Piers Anthony - Phaze Doubt

Tsetse hurried up, looking elegant in the temporary robe Brown had given her. “Brown, there’s something in the storeroom!” she exclaimed. “I heard it!” She used her native speech, and Brown used hers, and there was no problem between them on that score.

“Surely not,” Brown said in a businesslike manner. “But needs must we check it.” She hoped it was a certain thing, but did not feel free to speak of it. She walked to the golem storeroom with Tsetse.

Inside were the inactive golems, and the guidebot that had brought Tsetse here. “Thou dost see, all be in order,” she said. “It must have been a mouse. They do get in, and I have not the heart to trap them.”

“But it sounded like a machine!” Tsetse protested. “I heard it from outside, and it frightened me.”

“Well, there be one machine here; I had forgotten.” That was a lie, but a necessary one. “The guidebot that brought thee here; perhaps it were restless.”

“Maybe you should send it back,” Tsetse said doubtfully.

“Yes, surely I should! Unfortunately I have no ready conveyance for it, unless I have a large golem carry it.” She reflected briefly. “Yes, that may indeed be best. Why dost thou not go and fix us something to eat, while I ready a suitable golem?”

“Certainly!” Tsetse agreed readily, and hurried off.

Brown walked around the chamber, looking at golems. Then she came to the guidebot as if to check its size. “Why didst thou return?” she inquired quietly.

“Mach said you did not betray me,” the machine replied as quietly. “Though you did recognize me.”

“Of course I betrayed thee not, thou darling child! Thou knowest I support thy grandfather, as I always have.”

“But Purp will make you,” Nepe said. “I know how.”

Brown stiffened. “Thou knowest?”

“I must ask you to do something awful,” Nepe said, retaining her form as the guidebot. “My father asks.”

“What dost thou know?” Brown demanded, hoping it was something else.

“Brown, not all of us are conservative like Grandam Neysa. We don’t care how you live; we know you’re a good person. But we need your help, and you can do it if you can stand to. It would really make a difference.”

Brown realized that the child did know. “What dost thou want?”

“Do what Purp wants.”

“What?” Brown was horrified.

“Go with Tsetse. Let him blackmail you. Do whatever he says. But don’t tell on me.”

“Betray thy grandfather—to help thee?” Brown asked, appalled.

“Brown, they’ve nabbed Black and Green, but their mission was accomplished. The Adepts covered for Flach, so we could escape. Now it’s just Mach and me, and he’ll give himself up to save me. But we need your help to get Purp out of the way.”

“Thou’rt going after Purple?” Brown asked, amazed.

“In a way. I’d like to wipe him out, but we can’t afford to waste our effort doing that. So we’re just going to punish him a little, and keep him occupied.”

“What dost thou need from me?” Brown asked grimly.

“Take Tsetse with you when you go to the game.”

“What game?”

“The one Purp has to play against the Hectare.”

Brown was astonished. “I understand not!”

“We’re going to throw off the Hectare, and soon, but it’s a plot so tricky that none of us knows the whole. All I really know is that I have three messages, and I must do what they tell me. I have done one. The second tells me to do something more complicated, and that’s what I’m doing now. I need to sneak a person in past the Hectare alerts to fetch something, and this is the best way I can figure to do it. So it won’t be Tsetse with you, really, it will be this other. Don’t tell, and when Tsetse disappears, cover for her. She’ll be back. Do this, and I will accomplish my second task. If I get through all three, Phaze can be saved, I think. If I can’t, then it will be very bad. Will you help me?”

“O’ course I will, dear! But how canst thou know the Purple Adept will—“

“You go with him to his game, and help him all you can, and take Tsetse along and don’t let on about her. I can’t tell you more, Brown, because if this doesn’t work I’ll have to try some other way, and you mustn’t know anything that would hurt us.”

Brown spread her hands. “As thou sayest, dear. But it makes not much sense to me.”

“It should happen within the hour,” Nepe” said. “He’s coming here to put the screws to you. Now you know what to do.”

“An thou be sure—“

“Almost sure,” Nepe admitted.

Brown had mixed feelings. She was appalled by the notion of going along with Purple, and worried about Nepe, whom she had known as Flach, but relieved that she no longer had to choose between life and culture. She could yield to the enemy, yet not betray Phaze! If what the child said was true. And though Nepe was a child, she was a remarkably special one, and surely to be trusted.

“I put mine honor in thy hands,” she said. “I will do as thou dost ask. May it save Phaze!”

“Thanks, Brown!” the seeming machine said. “And oh, don’t tell Tsetse. She must hide, and not know why, until you return.”

“Aye, child.” Then Brown left, closing the door behind her, so that the room would not be disturbed.

She shared the meal with Tsetse. Now that her mind was somewhat at rest, she was able to consider the woman more subjectively. Tsetse was beautiful and docile; it would be easy to love her. Now, perhaps, it was time.

“I have a matter o’ some caution to broach to thee, trusting I give not offense,” Brown said.

“Have I done something wrong?” Tsetse asked, immediately worried.

“Nay, woman! My concern be this: I have by choice no man in my life, but that be not because I be without passion. It be that I prefer mine own gender. I find thee attractive, and would know thee better, an the notion not disturb thee.”

“It doesn’t disturb me!” Tsetse said, and her relief was obviously genuine.

“Yet thou dost prefer employment here, so mayhap dost feel not free to speak thy true mind. I would not seek to play on that to—“

“I’ve had both men and women,” Tsetse said. “But pleasure only with women. I think you’re a great woman!”

“Yet I be concerned. I ask thee to take time to consider, and if thou dost conclude against, I will have no onus against thee. I be minded to send thee on a day-long trip to fetch wood, and if thou dost not reconsider by thy return, we may talk further.”

“I don’t need—“

“But I need, Tsetse,” Brown said. “I am athwart a conflict o’ interest, and needs must give thee time.”

“Yes, of course,” the woman said, always amenable. “I’ll go immediately.”

“The golems know the route, and carry supplies. Thou willst be safe and comfortable. Thou has only to see that they load good wood; they choose not well alone.”

“I’ll do that!” Tsetse was eager to prove herself.

“Methinks Franken be good to lead the party,” Brown said. “He be used to carrying me in his knapsack, and will carry thee in comfort. He will obey thee when thou dost call his name, and keep thee safe. An a dragon attack, say ‘Franken, save me,’ and he will do it. But thou must speak always literally, for he be not smart.”

“Yes,” Tsetse said, less eager but ready.

Within the hour, woman and golems were gone. The large golems hauled a wagon for the wood, and Tsetse rode in Frank-en’s knapsack. There were four hauler golems, and four guard golems; she would be safe enough. There was a magic tent on the wagon, that she knew how to invoke for the night’s repose. Tsetse might not really like being alone with the golems, but it was something she needed to learn if she was to be genuinely useful, and the mission was a valid one.