'It's all right, Mary. I'm not. Good luck - like I said.' Roffrey was actually smiling.
A new image swam into focus - O'Hara gesticulating.
'I don't know what's happened to the woman and I don't care. Get your attention back to the Game, or it's lost!'
She turned, and the horrifying impressions came back, but it was as if they were pressed through a filter which took away their effect on her mind.
Carefully, she searched her being. She felt Asquiol beside her, felt the warmth of his encouragement. She lashed back, with deliberate and savage fury, searching out weaknesses, using them, splitting the alien minds to shreds. Asquiol guided her - she could feel it. Talfryn, Willow and Adam supplied power and extra impressions which she took and warped and sent out.
More of the Gamblers were dropping out and attendants were kept busy clearing them from the chamber. There were only five complete teams left.
But it was victory. Mary and Asquiol could feel it as they worked together - oblivious of everything else - to defeat the aliens. They felt at that moment as if they knew everything about their opponents, to such an extent that they were even in danger of giving up out of sympathy.
They fought on, riding a tide of conquest. Soon the entire alien complement was finished. They retreated back and stared around them.
'Asquiol - what happened?'
Asquiol and Mary saw Willow looking up at them. They smiled at her and said:
'This was the Originators' plan, Willow. They obviously did not allow sufficiently for human weakness - but they did not count on the strength of the human spirit, perhaps. Please don't suffer, Willow. You have done more today for humanity than you could ever have done for any single person.'
They turned to regard the others.
'You too, Roffrey - and you, Talfryn. Without you It is unlikely that we could have defeated the alien intelligences. Everything has suddenly become a clear pattern. There was, perhaps, a purpose for Willow and Talfryn when they stayed behind. There was a purpose, also, for Roffrey when he took it into his head to visit the Shifter. We nearly threw away our chance.
'What exactly has happened?' Lord Mordan interrupted. 'Have you become one entity or what?'
'No.' Asquiol spoke with a slight effort. 'It is simply that, existing on the multiversal level, we are capable of linking minds to forma more powerful single unity. That was how we finally defeated our opponents.
'Obviously this was part of the Originators' plan. But they never do anything for us directly. At best, they merely put certain aids in our path. If we can make use of them - assuming we realise what they are - so much to the good. If we can't, we suffer. We were near complete defeat there. If we had not got some hint of Mary's abilities when we did, the plan would have come to nothing. As it was, we were lucky.'
Mary said: 'I must have been watched by the Originators right from the start - even before I met you.'
Asquiol continued: 'The Originators make things especially difficult for people they think are… material for the new, multiversal race. Simply, only the fittest survive.'
Lord Mordan said obsequiously, yet hastily: 'But the aliens. Can we not discover what our peace terms are? We must hurry… the farm-ships…'
'Of course,' Asquiol nodded. 'Mary and I will return to my ship and contact them from there.'
Mary and Asquiol moved towards the exit, gave one last glance at the three others, and left.
'What the hell have you got to smile about, Roffrey?' Talfryn said accusingly.
Roffrey felt at peace. Maybe it was the mood induced by weariness, but he didn't think so. There was no more pain in him, no more jealousy, no more hatred. He moved over to the big blank screen and stared up at it. The place suddenly brightened as assistants switched on the central lights and began clearing up the mess the Gamblers had left…
'I give up.' Talfryn shook his head, perplexed.
'That's the trouble,' Willow said. 'So many of us do, don't we?'
EPILOGUE
Asquiol of Pompeii took Mary the Maze back to his ship. They felt more at ease there, since the ship bore similarities to their own metabolic state.
Here, with Asquiol acting again as a guide for Mary, they pooled their resources together and contemplated the radiant multiverse around them.
Then they put out a tendril of multiversal thought-matter along the familiar layers, seeking the alien minds.
Then they were in contact!
When the alien leaders came to the ship, Mary gasped and said in normal speech: 'God! They're beautiful.'
They were beautiful, with delicate bones and translucent skins, great, golden eyes and graceful movements. Yet there was a look of depravity about them, of ultimate decadence. Like depraved, wise children.
'The Originators warned me to beware of races they called pessimists,' Asquiol said, 'races who had despaired of ever attaining full awareness of the multiverse, who had so completely lost the urge to transcend their limitations that the tiny core of being had, over millennia, been almost completely eroded. Doubtless these are of that kind.'
By use of their unique method, they once again conversed with the aliens and were astonished by the mood of total defeat, unquestioning acceptance of the winners' rights to dictate any terms they wished.
They had lost their urge to transcend physical confines and in so doing had lost pride - real pride, also.
Absolute defeat - lost spirit - utter hopelessness - concede all rights you wish to take…
This mood was sufficient to add almost the last pressure on the victors' already weary minds. A great pity welled up in them as they communicated their terms to the conquered.
Accept terms - any terms acceptable - we have no status - you have all status - we are nothing but your tools to use…
So conditioned were the aliens to the code applying to the Game they had played for centuries, perhaps millennia, that they could let this unknown opponent do as it liked. They were conditioned to obeying the victor. They could not question the victor's right. Their shame was so intense that they threatened to die of it - yet there was no trace of bitterness, no trace of resentment or lingering pride…
Asquiol and Mary resolved to help them, if they could.
The aliens left.
Would they ever see them again? As the spherical ship moved away, they sent out a polite impression that congratulated them on their ingenuity and courage, but it met with no response. They were beaten - no praise could alter that. They gave them positions of planets suitable for human occupation - they were totally unsuited for themselves, anyway - and then they fled.
They did not go to nurse grudges, for they had none. They did not plot retaliation, for such a thing was inconceivable. They went to hide - to reappear only if their conquerors demanded it.
They were a strange people whose artificial code had obviously completely superseded natural instincts.
As the alien ship disappeared, Asquiol and Mary broke their contact with the leaders.
'I'd better inform Mordan. He'll be delighted, anyway.' Asquiol operated the laser. He told the Gee-lord of his meeting.
'I'll start the fleet moving towards some habitable planets right away. Give me an hour.' Lord Mordan smiled tiredly. 'We did it, Prince Asquiol. I must admit I was close to accepting defeat.'
'We all were,' Asquiol smiled. 'How are the other three?'
'They've gone back to Roffrey's ship. I think they're okay. Roffrey and the girl seem quite happy, strangely. Do you want me to keep tabs on them?'
'No.' Asquiol shook his head, and as he did so the light broke and reformed around it, the images scattering and merging. Asquiol stared at Mordan's weary face for a moment. The Gee-lord shifted uncomfortably beneath the fixed stare.