Space Magic (33 page)

“There is no shipbrain, M’zelle. That position has been reserved for your own sweet self.”

Nerissa’s metal hands bunched into fists, held tightly against her chin. She seemed to shrink into herself. “No,” she whispered. “No, no... please, Sir and Master... I beg you...”

Denali Eu felt his hands grow cold. “But M’zelle, when I saw you dance in the moonlight... I thought to fly the stars was your greatest joy.”

“To fly is joy, yes... but to be cut from this body... to be severed... uprooted... the pain, Sir and Master... that pain is something I could never endure again.” She crouched, trembling, on the stones of the path. Her eyes were huge. “I would rather die, Sir and Master. I would find a way, Sir and Master. Please, Sir and Master, please... I know you are my owner, I know I must obey your wishes without question or hesitation, but I beg you... do not ask me to do this.” And she fell at his feet, her hands raised as though to ward off a blow.

All the color ran out of Denali Eu’s world. He turned from Nerissa and Leona and marched clumsily into the woods behind the house. They did not follow.

Some time later he found himself seated on a fallen log. The sun was low in the sky and his clothes and skin were torn from thorns and brambles.

How could he have been so stupid? He had lied to his mother, lied to Nerissa, made unwarranted assumptions, and promised money he did not have. Soon the chandler’s bill would arrive and he had nothing with which to pay it.

He considered his options. He could follow through with his plan—and Nerissa would find some way to end her life, or else would serve in unwilling misery. Even if he were heartless enough to force her to do this, he did not relish the idea of trusting his life to a ship he had betrayed.

He could break up Nerissa, sell her platinum and precious stones to pay the chandler—and she would be gone completely, and he would have only a worthless hull without a drive.

He could sell Nerissa in one piece—and it would be the same, only with more money. Nerissa would still be lost to him, and subject to the whim of some other master who might treat her still more cruelly.

He could repudiate the chandler’s bill, declare bankruptcy—and see Nerissa sold off, along with his mother’s house, and himself sold into slavery.

But there was one more option. Denali Eu was an educated man, and he knew the history of the bird ships. He also knew Nerissa’s story. And because of this knowledge, and despite this knowledge, he made the final, fateful decision that set a legend in motion.

He spent a long time sitting on the log, his head in his hands, but he could think of no other alternative. Then he stood and walked back to his mother’s house. There, as the sun set, he told Nerissa and Leona of his decision. His mother cried and shouted and beat her hands upon the kitchen table; Nerissa sat upon a chair with her head bowed, but did not speak. Neither of them could change his mind.

The next day Nerissa and Leona took Denali Eu for a walk in the forest. He listened to the birds and the rustling of the leaves, and he felt the cool wind brush gently against his skin. He smelled the green of the leaves and the damp of the earth, and as many flowers as they could find. In the evening they prepared for him a fine meal, with pungent spices and fresh vegetables, and succulent fruits new-gathered and sweet. Nerissa massaged his back with her strong warm fingers, and his mother cried as she brushed his cheek with pieces of silk and fur.

On the following morning he went into the city and gave himself to the doctors. He told them what he wanted, and he swore three times that this was his will.

And so they killed him, and they took his brain and welded it to the keel of the
Crocus
. For the techniques of Doctor Jay were legal, as long as the donation was voluntary and sworn to three times, and the organs of a young man in the best of health could be sold for enough money to pacify the chandler.

The operation was every bit as painful as Nerissa had said. But Denali found sailing the stars was even more delightful than dancing in the moonlight: a symphony of colors and textures beyond his human experience. And this ship was equipped with eyes and ears and hands within its hull as well as without.

The ship, renamed the
Golden Eagle
, became a hugely successful trader. Denali Eu’s knowledge and skill, combined with Nerissa Zeebnen-Fearsig’s beauty and charm, were something no seller or buyer could resist and no other trader could surpass. The ship with a human mind and a metal captain was famed in song and story, and when after many years Leona Eu died she left one of the greatest fortunes in the Consensus.

Denali Eu and Nerissa the Silver Captain have not been seen for many, many years. Some say they sought new challenges in the Magellanic Clouds or even beyond. Some say they settled down to a contented existence on an obscure planet. But no one doubts that, wherever they are, they are together still.

David D. Levine has sold over fifty science fiction and fantasy stories to all the major markets, including
Asimov’s
,
Analog
,
F&SF
, and
Realms of Fantasy
. He’s won a Hugo Award, been nominated for the Nebula, and won or been shortlisted for many other awards as well as appearing in numerous Year’s Best anthologies and the revised version of
Wild Cards Volume I
. He is a member of
Book View Café
and his web page is at
www.daviddlevine.com
.

-o0o-

You can find other works by this author at
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.

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Space Magic

Copyright © 2012 by David D. Levine.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portion thereof, in any form.

First Published by Wheatland Press, 2008.

Book View Café Edition December 5, 2012

ISBN: 978-1-61138-215-0

These are works of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Cover art by Darin Bradley. Ebook covers designed by Dave Smeds.

-o0o-

“Wind from a Dying Star” first appeared in
Bones of the World
, anthology edited by Bruce Holland Rogers (August 2001, SFF Net Books).

“Nucleon” first appeared in
Interzone
, magazine edited by David Pringle (Issue 174, December 2001).

“I Hold My Father’s Paws” first appeared in
Albedo One
magazine (Issue 31).

“
Zauberschrift
” first appeared in
Apprentice Fantastic
, anthology edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Russell Davis (November 2002, DAW).

“Rewind” first appeared in
L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume XVIII
(August 2002, Galaxy Press).

“Fear of Widths” first appeared in
Land/Space
, anthology edited by Candas Jane Dorsey and Judy McCrosky (February 2003, Tesseract Books).

“Brotherhood” first appeared in
Haunted Holidays
, anthology edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Russell Davis (October 2004, DAW).

“Circle of Compassion” first appeared in
Gateways
, anthology edited by Martin H. Greenberg (June 2005, DAW).

“Tk’Tk’Tk” first appeared in
Asimov's Science Fiction
, magazine edited by Sheila Williams (March 2005).

“Charlie the Purple Giraffe Was Acting Strangely” first appeared in
Realms of Fantasy
, magazine edited by Shawna McCarthy (June 2004).

“Falling Off the Unicorn” first appeared in
Space Magic
(May 2008, Wheatland Press).

“The Ecology of Faerie” first appeared in
Realms of Fantasy
, magazine edited by Shawna McCarthy (October 2005).

“At the Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting of Uncle Teco’s Homebrew Gravitics Club” first appeared in the
OryCon 25 Souvenir Book
, edited by John C. Bunnell (November 2003, OSFCI).

“Love in the Balance” first appeared in
All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories
, anthology edited by David Moles and Jay Lake (October 2004, Wheatland Press).

“The Tale of the Golden Eagle” first appeared in
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
, magazine edited by Gordon Van Gelder (June 2003).