Part 36 (1/2)
The storm dissipated. The Storm King walked back to the soular cell.
Aeolus made a clutching motion at himself. Something sparkly lifted from his body. He crammed it into the box and pushed down the lid. He had put away his soul.
He turned toward them. ”Now you will go. and be silent.” he said.
”Yes,” Grey agreed.
They left the chamber with the king, so this time Grey did not need lo nullify the door. Then the Aeolus bid them farewell, and they walked out of the palace. ”You got what you need?” Grey asked Robota.
”Yes. Now I understand the secret of weather magic. My master will be able to duplicate it.”
”Then walk with me, and do not argue.”
”Argue?”
”When I do something surprising.”
Perplexed, Robota agreed.
They walked north, out of the North Village. But the moment they were out of sight of it. Grey picked her up and stepped off the path into the brush. ”Revert to golem size,” he whispered.
She did, and he put her in his pocket. Then he forged on through the brush at right angles to the path. There were needle cactuses, thornberries, and tangle trees in that trackless jungle, but he nullified them as he pa.s.sed through.
”What is he doing?” Pia asked.
”This is a mystery to us.” Tristan said ”He is supposed to bring them right home.”
Grey circled the North Village, bearing west and then south. There he found a small little-used path, and followed it farther south.
As the day grew late, he found a thick thicket between two thin thinets, and used his nullifying magic to penetrate to the center, where he was well protected and effectively invisible.
”Now what is this all about?” Robota inquired in his ear. ”You didn't need to go to this much trouble to get me alone, you know ”
Grey surely smiled. ”The Storm King is without a conscience.”
”He seemed nice enough to me.”
”The conscience resides with the soul. The soulless have no decent limits, as with the demons or the animated inanimate.”
”Now wait a moment! I'm animated inanimate.”
”And so you have no conscience. Fortunately you have not yet discovered how dastardly you could be, if you thought of it. I hope you will continue to act in a decent manner.”
”You mean I can't seduce you?” she asked, disappointed.
”That s right. A woman of conscience would not try to seduce a married man.”
”But why not?”
”That comes under the heading of conscience. To a person of conscience, that which is feasible is not necessarily that which is appropriate.”
”I don't understand.”
”Precisely. But if you do well, one day you may became real, and have a soul, as Grundy Golem does. You will want to be prepared for its limitations.”
Robota considered. You're right I do want to become real. So I will study conscience, now that I have studied weather. But you will have to help me, because my master never said anything about it.”
”Com-Pewter is animated inanimate, too, and so without conscience. Fortunately there are some limitations established in his programming. What about Tristan?”
”He's funny. He won't cheat at cards even when it seems he could, and he doesn't do anything illicit even when he's away from our master's control.”
”Tristan has a conscience. In fact, he has one of the finest consciences of his kind, and is a fine model to emulate.”
”You mean I should act like him?”
”Yes, with due allowance for your gender.”
She sighed ”This will be horribly restrictive.”
”It's worth it.”
”So why did you bring me here, since it wasn't for illicit purpose?”
”The Storm King wants to hold on to power as long as he possibly can. He doesn't know he is going to die soon, making his retention of the kings.h.i.+p moot. We discovered a secret of his. He will seek to eliminate us.”
”But we promised to keep that secret fifty years.”
”He judges us by himself. He expects us to break that promise. So he will seek to eliminate us before we do so.”
”How can he do that!”
”By arranging to have us ambushed and killed on our way home.”
”But he can't kill me, I'm not alive.”
”He doesn't know that. In any event he could have you taken apart and scattered.”
Robota nodded ”That would do it. Especially here in the past where my master can't recover the pieces ”
”So we must hide from him. We arrived at the North Village from the north, and departed it to the north. He will a.s.sume that we live somewhere north, and will send his scouts out to intercept us. They will hardly think to look well away from the paths amidst the dangerous jungle.”
”And when they don't find us to the north, they will spread their net wider'
”Yes But they will have little chance to find us if we are careful, and if we stay well ahead of them. So we must postpone our departure from Xanth until the search dies out.”
”But won t that mess up our return to our own time?”
”No, we'll re-enter Xanth just when we should. This merely prolongs our stay here.”
”What of the observers7”