"And the mighty Konnel thanked him loudly, and they shook hands and parted as friends…"
– from the tales of Atheron the Storyteller
Bredon glanced up at the western sky as they flew, and realized with a shock that the sun was still high overhead. Geste had found him early that same light; they had crossed the prairie and the mountains in less than half a light!
As he lowered his gaze to the ground again something glittered in the distance. He stared, but could not make out any details.
The Trickster appeared to be casually watching the scenery flicker past beneath their feet, not particularly involved with anything, and Bredon found the courage to ask, “What's that?"
Geste looked up and followed Bredon's pointing finger. He squinted, then said, “Give me some magnification."
The air in front of him wavered, like the air above a blacksmith's forge, for an instant. From Bredon's point of view, when the waver vanished it left a discontinuity, as if a little bit of reality had been tucked away out of sight.
It hurt his eyes to look at it; he turned away, looking back at the glitter.
Whatever it was, it was approaching them quickly. He still could not tell what it was, but he could see a shining silver shape growing steadily larger.
“What in hell…” Geste began.
“Warning,” a voice said from somewhere just above Bredon's left ear. He spun around, almost losing his balance, and found a gleaming something hanging in mid-air, centimeters away.
“Warning,” it repeated. “Approaching drone is equipped for heavy assault, and does not respond to attempts at communication."
“We've got the fields up full, don't we?” Geste demanded, glancing up at his floater.
“The standard ones, yes, sir, of course we do. However, the approaching drone is of unknown origin and capabilities."
“It is?"
“Yes, sir."
“What the hell is it doing here?"
“I don't know, sir."
“Can it really hurt us?"
“I don't know, sir."
“Damn!"
Then the glittering thing was on top of them, and for a moment Bredon's world vanished in a blazing fury of light and noise. The platform beneath his feet trembled slightly as impossibly bright colors blinded him and a deafening roar shook his bones.
“Whoa,” Geste said as the light and sound died away. “That's serious, isn't it?"
Bredon blinked, clearing spots from his eyes, and turned to see the glittering thing-it was shaped something like a fish, he noticed-to the east, its path curving back around to make another pass at the platform.
“Have we got any weapons with us, any way to shoot back?” Geste asked.
“No, sir,” the floater replied. “I wasn't aware that any might be called for."
“Neither was I,” the Trickster said ruefully, watching the drone complete its turn and head back toward him. “Drop us down out of its line of attack, would you?"
“Yes, sir,” the floater said. Immediately, the mountains rose up around them, though Bredon could not feel any sensation of sinking or falling. They were still speeding forward, as well, so that the sunlit trees and rocks were now flashing past on all sides, rather than merely below them.
The drone swept overhead, but already it was turning to follow and starting to descend.
“Who sent that thing?” Geste demanded.
“I don't know, sir. I'm restricted to on-board systems while maintaining full defensive fields, and I have no data at all on it."
“Whoever it is, he must be crazy, shooting at me like that!"
“I would have to agree with that assessment, sir. Unfortunately, as you know, insanity is common among immortals."
“It is?” Bredon squeaked, startled. The idea of an insane Power was new and frightening, somehow more frightening than the thing that had just attacked them.
Geste and the floater ignored him. “How is it tracking us?” Geste asked.
“I can't be sure, sir,” the floater said, “but it appears to be using wide-spectrum scanning."
“Can you hide from it? Take us out of the visible and damp down our emissions?"
“I can try, sir.” The air wavered, this time not merely in a small area in front of the Trickster, but all around the platform. Bredon watched with terrified interest.
Then the light faded, though the sun was still high in the sky; the entire world dimmed as if layers of smoked glass were being dropped around them in quick succession, until they were hanging, seemingly motionless, in near-total darkness. Bredon could see Geste as a faint outline in the gloom, black on black, so he knew that the darkness was not absolute, but the floater and the platform beneath his feet were completely invisible, and blackness surrounded him.
“Take us down to treetop level-lower, if possible,” Geste ordered. “Then take evasive action and head for the High Castle as fast as you can."
“Yes, sir."
To Bredon it seemed as if nothing changed. He and Geste stood silent in the darkness for a long moment, tension sharp in the air between them. Bredon could smell his own sweat-but not, he noticed, Geste's. He supposed that Powers did not do anything as ordinary as perspire.
“I believe we have successfully eluded the drone,” the floater's voice said at last.
“Where are we, relative to the Castle?"
“Approaching rapidly from the northeast, down a narrow canyon; current distance, twenty-five kilometers."
“Good-but take us up and loop around. I want to approach the Castle from the southeast, directly uphill, where we can get a good view."
“Yes, sir,” the floater acknowledged.
“When we get within a direct line-of-sight, if there still isn't any sign of that attack drone, open a window."
“Yes, sir."
The utter darkness made Bredon uneasy, particularly since he knew that the sun was still in the sky; some part of him refused to accept the absence of light. Since the immediate crisis seemed to be past, he ventured a question, hoping to reestablish some sort of contact with reality. “What's going on? What was that thing?"
“I wish I knew!” Geste answered. “Somebody was shooting at us, but I don't know who it was, or why."
“Was it another Power?"
“I suppose it must be; we'd have been notified if anyone came in from off-planet.” He paused, struck by a sudden thought. “At least, we'd have been notified if they didn't take out our ship first,” he said. Addressing the floater, he ordered, “Put a call through to Mother."
Bredon was startled; surely, Geste had no mother! He was a Power, eternal and ageless.
“I'll have to put a narrow-band hole through the field,” the floater cautioned.
“Do it,” Geste said. “If anything shoots at us, close it again, but for now I want to talk to Mother."
“Mother ship acknowledges,” the floater replied, almost immediately.
Mother ship, Bredon asked himself, what did that mean? And where was the hole? He saw no light; near-total darkness still surrounded them.
“Is there anything out there?” Geste asked. “I mean, anything artificial in the system that we didn't put there?"
“No, sir, the mother ship has detected no activity indicative of sentience anywhere in the system other than the planetary surface for over a century."
This baffled Bredon completely; he had no idea what system Geste was referring to, and did not recognize the words “sentience” and “planetary."
“Then it has to be one of us.” Geste's words were neither statement or question, but somewhere between. Bredon accepted it as a statement. He could not imagine how there could be any doubt; what but a Power could openly attack a Power thus? Demons, perhaps?