Part 33 (1/2)
”Yes. But this is logic. My mission is not subject to that.”
”Suppose it were possible at least to save most Hectare and some natives, by warning them now?”
”It isn't. It would take several days to organize for a disciplined withdrawal, and only one day remained when I came here. Had I known the nature of the ploy sooner, I would have warned the Hectare.”
”Aye. We told thee little, until thou wast here. Yet there be a way.”
”Something you didn't tell me?”
”Aye. I be thine enemy, remember.”
Lysander laughed. ”I had almost forgotten! What is this secret?”
”We can, by special magic, transport some o' the acceleration to the surface o' the sh.e.l.l. It would deplete the effect at the Poles, but provide perhaps a week at the cities.”
”They could get away!” Lysander exclaimed.
”Aye.”
”But there's a catch.”
”Perceptive o' thee to fathom that.”
”You won't let it happen.”
”Aye. Why facilitate the benefit o' mine enemy?”
”And I, lacking your expertise in magic, can not do it without your cooperation.”
”Aye, no more than I can gain thy figures from Mischief.”
”Then what is the point? It changes nothing. I will not save your frames, and you will not save the BEMs. Our positions are consistent.”
”The point be that we have chips to bargain. An the Hectare had a choice, would they not choose to exit Proton?”
”Yes, of course! But you aren't going to give them that choice.”
”Here be my challenge: play me a game. An thou dost win, I will provide magic to save the Hectare and those they choose to take with them, and thou and Echo. That be a half victory, but better than naught. An I win, thou dost release those figures.”
”But the stakes aren't even!” Lysander protested, guiltily intrigued. ”You aren't offering victory against victory, but half against whole.”
”True. But our victory be not complete loss for the Hectare or thee. We will treat them fairly, and put thee in charge o' integrating them into the society. We can use their skills. And we will make a spell to make thou fertile-”
”I'm with Echo. She can't conceive.”
”An we do the magic, she can. Remember Nepe; she be child o' machine.”
Lysander considered. It was true: the full victory for the natives would be only half a loss for the Hectare, while the full loss of the natives would be half a Hectare win. The stakes were fair. But did he have the authority to make such a deal?
”Be the Hectare not gamesmen?” Oresmite inquired. ”Would they not let the game decide, an the stakes be even?”
”Yes, they would. But I can't-”
”An the leader be incapacitated, who has authority?”
”The next in command. But-”
”An the leader be away or distracted, and the next in command learns aught that must needs be decided instantly, what then?”
”The next in command must act.”
”Does the authority for this matter then not devolve on thee, the only Hectare to know its nature in time to act?”
”Well, there is Weva-”
”Wouldst have her make the decision?”
”No! She's on your side!”
”Then methinks it must be thee, unless my logic be in error.”
Lysander realized that the cunning old elf had him. He had been maneuvered into a position where the authority was his; a Hectare court would agree. He might lack the authority simply to decide the fate of the frames, but as a player in a game of decision-a case could be made.
”Agreed. But it must be a fair game.”
”Aye. We shall decide together. Or wouldst prefer to have Mischief decide?”
”No!” Then Lysander had to laugh. ”No, we shall come to our own agreement. Only when both are satisfied will it be set.”
”Aye.” Oresmite smiled. ”We have time.”
There followed several days of negotiations. Oresmite, being old and small, would not commit to any brute physical contests. Lysander, wary of the elf's lifetime experience, rejected those that were culturally oriented. Intellectual games like chess or go were tempting, but Lysander wasn't sure how much the elf might have played these to wile away the time, and Oresmite was nervous about Lysander's a.n.a.lytic Hectare brain.
”Methinks we require a new game, ne'er before played,” the Chief remarked at last.
”Yes. So that neither experience nor special apt.i.tude is likely to count.”
They brought the others in on it. The challenge: create a new, fair, playable but unplayed game whose outcome could not be certain.
The boredom evaporated as elves and human beings got to work. Proposals were made, a.n.a.lyzed, and rejected.
The key, as it turned out, came from an elf child. He had been listening to the stories of the history of magic before Phaze, when it had existed back on Earth. ”Why not Merlin and the Witch?” he asked.
This was an episode recorded by T. H. White in a book t.i.tled Sword in the Stone but later excluded from a larger compendium, perhaps because it revealed too much about magic. Merlin had fought the witch by form changing, each trying to a.s.sume the form of a creature that could demolish the other. Merlin, sorely pressed, had won by becoming a germ that infected and killed the witch's monster.