Read 03. Gods at the Well of Souls for Free Online Page B

of compensation.  But would you love your child if you had one? Of course you would." "Then I cannot have the hands done. If you check your data base, you will see  that these are essential for one of my kind to have a normal childbirth. I want  as few options closed as possible. I just want relief." 
     
    "Then you shall have it," Doctor Drinh assured her. "We have your residence  here. I will get our computers to work on this and see what is what, then call  with price and such. I really do think this might well be the best thing for  you, considering your circumstances." 
     
    Alowi left, and the doctor immediately went into the back of the clinic and  walked briskly into the laboratory portion of the building, where a huge,  sluglike creature was working at a machine using countless wormlike tendrils. "You heard and followed, Nuoak?"' Drinh asked the other. 
     
    "I did. The problem she seeks relief for is real." 
     
    "I know, I know, but I haven't felt fully comfortable since they moved here. I  almost told her there was no help, but I think that would have been worse than  the truth in arousing suspicion." 
     
    "Your professional pride and bragging got the best of you, and you know it. She  is exceptionally bright and knowledgeable and as an offworlder has the education  and possibly the cultural background to eventually put two and two together,  particularly with the added detail you gave her. I don't like it." "But what can we do? We can hardly dispose of her. The Dillians are her comrades  and titular employees of their state. They have council contacts that make them  too dangerous to involve. But if we play normal, she will almost certainly put  the facts together and start snooping in earnest. Then what?" He thought a  moment. "I suppose we could slow down her data processing speed and limit her  retention. Do it slowly, and she wouldn't even be aware of it or even care if  she did notice. If the Dillians noticed and wouldn't accept it as some natural  mental problem, we could always claim it as an unfortunate side effect." "Too obvious," Nuoak responded. "The data that we got from the security police  suggest she learned Agonian in only a few months and is well on her way to  reading Standard. No, looking over the data, a more interesting suggestion comes  to mind." 
     
    "Yes? You have an idea?" 
     
    "I do not believe that she is a direct threat to us. The chemistry here is  fascinating. She is almost totally nonaggressive, quite literally incapable of  defending herself against any significant threat. It must have taken every bit  of her willpower to just come here on her own. She might well suspect the truth  to a very great degree, but she would be incapable of acting upon it." "She had the guts to come in here and be pretty cool about it." "That is less a function of biology than force of will over biology, resulting  from the fact that before Well processing she was male and, to some degree, by  her mind battling against her body. The urges inside her must be excruciating.  But no, we must accept that she will suspect, or already does, and perhaps even  tell her friends about her suspicions. The fact is, though, that they can do  nothing at all about it. They remain here only as her friends and protectors and  possibly out of a bit of fear of actually returning to Dillia and taking up  normal lives there. It must be quite a difficult thing to actually bring  yourself to do. Still, they must be unhappy here, and bored and frustrated. They  would leave if they saw a way, I feel certain. They are held by the one pressure  this Erdomese girl can bring to bear; a version of passive aggression. 'If you  leave, I'll stay here and die.' Remove that and you remove the problems, all of  them." 
     
    "I am listening." 
     
    'The odds you quoted were correct, but surely you noticed that we can tip the  scales on one of them. We have the orientation model from the male