It was an awful chance to take. Yet wasn’t it the only chance, the only hope of salvaging anything at all out of the whole business? After all, Andrecia would certainly be lost to the invaders if Georyn wasn’t released—whereas if I acted, there was a bare possibility, perhaps, that it might not be. Once free, Georyn would do what we’d taught him to do.
If Jarel kept quiet, I would be the only one who’d be hurt. It would be a strange paradox, though, if good could be brought about by making a deliberate disclosure! This decision was harder than the other one. Agonizing though that had been, I’d at least known what I ought to do; I’d been committed beforehand. Now I had no such help, and I knew well enough that I was being swayed by love.
Jarel gazed down at me with a sort of desperate longing for some sign that I had recognized his compassion toward me. And I gave it to him. I looked straight into his eyes and said, “Do you really want to give this world back to the natives, Jarel? If you do, you’re going to get a chance to prove it.”
THE DRAGON
Jarel stood looking down at the girl, wondering for the hundredth time what it was about her that seemed so special. There was something behind those unfathomable dark eyes, something that he couldn’t quite pinpoint. Not just intelligence; the tall blond man who was captured at the same time was intelligent, too, even more so, on the surface. But with this girl, he couldn’t help feeling that there was more beneath the surface than there appeared to be. It was almost as if—well, as if those eyes were deliberately veiled!
The psychologists at the Research Center would, of course, crack her open very quickly; if there was anything to be found, they would find it in short order. And undoubtedly some guy who had never set foot on an alien planet would get publication credits out of it that would establish him as the authority on this primitive species. Logic told Jarel that he ought to be looking forward to that. He was curious, wasn’t he? Curious enough to have been haunted by the thought of this girl ever since she was brought in?
But he was not looking forward to it. The thought of her mental privacy being stripped away seemed indecent somehow, just as it had suddenly seemed indecent not to give her the physical privacy he would accord an ordinary patient. Besides, wasn’t it possible that if she were approached with genuine kindness, as you’d approach a kid, perhaps, the girl might prove to be educable? If he had a little more time, he might be able to teach her to speak a few words of Basic. Or he might even learn her language; presumably she had one, though he hadn’t been able to get her to open her mouth so far.
If only he could make her trust him. He focused on her eyes, willing them to signal some trace of comprehension—and, to his amazement, they did. In one brief instant of transition the veil was removed and those eyes came alive, alive with power and assurance and a very evident understanding not only of his wish but of many other things. At the same time the girl spoke to him in a soft, steady voice; it seemed almost as if she was saying, “Would you really like to give this world back to the natives, Jarel? Are you willing to prove it?” But of course, she couldn’t actually have said that! The words she used were of a strange language, just so much gibberish as far as he was concerned.
“Say, you can talk!” he exclaimed excitedly. “I sure wish I could understand you!”
“But you can, just as I can understand you. Can’t you?” For a moment she wavered, as if she were no longer quite sure.
Jarel blinked. He was losing his grip! Too much senseless worry over these natives. He’d started to imagine things. Or maybe it was only wishful thinking.
“We haven’t any time to waste, Jarel. Must I draw pictures? I could diagram your Empire’s chief solar systems, point out your colonies, and all that; but the natives don’t need such proof. They hear me speak and they answer, that’s all there is to it.”
He stared at her, overwhelmed. If he were imagining a conversation with the girl, she would not have said that. “Telepathy?” he asked incredulously. “We’re reading each other’s minds?”
“Not exactly ‘reading.’ I only get what you direct toward me; you have control over it. And of course, you only get what I choose to tell you. Keep on talking out loud; that’s easiest.”
“Who are you? You’re not a native at all!”
“No. Who I am and how I got here needn’t concern you. My name is Elana.” The syllables of the name itself came from her spoken words.
Jarel sat down on the edge of the cot on which she was lying. She was still immobilized, of course, but it didn’t seem to bother her; he had the feeling that the fright she’d shown before had been no less a mask than the lack of comprehension. “If you can do this, Elana,” he said slowly, “why did you keep quiet so long? You were faking, weren’t you? You understood all along?”
“I understood.”
Suddenly realizing what that meant, he let out a horrified gasp. “All of it? About the Research Center, too?”
“That especially!”
“But that’s awful! You’re on our level!”
“Not exactly,” she said calmly.
“You’re above our level? More advanced?”
“Quite a bit above, Jarel. My civilization, I mean, not me personally. I tell you this because you must know, to understand what I’m going to ask of you.”
Jarel shook his head sadly. “I can guess what you’re going to ask. And I can’t do it. Oh, I’d be happy to set you free, but I just couldn’t get away with it. You’d never get out of camp.”
“I know that. You’d have let me go before now if you could have.”
“Yes, I think I would. You have me figured pretty well, haven’t you? But look, it won’t be so bad now. When I tell them what you are, they’ll treat you differently. They’ll roll out the red carpet for you back home.”
She broke in quickly, “That’s just what you mustn’t do, Jarel! You’ve got to promise right now that you won’t tell anyone that I’m other than what I seem—or you will not hear one more word from me! I’ll go back to faking, and I’ll stick to it. I can, you know.”
He looked at her with astonishment. “But why? What are you hiding?” Frankly, he came out with the only possibility that occurred to him. “Are your people hostile to the Empire? You’re not a spy or anything, are you? Because if you are, you’ll never get away with it, not at the Research Center.”
She laughed. “I’m not a spy, and my people are not hostile to yours, I swear they’re not! Oh, that’s funny! If only you knew!”
Her amusement was genuine, Jarel realized. In any case, it was impossible to imagine this girl as an agent of some alien power. She was too young, too innocent. Her involvement in this must surely be accidental, though what sort of accident could have stranded her on this planet, he couldn’t begin to guess. “But look,” he protested, “you can’t fake at the Research Center! You don’t know—”
“Yes, I do,” she said seriously. “I have a way of dealing with that problem, Jarel. So long as you don’t tell, the secret will be safe.”
Well, no doubt anyone who had command of telepathy had other abilities beyond anything he could ever imagine. Still, the Center’s methods were very efficient; and physiologically, she was humanoid. “It’ll be pretty rough, you know, for anybody with a mind like yours,” he said with concern.
“Let’s not talk about it.”
“Okay,” Jarel agreed reluctantly. “You’ve got nerve, I’ll say that. More than I’d have. I don’t see why you’ve got to keep up the pose, though. I don’t even see why you were posing to begin with.”
The girl said urgently, “Jarel, did you mean what you said about wanting to make the Empire give up this world?”
“Yes, I did.” It was disloyal, traitorous even, Jarel thought. He could be court-martialed if Dulard knew, yet he did mean it.
“Well, my people want that, too. We don’t want the planet for ourselves. I’ve been told you might think that we do, but you’re just going to have to trust my word that we will let the nat
ives have it, if we can get your colonists to leave.”
“Get us to leave? You? How?”
“By playing a little trick on you. Nothing that will hurt anyone, I promise you.”
Jarel frowned. “But look, if you’re more advanced than we are, you must have superior weapons, so why don’t you just—”
“Lay down an ultimatum? Use force? Is that your definition of advancement, Jarel?”
“Not mine, but … you’re really beyond that? Is any civilization beyond it?”
“Yes! We have other ways. But they’re not foolproof, sometimes they fall through. And this one is about to, unless you help.”
Aside from his desire to see the natives come out on top, Jarel was not at all adverse to the idea of a trick being played on Dulard. It was a rather intriguing notion, in fact. And besides, he would never be able to live with himself if he were unwilling to stand behind what he’d been saying all this time. He drew a deep breath. “I’m probably out of my mind, but I’ll help, so long as I don’t have to get my shipmates killed in the process.”
“You don’t. They won’t be harmed. Now listen, would you be able to release one of the captives? Not me, but the man who was caught at the same time I was?”
To set him free temporarily? Yes, Jarel thought. It would be easy enough to cook up a story about having discovered a physical defect that made the man unfit for the Research Center—a bad heart, or something—to explain having to replace him; to Dulard, one native was like another, except for this girl. But what good would it do? He would only be recaptured or perhaps killed. “This man’s not one of your kind,” he said, puzzled.
“No. He’s a real native.”
Then they were people, Jarel thought triumphantly. To a race that was far, far ahead of the Empire, even, the natives were people. For he couldn’t have been mistaken about the way she looked at him.
“But he’s the key to our plan,” the girl went on. “Jarel, have you ever heard of psychokinesis?”
“Psychokinesis—PK? Like the experiments they do with dice?” Jarel nodded numbly.
“It’s more than just influencing dice. Would you like to see a demonstration?”
“Now I am out of my mind.”
She didn’t answer, but the stunner that he had laid on the table rose, drifted across the room, and hovered in the air above the paralyzed girl. Jarel didn’t say anything; he was speechless.
“Does it frighten you, Jarel?”
“Yes, I guess it does, a little. Not the way it would most people, though. It’s funny—we were actually talking about ESP the other day; I was saying that some races might have developed paranormal abilities instead of technology. Except I didn’t mean it, really. The other guys laughed, and Dulard said that if those natives ever started doing anything of that nature, he’d pull out so fast—” Breaking off with a sudden gasp of excitement, Jarel exclaimed, “Oh … I think I see!”
“I’m glad you do; it saves a lot of explanations.”
“But you can’t fool Dulard, Elana! He’s no anthropologist, but he’s sharp enough to be suspicious if you try anything like that, when you’re obviously of a different race than the others.”
The girl said, “Do you suppose we didn’t think of that? That’s why we trained the native to do it, the man I want you to free.”
“You mean they do have such abilities?”
“Not normally. It’s an advanced thing, Jarel. But it can be awakened sometimes. You see why no one must know about me; if they guessed I’d arranged it, it wouldn’t work any better than if I did it myself. There are other reasons, too, reasons that have to do with protecting your people; but those are pretty complicated.”
She’s right, Jarel thought. If she were to let her abilities be discovered, Dulard would smell a rat for sure. But that means she’s sacrificing herself for the natives, the same natives that turned her over to us. And she talks about the other reasons being for our benefit, which is even worse, considering what we’re doing to her.
“I won’t give you away,” he promised soberly. “And I’ll get your key man released, somehow. This man—you taught him? Elana, the implications of that …”
“It’s not as easy as it may seem, to teach, I mean. I probably couldn’t teach you.”
“Because we’re not good enough?” he asked unhappily. “We haven’t the capacity for anything beyond gadgetry?”
“No, whatever gave you an idea like that? You’ve progressed far above these people, haven’t you? But you see, I wouldn’t be able to give you a Stone.”
“A stone?” Jarel suddenly remembered something, something that had seemed strange to him when he’d prepared the native who was now to be freed. There had indeed been a stone, and when he had taken it he had noticed inexplicable anguish on the man’s face. It had surprised him, not only because it was such an odd thing in itself but because the man had reacted so stoically to everything else that had been done to him. He had displayed no fear at all, although he had been alert rather than apathetic. And the stone itself was extraordinary; Jarel had kept it, thinking that it might make a good paperweight.
He pulled it out of his pocket, while the girl stared as if the thing were a priceless jewel. Mystified, Jarel protested, “What does a stone have to do with psychokinesis? It’s just ordinary river rock; it can’t possibly have any special properties.”
“None that you would understand, Jarel. But to the man you took it from, it’s magic. With it, he has power; without it, he does not.”
“You mean he’s superstitious about it?”
“I guess you could say so. I don’t think that’s exactly the way to express it, though.”
Jarel fingered the smooth surface of the stone. There was so much, so very much, that he did not understand. But if he was to free the man, he must do it now. He would be sticking his neck out, certainly. Yet he was willing to play along with this fantastic girl to that extent; in fact he’d known right from the beginning that he was going to do whatever she asked. He only wished that it could be something that would save her. Helplessly he asked, “Isn’t there anything I can do—for you, I mean?”
She hesitated, and for the first time since she had revealed herself she averted her eyes. Finally she said, “Well, there is one thing.”
“What?”
“Don’t leave me stunned. Don’t let them carry me aboard that ship; I’ve got to walk under my own power.”
He smiled. “That’s a small request. You won’t be able to escape unless you can fly like a bird, but if by some miracle you could, I’d be glad of it!”
“Thanks,” she whispered. “It’s—important, Jarel.” He administered the neutralizer; she sat up. “Jarel? I’ll tell you one thing more, since I’ve gone this far. The road you spoke of—it is worth traveling! There’s something beyond what you know, something hundreds of years in your Empire’s future, that justifies ‘faith in human destiny’ as you put it. Only you aren’t permitted to see, that is your people aren’t, because the seeing would interfere with the traveling. Do you get what I mean?”
“Not at all,” he said slowly. “Only if you say so, I’m just crazy enough to take your word for it. Can’t you explain it a little more?”
“I’d better not.”
“But we’ll find some of your people’s worlds, maybe soon—”
“No, you won’t.”
“Why are you so sure?” Jarel demanded.
“Because we don’t want you to find them.”
“Elana, you can’t just leave it there! Am I to hear, to know, that there’s a civilization existing somewhere, a civilization that has answers, and then never find it? That’s no easier than the other way. It’s harder, even. Don’t I deserve better than that?”
“It isn’t supposed to be easy. It isn’t a matter of deserving, either. Someone, a very wise man, once told me that to make things easier for the most deserving would be the surest way to mess up the whole business. Well, I may already have messed it up; if
you break your word and tell, I surely have.”
“I don’t understand!”
“I don’t expect you to. I don’t either, very well. Not yet. I’m not really educated yet, you see. But I guess it’s that if your people don’t find the answers for themselves, they won’t find them at all. Or else if they do, those answers won’t be what they ought to be.”
Jarel said softly, “And this future, it’s really worth all of what leads up to it? Our history isn’t very pretty, Elana. You don’t know! Your people probably don’t have all the black marks against them that mine do—”
“I do know. It’s the same for all worlds.”
All worlds … she’s so casual, he thought. How many worlds have her people seen? Apparently they haven’t found star roving an empty dream. “Worth all the sorry mistakes that’ve been made in the name of progress?” he persisted. “Worth men and women dying for?”
“Oh yes,” she told him. “Certainly worth dying for.” And then, with surprising intensity, she added, “It had better be.”
It must be a fine future at that, Jarel reflected, if she’s any sample of it! Idealism may even come back in style. He smiled at her. “I’m going to wake up in my own bunk pretty soon and find that I’ve been dreaming all this. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anybody. They’d lock me up if I admitted that a girl I met on a primitive planet, a girl barely out of her teens, had been giving me the inside dope on human destiny—and that I believed her! And you’re going to be the docile, uncomprehending captive again, aren’t you? Your eyes are going to be dull and blank, just as they were before. What proof will I ever have for myself that you even pretend to know anything about what’s back of things, about what’s in the future or what’s worth dying for?”
She returned the smile, though hers was a rather grim smile, he thought. “Oh, you’ll have proof,” she assured him, “very soon.”
Black indeed was the dread and the despair into which Georyn was now plunged. In the dead of night he had been turned to stone, had been jabbed with sharp needles, and had undergone other fell ministrations that were unquestionably concerned with the casting of spells upon him. Yet because many of these terrors had not been unlike those toward which the Lady’s own spell had hardened him, he had borne up valiantly. Once the Stone had been taken from him, however, he had fully believed himself to be beyond hope of deliverance. Worse, the cause for which he had been brought to this pass was now totally and irredeemably lost. Georyn was well aware that although the Enchantress might have been right in her promise that he would not be subjected to physical pain, his captors would have plenty of other ways of making him suffer; she had, after all, warned that his imprisonment would be unending. And not the least of his torments would be the knowledge that she too was at their mercy, and that should the Dragon indeed consume the world, she might perish utterly.
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