Unexpected Magic Read Online Free PDF Page B

what you mean to do when you and the other ships come out over Nad. Does this start a revolution?”
    â€œIt’s rather more complicated than that,” said Adny. “Out of the twelve Male Lodges, there are only six prepared to rebel. Two of the remaining six are neutral traditionally and supported in this by the Minor Covens, but the Minor Covens are disaffected enough to ally with the Danai, who are a helium life-form and present a danger to all of us. The four loyal Lodges are supposed to align with the Old Coven, and on the whole they do, except for the Fifth Lodge, which has thrown in with the Midmost Coven, who are against everyone else. Their situation is complicated by their concessions to the Traders, who are largely independent, save for overtures they seem to have made to the Anders. The Anders—another life-form—have said they are our allies, but this flirting with the Traders makes us suspicious. So we decided on a bold ploy to test—”
    â€œStop!” said F. C. Stone. Much as she loved writing this kind of stuff, hearing someone talk like it made her head reel. “You mean, you’ve gone to all this trouble just for a test run?”
    â€œIt’s more complicated than—” began Adny.
    â€œNo, I don’t want to know!” said F. C. Stone. “Just tell me what happens if you fail.”
    â€œWe can’t fail,” he replied. “If we do, the High Coven will crush the lot of us.”
    â€œMe, too?” F. C. Stone inquired anxiously.
    â€œPossibly,” said Adny. “They may not realize how I did this, but if they do, you can probably stop them by destroying your machine.”
    â€œNever!” said F. C. Stone. “I’d rather suffer—or, better still, win!”
    A bell rang. The keyboard reappeared, elongated and bent, in her screen. “Emerged over Nad,” the computer said. “Candy! What is this? I count sixteen other ships emerged, two Trader, four Ander, and the rest appear to be Matriarch. We jump back.”
    â€œGive me functions Nine and Ten!” Adny snapped.
    â€œI authorize Adny—” said F. C. Stone.
    â€œOh, Candy!” the computer said reproachfully. “Why are you so good to that little creep? He’s only a man.”
    â€œI authorize Adny in functions Nine and Ten,” F. C. Stone almost shrieked. It was the only way she could think of to stop the unpleasant sensations which were suddenly manifesting, mostly in her head and stomach. It was as if surf were breaking through her in bubbles of pain. A tearing feeling across her shoulders made her think she was germinating claws there. And psychic attack or not, she knew she just had to get to that toilet.
    â€œAcknowledged,” the computer said glumly.
    She leaped from her chair and ran. Behind her she heard claps of sound and booms that seemed to compress the air around her. Through them she heard Adny’s voice issuing orders, but that was shortly overlaid by a high-pitched whistling, drilling through her ears even through the firmly shut toilet door.
    But in the loo, as she was adjusting her dress, a certain sanity was restored to F. C. Stone. She looked at her own face in the mirror. It was encouragingly square and solid and as usual—give or take a sort of wildness about the eyes—and it topped the usual rather overweight body in its usual comfortably shapeless sweater. She raked her fingers through the graying frizz of her hair, thinking as she did so that she would make a very poor showing beside Adny of the golden voice. The action brought away two handfuls of loose hair. As always, she was shedding hair after a heavy session at the word processor—a fact she was accustomed to transfer to her aliens, who frequently shed feathers or fur during jump. Things were quite normal. She had simply been overworking and let Danny’s joke get to her.
    Or perhaps it was charred chili powder, she thought