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.I took a breath, turned from the grave and froze.No more than five paces away, tall, straight, shining, was an image of Vortex! How resplendent he seemed in his silver uniform; how his smile pierced my heart, just as it always had.Behind him, cloaks moving flamelike in the breeze, were two flanks of red-clad Warriors.Not breathing, hardly daring to think for fear even such inner movement might break this silver magic which shimmered before me, I waited.“Ah, Chrome,” Vortex shook his head, the smile fading, “no leap of surprise to greet me? I had counted on it, as always, to make me glad.What have they done to you, my beloved friend?” I clenched my jaw muscles hard.“And why are you so stubborn in your foreknowing? The Immortals have tried mightily to make contact with you, but you refuse to be led; you will choose only your own glimpses of the future, as you wish them.Getting you to come here took incredible efforts.From many directions.” He waited a little.“Have you still nothing to say to me, Chrome?”I would not be tricked into answering or moving, nothing to shatter this fragile most wondrous of mirages.A murmured word from Vortex and, with a swirl of heavy cloaks, the guarding Warriors turned away as one to march in discreet withdrawal.“I—I’ve fought hard for this moment.The time gone by without you has been endless, beloved Chrome.And my reward is to be only this stonelike silence?”Gently said, it touched within me chords of sorrow I’d hoped were stilled forever.And yet—No.This had occurred before in these hallucinations.Though my throat ached with the wanting of it, I knew I must not answer.“Ahl-Chon-Chrome, that is our way of saying ‘beloved,’ will you not speak?”Vortex came closer.Even closer.Now I saw the unshed tears, or their illusion, which gleamed on his thick lashes.He looked at me a long time.“Robot’s hearts cannot break, they say, nor can Kings cry.” His voice was low, its deep resonance an imagined caress.“But the Immortals and I will mend your heart if you will stop my tears.”He held out his hand to me.All my being cried out to take it, but I dared not risk moving.No, Chrome, do that and, as before, all will vanish!“Or can it be I was wrong?” Vortex’s expression became grave.“You’ve changed, perhaps, with this warring over your being or not being a Free-man? Decided not to join us?” A bitter smile.“I wouldn’t blame you for it, Ahl-Chon-Chrome.Please know that.”In protest at this last twist of the knife in my heart, I grabbed his outstretched hand in both of mine.Too late, I remembered what our final touching always brought.Yet, somehow, this time the spell did not break.Vortex still remained!“You are not dreaming, Chrome.I am very real.”Now the glistening drops spilled down his cheeks, splashed hot against my hands, coming faster as Vortex shut his eyes.He caught his breath with a sound which could not be borne.I threw my arms around him and locked them there, my face buried against his chest.“Now and always! Now and always!”XXVIIIt took Vortex time to pry me far enough loose for my words to become intelligible.He agreed fervently, but even then, starved for that face, those real yet fabled features, I wouldn’t let go.“So many times I’ve remembered this place,” he said.“So many thoughts of my savage young friend!” The tears had gone, and glowing heat was barely banked behind the softness of those gray-velvet eyes.“Let’s not linger here, Chrome.Already it’s been too long.”A thought, a sudden prompting.My child, which was growing and being nurtured within Ann.She’d said it would be a son, and, knowing her reedlike, stubborn determination, it would therefore, have to be a boy—I was lost in thought as Vortex raised my open-book face to his.He smiled.“The Immortals rarely dwell upon the future or its events, but they have told me of the child, Ahl-Chon-Chrome,” he said quietly.“He will be safe, well-guarded in every way, and one day we’ll return, you and I, to claim him.”One last tie with this planet tugged at my heart.“Vortex, wait.There’s a loyal highly deserving being who protected me.He would be a fine Warrior candidate, most worthy of your consider—”“The Immortals convinced me of that some time ago.Rover’s mentation comes through to them out of the murk of Earth like a bright beacon.They find his clarity invaluable.Even now he is being fitted for his uniform.”He tousled my hair, flung his arm hard around my shoulders and, beginning to laugh at my speechless happy surprise, walked me away with him.Away from the mound of stones.Out to join the Warriors and the ships.To start our journey to the stars—and beyond, to a million far lovelier worlds.THUS FOR ME IT ALL BEGAN
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