know the nature of the leadership I represent; none know the nature of the leadership that will emerge from the Adverse Adepts once their present constraints are gone, but it will surely be inimical to Phaze.”