“He will become something glorious,” Dr. Dismas was saying. “Something wonderful, if he is allowed. What he is now—that’s nothing. A few silly tricks.”
Enobarbus said, “He is already a fearsome weapon,” baring his strong white teeth. The warlord held his ruined face at a proud angle. His mane was a tawny cascade tied back over one broad shoulder. He said, “Without their machines, the armies ranged against us have no protection against our own machines and we can move our troops without detection. The long stalemate is over at last. We are grateful, Dismas. You must know that. You have this fine palace, these servants, these riches. You have your laboratories and your experiments. I do not approve of what you do, of course. I think it cruel, perhaps even mad. But you are free to do it.”
“He is a larva at the moment, no more. Let him grow. Let him shed his present form and achieve his full potential. He will sweep all before him. He will be terrible, mighty… You cannot imagine it. Sometimes I think that even I cannot imagine it. Give him the metals, the rare earths…”
“No, I think not. But what else do you need? If it is in my power I will grant it at once. After all, you have delivered a prize beyond compare. Perhaps more experimental subjects,” Enobarbus said. “I do not think your experiments are going as well as you would like.”
Dr. Dismas lit a cigarette. “You surround me with spies, with men and women who pretend to be here to help me but who are, in plain truth, the wardens of this prison. It is amazing that I have done any work at all. The few creatures I have created are botched, it’s true, but they are a beginning. I need more time and I cannot have it while fighting your war for you. Let the boy complete his transformation. He will become something that will amaze us all.”
“I do not need to be amazed. I need to rely on those who fight for me. I must have this, Dismas. I must have control.”
“You could have a sudden end to this long war. I offer you victory, complete and unqualified.”
“But not, perhaps, on my terms.”
“My paramour and its associates fight for the same cause as you, my dear Enobarbus. They are your allies, but they are not yours to command. The same applies to me. I am not subject to the orders of your officers, and I wish they would not interfere with my work. I hide nothing from them, yet they act as if I do.”
“You should stop pretending to be human, Dismas. You should acknowledge your true nature. People will not trust you as long as you pretend to be what you are not.”
Dr. Dismas said sulkily, “We are both creatures of forces greater than ourselves. You fear my paramour because it is so much more powerful than the aspect of the dead woman which you worship. Look at what I have done, at his bidding. Look at how well the war goes. If not for the boy—”
“He has helped. I will not deny it. But we were winning anyway, Dismas. Besides, the war is not important. We did not start it, and we reluctantly entered into it only to save ourselves. The truth which Angel brought to the world is more important than the war.”
“Because of this so-called truth you will have no troops, by and by. The newly changed will fight at first, to be sure, but soon enough they are consumed by this precious individuality of yours. They lose interest in everything but themselves.”
“Many still fight,” Enobarbus said softly. His deep voice was like the rumble of a great cat.
“Oh, when anyone can choose anything then of course some choose to fight. But not as many as you would like, eh? And as you progress upriver there are fewer and fewer unchanged bloodlines for you to recruit.”
“It is not the war that is important,” Enobarbus said stubbornly, “but the truth we have to bring to everyone on Confluence. We had begun to spread it long before the war began. Everyone will recognize it once the mindless worship of the dead past is overthrown.”
“You speak of truths,” Dr. Dismas said. “She blinds you to the truth.”
“She revealed herself to me seventeen years ago,” Enobarbus said. “I have followed her ever since. Perhaps you would like more books, Dismas. There are whole libraries at your disposal, if only you would show more cooperation.”
“My paramour was once one of the masters of this world. Many of its kind were destroyed and the rest are scattered, yet they remember more than is written in all the books in all the libraries of the world. Books are nothing. Angel should not have destroyed the remaining avatars. That was the first mistake, but it was made a long time ago and there is nothing to be done about it. The second mistake is to keep the boy as he is. Let him grow. I admit that he once tried to destroy her, but he was not mine then. Now I can control him, whatever he becomes, because he is my son.”
Enobarbus said, slowly and gravely, “The avatars tried to destroy her. She had no choice but to fight back. Besides, she merely finished what was begun long ago. Most of the avatars were destroyed in the Age of Insurrection, by the things you claim as friends.”
Dr. Dismas snapped up from his habitual stoop like a startled click-beetle, his yellow eyes gleaming in his sharp-featured face. He exclaimed grandly, “But why are we arguing, when we both desire the same thing!”
Enobarbus said, “I have no desire to argue, Dismas. As you say, we are on the same side. But you cannot do as you will. The boy and the thing you grow inside him are powerful, and because they are powerful, they are dangerous. Already they have accomplished much, and I see no need for them to grow more powerful. They must be contained.”
“A simple solution of certain rare earths. I delivered the formula days and days ago.”
“They are already powerful enough, Doctor. Do as you will with your experimental subjects, but do no more to the boy or to the thing inside him.”
“We fight side by side against the same enemy,” Dr. Dismas said angrily. “Once that enemy is defeated, will you still try and tell me what to do?”
He turned and strode off through the trees, followed by his servants. Enobarbus gestured to his physician and said, “We must decide how this problem can be resolved, Agnitus.”
The gray-maned physician said, “His metabolism is not unusual, my lord. It is a simple matter—”
Enobarbus shook his great maned head. “Not here,” he said. “Remember that the boy controls machines.”
“You were listening,” Dr. Dismas said in Yama’s ear.
The sunny glade vanished. Dr. Dismas was looking down at him. Sweat was sprinkled on the apothecary’s forehead, islands of droplets scattered amongst the plaques of his disease. He said, “I saw the machine. You had it fly high up, so that it would be lost in the glare of the sun, but I saw it all the same.” Fondness softened his voice. “How sly. How sweet. Awake, Yamamanama! Awake, my sly, sweet boy! You have been the agent of another glorious victory in this ridiculous war! Awake!”
Three servants lifted Yama from the bed and carried him to the canopied chair, arranging his paralyzed body amongst its cushions.
Dr. Dismas said, “Don’t worry about Enobarbus. He is nothing, mere noise. We’ll have no more need for him soon enough. I have plans…” He turned away from Yama and raised his voice. “But I will not talk of that, surrounded as I am by spies!”
Yama said, “Are you speaking to me, Doctor, or to the thing inside me?”
“I soon won’t need to make a distinction. Men like to think that their minds are separate from their bodies. It is central to the creed of the heretics, for otherwise they could not contemplate attempting to live forever. You make the same mistake, Yamamanama, but I’ll soon show you just how wrong you are.”
“After the city of Aeolis was burned, some of its citizens blamed me. They set me on a funeral pyre and would have burnt me to death, but I was rescued by termites which sucked my would-be executioners into the ground. I thought that I had somehow called upon the termites to help me, but I know now that it was the Shadow, the thing you put inside me. It was saving itself. When I fell to the ground it tried to eat as many termites as it could find. The termites were partly machine, and it wanted the metals in their bodies to feed its growth.”