The Trickster remained cool. “Then let us in,” he said.
“So you can sabotage my fortress?"
“Take whatever precautions you like."
Thaddeus paused, considering, and then asked, in a far calmer tone, “You'd submit to a search and give up all your equipment?"
“Everything that's not built in, anyway. And we might want some of it back to run tests with."
“You'd have no objection to suppressor fields?"
“I'd welcome them, Thaddeus; you couldn't run a simulation under full suppression."
“How do you know that I won't just keep you all here?"
“You want our equipment and our help, and we'll leave orders for an all-out attack if we aren't out after a certain time-say, second sunrise tomorrow."
This was a bluff, of course, since Imp had sabotaged the weapons systems, but Thaddeus had no way of knowing that.
Thaddeus nodded.
“All right,” he said. “Come along, then, all of you. I'll have everything ready in, oh, three hours, and you'll be out again within thirty hours. Fair enough?"
“That's fine."
“I'll send a floater to bring you in."
“Fine."
Thaddeus smiled almost pleasantly. “I'll see you then.” His image flicked out of existence, leaving the drifting terrace lights and the fading glow in the west.
“There,” Geste said, turning to the others. “We have three hours to come up with something."
“Geste, can't you shut up? He might be listening,” Imp said.
“I'm not going,” the Skyler announced suddenly, before Geste could answer Imp's complaint. Startled, the others all turned to her.
“I'm not going,” she repeated. “It's crazy. I'm not giving up the Skyland for anybody, not Thaddeus or Aulden or you two, and I'm not going to walk into a trap, either. Three hours! He could do anything in three hours!"
“But, Skyler…” Imp began.
“You shut up!” the Skyler said, almost spitting at her in sudden rage. “You went and pulled the plug on us! We might have caught him off-guard and stopped him, but you wrecked it all! I did my share, I brought you here with all those infernal machines you rigged up, and then you ruined everything!” She turned her attention to the Trickster. “I've gone as far as I intend to, Geste. I'm sorry, I know you mean well, but I can't do any more. I'll wait here until you come out-if you come out-but that's all. I'm not coming in. If Thaddeus wins, I'm sorry, but I'll survive. It won't last forever."
“I'm sorry, too,” Geste replied. “But I understand."
For an awkward moment the three immortals stood facing each other, while Bredon sat to one side, watching uncomfortably. Then Imp turned to face Geste, pointedly giving the Skyler no further attention, and said, “All right, we have three hours-what do we do?"
“I wish I knew,” the Trickster said, as the Skyler turned and marched away in the direction of her private wing of the house. Lights and music sprang up before her.
Before Imp could snap at him, Geste added hastily, “But I'll think of something. Let's see if we can do anything useful with any of the weapons."
Imp nodded, and turned toward the house, Geste close behind.
Bredon watched them go, but stayed where he was. He knew that he could be of no use with the weapons; he simply did not know enough about the technology involved, despite his high-speed training. He sat back in his floating chair to contemplate the scenery and the situation. The gaseous lights drifted overhead, and peacocks still stalked the lawns, but the music had departed with its mistress.
Precisely three hours after the image of Thaddeus had vanished a bright red floater, egg-shaped and glowing and perhaps half a meter long, sailed up across the star-flecked black sky. It turned and skimmed over the side of the Skyland, and came whistling across the lawn toward the terrace.
Bredon was there waiting for it. The Skyler had not been seen since she stalked off the terrace and into her personal chambers. Geste and Imp were also somewhere in the house, presumably still improvising gadgetry and schemes.
“Hello!” Bredon called.
The floater ignored him. It swept in about a meter above the dark stone pavement, emitting a variety of low beeps and whistles, then turned and cruised along the perimeter of the terrace.
“Hello,” Bredon called again, waving.
The floater continued to ignore him. When it had completed a full circuit it spiralled inward from the edges, slowing steadily, until it came to a stop hovering above the center of the terrace.
Seeing that this machine would not acknowledge his existence, Bredon shrugged and called, “Skyland, tell Geste and Imp that the floater is here."
“I have already done so, sir, and they are on their way,” the Skyland replied, in a calm, imperturbable tone that struck Bredon as being a little too smug.
“Thank you,” he said, wondering what the Skyland thought of the situation. It did not seem to have the same sort of awareness and personality that Gamesmaster did, but surely, he thought, it must have an opinion.
Before he could ask anything, Imp emerged from the house, her long hair drifting about her in an uneven auburn cloud as she strode onto the terrace. She had changed her clothes, and now wore a black velvet garment that Bredon had no name for. He stared, forgetting all about the Skyland's opinions.
The fabric covered her shoulders, breasts, and belly smoothly and tightly, as if stretched into place, while leaving most of her upper body bare. From the waist down it flared out into a flowing, voluminous skirt that moved as if with a life of its own, sometimes wrapping and coiling itself about her hips and legs, other times drifting out in a cloud of cloth that seemed indistinct about the edges, as if the material were dissolving into the air.
Bredon found this garb both startling and devastatingly attractive. He stared, and forced himself to remember that he wanted Lady Sunlight, not Imp.
His body still responded in its own way, undaunted by any message from the conscious mind.
Imp did not notice. She did not look at him at all, but hurried to the floater. She reached out to pat the machine, but it shied away.
She turned and called, “Hurry up, Geste! We don't want to keep him waiting!"
Bredon wondered whether she meant Thaddeus or Aulden.
Geste appeared almost before Imp had finished her sentence, his flying platform gliding at his heels. “All right,” he said. “Let's go."
“The platform may not come,” the red egg announced in a harsh monotone. “I am to bring three humans. No other self-propelled beings or devices are permitted."
“Three?” Geste asked. “Not four?"
“Three,” the floater repeated.
Geste threw Imp a worried glance. “Maybe Thaddeus did eavesdrop, if he knows the Skyler isn't coming."
Reluctantly, Bredon suggested, “I don't think that's it. I think he didn't want me along."
“Oh,” the Trickster said, momentarily looking foolish. “Oh, of course."
Imp looked at Bredon with interest. “I think you're right. I don't think Thaddeus thinks of you as human at all. He probably sees you as Geste's pet."
Bredon grimaced. “I'm not a Power,” he acknowledged.
“Thaddeus may think Bredon's an android or some sort of Trojan horse,” Imp said, turning to Geste.
“He may indeed,” Geste agreed. “It's too bad we didn't think to make him one.” He asked the floater, “Did your master tell you which three humans you were to bring?"
“The three humans to be found on this terrace,” the machine answered.
“No further description?” Geste persisted.
“No further description,” the machine replied.
“Well, here are three humans, then. Let's go."
“Acknowledged.” Something extruded from the underside of the egg, something as red and gleaming as the egg itself. At first it was a slim cylinder, but a few centimeters above the stone pavement the cylinder stopped. Its lower end transformed into a disk, which expanded swiftly and silently.