Read Online Out of Phaze by Piers Anthony - Free Book Online Page B

accustomed not to seeing women without clothing. I fear embarrassment.”
    “From me?” she asked, amazed. ‘Thou art an extremely, uh, attractive creature.”
    “Oh, what delight!” she exclaimed. “I never imagined! But I confess I do not know exactly how your species manifests this type of interaction.”
    Bane started walking, wishing that he could get away from this subject. Agape came right along with him. “I be sure I know not how thy species does, either,” he said. “But if thou canst help me get outside—“
    “Oh, yes!” she said enthusiastically. “Let me inquire of a menial!” She crossed to a panel set into the wall, and touched a button. “Please, some directions?”
    “Aid required?” a voice came.
    “We wish to find the outside.”
    “Follow the mouse.”
    A small panel slid aside at the level of the floor, and a thing very like a mouse emerged. But instead of legs it had little wheels, and instead of a tail it had an upward spike. It zipped down the hall.
    They followed. The mouse careened around a corner, then moved to a blank section of wall. Its spike emitted a beeping sound.
    ‘This must be it,” Agape said. She touched the wall with her hand, and it fogged. They stepped through it, into a chamber containing bulky suits suspended on frames.
    A large wheeled object approached them. “Serfs wish egress?” Its voice came from a grille on top.
    “Wish to go outside,” Agape said. “Is this permissible?”
    “Permissible,” the machine agreed. “The robot can go as is; the android must don protective gear.”
    “Oh, he is not really a robot, and I am not an android,” Agape said.
    The machine considered. “What definitions are applicable?”
    “Call me robot,” Bane said quickly. “I be the only one who needs to go out.”
    Agape turned to him, her lovely face seeming to melt a little. “You do not wish my company? I had understood that you found me attractive.”
    There seemed to be another misunderstanding here! ‘Thou dost wish to come outside?”
    “I wish to help you, as you in your other guise helped me. And if you continue to find me attractive, I wish to do with you what the females of your species do with the males.”
    Bane paused. It was evident that the mores of Proton differed somewhat from those of Phaze. But the fact remained that he needed help, and that she was willing to provide it, and he liked her company more than he thought was appropriate, considering that his other self might not feel similarly. If he found Mach, and exchanged places, and Agape tried to be too friendly with the robot. . .
    “I be trying to return to my frame,” he said. “When I do that, it will be Mach in this body again. I know not whether he would desire thy company.”
    She nodded. “I have no knowledge either. I thank you for your caution, Bane. But while you are here, I would like to be with you, because I understand how you must feel. You are an alien in this world, as I am, even though you look normal for your species.”
    Fairly spoken! “Then don some gear and come along!” he said. “I shall be glad to have thy company a while longer.”
    The menial machine selected a suit for her, and soon Agape was ready. Then they stepped into a tiny chamber she called a “lock” and the door closed on them. In a moment, Bane knew, another door would open, and he would finally see the outside.

4 - Magic
    At the foot of the mountain Fleta showed the way to a tree that bore huge and delicious-looking apples. Eagerly, Mach reached for one, but she put her hand on his arm, cautioning him. “That be no joke even I can abide,” she said.
    “Joke? I’m hungry!”
    “Bane, that apple be poison! Mayhap thou dost mean to denature it before thou dost eat, but this be not humor I abide.”
    Mach paused. “Mach, not Bane. I can’t denature anything, I told you!”
    “Mach,” she repeated, again stifling her mirth. Then she sobered. “But tease me not further; take of the good