Wizard's Holiday, New Millennium Edition (35 page)

“Like the one of you who came after our buddy Darryl a couple months ago,” Kit said.

The Lone One waved Its hand again, looking annoyed this time. “When it comes right down to it, there’s not a lot you can do to someone like that, a creature the One’s using as a direct power conduit,” It said. “They tend to be too contaminated with innocence, anyway. Assaulting them’s like beating your head against the wall. I’d have thought that fragment of myself would have been smarter to cut its losses and go after an easier target.” It laughed a little breath of laughter. “Small loss. That’s not my problem.”

“No,” Kit said.
“Your
problem is that you’re stuck here.”

The Lone One looked more annoyed than before. “Yes,” It said, “you would notice that. And doubtless it’s going to amuse you all out of proportion that I’m going to ask for your help in getting out of here.”

Nita’s eyes widened. “Oh, sure,” she said, “we turn you loose and you go manifest on some
other
planet and make their lives miserable… ”

Esemeli gave Nita a look that suggested she needed her brain augmented. “I’m already everywhere,” the Lone One said. “I don’t have to ‘go’ anyplace. What you need to get through your heads is that
this
particular manifestation has had its turn to do its job, and has failed. I offered the Alaalids their Choice, and they turned me down. And that was that.”

There’s a little more to it than that, Neets!
Kit said silently.

I believe you. But don’t interrupt It! It’s on a roll; It might drop something useful…
“I mean, look around you!” the Lone One said. “Does this look like a place where I’ve been particularly successful?”

It actually sounded aggrieved, which could have made Nita burst out laughing had she not had a serious case of creeps about this whole situation. “And then,” the Lone Power said, “to add insult to injury, when they realized I was stuck here, they built me this place so I’d have somewhere to stay! They felt
sorry
for me.”

For just a moment Its eyes held a hint of the kind of balked fury that Nita was used to seeing in the Lone Power. This faded, but what it faded into was a glint of nasty amusement that, though much less intense than the first expression, still looked natural on Its face. “The joke, though, is that the Alaalids missed something when they made their Choice,” It said. “What’s even funnier is that they brought it on themselves. And you noticed it, didn’t you?”

It looked at Nita. “Yeah,” she said after a moment. “I spent some time feeling around for this world’s kernel, its heart. And I can’t find it. It’s been hidden a lot more securely than they usually are… and besides, there’s something else that’s not right about it. Something’s missing.”

“You
are
smart for a mortal sometimes,” the Lone One said. “It’s a real pity you won’t see things my way: we could do well together.” Nita bristled. “Well, it doesn’t matter. I offered the Alaalids eternal life, as usual. Unfortunately, they were smart enough not to buy into that one.” Esemeli rolled her eyes in annoyance. “And they realized that since they were physical beings, they were going to need time to move through, as well. So they also didn’t make the mistake of trying to shut entropy out of their world-system entirely. A shame… I’ve had endless fun with the species that’ve tried that approach. Literally endless.” The Lone One smiled. Nita shivered. “But then they tried to do an end run around me, instead. They worked a wizardry on their world’s kernel, the purpose being to freeze or lock down the other, lesser side effects of entropy, besides mere timeflow, everywhere in this whole pocket of space-time. And you can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because one of those lesser side effects, on the macrocosmic level, is
change,”
the Lone One said. “They didn’t foresee the consequences to themselves. Did I say, ‘You
can’t
do that’? I meant you
can,
but it’s stupid. And after they set that wizardry into their kernel, it was too late for them to do anything about it. There’s some room for small, personal change… just. But as for the big changes that every species needs to go through every now and then, to avoid stagnating and just dying away—those are all shut away from them. They can’t
evolve.
And you’ve seen what their world’s become as a result! It hardly even counts as a world anymore. It’s a theme park. They’ve turned it into ‘Nice Land.’”

Kit gave the Lone One a dry look. “You wouldn’t have a lot of time for ‘nice,’ of course. So forgive me if I think your opinion’s a little biased.”

It gave Kit an annoyed look. “All right, so I’m ambivalent,” the Lone One said. “But isn’t ambivalence preferable to pure evil?”

Kit considered that one for a moment. “See? You’re buying it already,” the Lone One said. “I was getting bored with absolute evil, anyway. I find that you can do lots more damage with ambivalence. And it’s not as easily detectable from a distance, not anywhere near as memorable. Pure evil sticks out the way pure
anything
sticks out in a world full of mixtures and melanges and shades of gray. Ambivalence can be discounted, or explained away, or mistaken for confusion or a mind not completely made up yet.”

“Sometimes it really is… ” Kit said.

“Oh, sure. But how often? The rest of the time, in humans, it’s usually more about the
refusal
to make a choice. People are eager to excuse it, though. Ambivalence is seen as a sign of maturity, whereas actually taking a stance on one side or another is easy to describe as simplistic. Or unsophisticated. Or juvenile.” It smiled that nasty, sarcastic smile again.

Nita looked at It and asked herself, as she had been doing about once every ten seconds during this conversation, how likely the Lone One was to be telling the truth at any given moment.
Yet it really did go through some kind of transformation at the end of Dairine’s Ordeal,
she thought.
Other Powers have told us It has the chance to be otherwise now. ‘I’m getting bored with absolute evil’
—
could that be the beginning of a change?

But whether it is or not, it’s still important to be careful!
“Let me get this straight,” Nita said, “You’re telling us that in some ways, entropy would have been at the root of that big species-wide change. And when they froze it, or locked it down, they locked you
in.”

Esemeli looked at Nita with those ironic golden eyes and smiled. Nita shivered again. “The point is,” It said after a moment, “these people don’t need to be physical anymore. They’ve passed all the tests and dealt with all the issues that rise out of the life that spirit lives when trapped inside matter.” The Lone Power made little whoop-te-doo circles in the air with one shapely finger. “In fact, they passed them quite a long time ago. So they’ve long been ready for the next thing… whatever that turns out to mean for
them.
But they’re as locked in now as I am. Alaalu needs to be made unsafe again. Once that happens, they can move on.”

“To what?”

“How should I know?” the Lone One said, Its tone suddenly shifting enough so that she sounded grumpy. “With what they did to local space-time, I can’t look far enough ahead to see any more.”

“You did see
once,
though,” Kit said.

“That was before they set their Choice in stone,” It said. “They would have evolved, and become glorious and wise and powerful and all the rest of it, blah de blah de blah.” It waved one hand in annoyance. “And now, who knows what’ll happen, after they’ve kept themselves from their destiny for so long? But
nothing’s
going to happen if they don’t take the kiddie gate off this part of space-time and give themselves a chance to fall downstairs like any other species.”

“They’re not going to do that,” Kit said.

“You’re a veritable fount of observation,” the Lone Power said.

Its tone is really starting to annoy me,
Kit said silently to Nita.
You know what’s weird? It bothers me less when It’s a guy.

Hah. At least It’s just sitting there. Would you rather have It insulting you or trying to blow you up?

Ask me again when we leave. Assuming that we do…

“So what are we supposed to do about all this?” Nita said.

“Unlock the kiddie gate,” said the Lone One. “Find a way to break the wizardry on the kernel. Let them out.”

“Which will also let
you
out.”

It looked demure. “An unavoidable side effect.”

Nita sighed and got up. As she passed him, Ponch rolled over and lay looking at the Lone Power upside down, further increasing the surreal quality of the entire encounter, from Nita’s point of view. “Look,” she said, “before we agree to help
you,
of all beings, with anything, we need to have some questions answered, even if it upsets you. We’re still not entirely clear about what happened with you a while back, at the end of Dairine’s Ordeal. We know what it looked like, and felt like… ”

It
tsked
at her. “And a wizard is supposed to trust her feelings… ”

“Not without taking a look at them occasionally to see how they measure up against reality,” Kit said.

“It looked,” Nita said, “like you were thinking about turning over a new leaf. Giving up being the force behind evil in the worlds.”

The Lone One just nodded slightly. Its expression was unreadable.

“It also looked like the other Powers That Be… and the One… were actually willing to take you back,” Kit said.

“You were there,” It said.

Nita and Kit looked thoughtfully at It for a few moments. “Even though we were,” Nita said, “sometimes it’s hard to believe what seemed to have happened… especially when we keep running into other versions of you who don’t seem to have heard the word yet.”

“We’ve been over that.”

“And it would be easy to believe that it was all an illusion of some kind,” Kit said. “I mean, lots of people might never believe that you could ever be forgiven for what you’ve been… what you’ve done.”

“That could be so,” the Lone One said softly. “As there might also be those who’ve become a little smug, over time, about their own redemptions… enough so that they’d feel comfortable dictating to the One their own minuscule ideas about who else ought to qualify for forgiveness.” It laughed, a suddenly bitter sound. “And it’s a fool’s game, because there is
no
sounding the One, no grasping It.” It looked, and sounded, angry, and scornful, and a little haunted… even disturbed. “All we can be sure of is that, whether we like it or not, the One means us all well, more so than we can ever comprehend. And the details of that meaning are sometimes going to be impossible for any created being to fathom… even the Powers That Be.” It leaned back in Its throne and scowled. “It has no taste, no discrimination… that’s what’s so infuriating,” the Lone Power muttered under Its breath. “It’ll redeem just
anybody…
”

“Even you? Well, whatever,” Nita said. “But you can still understand why we’d have trouble trusting you. Me, in particular.”

Esemeli sighed and looked at Nita with those lazy, thoughtful eyes. The uncomfortable moment had sealed itself right over again, leaving Nita feeling both sorry for this particular version of the Lone One and still rather cautious. “Yes, well,” It said. “If you’re so enlightened, being a wizard and all, you’ll get past it and get on with the work at hand, won’t you?”

The mockery was almost a relief after Its unsettled tone of a few moments before. “Well, I’m not sure exactly what we’re supposed to do,” Kit said.

“I have an idea,” Nita said. “But I’m not sure I like it. We’re going to need to investigate the species’ Choice more closely.”

“The only way you’re going to do that now,” the Lone One said, smiling slightly, “is to find Druvah.”

“As if he’s around here somewhere,” Kit said, annoyed.

“Oh, he is,” Esemeli said. “Somewhere… ”

Nita thought again of the incessant good-natured whispering in the air: the whispers of the “dead.” “So we have to find him, is that it?” Nita said. “And then we have to find the planet’s kernel? And after that, since this is Quelt’s world, not ours, we’re going to have to tell her what’s wrong here, and get her in on fixing it. Thereby turning
you
loose… ” Nita looked over at Esemeli.

“Once this world is set free to pursue its proper course,” the Lone One said, “there won’t be any need for me to hang around here anymore, I assure you.”

Nita didn’t quite glance at Kit, but she knew what he was thinking: the Lone One’s assurances weren’t necessarily something they were going to feel comfortable depending on. “And what exactly is going to happen when the world
is
set free?”

“Well, there are a lot of different ways that can go… ”

Nita gave It a stern look. “Really? Then you’d better start listing them.”

It laughed at her then, and there again was that old, malicious humor that was almost a relief to hear. “Why should I do your work for you?” the Lone Power said. “You should be grateful that I’ve consented to give you even this little interview. It’s more than the other Powers would do. They leave you with hints and riddles, and make you work everything out for yourselves.”

Which, considering who we’re dealing with, may be the best way to proceed,
Nita thought, grimacing slightly to herself. “Kit,” she said then, “I don’t know about you, but I’m enjoying this vacation. I think this planet is just fine the way it is, and I don’t see why we should waste any more of our time playing Twenty Questions in a deserted bandstand with a Power That Has Been! I’m gonna go lie on the beach for a while, and after that I’m gonna go back home and get on with my life.”

She turned to go, but not before catching just a glimpse of the expression on Esemeli’s face as It became suddenly alarmed. “Yeah,” Kit said, sounding infinitely bored. “Let’s go. C’mon, Ponch. Bye,” he said to the Lone Power, waving, and turned to follow Nita toward the entry.

The silence stretched and stretched as they went across the polished white floor. Nita didn’t turn her head, just looked at Kit out of the corner of her eye. She could just see him looking back at her, sidelong.