Incarnations of Immortality

by Anthony, Piers

  It arrived on schedule, first a speck above the mountain pass in the distance, then a floating shape, flat below, lumpy above. Finally it coasted in for the landing, a broad carpet bearing a cushioned, curtained cage.

  It settled gently to the tiles. The cage opened, and the princess stepped out.

  Mym stood in the shadow of the gate and gazed at her, this nemesis of his love that he had never seen before.

  The Princess Rapture of Malachite of Maharastra was a spectacular figure of a woman. She wore a belted robe that caressed a figure reminiscent of an hourglass, with a sash of shining pale gold mesh, and buttons that were deep red rubies. Her hair was a lustrous flowing river of blueblack that whorled and swirled its way down about her shoulders and framed her face most prettily. Her eyes were like those of oxen of the lowland breed, great and dark and liquid. Her tiny ears showed at the edge of her coursing hair like shells at the fringe of a lake, sparkling iridescently. Her mouth was a perfect dainty crimson bow, too delicate for anything approaching a coarse word. Her breasts beneath the robe were like twin fawns, firm and perfectly rounded, surely as soft to the touch as man's desire could wish. Her hips-

  She turned to face him. Stay your lascivious thoughts, ruffian! she thought fiercely at him. Have you forgotten already where you are?

  Indeed, he had, for the moment! Her amazing beauty had smitten him unprepared, disrupting his anger at her presence before it could be fairly settled. Now he felt himself blushing, and that infuriated him-and made his face burn more hotly.

  She laughed, satisfied to be one up on him. He had broadcast his impressions as openly as any schoolboy might have, while she had maintained her reserve.

  But now she sobered. "Know, 0 Prince of Gujarat, that this union is no more my wish than yours," she said clearly, and now her emotion came at him, controlled anger. "I love another and will always love him; but for the will of my father, I would be with him this moment and forever. You are but an obstacle in my way, and we shall pass this trial most readily if you keep your body and your mind well clear of mine."

  Mym could hardly believe it. "You are against this betrothal?" he sang. "That I did not know."

  "There is surely much you do not know. Prince of the tongue-tied. And much you had best never learn. Now come into the open so I can see the image of my enemy."

  Embarrassed anew, Mym stepped out into the light.

  Why, he is a handsome man, she thought with surprise.

  That is immaterial, he responded in the same manner, and now it was her turn to blush. She had been caught the same way. It was one thing to know that their thoughts would be completely open to each other, and quite another to experience the reality.

  "True, Pride of the Kingdom," she replied, and that set him back again. Even as it happened, he kept forgetting!

  Choose what quarters you prefer, he thought quickly, to cover up whatever else he might otherwise think. I shall take quarters on the opposite side.

  "There is nowhere on the premises that we can avoid each other's minds," she said. "Only mental discipline will suffice."

  That will suffice, he agreed grimly.

  So they selected suites on opposite sides of the castle. But that proved to be impractical, because there was neither food nor water in the suites; they had to emerge to obtain these things. There was a kitchen section, stocked with all manner of delicacies, but it was so constructed as to require the simultaneous action of two parties. One person had to hold open the pantry door, while the other reached for the food; it could not otherwise be obtained. It spoiled rapidly outside the magic pantry, so that it was not feasible to cooperate for one big raid; two people had to be present for every fresh meal,

  The water was even more of a problem. It issued from an old-fashioned pump with a long red handle. One person had to pump, while the other held the cup in place; there was no other way. Each served the other for a cupful but even this evaporated the moment it was taken from the dining chamber. They were stuck together for meals. That was the least of it. "But I want to wash!" the Princess said annoyed.

  Mym pondered. "I could pump while you sat under the spout," he sang.

  She turned on him a withering look. "Or I could pump while you sat under it."

  He appreciated the problem. Believe me. Rapture, I have no desire to gawk at your fair flesh, he thought.

  "You lie, Pride," she gritted.

  True, he realized. He did not love her and had no wish to be corrupted by her, but he was a man and enjoyed the sight of voluptuous female flesh wherever it occurred and hers was as voluptuous as such flesh came. He was a voyeur at heart.

  "And I have no wish to corrupt you," she retorted.

  You lie, he thought back at her, for beneath her overt anger at the situation was a covert pleasure at his assessment of her body. She was a true woman, subject to fits of vanity; she wanted to be almost irresistibly appealing to all men, while obliging only that one she chose, at her convenience.

  Damn you! she thought, and her sudden rage was like a crack of thunder.

  He smiled, somewhat bitterly. This is the nature of this castle, he reminded her. To force us together, to set up feedback. To make me desire you, and you to appreciate that desire, until we both are lost in mutual admiration.

  "But we are royalty, not animals," she pointed out. "We have no need to succumb slavishly to feedback."

  He decided to change the subject, for it was treacherous. They were disciplined human beings, and she was evidently as dedicated to her other love as he was to his a trait he admired in her-

  "Watch your thought!" she snapped.

  So it behooved them to cooperate to avoid the obvious temptations. He must not look at her flesh, or think any appreciative thoughts about it, no matter how luscious-

  Animal! He wasn't sure whether that was her savage thought or his. This business was trickier than he had anticipated!

  "True," she agreed.

  "I will turn my back and pump while you wash," he sang, having a bright notion. "Then you can do the same for me. We need never gaze upon each other's flesh."

  She considered. She didn't like it-her feeling was consistent with her thought-but saw no better alternative. "Let's experiment. You pump while facing away, and I will wash my hands."

  "A-a-a-agreed," he stuttered, then cursed himself for forgetting to sing.

  "Prince, we can surely discover significant things to detest in each other," she said, sympathetic. "We need not be ashamed of that which we have no power over. Speak as you will; it is not an issue between us."

  She forgave him his stuttering! Mym was for the moment overwhelmed by a surge of gratitude. So few of either sex ever bothered to understand-

  Stop that! she thought fiercely. I don't want your feeling!

  She was trying to do the proper thing, which was to maintain her alienation from him. He understood perfectly and was trying to do the same himself. But her compassion for his handicap cut through to his deepest self-image; he could mask but never quite abolish his gratitude.

  "Oh, pump the pump!" she cried in frustration, struggling with imperfect success to stave off that gratitude.

  He turned about, reaching behind him to grasp the handle, awkwardly. His gaze fell on the wall he now faced.

  It was a wall-sized mirror.

  Mym sighed. The builder of Honeymoon Castle seemed to have thought of everything. Well, he could simply close his eyes.

  "Better a blindfold," she said.

  They tried that. He draped a blanket over his head and pumped, while she set about her business.

  "Oh!" she exclaimed abruptly.

  Cold water, no doubt. He kept pumping-but now his thoughts focused determinedly on speculations about what flesh the flowing water must be touching to evoke such reaction. He tried to divert his mind, but there was no way now not to think about what he shouldn't. Clear water, glistening breasts-

  "Oh, this is worse than just plain looking would be!" she exclaimed in frustration.
"Take off that blanket!"

  But I'm trying to control my-

  She reached across and tore off the blanket. Mym blinked. There before him was a bare bosom every bit as grand as the one he had been trying not to imagine.

  "Might as well get this over with," she muttered, her spoken words almost blotted out by the underlying anger she broadcast. She stripped the rest of the way, while Mym, bemused, watched, ashamed for the admiration he was unable to suppress. She was indeed the perfect woman.

  In due course she finished and dried and dressed. "Now it is your turn," she said ferociously. Mym quailed. Fair was fair-but naturally he had suffered the masculine reaction; if he stripped, this would be all too evident.

  Rapture blushed. "Some other time," she decided, and fled.

  Of course his thought had been about as revealing as his body would have been. He blushed himself; he had not meant or wanted to expose her to that. She was a fine, discreet woman, who had probably never seen a man in-

  Enough! her thought came, undiminished in intensity despite the distance she had put between them.

  At that he had to laugh, ruefully. The Castle was making fools of them both.

  Rapture reappeared. She was trying to maintain her anger, but the perverse humor of it was spreading to her. "We must escape this castle!" she exclaimed.

  "Y-y-yes!" he agreed fervently.

  "Y-y-yes," she echoed, and she was not mocking him.

  But neither of them had much of an idea how to do it. The estate was girt by a high enchanted wall that could not be scaled, with a lake on the back; the only approach was by magic carpet, and they had none. They agreed to ponder during the night and compare notes in the morning.

  They got through the evening meal, and then Rapture shut her eyes and pumped while Mym washed. If she peeked it didn't matter, for she could not help but read his physical state through his mind. She merely flushed and continued pumping, while he counted numbers backwards constantly to drown out what he could of his own thoughts. He was glad when it was over.

  They separated, each going to the appropriate suite. But Mym had hardly entered his when her scream resounded through his mind. He charged to her section, threw open the curtain-naturally there were no doors-and found her standing with her delicate fist in her mouth.

  "Something was there!" she cried.

  From her mind he got the image-some shadowy, skeletal, demonic figure that had sought to sneak up on her, but retreated when she turned to look. "But there are no other people or creatures on the premises," Mym reminded her. "We would intercept their thoughts."

  "I saw it," she insisted, and he knew she had-or believed she had.

  Which left open the possibility of something other than a person or a creature, he realized. Was this Castle haunted by demons?

  "Demons!" she exclaimed, horrified.

  But why would there be anything like that in a castle intended for lovers?

  "To ensure that they are together," she said. And that, of course, was it. Those who insisted on sleeping apart would discover company of an unpleasantly alien nature. Rapture was obviously extremely ill at ease; he felt it throughout her mind. What were they to do?

  "I will ignore it," she said bravely. But though she intended to make the effort, he read her deep fear of the demonic. She would not be able to sleep.

  It was a man's business to protect a woman from whatever threats existed, in whatever way he could. Mym knew that his sword would not be effective against a demon-but that was not the point. I will stand guard, he thought.

  "I couldn't ask you to do that!" she protested. "We must sleep apart!" But she wished he would do that, for she was genuinely afraid.

  I will sleep by the door, he decided, amending his notion. That will be no hardship.

  Her relief was manifest. "I wish I could thank you, Prince Pride," she said.

  They both knew why she could not. "I prefer Mym," he sang.

  "Mym-the name they gave you at the sideshow," she said, reading the context. "Where you met the woman you love."

  Where I was happy, he agreed.

  She retired to her large, soft bed of feather pillows and colorful quilts, and he settled down in the doorway and slept in the way a warrior did, alert for any intrusion. They left the lamp on, so that nothing could enter unseen.

  In a moment he jerked awake. A horrendous demon was tip-toeing toward the bed. Rapture turned and saw it, and screamed.

  Mym leaped up, his sword whipping from its sheath- but the demon charged through a wall, making no sound, and disappeared.

  He turned back to the bed, where Rapture was shaking with reaction. Her emotion was a tangled mass of loathing, fear, and shame, for she knew she was imposing on Mym despite her resolve to cause him no more trouble.

  He went to her, sat on the bed, and took her into his arms. II is the nature of the innocent to be afraid of evil, he thought soothingly. He felt no fear himself, of course, merely disgust that he could have allowed an intrusion of this nature. He had been on guard, had he not?

  She sobbed into his shoulder. Then, buoyed by his lack of fear, she calmed. "I-I apologize for my weakness, that so inconveniences you," she said. "I never meant-"

  I know. The Castle made deception impossible; she was not practicing any artifice in her fear, and he practiced none in his lack of it. They had been trained for different things.

  "But this is exactly what the Castle means to do!" she said. "To force us into each other's arms-"

  "There is no love in it," he said. "I would hold a frightened child so."

  That abashed her further, yet she could not deny it. "If child I must be, then so let it be," she said. "My weakness and my humiliation are laid open to you, and I deserve your contempt."

  You showed no contempt when I stuttered, he reminded her.

  "But you couldn't help that!"

  "And you can not help this."

  She paused, considering. "I showed none because I felt none," she said slowly. "But had I felt it, I would have changed my opinion by now. You are a brave man and a kind one."

  I am a Prince. I am what I am trained to be.

  The bravery, yes, she thought back at him. The kindness, no.

  The best ruler tempers justice with mercy, he thought, echoing what he had been trained.

  But with you the mercy is stronger than it should be.

  This was true, he realized. He had mastered the physical abilities required of his office, but not the emotional ones. Had he possessed proper discipline, he would not have been swayed by the fate of the concubines he rejected or by the subservience of the cavalry officer who had come to bring him back. He was weak-and his father the Rajah had played upon that weakness with an expert touch.

  "Oh, Mym!" she cried, reading his mind. "I did not know!"

  It was not your business to know. Was not similar pressure put on you to come here?

  "Not exactly. My father simply shipped me here. I had no choice."

  Being a woman, he agreed. A prince must accede; a princess must obey.

  "Physically," she agreed. "But my heart is my own."

  Or his whom you love.

  "Yes," she agreed. But now another aspect of her embarrassment was spread out involuntarily for his perception-she had no other love. The man she had been interested in was not the equal of Mym and no prince; that interest had evaporated like vapor in the past few hours. She had resisted coming here simply because she did not like being played like a pawn, assigned to a man for the sake of a political liaison. She was no concubine!

  I never thought of you as a concubine! he thought.

  "Oh, I wish I could keep my thoughts to myself!" she wailed. "All my secrets are leaking from me!"

  Your secrets become you, he responded.

  "I would rather lie naked to your gaze!"

  She had already stood naked to it when she washed. But he understood exactly what she meant. A woman, more than a man, was a creature of dainty privacies, of hidden places, and i
t was cruel to expose these.

  "Thank you," she said.

  Lie here. Sleep. I will remain alert,

  "It is our separation that emboldens the demon," she said. "Keep your arms about me and sleep yourself; the demon will not come."

  4 - STORM

  In the morning they got up, and Mym faced away while Rapture changed into fresh apparel; then they went to his suite, where she faced away while he changed. But it hardly mattered; the enforced openness of their minds and feelings made physical concealment pointless.

  They had breakfast. Then they took a walk by the placid lake.

  Mym stood at the shore and removed his clothing. Two times two is four, he thought intensely. Two times four is eight. It pretty well drowned out whatever else he might have been thinking.

  Rapture looked askance, then nodded. She was bright enough. Two times three is six, she thought as she removed her own dress. Two times six is twelve.

  Their two sets of computations tended to interfere with each other, making concentration difficult. They simply started over, when an error was made.

  Naked, they entered the water and swam for the far shore. Mym had not dared to ask directly whether Rapture swam, for that would have betrayed his intent. It was evident that she did indeed swim well; in fact she was especially lovely as she stroked along beside him. He remembered the mermaid in the tank-but Rapture was far prettier than the halfling had been.

  Two times twenty-four is forty-eight! Rapture thought emphatically, reminding him to keep his mind on his own computations. Half-guiltily, he did.

  In that manner they crossed the lake, making excellent progress. But as the farther shore approached, there was a swirling in the water around them. and small fish of many hues glided by in schools.

  Then four fish poked their snouts up in front, chanting:

  "If your father knew, he would fall into a deadly rage!"

  Rapture gulped a mouthful of water and spluttered. For a moment she thrashed inelegantly, before recovering her equilibrium. "My father!" she exclaimed, upset.