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... Walking, quickly, through the mists. Blue, blue, blue. Blue flowers, like the heads of serpents. A more exotic perfume in the air. Blue moon above, blue vines across the shallow stairs.
Up into the garden ...
Blue insects swarmed about him, and as he gestured to brush them away he saw his hand.
Something is wrong, he decided. Whenever I come to this place I am whole again.
He advanced into the garden and felt a subtle change, though there was no specific thing to which he could attribute it.
He cast his eyes upward, but there was only the motionless 'noon.
He listened, but there were no birdsongs.
The mists snaked about his ankles. The first glittering stone, when he came upon it, still cast its prisms. The butterflies, though, were missing. Instead, it was partly covered by a webwork within which dozens of fat blue caterpillars hung suspended, turning, contracting into U's and straightening again, slowly. Beneath knobbed horns, their faceted eyes blazed like sapphire chips. As he watched, they all contrived to turn in his direction and raise their heads.
He did not look upon the other stones as he passed them, but pressed forward with increasing distress, seeking a certain high stand of shrubbery.
When he located it, he hurried in that direction; and as always, the light faded at his approach. He saw then the summerhouse.
It stood as he had never seen it before. Shaded, peaceful, cool, it had always been. Now, however, each stone was clearly delineated, burning with a cold blue light. Inside, there was absolute blackness.
He halted. He succumbed to a chill that gave way to a shudder.
What is it that is wrong? he asked himself. It has never been this way before. Could she be angry with me? Why? Perhaps I should not enter. Perhaps I should wait here until it is time to go back. Or perhaps I should return immediately. There is an electrical quality to the air. Like just before a storm ...
He stood there, watching, waiting. Nothing occurred within the stillness.
The tingling sensation increased. The back of his neck began to throb, then his hands and feet.
He decided to depart, discovered that he could not move.
The throbbing spread throughout his entire body.
He felt an urge to move forward. It was not a desire, but a compulsion. Throbbing, he moved ahead once more.
When he entered, his feelings were not as they had been on prior occasions in the place. This time he hoped that he would not even glimpse a smile, a fluttering eyelid, an earlobe, a strand of hair, the sheen of blue moonbeams upon a restless forearm or shoulder. This time he was afraid to see anything of her. This time, he hoped she was not present.
He moved to the stone bench that ran along the wall, seated himself upon it.
"_Dra_ Heidel von Hymack," came the words, and they made him want to rise and flee, but he could not move. They were more sibilant than usual, and their breath came cold upon his cheek. He kept his face averted.
"Why do you not turn and look at me, _Dra_ von Hymack? You have always desired this in the past."
He said nothing. She was the same--yet different. Everything had been altered.
"_Dra_ von Hymack, you do not turn and you do not answer me. What is the matter?"
"Lady--"
"Then be unchivalrous. it is enough that you have come home, at last."
"I do not understand."
"You have finally done the correct thing. Now the stars have turned in their courses and the seas have come unchained."
It is a lovely voice, he decided. More so than before. It was the sudden alteration that startled me. The garden is prettier too.
"You have noticed the changes and you approve. That is good. Tell me what you think of your new strength."
"I like it. Men are worthless and they deserve to die. If my power were greater, more of them would."
"Oh, it shall be! Believe me. Soon you will be able to emanate spores that will slay across hundreds of kilometers. And there will come a day when you will need but set foot upon a world to kill everything which dwells there."
"it is only the people that I care about. It was they who hurt me. It is man who is unthinking and brutal. The other races, the other life forms--they do not disturb me."
"Ah, but if you would serve me fully--as you have chosen to do--then all of life is become your enemy."
"I would not go that far, Lady. For it was not all of life that attacked me."
"But to reach the guilty, you must strike among the innocent as well. It is the only way."
"I can avoid the non-human worlds."
"Very well. For a time, perhaps. Are you still happiest of all when you are here, with me?"
"Yes, Myra-o--"
"Do not barbarize my name. Speak it as it should be spoken--A rym-o-myra--when it must be spoken at all."
"Lady, I apologize. I had thought it otherwise."
"Cease thinking. Simply do as I tell you."
"Of course."
"With your new power, which grows in you by the day, you have the best of both worlds. it is only while you are here that your sleeping body does not bear all the marks of your power. it snores quietly in that little shell you use to cross between the worlds. When you awaken there, you will bear greater strengths and deeper marks than any you have thus far known."
"Why is this? I can recall when it was the other way about."
"It is because you have chosen to act as a man no more, but as a god, that godlike strengths have been granted you."
"I had thought that you might cleanse me for a time, for I discover that I grow increasingly ugly."
She laughed.
"You? Ugly? By all the Names, you are the most beautiful creature that lives. Turn now and fall upon your knees. Adore me. I shall require sexual worship of you, and then I shall confirm you as my servant forever."
He turned and finally beheld her face. Then he fell upon his knees and lowered his head.
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When he awakened, Malacar gave himself a genuine injection he had had ready, a tranquilizer. The first one he had taken had been distilled water. He did not allow himself to look at the globe during this time.
Then he rose to administer similar medication to the still unconscious Morwin. He hesitated, however.
_Why is he still out, Shind?_
_The full strength of the death-dream came upon him in conjunction with his using his shaping power. It seems to have given it more force_.
_In that case, I am going to give him a sedative and put him to bed_.
It was only after this was done that he returned to the laboratory and considered the globe.
He felt prickly sensations in unlikely places.
God! That's it! he decided. That is exactly what I saw! I never realized he was that good! He actually succeeded in stuffing a nightmare inside that globe. It is perfect. Too perfect, in fact. I did not want a work of art. That is what it is, though, when you see it like this--fully conscious. I think he does make small alterations ... I will never know, for certain. --All I had wanted was a nasty, striking item to ship to the High Command in SEL--from Malacar, with love--to let them know I am on to their latest--to warn them. I wanted to tell them, by this, what I am going to try to do to their whole bloody CL. I will fail, of course, but I grow older and there is no successor in sight. When I do try that big one, it will be all over. They will be frightened of the DYNAB again, for a time. Perhaps during that time another Malacar will come along. That is what I will be praying when I carry the bomb into their E-Room. I almost hate to give them the globe, though. Too bad Morwin went over. He isn't a bad sort. Those globes of his... Globes ... What the hell!
He searched the laboratory. Not locating what he sought, he tried the monitor, checking all the rooms in the citadel.
_All right, Shind. Where are you hiding?_
No response.
_I know you have some sort of mind-lock on me. I want you to release it_.