began immediately to roll, describing a rapid circuit about her.
«Stand up,» he said, «and stop releasing bodily fluids upon the floor.»
She did as he ordered, climbing to her feet, her expression vacant.
«Seat yourself in that chair,» he directed, indicating the one she had occupied but minutes earlier.
She complied, and the rolling ball adjusted itself to her progress and continued its circle, about the chair now.
«It cannot vacate that body,» he said then, «unless I release it. And I can cause it any amount of torment within my sphere of power. I can get you your answers now. Tell me what the questions are.»
«Can she hear us right now?»
«Yes, but it cannot speak unless I permit it.»
«Well, there's no point to causing unnecessary pain. The threat itself may be sufficient. I want to know why she's been following me about.»
«Very well,» he said. «That is the question, ty'iga. Answer it!»
«I follow him to protect him,» she said, her voice flat.
«I've already heard that one,» I said. «I want to know why.»
«Why?» Mandor repeated.
«I must,» she answered.
«Why must you?» he asked.
«I…» Her teeth raked her lower lip and the blood began to flow again.
«Why?»
Her face grew flushed and beads of perspiration appeared upon her brow. Her eyes were still unfocused, but they brimmed with tears. A thin line of blood trickled down her chin. Mandor extended a clenched fist and pened it, revealing another metal ball. He held this one about ten inches before her brow, then released it. It hung in the air.
«Let the doors of pain be opened,» he said, and he flicked it lightly with a fingertip.
Immediately, the small sphere began to move. It passed about her head in a slow ellipse, coming close to her temples on each orbit. She began to wail.
«Silence!» he said. «Suffer in silence!»
The tears ran down her cheeks, the blood ran down her chin…
«Stop it!» I said.
«Very well.» He reached over and squeezed the ball for a moment between the thumb and middle finger of his left hand. When he released it, it remained stationary, a small distance before her right ear. «Now you may answer the question,» he said. «That was but the smallest sample of what I can do to you. I can push this to your total destruction.»
She opened her mouth but no words came forth. Only a gagging sound.
«I think we may be going about this wrong,» I said. «Can you just have her speak normally, rather than this question-and-answer business?»
«You heard him,» Mandor said. «It is my will, also.»
She gasped, then said, «My hands… Please free them.»
«Go ahead,» I said.
«They are freed,» Mandor stated.
She flexed her fingers.
«A handkerchief, a towel…,» she said softly.
I drew open a drawer in a nearby dresser, took out a handkerchief. As I moved to pass it to her, Mandor seized my wrist and took it from me. He tossed it to her and she caught it.
«Don't reach within my sphere,» he told me.
«I wouldn't hurt him,» she said, as she wiped her eyes, her cheeks, her chin. «I told you, I mean only to protect him.»
«We require more information than that,» Mandor said, as he reached for the sphere again.
«Wait,» I said. Then, to her, «Can you at least tell me why you can't tell me?»
«No,» she answered. «It would amount to the same thing.»
Suddenly I saw it as a strange sort of programming problem; and I decided to try a different tack.
«You must protect me at all costs?» I said. «That is your primary function?»
«Yes.»
«And you are not supposed to tell me who set you this task, or why?»
«Yes.»
«Supposing the only way you could protect me would be by telling me these things?»
Her brow furrowed.
«I…,» she said. «I don't.,… The only way?»
She closed her eyes and raised her hands to her face. «I… Then I would have to tell you.»
«Now we're getting somewhere,» I said. «You would be willing to violate the secondary order in order to carry out the primary one?»
«Yes, but what you have described is not a real situation,» she said.
«I see one that is,» Mandor said suddenly. «You cannot follow that order if you cease to exist. Therefore, you would be violating it if you permit yourself to be destroyed. I will destroy you unless you answer those questions.»
She smiled.
«I don't think so,» she said.
«Why not?»
«Ask Merlin what the diplomatic situation would be if a daughter of the Begman prime minister were found dead in his room under mysterious circumstances - especially when he's already responsible for the disappearance of her sister.»
Mandor frowned and looked at me.
«I don't understand what that's all about,» he said.
«It doesn't matter,» I told him. «She's lying. If something happens to her, the real Nayda simply returns. I saw it happen with George Hansen, Meg Devlin, and Vinta Bayle.»
«That is what would normally occur,» she said, «except for one thing. They were all alive when I took possession of their bodies. But Nayda had just died, following a severe illness. She was exactly what I needed, though, so I took possession and healed the body. She is not here anymore. If I depart, you'll be left either with a corpse or a human vegetable.»
«You're bluffing,» I said, but I remembered Vialle's saying that Nayda had been ill.
«No,» she said. «I'm not.»
«It doesn't matter,» I told her. «Mandor,» I said, turning to him, «you said you can keep her from vacating that body and following me?»
«Yes,» he replied.
«Okay, Nayda,» I said. «I am going somewhere and I am going to be in extreme danger there. I am not going to permit you to follow me and carry out your orders.»
«Don't,» she answered.
«You give me no choice but to keep you pent while I go about my business.»
She sighed.
«So you've found a way to get me to violate one order in order to get me to carry out the other. Very clever.»
«Then you'll tell me what I want to know?»
She shook her head.
«I am physically unable to tell you,» she said. «It is not a matter of will. But… I think I've found a way around it.»
«What is that?»
«I believe I could confide in a third party who also desires your safety.»
«You mean-»
