Chaining the Lady by Piers Anthony

intelligent, and unable ever to leave the environment of the ship. This is guaranteed loyalty! All you have to do is feed your magnet.”
    â€œTheir nature is distressingly Solarian, despite their shape and mode,” Llume said. “They are the ultimate thrust-creatures, objects of terror. They are largely invulnerable to conventional weapons even when directly struck, and they have such speed and power–”
    â€œMy sentiments exactly,” Melody said. She had learned much of what she needed to know about the magnets, but it was hardly comforting. If a magnet should get confused and attack her, what possible defense did she have? “May we communicate privately?”
    Llume placed her ball against Melody's human threat. It vibrated gently. “This cannot be heard beyond your flesh,” the Polarian/Spican said, the words sounding like a voice in the brain. “If you subvocalize, it will be private, unless there is a spy-beam on us. I do not think that is the case.”
    â€œThank you,” Melody said, speaking almost as silently as she did to Yael. She was now aware of Llume's aura, a really strong one of about one hundred, very attractive. “How did you identify my native sphere?”
    â€œAlien cultures are my avocation. There are typical nuances of expression and viewpoint. Yours conform to the nature of Mintaka. But you conceal it very well. No one not trained as I have been would recognize this, and in some moments your reactions are so perfectly human that I marvel.”
    Those moments would be when Yael's reactions came through. This was a most observant Spican! “That's a relief. You read my mannerisms, just as I read your lack of circularity.” Melody brought out the Hermit card from her deck, the same face Tiala had seen. “What do you see here?”
    Llume rolled her ball over the card's surface. Polarians lacked sharply focused vision, as did Mintakans. The designs of those cards were in trace relief, however, so they could be read by tactile means. The Polarian ball was a very sensitive communications organ. “This is a stylized Undulant swimming toward a star. I believe it is myself.”
    The sperm cell: it was in fact a tiny swimming creature, in its element. That was what would naturally strike the attention of a true Spican first. “Strange,” Melody said “I see communication.”
    They were in physical contact; Melody was aware of the fluctuations in the other's aura. There was no significant deviation in response to this loaded remark.
    â€œI suppose a star can be considered so,” Llume offered. “It bears light that all may see.”
    â€œI mean the beams.”
    â€œThe beams?” Still no ripple. Llume was genuinely perplexed. “Do they form a significant pattern?”
    One more test. “It occurs to me that we may be related,” Melody said. “Do you have any alien ancestors?”
    â€œYes. I have two. A thousand years ago, Flint of Outworld, a Solarian transferee to our home planet, raped a / agent of Andromeda. He had manifested as an Impact, she as an Undulant, and together with Sissix the Sibilant as catalyst they generated the infant Llana the Undulant. I descend from her. We are most interested in genealogy in Spican waters.”
    â€œWe also, in Mintakan fields,” Melody said. “I descend from the same two aliens, manifesting as Mintakans. But my loyalty is to Sphere Mintaka.”
    â€œAnd mine is to Sphere Spica, and Galaxy Milky Way,” Llume said.
    â€œOur auras are of the same family,” Melody said. “Very close, the closest affinity I have ever encountered. We are as sisters.”
    â€œYes. Our aural linkage is much more intimate than our physical ancestry, though it is amazing that we are related.”
    Melody chuckled. “Illusion. In the thousand Sol years since Flint of Outworld thrust his favors so widely, there has been ample opportunity