“Yes, but—”
“Didst find thyself unable?”
“No, but—”
“Canst not do what be needful to effect settlement?”
Mach hesitated. Did he have a double standard?
“Where lies thine honor?” Translucent asked.
Honor. To do his very best for the job he agreed to do, regardless of his personal sacrifice. He found that his internal conflict, when viewed that way, disappeared.
“I can do it,” he said. “But I should think that you would question—”
“Mayhap some do,” Translucent said. “I have put my trust in thee. An thou dost betray it, I be lost in more than my cause.”
“I suppose I must be like a paid mercenary,” Mach said. “I must do the job I am committed to do. My private feelings have no bearing.”
Both the others nodded affirmatively.
“Still—”
“Methinks thou shouldst consult with the Blue Demesnes, and be satisfied on this,” Translucent said. “I will conjure thee there.”
“But—”
Then Mach was standing outside the neat blue castle that was evidently the residence of Bane’s father. This was the first time he had seen it.
The Translucent Adept had conjured him here. The man had extraordinary confidence!
Yet perhaps it made sense. Translucent had asked him about honor. If he was going to betray the agreement he had made, this was the person with whom he would do it: his father’s other self. It was better to settle this private matter now.
“Halooo!” he called.
In a moment a woman came to the bridge at the moat. She was a lovely creature in blue that he knew immediately was Bane’s mother. “Why Bane,” she said, surprised. “Back again, without thine alien friend?”
“I am Mach—”
She gazed at him, taking stock. “Then where be Fleta?”
“She is at the Red Demesnes. I—the Translucent Adept conjured me here, to talk with Stile.”
“He be not here at the moment,” she said. “But come in, Mach; I will talk with thee.”
Agape had visited here, and not seen Stile. Where was the man? But perhaps the Lady would do.
“Thank you.” He walked across the drawbridge.
The Lady’s hair was fair, and her eyes blue. She was of course of a different generation, and her age showed as he saw her close, but she remained as lovely in her way as his own mother, who was literally ageless.
The Lady turned and escorted him into the central courtyard. There were flowers and a number of animals, evidently ill or injured, recuperating. The Blue Demesnes, he knew, had always been close to animals.
“I love an animal,” he said abruptly.
She took a seat at a table in the shade, beside a pleasant pool, and gestured him to the other seat. “We say naught here against Fleta.”
“But you want an heir.”
“Aye, Mach. We lose ground slowly to the Adverse Adepts, who would o’erturn what we have done, and make o’ this frame a kingdom o’ their own. We hoped Bane would hold them at bay, and his child after him. Without that, we will surely be defeated, and it matter little whether it be now or in the future.”
“But I mean to find a way to breed with Fleta, and for Bane to—”
“An thou dost breed with the unicorn, thou has not a human being for a child, but an animal crossbreed. That be not sufficient, for the animals have not the talent for magic that the human beings do.”
“But Bane also might breed with Agape—”
“And have an alien child, confined to Proton-frame,” she said. “Mach, think not we oppose thy happiness, or Bane’s! Nor would we hurt Fleta—or Agape—for anything. We be merely aware of the loss entailed. Where be thy happiness an the frame be ruined?”
“You know that I have agreed to represent the Adverse Adepts, because they support my union with Fleta,” Mach said. “Where are you if power is achieved by those Adepts now?”
“Stile be working on that,” she said. “That be why we see him not here.”
“What would you have us do?” he asked, anguished.
She gazed at him levelly. “We would have thee return to thy frame and stay there, and find a woman there. Perhaps Agape; she be a fine creature. And Bane stay here, and marry a woman o’ Phaze.”
“How can you speak so lightly of the disruption of love?”
“Nay, I speak not lightly,” she said. “I married Blue for love, but lost that love, and came to love Stile, his other self. Then did I have to give up Stile and return to Blue, for the good o’ the frame, and to that did I accede.”
“But—”
“The Brown Adept, then a child, drew a spell at the end from the Book of Magic, reversing Stile and Blue,” she said. “Thus did Stile come here to me, when he had thought to be confined to Proton, and Blue went to Proton instead. Thus was our happiness snatched from our resignation. But I had done what I had to do, for the frame, and so had Stile. We both put the frame ahead o’ our private happiness. We expect no less o’ thee and Bane.”
Mach shook his head. “Bane may be resigned to that, but I am not. Fleta tried to facilitate your position by throwing away her life. Even if I did not love her, I would not purchase the good of the frame at such a price. The end does not justify the means.”
She looked at him, her eyes glistening, then overflowing. She put her face in her hands. “Ah, I am torn!” she cried. “There be unbearable evil on either side!”
Mach felt his own eyes going. “I must do what I must do,” he said. “I must represent the side I have chosen. Bane remains on your side; if he wins, you will have your heir.” Then he rose and left the castle, knowing there was nothing more to be said.
Beyond the moat, he called out: “Translucent! Bring me back!”
There was a wrenching, and he was back in the chamber with Translucent and Trool. “You’re right,” he said abruptly. “There is no way to settle it but this.”
Trool opened the Book of Magic. “There be this, too,” he said. “In this volume be magic such as to govern all the frame, an it be invoked. When thy mothermachine used it, she became Adept in mere hours, while others built to it all their lives. I be but a troll, unable to practice magic o’ the level o’ the human kind, with little natural talent for it. I can use only a tiny part o’ this power—yet that part makes me equivalent to other Adepts.”
He focused on Mach with a disquieting intensity. “But thou dost be human—or at least, in human form. Thy potential for magic dwarfs mine own. E’en without training or experience, thou didst conjure a boat like none crafted before, to travel in. Thou didst save thy filly from death by o’erriding the spell I put on her. That be Adept-level magic. Thou dost be untrained, but with time and training thou couldst be a full Adept; the signs be plain. That be why the Adverse Adept feared thee, and tried to capture thee, and when that failed, why Translucent took over and made a deal with thee to join them. Mayhap thy potential be but the reverse face o’ Bane’s, and he be no slouch either. But with the aid of this Book, and proper guidance, thy power can become most formidable. That be why we want thee to comprehend thine honor.”
Mach saw that the troll was quite serious, and so was Translucent. “You mean that I could become a stronger Adept than either of you?”
“Aye. Than any. No human being before has had the power o’ this Book. We must make thee strong enough to represent the side thou be on as well as can be done. But after that, thou willst remain more formidable than any other, an thou remain in Phaze. We want not to see that power abused.”
“But I must leave Phaze, when this is done,” Mach said. “Because of the imbalance. Or at least agree to equal time in Proton, so the imbalance can be limited.”
“Aye. But an thou choose not to depart, no other could make thee.”