between them and put her hand up to touch Astron's cheek. 'I wonder about the others, Kestrel,' she said,'but there is some advantage for the events as they have happened. For the first time in a very long while, we are alone.'
Phoebe slid her hand behind Astron's neck and put her lips to his. Astron choked in a moment of confusion but words would not come. He found his arms reaching around Phoebe and pulling her even closer to him. As he did, he felt a strange new feeling course through his body. He sucked in his breath at the intensity of it.
He was keenly aware of the softness of her back under the palms of his hands, even though her jerkin was in between. The press of her body tightened everywhere it touched. Without thinking, he maneuvered so that the pleasure of it would be greater. Astron felt his pulse quicken and his breath grow more shallow.
Desire swirled through his thoughts until only the tiniest ember of rationality remained. This was not like the duty for the broodmothers in any way at all. No cataloguer had dreamed of its potency, of that he was quite sure.
'You know that it does not matter,' Phoebe said softly. 'It does not matter what happens, Kestrel, just so long as we are together.'
Kestrel. The name jarred to a halt in Astron's mind and did not go away. It was Kestrel that Phoebe was giving herself to, and not a wingless demon who could not weave. It should be the woodcutter's pleasure and not his.
Astron looked into Phoebe's expectant eyes in confusion. It would be Kestrel's body, nonetheless. Her sensations would be the same. And he would catalogue yet another experience of humankind. It was his duty to his prince. Astron licked his lips. The yearning was crisp and sharp, like the most brilliant sodium flame. Perhaps if it was not the first time, if he were more jaded to the senses of men, it would feel different, but he was feeling the rush of emotion now and must decide what to do.
'It is a compelling pleasure,' Astron heard himself mumble. 'In the realm of men, pleasure is regarded as a great good.'
'The pleasure is because it is you,' Phoebe whispered.
How much of what he was feeling was merely the construction of the bodies of men? Astron wondered. How much was some part of Kestrel that still lurked around the edges of his thoughts? What happened exactly when two awarenesses were switched, anyway? Was Kestrel, in the body of a demon, experiencing the same temptations with Nimbia? Did the woodcutter still remember his human emotions and seek to gratify them as best he could?
A sudden wash of reluctance cascaded over his desire. Kestrel and Nimbia-it would not be right. She did not deserve to be deceived in the way that the woodcutter exploited his own kind. And if she did consent, it would be because she thought it was Astron the demon, not a weak-bodied human slave given to hunger, thirst, sleep, and who knew what other tugs and emotions.
'What is the matter?' Phoebe said. 'You feel so stiff, so uncertain.'
Astron pulled Phoebe tight one final time and sighed. 'It is not right,' he said. 'Now is not the time.' With an ache in his loins, he then awkwardly disengaged and gently pushed her away.
'Then when?'
'After we have reached the origin. After everything has been restored to the way it should be.'
Phoebe cocked her head to the side but gradually her smile returned. 'All right,' she said. 'Perhaps the burden of our escape rests a little more firmly on your shoulders than I realized. I should be carrying more of the load, rather than be the weepy prize of the sagas. There will be time enough when we are safe.'
She turned and groped for her cape. 'After our rest, let me take the front position in the engine. You will need your wits, if we encounter a node that is not vacant.'
Astron heard the sound of a blown kiss and then silence. He looked out into the desert and let his feelings slowly dissolve away. Getting to the origin was of the utmost urgency, he thought, but no more important than reversing the transformation between Kestrel and himself.
The next moves passed quickly. Phoebe made no further reference to the events of their first rest. As they made steady progress toward their goal, her spirits soared in proportion. Getting more accustomed to the sand engine, they were able to increase the number of nodes traversed in a single move from two to three. As with the first, each one they visited had been unoccupied; evidently the re-flectives had all moved elsewhere in their struggle with the rotators. But as they drew closer to the origin, Astron knew, they must finally encounter a challenge and have an explanation that would be believed.
Toward the end of the sixth move, as they tugged to reach a node only three away from the origin, Astron saw what he had been dreading throughout the trek. The silhouettes of warriors reaching for fresh fruit stood out from the outline of the treetops. Voices mingled with the methodical ticking of rectangular shapes scattered around the oasis. A lookout sounded an alarm and a half-dozen swords were drawn in expectation of their arrival.
Astron felt his discomfort grow. Despite Kestrel's explanations, the concept of deception was still unsettling. He would have to sound convincing, using facial muscles he could barely control. And with no experience, he could not judge the inherent credibility of the tale. He knew it was totally false; why would not the others deduce the same? He felt the sweetness of the air course in and out of his lungs, and a sught taste of apprehension not unlike the stirring of the stembrain began to awaken within him.
'We bring greetings from the chronoids,' Astron shouted as the engine grew close. 'An example of our most powerful of devices for you to observe. If the offered price is high enough, you will be able to remove the rotators from scores of nodes.'
Astron felt his chest tighten while he waited for a response. Involuntarily, his eyes darted from side to side, searching for which way to veer, if they charged, even though Kestrel had told him that one looked straightforward and smiled.
'I am Jankol, squad leader for the reflectives.' One of the warriors stepped forward from the rest. He was rail-thin, with narrow eyes that pinched together in the middle of his face. 'Despite the words of the doomsayers, more devices of our allies we can certainly put to good use-especially since the increase in vigor of the rotator attacks.'
Jankol paused and puckered his lips. 'The signal bolts cannot be wrong, yet it is still hard to believe. First, they captured a node, although substantially outnumbered. Then, with an almost obsessive passion they have massed, not scores, but hundreds to take more nodes from us still. The rumor is that they follow a new leader, but it is hard to see how that could make much of a difference.'
Jankol paused a second time, looking up and down the engine that Astron and Phoebe had constructed. 'A device that looks more primitive than any we previously have seen, to be sure,' he said after a moment. 'How can it have such power, if it is from an earlier time?'
Astron let out his breath. It was just as the human had said! The basic premise was accepted unchallenged. Now if he could only invent quickly enough to fill in the details. With a final surge, he pushed the engine into their midst and called for Phoebe to halt. While his mind raced for an answer, he slowly unbuckled the leather straps of his harness.
'This engine has the power of immunity to the forces of symmetry,' he said after a moment. 'How else could we travel from node to node, totally unaffected by the moves of your struggle with the rotators?'
'Immunity?' Jankol said. 'How can that help? The other devices you have given intensify the force, rather than decrease it. Why, with some we can even force exchanges of body or mind.' He waved his hand at the pond. 'That is what we amass here-in preparation for the great battle to blunt the drive of the rotators.'
Astron looked quickly around the node. The equipment of the reflectives was configured in much the same way as the first that Phoebe and he had encountered alone. This one was fully occupied with over a score of warriors, however, and not one, but three timepieces were sitting at the edge of the pond.
'Over forty nodes can you clear with what we have brought,' Astron said. 'Does it really matter how? The important point is the price. What have you given in exchange for the devices you have collected here?'
Jankol's lips puckered for a moment and he rubbed his chin. 'Why, the price is the same for each one. It was fixed by the first. You would know that from your past, if you come afterward.' He stopped and looked for a long time at the lashed-together engine. 'You must be from a more primitive time indeed, but then how could the first have been the beginning of all the rest.'
Astron felt the tug of muscles that were not there, but his nose wrinkled slightly, even with the human
