Chapter Sixteen

SLANT STARED AT HER FOR A MOMENT. SHE WAS STILL lying at the roadside where the monster had knocked her, applauding enthusiastically.

"It was wonderful!" she repeated.

"No, it wasn't," Slant replied. "It was hideous. What are you doing here?" He did not move from where he stood, the snark ready in his hand, as the girl rose and ran up to him.

She reached out as though to embrace him; he raised the snark threateningly, and she stopped a couple of meters away. Her expression was surprised and hurt

"What are you doing here?" he demanded again.

"I followed you."

That's obvious. Why?"

"Why what?'

"Why did you follow me? Why did you wake the dragon?"

'Tm sorry; I didn't see it." She looked genuinely contrite. "I didn't mean to endanger you."

"You forced me to kill it to save you."

"I'm sorry, really. I didn't mean any harm."

"Why did you follow me?"

"I ... I didn't know what else to do. With my uncle Kurao dead, there was no one to take care of me in Awlmei."

"What about Furinar?"

"He doesn't like me. Besides, he has a family of his own."

"Then why not apprentice yourself to some other wizard?"

"I don't know any other wizards."

"Why can't you take care of yourself? You're a wizard, aren't you, even if you're just an apprentice?"

"I couldn't do that!"

"Why not?"

"I just couldn't!" She once again looked surprised and hurt, as if Slant was being purposely cruel in asking her such a thing.

He was silent for a moment, considering what to ask next.

"Why come after me, though? What have I to do with you?"

"You killed my uncle."

"Are you after revenge, then?"

"Oh, no, nothing like that! But he was my master, and you killed him. "

Slant was afraid he was beginning to understand, "What has that to do with it?"

She looked at the ground, abashed. "You're—you're responsible for leaving me unprotected, you see."

"Am I to be your new protector, then? Did I win you by killing him, as the spoils of victory?"

"I don't know; something like that, I guess."

He stared at her in disbelief. "Are you serious?"

She nodded.

"Do you plan to stay with me, then?"

She nodded again. "If you'll let me."

"What if I don't let your

"I don't know." She looked up at him. "Oh, please, though, let me stay with you! I don't have anywhere else to go!"

"You could go back to Awlmei where you belong. Aren't you the heir to Kurao's shop? Couldn't you do something with that?"

"You can have it, if you like."

"I don't want it!"

"Neither do I. I want to go with you."

"You don't know where I'm going."

"That doesn't matter."

Utterly confounded, Slant said nothing more but just stared at her. He did not particularly want her around. If the computer was still active, it would probably order him to kill her, and he would probably obey one way or another; he was glad that he did not have to. He did not like her, but killing was unpleasant and regrettable, and after all the trouble he had gone to on her behalf in killing the dragon, he preferred not to throw his efforts away.

He wondered if she was, as he had first thought, acting on behalf of the wizards of Awlmei. It certainly made more sense than her own bizarre explanation—or non-explanation. Perhaps she had been sent to spy on him, and was much smarter than she appeared.

He had no objection to being spied on; he was doing no one harm. If she was a spy, and he sent her back, that might arouse suspicion and provoke further annoyances. She might be useful to have around; even an apprentice wizard was not something to be taken lightly, he was sure. He was in some degree responsible for her plight—though it was none of his doing that she felt herself incapable of living her life without some sort of protector.

If she were a spy, she had probably been chosen on the theory that her sex would tend to allay suspicion; primitive people often had peculiar ideas about the relationship between men and women. She was attractive, he supposed; with his hormones strictly regulated, he had to judge such matters entirely on a theoretical basis. Had he possessed a normal male sex drive he would almost certainly have gone quietly insane or gotten himself killed long ago; fourteen years of celibacy were not a healthy thing.

She probably expected her appearance to influence his decision, then, and if she had been sent, the wizards would expect the same. He would also be expected to consider her harmless, since in a pretechnological culture such as this women were not physically suited to be warriors and were therefore considered unfit for any sort of fighting at all.

If she were a spy, it would be in his best interests to allow her to accompany him. If she were not a spy, though, she would be a nuisance, and he did not really believe her to be anything other than what she said she was.

What would happen if he sent her back? He didn't know. It was possible she would pretend to go, then continue following him, at a distance. That would not do; he preferred to have her in sight. She might actually go back to Awlmei, but what would become of her after that he had no idea. It was possible she really was incapable of surviving on her own and would either die or find herself another protector, perhaps one less benevolent than Kurao or himself.

What would become of her if she accompanied him?

Well, he would probably be able to protect her as well as anyone could, though he couldn't continue her training in wizardry. She would tag along, eating his food and drinking his water. She might try to seduce him, but that would be nothing more than a minor nuisance. She might prove useful, since she was able to fly, however badly—he was fairly certain that it was she he had seen fall from the sky earlier. If he got the starship repaired and left the planet, he could take her with him for company. However foolish she might seem, she was a source of human companionship and professed to be willing to accompany him wherever he went.

His growing loneliness decided him, finally. The computer was gone, Thurrel was gone, and he did not want to be alone. He could always get rid of her later, one way or another.

"All right. Come help me with the horses."

"Oh, thank you!" She smiled gleefully and looked ready to jump with delight It took several minutes to round up all three horses; they had not fled far but were still nervous, and Slant undoubtedly smelled of dragon. He realized he had blood on his boots, and determined to clean it off at the first opportunity. Ahnao was completely unfamiliar to the horses, so they were wary of her. She professed to know nothing about animals, and her behavior bore out her statement, so Slant had her do nothing more than hold the tethers while he caught the horses one by one by himself.

When all three were collected, Slant fulfilled his promise to clean his boots, wiping off every trace of dragon's blood. He debated retrieving his knife; at first he had almost decided to leave it, when he recalled that his laser was also still back by the dragon, caught in the tree. He did not want to leave the laser; aside from the inconvenience of lighting fires without it, it might be found by a native, and that could be dangerous.

Since he had to go back for that in any case, he found and cleaned his knife as well. He made a quick search for anything else he might have lost but found nothing. With the laser, snark, machine-pistol, and several clips of ammunition back in his pockets and the knife back in the sheath on his belt he felt much more secure.

Ordinarily, if he killed an animal, he took meat from it to augment his supplies; this time, however, he decided against it. The dragon did not look like good eating; the splotchy hide and lack of hair gave it a distinctly unhealthy appearance. Besides, he thought that cat meat was not exactly a delicacy.

When this had been taken care of, he returned to where Ahnao waited with the horses.. He had retained the saddles on all three, simply because the easiest way to transport the saddles was to keep them strapped in place and he had hot wanted to abandon anything of value; therefore, he went directly to his own mount, the largest of the three, swung himself into the saddle, and motioned for Ahnao to do the same.

She hesitated, unsure of what to do.

"Take the black," he suggested. The black mare had been Thurrel's mount, and was the more placid of the remaining two.

She cast him a worried glance, then walked around to the mare's side.

"Untie the reins from the lead-rope first," he suggested.

"Oh," she replied. She did as she was told, and then returned to the horse's side. The animal stood quietly waiting. Ahnao stood for a moment, holding the reins, and then asked, "How do I get on it?"

"Don't you know how to ride?"

"No."

"You've never ridden a horse?"

"No, never. I grew up in the city; I never had to."

"Would you prefer to fly, then?"

"You can't fly!"

"No, I'm going to ride."

"Couldn't we just walk?"

"I'm going to ride. You can ride, or walk, or fly, as you please. I doubt you'll be able to keep up on foot."

"I wouldn't be able to keep up flying, either. It's hard! I fell six times trying to catch, up with you!"

"You'll have to ride, then."

She wailed, "But I don't know how!"

"You'll learn. First, get on the horse."

"How?"

"Grab the saddlehorn with your left hand—that's right, that thing sticking up at the front. Put your right hand across the saddle to steady you. Now jump up and put your left foot into the stirrup, and then throw your right leg across the back."

Ahnao kicked futilely at air.

"No, jump, damn it!"

She tried again and managed to set the stirrup swinging wildly. The horse snorted but did not pull away.

"Steady the stirrup and try again."

Ahnao did as she was told, and managed to hook her left foot in place; her right leg, unfortunately, bumped against the horse's flank and did not go over. She caught herself as she started to fall backward, keeping her foot in the stirrup, and with considerable effort managed to work her leg over the saddle where it belonged. Finally, with what Slant thought to be absurd difficulty, she got herself astride and upright.

Slant said nothing, but watched her to make sure she was securely in place. She shifted about, trying to get comfortable, then noticed his gaze and burst out, "It's not easy!"

"Certainly it is! I haven't done much riding either, and I'm not having any trouble."

"You're bigger than I am!"

This was true; Slant was almost 190 centimeters tall, while Ahnao was scarcely 150. He pointed out,

"My horse is bigger. Besides, you should know how to ride."

"Why? I'm a city girl, not a trader or a farmer!"

Slant saw no point in explaining that everyone should know the basic skills of his or her culture; instead, he dropped the subject and asked, "How did you find me?"

"By magic, of course."

"You flew the entire distance here from Awlmei?"

"Almost; I rested sometimes and walked a little way. I'm not very good at flying; I fell a lot"

"You fell right in front of the dragon, then?"

"My concentration slipped when you started to ride off like that."

"I did that because your idiot shouting woke the dragon."

'Tm sorry; I didn't see it."

"How could you miss something that size?"

"I wasn't looking; I was following you."

The conversation didn't seem to be getting anywhere, so Slant turned forward again and urged his horse onward. After a moment Ahnao managed to get her own mount moving and followed him. The third horse's lead-rope was once again secured to the saddle of Slant's mount, so that it, too, came along.

Slant glanced back every so often and called instructions to Ahnao on handling her horse. She was not a particularly apt pupil but did gradually pick it up. By midafternoon she was doing well enough to come up beside Slant and talk to him.

"Aren't you glad to have me here?" she asked.

"No, not really." He saw no point in flattering her, and so far his impression of her was not favorable; her maui character trait seemed to be incompetence. He wondered how she had survived as long as she did, and managed to locate and pursue him.

"Aren't you lonely, though, traveling alone?"

"I was carefully chosen and trained to not be bothered by loneliness. I spent fourteen years with no company except a computer."

"You must want company."

"You're right, I do like to have company. I'm not sure that I'll like yours, though."

"What's wrong with me?" She sounded both hurt and outraged.

Slant did not think it would be a good idea to answer that and said nothing.

Ahnao was insistent. "What's the matter with me?" she demanded.

Silence was not going to serve, it was clear, and Slant had never liked lying. It almost always complicated matters. Furthermore, he was already beginning to wish he had sent Ahnao back to Awlmei after all; she was not proving to be a pleasant companion. Therefore, he told her the truth.

"You're stupid."

"I'm not stupid!"

"Do you call falling out of the sky onto a dragon intelligent?"

"It was an accident!"

"It was a stupid accident."

Ahnao fumed silently for a few seconds, then said, "You're not so smart either; you're the one who had all your machines turned off and wound up exiled."

Slant looked at her in surprise. "You're right," he admitted, "I was stupid, too."

"Hmph!" She snorted, and they rode on in silence.

They made poor time, as Ahnao objected to any pace other than a slow walk, so that when they made camp at sunset they had covered approximately half the distance Slant would have expected. He hoped that this would not cause sufficient delay to make Thurrel's estimate of a three-day ride to Praunce incorrect, but he suspected that it would.

Ahnao was not pleased when she discovered that they would be sleeping on bare ground, unsheltered; she had expected to stay at an inn somewhere, or at the very worst in a tent. She had had enough of bare ground while traveling alone, before she caught up with the cyborg. She complained that she hurt from riding and needed a soft bed, and for the first time Slant sympathized with one of her opinions. He had become more or less accustomed to riding all day long, so that he was no longer actually in pain, but his thighs and lower body were tired and sore, and the thought of a warm soft bed was enticing.

Unfortunately, they had not happened across a village for the last hour or so, so that even had Slant been willing to spend the money, there was nowhere they could go. He explained as much to Ahnao, who remained unconvinced. She did, however, keep further complaints to herself as they ate a meager dinner from his dwindling supplies.

After both had eaten all Slant would allow, he gathered his customary pile of leaves and settled himself down, then told Ahnao, "Make yourself comfortable."

She looked at him oddly, a quizzical look that he could not quite interpret, then lay down beside him, less than a meter away, near enough that Slant could smell her— which was not surprising, since both had been riding all day and had not bathed. She smelled distinctly female. Before he had been cyborged, he thought, he would have found the odor interesting at the very least; now he ignored it.

From somewhere in the depths of his thoroughly trained and conditioned mind arose a warning thought, that he should never sleep that close to another human being who might conceivably be hostile.

He looked at the girl's face and found she was watching him; seeing him look at her, she smiled. He smiled in return.

Moving away would be good tactics ordinarily, he had to admit, but he did not think it would be a good idea in this case. She would be insulted, and there would be arguments and bad feeling. If he was stuck with the girl, he might as well try to get along as well as could be managed.

On the other hand, she hadn't liked being called stupid, but it had not driven her away. She might not be as thin-skinned as she appeared.

He doubted that she was an assassin, however, and if he was to serve as her protector, as she wanted, then the closer he stayed to her the better. This would not have been true in a civilization that used firearms, since it made the two of them a single target, but here, where the most advanced weapon was the sword or perhaps the longbow, it seemed to make sense.

The actual deciding factor was that he was comfortable where he was and didn't want to move. He turned off his smile, closed his eyes, and went to sleep.

Ahnao watched him for a moment; when his breathing told her that he was asleep her own smile vanished, replaced by a slight frown. Vaguely annoyed, she rolled over and closed her eyes.

Slant awoke promptly at sunrise, as he had intended; Ahnao was still sound asleep. He did not bother to disturb her until he had changed clothes and washed himself at the nearby brook; when there was nothing left to do but eat breakfast and be gone, he shook her gently.

She came groggily awake, but said nothing beyond a few vague monosyllables until she had eaten. Then she insisted on bathing, while Slant waited at the camp.

He accepted the delay philosophically; after all, it really made no difference to him how long it took to reach Praunce. A few days either way meant little. It had taken years to go from star to star; why should he suddenly be impatient?

He was usually less irritable in the mornings, anyway.

When the girl came back up the slope from the stream she was wearing the same gray robe, the only garment he had seen her wear, and it occurred to him for the first time that she had not brought any supplies whatsoever, not so much as a pocketknife. She was still thoroughly wet, so that her robe had large dark patches growing wherever it touched her body directly; it clung damply to her hips and breasts.

He had used yesterday's shirt as a towel, then rinsed it out in the stream, wrung it out, and draped it across the top of his pack so that it would be clean enough to wear the next day. His other clothing he had brushed off as best he could, since fur and leather suffered if washed.

Ahnao apparently hadn't thought to wash her robe at all. He considered pointing out the oversight but decided not to. It was her own business, not his. He did not know what the local taboos were regarding discussions of hygiene, and furthermore it would probably start an argument about her intelligence.

They mounted the horses and started off; Ahnao managed to climb into the saddle with slightly less difficulty this time, though she was still far from quick or graceful about it. She was still very damp; Slant hoped it wouldn't bother the horse.

As before, she rode close beside him and kept to a slow walk. She also made small talk, discussing the weather, which was sunny and cool, and the trees at either side of the road. She asked Slant questions about his past but received only brief and unsatisfactory answers. He asked about her own background, and found her to be incapable of describing most of what she considered to be a relentlessly ordinary life.

He did learn that she had been apprenticed to Kurao for less than three months; that surprised him.

Though he thought her incompetent, she had, after all, found and followed him, and to do that with so little training in magic was fairly impressive. He also found himself forgiving her some of her lack of common sense, as she had plainly, until recently, led an extremely sheltered life. Her parents had been wealthy and overly protective until her father's-business as a grain dealer went bankrupt after some catastrophe—probably a fire. While he had tried to recover financially her mother rapidly drank herself to death; her father then hanged himself, leaving Ahnao in the care of her eccentric uncle, the wizard Kurao.

The last few months had not been ordinary, obviously, but she did not care to speak of them much, and prior to her father's financial ruin she claimed to have done nothing of any interest whatsoever. She could not cook, she could not hunt; when they stopped at noon for lunch Slant discovered she could not tie a knot well enough to hold his three exceedingly tame horses.

She could, however, talk endlessly and cheerfully, and smile at him for hours on end. He found himself smiling back without meaning to.

He wondered whether some of the regulatory mechanisms in his body were breaking down. He had never been an emotionless zombie; that was not good for survival. He had, however, been more or less immune to the automatic social responses of normal humanity. Besides the obvious sexual reactions, he had also lost the usual positive emotional response to friendly smiles, slight pupil dilation, pheromones, and other stimuli that help people to like one another—yet here he was enjoying Ahnao's company even though he considered her a useless idiot Either his initial estimation of her had been unfairly negative as a result of the manner of their meeting, so that he was now reacting appropriately, or his carefully contrived aloofness was coming apart and he was beginning to like her not for what she actually was but because her body was equipped with the right signals.

He wasn't sure whether it made any difference which was true.

By the end of the afternoon Ahnao's riding and self-confidence had improved to the point that the pace had picked up to a normal walk, and Slant had noticed that she had a way of tossing her hair when she was enjoying herself.

As they ate dinner that evening he noticed her watching him steadily, and observed how very big and green her eyes were. He reminded himself that the appearance of large eyes was mostly due to pupil dilation in the poor light in the shade of the trees, and that it was attractive because of an automatic response in the human nervous system. Pupils enlarge slightly when then- owner likes or wants what he or she is looking at, and people like to be wanted; that was why dim light had been considered romantic for centuries.

Still, he smiled at her.

When they bedded down for the night she again lay close to him; he was more aware of her than he liked, and found himself wanting to reach out and run a hand along her side. He no longer doubted that the mechanisms that regulated his hormone levels were shot; probably they had shut down at the same time the computer did. He had never known whether they were controlled by the computer or independently; the former now seemed far more likely.

He resisted temptation, refusing to let his glands dominate him. He was rather annoyed to discover they still worked so well after fourteen years. It took him longer than usual to get to sleep.