Part 8 (2/2)
He was right about that; Brother Paul could feel surprisingly formidable muscular tension in the Swami's light frame. This man was like another aspect of the ghost in the machine; he seemed fanatical because he was improperly understood, but he was merely giving his allegiance to other than the usual imperatives. Brother Paul slowly increased the force of the hold to the point where the Breaker had screamed.
”More,” the Swami said.
”There is danger.”
”Precisely.”
Well, pain should make the man tap out before his elbow actually broke, Brother Paul thought as he put an additional surge of effort into it.
”There!” the Swami cried.
Brother Paul eased up in alarm.
The Swami smiled, obviously unhurt.
”It is what I suspected. You used ki!”
Brother Paul shook his head. ”I have no-”
”You have a powerful aura,” the Swami insisted. ”I was uncertain until you focused it. You are a gentle man, so you never willingly invoke it, but were you otherwise, you would be a monster. Never have I encountered such power.”
Brother Paul sat bemused. ”Once another person said something of the kind to me, but I dismissed it as fancy,” he said, thinking again of Antares.
”Only those who have mastered their own auras can perceive them in others,” the Swami a.s.sured him. ”My own mastery is imperfect, so your aura was not immediately apparent to me. But now I am certain, it was your ki, the focused application of your aura, that terrified the Breaker. Surely it was this aura that selected you for this mission too, though others might have rationalized it into other reasons. I had hoped this would not be the case.”
Brother Paul shook his head. ”If this... this aura protects me against threats, surely-”
”The threat of which I speak is much greater than merely a physical one. You see-”
”h.e.l.lo.”
Both men looked up, startled. It was the girl of the wheatfield, the Empress of Tarot. Amaranth field, he corrected himself. This time she was not fleeing him, and for that he was grateful. Now he could discover whom she was.
She wore a one-piece outfit, really a belted tunic embroidered with a landscape reminiscent of the local geography. Every colonist's apparel was distinctive, reflecting his religious bias, but this was something special. There were hills and valleys in color, and two volcanic mounts in front: a veritable contour map.
Brother Paul tried not to stare. They were extremely lofty and well-formed volcanoes.
”We merely pa.s.s by,” the Swami informed her.
”Wrestling on the ground, flattening the crop, and crying out?” she demanded.
”Swami, I always knew you were a nut, but-”
”My fault,” Brother Paul interposed. ”I was trying to demonstrate how I discouraged the Breaker.”
Her lovely eyes narrowed appraisingly. ”Then I must speak with you,” she said firmly. Indeed, everything about her was firm; she was a strikingly handsome young woman, with golden hair and eyes and skin, and features that were, as the narrators of the Arabian Nights would have put it, marvels of symmetry. Brother Paul might have seen a fairer female at some time in his life, but at the moment it was difficult to call any such creature to mind.
”I have undertaken to guide this man about the premises,” the Swami said gruffly, as he rose and dusted himself off. ”We must arrive at Northole in due course.”
”Then I shall accompany you,” she said. ”It is essential that I talk with our visitor from Earth.”
”You cannot leave your station!”
”My station is the Breaker-who is absent today,” she said with finality.
Brother Paul remained silent. It seemed that the Swami was being served as he himself had served Reverend Siltz; also, it would be wickedly pleasant having this scenic creature along. He had feared he would not see her again, but here she was, virtually forcing her company on him. Obviously she accepted no inferior status; maybe women were, after all, equal to men here. That would be nice.
The Swami shrugged, evidently suppressing his irritation. ”This female is the understudy to the Breaker,” he said, by way of introduction. ”She alone has no fear of the monster. It is apparent in her manner.”
”The Swami prefers his docile daughter,” she responded, ”who has few illusions of individuality.”
Thrust and counterthrust! ”What is your name, Breaker Lady?” Brother Paul asked.
”Why did you flee from me before, if you have so little to fear?”
”I thought you were an Animation,” she said. ”The only way to handle an Animation is to get the h.e.l.l away from it.”
Hm. A candid, colloquial answer that did much to debilitate his prior conception of her as the Empress. ”But your name?”
”Call her anything you like,” the Swami said. ”Subtlety is wasted on the unsubtle.”
The girl only smiled, not at all discommoded by the Swami's taciturnity. If she had intended to give her name, that intention was gone now. Somehow he had to defuse this minor social crisis, since he wanted to get along with both of them, though for different reasons.
”Then I shall call you Amaranth, in honor of this beautiful field where we met,”
Brother Paul decided that physical compliments were seldom in error, when relating to the distaff.
”Oh, I like that!” she exclaimed, melting. ”Amaranth! May I keep it?”
”It is yours,” Brother Paul said benignly. He liked her mode of game-playing, and he liked her. ”You thought I was an Animation of the Devil, and I thought you were an Animation of the Empress. No doubt we were both correct.”
She laughed, causing the volcanoes to quiver hazardously. ”And I thought members of the Order of Vision were humorless!”
”Some are,” Brother Paul said. ”Let me hear out the Swami; then I shall be free to talk with you at leisure.” Delightful prospect!
”My warning can wait upon a more propitious occasion,” the Swami said sourly.
”It concerns Northole.”
”That's an odd name,” Brother Paul observed, hoping to relieve the tension again.
”We have simplistic nomenclature,” Amaranth said. ”That's Southmount you came from; this is Westfield; the Animation pit is Northole; and the water to the east of the village is-”
”Eastlake,” Brother Paul finished. ”Yes, it does make sense. What did you want to ask me?”
”Nothing,” she said.
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