Part 26 (2/2)

”Come on, then!” she exclaimed to her companions. ”We're in time after all.”

They approached the spot. It was marked by an X on the ground. That was all.

”This be where the curtains crossed, in the old days,” Alien said. ”My sire spoke o' it.”

”But there are no curtains now,” Nepe said. ”Everything's merged, so there's no line of separation. But it has to be important some way.”

She squatted, tracing her fingers through the dirt. The X was actually a ridge, not a mere marking. She took hold of the ridge and pulled.

It came up. The others jumped in to help, and in a moment the lid covering a hole was all the way over and back. Below was darkness.

”But methinks the BEM could have done this,” Sirel said. ”Why did it but guard?”

”Because time changes inside,” Nepe said. ”It may be slower in there, which makes it dangerous for anyone who doesn't belong.” She stared down into the mysterious region. ”And maybe for us too. But either we have to go in-or just drop the seed in.”

”Alien and I would have been asked to come with thee not,” Sirel said, ”an there be not reason. Needs must we go in, come what may.”

That seemed to be the case. ”Then we shall do it,” Nepe said. She put her foot to the hole-and found a barrier. It would not go down.

”But I think not in this form,” she said after a moment. ”Maybe it is barred to human beings and aliens.”

Sirel a.s.sumed her b.i.t.c.h form. She extended a paw, and it pa.s.sed the barrier without impediment.

Alien became the bat, and flew down into the hole. He neither slowed nor fell; indeed, he bounced back out so suddenly Nepe was surprised. He resumed human form. ”It be fast in there!” he exclaimed. ”When I went down, it were the two of you who froze, responding to me not.”

”Fast!” Nepe exclaimed. ”That may explain much!”

”It be not deep,” Alien continued. ”I fathomed it with mine ears, and it turns below and makes a slanting tunnel a wolf could walk.”

She changed her structure, forcing the Hectare seed out. She held it in her hand, protecting it. Then she turned the body over to Flach. He would have to take it from here, for only magic could relate properly to this.

12 - Weva

Flach held the seed. ”Methinks I be best off in a bat form, with Alien,” he said. ”Canst carry the seed, Sirel?”

The b.i.t.c.h lifted her nose, and took the seed gently from his hand. Then Flach became a bat. ”We go together!” he called in the bat language to Alien. ”Cling to Sirel, and let her go in. An we spy danger, we can guide her clear.”

They lit on the wolf's back. Then Sirel stepped into the hole. She dropped only a short distance before landing firmly at the tunnel floor.

Now Flach's ears confirmed what Alien's had perceived. This was a curving pa.s.sage, spiraling down below the Pole. Above, in the lighted hole, motes of dust hung motionless. They were living much faster now. He should have realized that it would not be identical to the situation at the North Pole. What point, slowing down, when they had so little time to forge the weapon against the invader?

Rea.s.sured by their contact, Sirel walked on down the tunnel.

Several loops down it broadened into a chamber, where there was light: at first dim glows from fungi, then brighter glows from lamps. As Sire! stood at the edge, there was a growl, coming from darkness beyond the chamber.

”Who dost thou be?” the growl demanded. Flach could understand it because of his years with the wolves.

But Sirel couldn't answer, because she was holding the seed in her mouth. So Flach changed forms and a.s.sumed his wolf form, Barelmosi. ”We be three, coming as directed to the West Pole,” he growled.

”Who dost thou be?” the growl repeated.

”I be Barelmosi, also known as the Unicorn Adept. With me are Sirelmoba, who be my Promised b.i.t.c.h, and Alien, o' the vampire bats. Now, in fairness, tell us who thou dost be, and what thou dost demand o' us.”

The other came in view. It was an animal head: a man with the head of a wolf. ”I be but a servant o' our cause: to save Phaze from being ravished. Hast brought the seed?”

”Aye.”

”Give it here, and follow.”

Flach, a.s.suming human form, reached to take the seed from Sirel's mouth, and carried it to the wolfman. The wolfman took it and turned to walk into the gloom at the far end of the chamber. They followed, Alien a.s.suming human form. Sire! retaining b.i.t.c.h form. Flach wasn't certain what was coming, and knew the other two were as nervous as he.

Soon they arrived at a deeper, brighter chamber, where a group of animal heads stood. Prominent among them was an elephant head. ”Eli!” Flach exclaimed. Then he had a second thought. ”Or be it thee? Thou dost look older.”

”We be all older,” Eli said. He used the language of the animal heads, which was a mixture of those sounds common to most of them; Flach understood it because he had learned a number of animal languages when he mastered the animal forms. Eli had helped his father Mach train in table tennis, before Flach's birth, for an important game with his other self; the elephant head held the paddle with his trunk, and played marvelously well. Flach had come to know him in the past year, and liked him. ”We be ten years in this den, preparing for thee.”

”But I saw thee nigh three months ago!” Flach protested. ”With my sire, the Rovot Adept. Dost not remember?”

”I remember. But much o' a month ago in thy time, we descended to this realm and fas.h.i.+oned o' it the Pole Demesnes, that we might train thee and make the decoys. That be ten years, our time, and aye, we be older.”

”But thou must get out, then, before thou dost age too far!” Flach exclaimed, horrified. ”Thou and thy companions!”

”Nay, Adept, not so! Our lives be as long as e'er, in our terms; we feel not the loss. We have been constructively busy, and now the region be nice for thee and thy companions. For thou must remain with us a time.”

”But came I here only to deliver the Hec seed! Needs must I do one more errand before I rest, so save the planet.”

”Aye. But this be part o' thine errand. Thou must be trained here, three years.”

”Three years!” Flach exclaimed. ”But the Magic Bomb will ravage the planet within six weeks! Five weeks.” For a week had pa.s.sed since he had stood at the North Pole with wonderful Icy. Ah, the demoness-Don 'i get distracted! Nepe snapped.

”Three years our time,” Eli clarified. ”One week, outside. We be at gross velocity: an hundred and forty-four times norm. Well we know the outside limit!”

Flach looked at his companions, appalled. But as he did so he realized that their presence here was part of the plan, whose nature he did not understand. Certainly he had no reason to distrust EH.

”I must trust thine information,” he said. ”We be at thy service.”

”First must we take thy companions to the laboratory,” the elephant head said.

”The laboratory?” Flach asked, upset again. ”That be a science notion!”

”Aye, lad! We have rovots and computers here and the rest o' science, but the wolf and bat must needs be fresh for our purpose.”

”What purpose?” Flach demanded. ”I can suffer no ill to my friends!”

”Nor shall there be ill to any,” EH rea.s.sured him. ”We but need tokens from their bodies, that we may craft what be needful.”

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