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was self-centered, egotistical, that he saw everybody else as kind of props
in his life? I got that much from you the moment you stepped in here, but he
wasn't a bad man, just vain and selfish to the core. The Well took that away
from you, and in a vain and selfish fit you decided death was better than not
being the center of the universe. Lori rescued you from that, but he didn't
make you the center of the universe, either. Within the limits of that
atrocious society he tried to make you a partner, but you couldn't stand it
in the end. You couldn't survive that way, or at least you didn't want to,
and you couldn't survive any other way. You were so desperate to break free
that you let those butchers mess with your mind even though you had a pretty
good idea that they'd mutilated Lori and me. You were relieved when you found
Lori as a horse. That put you in the center again, the one controlling him.
Even then you needed his guts to get here." Mavra sighed and looked over and
up at Nathan's pulsating bulk.
"Well? You got the big brain right now. What do you think?"
"I think that while we're going to have to correct Erdom a bit, these two just
don't belong in a nontech environment," Brazil commented. "On the other hand,
a kind of compromise that you sort of suggested with your comments and a few
things said elsewhere here present a possibility."
"That I suggested?" Mavra came back, puzzled.
"Yeah. It's going to take some really major work here, though. Let me see.
Gus? You've been the most solid one through this whole mess. If there's
anyone I'd want with me in a nasty situation, it would be you. You've also
got more moral sense than the rest of the bunch put together."
"Nice to hear," Gus told him. "But it don't count for much, does it? I'm a
big, fat lizard holdin" Terry's baby, but all that time I thought I was
stickin' by her, it turned out to be you."
"No, you're wrong, Gus," Brazil told him almost tenderly. "She was there. I
had to hide myself so thoroughly that not a trace of my true self emerged.
Occasionally I had to switch back and forth between that damned rehab tank in
Agon and her body. She knew, Gus. She was there all along."
"Until your comin'-out party. Where is she now?" he asked.
"In that body, my old body, which has healed with astonishing speed, at least
from the point of view of the medical people there. They're the ones keeping
her sedated for the moment. In fact, they've taken it out of the tank,
restrained, still sedated, and have transported it to the
Agonese capital for shipment through the Zone Gate there. I'm afraid they're
in for a nasty shock this time. That body's linked to me. Everything they've
done to it I've known, felt, just as if
I were still in it. I've deliberately kept it alive and healing. When it
comes through the Gate, oh, almost any minute now if my timing's right . ..
One of the hexes in the floor of the control room turned black, and a figure
was suddenly there, as if faded in. It was Nathan Brazil's own body, with
long, wildy flowing hair and beard, lying stark naked on the floor.
The body stirred, sat up, and looked around, a very confused look on its face.
"What? Who ... ?"
it asked in his voice, then saw Brazil in his native form and scrambled
backward.
"Come on, Terry! We didn't go through all that together to be put off by
looks, now, did we?"
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The figure frowned, then got unsteadily to its feet, eyes on the pulsating
creature. "You-you're-
him! You are him!" Then, suddenly aware of the beard and other odd feelings,
it said, "Or am I
him? This is crazy!"
"You played around inside me before," Brazil reminded her. "Now we'll have to
keep you there for a little bit. Don't worry, it'll all work out." "Terry?"
Gus said hesitantly. "Is that you in there? I mean, if it is, you can talk!"
"Yeah, I-what happened to me, anyway? I followed those signs into that swamp,
and then there were these people, and then everything seemed to be all
different all of a sudden. I-I remember all of it, I think, but half of it
doesn't make any sense! Neither does this, for that matter!"
"I had a tough time figuring out the Glathrielian system," Brazil admitted.
"If we hadn't spent all that time together on the island, I might never have
gotten it to the level where I could manage what I did. When that volcano
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