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"That's the natural body of the woman I married. The woman whose mind and soul
is now trapped in the body and mind-set of a slave."
"I know. But unless you can find out how in the hell they swap minds and souls
so effortlessly and have somebody there to do it, it doesn't do anybody any
damned good anyway. But, alive, it can do horrible damage.''
Joe thought about it. He was uneasy enough at anybody else doing it, but he
didn't want this job at all. "Doesn't it seem stupid to send up the only guy
they can get all the details from to make their Joe real?"
"Ordinarily, yes, but I suspect you're going to be more of a target here than
in there. Also, you have certain advantages.
There are few guns here, and no silver bullets, to my knowledge. As a were,
without silver in your bloodstream, you're essentially immortal. That's a
rather good edge in a fight. You're resourceful, and you're used to working in
the enemy backfield. As a barbarian with a face as yet unknown to the enemy,
you won't be out of place in a militaristic state girding for conquest. And,
frankly, you above all others have at least some stake in saving your adopted
country from, essentially, yourself."
"What about Tiana?"
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"That's up to you. She has many of the same advantages as you. She's still
tough, she's as smart as she ever was don't ever forget that! and she'll do
her duty. I think, in fact, she above all should have the right to be there.''
"Have you told her yet? I assume you talked to her."
"I did, I didn't tell her, and she won't remember we talked."
Joe started. "What did you do to her?"
"Nothing much, I assure you. She is the way she is for the same reason that
you became fully and completely Joey the wood nymph, not due to my sorcery. I
gave her some protections. She will no longer answer to Tiana. That's an
essential one, I think. She will answer to Ti, or any other name you want to
give her, but if you call 'Tiana,' she will not respond. Since no one but
Boquillas knows what the two of you now look like, it is a safety precaution.
I might suggest a total name change if you can keep it straight. You, too, at
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least temporarily."
' 'It's her body, damn it! Why didn't you tell her of this, or at the same
time as me?"
"Because she would be incapable of making an honest decision on it, and
because slaves do not discuss matters of import with their betters. They tune
them out.
You tell her, as master to slave, but she cannot be here as a coequal, even in
this."
"If I take her, and they capture us both, they'll have everything they need,"
he pointed out.
"That is not exactly true. She has a very strong memory of a slave she once
knew, the daughter of a dirt poor serf who wound up a palace maid. I built on
the memory, fusing it with a bit of imagination and other histories I know to
give her a complete background from birth to now. She's protected better than
you in some ways."
"I still don't like it."
"Tell me true do you still love her?"
"I sort of. Not in the way I used to. I know that sounds terrible, but it
hasn't been quite the same since, well, she went from being a mermaid to this
current body. But I do care for and about her, a lot."
"Don't blame yourself for that. Tiana did it when she used the Lamp to wish
you back."
"Huh?"
"The mermaid's spell. Men who make love to mermaids always consider it to be
the greatest emotional and sexual experience they ever had. When she wished
you back, when she was a mermaid, she wished you'd return as the perfect
mermaid lover and make love to her. She thought it would insure your fidelity.
It did but no longer to her."
"Well I'll be damned!" Joe breathed. "And I been thinking I was a dirty
skunk!''
"Does that make it easier?''
"It does and it doesn't. Damn, Ruddygore! This means I can never really be
totally satisfied by any woman ever again!"
"Everything has its price.''
"Easy for you to say! And while I'm at it, I've got another problem along
those
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ods%204%20-%20Songs%20of%20the%20Dancing%20.txt lines." Quickly he told the
sorcerer about his encounter with the wood nymphs.
"I'm afraid it's true," the sorcerer told him. "There didn't seem much point
in bringing it up, since at the time I could do nothing about it. When I had
Boquillas/Mahalo under my spell I tried to get the mechanism, but he had
cleverly laid the same sort of mental traps in himself as I use. The moment I
demanded it, the formula and its concepts erased. Dacaro wasn't much more
help.
He performed them, sometimes, but it was far too complex for him to
understand, let alone remember. He only said that it was strikingly different
every single time, as if each switch required its own independent spell. I've
worked and worked on it and I can't understand how it's even possible."
"So I've got to watch out for silver and iron." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]