Robot Adept Read online

  “Aye. So what we said, and what we did—it were merely words and deeds, n’er the truth. Canst accept that?”

  “Agape made herself look and sound exactly like you,” he said. “She knew you, because she had used your body. I—there are devices of circuitry I can use, in my own body—”

  “And so I came to thee again, in her body. And thou didst come to me, in his, e’en as now. Mayhap we best think no more on that.”

  He nodded. They knew the situation, and knew it had changed. “But I wish I could always be with you.” He hugged her, and kissed her.

  “Thou mayst be with me more than thou dost like,” she said with a certain impish malice. “Mine heat be nigh upon me. I can stave it off somewhat with herbs, but wish that not. I would breed with thee—”

  “Uh-oh.” He had tried to satisfy her insatiable breeding lust, the last time, and had had to use magic to do it. Sex was ordinarily a game with her, a game she played with increasing aptitude and delight, but when she came in heat it was savagely serious.

  “In all my forms,” she concluded.

  “What?”

  “The Red Adept looked in the Book of Magic, and learned how we could be fertile. There be spells, methinks, but also needs must we breed in mine human, equine and avian aspects.”

  “But I cannot—!”

  “Thou must change form,” she said. “The Book will tell thee how.”

  “It better!” he muttered. “And I’ll need a new perpetual potency spell.”

  “Why, Mach,” she said with disarming innocence. “Be I not attractive to thee?”

  “You’re an infernal nuisance to me!” he exclaimed, wrestling her into position for an explosive love-making while she giggled.

  Then they talked, lying embraced, and caught each other up on the recent events of their frames. Fleta was pleased to learn that “she” had won two more games in the Tourney, but disappointed with the concluding loss. “But I will coach thee so thou dost not lose thine own tourney,” she swore.

  In the morning, Translucent appeared. Trool conducted him and Mach to his study, where the great Book of Magic lay.

  “But—” Mach protested, out of sorts.

  “First we shall teach you the magic of form-changing,” Trool said. “Be not concerned; thou willst be ready for the filly.”

  “That, too,” Mach said. “But—I am the son of Citizen Blue, and my sympathy is with his side. I only went with the Translucent Adept because he gave us sanctuary for our love. I agreed to serve their side for information from Proton. I never expected actually to fight for the Adverse Adepts.”

  “This do we understand,” Trool said. “But this matter be beyond such preferences. An the matter not be settled, the frames be in peril. Any settlement be better than none. The need be for fairness in coming to a compromise. Thou dost represent not thine own view, but an instrument in a settlement that can no longer be denied.”

  “But how can I do my best for a side with which I disagree? I mean, psychologically I will want to lose.”

  “Bane had need to hide his identity,” Trool said. “He did what was needful to keep that secret. Didst thou face a similar challenge in Proton?”

  “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.”

  Mach’s understanding was growing. “You don’t want to solve one problem and create another,” he said. “Maybe a worse one.”

  “Aye. Therefore we ask thee to use this power only for the purposes we seek. Thy service is to make the settlement. Thy reward is to have successful breeding with Fleta. Seek no more than these, and there be no problem.”

  Mach’s awareness seemed to be spinning. “But what of the issue between Adepts? If Bane and I cooperate to link the frames for one side or the other, won’t that generate a similar power?”

  “Mayhap. But that be limited by the narrow conduit through which it must pass. We deem that the lesser evil.”

  Mach sighed. “I hope you are right!”

  Then they went to work, explaining to him the nature of the relevant spells in the Book, and how to invoke them. They were of all types, not limited to the mode of any single Adept; he had no need to speak or sing them, or to draw them, or use any other particular mode. He could implement them any way he chose; all modes were one, in this amazing Book. Many were complex; without the help of the two Adepts, he would have taken much longer to assimilate their significance and application, let alone master them.

  In minutes he understood that the power of magic in these pages was greater than any he had guessed at. In hours he saw that in those minutes he had vastly underestimated the case. By the end of the first day, his awareness of the nature of the universe had changed fundamentally. Reality had assumed a new dimension.

  By the end of the second day, he was able to perform magic consistently of the level of the Adepts, and to counter spells made by either Trool or Translucent.

  On the third day he went beyond. He learned a spell to invoke his robot information storage capacity in his human frame, so that he could instantly memorize spells without understanding them. That meant that he could ponder them at leisure, without using the Book. He learned other spells to enhance his comprehension and applications, so that he could make far better use of magic than any ordinary person could.

  On the fourth day he studied organization and discipline, so that he grasped precisely what magic was appropriate when, and understood without having to reason it out when minor or no magic would do the job as well as a major invocation could. Now, with the most minor spell, he could accomplish what might require the full magic of an Adept. This magnified his power in another way.

  On the fifth day he studied the philosophy and responsibility of magic. This was a necessary concurrent to the power he had developed.

  He was truly becoming the Robot Adept.

  Fleta came into heat. The first time he had encountered this, she had demanded copulation several times an hour for several days and nights, until her animal nature had completed that aspect of the cycle. Had any of the efforts taken, her heat would have abated sooner, but his human body had been unable to fertilize her equine nature. She had remained in human form, but that was superficial; man was genetically incompatible with unicorn.

  This time he invoked magic that in effect translated the language of his seed to the language of her egg, enabling them to communicate and merge. Even so, they differed, much as a man differed from a unicorn despite their ability to converse with each other. Only a part of the union could occur while she was an imitation human woman. But another part could occur in her natural form, while he was an imitation unicorn, and the completion could be accomplished when both were in avian form. Trool had seen that, without possessing the magic to enable it. Mach now possessed the magic.

  He mated with her in human form, and it was a deeply gratifying act, because it was for love and procreation and pleasure. Then he applied a spell to himself that gave him continual potency, but allowed no actual seed to be expelled, because that was needed for the next stage. Because she was not yet bred, her ardor continued; he sated her lust continually through the day and night, his pleasure more of accomplishment than of sexual fulfillment. They snatched bites of food and gulps of water in the few minutes’ respite between sieges, so as not to suffer deterioration of health.

  After the full day/night cycle, they left their bedroom chamber and went to a private garden. He made a spell to transform himself to the form of a unicorn stallion. She reverted to her natural form. Now the odor of her need smote him, and he found he required no instruction to do what was necessary. In a moment he had expended the seed of the past day, and invoked another seed-conservation spell.

  They snatched mouthfuls of hay that Suchevane had thoughtfully provided, between bouts of mating. They drank from the water of a clear fountain. Mach would have enjoyed the experience of being a unicorn, had he not been kept so busy with the breeding. As it was, the matter became somewhat tedious. He had to use subsidiary magic to abate the soreness that was developing. How did a Herd stallion manage?

  He discovered that he could speak to her in horn talk. His horn sounded like a bassoon, and was actually quite versatile. But more than that, his spell
of formchanging had included the whole of the unicorn anatomy and potential, including knowledge of the language of their music. Suddenly he appreciated an enormously significant aspect of unicorn-nature and culture. It was true that horn talk was relatively limited, compared to human language, because unicorns had more limited interests; indeed, when they had complex matters to discuss, they tended to shift to human form and use the human language, which was competent to handle it. But for most purposes, horn talk was adequate, and it could also be understood by the werewolves and vampires. He resolved to spend more time in this form, after the business of the moment was done, when he could appreciate it for itself.

  As their day and night of equine breeding came to its end, they played a duet, bassoon and panpipes. Actually it had three or four parts, because of Fleta’s ability to play her own counterpoint. Then she changed to her hummingbird form, and he matched her, becoming a male hummingbird.

  They mated, and expended his past day’s production of seed. Then they flew to the garden and sipped the nectar of the flowers. This, too was a pleasure—but in just a few minutes, because of the swift metabolism of the form, they had to mate again.

  But after a few matings, the intensity of her desire eased, and the spacing stretched out. Then her interest faded out. Her period of heat was over.

  They changed back to human form. “I worry,” she said. “Mine heat be normally longer than this.”

  “Maybe it was cut short because the breeding was successful,” he said.

  “O, how I do hope so!” she exclaimed, hugging him.

  They were naked, and in love—but at the moment had no temptation at all to make love. Instead they retreated to their chamber and fell into weary sleep.

  They would not know whether the effort had been successful until the time of her next heat. If it manifested normally, it would mean that this one had not taken. He might have ascertained her status sooner by magic, but he did not want to interfere in any way, lest that same magic destroy what it had achieved. He wanted nature to take its course, now.

  It was time to go into training for the contest with his other self. Mach received a “visit” from Bane, confirming that the separate Citizens of Proton had agreed to the mode of settlement, and that they had decreed that it should be done by Tourney rules. They wanted to make it two out of three rounds, with three games per round, so that chance would not play too significant a part.