Free Wizard by John Varley Page B

people. Mostly they tell me what I have to do, when they’re rational at all.”
    “I’m rational. Now can we get on with it? Time must be a factor here.”
    “But it’s not, you know. I mean, not yet. I can help you only when we get closer to the ground, and what I’ll do is slow you down. Until then you might as well relax. But I guess I don’t have to tell you that.”
    Robin didn’t know what to say to him. She was on the edge of hysteria, and her defenses against it were weakening. The only way to deal with that, she had found, was to pretend you are calm. If you can pretend well enough to fool someone else, you might even fool yourself.
    He was falling in front of her now. As she looked at him, two things occurred to her: he was one of perhaps five people she had ever met smaller than herself, and she had no reason to assume he was a male. She wondered why she had done so. He had no external genitalia; there was nothing but a patch of iridescent green feathers between his legs. It must have been his wiriness. In her short time in Gaea she had come to associate angularity with males. He seemed to be made of bones and cables, covered with equal amounts of bare brown skin and multicolored feathers.
    “Are you a child?” she asked.
    “No. Are you?” He grinned. “At least you’ve started to live up to my expectations. Your next question is: am I male or female? I am extremely male and proud of the affliction. I say affliction because male angels live about half as long as females, and are smaller and have less range. But there are compensations. Have you ever made love in the air?”
    “I have never made love at all in the sense you probably mean.”
    “You want to try? We have about fifteen minutes, and I can guarantee you an experience you won’t forget. How about it?”
    “No. I can’t imagine why you would want to.”
    “I’m a deviant,” he said cheerfully. “I have this thing for fat. Can’t seem to get enough of it. I hang around waiting for fat human women to drop by. I do them a favor, and they do me a favor. Everybody’s happy.”
    “Is that your fee then?”
    “No. Not a fee. I’ll save you anyway. I don’t like to see people squashed to death. But what do you say? It’s not so much to ask. Just about everybody’s been eager to return the favor.”
    “I’m not.”
    “You’re odd, you know? I’ve never seen a human with markings like you. Were you born with those? Are you a different species of human? I can’t understand why you won’t make love with me. It’s over so quickly. All it takes is a minute. Is that so much to ask?”
    “You ask a lot of questions.”
    “I just want to … oops! It’s about time to start turning, or you’re going to hit … watch out!”
    Robin had turned in panic, imagining the ground almost upon her. Her shoulder caught the rushing winds the wrong way, and she began to tumble.
    “Just go limp again,” the angel advised. “You’ll straighten out. That’s better. Now see if you can twist around. Keep your arms out to your sides, and angle them back.”
    Robin did as he said, ending in a swan dive. They were passing through the twilight zone now, close enough that the land below her was moving visibly. The angel moved in behind her and encircled her with his arms. They were hard and strong as ropes, one crossing her breasts, the other over her loins. She felt the cool pressure of his cheek feathers against her neck, then the warmth of his lips on her earlobe.
    “You’re so soft, so much lovely padding… .”
    “By the Great Mother, if you are going to rape me, do it now, and a curse be on you for a lying peacock! We haven’t got all day.” Robin was shivering, fear of falling and the threat of nausea combining to batter at her self-control.
    “What’s in the bag?” he said tersely.
    “My demon.”
    “All right,
don’t
answer! But hold onto it. Here we go.”
    His arms were like clamps now as he carefully began to open his great