The Witches of Ne'arth (The Star Wizards Trilogy Book 2) (9 page)

“You are aware that we have other plans for the ship.”

“They will have to wait.”

Prin glanced at Matt. 

“Colonel Krobart,” Prin said, “You must understand that while we have this ship, the Romans have a secret weapon also:  which is their tenacity.  You could raze Londa and the Romans would return in force with even greater determination, to seek vengeance.  Besides that, they'll have an airship of their own soon enough that will outmatch ours.  That's why we need to seek greater advantages.  The Wizard's mission to the Far Side is necessary because – “

“Yes, yes, I read the report.”  Krobart's perpetual frown was back.  “The Star Child is to voyage across the Western Sea in search of the Elder Wizard.  Meanwhile, you say your little-girl queen must search this island for The Box That Everything Came In!  Tell me, do you people ever tire of fairy tales?”

“There are times that I wish they were only fairy tales.”

“
Your
fairy tales are sidelining our greatest weapon and dispersing our army at the same time!”  Krobart's eyes narrowed.  “Your accent . . . are the rumors true?  Are you Roman?”

Prin stiffened.  “I am one of the Romans who brought you the airship as a gift!”

“Yes . . . speaking of fables, there is one about bewaring enemies who bear gifts.  We shall see.”

Krobart stomped away, then whirled and glared. 

“This ship is property of the Leaf.  You're not taking it anywhere, not even on another test flight!  Do you hear?  If you violate this edict, I'll have you arrested!”

He dropped his wagging finger, spun on his heels, and stalked away. 

Prin eyeballed Matt.  “You seem to be taking this well.”

“What do you mean?” Matt asked.

“When we first arrived in Britan, you were full of conviction of how you had to go west and Carrot had to go north.  Yet as time has passed, you've come by the hangar less and less.  Always away on medical tours.”

“Medical tours are important.”

“So is saving the world.  I must ask, Matt.  Are you delaying our departure for the sake of your tours, or because you don't want to leave Carrot?”

Matt felt the heat in cheeks.  “If you think that I'd let my personal feelings – “

“I was a young man once,” Prin said.  “I was more captive to my feelings then that I am proud to admit now.  Sometimes passion is good, it drives us toward greater accomplishment.  Sometimes passion is distracting.”

“And you think that I'm being distracted?”

“I think circumstances in this world have forced you into becoming already a man, and that you will eventually make the decisions that a man must make.  Well, Matt, of all people I can't judge you.  I don't know if you've sorted out your feelings with regard to Carrot, but I do know that if I were in your position I would sooner die than be apart from Andra in a time of danger.”

Prin returned to the hangar to converse with his wife.   

“Matt,” Ivan said.  “I have completed my analysis of photographic telemetry of the surrounding terrain recorded during the flight.  I believe that I have located Carrot.”

“I . . . I . . . I should go talk to her, shouldn't I?”

It wasn't the kind of question that Ivan was programmed to answer, and he didn't.

Ivan directed him westward, across the training field, into the woods, down trails that led south.  Matt recognized the dilapidated housing of the mill through the trees.  Carrot was at the pond's edge, skipping stones and watching the ripples spread.  He stood behind her and wondered if she wasn't aware that he was there.  But she was Carrot and that was impossible.  Just as he was waiting for her to say something, she was waiting for him. 

“Hello,” he said finally.

“Did you have a good trip?” she asked. 

“Yeah.  How's training?”

“There is no more training.  I have been relieved of my training duties.”

“By the new Leaf guy, Krobart.” 

“Yes, Colonel Krobart.”

“I should talk to him about that.”

“It doesn't matter.  Soldiers are farmers, and farmers are returning home for harvest, so hardly anyone attends classes.  And he will not listen to you.”  She faced him, and brushed the hair from her eyes.  “It's good to see you.  We've both been so busy, it seems that we don't talk as much as we used to.”

“Yeah . . . . “

The conversation petered out to trivialities, and Carrot said, “We should talk again some time soon,” and Matt agreed and then it all felt uncomfortable, and he said he was hungry, which he was but not that much, and they wished each other a good day and then he turned his back and headed for the field. 

As he wandered through the trails, he thought of the theories of physics that taught that there were branching paths to different futures.  He felt like he was at a branching that would sweep Carrot out of his life if he chose the wrong path.

“Matt,” Ivan said.  “I have identified a person on the trail ahead.  It is Savora.”

Only a few steps later, she came into view, standing in the shade, arms folded and head shaking. 

“After all these years,” she said.  “You are still an idiot.”

Matt was caught off guard.  “I'm sorry.  What?” 

“Haven't seen her for days, then you scarcely talk to her.  You haven't changed, Matt.”

“I'm sorry, I don't – “

“You micro-analyze every human situation and you always choose the alternative that involves avoiding having to discuss your feelings.  That's how you always handle relationships, Matt.  For how many centuries now?”

Matt furrowed eyebrows.  “Are you . . . Synesthesia?”

“Ah, I was wondering when you would penetrate my deliberately transparent disguise!”

When Matt finished choking, he said, “Synth, what are you doing here? 
How
are you here?  Aren't you supposed to be Ascended?”

“So that I can spend eternity as a density fluctuation in a plasma condensate, calculating pi to the last decimal?  You'd be surprised how boring that can be after the first few microseconds.” 

“
What are you doing here?
”

“I'm here to help you, Matt.  You have no idea what you're up against, and I'm here to help.”

“What –what – what are you talking about?”

She looked upward.  There were only tree branches and empty sky, but her expression hinted that she was seeing something else – something that was a menace. 

“Matt, I can't answer all your questions.  We're being watched even now.  You'll just have to trust me.”

“What, what are you – how is it – how can I trust – I – I –“

She interrupted his stammering by grabbing his arm.  Her gaze drilled into his eyes from mere centimeters.  “Listen to me, Matt!  It's Athena.  She's here on this planet!  She's on the other side, where you're going, she knows you're coming, and she's out to get you.  You're in great danger!”

“Athena!”  The name sent a chill.  “What about – “

“Matt, you're being psychologically conditioned, even now.  I can't explain how, just that it's happening and it's the reason why you're so indecisive.  But we can break her control.  We can do it together, if you'll let me help you.  I just need you to listen, all right?” 

He remained silent, waiting.

Releasing his arm, she stepped away and said, “I just need you to do one small thing.”

He wasn't sure he was buying any of this.  But Synth had been his friend through childhood, and if somehow she had come to this world to help him, then he at least had to hear her out.  No matter how implausible, now matter how strange her request.

“And what is that?” 

“I want you to kiss Carrot.”

“
What?
  Why?”

“You want to, don't you?”

“I . . . I . . . well, that's not your business.  And anyway, why do you want me to?”

“In order to overcome Athena's psychological conditioning, you need to engage in an intense emotional act.  Kissing Carrot should do it.  I don't even see why I have to ask you to trust me on this.  You want to do it, and Carrot wants you to do it.  So there's no downside, right?”

In the whirl that had become his thought processes, Matt tried to think of an objection.  Of course he wanted to be closer to Carrot, yet at the same time he felt he was being manipulated. 

But how was that different from any other time he'd been around Synth? As his friend Random used to say,
The woman is a roller coaster. 
Yet she always had his best interests at heart.  Or so he had thought, until the time she had left the Star Seed Project for the Ascendancy Project in complete rejection of everything she had stood for, including their friendship.   

And so, here she was, centuries later, appearing no older than she had then, she stood matter-of-factually in the woods on the path before him, calmly requesting that he kiss a girl. Matt had traveled between stars and been a slave and escaped an empire and fought a demon, but he considered this encounter to be one of the most surreal things that had ever happened to him.    
  

“I . . . I . . . I need to know what this is . . . . “

“Matt!  There's no time for this!  If we stay here talking too long, they'll suspect!”

“Who are
they
?”

“Who else?  The Solar Council!  Matt, haven't you wondered why there's been no outside interference on this planet for all these centuries?  The Solar Council placed it under a statute of non-interference.  And I'm here in violation of interstellar law, to help the people of this planet – to help you, and to help
him
.”

“When you say 'him,' are you talking about my archival clone?”

“I'm talking about my husband.” 

“Your – “

“Damn, Matt!  Do you have to question everything I say?  He's my husband, and he came here to rescue you because you're his template, which for some misguided reason he thinks makes you like a brother.  And once he was on this planet, everything went horribly wrong, and he's become prisoner of Athena, and I'm here to rescue him, but I can only do it with your help.  Meanwhile, Athena is trying to kill you both and the Solar Council in its infinitely convoluted legal reasoning allows her to meddle in the affairs of the planet but forbids me to do so.  And if I get caught, I'll be sent off-world and can't help you or him.”

“This sounds very complicated,” Matt said. 

“Let me make it simple.  Kiss Carrot.  It'll be like breaking a spell.  Remember the fairy tale where the girl is awakened with a kiss?”

“Carrot is Sleeping Beauty?”

“No, Idiot –
you
are!  You're the one who's been subjected to psychological conditioning, and you're the one who needs to be awakened  A strong emotional experience like your first kiss – “

“I've kissed a girl before.”

“I hope you're not speaking of when I was seven and stole a kiss from you.”

“No,” he muttered.

Matt thought,
This is not being made simple
. But his resistance was being eroded.  As nonsensical as she was being, what harm would it do to obey?  And he could clearly see the upside. 

“All right,” he said.  “I'll go along with this.  I'll kiss her.  If she'll let me.”

Savora gave him a dubious look.  “It's not a question of whether she'll let you.  It's a question of whether you'll let you.  Matt, you're pathologically shy.  Personally, I blame the parents.  Hands-off yet domineering.  No wonder you tried to run light years away from your problems – “

“I didn't run away
– “

“Matt, you won't be able to kiss her on your own.  Your psychological inhibitions won't allow it.  The psychological conditioning that Athena has imprinted on you will not allow you.  Don't ask me to explain.  We don't have time.  I'm just telling you, the stronger you feel about something, the more paralyzed and indecisive you become.  That's how it functions.”

“How can Athena have imprinted conditioning . . . wait, weren't we talking about my parents?  Synth, can you make
any
sense here?” 

“Actually, Matt, I can't.  You'll just have to trust me.” 

“With what?  Why are you telling me to do something when you believe I can't do it?”

“You can't do it consciously, but Ivan can place a post-hypnotic suggestion.”

“Hold it.  Did I hear that right?  Now you want Ivan to hypnotize me?”

“It's the only way, Matt.  Have him plant the suggestion to kiss Carrot, and then suppress your short term memory so that you won't remember him asking.”

“You didn't say anything at first about a memory wipe.”

“The Solar Council has assigned watchers of this planet, Matt.  They have access to your implant telemetry archives.  Ivan's archives are uploaded every day, and if the watchers find a record of this encounter, they'll take me off planet and I won't be able to help you or your brother.”

Matt hesitated.  On the one hand, hypnosis and memory wipes were a violation of his person.  On the other, he had done both to himself already, and for lesser cause.