Those Who Watch

“What about this woman?” Glair asked. “What do you know about her?”

“She’s a young widow with a small child.”

“That’s all? What’s she like? Why did she give shelter to Vorneen?”

“We’ve had no contact with her,” said Thuw flatly. She looked at her watch. “When is this Earthman of yours going to come back, anyway?”

“Not until four this afternoon.”

“But that’s—”

I know. A long time from now. I can wait. Take your Kranazoi away and do whatever you’re going to do with him, and come back for me after four. I can’t leave without saying goodbye to Tom.”

Thuw gave her a searching look. “Out of gratitude, Glair, or out of something else?”

“Something else. Something deeper. I came to be quite fond of him.”

“In love with an Earthman, Glair?”

“Thuw, be a good girl and don’t ask questions, will you? Just go away and come back later. Come back at five o’clock and I’ll be ready to leave then.”

“Very well. We’ll pick up Vorneen in the meanwhile.”

“Don’t do that either,” said Glair.

Thuw looked a

“I’ll be the one to get Vorneen. He’s my mate, remember? I’ll claim him. And I want to speak to the woman he’s been living with, too. Just keep away from both of them and let me handle it.”

“Honestly, Glair—”

Glair took her by the arm and gently led her to the door. “Darling, it was wonderful of you and Sartak and Leenor to trace us like this. But there are certain things we have to handle for ourselves. Please: just go away and come back later.”

Thuw looked bothered by it all. But she left; and the moment she was gone, Glair sealed the door and sank down on the hall divan, quivering with tension.

So it had happened. They had found her. That much was inevitable. And before long she’d be in hospital on Ganymede, having the lingering effects of her crash-landing combed out of her system. Fine.

Mirtin and Vorneen were alive. Glorious!

And now — all she had to do was say goodbye to Tom—

It would be painful. Farewells always were. But he had already begun to brace himself against the certainty that she must leave him. What they had built, the bridge between Earthman and Dirnan, was by its nature unstable, doomed to fall. Only… so soon?

She knew that in a few weeks she would remember him only as a kind, troubled man who had helped her in a moment of stress. What she thought of as her love for him would fade to mere affection, once she was back among Vorneen and Mirtin, to whom she was linked by the deepest of bonds. But what about him? How would he react, cast back into the depths of his despair, all his certainties shattered by this encounter? He had not even believed in his despised Atmospheric Objects when he had found her. And now he knew more about the watchers than any man on Earth, and knew at first hand what it was like to hold a being from the stars in his arms and listen to her cries of pleasure. How could he return to ordinary life after that?

Glair thought she knew a way to help him return. It was worth trying, anyway. It might heal him in a way that her own relationship with him could never have done, and healing, after all, was her specialty.

She waited the long day through.

And then at last he was here, unsealing the door, coming into the house, taking her in his arms, crushing her up against him. She waited until he had kissed her, until he had shrugged out of his coat, until he had unburdened himself of a few hundred words about the stupidity and blindness of AOS. She listened, beaming.

Then she said in a cool, level voice, “Tom, my people came for me today. I’m going home,”

Twenty

Night had fallen. Jill had been given di

Of course, he seemed terribly strange to her, and always would, when she paused to think about his strangeness. Kathryn realized that there was no way to forget that he was human only on the surface, or that he had been born before George Washington lived, or that he had seen other suns, other worlds. Yet these things could be overlooked. There he stood, handsome, too handsome, tender, sympathetic, vastly interested in her, a god of love who had dropped from the skies.

She had always wondered if she would feel guilty about Ted the first time she fell in love again. Now she had the answer: she did not. She still loved the memory of Ted, and always would; but her dead husband’s hand did not hold her in a chilly grip, as she had feared. Ted was gone. Vorneen was here. Simply thinking about tonight sent a warm flush of excitement spilling through the conduits of her body.

It had surprised her that he could have sex with her; that his imitation body could perform and react as if it were real. His did. Oh, there were differences, and certain aspects that were missing and that always would be; but they did not matter. Vorneen surged with erotic vitality. Kathryn suspected that on his own world he was a devil with the women … if they had anything corresponding to “women’ there.

She was happy, at any rate.

She tried not to ask herself how long it would last. A time must come when she could no longer hide Vorneen in her house. He would have to affiliate himself with outside life, in some fashion, if he meant to remain here. And if he did not mean to stay here—

Kathryn’s mouth jerked into a tight line. It was unrealistic to think that he would stay with her forever. But he was here with her now. That was what counted. He was here with her now.

As she finished in the kitchen, she heard the sound of a car door opening and closing outside the house. Footsteps came, and then a ring at the door.

The sca

“Who is it?” Kathryn asked.

“Mrs Mason? My name’s Glair. I’m a friend of Vorneen’s. May I come in?”

Glair. A friend of Vorneen’s.

He had mentioned that name in his delirium. Kathryn heard the brittle silent sound of a shattering world within her skull. Leadenly she unsealed the door.

Glair was short, full-bodied, beautiful. She looked like a screen star — like a female equivalent of Vorneen, in fact, with the same radiant flawless attractiveness. Her eyes were warm and kind, and her skin was creamy-pale and without blemish. Kathryn knew that if she put her hand to Glair’s skin, she would find it as smooth and cool and unearthly as Vorneen’s.

For a long moment the two women faced one another. Then Vorneen emerged from the bedroom, leaning on his cane, and said, “Kathryn, did 1 hear the door—”

“Hello, Vorneen.”

“Glair. You.”

They did not run toward each other, as Kathryn had feared they would. They remained fifteen feet apart, and whatever passed between them was unvoiced, hidden from her awareness. For the first time Kathryn realized that Glair was supporting herself on a pair of aluminium canes. Into the deafening silence Kathryn said, trying not to shout it, “I guess you’ve come to get him.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs Mason. Kathryn. I know exactly what it’s like for you,” Glair told her softly. “How could you know?”

“I know. Believe me.” Glair looked at Vorneen. “Mirtin’s alive too. They’ve already picked him up and taken him offplanet. Does she — ”

“Know? Yes. She knows enough.”

Then I can speak freely. There’s a ship waiting for us, Vorneen. They came for me earlier today. I’ve been living in Albuquerque. Someone was kind enough to take me in and care for me until I was well.”