Unicorn Point (47 page)

Now they had shifted sides together, and Fleta was glad of that; they would never have to oppose each other. They worked well together, because they now knew each other well, and their abilities were complementary. Fleta could travel readily, while Tania could handle threats. But the question remained: what of Tania? She was doomed not to have her love returned, and Fleta feared she would take a drastic mea sure: the same one Fleta had taken, when she had seen no future in her love for Mach. Fleta did not want to see this happen, but what alternative was there?
 
She knew what. She would have to share. There was a precedent for having alternate loves in the frames; Fleta’s love was Mach in Phaze, but Bane was available. Similarly, Mach was free in Proton. Tania had changed sides and done good service; she was entitled in each frame to what it of fered. Fleta just had not yet been able to bring herself to make it official.

Now they were checking on the Translucent Adept, because he had mysteriously declined to attend the ceremony of the transfer of the Book of Magic. Had there been some skul duggery between Adepts? It seemed likely, and the Adept Stile wanted to know, because he much preferred dealing with Translucent. Also, Flach remained on the undersea isle, with Sirelmoba the werebitch, and Fleta hoped to see him.
 
There seemed to be little chance of that, because they were supposed to remain unobserved, but there was always hope.
 
The Red Adept had given them an amulet that would protect them from observation by all except Adepts—but Translucent was an Adept. Certainly there would be no way to rescue Flach.

A bat appeared before Fleta’s nose. She jumped; she had not seen it approach. Then she recognized its smell. “Al!” she fluted in horn talk.

“Where be thee, 0 Aunt Fleta?” he piped in bat talk, the pitch so high she could barely hear it. “I see thee not!” Because of the amulet. She nosed forward and nudged him with her horn. With the contact, he saw her. He changed to boyform, maintaining the touch. “0 Aunt Fleta, I used my father’s spell to locate thee. He has been enchanted!”

Fleta changed to womanform so quickly that Tania barely had time to dismount. “The Red Adept enchanted?”

“Aye, mare. The Purple Adept did it. Tan, I mean. He got the Book o’ Magic, and then—”

“My brother!” Tania exclaimed. “I knew it!”

“Tell us exactly what happened,” Fleta said. “Fear not discovery; an thou maintain contact with me, naught be o’er heard.”

Alien was reassured. He slowed down enough to give a coherent report. “Purple and Tan came to the Red Demesnes as scheduled, and Stile was there with my father the Troll and my mother the Bat, and they gave o’er the Book o’ Magic.
 
Then Stile asked for my friend Flach, thy foal, and Purple said no, he had decided to keep Flach to commune ‘tween the frames instead o’ Bane and Mach, ‘cause a child be more amenable. He quoted the terms o’ the agreement, and nor Stile nor Red could gainsay him, being much disappointed.
 
Then Stile departed, and without warning Tan and Purple turned on Red and together they stunned him so that he fell in deep swoon. My mother cried out ‘gainst this treachery, but Tan stunned her too with his Evil Eye. Me they saw not, for I was peeking from hiding. Then they consulted how they would send a goblin garbed like Flach to tell Stile he escaped, but the goblin would loose a spell to take out Stile and Bane and all else in the Blue Demesnes, for they thought thee there too, that no major Adepts be able to oppose Purple’s designs.
 
But I knew thou wast elsewhere, and came to warn thee o’ this treachery!”

“But why?” Fleta asked, appalled. “The Adverse Adepts have already won! What need for this?”

“I can guess,” Tania said darkly. “Nor Purple nor my brother e’er trusted Translucent; they wanted to take power from him. They must have taken him out first, then struck at the rest, so they can rule; an they had waited. Translucent would have taken control, and been more generous. So they timed their treachery when none suspected—and now thy Adepts Red and Stile and Rovot be ensorceled, and mayhap killed when Purple feel secure. Brown be no match, and we be helpless.”

“But we be free,” Fleta protested. “We can go and—”

“And be trapped also,” Tania said. “They expect that. Be assured we can stand not against their magic; likely already there be goblins in search o’ us, and our time be measured.”

“But one thing—“ Alien said.

Fleta glanced at him. “There be yet more?”

“My father gave me an amulet long since, saying an disaster e’er strike, invoke it. Be this the time?”

“Aye,” Fleta and Tania said together.

The boy brought out the amulet, which he wore on a chain about his neck. It was in the shape of a tiny tube. “I invoke thee.”

The tube expanded in his hand, turning silvery. It twisted, so that the mouthpiece pointed southeast.
 
They stared at it. “That be a little flute,” Fleta said. “What use be that?”

Alien shrugged; he knew nothing of this.
 
But Tania’s brow was furrowed. “A flute—there was one, once, before our time, when Stile separated the frames. May hap—”

“The Platinum Flute!” Fleta exclaimed. “The elves made it, and keep it now. It—when it be played, it—”

“Brings the frames together,” Tania finished. “But only one can play it, and he be long gone from Phaze and Proton frame. Now, with the frames fore’er parted, there be no use for this. And e’en were it so, what point? The Adverse Adepts rule here, and the Contrary Citizens there.”

“This be a mystery,” Fleta said. “But surely the Red Adept knew whereof he spoke! Why give Al this token, an it be not the key to aught important?”

Tania nodded. “It be our only hope. Needs must we go where it points, and find the Flute.”

“But that will take time, and there be naught!” Fleta pro tested.

“It be all we have,” Tania said grimly. “But mayhap thy dam will know what this portends. She was e’er close to Stile.”

Fleta brightened. “Aye! An she had her secret will, I’d be foal o’ Stile ‘stead o’ Stallion! An any know the key to this riddle, it be Neysa.”

“But it be far to go, and I can change not my form. An thou wouldst go alone—”

“Nay,” Fleta said decisively. “An we meet magic, thine Eye be needful. I will carry thee, as before.”

 
“I had hoped thus,” Tania confessed. “Al, change form and stay close; else we can protect thee not.” Then Fleta reverted to ‘corn form, and Alien to batform, and Tania mounted. The bat flew to perch on Fleta’s head.
 
She started off at a gallop. Fortunately she was rested; they had been proceeding cautiously, and she had grazed recently.
 
However, the amulet of privacy was giving out; they were becoming audible and visible. It might be restored somewhat by another invocation, but that should be saved for an emer gency.

She followed the direction indicated by the amulet-flute, deviating only to take advantage of open and level ground.
 
This took her to the Animal Head Demesnes, which was a problem, as they were allies of the Adverse Adepts. Sure enough, a crow-head spied her, and she encountered a line of manlike creatures with assorted animal heads. They were armed with clubs and spears; she would not be able to run that gauntlet without getting hurt.

She slowed. Tania sat up tall and Eyed the leader, a lion head with a magnificent mane. “We be on special business,” she said. “Direct thy minions to let us pass, and one to lead us the best way through.”

It was that simple. The lion-head, fascinated by the Evil Eye, gestured his minions back. A hawk-head ran forward, leading Fleta, and in a short time she was through what had seemed like a difficult thicket, and facing another open re gion. “We thank thee, lion!” Tania called as Neysa acceler ated.

Tania had already justified her presence, apart from being a friend. Still Fleta could not bring herself to say what she needed to: that her objection to Tania’s play for Bane was withdrawn. She was finding herself as foolishly stubborn as her dam!

Fleta could not run forever. In the evening she had to stop.
 
But Al had a suggestion: “An thou be hummingbird, Tania can carry thee, and I can use my night eyes to spy the way through the dark.”

“But needs must I also eat,” Fleta protested.
 
“I can find thee sustenance,” he said eagerly. “What wouldst thou have?”

“An ounce of nectar would fill my bird belly, but that be hard to come by.”

“I will come by it!” he promised. He assumed his batform and disappeared into the twilight.

Soon he was back, hauling something that staggered his flight. It was a leaf cunningly drawn into a bag, and inside it was a pool of sweet nectar.

“How couldst thou harvest so much so soon?” Tania asked. “Each flower has but a trifle!”

“I found a big flower,” he said proudly.
 
Fleta assumed bird form and tried the nectar. It was excellent, and more than she could finish; they had to store the extra for future use.

Then she settled in Tania’s tan tresses, and Tania walked, with Al flying ahead. She slept.

She woke at dawn, well rested. She flew up to spy the land, and incidentally loose some droppings; she had not felt free to do that while nesting in Tania’s hair.
 
They were significantly closer to the Purple Mountain Range and to the Harpy Demesnes. Tania had really been exerting herself! Indeed, as she flew back down she saw that the woman was staggering; she had moved as fast as she could all night.

Fleta assumed woman form. “Enough! Thou must eat, and I will take my turn.

“I ate on the way. Al found fruits.”

Fleta was further impressed. The bat boy was doing his share too! She assumed ‘corn form, and Tania mounted, and Al came in. Now it was evident that he too was tired; he had been all night aloft.

She set off at a trot, following the contour of the foothills of the great mountains. She could tell by their respective postures that both woman and bat were almost instantly asleep.
 
They deserved their rest!

At mid-moming she spied a dragon aloft, for the Dragon Demesnes were just south of the mountains. She hesitated, then decided that prevention was better than risk, and re invoked her amulet. Then she ignored the dragon, because she knew the amulet shielded her sight, sound and smell from its awareness. She did, however, make sure to tread on hard ground, because any tracks she left would be visible. But this was about the last use she would be able to make of the amulet; its magic was exhausted.

So it went. In two days they reached the Herd where Neysa grazed, and made themselves known to her.
 
“So we know not what it means,” Fleta concluded. “We can fetch the Flute, an the elves yield it to us, but only the Adept Clef can play it—and he be far removed in space and frame, and can join us not.”

Neysa considered. “I have thought on such matters be fore,” she said. “I have discussed it-with Stile. Finally I made a point, which he in his humor called the Unicorn Point, and we laughed, thinking it lacked relevance. Now methinks he took it more seriously, and this be the reason for Al’s amulet.”

“A point?” Fleta asked blankly.

“It be this: that the most fundamental force in both frames be the same, and that its difference in the frames be but perception. In Phaze we see magic, and in Proton they see science, but the split between them be illusion. An we knew how, we could do science here, and they could do magic there. It be naught but a—a geis, or what they call a program, a rule that makes it be one way or the other.” Fleta exchanged glances with Tania and Al. All three were baffled.

“But science works here not,” Fleta said. “And magic works there not. I have been in both, and tried.”

“Because of thy mindset, and that o’ the frame,” Neysa said. “It be the same for all. The geis be unbreakable. But an the frames be merged again, both would work, drawing on either interpretation o’ the power o’ the basic rock Phazite or Protonite. The curtain between frames be but a window o’ awareness, like the screen o’ a science computer. Merg ence be the answer: that be what Al’s amulet means. Only when they be together can the frames be truly at rest.”

“But we can merge the frames not, with the Flute here and the Player there,” Tania said.

“Methinks Stile could,” Neysa said firmly. “An he be ensorceled, thou must do it instead.”

“I be no Adept!” Fleta protested. “I be but a mare in want o’ her colt, sore beset!”

“Thou dost be more than that,” Neysa said. “The frames be already one, an we but perceive it. Since the separation, the parallelism be more, mayhap lacking other way to abate the imbalances caused by the acts o’ people. Once there were two Lady Blues, one in each frame, but when the one in Proton died, the other could cross and fill her place. Now with no crossing, the void be filled by another, and that be the Lady Sheen. All the Adepts and most o’ the others be parallel, or growing so. The events too: what occurs in one frame, occurs in the other, if not exact, then close. Each contest was won by the same side; it could be not otherwise.
 
Now what thou dost here, thine other self be doing there. If thou canst prevail here, so will it be there, and the way will open. What thou achievest be known in Proton, though there be no seeming contact between thee and the alien. All that thou canst accomplish be double weight. That be the remain der o’ the Point.”