The suggestion was ridiculous. «You mean, like the Pegman and his songs?» said Karina sarcastically.
«Don’t laugh about the Pegman’s songs. They’re important too, and in the distant future they’ll be a part of the Song of Earth. All of human history will be told in songs like the Pegman’s.»
«How do you know this? Can you see into the future?»
«No, of course not. No normal human can. But the Dedo — my mistress — can foretell the Ifalong. It’s no coincidence I’m here. Your accident was foreseen.»
A thread of fear ran down Karina’s spine. «You mean you could have prevented it?»
«No doubt I could, and on certain happentracks I did.» Cold eyes looked down at the cat-girl. «Just as on certain happentracks you will live, and on others you will die.»
«H … happentracks? Like sailway tracks?»
«Different possibilities all existing at the same time.»
«Oh.» The rumbling was closer. Karina had a vision of her crushed body lying in the wake of a speeding sailcar. Her arm would be swinging limply. «I … I can hear a sailcar coming. Can’t you do something?»
«That depends on you, Karina.»
«For God’s sake, what do you want?»
«Your word.»
One leg would be lying on the ground below, severed. «You have it!» cried Karina.
«Karina, we live in a difficult year. It is a year of unpredictable, whirling happentracks. The Dedo foresees this as the year when her great Purpose could come to nothing. You alone can ensure that the Purpose will be fulfilled.»
«How? Just tell me, and I’ll do it!»
«You must do several things. At intervals before the end of the year you’ll be faced with difficult decisions. It is essential to the Purpose that you take the right step every time.»
«How will I know?»
«I’ll be there to guide you. It won’t be easy for you, though.»
«I’ll do it!» shouted Karina frantically.
«Give me your solemn word, Karina.»
Karina composed herself and uttered the most sacred words a Specialist can utter; more sacred even than the Kikihuahua Examples.
«I, Karina, swear by the bones of Mordecai N. Whirst that I will obey the commands of this True Human.… Until the end of the year,” she added quickly. «Now, get me out of this!»
And suddenly, just for a moment, the woman was transformed and the humanity shone through. «You poor child — I’m so sorry.» She placed a hand gently on Karina’s leg. «Just keep still, will you.» And she reached inside her robe and took out a smooth, dark stone. It was shot with red flecks and totally ordinary in appearance; and she held Karina’s leg straight, so that the bones were set.
Karina concentrated on the Little Friends, and felt nothing.
The woman drew the stone down Karina’s leg like a cold caress, and said, «You can move it, now.»
«That’s it?» Karina flexed her leg and was astonished to find the break appeared to be mended. Cautiously she withdrew the Little Friends and they retreated into the recesses of her body, their work done. There was no pain. It was as though the wound had never been. Now, with her new strength and the handmaiden’s help, she was able to twist her foot free of the crutch. The skin was broken and it bled slightly. «Can you use the stone again?» she asked.
«No. Your foot must bleed for a while to remind you not to do a stupid thing like this again. You’re precious to the world, Karina.»
Karina asked, «What’s the Purpose you talked about?»
«You can’t know the details. If you did, you could destroy it. You are that important, Karina. But as for the overall Purpose, it is directed towards ending the imprisonment of the greatest person the Earth has ever known: Starquin, the Almighty Five‑in-One.»
«Oh, just another religion.» Karina was disappointed.
They swung to the ground. Karina took a deep breath and looked around. Everything looked fresh and new. For a moment something the woman had said touched her mind, and she wondered if she had stepped into a brand-new happentrack, leaving her old self dying on the sailway.…
«I feel so good ,” she said happily.
«How do you like your world, Karina?»
«I like it fine. I like the sun and the ocean, and the cars’ sails against the trees, and the mountains.… And the felino camp, and,” her face glowed suddenly with anticipation, «the Tortuga Festival, and all the fun.»
«Have you ever thought there was anything else? Haven’t you ever wondered what might be outside all that?»
«Well, the fishermen tell of queer folk who live on rafts of weed out in the sea.… And the mountain people talk about monsters in the jungle.…»
«No, I mean really outside. Outside this little space and time. Imagine this, Karina. Imagine a million worlds spinning in space, some with people just like us, some with people who don’t know what evil means, some with people so evil that folk are scared even to give their planet a name — and all of those people human. And imagine other creatures too, not human, with different customs.…»
«Like the kikihuahuas, you mean?»
«Yes, and more besides.»
«It’s all in the Examples.» Karina was suddenly impatient. A whole world was waiting for her. Maybe a narrow world by this queer woman’s standards, but a world full of fun and excitement all the same.
«All right, I won’t keep you. Just remember, Karina. Every so often, I want you to look up at the stars and to think of the Greataway, which is all the dimensions of Time and Space — which Mankind used to travel through, thirty thousand years ago before he lost the will and the ability. The Greataway will be rediscovered, and you may play your part. Always remember Starquin, and your promise.»
And the warmth faded from the woman’s voice, and her expression faded too; her face became hard and the Mark of Agni showed again in mottled, livid scars.
«What’s your name?» asked Karina. «You didn’t tell me.»
The handmaiden didn’t reply.
«Who is the Dedo?»
«She is the flesh of Starquin — a part of his body in human form.»
«Wait! You haven’t —”
But the Dedo’s handmaiden was gone, gliding away into the night. For a moment Karina stood there, shaken by the transformation; it was as though she’d been talking to two different women. Her mood of exaltation faded and she shivered, and suddenly the night was cold and the stars hard and threatening, bright terrible little eyes. The Greataway.…
So Karina summoned the Little Friends without quite realizing it; and this time they entered her mind and soothed her. She began to walk north towards the distant black mound of Camelback, the wooded hill where the ambush was to take place. Above her, the sailway track was silent. The approaching car had stopped.
The man who wanted to change the past
The Pegman — Enriques de Jaia’a, called Enri — was indulging in a curious private ritual. Balanced precariously on the guiderail some six meters from the ground, he was flapping his single arm like a bird and uttering screeches. There was no logical reason for him to do this. The idea had occurred to him a few moments ago, so he had stopped the sailcar, climbed onto the rail, and surrendered himself to irrationality.
«Har! Har! Har!» he shouted, and the cry was borne by the winds across the coastal plain and into the foothills and the forest where the howler monkeys, hearing a faint strange sound, paused and looked up.
But the world didn’t change.
Enri climbed down, kicked his toe against the side of the sailcar fourteen times, took off the brake, picked up the ropes and pulled in the boom. The Estrella del Oeste began to move, jerkily. Enri grimaced, squeezing up his eyes and sucking his teeth, and began to think of the Tigre grupo — the name which people gave the headstrong sisterhood consisting of Karina, Runa, Teressa and, what was the name of the quiet one? Saba.