Unicorn Point

5 - Tania

To guarantee privacy, they held the meeting at the Translucent Demesnes, under the water near the Isle of the West Pole. Tan and Tania rode in a watery bubble the Translucent Adept sent, floating over the forests and plains of Phaze at rapid velocity before descending into the sea. Tania affected the same blas6 reaction her brother did, but the truth was that she got a fair thrill from this type of travel. She could fascinate folk with her gaze, because she shared with her brother the magic of the Evil Eye, but could not perform physical magic in the manner of other Adepts. Hers was not an inferior talent, merely more subtle; when it came to questioning a resistive client, or to persuading someone, the others deferred to her. Yet she often wished for just a little of the other kind of power!

The bubble coursed through the water, brushing aside reach ing sea plants, coming at last to the hidden palace. At the entrance it landed and popped out of existence, leaving them standing dry, though the sea loomed around and above them. It was a nice effect; Translucent did things right. They entered. The other Adepts were already there, having had faster magic transportation: White, who used the runes and glyphs; Yellow, with her potions to govern animals; Black, who was entirely made of lines; Orange, whose magic was of plants; Green, whose hand gestures controlled fire; and Purple, with the forces of geology. Eight of them in all, counting Tan and Tania as one, and, of course, Translucent. Against them were ranged only three: Blue with his sing songs, Red with his amulets, and Brown with her golems. Yet so far the three had had their way more often than not: a distressing situation, long overdue for redress. This was be cause the Red Adept, a literal troll, had the Book of Magic, the most potent single instrument in Phaze. Now their access to that Book had been cut off, precipitating the crisis.

Translucent began without preamble: “Blue suckered us. He trained the boy Flach to be a nascent Adept with natural form changing from his unicorn side. We were just beginning to catch on, when the boy made his move. He substituted a golem for himself, and that was what arrived at the Blue Demesnes. Blue waited just long enough for the real boy to be thoroughly hidden, then pulled the plug on grounds we had delivered not. Bane tells me the same happened simultaneously in Proton: the little girl took off. The ploy be this: we had a covenant that we were allowed access to the Book of Magic only during the time when the boy was with Blue. Since the boy did not reach the Blue Demesnes, our use of the Book be cut off. Until we recover the boy and deliver him to Blue, we can use it not. It be clear that Blue realized that we were on the verge o’ a breakthrough, and would assume dominance shortly; he acted just in time to scotch that. We be here to consider our alternatives.”

“I knew thou wouldst bungle it!” Purple exclaimed. “Thou didst say thou wouldst get the damned rovot to go along with us!”

“He did, Purp!” White snapped. “And he got Bane in with us too. That’s a potent pair, and they have decamped not.”

“They must have been in on it,” Purple said. “How did the brat in Proton know, else?”

“They knew not,” Translucent said. “In retrospect we realize that this break be more significant than that. The two children can speak to each other directly. “ This was news to the others.

“Same as Bane and the rovot?” Yellow asked.

“That be our conclusion. We were guilty o’ narrow thinking; we ne’er thought it possible. We thought it mere parallelism or coincidence. Had we caught on, we would have secured those brats instantly.”

“Then we must have those children!” White exclaimed.

“I had concluded as much,” Translucent said dryly. “I had suspected that the boy was able to assume more forms than just man and ‘corn, and thought to have Tan speak to him to ascertain just what these might be. That would have revealed aught we ne’er dreamed o’! Somehow Blue must have realized, and spirited the boy out o’ our grasp. Nor rovot nor ‘corn parents suspected; they believed the boy retarded.”

“He fooled e’en his own parents,” White said, thought fully. “That lad be dangerous.”

“That brat be power!” Purple said. “We capture him, we’ll need not mare or rovot!”

“Which is where Blue scored,” Translucent agreed. “He •knew—and doubled his ploy by making us liable for losing the lad. Gain back the lad, and we score double oursel’es. There be our challenge. But methinks the lad will be not easy to find.”

“Trace his route!” Purple said. “He started with the mare; where did he leave her?”

“I have traced the route, and queried the auspices,” Trans lucent said grimly. “We had warners where’er magic occurred, and tags on both boy and mare. He left the mare only four times. The first was west o’ a pack, when he took a piss break. The second was when the mare went ahead to break up a dragon attack on pups leaving the Pack: she be oath friend to that Pack, and fought for its pups, but endangered not the boy. The third was near her Herd, when the boy took another rest break, and the fourth halfway ‘tween there and the Blue Demesnes, another rest break. I checked further and learned that traces o’ urine were only at the first stop; by this I conclude that the last two were the golem substitute, making pretense. We are assured it was the living boy up to the first stop, and the golem at the third. That puts the second in question.”

“Could he have joined the pups?” White asked alertly.

“Nay. They were four coming in, and four going on; an he joined them, there had been five. An he switch places with one, then it be a werewolf riding the mare—and it were no wolf arrived with her.”

“Then where did he go?” White demanded.

“Methinks he changed form under cover o’ the mare’s changes; our wamers can tell simultaneous changes not from one. We found no tracks, no traces ‘cept scratches on the bark o’ a tree there. I believe he changed to bird form and flew, and where he be now—“ He shrugged.

“Bird form!” Yellow exclaimed. “He could have flown anywhere by now!”

“True. Therefore our effort to trace him be doomed. We underestimated him, supposing him to be capable o’ but two forms instead o’ four, and thus he slipped away.”

“Four?” Purple asked. “Man, ‘corn, bird, and what?”

“Whate’er he changed to when his flying was done. He would not remain a bird; that be too limited a form, its life too hazardous.”

“He could be human or unicorn, and merge with a village or Herd,” Purple pointed out. “We can search them all and find him.”

“That be why he would have a fourth form,” Translucent said. “He made this cunning escape not to be readily recovered.”

‘ ‘But he be but four years old! His kind masters but three forms!”

Translucent shook his head. “We underestimated him once; needs we must not do so again. He could be anything.”

“Then recovery be hopeless?” Purple asked challengingly.

“Nay, merely difficult. We shall be obliged to search every settlement or group, human and animal, methodically, until we find him.”

“How can we find him, an we not know his form?” Purple demanded. “That be searching for one straw in a haystack!”

“Tan must question each prospect,” Translucent said. “We know the lad’s age; only those that age need be checked. An we knew what form, it would be a matter o’ weeks or months. As it is, months or years. But it can be done, and must be done.”

“Months or years?” Tan asked. “I have aught better to do than that!”

“Then thy sister. Only thou or she can do it.”

Tania nodded. “I may do it, but I have a price.”

Translucent glanced at her. “Thou art moved not by the need o’ the Adepts?”

“Let us be not hypocrites,” she said coldly. “Which o’ us be moved by other than selfishness? We cooperate only in the face o’ a common enemy. An I devote myself to this tedious labor, needs must I have recompense.”

Translucent nodded. “Plainly put. Say on.”

“Was once might I have married Bane, uniting in time our power with that o’ Blue. Till he found the other frame, and his rovot self was besotted by the mare. Methinks me-him remains a decent match.”

“Thou didst try that,” Translucent said. “Unbeknownst to me. Bane fended thee off, and made I oath to him: no more o’ that. Now his power be such thou canst not fascinate him with thine Eye. This be no price thou canst ask.”

“I ask but this: that I be given leave to do what I can with him, using not my Eye. An he come to me voluntarily, it be no violation o’ thine oath.”

Translucent considered this, not trusting it. “For this thin chance, thou wouldst devote thyself to the search for the boy?”

“Aye, for this thin chance. An I succeed, it will bring me union with an Adept, and that be what I crave beyond all else.”

Translucent shrugged. “Then be it so. Our effort be in stasis till thou hast result.”

“The younglings,” Yellow said. “This be their travel time, small groups going to new homes. Only those who traveled need be checked, for a new member be not otherwise admitted to a tribe without challenge.”

“It still be some search, through all o’ Phaze,” Purple said. “Methinks the human brats should be checked first, and then the ‘corn foals.”

“Agreed,” Tania said. “An there be resistance to my search, you others support me.”

“Agreed,” Translucent said for the others.

First she approached Bane, who happened to be with Fleta the mare. That could be for only one reason. “Thou dost seek the boy,” Tania said.

“Dost have complicity?” Fleta asked sharply.

Tania turned her gaze on the unicorn. In her human form the mare was petite and full-bodied, with glossy black hair in lieu of her mane, and a pearly button set in her forehead in lieu of her horn. She was attractive enough, for men who might like that type. Bane was evidently immune, but Mach had proved susceptible. That suggested that Bane was susceptible too, but chose not to admit it. But Bane in the old days had been interested in any female form that was young and healthy; his way with ‘corn, werebitch and batlass had been notorious.

Well, Tania could compete in that respect. Now she regretted that she had not deigned to do so back during Bane’s days of experimentation; she could have nabbed him readily then, and saved much complication. But she had foolishly hoped for better prospects, which had not materialized. Now she was older and wiser. Proximity, and time, might well do wonders with Bane. Of course he knew her nature, which was a problem; but he had known the natures of the animals he played with too, seeming to care mainly about their human forms for the indulging of his passing passions. “Canst not answer?” the mare demanded, taking Tania’s silence for guilt.

Oh, how tempting it was to give her a piece of the Eye! But she had promised not to, and, more important, it would alienate Bane. In fact, it might enrage him, and he was no mean Adept in his own right; she could get in trouble. This had to be defused, much as it grated her to do so. “Nay, mare; this absence discommodes us as much as thee, for we had hope o’ the boy’s aid in our mission. We suspected at first that thou mightest have—”

“I had naught to do with it!” Fleta flared. “He be mine offspring, my flesh; I love him and fear for his safety!”

“My apology for doubting thee,” Tania said easily. She had done what she sought to do: turned the mare to the defensive, instead of herself. “But if thine interest be familial, ours be practical; we want the use o’ the power the lad has. So be assured that we wish him harm not, but rather we want him safe and well. We desire his return, and I be here to join thee in a search for him.”

“We search not,” the mare said. “It seems Flach fled by choice, and though my heart break, I may not bring him back unwilling.”

“Fled by choice?” Tania asked, affecting surprise. “Loved he not his dam?”

“My father designed this thing,” Bane said. “For that he knew the boy would be useful to the Adverse Adepts, and now the covenant between sides be broken. It be the same in Proton; they acted together.”

Tania eyed him, playing the role of one who had not heard of this before. “Thy father, who opposes us. Be this good news or bad, to thee?”

“I joined this side because I lost the wager with mine other self. Fain would I have served my father instead, but I be true to my word. I knew naught o’ the powers o’ the children, and thought them slow. This be good news for me to find the children otherwise, bad news to find them lost.”

“But what news, to find them foiling the change in the balance o’ power?” Tania asked pointedly.

“I serve thy side loyally, but my heart be with the other. That thou hast always known.”

“Then must thou make thy most diligent effort to recover the boy for us,” she concluded.

“Aye,” he agreed grimly.

“Then shall we work together, and thine other self too, when he returns. Thy service to us was excellent, when thou didst have access to the Book o’ Magic; it must be the same, in this quest for thy nephew.”

“I shall look for my nephew. But I see no need to work with thee. Make thine own search.”

“Nay, that be inefficient. There be the whole o’ Phaze to search; two will cover it faster, with no duplication. Also, there be danger, in some locales; the one must guard the other.”

Bane grimaced. “Perhaps I made not my sentiment plain: I wish not to work with thee.”

At least he was straightforward! “Nay, mayhap it was I who was unplain: I mean to work with thee, and have the backing o’ the others.”

“Then thou dost have no objection if I verify.”

“None,” she said evenly. Already she was feeling the thrill of fencing him in.

He sang something, and disappeared. Tania was left alone with Fleta. “And thee, mare—willst join the search?”

“Aye,” Fleta said through her teeth.

“Why so negative? Methought thou wouldst welcome aid to recover thy foal.”

“Thine interest be more in Bane than in Flach!”

“And what if that be so? Be Bane thy man?”

“Bane be Agape’s man! We need not thee to interfere!”

“Methinks Bane be his own man. An he chooses one or t’other, that be his business.”

Fleta looked ready to skewer something with her horn, for all that she lacked most of her horn in this form. But then Bane reappeared, abating what might have become an interesting confrontation. “We search together,” he said. “But thou willst ne’er have satisfaction o’ it.”

“That remains to be seen, methinks,” Tania replied, satisfied. The Adepts were supporting her, as she had required. They checked the human settlements first. These were scattered all across Phaze; most were small, hidden hamlets whose inhabitants eked out their existence by hunting and farming. Bane conjured an accurate map, and they decided to cross out each village after checking it. The first one was typical. Bane conjured the three of them to the village of Gnomore, in the Gnome Demesnes. The name was not intended to be punnish; it related to the region, and indicated that the human villagers acknowledged the supremacy of the gnomes in this vicinity. In return, the gnomes tolerated the human presence, and even traded with the villagers.

They arrived in the center square, and caused an immediate stir. Word went to the village patriarch, who hobbled up to greet them. “Be ye Adept?” he asked nervously. “We have no quarrel with Adepts!”

“We be partial Adepts,” Bane explained. “I be Bane, son o’ the Adept Stile o’ the Blue Demesnes; this be Tania, sister o’ the Tan Adept; and this be Fleta, mate o’ the Rovot Adept. We come to question thee about new arrivals at thy village.”

“We take sides not between Adepts!” the patriarch protested. “We be far from the controversy, and minded so to remain!”

“An we be satisfied, we shall depart, leaving thy village so,” Bane said. “Please summon all thy members, that we may question them.”

“But they be widely scattered!” the patriarch protested. “Some in the fields, some doing service for the gnomes, some away trading with other villages—“

Tania spoke. “Man, look at me,” she said. The man looked at her. Her eyes widened slightly; that was all. But the patriarch was transfixed by her Evil Eye. “Do it,” she said, looking away.

As in a daze, the patriarch hobbled off, calling to others. Soon a younger man approached. “We are sending out word; all our members will gather. But some are far-flung; it will be two days before all are present.”

“Then prepare a residence for us for that interim,” Tania said curtly. “And bring good food.”

The natives scurried to oblige. The party had known it would be thus; only full Adepts could do things promptly. This was why this search promised to be extremely tedious. There were about a hundred villages scattered across Phaze, and if each took two days to check, over half a year would be expended in this single aspect of the effort. She was sure it would prove futile; the boy had shown himself to be too smart to risk using human form. But she was prepared to endure it, because it meant half a year of close association with Bane or Mach.

They shared a single residence, on the direct understanding that this would protect against possible treachery: one of them would always be on guard. There was also the tacit under standing that Tania was out to subvert Bane, and Fleta was out to prevent this, protecting the interest of her opposite number in Proton. Therefore the three were closely bound, though not exactly by friendship. It was also to the interests of Bane and Fleta to accomplish their mission as quickly as possible—and that was part of Tania’s strategy. She wanted them to want to find the boy, and they were surely the ones to whom the boy was most likely to come. Thus her approach to Bane was artful, and she made no effort to conceal it from the mare.

Indeed, as dusk came, she played it for what it was worth. “Do thou take the first watch, animal, and we human folk will sleep.” Before the unicorn, who was maintaining human form throughout, could retort, she turned to Bane. “And since it be cool, thou and I may share a blanket, and the warmth o’ our bodies. That be most comfortable.” And before he could protest, she pulled off her tan cloak, showing her body naked beneath it.

“I will make a spell for warmth,” Bane said. “With thy permission for the magic to be practiced on thee.”

“It really be not necessary to expend thine precious enchantments, when we have a natural alternative,” she said. “Willst not simply strip and join me?”

“Nay; I will warm the full chamber, so that all be comfortable.” And he singsonged, and it was so: the chill was gone.

“As thou dost wish,” she said, lying down on one of the pallets, and spreading her cloak over her body as a covering. “But methinks it be a shameful waste.” She had accomplished what she sought: to give him a good, solid, lingering view of her excellent body. He might affect not to notice, but she knew better than that; the image would remain in his mind long after the original was gone. The were-folk (and she regarded the unicorns as such) always had good human forms because they crafted them that way, but genuine human beings had to settle for what they started with. She was blessed with a trim form and ample secondary endowments, and understood the effect these had on men of any age; she had put it to the proof often enough. Her main liability was her face: it was ordinary. She did what she could to frame it with her hair, and she definitely preferred shadows for close contacts. She could of course fascinate men with her power of the Eye, but usually she didn’t bother, because it worked only once on a given man; she saved that for emergencies. It would not be long before Bane wanted more of her body than mere glimpses. She could wait.

After three hours Fleta returned. Obviously she had been grazing near the village, in her natural form. Tania didn’t care; she knew that the ears, eyes and nose of a unicorn missed nothing, and that if anything had approached this house, the mare would have intercepted it. The mare might not care for her, Tania, at all, but when the mare was committed to stand guard, the mare would be the best possible guard.

Also, the mare would have known immediately had any thing occurred between Bane and Tania in the house. One night, Tania intended to give the mare excellent grounds for her concern. But that would take time, because of the stricture against employing the Eye. Even if it were not for that, it would be pointless to use it on Bane; it would have greatly diminished effect on him, and thereafter he would be proof against it. No, she had to win him the hard way.

Tania roused herself. “Very well, animal; I be alert.” The mare’s ears seemed to flatten against her skull, though she was in human form at the moment. She departed again, for further grazing; this time she would sleep while doing it. Tania spent her watch time pondering the quest they were on. Where could that brat have gone? If he’d assumed bird form, he could be anywhere—but surely he would have lacked the flying experience and stamina to wing far, for none had ever seen him assume that form before. Where could he have gone that was near to where he started from? South, maybe, to the Purple Mountain Range. But there were few unicorns there, and few human folk, and many predators. Translucent was probably right: he had assumed another form, a fourth form. What would that be? That of an elf or gnome? Or a dragon?

Nothing seemed to make much sense. Well, he had to have assumed some form, and she would find that form. In due course.

She gazed at the sleeping Bane. Oh, he was a handsome cuss! And a talented one, too. An excellent match for her. It was really infuriating that the mixup of the exchange of iden tities had occurred, bringing him love in Proton before Tania had had proper opportunity to take him. She had been as sured that he would be hers, so had not rushed it, preferring to have him pursue her, not she him, so that most of the con cessions would have been his to make. Who needed the other frame? She would have roped him in, in time, and the issue between Adepts would have been settled in favor of the Tan Demesnes before it ever came to a head. But everything had gone awry, and only now, with the interruption in contact, did she have a proper chance at him again.

She daydreamed, how it would be. Perhaps she would let him have some modicum of pleasure, before closing down his options. Let him indulge his appetite on her body, convinced it was his own idea. Then, slowly, gradually, she would assume control, and finally indulge her appetites on his body. A man could experience a lot of pain, and not only of the body, when things were properly managed. At first she would scream in simulated rapture as he took her; later he would scream in unsimulated agony as she took him. But there would never be, of course, aught that showed. “Ah, I have plans for thee, fair man,” she murmured, her eyes dwelling fondly on him.

But first she would have to win him away from his alien creature lover in Proton. That would not be easy—but of course there was pleasure in the challenge, too. When her watch was up, she arranged herself artfully in the lone shaft of moonlight that entered the house, draped her cloak so that one breast and parts of both thighs were dimly illuminated, and called to him. “Bane—it be thy turn.” He woke. His eyes opened, scanned the ceiling, then dropped to orient on her. She lifted her knees so that nothing but shadow masked the space between her thighs; he would see only the most tantalizing suggestion. “Thy watch,” she reminded him innocently.

He squinted, attempting to fathorn the shadow; then he caught himself, and stretched, trying to make it seem that he hadn’t looked. “Got it,” he agreed, standing. “Where be Fleta?”

“Where else? Out grazing. It requires much fodder to maintain a mass like hers.”

He did not answer. He walked around the room, getting his circulation going. Tania lay down to resume her sleep, drawing the cloak across her torso imperfectly, so that neither breast nor thigh was fully covered. Let him gaze at her while she slept, as she had gazed at him! He would deny it, most of all to himself, but he would desire her. Desire was the hook that would hold him, night after night, until at last she reeled him in. That was a man’s most singular weakness: his inability to control his lust.

At dawn she woke, discovering herself completely covered by the cloak. Had she moved it in her sleep, changing it as she turned, or had Bane done it? It hardly mattered, yet she was inordinately curious.

She sat up and stretched, so that her belly thinned and her breasts lifted, choosing her moment when Bane was facing her. Then she stood and pulled the cloak on over her head, and shook her hair into place. She stepped out back to the privy, then took the short walk to the stream near the village where she could wash her face and arms. This was not exactly the Tan Demesnes, but it was a pleasant enough bucolic locale, and she rather liked it. She saw Fleta in animal form, still grazing in the near distance, and marveled again how the rovot could love such a creature, knowing her to be an animal. Bane’s dalliances with her in the early days had been but natural; a young man experimented on whatever was available. So did a young woman; Tania had practiced both Eye and sex with village louts, getting the details of it straight. She knew how to make a man respond. But love? Marriage? Reproduction? It was laughable!

She returned to find a breakfast of fruits and nuts and milk in the process of delivery. The townsfolk were being most hospitable! Did this owe more to the Eye she had given the patriarch, or to their ardent wish not to affront the Adepts in any manner, so that there would be no cause to harm the village? A bit of both, she concluded, satisfied. She had for gotten what pleasure it could be to intimidate rustics! Fleta came in to share the meal, resuming human form. “What, not enough greenery?” Tania inquired lightly. “Me thought thou wouldst have got a bellyful by now!”

“Aye,” the mare agreed, giving her a direct look. Bane kept a straight face. Tania smiled, masking her ire; the animal had struck back effectively enough. Well, it was a useful reminder; she might address the mare contemptuously, but she must never forget that this was a canny creature whose intellect was the equal of most full-blooded humans. The king of the snow demons swore by her ability in chess. Tania knew nothing of chess, finding such pastimes boring, but it was said that it required considerable savvy for good playing. She must confine her contempt to her manner, not her belief, or she could one day regret it.

And of course she knew why the mare had come in: she could not graze enough in six hours to carry her the rest of the day and night, unless the foraging was excellent, and here it was only average. Also, she intended to prevent Tania from flirting with Bane during the meal. Lots o’ luck, filly! she thought. It was almost as much fun aggravating the unicorn as it was tempting the man.

So it went for the days and nights until the village personnel assembled. Bane never gave a sign of being affected, but she knew he was, in the way a piling was weakened by the surging water of the shore; eventually it would give way. On the morning of the third day the villagers lined up: a motley collection of men, youths, women and children. They hardly seemed to have a good suit of clothing between them. Tania stood before them and made her statement: “We search for a child who may have joined you this past week. Bring forth your children.”

Fearfully, they brought them forth. She inspected the ragged urchins, then questioned each in turn. “Be thou native to this village? Know ye o’ any who be not?” All the children were native. Tania went to the adults, fixing each with just enough of her Eye to be assured they were telling the truth. “Dost know an any child came here, or departed here, o’ the type I seek?”

No one knew of any. It was as she had expected: it had taken more than two days to verify that this village was clean. And only about ninety-nine villages to go! Actually it took less than six months to check all the human settlements, because news of their search spread, and each village was eager to be exonerated. Soon the far-flung personnel were arriving almost as their party did, so that the job could be done in a day. Of course the very time consumed in their search caused the event in question to become increasingly remote. But since the villagers knew the nature of the search, their memories of the time in question were sharp-ened. They could not cheat or conceal anything, because Tania always cross-checked, inquiring not only of individual memories, but of what they knew or had heard of the experience of others, and of any missing villagers. No one escaped scrutiny, and no one dissembled; all were clean. As expected. In Tania’s mind. Purple had done much damage by his foolish insistence that the human population be checked first. Translucent was right: the boy had avoided that form, knowing it would be checked.

‘And now needs we must verify the ‘corns,” Tania said as they finished with the last village. “Another colossal waste o’ time.”

“True,” Fleta agreed. “My boy be not among mine own kind.”

“Yet needs must we check, by order o’ those we answer to,” Tania said, disgusted. They were unified in this: they knew they were about to waste another significant portion of a year.

In the course of these months, Tania knew she had made an inroad on Bane, though he still held out. She caught him looking at her when she supposedly slept, and he pretended to ignore her when she found pretexts to make close contact, instead of disengaging. He wanted her, but would not admit it. She might have done better, had it not been for the monthly exchanges he made with the rovot. He went to Proton to be with his alien love, while Mach the rovot assumed control of his body. That complicated things, because Mach loved Fleta and she him; it disgusted Tania to see them together, and to have to share residence when they were sleeping together. But, worse, Mach was a full Adept, whose power vastly over matched hers; she could hope neither to tempt him nor defy him. She was definitely the odd one out, during that month, and it grated fiercely.

Yet Mach supported the search, both because he was committed to it and because he wanted his son back. He could cast a spell that verified the knowledge of a village in a moment, instead of the hours Tania required. He could conjure them from site to site far more swiftly and accurately than could Bane, who had to devise a new spell each time. Increasingly, with Bane, they were planning their route carefully and walking or riding from village to village, borrowing a horse for Tania while Fleta assumed ‘corn form and carried Bane. Thus the time they saved at the villages was expended in travel. But with Mach it went phenomenally fast. They checked the unicorns. The Herds were more resistive to the process than the human villages had been, but after Tania called on Translucent for aid, and he sent a deluge—not a storm, merely a horrendous burst of water—against a recalcitrant Herd, that washed out its best pasture, drowned three foals, and left erosion gullies where their trails had been, they decided to cooperate. Unicorns had magic, and Herd magic was strong, but it was sheer hubris to oppose an Adept, and that single reminder sufficed.

Mach was a complete loss, but during the Bane-months, Tania continued her unsubtle campaign of seduction. When he had an erection during sleep, as men did, she teased him unmercifully, suggesting that he had suppressed and unrequited urges. Sometimes she joined him under his blanket. When he tried to ignore her, she nudged closer, until she was on the verge of initiating the act. That forced him to get up and move, erection and all, to her obvious amusement. For a time he slept with Fleta: riding her as she grazed. But that was wearing on her, and too much contact with his other self’s lover, and he had to give it up. Yes, Tania was making progress. The irony was that if Bane had been a less decent man, he would have had less trouble; he could have warned her off, then struck her when she impinged, and she would have had to take it lest she forfeit all future opportunities. But something else was happening. She had set out to seduce Bane away from his alien lover, but the more he resisted her, the more personal this challenge became. The longer he did it politely, showing consideration for her dignity despite his objection to her effort, the more she came to respect his consistency. Obviously his days of playing were over; he neither yielded to her nor abused her, being always proper in his actions despite what might rage within him. She had to admire that control. She realized one day that this was a two way business: while she was making progress in arousing his desire, he was arousing her own. In fact, she was falling in love with him.

That did not abate her effort. It intensified it, because the prior reasons remained; it was simply that one more reason had been added. The truth, to her surprise, was that it was rather pleasant falling in love. It was like sliding down a snowy hill, reveling in the sensation of motion. Now, instead of using her artifices in a calculated manner, she used them naturally. Instead of forcing herself to put forth her best physical aspects, so as never to turn Bane off, she found herself putting forth also her best emotional aspects. Her increasing joy in his company buoyed her during the tedious details of the search. She no longer chafed at the time it consumed; she would be satisfied to have it continue indefinitely. She just wanted to be close to him. In fact, now when she joined him as he slept, she did not try to arouse him sexually; she merely lay beside him, satisfied that he tolerated this much. She wished she could kiss him, but she knew that was forbidden even more sternly than sex, because he could not accept it without implying that he liked her. With men, sex and love were two separate things, and of those two, their love was much harder to win.

Fleta, with the attunement any female had to such things, knew it as soon as Tania did, yet did not rage against it. Why? After some thought, Tania realized why: the mare understood that she had nothing to lose by this development. If Bane came to love Tania, while Tania did not love Bane, the leverage was hers; if Tania came to love Bane, the leverage might be his. Did the mare hope that Tania could be weaned away from the Adverse Adepts? That certainly could be. But there was a complication. One day when she happened to be briefly alone, she spied a toad. She stunned it with a glance, then went to step on it. It was her way to squash toads part way, so that thereafter they could not survive, but took days to expire in torment. But this time she set her foot on it and could not squash. It was not that her foot lacked the power, but that her will did. She did not want to hurt the toad.

She paused to consider this failure, appalled. Then, slowly, she realized the reason. It was her love of Bane: he would never torment a toad, or any animal. She could not love him without partaking somewhat of his qualities, so now she could not do to a toad what he would not. Not without going against the grain of her love. Not without becoming something he was less likely to be able to love. And there was another key: she wanted to be loveable, in his eyes. Well, it was a nuisance, but rather than forfeit the strange delight of her new emotion, she decided to abide by its dictates. “My apology to thee, toad, for stunning thee,” she murmured to it. “In a moment thou willst recover. Here, I proffer a fly for thee.” And she stunned a fat fly that was foolish enough to pass at that moment. It dropped before the toad. Soon after the toad recovered, so would the fly, and the toad would nab the fly before it got away. Then she departed, bemused by the incident and by its significance. She was becoming a gentle creature! She would have to hide this complication from her brother, who definitely would not understand.

They completed the unicorns, finding them innocent of concealing the boy, as expected. Now most of a year was gone. The trio had settled into a kind of camaraderie of familiarity, and Tania discovered that she was even getting to like Fleta. The mare was reliable and forthright, and had a cheery sense of humor that often brightened things. In the first weeks she had been subdued because of her loss of her son and her dislike of Tania, but as she gradually became acclimatized to the situation her natural nature came to the fore. She was no dumb animal; her mind was bright and inquisitive, and she loved a challenge just as Tania did. She was a fan of the Proton Game, and longed to return there and play again, but knew she could not. During their off hours she taught Tania the fundamentals and ways of the Game, making it interesting. They played little mock games, making grids on the ground, leading to short foot races or mumbledy peg or riddle-questions, and the time passed pleasantly. Tania no longer wondered why the Proton rovot had come to love her; she was a loveable creature.

They discussed the matter of the search, and decided to check the vampire bats next. It was Fleta who had suddenly come up with it: “Mayhap he became not a bird, but a bat! Midst the vamps could he fly and be himself, and learn but one new form!”

“Aye!” Tania exclaimed, joyed by this revelation. In her excitement she forgot herself so far as to hug Fleta, then was embarrassed. It was not that she detested the touch of an animal, for she did not; it was that she should never have let her real emotion show so obviously.

But later, reconsidering, she had another thought: Fleta had accepted the hug. There had been a time when the ‘corn would have reacted by changing form and stabbing violently with her deadly horn. Instead she had hugged back—and then been as embarrassed as Tania. Tania’s developing appreciation of Fleta had after all been returned. A few days later, between Flocks, at a time when they were apart from Bane, Tania braced her on it. “Methinks despite our best intent, we be becoming friends,” she said.

“I know thy nature!” Fleta flared. “What a fool I be, e’er to be friends to thee!” But then, after a pause, while Tania waited: “Aye.” For among her other good qualities was honesty.

“I thought thee but an animal, but I have come to appreciate thy ways.”

“I hated thee and all thy kind,” the mare returned. “But lately thou hast changed, or seemed to. Softer, more generous, seeking no longer to hurt those who ne’er hurt thee.”

“Thou knowest why.”

“Aye.”

They pursued it no further. Tania had fallen in love with Bane, and it had caused her to do what he liked, and that had changed her. But she could realize that love only at the expense of Agape, the alien female, and that Fleta could not abide. In fact, Agape had formidable friends in Phaze, for her tour here had put her into close contact with a number of folk. It was said that she had facilitated the union of the Red Adept and Suchevane, the beautiful vampiress, and that their son was named after her. Al, for Alien: a compliment, not an insult. No, Tania’s love of Bane was incompatible with her friendship with Fleta—yet both existed. So long as that love remained unfulfilled.

The vampires too turned out to be clean. The boy—or more likely the Adept Stile—had outsmarted them completely, utilizing a hiding place they could not guess. So they proceeded methodically through the various species of Phaze, knowing that Flach could have assumed any form and joined any tribe. The trolls, the ogres, the elves, the goblins, even the assorted tribes of demons: all had to be verified, no matter whose allies they called themselves. Years passed. Tania’s love for Bane, receiving tolerance but no acknowledgment, burned ever more fiercely. She had always been highly possessive and destructive, but this condition so transformed her that she was neither. She was satisfied just to be with him, and to act the way she believed he liked. This meant no more deliberate exposures of her body, for not only did that brand her in his mind as a slut, his experience in Proton inured him to the sight of female flesh. She no longer tried to join him as he slept; it was similarly counter productive. Oh, he liked the sight and feel of what she offered, but the fact of the offering generated more repulsion in him than attraction. She had made herself, at the beginning, an animal to him: a creature to be used rather than loved, and the uses were limited. So she labored constantly to be his ideal of a woman, and it was a challenge that be came increasingly easy. The most alarming thing about it was that she liked herself better, too.

Somewhere along the way, she realized that she had been had: Bane had used magic to make himself immune to her charms. Probably the Rovot Adept had fashioned a superior spell for his other self. So her case was lost, and had been almost from the outset. Why hadn’t she caught on long before this? Because she hadn’t wanted to. She had become a fool for love.

As it seemed that the search would never end, it did. They were checking the werewolves, and suddenly realized that the boy could have doubled back to join the Pack he had passed on his route with Neysa, having scouted it on the way. They verified the number of pups who had come to that Pack that year, from other Packs. They knew from their preliminary survey how many pups remained there, and after allowing for deaths in transit and since, they found the count skew by one. There was one more wolf in Kurrelgyre’s Pack than there should be. That one, they were sure, would prove to be Flach, now four years older than he had been.

They paused to take stock. Mach happened to be with them at this time, which meant that the verification would be prompt. “I believe this is it,” he said. “Our son will be ours again.”

“Aye,” Fleta agreed, evincing mixed emotions. “But after four years, ‘mongst the wolves, how will he be?”

“A fighting creature,” he said. “And a canny one. Even at four, he and Nepe fooled us completely. We are liable to have a handful.”

“An he wanted to help the Adepts, he would have hidden not,” she said. “Be we right to force him?”

“That notion has bothered me,” Mach admitted. “So long as we could not find him, the matter was moot. Now that we are about to, we have a decision to make. Do we really want to take him in?”

Fleta did not answer. It was obvious that her emotions were warring: she loved her son, and did not love the cause of the Adverse Adepts, yet was bound to serve it. Mach turned to Tania. “Thee?”

Tania tried to keep her face straight, but such a shock went through her that she could not; her eyes overflowed, and she too was unable to speak.

“What game is this?” Mach asked, annoyed.

Now Fleta found her voice. “Tease her not, my love; it be not kind.”

“What arc you talking about?” he demanded. “I asked a simple question.”

“Thou didst bespeak her in our tongue.”

“Why, so I did; it is of no consequence, and easy to do here. What is your point?”

“She loves Bane.”

His brow furrowed. Like most males, he was singulariy dense about certain things. “So?”

“Therefore she loves thy likeness, e’en as I love Bane’s likeness.”

Still he did not get it. “Bane and I have kept in touch. I gave him a spell to make him immune from her blandishments, having been warned by her other selfs behavior in Proton. If she fell into her own trap, she has only herself to blame.”

“Mayhap. But ill it behooves thee to tease her about it.”

“What are you talking about? I have left her strictly alone! This has always been purely business, and remains so. I asked her for her opinion about recovering our son.”

“Thou idiot!” she flared. “Thou didst bespeak her ‘Thee’! Twice more, and it be—“

“The likeness of Bane swearing love for her,” he concluded, finally getting it. “Yes, I suppose that would be a shock. I apologize, Tania, for inadvertently teasing you.” Had there been any doubt of his complete indifference to her, this ended it. But he was not Bane.

Tania finally was able to speak. “It be not that; it were a shock I knew false e’en as spoken. It be that an our search end, we three or four need travel together no more.”

“And thou canst be with him no more,” Fleta said.

“She has no call to be with him!” Mach said. “He loves Agape!”

“In Proton-frame,” Fleta said.

“That suffices. Would you have me loving the Proton Tania?”

That gave Fleta pause. “An she be like this one, now—”

“Nay!” Tania cried. “We all know this be but a trap reversed! I sought to snare Bane, and was myself snared. My fate be justice. I bring it up only to show I can comment not on whether to bring in thy son, Fleta, ‘cause I want the search to end ne’er, fool that I be to ‘fess it.”

Mach looked squarely at her, abruptly quite interested. ‘Tania, are you saying that if we bypassed this village, you would not object?”

“Nay! That be treachery to my cause!” But she was speaking only part of the truth. “Yet, an Bane asked me . . .”

“Yes, I see you speak truly. But I agreed to serve your side, and I shall not betray that agreement, though my heart lies elsewhere. I shall recover my son, and he shall work on your side. We shall deliver the final power to the Adverse Adepts. Then, perhaps my onus will be abated.”

“0’ course,” Tania agreed sadly.

“Aye,” Fleta said, as sadly.

“It is a matter of honor,” Mach said. “Translucent trusts me, and trusts Bane, because of it. This is the way it is.”

“Aye,” the two said together, and turned away. “In the morning we shall do it.” Then he conjured an entire house, stocked with everything a house required, including a separate bedroom for Tania.

But before she slept, Fleta knocked. “Aye, I would share him, with thine other self in Proton-frame,” she said. “But it be, as he put it, moot.”

“Thou dost be a nice person.”

“What willst thou, anon?”

“Thou didst show the way, once.” For Fleta, believing her love doomed, had once tried to throw herself off a cliff to her death.

Fleta was shocked. “But he would come rescue thee not!”

“Aye. Then it be soon o’er.”

“I beg thee, rush not into such!”

Tania shrugged. “Doubtless I lack the courage, anyway.” That was all; there was no more to be said. Both of them were crying, silently.