“We were expecting you,” Clef said, joining them.
“I be glad to see thee here, our past differences done,” Tania said separately to Neysa.
“Thou didst shame me to forgiving my filly,” Neysa responded to her.
“Because I loved Bane—and Fleta,” Tania said. “Before Clef came, and fulfilled my life.”
“It was mutual,” Clef said. “Now I suspect you want my full report on the visitor.”
“Grandpa Blue has put us on alert,” Nepe said, taking over from Flach. She was better at talking, and at Proton matters. “But he needs to know more before he acts.”
“I am as yet not adept, as it were, at reading souls,” Clef said. “But there is no doubt in my mind that Lysander is a hostile agent. He appears to mean no personal ill to us, but his loyalty is to a foreign power. When that power strikes, he will support it.”
“Yes, Grandpa Blue is investigating his origin. He’ll find out who ‘Sander works for. But since the prophecy says that only the right one can save us, that won’t be enough. We have to know if he’s the one.”
“Exactly,” Clef said. “The difficulty is that Lysander doesn’t know the answer himself. That is why I mentioned the prophecy. I hoped to elicit some reaction that would clarify the matter. But there seemed to be only perplexity.”
“Exactly what is the prophecy, and what does it say?” Tania inquired. “I had not heard of it before.”
“Trool came across it in the Book of Magic,” Clef said. “He had seen it before, but it wasn’t relevant to the immediacies of prior situations, and there is so much in that book that he ignored it. But when we merged the frames, he remembered, and spoke of it to a few of us. We did not bruit it further about, not wishing to alarm others. But suddenly its relevance is manifest. The wording is simple, just two sentences: ‘When frames merge, comes a time of great trial. Only one alien to the culture and opposed can save it—an he choose.’ We interpret that to mean that an enemy will attack, and that a member of the enemy force can help us prevail, if we can convince him to do it.”
“It could be a female,” Tania pointed out.
Clef shrugged. “Yes, of course. But from offplanet, and not conversant with our ways. So we are considering Lysander, who represents an alien force. I think we dare not assume he is not the one. If other prospects appear, we must consider them too.”
“Like Alyc,” Nepe said.
“Yes,” he said. “And any other foreign agent. If we were to eliminate any one of them, we might doom ourselves. But Alyc is human, and has adapted well to the culture, so we doubt it is her. Lysander, in contrast is an extremely sophisticated android. I would like very much to know what kind of brain he has. When I piped out his soul, the part that associated with the body was ordinary, but the pan that was the brain, and therefore the mind, was as strange as I have seen. Certainly it is alien! So Lysander seems to be a far more likely candidate.”
“If he choose,” Tania said. “I might make him choose.”
“You could compel him to do our bidding, dear,” Clef said. “But that might destroy his usefulness. I suspect we will need his full understanding and cooperation, which would be another matter. Also, if his mind is truly alien, you might have difficulty exerting your magic on him.”
She nodded, appreciating the point. “Then perhaps it is better to give him reason to support our culture. Suppose he fell in love with one of our women?”
“That has been known to achieve remarkable things in the past,” Clef said with a bit of a smile.
“When my father Mach loved the unicorn filly Fleta,” Flach said, “all Phaze and Proton changed.”
“And when I loved Bane, I changed too,” Tania said. “I know the power of love, even that which be not returned! But can an alien thing love similarly?”
“Lysander is schooled to emulate human ways,” Clef said. “His reactions here were normal. Unless his core personality is unable to love, I think he should be normal in that respect also.”
“Then methinks we needs must find him a woman,” she said.
“He has a woman: Alyc,” Nepe said.
Neysa snorted.
Tania turned her great eyes on Nepe. “Thou knowest we must link him to one o’ our own.”
“I guess so,” Nepe agreed. “Maybe the enemy’s using Alyc to keep him in line.”
“I would tend to doubt that,” Clef said. “The most effective spies I should think would be those who do not know the identities of the others. That way, if one is discovered, he can not give away the presence of the others. I think the presence of two in Citizen Blue’s household must be coincidence—or, if not, their true natures must still be concealed from each other. So they would be unlikely to discuss the details of their conspiracy. However, if they did, Blue would soon know of it.”
“But while they are together, we can’t put one of our own with him,” Tania said.
“Alyc has a short attention span with men,” Nepe said. “Her romances seldom last longer than two or three weeks.”
“Even that might be too long,” Clef said. “We need time to work on him.”
“Choose a woman, and introduce her to him,” Tania said. “Then she’ll be there when he breaks from Alyc. She may even take him from Alyc.”
“Thou tookst Bane not from Agape,” Flach said, a trifle smugly. He knew that Tania had had four years to try, and hadn’t made a dent. Instead she had lost her own heart to Bane, until Clef won her with his magic music.
“Thy sires were one hell of a lot better men than Lysander,” Tania said. “Lysander I could take, an I wished.”
“You may have to, if our ploy fails,” Clef murmured. “That’s why I prevented you from using your power on him at this time. It may be needed more critically later.”
Tania made a face. “I will do what I needs must do, but I loathe the prospect. Thou be not the first I loved, but thou surely be the last.”
“So what woman?” Nepe asked. “A nice wolf bitch? Some of them are sexier than human women. Ask Flach.”
Flach took over, embarrassed. “She be always teasing me about that. I want just to mate with my Promised, Sirelmoba, an we come of age. But Nepe be right: meseen what a bitch can do with a grown man, an she chose.”
“But an she be a dog in Proton, that be no good,” Tania pointed out.
“Brown is close to the wolves,” Clef said. “She should know which ones have suitable analogues.”
“I know,” Flach said, annoyed. “I be closer than any!”
“Of course thou dost be,” Tania said. “Clef be gone from Phaze then. Who dost thou recommend?”
Now Flach was taken aback. “Actually, they be all Promised or mated, in my Pack.”
“So we might as well ask Brown,” she said.
He had to yield. “Aye.” He looked at Neysa, who had been mostly silent, as was her wont. “But mayhap my turn to move us?”
Neysa was never keen on Adept magic, but respected it in her grandchild. She nodded, knowing that his way would be both faster and less obvious.
Flach took her hand, and conjured them both to the Brown Demesnes. A given spell could work only once, but he had devised so many variants for conjuration that this was no limitation. They landed in the massive wooden castle, in a private chamber reserved for just such events. Flach knocked rhythmically against a panel, signaling their presence.
Soon a wooden golem tramped to the door. The Brown Adept could make them in the perfect image and manner of living folk, but around the castle she didn’t bother. This one was obviously inanimate, despite its activity. “Who comes?” it demanded.
“Flach and Grandam,” Flach said.
“Then follow me.” The thing about-faced and led them down the hall.
The Brown Adept awaited them in the main chamber. She was a somewhat spare woman with clipped brown hair, much the color of the wood she worked with. “Ah, Flach!” she exclaimed. “And Neysa! It be good to see thee, mare!” Neysa was now in human form, but of course Brown knew her. They had been friends for thirty years, ever since Stile had met Brown when she was ten.