Part 30 (1/2)
By the codes. The patterns were inherent; Hectare used them to communicate in the planted stage, before they developed sonics. A tentacle could tap the ground, communicating with other rooted individuals, exchanging information.
He tapped the floor with a knuckle and a heel, in the GREETING, STRANGER pattern.
Two tentacles tapped in response: ACKNOWLEDGMENT, STRANGER.
It was a valid response!
The tentacle tapped again. YES, I AM GENUINE. I AM THE SEED YOU BROUGHT FROM THE CITY.
Suddenly it fell into place. They had grown a Hectare hybrid! They had merged it with bat, wolf, and human stock, all of which had been brought to the Pole.
”I believe you,” he said, awed. ”But what is the point?”
Weva the girl reappeared. ”I have told thee much about me. Dost not feel thou shouldst respond in the manner I asked?”
”I will tell you all you wish to know about me. But as I said, my love is elsewhere.”
”That can I change.” She brought out her flute, played it briefly, and gestured. ”Now that love be gone.”
”Of course it isn't!” he exclaimed. ”You can't just-”
But he had to stop, for he realized it was true. He no longer cared particularly for Echo.
”You have a potion?” he asked. ”A null-love potion?”
”Nay, merely mine Adept magic skill- Wouldst prefer I make thee love me?” She lifted her flute.
”No! Please!” He realized that he was in the presence of a creature who could twist him any way it chose, and it frightened him. ”I see you have power, but I ask you not to use it on me further. Just tell me what you want of me.”
She nodded. ”I see we understand each other. I would convert thee to our cause-the cause o' Phaze-for I be a creature o' Phaze. But Flach tells me the prophecy would be invalidated then, so this may not be. I ask thee only this: e'en as I spare thee humiliation and loss o' forced love, though I could do these without stopping the prophecy, so must thou consider carefully whe'er thy side be the correct one.”
”I am a Hectare agent. I must fulfill my mission.”
”Yet there may be ways and ways to see thy mission. Canst keep thy mind open to that extent?”
”I can try. But-”
”Then let us go from here; it be time.” She pulled her robe back up and crawled toward the entrance.
He crawled after her, his mind whirling. This creature-part bat, part wolf, part human, part Hectare-was indeed something special! Thirteen years in the making, but only a little over a month in his time. He had helped Nepe get the Hectare seed, never dreaming how it would be used! Now Weva combined the Hectare intellectual power with the human imagination and the Adept magic. She was surely the tool the Adepts intended to use against the Hectare investment. But how could she change anything? And how was Lysander needed to complete it?
Thirteen-and she had tempted him s.e.xually, just to demonstrate her power, it seemed. She had convinced him; there was no way he could oppose her directly. He had demurred mainly on instinct, in effect capitulating and begging for mercy. Now in his mind's eye he saw her slender body nested in the open robe, her nascent but well-formed b.r.e.a.s.t.s. It would have been easy to, as she put it, play with her, despite his relation with Echo.
Echo! Weva had deprived him of his love for Echo-and now there was a void. He was out of love!
Weva pushed up the lid. There was a roar, as the watching dragon spied the motion and charged.
”Begone, beast,” Weva said crossly.
The noise cut off. Weva drew herself out of the hole. Amazed, Lysander followed.
The dragon was lumbering away, having lost interest in them. Weva had changed its mind with a mere two words and no music! But if she could do that, why hadn't she done it before?
Because she had wanted to make her little demonstration to him. The supposed need to hide from the dragon had been a pretext. Now that he knew exactly where he stood, she could get about her business of going where she was going.
What would she have done, if he had agreed to play with her? Probably she would have done it, being genuinely curious and perhaps without scruple. Though that was odd, because of her Hectare component.
”But it is still a long way to the South Pole!” he said. ”We'll need transport.”
”Aye. It be nigh.”
Coming toward them was a huge manlike figure. Its heavy tread shook the ground. It seemed to be made of tree trunks and cables.
”That's a wooden golem!” Lysander protested. ”The Brown Adept now serves the Hectare!”
”Aye. But she has spot control not. She sends them out on their missions, and knows not what they do till they return.”
”But they do her will! That thing will haul us right back to the Brown Demesnes! And you can't interfere with Adept magic without signaling our location.”
”Aye. I dare not use my power. But illusion be lesser magic, making no splash, as be emotion control.”
As the monster golem came close, Weva signaled it by waving her arms. It bore down on them.
”What by thy name, golem?” she asked as it loomed close and halted.
”Franken,” it said, though it did not breathe.
”Well, Franken, what thou seekst be at the South Pole,” Weva said to it. ”Carry us swiftly there.”
”Aye, Brown,” it said.
What?
The golem reached down with a giant wood hand and closed it gently around Weva. It lifted her up over its shoulder and set her in a storage box mounted on its back. Then it reached for Lysander and did the same for him.
They rode standing in the box, whose sides came a bit above waist level on Lysander. There were handholds. Evidently this was a standard setup for transporting human beings. Their heads could see over the wood bole that was the golem's head. The thing was now striding south at a horrendous rate; it was almost like flying.
”But you neither look nor sound anything like Brown!” he whispered.
”To it I do, and that be what counts. Thou needst whisper not; it hears only when addressed.”
”But you've never even met Brown! You can't-”
”Dost love me still, Lysander?” she asked.
Startled by the change in her voice, he looked at her. She was Echo! The sound and look were identical. Had he not known that there was no way it could be true, he would have been sure it was her.
”Point made,” he said. ”And you probably don't resemble Echo to the golem, just to me.”