Jerry put an arm around her shoulder.
“Ariadne,” her image said. “You may stay here in Mera if you wish. Here you will never age, die, or be sick. As you have already discovered, the alcohol craving has no power over you here. If you do not stay, you will be returned to your car at the moment when you took the turnoff to Hope, North Dakota, and none of this will have happened.”
So here it was. “And I have told truly that there I am still an alcoholic,” she said sadly. “What will become of me?” The reflection did not speak, and Jerry muttered, “It will not answer that.”
“What of Graham and the others?” she asked.
The reflection seemed to hesitate and then said, “Your decision will determine your reality stream. What they decide does not. Your decision does not affect them.” Ariadne tried to say that she wanted to go home… and was silent.
She tried to say that she wanted to stay, with no more success. Obviously she did not know what she wanted. She looked up at Jerry in despair. “How long can I take to think?” she asked.
It was again her reflection which spoke. “As long as you want, but you can not leave here until you do. I have seen people stand there for two days.”
“Can I stay and then change my mind later?” · “Yes,” said her own voice from the mirror. “But after that you can never return to Mera, and, after Mera, nowhere else is fit to live, so you can never be happy again— and the demons will surely get you.” She swung back to face the mirror. “Is that some sort of a hint?” she demanded— and got no answer. She tried the experimenting that Jerry had obviously been using, trying to make a statement to see if it was true. “Piano was my demon.”
True!
“I was hoping…” No, apparently she had not been hoping to resume her concert career. “It is too late for me to succeed in the career I might have had.”
True again! An alcoholic, then, with no chance for fame, for standing ovations, for the international circuit of Paris, Moscow, London.
She was weeping again. Too late! The piano demon had ruined her for motherhood, and she had wooed the alcohol demon, and that had ruined everything.
But Lacey… Lacey had as great a gift, hadn’t she? No, she didn’t. The words would not come. Lacey had a small talent only.
She had been fooling herself, then, hoping to relive in Lacey the career she had missed for herself. Oh, God! What damage would she do to Lacey trying to force her?
Jerry had been biting his lip in silence at her side. Now he said, “I have said truly that I love you, Ariadne. Do you love me?”
“I… I don’t know. It is too soon to tell. I am very attracted to you. I… admire your personality. Is that the right expression?” It sounded so feeble compared to what he had said! She smiled encouragingly, realizing suddenly how much people depended on lies, how painful was this undiluted truthfulness.
“Jerry,” she said, “it’s not because of that Smythe-Williams.”
“Not?”
“You’re not a coward, Jerry.”
“I’m not?” He looked astonished.
“Silly man!” she said. “You wouldn’t have ordered the others out over enemy territory if you’d thought that plane was going to stay in the air. How long did you fly it after that?”
“A couple of hours,” he mumbled. “Longer.”
“You are not a coward,” she repeated. “You calculate odds. You would have gone to Killer’s assistance today if Tiglath had allowed it, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes!” he said— and was obviously astonished and happy that he could say it, here in the house of the Oracle.
“So you are not a coward, and that isn’t it.”
His delight flamed in his face and then vanished. “Do you love Killer?” She cringed away from him. “I…”
“Well?”
“I don’t know how I feel about Killer.” Well, at least that came out. “He has a lot more to offer than I do,” Jerry said miserably.
She lost her temper. “If that means what I think it does, then you’re just being disgusting!” she shouted. “That does not impress me— if anything, the reverse! He would be worse than Graham. I’m not turned on by his muscles, either! Physically, I’m no more attracted to Killer than you are, Jerry Howard!” There was silence, then, as they stared at each other in astonishment, and the reflection smiled mockingly from the mirror.
True?
“Oh!” Jerry said, puzzled.
“But…” She did not understand either. “He needs a damned good spanking,” she said. “Yet he seems to hypnotize me. He has the same charisma— charm— that Graham had. If he calls me to his bed, I’ll go ”
“True!”
Oh, hell! What had she said?
Jerry took her hand and smiled sympathetically. “I know. Maybe when he’s finished with both of us, we’ll have each other?”
“Maybe!” Always Killer! She still did not know whether she wanted to stay.
She did want to stay. But her duty as a mother…
“Pilots who desert their crews…” she said. “What about mothers who desert their children?” Jerry started to stammer and finally managed to blurt out, “If you go back, Carlo will kill you.” True?
“What?” she said.
Jerry looked triumphant. He turned to her reflection. “She saved Killer! Doesn’t Mera owe her something? Tell her!”
The reflection sighed and nodded. “Very well. I’ll bend my rules for a special case.
“Carlo is better known as Hassan Aref,” it said. “He is a terrorist, highly trained and gruesomely successful, an expert on remote detonating devices. He is not usually for hire, but two of his companions are in jail. Gillis has agreed to defend them if your car returns safely from your trip— and you do not.” She gasped. Graham! Jerry swore under his breath.
“It is cheaper than alimony,” the reflection remarked acidly. “You are a nuisance and an embarrassment to him. You stopped twice on your journey to eat; they could have had you arrested on a kidnapping charge, right? They did not. The presence of two men at the cottage was a surprise, but they were going to take the others, the possible witnesses, to a motel. Then Carlo would have returned “Three bodies in a burned-out cabin in North Dakota would not have readily been related to the solitary Mrs. Gillis who had disappeared in Col-orado. It would have been an even better solution than the unmarked grave which he was planning earlier.”
“See?” Jerry shouted. “If you go back you will not know this. You will stop somewhere for the night, and they will get you! It’s obvious!”
True!
The Oracle interrupted. “It is also obvious, Jerry Howard, that his future may be even more despicable than his past. Had he returned later, he would have been mistaken for a demon by Killer, who was armed with a submachine gun. The world would have been rid of Hassan Aref, or Carlo Vespucci— and that was the main purpose of your mission!” Jerry gaped and blushed. “And instead Killer and I took him in… That was how the demons rallied so quickly?”
“Is he a demon?” Ariadne asked.
“He carried a big one,” the Oracle replied. “And Gillis’ was reaching a fair size. That was why they survived Asterios’ arrival in the cabin— they were his already. But it took a great deal of daemon to materialize the Minotaur today, and Asterios had to suck the daemon out of all of you to do it. Of course, if they return Outside, they may get reinfected.”
“If?” she echoed.
“Do not concern yourself with their decision. It does not affect you.” She still could not decide.
“Advise me, then, if you are so clever!” she snapped at the mirror. She wondered if the Oracle could lose its temper.