Metamorphosis - Jean Lorrah [42]
Thelia slept on, and after a time Data decided nothing would happen until the gods were sure she had had enough rest to maintain health, if not a sense of well-being. Having thoroughly explored the habitat, Data remained at Thelia’s side until she woke.
When she stared at the changed scenery, he explained what had happened, and led her to feel the walls that would not allow them to walk around the lake.
She ate the handful of leftover gring-nuts while she verified what Data had discovered.
“We must swim the lake,” she said at last.
“Thelia, I cannot swim, nor can I walk through the lake because of the chasm. The tunnel has closed behind us. It appears that this is where you and I must part company.”
“Data-no!” Thelia exclaimed.
He smiled at her as reassuringly as he could manage. “It is your Quest, Thelia. I was on the island, so the gods let me help you for a time. You have overcome your fear of me, although they have shown you all my strangeness. Now they have placed a barrier which you can cross easily, but which is impossible for me. Perhaps,” he added, “to show you that every being, no matter its strengths, also has its weaknesses. I have considered every possibility and probability, Thelia. There is no choice for you but to leave me here.”
“But what of your Quest, Data?”
“Perhaps mine is an impossible request. Or per-115 haps the gods have other plans once you have gone ahead. One thing the gods have certainly made clear: unless they plan to carry me miraculously across that lake, I cannot go with you to the other side.”
“Oh, Data,” said Thelia, tears in her eyes, “I shall miss you. I am sure the gods will allow you to complete your Quest. I just wish we could go on together.”
“So do I. But you must go now.”
She nodded. “Yes. I have come to depend on you, as I dreamed as a child of having a protector. My mother made me leave such foolish dreams behind and learn to depend on myself. Now it is time to do so again.
I shall miss you, Data-far more than I missed the seja doll that was only a prince in my imagination.
You are real-and I hope that the gods will grant that which you most desire.”
“I wish the same for you, Thelia,” he told her solemnly. “If my Quest is successful,” she added, “if two lands are united, and we show that we will not go to war again-then one day the gods may allow travel more easily between distant lands. Perhaps we shall meet again.” “I wish that could be so,” Data replied honestly. Thelia wrapped her boots in her battered cloak, and balanced the package on her head. She walked to the edge of the chasm, then pushed off and swam easily across. She was a strong swimmer; she walked out the other side, turned as she wrung out her clothes, and waved to Data-Who suddenly saw movement behind her?
“Thelia! Look out!” he shouted.
Out of nowhere, it seemed, the two raptors dived from the other side of the lake.
Thelia turned, and ducked quickly as they sailed right by her. The birds were gigantic!
Unable to judge distance with his handicapped visual sensors, Data had thought the birds perhaps the size of eagles. Now he realized that they had been much farther off than he had thought-and that they were as big as horses!
Nothing that big could fly on wings that size. But here inside their sacred mountain the gods of Elysia broke the laws of nature as they pleased-why not the inverse-square law? Data’s fear was for Thelia; it never occurred to him that the predators might see him as dinner until one of them dived directly at him. He heard Thelia’s shout, but her warning was of no more help than his own. There was no place to hide. He stood and braced himself, striking out at the biid as it reached for him-The creature grabbed his arm in one claw, and his waist in the other.
To his astonishment, the bird carried him off as if he weighed no more than a rabbit!
He battered at the creature’s leg