Part 93 (1/2)

From the loudspeaker of the computer clanged an inhuman voice: YOU IN THE POWER ROOM. STAND AWAY OR DIE. I COMMAND RECLOSING OF CE POWER MAIN NOW.

Jeff Steinbrenner and Cordelia Warshaw fell to the deck.

Patricia supported herself with difficulty against the computer console and whispered, ”It's all right. The power's back. You're safe, Marc ... ”

A simulacrum of his face smiled at her from the blind black helm. ”Thank you, Pat. Dear Pat.”

One hand was raised toward him. ”Go. You'll have to teleport everything away. All the others-turned against us. Escape, Marc. Then it was worth it.”

For the last time, the mind shone with a dirigent's creativecoercive power; then all thinking was extinguished and her body lay beside the two others on the rough oaken planks.

Marc's amplified voice echoed through the hull: LEAVE THE POWER ROOM. ALL OF YOU.

Outside Kyllikki there was a tremendous sonic boom. The schooner rocked.

He sucked in energy, heedless of the risk, absorbed a greater input than he had ever attempted here in the Pliocene exile.

Yes! Fully powered, he spun the upsilon-field and made the hyperspatial gateway enormous. His mind designated the pieces of equipment to be translated: the entire CE complex, some weapons, supplies, more than eleven tons of ma.s.s altogether.

How easy it was to lift! How nonchalantly he pushed the load and himself through the gaping superficies-and slammed it shut in the Golden Adversary's frustrated face.

Zang.

... A perfect place to hide, fa.r.s.een weeks ago.

Zung.

The materialization down inside the deep, dry watercourse would have been visible to the naked eye for less than a second.

Then the absorptive camouflaging mechanism that had formerly sheltered Kyllikki clicked on, twisting the moonbeams to form an illusion that, viewed from above, roofed the gully with apparently solid ground.

After several hours the camouflager was turned off, and the gulley seemed to be as barren of life as ever. But the little cave where Madame Guderian and Claude Majewski had hidden was now greatly enlarged to accommodate a new tenant. He came out briefly after midnight and sat beneath the old acacia tree that slouched at the canyon lip, looking at the force-field hemisphere that shrouded Castle Gateway just up the slope to the south. A few hares and other night-prowling creatures ventured to creep up and inspect him-but they fled soon enough at the cold, terrible touch of his mind.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

Minanonn the Heretic opened the door of the former feasting hall of the chalet, which had been converted into a nursery for the black-torc babies. The room was lit only by cl.u.s.ters of red faerie lights. He saw a double row of small cots with ten redactors seated on stools before them. The mothers were ranged behind the infants, observing. Dionket stood at the side, directing the operation, faintly veiled in carmine luminescence. Basil Wimborne played a quiet melody on his recorder and an aura of healing pervaded the chamber.

It's going to work, Minannon thought. The new program is beginning to help the poor little things even now, before the coercive segment of the metaconcert is phased in. They'll be cured, whole-minded again, inside of a week or so. And not only that, they'll be operant: the first of the new generation Brede the s.h.i.+pspouse had foreseen.

They must not be left to perish in Nightfall! Fortunately, the King's suggestion provides the perfect solution ...

Minannon waited. He caught sight of Elizabeth seated in a dark corner, her mind detached, her face covered by her hands-unneeded. Then the preliminary session came to a close; the young minds were awash in soothing endorphins and the pain was in abeyance. Basil absently mind-sang the human lullaby as he played his flute.

Joy will come to us at morning, Life with sunrise hope adorning, Though sad dreams may give dread warning, All through the night.

The last notes of the song died away. Dionket and the redactor company looked at one another and smiled, and then the healers rose and filed out. Minanonn's urgent summons brought the Lord Healer and Elizabeth to him, and they left the chalet by a side door and went into the twilit rock garden where the full moon was just rising above the hills.

”There have been important developments,” the Heretic said.