Out of Phaze

The deer looked at him and nodded. Then it began to melt. Soon it was reforming into Agape’s more familiar human form.

“Thou didst save my life!” Bane exclaimed. “Or at least my freedom. Thou wast with me all along! But why, when we quarreled?”

“Friends can disagree,” she said as her human face became complete. “I couldn’t let you lose the game if I could prevent it.”

He took her in his arms. “We spoke of honor. Thou didst say that thou didst define it differently. I like thy definition.”

“I just did what I had to do.”

“Must I needs apologize to thee,” he said.

“No need, Bane. Just win the game.”

“Aye. But now will come another threat—and me-thinks it will know where we be.”

“The last one followed you and didn’t recognize me,” she said. “Maybe the Citizen tunes in on the substances of your body. Living flesh may not work for that.”

“This be more of a challenge than I like. How can I sleep, and the Citizen tune in on me?”

“We’ve got to find a way to nullify the threat without destroying it,” she said. “Then it won’t matter if it knows where you are.”

Bane cast about for stones. “Next bowman comes, I want a distance weapon.”

“Why not use the bow?”

Bane knocked his head with the heel of his hand. “The bow: Spoils!”

Bane picked up the bow, and checked the remaining arrows. Most were ordinary, but one was incendiary and another was glowing: a marker.

He tested the bow, shooting an arrow at a distant target. It scored; this was an excellent instrument. Probably the man-robot had been designed for perfect marksmanship, too. Well, Bane could score well enough with this, being both trained and having a robot body.

“Each attack seems to be worse than the preceding one,” Agape said. “I think we’d better prepare for something bad.”

“Aye. But thou dost not wish to kill it.”

“Not if we can nullify it without destroying it. Then the Citizen won’t be able to bring a new threat.”

“If we just knew what to expect!” he fretted.

“Since we can’t seem to hide from it, maybe if we made a good defensive position—“

“Or a trap!” he exclaimed.

They discussed it briefly, then worked to set up a covered pit. Bane had to use the sword to excavate the earth and chop through roots, and they couldn’t take time to make it too deep, because they did not know when the next attack would come. The best they could hope for was that the creature would fall in, and be distracted long enough for Bane to get in some crippling but not killing blow. Having slowed it, they could then outrun it, and the Citizen would not be able to bring in anything new.

They put branches and ferns across the hole, bringing them in from a distance, and covered them with some of the dirt. The extra dirt they used to fashion a kind of fort nearby. They spread dry leaves over everything. Then they settled into the fort and waited.

Nothing happened. After two hours, the sun was going down, and they were getting hungry. “The Citizen must be taking a break,” Agape said. “He knows that we don’t dare rest, so he can afford to. He has plenty of time.”

That seemed to make sense. “Let’s eat, then,” Bane said. They searched for food. Some of the trees had fruit, but it wasn’t enough. They also needed water to drink. “If this be a copy of the mountain I know,” Bane said, “there be a cave and the snow from the peak melts into a stream that runs through it. Mushrooms grow in that cave. But some be poison.”

“I can tell good from bad,” Agape said. They went to where the cave should be—and it was there. “The stream joins it inside; its channel be too convoluted and narrow for a person, but for a way it be nice,” he said, remembering.

It was nice. It was dark inside, but Bane used the glow-arrow for light, and it was enough. The mushrooms grew thickly by the bank of the subterranean river. Agape melted a hand and touched sample mushrooms, locating a large patch of good ones. They had food, for now. He ate a token amount, just to keep her company.

Agape checked farther in the cave. She stroked the stones of it. “Bane, this is not safe!” she exclaimed, alarmed. “I feel the stress here; one hard knock, and the ceiling will fall!”

“Aye, I always used a spell to shore it up, just in case. But if we don’t knock it—“

“Let’s get back to the surface,” she said nervously.

They returned to the forest. It was dark now, and the sounds of the night life were there. The Citizen had done an excellent job of renovating this region!

“Funny thing,” Bane murmured. “The Citizen we fight corresponds to the Purple Adept of Phaze. But the one who captured us was the White Adept.”

“I think the Citizens are collaborating,” Agape said.

“If the correspondence be accurate, White and Purple both be enemies of Blue.”

“It seems accurate.” They returned to the earthen fortress and settled down for the night.

“The Citizen can attack any time,” Bane said. “We’ll have to keep careful watch.”

“I’ll watch while you sleep,” she said. ‘Then you can watch while—“

Bane smiled. “Thou dost forget my present body. It does not need to sleep. I’ll keep watch.”