Changeling by Roger Zelazny

Author:Roger Zelazny [Zelazny, Roger]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780441102570
Google: 4d9DPgAACAAJ
Amazon: 0441102573
Barnesnoble: 0441102573
Goodreads: 1118544
Publisher: Ace
Published: 1980-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

He returned his attention to Pol, not even glancing at Nora.

“Detson . . . Magician?”

“I suppose so.”

“I don’t understand magic.”

“I’m still working at it myself.”

Mark gestured suddenly, a sweeping motion of his left arm, apparently intended to take in the entire city.

“This I understand,” he said.

“Me, too. There’s a lot of it where I come from.”

Mark rubbed the scar on his cheek.

“What do you mean? Where is that?” he asked.

“We are step-brothers,” Pol replied. “Your parents raised me, in a land much like this place you have restored. Excuse me if I stare, but you do bear Dad a very strong resemblance.”

Mark turned away, paced several steps, returned.

“You’re joking,” he said at last.

“No. Really. For most of my life, I bore the name you were given as a child.”

“Which is?”

“Dan Chain.”

“Dan Chain,” Mark repeated. “I rather like that . . . But how could this be? I did learn only recently that I’d been adopted, but this—Too much coincidence! I can’t believe it.”

“Well, it’s true, and it’s not entirely coincidence. In fact—Wait a minute . . . ”

Pol dug in his hip pocket, withdrew his wallet. He opened it and flipped through the card case.

“Here,” he said, stepping forward, extending it. “These are pictures of Mother and Dad.”

Mark reached toward him, accepted the wallet, stared.

“These aren’t drawn!” he said. ‘”There’s a very sophisticated technology involved!”

“Photography’s been around for awhile,” Pol replied.

The lens brightened as Mark stared.

“Their names?” he asked.

“Michael Chain—and Gloria.”

“I—Yes, I see myself in these faces. May I—Have you others?”

“Yes. I have some more further down. You can take those. Just slide them out. Yes, like that.”

Mark passed the wallet back.

“What sort of work does he do?”

This time Pol made a sweeping gesture.

“He builds things. Designs them, rather. Much on the order of what you’ve apparently been doing here.”

“I would like to meet him.”

“I believe he’d like you. But I was thinking—as I acquired certain recent skills of my own—on the means by which I was brought to this world. It would take more research and some experimenting, but I believe I could learn to duplicate Mor’s stunt in transporting me. It’s occurred to me that a guy like you might not be happy here—especially after the story I heard—and I wondered whether you might be interested in going to the place from which I came. You might like it a lot better there.”

Mark finally looked up from the photos and inserted them into a small thigh pocket. He stared at Nora as if seeing her for the first time.

“She told you what they did to me, to my—stepfather?”

Pol nodded.

“You have my sympathy. I received very similar treatment myself, for different reasons.”

“Then you must understand how I feel.” He looked again at Moonbird. “Do you have plans for them?”

“At first, I did. But now, no. I can almost understand, almost forgive. That’s close enough. The longer I let it go, the less it should bother me. Let them go their ways, I’ll go mine.”

Mark struck his right fist against his left palm and turned away.

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