“Thou hast practiced deception,” Trool said. “That were a violation of thy truce.”
“I think not,” Bane said. “I be on thy side; I made no deal with Translucent. Mach still honors that.”
“Thou art on my side, agreed,” Trool said. “Therefore to me falls responsibility for this abridgement o’ the truce.”
“But they be abridging it also, by setting a trap for me!” Bane protested.
“Aye.” Trool walked in a circle, pondering. “I had thought not Translucent would do that.”
“Translucent agreed only to let Tania test me,” Bane said. “I think he be not part o’ this scheme.”
“If I may comment?” Suchevane said cautiously.
“Always,” Trool told her, not bothering to conceal the delight he had in her presence.
“Methinks it best to know exactly where the guilt lies,” she said. “An Bane go into the trap, and spring it, then mayhap those behind it will be revealed. Then will we know who keeps the truce, and who does not.”
“Aye,” the troll said. “Then can I deal with those who kept it, to make it right.”
To Bane it seemed that this was quibbling over a technicality. But Trool was vital to the cause, so he said nothing. He would have to face Tania. The others assumed that he could withstand her, because his love for Agape was true; how could he tell them otherwise?
“Now will I research on breeding,” Trool said. He shuffled from the chamber.
“He will be a while,” Suchevane said. “Come, eat, rest; I will see to the amenities meantime.”
She did so, and their comfort was complete. They no longer had to maintain the pretense of being lovers.
But Bane’s gloom continued. Not only was he uncertain about his emotion, he was now in doubt about his integrity. He and his father had worked out the masquerade, to spy on the plotting of the Adverse Adepts. This had seemed justified—but it was evident that the Red Adept did not consider it so. The more Bane mulled it over, the more it seemed to him that he had allowed his standard of integrity to be governed by that of his enemy, and the less he liked it. Yet had he not spied, they would not have known about the enemy’s marshaling of forces for physical action, or about the plot against him personally. Could it be right to hold to a standard that ensured defeat?
Tormented by the ethical riddle, he went to see Trool. The troll was deep in the Book of Magic, doing the research he had promised. “If I may…”
The troll looked up. “It be possible for dissimilar species to breed, but not easy,” he said. “I be on the details now.”
“That be gratifying, but that were not my concern.”
Trool merely looked at him.
“I came to apologize for putting thee in an awkward position,” Bane said. “I thought what I did to be right, but now I fear it be not. I would make amend, an I knew how.”
Trool nodded. “I be of a species with a little concept o’ right,” he said. “It fell to me to make up for wrongs done by my kind. I did it only by dedicating my life to the right I perceived. Do thou that likewise, and thou hast no further apology to make.”
“I know not whether I can,” Bane said.
Trool closed the book. “The mare?”
“I know not whom I love,” Bane said. “It were Mach who swore the triple Thee to Fleta; I ne’er did to Agape. Not in Phaze, where the splash—”
“The mare loves thee not,” Trool said.
“Aye. She be true to her own. But I—what o’ me?”
“Love be not a thing I understand,” Trool said. “It be yet too new to me. Still, I suspect that love unreturned cannot be true, and must needs be based on other than it seems.”
“But I must face Tania, who will strike at my emotion,” Bane said despairingly. “An my love for Agape not be true, I be vulnerable! Mine inconstancy can doom me—and our side.”
Trool nodded. “I tell thee again, I be no expert in this realm. I thought no woman would care to associate with me, and least of all the loveliest. But it be in my mind that thy doubt of heart be not normal. I met Agape, and if there be one who be the match o’ Fleta, it surely be she.”
“Aye, Agape be more alien than Fleta, and a fine person, and I do love her. I feel great guilt at this doubt, that I know should not exist.”
“Exactly. Do thou allow me then to test thee for a geas.”
“A geas? I have no geas!”
The troll rose and fetched an amulet from a crowded collection on a shelf. “Do thou hold this a moment.”
Bane took it. The small carved charm resembled a wooden flower, intricately carved. But as he held it, it glowed.
“There it be,” Trool said. “There be a geas on thee.”
“But I be near-Adept! How can there be magic on me, and I not know it?”
Trool took back the charm. “I think thou dost know it.”
“A love-geas!” Bane exclaimed. “Only partially effective, because of my own power, but insidious! Enough to—”
“The Adverse Adepts have set a trap for thee when thou dost return to Phaze. Could they not have prepared it before?”
“And when it worked not well enough, they set a worse one!” Bane said. “When I exchanged before, with Agape—”
“Whom they thought would be Fleta,” Trool finished.
“I thought her Fleta!” Bane said. “At first. Then did I learn she was not.”
“So the impact of the spell was blunted, leaving thee with a partial passion of Fleta that thou didst not recognize. But the geas remained there, drawing thee toward her.”
“And mayhap I devised this masquerade, that I might—”
“A geas can be insidious.”
Bane nodded, immensely relieved. “Canst banish it?”
“Aye.” Trool brought another finely Grafted amulet; the troll had a real talent for carving. This one resembled a wooden heart. “Invoke it as thou willst.”
Bane took it. “I invoke thee!”
The amulet flashed brightly. The light encompassed him, and drew in to him, centering on his heart.
“Wouldst take Fleta to bed?” Trool asked.
“Aye, an it be required.”
“Dost love her?”
Bane smiled. “As a person, aye. As a lover, nay. I respect her and cherish her, but I would not seek her to wife.”
“And Agape?”
“I seek her to wife.”
“Then the geas be abated,” Trool said. “Thou canst now face Tania.”
“Aye!” Bane said with his first real confidence. “Ah, Adept, I thank thee! What a burden thou has lifted from mine heart!”
“I do it because it be right to do,” the troll said. “But it pleases me that it also assures the welfare of the one who helped me gain mine own love.”
“But that she must hide aboard her own planet, to escape the Contrary Citizens,” Bane said, sobering.
“Until an accommodation be achieved. Mayhap that will come soon.”
“Soon,” Bane agreed fervently. “Ah, long I to be with her again!” Then his thought turned to another aspect. “Which Adept put that geas on me?”
“It seems to have been an elixir-spell. There be deep enchanted springs in the mountains, and if the Purple Adept had cause to oppose thee—”
“He did! And he could have had a demon or goblin deliver the elixir the moment we exchanged, and depart unseen.”
“And when they learned that Agape exchanged with thee, they thought the geas lost,” Trool said.
“So they set up for a more effective ploy. Now at last does it all make sense!”
Trool smiled. “I shall have thine other answer tomorrow.”
Bane took the hint. “I thank thee for both, Adept!” He retreated from the chamber as Trool reopened the Book of Magic.
Next day Trool presented that answer: “The mating must be done thrice, once in each of the ‘corn’s forms, when she be in heat. A spell o’ fertility must be invoked at each occasion. The forms o’ the breeders must
match. Their love must be true, and their desire for offspring true. In this manner can crossbreeding be accomplished.”
“Mine heat comes upon me in mere days!” Fleta exclaimed. “Must needs I have Mach back in time!”
“Aye, it be time to exchange back,” Bane agreed. “But I fear thou canst not achieve it on this occasion.”
“Why not?” she demanded.
“I have just learned the manner of form-changing. It be Adept-quality magic. I fear it be beyond Mach.”
“O, aye,” Fleta agreed, crushed.
“But mayhap in time can he master it,” Suchevane put in.
“In time,” Fleta agreed, brightening somewhat. “Yet would I be with him for mine heat. It be the only time I truly crave what delights him always.”
“Aye,” Suchevane murmured, understanding exactly.
“But that must come only after the mock-exchange, to seem to bring me to Phaze,” Bane reminded her.
She smiled somewhat perfunctorily. “Aye; we have labored at a masquerade to deceive the Adverse Adepts! How glad I be to see the end o’ that!”
“Aye,” Bane breathed, knowing that his own relief was other than hers.
“But must needs I confess,” she continued after a moment, “that an I could, I would return to Protonframe for the Tourney.”
“The Tourney!” Bane exclaimed, amazed. “What would a unicorn do in such a thing?”
“Ah, what indeed!” she agreed, sighing. “Yet have I a foolish longing for the thrill I found in that contest, so like the Unilympic yet so different too. At first I liked Proton not, but as I came to know it…” She spread her hands. “Grazing the plains be just not the same, anymore.”
So she, too, had been struck by a certain illicit longing! That made Bane feel better.
Bane located Mach, coming toward the Red Demesnes, and knew that his other self was ready for the exchange. He approached a rendezvous with mixed emotions. He knew that this would spring the trap, and that the goblins would not seek to harm him or Fleta, but that when Tania appeared his love would be truly tested. The abolition of the geas had returned his emotional strength to him, and abated his gnawing guilt and doubt—but how strong was his love for Agape? He would soon know, and if it faltered even a little—
Mach had cried out the triple Thee to Fleta, and removed all doubt from all the frame of his commitment. But even in the absence of the geas, Bane feared his own love to be of lesser merit. What tragedy could befall them all, if—?
But he had to put it to this test. It was the only way to play out the masquerade, and to stop the Adverse Adepts without revealing how he had spied on them. If he prevailed, their chances against the Adverse Adepts and the Contrary Citizens would still be no better than even. If he did not, then all that his father had worked for in Phaze, and all that Citizen Blue had worked for in Proton, was in peril.
But he had to put aside such speculation. He had a lot to explain to Mach, in a very brief interval!
Bane elected to make the contact almost in sight of the red castle, so that Trool’s appearance would not be questioned, when the trap manifested. He walked to an open spot with Fleta, who was in girlform. He could feel the near approach of Mach. It was time.
He embraced Fleta. “I will return to you when I can, beloved,” he said, playing the role of Mach. Her body was as lovely as ever, and he liked her as well as ever, but the guilty tinge of sexual and possessive desire was gone; she was only his animal friend, as she had always been.
“Take care of thyself, Mach,” she replied. Then, with an impish smile: “And be not distracted by alien creatures.”
He had to laugh. That was the least of his worries! “You remain here, while I exchange,” he told her, disengaging. “We don’t want another four-way crossover!”
“Or to find ourselves in the wrong lover’s arms.” She was being very pointed. He nodded, and turned, and walked about fifty feet, coming to the spot where Mach waited. Then he slowed, as if not quite sure of the exact spot, and passed through it without stopping.
Mach! he thought as they intersected. Exchange not yet. There be a trap for me here I needs must spring. Then he was out of phase.
He turned, as if reorienting, and walked back into Mach. Understood, Mach replied. I will wait.
Bane stopped just beyond intersection, spread his arms as if in discovery, and put a dazed expression on his face. He blinked, and began to lose his balance. Then he looked up, as if reorienting on the landscape of Phaze after being in a chamber of Proton. He opened his mouth.
Tania appeared immediately before him. “Bane,” she said. Then she hit him with her power.
The effect was emotional rather than physical, but it was potent. Suddenly she seemed to glow, to become the ultimate and eternal woman, perfect of form and feature, phenomenally desirable. Her tan tresses shone with a golden luster, and her tan eyes bore on his magnetically. It was as if the entire frame were dissolving, becoming unreal; the only reality was here.
And she was beautiful. He could not deny that, objectively. She was not creating the illusion of appeal where none existed, she was enhancing a formidable base. Her face had seemed relatively plain, but her body was excellent, and now that her expression was animated, even her face was good. But that was merely physical. He had seen her destroy the little bird; he had seen her cruelty. He knew she was no prize.
More important, he was not vulnerable. His love was not uncertain or compromised. “Agape,” he murmured. And saw the faint splash.
The ripple spread outward, almost invisible. But when it passed Tania, she screamed. She knew in that moment that she had lost, and that the trap had been for nothing. She had tried to exert her power on a man whose love was true.
The Translucent Adept appeared, floating in his watery bubble. “What be this?” he demanded, staring at Tania.
“That wench tried to fascinate me,” Bane said. “Be this the way thou does honor the truce?”
“I had no part in this!” Translucent cried angrily. “I knew of it not, nor was it mine intent.” There was another faint splash as he spoke, vindicating him. “The wench was to test only Mach’s identity, lest there be deceit; thereafter she was to have no part of this.”
The Red Adept appeared. “There was deceit on both sides,” he said. “The Adverse Adepts set goblins to track the couple, to capture Agape, and to bring Tania to catch Bane. This be the proof o’ that.”
“Then be mine oath compromised,” Translucent said grimly.
“But it were Bane who went last to thy Demesnes, and spied on thee,” Trool continued. “Thus be mine own oath compromised, by the dealing of mine associates. I learned o’ this late.”
Translucent gazed at him. “Dost proffer offsetting injuries?”
“Aye.”
“Accepted. Let us have no more o’ this.”
“No more o’ this,” Trool agreed. “Needs must we fashion an end to this standoff, that the issue be decided fairly and openly.”
“Aye. But how?”
“The Tourney!” Fleta called.
Both Adepts glanced at her in surprise. “What dost thou know o’ that, mare?” Translucent asked.
“It be the fairest way in Proton to settle an issue,” she said stoutly. “First be the Grid played, wherein be strategy, but none may know ahead what game can come o’ it, then be the game played, and the victor be determined by skill or luck or agreement as may be, but none may know ahead for sure who will prevail. Settle the issue with a tourney!”
“But this be Phaze,” Translucent protested. “There be no tourney here.”
“There be contests,” Fleta said. “The Unilympics, the Werelympics—”
“Animal shows,” the Adept said disparagingly. “But in any event, this be a matter between frames, not to be settled by a contest in one. And we can not have a contest between frames.”
“We could,” Tania said, speaking for the first time since her failure.
Translucent turned on her
a look of irritation. “Be thankful I banish thee not to the depth of the sea, wench!” he snapped. “I’ll have no input from thee!”
“I cheated too,” Fleta said. “I knew I was with Bane, not Mach, in thy Demesnes. I be guilty as she.”
“Then let her speak,” Trool said, intrigued. “There be only two who can communicate between frames,” Tania said. “Or maybe four, but only two on their own. One sides with us, the other with Stile’s forces. They be alternate selves, inherently even. Let them vie with each other, one in each frame. Let the loser join the side o’ the victor.”
Translucent looked at Trool, who looked equally amazed.
“And let their loves assist them,” Fleta said.
Trool spoke to Bane. “Dost thou concur?”
“I be not apt at the game,” Bane said.
“But thy potential be Mach’s, in his body,” Fleta said. “And his be thine, in thy body. An we exclude not magic from the games, with Mach a duffer there—”
“Training,” Translucent said. “Go to experts of Proton for training. They will do their honest best.”
“Better yet,” Trool said. “Go to the Oracle.”
Now Bane was stunned. The legendary Oracle! The magical entity that had guided his father’s career in Phaze. The Oracle knew everything—and it was now in Proton, in the guise of a computer, guiding Blue’s dominance of that frame. If he could not prevail with the Oracle’s help, he could not do so at all. “Aye.”
“But the equivalent in Phaze be the Book of Magic,” Translucent said. “And that be not in our power.”
“An Bane be trained by the Oracle,” Trool said, “I will lend thee the Book of Magic, for the training o’ Mach only.”
This time it was the Translucent Adept who was stunned. “That be the mainstay o’ thy power!”
“Aye. Canst make oath to abuse it not?”
Translucent considered, and there was a faint shimmer about him. “Nay. Canst give me access to it in thy Demesnes?”
Now Trool the Troll considered, and the shimmer was about him. “Aye,” he said at last.