«That is the essence of a certain Cosmic Truth,” said the Dedo.
«Well,” shouted Karina, shaking her fists at the ceiling, «Piss on you, Starquin!»
«If you’re hoping he will strike you with a thunderbolt, thereby proving his existence and a certain vulnerability, you are going to be disappointed,” said the Dedo. Reaching into a niche, she took out a curious instrument and pointed it at an earthenware pot. Thoughtfully, almost experimentally as though she was not used to doing this, she thumbed the button.
The pot jumped and shattered, the fragments glowed, then ran together in a small puddle of intense heat.
«It is time to reduce the possibility of error,” Leitha said.
Then she pointed the weapon at Astrud.
That scene, the frozen tableau of players, entered legend, was etched in the circuits of the Rainbow, and finally emerged in the Song of Earth as the famous couplet:
«The one-armed man, the mother and the cat-girl watched with dread,
As the devil-woman numbered them among the living dead.»
Probably the three humans, at that moment, could not quite believe what was going to happen. All three had recently witnessed violent death; but that had been perpetrated by a mere animal. Now they were watching a creature in human guise, a creature who they suspected was living on a plane above them, a greatly superior being one step short of a god.
And yet this goddess of beauty pressed the button on her little machine.
Astrud glowed briefly, and fell.
«She was mad,” said the Dedo. «It’s difficult to predict what mad people might do. However, normal humans react very much according to a pattern.»
She watched the door.
It burst open and Raoul entered, wild-eyed and breathless.
«What’s going on here?» he shouted. «Where’s my father?» Then he saw the body on the floor. «Mother!» He knelt beside her, laid a hand on her cheek, snatched it away and looked up at them. «Who did this?»
Karina said, «This woman did it with that thing she’s holding. She killed your father, too.»
There was a stricken look on Raoul’s face which changed as they watched. He rose slowly to his feet, gaze fixed on the Dedo.
«Well,” said the Dedo softly, «now I think you’ve served your purpose too, Karina.» And she pointed her weapon at the cat-girl.
«No! Not Karina!»
With a howl of rage, Raoul flung himself at the Dedo.
As she had known he would.…
She fell against the wall, brought up the weapon and pressed the button. Half a meter from Raoul’s head the wall glowed and dribbled lava. As he jerked away, she aimed at Karina again. This time Raoul threw a bottle which struck the Dedo on the shoulder, and Karina jumped aside as the floor began to glow. The Dedo recovered, but Raoul had sprung forward again, grasping her wrist. The weapon discharged a bolt of light into the ceiling, and timbers cracked and fell, smoking. Raoul, snarling like an animal, jerked at her arm and felt the bone snap as a ribbon of light slashed across the wall.
The Dedo screamed. The weapon dropped to the floor.
Raoul released his grip. The Dedo fell and began to scrabble for the gun. Even though she knew the outcome of this struggle, the instinct of self-preservation remained. Raoul stepped on the gun. As the Dedo tried to pry it from under his foot, he placed his toe squarely on the button.
The Dedo bucked once and lay still, smoking.
For a moment Raoul stood watching her, then his eyes met Karina’s and he looked away, embarrassed.
«You did that for me?» said Karina wonderingly. «You could have been killed yourself, Raoul. You don’t understand just how powerful the Dedo was.»
The Pegman uttered a shaky laugh. «So much for the Ifalong,” he said.
Karina was still watching Raoul incredulously. «But I’m a felina, Raoul.»
«So?» he muttered. «Maybe I just lost my temper. Wouldn’t you, if your mother had just been killed?»
He regarded the scene in the cottage; the two bodies on the floor, the Pegman standing white-faced, Karina watching him with a look he couldn’t understand, and the handmaiden still standing in the corner, unmoved by events.
He mumbled something, swung around and left.
They’d run out of things to say about Time and happentracks and other strangenesses, and the dead women lay on the other side of the wall. The forest was very still, and stars were fading with the first light of a new day.
«What are you going to do, Enri?» Karina asked.
«Oh.… I thought I’d stay in Palhoa for a while. Corriente has to be looked after.… When she’s feeling better, I’ll take her down to Rangua.»
Karina looked from him to the motionless handmaiden and her face was suddenly sad. «Princess Swift Current.…» she murmured, and she remembered how she’d first met this tall, silent woman, out on the sailway track beyond Rangua, when her leg was broken. It is important that you live, the handmaiden had said, and she’d healed her, and saved her life.…
She’d done it with a smooth stone.
Karina said, «Enri, I want to try something.»
She drew aside the handmaiden’s robe and there, in an inside pocket, was the stone.
Karina took it and, concentrating, thought: Little Friends, help me if you can. I don’t understand the use of this stone.
Her fingertips tingled.
Gently, she rubbed the stone over Corriente’s face. A light came into Corriente’s eyes. She twisted away and mumbled, «She told me never to do that to myself.»
Karina said, «She’s dead, Corriente.» She continued to stroke the burned face.
The Pegman sighed.
The marks of Agni were disappearing, smoothed by the healing action. The puckered scars melted away, the twisted eyelids were mended, the eyes became almond-shaped and beautiful, the brows and the hairline grew back.
The lips smiled.
Princess Swift Current was back — older, but the Pegman recognized her still, and marvelled. The Little Friends withdrew, having unblocked certain pathways in her mind.
«What.… What’s been happening?» she asked.
«Do you remember me, Corriente?» the Pegman asked. Of course, she wouldn’t. It was so long ago. So many things had happened.
She said, «Enri. I wanted you to take me away with you.»
«I didn’t know.…»
«You knew I loved you.»
And now that he had her at last, Enri lost his nerve. She was too beautiful, and he was a one-armed Pegman. He wasn’t worthy. He shrugged, admitting his past foolishness, accepting that it was now too late. He turned away.
Corriente took hold of him, swung him round and kissed him.…
For a long time Karina fidgeted nearby, examining the stone wall with embarrassed intensity. True Humans were the strangest creatures — they behaved like people in legends. At last the couple stepped apart. Karina sighed with relief. She’d feared they were going to mate, there and then, and it wouldn’t have seemed, right for her to watch. Anyone else, but not the Pegman. Needing to change the subject, she said tentatively:
«The Dedo died very … easily, didn’t you think, Enri? With all her powers.…» Her imagination had conjured up a picture of the Dedo sitting in the chair by the fire the way she’d first seen her, sitting there right now, on the other side of the wall, smiling to herself, having fooled them all.
«She knew Raoul was going to kill her. It was in the Ifalong. So there was no point in fighting it. I kind of think it was all part of her Purpose that she died.»