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 I never felt saner, he told her.  Come to think of it, I never felt more
alive  He broke off suddenly, staring closely at her.  If you don t think I m
Kathang, you re going to a lot of trouble to help a stranger.
 A stranger? Her eyebrows lifted.  Kathang, you know better than that!
 But I m not Kathang and I don t know, he answered goodhumoredly.  That s
right, isn t it? Think about it for a minute. If I wasn t Kathang, I wouldn t
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know is that correct?
Anvra thought it over.  All right, I ll talk to you as if you really are a
stranger from some other place.
What I m doing isn t for you. If you re Kathang, you know that I wasn t going
to renew our contract anyway and you know why. If you aren t Kathang  She
hesitated.  What I m doing, I m doing out of respect to my honor and my duty
of self-obligation. They demand of me that I help my contract-mate.
 But you don t believe I m Kathang? he pressed.
 No, I don t, she snapped at him.  Still, I m not infallible. If by some wild
chance I m wrong and it should turn out I d abandoned you though you really
are Kathang, my contract-mate, then I d have failed in my self-obligation and
everything I believe in.
 I see. His thoughts raced. Whatever had happened to him during the transfer
of souls, one thing was certain. He had been shaken up more by it, mentally
and emotionally, than he had been by anything else in his life. His old
bitterness, his indifference to death, were gone. He wanted to live in fact,
he intended to live.
 Help me, then, he said to Anvra.
 How? She stared at him strangely. For all her snappishness and disclaimer of
any interest in him other than as an insane Kathang, her eyes at times held a
curious softness for him.
 Talk to me as if I were a stranger. Tell me things.
 For example?
 What was I doing at that fight in the first place?
 You had already gambled away all you had, she answered,  except your
apprentice-fee in the
Brotherhood of Sorcerers. You mortgaged that in a bet and lost it. Then you
had nothing left except your life. So you bet that. You bet your body as a
replacement for the fighter whose corner you were in. If he had won, you would
have won enough, that is, to buy back into the Sorcerers. But he lost.
 The Cadda Noyer, he said.  Who are they?
 They run the fights among other things, she said.  One of the gray
Brotherhoods. I d never contract-mate myself to a Cadda Noyer. Some day the
Magi will declare them outlaws for any member of the community to kill on
sight. But for now they re tolerated. It was the Cadda Noyer from whom you
stole that fighter-trained body. They ll be waiting outside this Aerie now for
the six days of grace to expire. Then my Brotherhood will have to make you
leave. Your own Brotherhood could have given you sanctuary indefinitely. They
could even have bought off the Cadda Noyer maybe.
 Maybe. Doug added,  So you can change bodies any time you want, in this
world of yours?
 Change  The sharp note in her voice brought his eyes back to her face. She
was all but glaring at him, as she had glared at Jax. Suddenly conscious of
having to look up to her, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and rose
unsteadily to his feet.
 Sit down, she said, catching his shoulders and pushing him.
The edge of the bed caught the back of his knees and he sat down heavily.  No,
people can t change bodies any time they want, she said.  The person giving
the body has to have signed his life away according to the law under the Magi.
A fine thing it would be if a person could change bodies whenever he wished! A
criminal could disappear from the eyes of justice any time he felt like it.
The Magi have to approve each transfer, don t you see?
==========
Doug s mind was clicking off conclusions.  Where do these Cadda Noyer where s
their headquarters?
 Their local Aerie? Or their Chief High Aerie?
 The one nearest to that Sorcerer Aerie where Kathang used to work where that
Portal is.
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 You mean the local Aerie, she said.
She stepped around his bed and pointed off at a tower perhaps five miles
distant. He stared at it. There was an illusory shadow hand before his eyes.
It blurred fantastically. He seemed to see telescopically, shadowedly, into
the very interior of the tower, where two figures lay still in an underground
room.
 How do I get there?
 You? Once more there was that strange softness mixed with the sharpness of
her voice and gaze.  You get there by flying fifty feet out beyond your bed.
Half a dozen of the Cadda Noyer will escort you personally to the Aerie. I
told you that they re waiting 
Baffled, he stared at the tower. Like a huge gray finger it pointed upright in
the distance, half threatening, half beckoning.
 What happens to dead bodies? he asked.
She frowned at him.
 They re held several days to make sure all life is gone. Then a Magus is
called in to certify to the death.
The individual s name is removed from both Brotherhood and community rolls.
Then the body is burned. Anvra continued to frown.  Why? she asked.  Why did
you want to know that?
 I have a body around here somewhere the real body I was born with. He added
thoughtfully.  There must be some way of getting into that tower.
 The Cadda Noyer Aerie? You want to get in there? Well, you re not Kathang,
that s clear. She shook her head impatiently.  Do you think Aeries are built
so they can be gotten into? What use would an Aerie be if anybody could get in
without the permission of the Brotherhood owning it?
He was still gazing at the tower. It seemed to him that his mind had never
been so clear and swift-moving.
The shadow hand was gone but the blurred image of the two motionless figures
in the room flashed in and out of his brain.
Doug swung on her.
 You re a Water Witch, you said. He watched her.  Doesn t that tower have
water and sewer connections?
 Of course, she answered. Then she paled and seemed to shrink from him.
 You re not thinking of invading the aerie through the underground piping?
 I m in no position to be finicky 
 Finicky! She shuddered.  No, you re not Kathang. You re not even a normal
human being!
The horror in her face went beyond ordinary squeamishness at the thought of
passage through a sewer.
She was plainly shaken by some deeper emotion.
 What s so bad about your pipes, Anvra?
 They are& underground. Underground! Away from the light and the air. Away
from the sky!
Then he understood. He remembered the note in Jax s voice when Jax had spoken
about Earth s people as wingless, about the Earth as the Damned World. To a
flying people, being without wings would literally be hell. And being forced
underground where they could not use wings, where they were locked from their
natural open environment would be double hell. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]