Free Out of Phaze by Piers Anthony

fruit.”
    Mach reached for a different apple, and glanced at her; when she nodded, he plucked it. “You promised to tell me why you think I could heal myself or conjure food.”
    She plucked an apple of her own, and nibbled at it delicately while she spoke. “We have known each other since I was a foal and thou a baby,” she said. ‘Thy father, Stile, and my dam, Neysa, be oath-friends, and so she raised me near the Blue Demesnes, and I did learn the human tongue even as thou didst. We wrestled together when little, and later I carried thee all around Phaze. Only these past three years, when we became grown and thou studied the magic and I the antimagic of my kind, have we been separate, and though it had to be, I missed thee, Bane. Now for a moment we romp again, and ne’er would I have it end.”
    She had a funny way of referring to herself! “But what about magic?”
    “Thou’rt the son of the Blue Adept!” she exclaimed. “One day thou willst be lord of the Blue Demesnes thyself. That be why thou hast been studying thy magic. Already thou canst do conjuration no ordinary person can match. Hard be it for me to understand why thou didst not summon a sword and stab those roach-heads, or transform them to slugs.”
    Mach stared at her. “You’re serious! You think I can do magic!”
    “Bane, I have seen thee do magic many times,” she said. “E’en when we were little, thou wouldst tease me with thy conjurations, but always I forgave thee. My dam likes magic not, but I have no aversion to it, for how could I love thee and not thy nature?”
    Mach shook his head. “Fleta, you must understand this: I am not Bane. I can’t do magic. The first time I met you was last night.”
    “Thou certainly dost look like Bane, and sound like him, except for thy funny affectation of speech, and smell like him,” she said. “Else would I not have come to thee.”
    “I’m in Bane’s body. But I’m from the other frame. My name is Mach, and science is all I have known.”
    “If thou wouldst have me believe thee, let me touch thee,” she said.
    “Touch me?” She came to him, and took his hand, and brought it to her forehead. She pressed it against the gem in her forehead.
    “Speak,” she said.
    “I am Mach, from Proton,” he said firmly. “I exchanged bodies with my other self in Phaze, with Bane. Now I am here and he is there, and I’d like to change back.”
    She lifted his hand away from her head and brought it down before her, staring at him over it. ‘Truth!” she exclaimed, wide-eyed. “No joke!”
    “No joke,” he agreed.
    ‘Thou’rt not the man I know!”
    “I am not.”
    She dropped his hand and backed away. “And I spent the night with thee!” she said, appalled.
    He had to smile. “Nothing happened, Fleta.”
    “And I kissed thee!” she continued. “Oh, had I known!”
    “And a nice kiss it was, too,” he agreed.
    “And now I stand naked before thee!” she said, seeming shocked.
    “It’s the natural way.”
    “Not for grown folk!” she said. In a moment she had gotten back into her robe.
    “But you’re no Citizen!” Mach said. “If anyone catches you in that—“
    “This be not Proton!” she snapped.
    He had to smile. ‘Touche! No Citizens here.”
    “No science here.” She squinted at him as if trying penetrate his disguise. “But if thou really canst not do magic—“
    “I really cannot,” he agreed.
    ‘Then there be hazard here,” she concluded. “Best I change form and carry thee back to the Blue Demesnes before any learn!”
    “Change form?” he asked. “What are you talking bout?”
    She hesitated. “Ah, now I remember! Thou dost not ke—Oh, what must I do?”
    Mach spread his hands. “I don’t know why you’re so upset. Why don’t you just show me where these Blue Demesnes are, and maybe there I can learn how to return to Proton. Then you’ll have your friend Bane again.”
    She still seemed doubtful. “Bane—Mach, this be no garden within thy