[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

this world but by the time he had transferred my identity into the body of the
fighter, I was already reviving. That s what tangled things up.
He pointed to the second pattern he had drawn on the table.
 I was supposed to transfer identities with Kathang, said Doug.  And
Kathang s identity, finding himself in my dying body, would have no choice but
to die also. Meanwhile, Etam s healthy soul would have no trouble ousting my
dying one from Kathang s body. The fighter s soul, leaving his own dying body
behind, would find Etam s healthy body open for occupancy. That was the plan.
But here s what actually happened.
He drew a third pattern on the table:
 You see, by the time my reviving soul reached Kathang s body, it was already
stronger than
Kathang s, Doug said.  Consequently, I ousted him. But I occupied his body
just in time to hear the spell for Kathang to change bodies with the fighter.
The fighter s soul had already left his body so I
ended up there, instead.
He paused, looking in turn into each of the three faces watching him.
 You know the rest of it, he went on.  I won the fight and the body survived.
The Cadda Noyer attendants, seeing the fighter still alive, apparently thought
the whole scheme had misfired. They broke
Kathang s neck under cover of the general confusion to keep him from
testifying to what had been tried. But by that time Etam had already occupied
Kathang s body. So it was Etam who died.
 Meanwhile Kathang, ousted by the spell and my own stronger identity, moved
instinctively into the nearest healthy but unoccupied body. That was Etam s
body, back in the Cadda Noyer underground lab. Evidently Kathang occupied it
just before the fighter tried to, and the fighter, dispossessed, was left with
no place else to go but my own original body now actually and irreversibly
dying from shock and identity-abandonment. Instinctively he entered my dying
body, and died with it.
 But how could you know it was Kathang in Etam s body? demanded Jax.  And
what made you so sure he d admit it?
 I relied on his sense of self-obligation, Doug told the big Aerie Master.
 It almost drove him to admit who he was earlier, after he saw me in his body
in Anvra s Aerie. Then, just before the hearing, he tried to trick me into
killing him so that his shame would be buried with him. I knew then his
self-obligation could be made to drive him to acknowledge his name.
Page 115
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
 You knew? Sir  Jax checked his verbal explosion. No offense but what does
someone from the
Damned World know about self-obligation?
 As it happens, said Doug wryly,  it s not unknown where I come from. He
smiled to himself.
 Actually, it was just Etam s bad luck that he imported someone with it a
maverick like myself.
 Mav-er-kkk&  Jax s tongue stumbled over the unfamiliar sounds.
 That s close enough, said Doug.  It s from the Damned World s language a
word meaning someone without the ownership mark all his herd-followers wear
burned into their bodies. Every society has a few mavericks even yours. You
can tell us by our habits, if you know what to look for. For one thing, we
refuse to live by the herd rules, so we re forced to make up our own rules
instead.
 But we re talking about self-obligation, Jax said.
 That is self-obligation, Doug replied. He shook his head as the Aerie Master
opened his mouth protestingly.  Never mind, I know you can t see it yet.
You re as blinded by your society as my people are by theirs back on the
Damned World. It s as if my people were all blind in the right eye, and you
folks here all blind in the left. They see only the virtues that exist in the
social mass. You see only the ones existing in the individual.
 Sir, said the Elector,  without the safeguards to individual freedom
embodied in the Brotherhoods and the Magi, all but a handful of men would
enslave the rest.
 No they wouldn t, said Doug.  But you won t believe that until you see it
for yourself. That s why I m going to go back and open up communication
between my people and yours. They need to see that to make a society work, the
individual doesn t have to be swaddled in protection from birth to the grave.
 Doug  the word came from Anvra s throat like a catching of breath. He turned
and smiled at her.
 Don t worry, I m not going to stay on the Damned World. How can I? I inhabit
one of your bodies and my old one is a ruin. But I ve got a responsibility 
 Responsibility to whom? Those wingless, crawling slaves back there? demanded
Jax.
 To them and you, too, said Doug.  I m the only one in both societies with
what amounts to full vision.
Even physically, two eyes see more than one, you know. They allow binocular
vision depth perception. I can see things you can t even begin to
imagine like the advantages to both worlds in getting to know each other 
 Doug duDamned, said the Elector,  I m not sure we could approve this.
 Maybe not but can you stop me? Doug laughed.  I didn t set up the rules of
this society of yours
you people did. Does anyone in your whole civilization have the right to stop
me from doing what I
want?
 Stop you? echoed Jax.  We won t stop you we just won t help you. You need a
Portal to get back to your own planet. Also a poison and an antidote that
works on your present body the way whatever you took on the Damned World
worked on your old body.
==========
The room shadowed about Doug for a moment. For a moment again, as when
Etam-Kathang had been living, Doug seemed to see through the walls around him
as if they were made of smoke out and out until his vision ranged into the
whiteness among the planes of eternity.
 You don t understand at all, do you? He focused down to the three of them
watching him, and the walls became solid once more.  No, Jax duHorrel, he
said gently.  I don t need a Portal or any special help any more. I told you I
can see things none of you will be able to see until you acquire this new
Page 116
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
perception of mine. For example, you asked me how I knew Kathang was in Etam s
body. Well, I saw him there first as a blur and then, just before the Hearing,
as a recognizable double-image. And just as I
can see now how to get back to the Damned World even taking this body along
with me by an effort of mind alone.
 You! Jax choked on the words he had been going to say, took a deep breath
and made an effort to lower his voice.  You don t understand what s involved
in what you re talking about! Do you think your plane s just the other side of
some magic space, four inches thick within the ring of a Portal? It s not just
inches thick, that Portal. Its other surface is dimensions and qualities away,
on the world of its destination there are elements to the equation that change
value second by second.
Doug laughed.  It doesn t matter.
 Nonsense. Utter nonsense, snapped Jax. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]