Part 17 (2/2)

”What dost thou need from me?” Brown asked grimly.

”Take Tsetse with you when you go to the game.”

”What game?”

”The one Purp has to play against the Hectare.”

Brown was astonished. ”I understand not!”

”We're going to throw off the Hectare, and soon, but it's a plot so tricky that none of us knows the whole. All I really know is that I have three messages, and I must do what they tell me. I have done one. The second tells me to do something more complicated, and that's what I'm doing now. I need to sneak a person in past the Hectare alerts to fetch something, and this is the best way I can figure to do it. So it won't be Tsetse with you, really, it will be this other. Don't tell, and when Tsetse disappears, cover for her. She'll be back. Do this, and I will accomplish my second task. If I get through all three, Phaze can be saved, I think. If I can't, then it will be very bad. Will you help me?”

”O' course I will, dear! But how canst thou know the Purple Adept will-”

”You go with him to his game, and help him all you can, and take Tsetse along and don't let on about her. I can't tell you more, Brown, because if this doesn't work I'll have to try some other way, and you mustn't know anything that would hurt us.”

Brown spread her hands. ”As thou sayest, dear. But it makes not much sense to me.”

”It should happen within the hour,” Nepe” said. ”He's coming here to put the screws to you. Now you know what to do.”

”An thou be sure-”

”Almost sure,” Nepe admitted.

Brown had mixed feelings. She was appalled by the notion of going along with Purple, and worried about Nepe, whom she had known as Flach, but relieved that she no longer had to choose between life and culture. She could yield to the enemy, yet not betray Phaze! If what the child said was true. And though Nepe was a child, she was a remarkably special one, and surely to be trusted.

”I put mine honor in thy hands,” she said. ”I will do as thou dost ask. May it save Phaze!”

”Thanks, Brown!” the seeming machine said. ”And oh, don't tell Tsetse. She must hide, and not know why, until you return.”

”Aye, child.” Then Brown left, closing the door behind her, so that the room would not be disturbed.

She shared the meal with Tsetse. Now that her mind was somewhat at rest, she was able to consider the woman more subjectively. Tsetse was beautiful and docile; it would be easy to love her. Now, perhaps, it was time.

”I have a matter o' some caution to broach to thee, trusting I give not offense,” Brown said.

”Have I done something wrong?” Tsetse asked, immediately worried.

”Nay, woman! My concern be this: I have by choice no man in my life, but that be not because I be without pa.s.sion. It be that I prefer mine own gender. I find thee attractive, and would know thee better, an the notion not disturb thee.”

”It doesn't disturb me!” Tsetse said, and her relief was obviously genuine.

”Yet thou dost prefer employment here, so mayhap dost feel not free to speak thy true mind. I would not seek to play on that to-”

”I've had both men and women,” Tsetse said. ”But pleasure only with women. I think you're a great woman!”

”Yet I be concerned. I ask thee to take time to consider, and if thou dost conclude against, I will have no onus against thee. I be minded to send thee on a day-long trip to fetch wood, and if thou dost not reconsider by thy return, we may talk further.”

”I don't need-”

”But I need, Tsetse,” Brown said. ”I am athwart a conflict o' interest, and needs must give thee time.”

”Yes, of course,” the woman said, always amenable. ”I'll go immediately.”

”The golems know the route, and carry supplies. Thou willst be safe and comfortable. Thou has only to see that they load good wood; they choose not well alone.”

”I'll do that!” Tsetse was eager to prove herself.

”Methinks Franken be good to lead the party,” Brown said. ”He be used to carrying me in his knapsack, and will carry thee in comfort. He will obey thee when thou dost call his name, and keep thee safe. An a dragon attack, say 'Franken, save me,' and he will do it. But thou must speak always literally, for he be not smart.”

”Yes,” Tsetse said, less eager but ready.

Within the hour, woman and golems were gone. The large golems hauled a wagon for the wood, and Tsetse rode in Frank-en's knapsack. There were four hauler golems, and four guard golems; she would be safe enough. There was a magic tent on the wagon, that she knew how to invoke for the night's repose. Tsetse might not really like being alone with the golems, but it was something she needed to learn if she was to be genuinely useful, and the mission was a valid one.

Not long thereafter, a small aircraft arrived. It was Citizen Purple, as Nepe had predicted. Probably the child had gotten hold of a divination, so that she had known the timing. It had been a fairly near thing.

Purple strode into the castle as if he owned it-which was close enough to the fact now. He wore the ludicrous tentacle-cap of Hectare service. ”Have you considered your situation, Brown?” he inquired brusquely. He was in his Citizen aspect, which meant he wouldn't be using magic. That was a small relief, for a magic check could have spotted the golem party, and it would have been awkward if he realized that Tsetse seemed to be in two places at once.

”At length,” she confessed. ”Thou has power now, and canst make my life difficult an I not cooperate with thee.”

”And comfortable if you do cooperate,” he said. ”Look, woman, I don't ask you to renounce your heritage. Just put your golems at our disposal, and swear that you will not allow them to harm any person or thing a.s.sociated with the Hectare. I know your word is good.”

”I can keep my castle and my privacy?” she asked. There was more to that question than showed, as they both knew. She wanted a.s.surance that her shame would not be advertised.

”Yes. You will answer only to me, and the Hectare, who are not concerned with personal details.”

”My golems I can pledge, but my heart not. I will do what thou sayest, and the golems will obey, but I will betray not my friends.”

”Soon enough there will be none loose to betray.”

”And Tsetse-”

”She's yours as long as the golems are ours.”

”And that be the whole o' it?”

”Almost.” He waggled a fat finger at her. ”You were a temperate keeper, when Tan and I were your prisoners. But then you were honor-bound to keep us, not to harm us. Now you are not. I want your word that you will obey me personally, and seek no physical or magical harm to me. I know you don't like me, but you will never try to lead me into harm, or refuse to help me if I am in peril.”

Brown reflected. Nepe had said they were going to punish Purple, but not actually to hurt him, and in any event that was not Brown's doing. If she saw that Purple was actually being hurt, she would have to try to help him. That seemed to be an appropriate compromise. ”An thou keep thy word to me, I will keep mine to thee,” she said. ”I will obey thee and seek not to lead thee to harm, but an thou come to it by device other than mine, it will grieve me not.”

”Agreed. Now I have a.s.signments for your golems. I want a complement set to the North Pole to ensure that no other person or creature has access to it.”

”The North Pole!” she exclaimed, surprised. ”There be no such Pole!”

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