The Ship Who Won (29 page)

valleys on the continents, took shape.

"Oh," Plenna breathed, recognizing some of the terrain.

"Is this what Ozran looks like?"

'That's right," Keffsaid.

"How wonderful," she said, beaming at Carialle for the

first time. To be able to make beautiful pictures like mat."

Carialle ducked her head politely, acknowledging the

compliment.

'Thank you, miss. Now, this is the normal flow of those

mysterious electromagnetic waves. Here's what happened

when you got that blast of dust in Chaumels stronghold."

The translucent globe turned until the large continent

in the northern hemisphere was facing Keff and Plennafrey. The dark lines thickened toward a peak on a

mountain spine in the southeast region, thinning everywhere else. What remained were small "peaks" on the

lines here and there. "I think these are the mages who

didn't come to dinner. Now here"-the configurations

changed slightly, the bulges shifting southward- "is what

happened when you escaped from the dinner party. And

this next matches the moment when you teleported to

Magess Plennafrey s sanctum sanctorum."

The purple lines performed complicated dances. First, a

slight bulge opened out in lines near a river valley in the

southernmost mountain range of the continent, corresponding to a slight drop in the forces in the southeast.

Chaumel's peak was nearly invisible amidst the power

lines, until the mages dispersed to points all over Ozran.

Occasionally, they reconverged.

'This big spike indicated when the eight mages found

Plennafreys hidey-hole," Carialle said, narrating, "followed

by the big one when everyone came to see the fun. Here

comes the chase scene. A huge buildup as the others left

Chaumels peak. And-"

Abruptly, the lines thinned, some even disappearing for

a moment.

'That has happened before," Plenna repeated. "Not

often, but more often now than before."

"Absolute power corrupts, and I'm not just talking about

political." Carialle finished the ley geographic review.

"Can you run that image again, Cari?" Keffsaid, leaning

close to study it. "Magic shouldn't cause imbalances in

planetary fields."

"But it does, depending on where it comes from," Carialle said. "What's it for? Why is there a worldwide network

of force lines? It must have been put here for a reason."

She turned to Plenna. "Where does your power come

from, Magess?"

"Why, from my belt amulet," Plennafrey explained, displaying the heavy buckle. The sash is an amulet, too, but it

was my fathers, and I don't like to use it." She undid her

waist cincture and held it out to Carialle.

Carialle had her image shake its head. "I'm not solid,

sweetie." Instead, she directed the artifact to Keff. Carialle

turned on an intense spotlight in the ceiling and aimed it

so she and her brawn could have a better look. Keff turned

the belt over in his hands. Carialle zoomed in a camera eye

to microscopic focus.

The five indentations were there, as Chaumel had said,

part of the original design. The buclde had been adapted

for wear by some unknown metal smith at least eight hundred years ago, Carialle judged by a quick analysis. Braces

and a tongue had been welded to its sides. The whole

thing comprised approximately ninety cubic centimeters,

and was plated with fine gold, which accounted for its

retaining a noncorroded surface over the centuries. Carialle recorded all data in accessible memory.

"Can you teach me how to use it?" Keff asked, smiling

hopefuUy at her. Plennafrey seemed uneasy, but allowed

herself to be persuaded by the fatal Von Scoyk-Larsen

charm.

"Well, all right," she said. "I'll trust you." Her expression

said that she didn't trust often or easily. Such behavior on

this world, Carialle noted, would not be a survival trait.

Plenna stood behind Keff and showed him how to place

his fingers in the depressions. "Do not push down, not...

solidly," she said.

"Physically," Keff corrected IT'S translation. He cradled

the buckle in his other hand, raising it to eye level.

"Correct," Plenna said, unaware of the box's simultaneous transmission as she spoke. "Imagine your fingers

pressing deep into the heart, where they will contact the

CoreofOzran."

"Is that why you wear the finger extensions?" Keff

asked, after trying to fit his hand into the depressions.

His thumb and little finger had to curve unnaturally to

touch all five spots, while Plenna, with her pinky

prosthesis, could cover them without effort, bending

only her thumb.

"Yes. Most mages do not have fingers long enough. It is

one way in which we are inferior to the great Ancient Ones

who left us these tools," Plenna said with a trace of awe.

"Now, think hard. Do you feel the fire inside? It should

run up inside your arm to your heart."

"I feel something," Keff said after a while. "Now what?"

She looked around and pointed at me pedometer lying

on the console. "Make that box fly," she said.

Keff stared fixedly at the pedometer. His face turned

red with effort. To Carialles satisfaction, the device

lifted a few centimeters before clattering back to its

resting place.

'There, you see?" she said. "Mechanics."

Plennafrey held out her hand for the belt, and Keff gave

it back. "Now, here is how I do it." Barely touching the five

depressions, the magiwoman glanced at the box. It shot up

to dangle in midair. Keff walked over and tried to push

down on the hovering device. It didn't budge. He yanked

at it with all his strength.

"It's as if you fixed it there," Keff said, sweeping Plenna

off her feet and kissing her. "CariaUe, we're both right.

They do use machines, but it's more than that. I can't

duplicate what she just did. I nearly got a hernia raising the

pedometer as far as I did. She set it like a point plotted in a

three-dimensional grid, and she's not even flushed."

The Lady Fair image didn't show the exasperation that

Carialle let creep into her voice.

"All right, so they have natural TK and psi abilities which

are amplified by the mechanism. Probably increased by

selective breeding over centuries-you see what they've

done to the Noble Primitives."

"Sour grapes," Keff said cheerfully. "And this gizmo can

work from anywhere on the planet?" he asked Plennafrey.

"Yes," the magiwoman said, "but closer to the Core of

Ozran makes it easier."

Keff nodded and sat down next to Plenna so he could

examine the buckle once again. "Chaumel mentioned that,

but he wouldn't say what it is. Is that the power source? Do

you know how it works?"

"I do-or I think I do." Plennafreys eyes grew dreamy

as she raised her hands to sketch in the air. "It is a great,

glowing heart of power, somewhere deep beneath the surface of Ozran. It was the Ancient Ones' greatest work." For

a moment, die young woman looked sheepish. "My power

is weak compared with the others. I have tried to figure

out more about the Ancient Ones and the Core to try and

increase my power, though not . . . not in the way some

did." She glanced uneasily at Carialle.

"I know all about your father, Magess," Carialle said.

"Whatever Keff sees and hears, I do, too."

That reminded Plennafrey of what Carialle must have

seen and heard that morning, and she blushed from the

roots other hair to her neckline.

"Oh," she said. Carialle kindly tried to take the sting out

of the revelation.

"I also agree with everything he said about your situation. You're very brave, Magess."

'Thank you. Hem! As I said, I wished to make my connection to the Core greater with harm to none. I have

some ancient documents that I am sure hold the key to the

power of the Core, but I cannot read them." She appealed

to both brain and brawn. "I dared not ask anyone for help,

lest they take away my small advantage. Perhaps you might

help me?"

"Documents?" Keff perked up. He rose and paced

around the cabin. "Documents possibly written by the

Ancients? Will you let me see them? I'm a stranger; I have

no reason to rob you. I'm also very good with languages.

Will you trust me?" He stopped at Plennafreys chair and

took her hand.

"All right," Plennafrey said. She looked lovingly up into

his eyes. "There is no one else I would rather trust."

"She's completely out other league in this game," Carialle said .in Keffs ear. "What a pity there isn't a place on

this nasty planet for nice guys. ... We have one problem,"

she said aloud. "I can't lift tail from where I'm sitting, and

at present, there's a surveillance team of overgrown mar-bles flying around my hull."

"Where are Chaumel and the others?" Keff asked.

Carialle consulted her monitors, reanimating the globe.

The enormous mass of purple had thinned away, leaving

single points scattered along the crisscrossing lines. "Everyone's gone home except a few who are hanging around

Chaumel's peak."

"I am sure they will be looking for me in my stronghold," Plenna said resignedly. "All is lost."

"We need a conspirator," Keff said. "And I know just the

fellow."

"Who? I told you all the others would steal my documents, and then you will be forced to read for them."

Keffs eyes twinkled. "He's not a mage. Cari, can you get

me out of here unobserved through the cargo hatch? I'm

going to go enlist Brannel."

"Who is Brannel?" Plenna asked, trailing behind Keff

and Carialle as they headed toward the cargo hold.

"He's one of the workers who lives in the cave out

mere," Keff said, pointing vaguely outward.

"A four-finger? You wish to entrust one of Klemays

farmers with secrets of the Core of Ozran?"

"You don't know what's in your files," Carialle said.

"Might be a book of recipes from the Dark Ages. Listen,

Magess." Carialle's image stopped in the hold as Keff

began to move containers out of die way. Plennafrey

trotted to a halt to avoid bumping into her. "We need help.

Something very wrong is happening to your world and I

think it has been going bad since your ancestors were

babies. Your documents are the first piece of real information we've heard about. Brannel can do what none of us

can: he can go in and out of your house without being

noticed by the other magimen."

"Can?" Keff gestured at the larger boxes blocking the

ladder to the hatch. Service arms detached from the walls

and began to stack and move them to other shelves. "I'm

also going to have to jump down three meters. You'll have

to create a diversion."

"Leave that to me," Carialle said.

She led the magiwoman back toward the main cabin.

"Now, we're going to have some fun."

Devoting screens around the main console to three of

her external cameras for Plenna's benefit, Carialle tuned

into the eye-spheres, the service door, and the main hatchway.

They watched the eyes cluster as Carialle let down her

ramp and slid open her airlock to disgorge a servo. The low

robot rolled down onto the plateau and trundled off into

the bushes with the cluster of spy-eyes in pursuit. The door

slid closed.

"Go!" Carialle said, pitching her voice over the speaker

in the cargo hold. She slid open the door just a trifle.

Leaving some skin behind, Keff slipped out the narrow

opening, and dropped to tile ground in a crouch. He ran

down the hill and across the field toward where the

workers were gathering at the cave mouth for their daily

toil.

Trusting Keff to take care of that half of the arrange-ments on his own, Carialle watched with amusement

through one of the servos guiding cameras as the spies followed. It rumbled downhill into a gully and plunged into a

sudden puddle, splashing some of the eyes so they

recoiled. Plennafrey laughed.

The servo rumbled forward into the midst of a cluster of

globe-frogs, who rolled hastily backward and gesticulated

at one another inside their cases, croaking in alarm. They

moved into the servos path, continuing their tirade, as if

scolding the machine for scaring them. Cari guided it carefully so it wouldn't bump into any of them and headed it

for the deepest part of the swamp.

Low-frequency transmissions buzzed between the spy-eyes. Carialle hooked the IT into the audio monitors.

From the look of concentration on her face, Plenna was

already listening to them in her own way, and enjoying

being in the know for a change.

"Where is it going?" asked Potrias voice. "Do you suppose its going to where they are?"

Plennafrey giggled.

"Is the strangers house doing this on its own?" Noldas

asked. "It is a most powerful artifact."

Carialle huffed. 'They still think I'm an object! Oh, well,

there's nothing I can do about that yet."

"If they knew you were a living being," Plenna said,

"they would not treat you as an object. Oh," she said, reality dawning, "they would, wouldn't they? They did with

Keff. Oh, my, what has my world become?"