Free With a Tangled Skein by Piers Anthony Page B

moment, dear," Lachesis said, preoccupied. She looked at Chronos. "Tell me, friend, is this-?" she asked. Then she shimmered-and in her place was a woman of perhaps twenty, quite pretty, with a nimbus of black hair, and cleavage showing. Her dress was yellow, and very short. Then she changed again, and was the middle-aged woman in brown.
     
    Chronos nodded slowly, affirmatively.
     
    Lachesis seemed dizzy. She plumped into another couch. "Oh, my dear!" she exclaimed. "This is a pretty snarl!"
     
    "I don't understand," Niobe said.
     
    "Of course you don't, dear," Lachesis agreed. "Neither did I. But Chronos knew, of course." She mopped her forehead with a bright silk handkerchief. "What am I to tell her, sir?"
     
    "I suppose the truth, to the present," he said.
     
    Niobe was increasingly bothered by their attitude. "Of course the truth!" she exclaimed.
     
    Lachesis came to join her on the couch, taking her hand. "My dear, truth can be a complex skein, and often painful. I have looked at your thread, and-"
     
    "Look at my husband's thread!" Niobe exclaimed. "I must save him!"
     
    Lachesis disengaged, put her hands together, and stretched another gossamer thread between them. "Cedric Kaftan," she said as if reading from a text. "His thread-" She clapped her hands together, causing the thread to disappear. "Oh, my dear, my dear!"
     
    "You really are Pate? You can save him?"
     
    Lachesis shook her head. "I am Fate-an Aspect thereof. I determine the length and placement of the threads of human lives. I arrange for what befalls each person, in a general way. But this is a special case-a very special case. I cannot do what you ask."
     
    Now Niobe's sorrow turned to anger. "Why not?" she demanded. "You-you arranged his death, didn't you?"
     
    "I arranged his death; I did not decree it," Lachesis agreed sadly. "I remember the case now. I did not want to do it, but I had to. Now, thanks to Chronos, I begin to understand why."
     
    "Then tell me why!" Niobe cried. "I love him!"
     
    "And he loves you," the woman returned. "More than you can know. My dear, it would only bring you further grief to know more. Some deer must die, that the herd prosper."
     
    Some deer! That hurt her anew, for Cedric had tried to protect the deer. "You refuse to tell me?"
     
    Lachesis sighed. "I know how difficult it is for you to understand, Niobe. You are a brave and good woman, and your love is great, but you are mortal. I would help you if I could, but I cannot." She raised a hand to forestall Niobe's objection."To a child, life seems a series of arbitrary constraints; the child longs for the freedom of adult existence. But when the child becomes adult, she finds that the constraints remain; they only change their nature, becoming more complex and subtle. Even so, we Incarnations appear to have greater freedom of action than do mortals-but our constraints exist also, of a nature few mortals are equipped to comprehend. I can only assure you that a situation beyond your control and mine decrees that your husband must die. I can only say I'm sorry."
     
    "Sorry!" Niobe flared. "Sorry! What possible justification can you have for arranging the death of a man as noble as Cedric?"
     
    "I have two," Lachesis said. "One I may not tell you, and the other I will not."
     
    "Then send me to someone who will tell me!"
     
    Lachesis shrugged. "Perhaps Mars; he is aggressive-"
     
    "I will take her to him," Chronos said.
     
    Lachesis glanced at him sidelong again. "You have a special interest, Chronos?"
     
    "I owe-Clotho," he said.
     
    Lachesis nodded, knowingly. "It is a tangled skein we work from," she said. "A tangled tapestry we weave. Thank you for informing me, Chronos."
     
    Chronos nodded and stood, and Lachesis stood, and they kissed briefly. This startled Niobe, but she was too distracted by the frustration of her own situation to ponder theirs.
     
    Chronos took her elbow again, lifted his Hourglass, tilted it-and they were moving again, in