"I don't understand." She looked at him, puzzled. "Earl, what are you saying? We were to be married. You know I wanted to be with you. You know that I love you."
"Like hell you do!"
She cried out as his knife flashed, cut, the material of her blouse falling apart to reveal high, full breasts held and molded by delicate fabric. He cut again and drew the severed band from around her waist. A thin belt, barely an inch wide. Metal showed at the cut ends.
"A signal beacon." Dumarest threw it to one side. "You knew help would be coming. That's why you insisted on waiting. But you're a bad actress, Iduna. You can't pretend what you don't feel. And you can't mask what you do feel. That's what made me certain."
Her recoiling when he had touched her, her expression when he had described their future, the deliberate crudity and detailed anticipation.
"And Chaque?"
"He was an animal," she snapped. "He wanted to use me."
"And you suffered him. You had no choice. Why, Iduna? Did the Cyclan promise to heal your brother? Was Jalch that important to you?"
"He was insane! A fool!"
A man who, incredibly, had been right, but Dumarest didn't mention that. Nor the kiss she had given him, the proof that she sometimes could act.
"What then?" he urged. "To give you the body of a man?" He caught the betraying flicker of her eyes. "So that was it. To rid you of the female flesh you wear. The body you hate. A pity, you could be beautiful."
"Beautiful!" She almost spat, her face ugly, distorted by anger. "A thing to be used by men for their own, selfish pleasure. God, why was I born a woman? I can do anything a man can do, and do it better than most. Yet because I have this-" her hands touched her naked body, "I am considered to be an amusing novelty. A toy. Can you guess what it is like to hate what you are? I would do anything, anything to be a man."
She was insane, he realized, like her brother obsessed. Yet, where he had been proven right she was demonstrably wrong. Her conviction of inferiority was a product of the paranoia which had turned her into a sexual cripple.
He said, cruelly, "Are you so sure they can deliver what they promised?"
"What?" Iduna glanced to where the cyber stood, tall, impassive, the acolyte watchful at his side. "They must! They will!"
"Why should they? Yon heard what Hsi said about Leon, the boy was expendable. And, now, so are you. You've done your job, guided him to me. From now on, you are unnecessary."
His voice was a hammer beating at the weak fabric of her mind, feeding the paranoia she shared with Jalch.
"Can't you see they have used you? Promised more than they can deliver? Played on your weakness? You will never be a man, Iduna. The life you hoped for is a dream."
"No!"
"Tell her, Hsi. Be honest. A cyber has no need to lie. You can't do what she wants and you know it. Tell her!"
Hsi said, evenly, "The thing can be done given time. You know that."
"Time?" Iduna faced him, taking a step forward, madness in her eyes. An animal poised and tense, ready to spring, to tear and kill. "You lied," she said thickly. "Damn you-you lied!"
"Ega!"
The acolyte fired as she sprang, the beam of the laser hitting her between the eyes, searing a hole through skin, flesh and bone into the brain beneath. One shot and then the acolyte was falling too, equally dead, the hilt of Dumarest's thrown knife a red-rimmed protrusion in the socket of an eye.
"Earl! No!"
Dumarest ignored Usdon's shout. As the blade left his hand he sprang, hand lifted, stiffened, falling to slam against the cyber's temple. As the man slumped he tore at the wide sleeves of the robe, ripped free the laser he had known would be there.
"You've killed him!" Vestaler stared his horror, shocked by the sudden death which had entered the chamber. "The valley!"
"He isn't dead. Now fetch Odo and hurry!"
* * * * *
His stirred, sitting upright on the table on which he had fallen. The blow had barely stunned, and he felt no pain from the bruised flesh. For a moment he remained silent, looking at the two dead figures, at Dumarest now alone in the chamber.
"That was unnecessary," he said. "You would not have been harmed."
"No?"
"Your life is important to us, as you must know."
"My life, yes," admitted Dumarest. "But your definition of harm and mine are not the same. You could have burned my legs, my arms. Because my brain would remain undamaged, to you there would have been no harm. My brain and the knowledge it contains."
"Knowledge we must have. It is ours, stolen from the Cyclan. The affinity twin was developed in our laboratory."
"Old history," said Dumarest. "Possession, now, is all that counts. I have it and you do not. That makes me the master."
"A fool. Give us the correct sequence of the fifteen units and you will be rewarded. That I promise."
"Money, a place in which to live, luxury, good food, men to obey me, security-for how long? No, Hsi. We both know that I remain alive only because you need me. Once you have the secret, I will follow others. Derai," said Dumarest bitterly. "Kalin, Lallia-I have reason to hate the Cyclan."
Hate, an emotion unknown to the cyber as were all others. Love, fear, pity, greed, ambition, hope-all things which weakened lesser men.
"Mistakes have been made," admitted Hsi. "You were an unknown factor incorrectly assessed. Those who failed have paid the penalty. But I shall not fail. I have you and you cannot escape."
"No?"
"You cannot kill me, your concern for the inhabitants of this valley prevents you. You cannot escape- my raft will respond only to my personal control. You could cripple me, but what will that serve? No, Dumarest, for you this is the end. The very people you protect will hold you prisoner in order to save their lives. Logic, surely, dictates that you accept the inevitable."
The summation of known facts which, to the cyber, led to only one conclusion. Dumarest would not kill, he could not run, he could only wait. Soon now he would be held in a secret laboratory, his brain probed, the essential sequence of the units discovered.
"Logic," said Dumarest. "The cold calculations of a mechanical mind. Well, perhaps you are right. We shall see."
He moved down the chamber, turning, fumbling beneath his tunic, fingers busy at his belt. When he turned, he held something in his hand. A small metal tube, the walls thick, strong.
"The affinity twin," he said. "You wanted it-yon may have it."
"The sequence-"
"Is something else." Dumarest raised his voice. "Odo?"
He stumbled as he entered the chamber, Vestaler at his side, Usdon at his rear. Catching his balance to stand, he was drooling, eyes blank as he looked at the dead.
"Odo want," he mumbled. "Give Odo something nice."
Dried fruits which he stuffed into his mouth to stand chewing, spittle dribbling over his chin. Vestaler was uneasy.
"Earl, what do you intend to do? If you kill the cyber, we shall all die. If you do not-"
"He could have lied," said Usdon. "Did he?"
"No."
"Then, if he dies, we shall all be destroyed?"
"Yes."
"So it is in your interest that I be kept alive," said Hsi evenly. "More, that I be obeyed. Dumarest must be held fast, firmly bound and guarded. You will do that. He will be placed in my raft, together with men to watch him." He rose from where he sat at the end of the table. "I shall leave immediately."
Usdon glanced at Vestaler. "Master?"
"We have no choice," said Vestaler bitterly. "I am sorry, Earl, but we have to do as the cyber says."