Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show by Orson Scott Card & Edmund R. Schubert

Author:Orson Scott Card & Edmund R. Schubert [Card, Orson Scott & Schubert, Edmund R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0765320002
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2008-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Howlaa fought, and I batted zir efforts aside, then simply reveled in having a body, especially a body as sensitive as the questing beast’s, seeing into higher dimensions, seeing colors that only exist between worlds. I wanted to fly through suns, roll across jagged stones, immerse myself in lava, feel feel feel this forever.

Howlaa was laughing at me, a tinny internal sound. “Shushit,” I said, not speaking aloud. I didn’t even know if this body had vocal cords. “You didn’t escape. You failed. We’re going to kill this man, and then return to the Ax.”

“Go on, then,” Howlaa said. “Best of luck.”

I attempted to take a step forward, and everything blurred. My head rang with odd chimes, and bizarre scents assailed me. I had never been in a body so sensitive to smell—each scent was like a line attached to me, tugging me in one direction or another. I paused, and the chaos of sensory input lessened. I took another step toward the dream-killer’s window, and this time a whole new set of sensations struck me, making me fall to the ground.

“This form will not do,” I said.

“Why not? Because you have no finesse, Wisp? Because you can control gross motor functions, but the intricacies are lost to you? In the questing beast’s form, even the most trivial movement is intricate. Then why not take another form, a simpler one?”

I felt rage—glandular rage, pumping up from somewhere in this body, a biological response to a mental state. I never get used to that, the feedback loop of mind and body that the corporeal undergo constantly, and I tried to dismiss its effects. I couldn’t shift into another form. That was far too intricate a task for my understanding of how to control a body. If Howlaa had been in a human form, I could have broken into the man’s house, stabbed him with a knife, and walked out again—such simple physical manipulation was within my powers. But as the questing beast…

“We have reached an impasse,” I said.

“And what do you propose?”

“Kill this man,” I said, “and I will not report your attempt to escape.”

Howlaa laughed. “Oh, please, don’t report me. What will they do? Sentence me to another lifetime of servitude?”

“Just kill him! That’s why we came.”

“I came to kill an invulnerable fat man with the golden weapons, Wisp, not a mentally disturbed human in his bed.”

“They are the same!”

“They are not the same. This man is mad, but he is not the killer—he simply dreams of killing.”

“But…his dreams are evil…”

“You would hold us responsible for our dreams now? If so, I am a regicide a thousand times over, for in my dreams, I rip the Regent and his orphans to wet bits every night. The Regent is the guilty party in this—he has made a machine that steals dreams, and he brought the killer to our city.”

“What do you recommend?”

“Fixing this problem at the source. Which is what I was trying to do when you so rudely possessed me.”

“You were trying to escape,” I said.

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