Amaryllis

advice.'

The evening did not go well after that. Conversation was stilted. The atmosphere was uncomfortably tense. Amaryllis was very polite, but it was obvious, even to a non-intuitive talent, that she was not happy. Lucas had a hunch that she was going to throw him out before bedtime.

He knew that he had only himself to blame. Barring some miracle, he would sleep alone tonight. It no doubt served him right, but the prospect was, nonetheless, deeply de- pressing.

At ten o'clock, desperate for something to break the lengthening silence between himself and Amaryllis, he picked up the television remote and switched on the evening news.

Nelson Buriton's square-jawed, clear-eyed visage materialized on the screen. The sight did nothing to elevate Lucas's mood. Buriton was covering a political event. Behind him Madison Sheffield could be seen standing at a podium.

Sheffield was speaking to a large crowd of people seated at circular tables. Lucas recognized the setting. It was a meeting of the New Seattle Business Association. He rarely attended the monthly gatherings himself.

Buriton gazed lovingly into the camera. His hair was rakishly windblown, even though he was indoors. He was wearing his trademark Western Islands jacket, although everyone else in the picture wore suits and ties. His teeth were very straight and very white.

'Good evening.' Buriton's expression was devoutly sincere. 'Once again the race for the governorship of New Seattle City-state tops the news. This evening Senator Madison Sheffield addressed the New Seattle Business Association. His theme, as usual, was a return to founders' values.'

The camera shifted from Buriton to Madison Sheffield, who was holding forth in front of the audience. Sheffield's teeth were just as white and even as Buriton's, Lucas noticed. His expression was even more sincere.

'We have come a long way in the past two hundred years,' Sheffield intoned. 'But even as we reach out to seize the future, we must not forget the bedrock values of our past. We need those values now, as we have always needed them. We face a world that is still largely unexplored. The recent discovery of the alien artifacts reminds us all of just how many unknowns await us. We must be prepared.'

Amaryllis, perched on the sofa beside Lucas, studied the screen. 'There's no way Sheffield could be focusing charisma to a whole crowd of people.'

'No,' Lucas agreed. 'He could only use the focus in one-on-one situations. The rest of the time he has to make do with his natural political charm.'

'He has his fair share of that, but I don't think I'm going to vote for him, after all.'

Politics was never a safe topic, Lucas reminded himself. Still, any conversation was better than no conversation, and he was very anxious to keep Amaryllis talking. 'Mr. Founders' Values? I would have thought he would have been your ideal candidate.'

'He talks a lot about founders' values, but a real First Generation founder would never resort to such under- handed tactics as Sheffield is using to get money for his campaign.'

'Don't kid yourself. I have a hunch that the founders didn't survive by being nice guys.'

Amaryllis whirled to confront him. 'What a cynical thing to say. It was the values of the founders that enabled them to survive. Integrity. Justice. Courage. Honor. Determination. Those are the qualities that got the First Generation through the difficult times.'

'You left out expediency,' Lucas said. 'Something tells me that our exalted founders were very expedient when necessary.'

'How can you say that?'

'What's more, I'll give you odds that there were just as many Madison Sheffields in politics back in First Generation days as there are today. Some things never change.'

Amaryllis simmered with righteous indignation. 'Are you deliberately trying to provoke me?'

'Yes.'

She opened her mouth to utter something that would no doubt have scorched his skin, but at the last minute she apparently changed her mind.

'Why?' she asked.

Lucas punched the button on the remote, blanking the screen. 'Because I'm trying to get your attention. I feel like you've been slipping away from me all evening.'

'That's not true.'

'Isn't it? We're supposed to be having an affair, but at the rate things are going, this will be one of the shortest relationships on record.'

'Oh, Lucas.' Amaryllis moved into his arms and leaned her head on his shoulder. 'I'm sorry, but this has been a difficult day.'

'You can say that again.' Lucas wrapped her close.

'What we have can't last long. We both know that.'

'I don't want to talk about the future. I just want to enjoy the present.'

'Yes.'

Silence fell. Lucas felt the tension slowly ebb away into the night. Amaryllis was warm and soft and safe in his arms. For now, at least. He wanted to take her to a place where they could be alone together, far away from the rules and conventions of society.

'Link,' Lucas said into Amaryllis's hair.

She said nothing, but he felt the moment of disorientation, and then he became aware of the prism taking shape on the psychic plane. It was powerful, strong, and clear. He eased psychic energy through it and began to shape an illusion.

A grotto formed around the sofa. The television set, desk, and other furnishings disappeared behind banks of lush ferns. Curved stone walls framed a deep jungle pool. The water was a mirrored surface that revealed nothing.

'Is this a real place?' Amaryllis's voice was soft with wonder.

'Yes.'

'A special place in the islands?'

'Yes.' Lucas added moss to the grotto walls and piled large rocks around the pool. He carpeted the floor with thick grass and draped streamers of brilliant yellow rose-orchids at various locations. He would have used amaryllises, but he had no idea of what a real, Earth-grown amaryllis looked like.

Amaryllis gazed at the scene. 'It's beautiful. So peaceful.'

'I found it years ago when I was a kid. I never told anyone else about it, not even Icy Claxby. Sometimes I went into the grotto and sat on the rocks looking down into the pool for hours at a time.'

'What did you do there?'

'Lots of things,' Lucas said. 'I practiced controlling my talent. Sometimes I wondered if there were others like me around. I wanted to talk to someone else who understood what it was like to have so much power and to know that you had to keep it a secret.'

Amaryllis snuggled closer. 'I had a place like this, too. Not a jungle grotto, naturally. We lived in farm country. My hiding place was located in the barn loft. I remember how the sunlight filtered through the boards in the side walls. I could hear the animals moving about in their stalls. I used to go up there to think and read and just to be by myself.'

'What did you think about?'

'Lots of things.' Amaryllis's smile was fleeting. 'When I was very young, I wasted a good deal of time plotting revenge against my grandmother on my father's side, Elizabeth Bailey. As I got older, I put my energies into figuring out how to get out of Lower Bellevue forever.'

'Yeah? I thought you were a small-town girl at heart.'

'For as long as I can remember, I wanted to escape to the city. I wanted to find a place where no one knew about my past. A place where people wouldn't be secretly watching to see if I would grow up to humiliate my family the way my mother had done. A place where the kids didn't point their fingers at me and call me names. A place where I could use my prism abilities to the fullest extent possible.'

Lucas tightened his arm around her. 'Sounds like we both had secrets we wanted to keep.' He deliberately strengthened the illusion until the grotto seemed solid and real. The stone walls shielded the occupants of the sofa