"What's happening to Avalon's weather is this. The sun is hotter, and the corona is way hotter, and it's reaching farther into space. It's heating Avalon's outer atmosphere. The atmosphere expands. That sets up jet streams going west, and turbulence pockets too. The Avalon ecology is trying to cope with the hurricanes, increased ultraviolet and some higher-energy radiation. Not everything has evolved to survive that. Some of what the Chakas have been finding just breed like mad and then die—"
He caught Trish's eye on him, pretended he hadn't, but she could see his belly flatten as he stretched to play with the cursor. Edgar was looking good. She grinned, waited... he glanced her way, and she casually crushed her plastic cup, flexing her arm muscles. He stuttered, just for a moment.
She tried to catch him as he made his way out of the meeting hall. He was surrounded. Everyone wanted to talk to Edgar Sikes.
This was a drag. Even if Edgar was loving it. Trish thought it over, then went to Little Chaka and borrowed his code and key.
When Edgar got back to the Sikes house, Trish was in the bedroom, cross-legged on the waterbed. She turned off Disney's Aladdin as he came in.
He smiled, showing no surprise. "Are we granting wishes tonight?"
"There's always a catch, remember?" Trish stood as if levitating. She looked around and smiled. "You've been working."
He said, "Maybe a little," but it was pretty clear he had been doing a lot of work on the room that had once belonged to Joe and Linda. The big ornate bed Carlos had given them was gone, replaced by a classic waterbed. Linda's pictures were gone from the walls as her clothes were gone from the closet. The adjoining room had been Cadzie's nursery. Now it was filled with computers and workbenches. The open door to the bathroom showed that it too had undergone a transformation. The small living room was nearly empty, with some weights and rolled mats stowed along one wall.
The surprise was that except for the computer room everything was neat and clean. Was that for me? "I like it," Trish said. "You're looking pretty good yourself, Soft One. Drop your shoes. Let's do some sun salutations."
He followed her into the living room and took the Tree position, "attention" in military parlance.
In five minutes he was gasping. She made him slow down, stop to breathe when he needed to. He studied her stance and tried to correct her.
"Hold that pushup pose. Your ass comes up more, your spine exactly level. Now go down with your elbows back along your ribs."
"You can't do that."
"Hell no. But I can stand on my head," he said.
"Without a wall?"
His teaching amused her at first. Then she began to understand that he actually knew more than she did. Edgar was a fast learner.
He'd learned some self-control. When she'd first started coming here, he'd have leaped at her within seconds of getting her into a room with a bed. Now—He was antsy at first, but then, she hadn't been around for a week. She felt curiosity and anticipation. Edgar remained eager to please, and it was flattering to think she was probably the only human in the universe who could get Edgar's undivided attention even for a few minutes.
He was smirking at her upside down.
Edgar had a father. Trish could nearly imagine bonding to one human being, or two; never needing to guess the thoughts of a townful of people, each of them in control of a child's life. One human being, all-knowing at first, later his teacher, later nearly his equal. Now his father was dead, stripped to the bone, murderer unknown.
Had he loved Linda too? More likely worshipped her.
The First knew of his betrayal, and many would not forgive; and Edgar lived and worked among the First in Camelot.
Trish had wondered if he would survive at all.
Edgar's breath became uneven. He came out of the headstand slowly, one leg horizontal; toes touched the floor; he knelt.
Trish rolled out of her headstand. "That must have been two minutes.
Soft One, I'm impressed."
"Don't come down so fast. One leg straight out, then the other, then touch down. We done? Want some coffee?" Edgar asked.
"You've got coffee?"
He smiled.
"Later." She rolled to her feet and had her shoulder in his midsection before he could quite decide to evade. She stood up with Edgar over her shoulder. He was laughing. She rolled him, still laughing, onto the bed. "Now I'll show you why it's a good idea to warm up first. Get your heart pumping, your blood flowing. Soft One, do you really want to get on top?" She rolled them both. "Just one wish. Just one at a time."
Later she followed him into the electronics room and watched as he ground fresh coffee beans. "Smells different," she said.
"Darker roast," Edgar said. "Different beans, too, these are from higher up the mountain."
"Interesting. Who got them for you?" Under the omni-oven was a small terminal. The screen caught the corner of her eye.
Edgar's grin faded as he said, "Couple of Carolyn's kids. You know, the First were treating me like dog meat for a while. But Cassandra isn't nearly as, as agile without me plugged in, and they're starting to realize it. It wasn't me that whacked Carolyn—"
"It was me." RUTHFIX, said the top of the screen. Trish couldn't read the smaller print below, but there wasn't much.
"Ah? Anyway, with Dad gone they've got some interest in keeping me happy. Even if they don't trust me." Edgar poured boiling water into a glass cylinder, pushed a metallic filter grill steadily down from the top to strain out the grounds, and poured two cups of coffee.
She smiled faintly as, both naked, they sat down at the breakfast table. His cleaning project hadn't got this far. There wasn't a square centimeter of horizontal surface showing. Trish perched her cup on a stack of printout. "They'll have to trust you now, what with this expedition. For that matter so will we."
"We?"
"The expedition. Aaron."
"Oh. Of course you'll be going. Aayeee!"
"I'll be back once in a while. Or you could come with us—"
"No, that doesn't work," Edgar said. "Even with getting in better shape I wouldn't be much use camping out. Better I stay here and watch out for you."
"We'll have a base. Let us get set up, then come over." She grinned. Aaron will hate that. He doesn't like me having so much control over our wizard. But it's more than that, there's some real bad blood between those two. He just plain doesn't want Edgar happy. She let her grin spread into something else, a sultry smile copied from an old movie she'd seen. It had turned Robert Redford on, and it was having the same effect on Edgar.
"Who all's going?"
She kept her eyes fixed on his as she shook her head. "Not entirely sure. Aaron, of course. He'll be in charge. Me."
"Why you?"
"It's where the action will be," Trish said.
"Action. You mean power games."
She shrugged.
"War specs," Edgar said suddenly. "You won't have anything to hide from the First this trip—right?"
"I'd say so," Trish said cautiously. "Aaron might have something. So?"
"So you can give up binoculars and go back to using war specs. Get me over there and I'll maintain the links with Cassandra."
"There you go." Trish said. She stretched elaborately, as she did before she made love, and made sure Edgar saw her doing it. Now she was sure she had his full attention. She moved closer to him. "What's your interest in Ruth Moskowitz?"
Blindsided, it took him a moment to remember the terminal. He said, "Something Linda... no, never mind that. Have you noticed what Aaron's doing to Ruth?"