Eye of the Zodiac

"Time was against us. Ships few and far between. And precautions were taken."

"Yes," said Dumarest. He looked at the woman. "What did they promise you, Iduna?"

"Earl?"

"At first I suspected Chaque. Your brother was too obvious and the Cyclan are never that. Chaque was a last-minute replacement. Then, when he was dying, he tried to tell me something about you. What happened? Did he see you using a radio in your tent one night? Spot something else when he was watching you undress? Threaten to betray you unless you saw things his way?"

"I don't understand." She looked at him, puzzled. "Earl, what are you saying? We were to be married. You know I wanted to be with you. You know that I love you."

"Like hell you do!"

She cried out as his knife flashed, cut, the material of her blouse falling apart to reveal high, full breasts held and molded by delicate fabric. He cut again and drew the severed band from around her waist. A thin belt, barely an inch wide. Metal showed at the cut ends.

"A signal beacon." Dumarest threw it to one side. "You knew help would be coming. That's why you insisted on waiting. But you're a bad actress, Iduna. You can't pretend what you don't feel. And you can't mask what you do feel. That's what made me certain."

Her recoiling when he had touched her, her expression when he had described their future, the deliberate crudity and detailed anticipation.

"And Chaque?"

"He was an animal," she snapped. "He wanted to use me."

"And you suffered him. You had no choice. Why, Iduna? Did the Cyclan promise to heal your brother? Was Jalch that important to you?"

"He was insane! A fool!"

A man who, incredibly, had been right, but Dumarest didn't mention that. Nor the kiss she had given him, the proof that she sometimes could act.

"What then?" he urged. "To give you the body of a man?" He caught the betraying flicker of her eyes. "So that was it. To rid you of the female flesh you wear. The body you hate. A pity, you could be beautiful."

"Beautiful!" She almost spat, her face ugly, distorted by anger. "A thing to be used by men for their own, selfish pleasure. God, why was I born a woman? I can do anything a man can do, and do it better than most. Yet because I have this-" her hands touched her naked body, "I am considered to be an amusing novelty. A toy. Can you guess what it is like to hate what you are? I would do anything, anything to be a man."

She was insane, he realized, like her brother obsessed. Yet, where he had been proven right she was demonstrably wrong. Her conviction of inferiority was a product of the paranoia which had turned her into a sexual cripple.

He said, cruelly, "Are you so sure they can deliver what they promised?"

"What?" Iduna glanced to where the cyber stood, tall, impassive, the acolyte watchful at his side. "They must! They will!"

"Why should they? Yon heard what Hsi said about Leon, the boy was expendable. And, now, so are you. You've done your job, guided him to me. From now on, you are unnecessary."

His voice was a hammer beating at the weak fabric of her mind, feeding the paranoia she shared with Jalch.

"Can't you see they have used you? Promised more than they can deliver? Played on your weakness? You will never be a man, Iduna. The life you hoped for is a dream."

"No!"

"Tell her, Hsi. Be honest. A cyber has no need to lie. You can't do what she wants and you know it. Tell her!"

Hsi said, evenly, "The thing can be done given time. You know that."

"Time?" Iduna faced him, taking a step forward, madness in her eyes. An animal poised and tense, ready to spring, to tear and kill. "You lied," she said thickly. "Damn you-you lied!"

"Ega!"

The acolyte fired as she sprang, the beam of the laser hitting her between the eyes, searing a hole through skin, flesh and bone into the brain beneath. One shot and then the acolyte was falling too, equally dead, the hilt of Dumarest's thrown knife a red-rimmed protrusion in the socket of an eye.

"Earl! No!"

Dumarest ignored Usdon's shout. As the blade left his hand he sprang, hand lifted, stiffened, falling to slam against the cyber's temple. As the man slumped he tore at the wide sleeves of the robe, ripped free the laser he had known would be there.

"You've killed him!" Vestaler stared his horror, shocked by the sudden death which had entered the chamber. "The valley!"

"He isn't dead. Now fetch Odo and hurry!"

* * * * *

His stirred, sitting upright on the table on which he had fallen. The blow had barely stunned, and he felt no pain from the bruised flesh. For a moment he remained silent, looking at the two dead figures, at Dumarest now alone in the chamber.

"That was unnecessary," he said. "You would not have been harmed."

"No?"

"Your life is important to us, as you must know."

"My life, yes," admitted Dumarest. "But your definition of harm and mine are not the same. You could have burned my legs, my arms. Because my brain would remain undamaged, to you there would have been no harm. My brain and the knowledge it contains."