Piers Anthony - Unicorn Point

The woman set the comb back into the top of her hair, where it resembled part of a tiara, another nice effect. She walked on through the Commons, evidently going to some particular entertainment.

She came to a bank of food machines and punched for a cup of water. Agape was surprised. Water, when anything at all was available? What kind of relaxation was this? But then Deerie moved on to an exercise region, and it made sense. She did not want to be burdened with digestion when working out, but water was all right. Deerie got on the track that circled the region, and began jogging. Slowly she picked up speed, until her breath was heaving. A new panel glowed: EXHILARATION. No wonder she was healthy: her idea of entertainment was to run hard!

”May I join you?” a man inquired, falling in beside her.

Deerie jumped, and so did Agape; neither had noticed his approach.

The actress turned her head to look at him. He was a tall, muscular man of about her own age, bronzed and handsome. Evidently somewhat of a professional when it came to physical exercise. “As you wish,” Deerie replied noncommittally.

“I have seen you here before,” the man said. Though he matched her pace, he was not the least winded. “Frankly, I like your look. Do you like mine?”

Suddenly Agape remembered what they were here for. Citizen Tan had taken a male body, and was out to seduce Deerie! She had to stop this before it got going! “I don’t trust this man!” Agape said. “I don’t know him, and I fear his intentions.”

But for the first time she encountered resistance. Deerie, as it turned out, was interested in men, and this was the kind she liked. She had no illusions about their interest, but since she wasn’t seeking anything permanent, that didn’t bother her. She trusted her judgment, not the man, and she deemed this one as a fit companion for an hour’s fun. At least, so Agape interpreted the woman’s reactions.

“I think he’s a sadist,” Agape said desperately. “He wants to get me alone and hurt me, and make me cry, and then he will laugh and call me a foolish old maid.” That thought had better effect.

“Some other time,” Deerie said, and slowed and stepped off the track. The man looked disappointed, but did not pursue her. He ran on down the track, and in a moment was out of sight. “You certainly dispatched him, Deerie,” another man said.

She looked around. “Oh, hello. Handy,” she panted. “What are you doing here?”

“Just thought I’d see how the other half lives,” Handy said. “I never exercise myself.” He was tall and slender, with a handsome shock of blond hair. “I’m more of a games man myself.”

“I know,” Deerie agreed. “I’ve seen you play. But you’re only twenty-one; when you get to be my age, you’ll exercise or sag. Better to start early and stay in shape.” Agape was relieved. These two knew each other, and were friendly, so Handy might serve as a buffer between Deerie and Tan’s actor. She should keep them together until the danger passed. “I never realized what good company Handy is,” she said for Deerie’s benefit.

Handy laughed in response to Deerie’s remark, for an instant startling Agape, because it was almost as if he had heard her words. “You may have a point! I would never have taken you for twenty-five!”

“For what?” Deerie asked, startled in her turn.

“I really thought you were my age, but someone said you were older. Maybe they were teasing me.”

“I’m thirty.”

He laughed again. “I’m not that gullible! Come on, how old really? Twenty-four?”

Deerie studied him. He was young, but a fine figure of a man. “Thirty, really,” she said, flattered. “I don’t believe it. But I’m always ready to play a game.

?Will you bet on it?”

“I’ll bet, but you’ll lose.”

“Good enough. What are the stakes?”

Deerie eyed him, mixed emotions showing on the panels:

SPECULATION, PLEASURE, SURPRISE. “What did you have in mind?”

He eyed her back. “You know, I never thought of you this way before, but you’re one pretty woman! If you are under thirty, I want your love.”

“And if I am thirty, what do I get?”

Handy spread his hands. “I have little to offer. Would you settle for instruction in gamesmanship?”

“No. I have no interest in the Game.”

“Then you must name something else. I being a young man with only one thing on my mind, can’t think of anything else.”

The panels were glowing more brightly. The actress was really flattered by the attention of this young man. “Exercise!” Deerie exclaimed. “You will run with me ten loops around the track!”

“I’d collapse in two,” he said. “You look great running; I was watching you. From in front your breasts jog almost independently of your body, and from behind—“

“Take it or leave it!” she cut in, laughing.

He looked woebegone. “Oh, I’ll take it! But I have to win, because I won’t look a fraction as good as you on that track, especially after I collapse.”

They went to an information screen. “My name is Deerie,” the actress said. “I work for Citizen Tosme. How old am I, in standard Earth years?”

The screen flickered. Then the number 30 appeared.

“Oh, no!” Handy groaned. “Wait, let me verify this; maybe this unit’s out of whack.” He stepped up to the screen. “My name is Handy. I work for Citizen Merely as a furniture polisher. How old am I?”

The numbers appeared: 21.

“And are you sure she’s thirty?”

YES.

He sighed. “Well, I’m hung for it.” He looked at her again. “Damn, you sure don’t look it! Are you sure I can’t talk you into my kind of exercise instead?”

Deerie, highly flattered and intrigued, was tempted.

“Well-“

“Oh, thank you, you lovely creature!” he exclaimed. He was obviously sincere; he was getting an erection. Suddenly Agape suffered a shock of suspicion. The first man had desisted immediately, while this one was intent on seduction. His every word was calculated flattery! Was this Tan’s actor?

She couldn’t gamble that he was not. She realized that the fact that Deerie knew him meant nothing; Tan could have chosen him partly for that reason. And Agape had almost been deceived—if that was the case.

“Too fast!” she said. “I really don’t know him that well. I’d better hold him off a while, just to be sure.” Because Agape realized that a direct negation might not take, at this point; Deerie’s panels were glowing, and among them LUST was gaining brightness. With a man, that one would be the first to glow, while with a woman it might be the last, but it could be very strong in its time, as Agape herself knew. She was not human, but she had emulated a human female for some time, studying the nuances, and when she had learned about sex she had discovered its compulsive component. How she wanted to be with Bane right now! But she was about to lose the fall, unless Handy really was an innocent friend. That seemed decreasingly likely.

Deerie was hesitating, her new thoughts at variance with her growing emotion. Agape jumped in to buttress her side. “He lost the bet! He’s just trying to get out of running. He really doesn’t care about me; he probably thinks I’m ancient, but he’d rather put up with me than wear himself out on the track.”

That got through. The actress was highly conscious of the age differential, which didn’t matter for incidental contacts but loomed larger in sexual matters. She did not wish to be foolish. “Hold on there,” she said. “I didn’t say I would. You lost the bet, remember! I don’t think I should let you off so easy.”

Handy’s erection was now at full mast. “Oh, Deerie, don’t tease me like this! You can see I’m not lying. I really do want you!” He glanced down at himself, as if confirming it. “Every man wants every woman!” Agape retorted. In deed, she knew that Citizen Tan wanted her, though that was more for the purpose of humiliating her than from actual desire.