His problem had just been compounded. He knew from his prior observations that Niobe blamed him for the murder of her husband. Lucifer had done it, but it was indeed Parry's responsibility, for he had directed Lucifer to nullify Niobe. So Niobe was his sworn enemy, and now she had enormously increased power.

Again, he had to admire Gabriel's cunning. At every turn, this scheme became more diabolical!

How was he going to do anything about Niobe now? He had to try, lest he forfeit the contest. He could not touch her physically; even had she not become invulnerable as an Incarnation, the two wiser other Aspects of Fate that shared her body would have protected her. He needed to get her alone, and that was impossible.

Except for one occasion. Fate had to go to the Void to fetch the substance for the threads of Life. Clotho, the youngest, was the spinner of the threads; it was always her task to fetch the substance.

Parry knew what the Void was like! He knew that very few could ever face it, let alone negotiate within it. Only the Aspect of Clotho could do it, not the other two.

That was where he could approach her alone. That was where he could corrupt her-if he was ever to do it. Perhaps he would fail, but he had to try.

When the new Clotho made her maiden excursion to the Void, Parry followed her. He knew better than to enter that region of chaos without some kind of guide, but in this case, Niobe was his guide. He would stay with her until she emerged, perforce.

She began at the edge of Purgatory, where a road led toward the strange region beyond. Parry had not realized that chaos could be approached by a road! He followed, invisible and silent; he wanted to be sure she was alone, without her two companion Aspects, before he addressed her.

The road became a path, and the path wended through a thick forest. She spoke once, as if reflecting on something she had heard. "The Incarnation of War, and of Nature. I wonder what business they have here?"

What business indeed! Perhaps Mars sought the raw stuff of violence here, and Gaea the stuff of nature. So they had made a path. But he was sure that they did not go all the way into chaos.

The forest became so thick and the trees so large that the path was hopelessly squeezed and the light was almost cut off. Now Parry saw that Niobe was trailing a thread. That was how she intended to find her way out-by following her thread back! It was a secure device, for no one but her fellow Aspect Atropos could cut that thread of Life. Not when Fate was paying attention. Lucifer had to fudge the records in Purgatory to arrange for the death of Niobe-and even then, the ploy had gone wrong, taking out the wrong person and complicating Parry's challenge. It was dangerous to mess with Fate.

Niobe squeezed through the densest part of the forest, and Parry followed, having less difficulty because he was able to change his form. He became an invisible bird, flitting through crevices too narrow for his human form. Had Niobe not been an extremely slender figure overall, she would not have made it. Or was it that the path somehow accommodated her contours, which were by no means minor, so that she alone could pa.s.s?

Now the forest thinned, but the trees were misshaped and miscolored. Chaos was drawing nigh.

He followed her on through a region of vertigo, a pinwheel path. Then the path become a stream. Niobe hesitated, then removed her yellow cloak, laid it down, and sat on it, forming a floating craft of it. She was now in her underwear, and the contours that had been only hinted at before became fully evident. What a creature she was! He could have stared at her for a decade, while jealous fumes rose from Lilah.

That gave him a notion of how to corrupt her. He knew that she was to become Chronos' lover-lucky Chronos!-and that she was presently a widow and conservative about her relationship with any other man. If he played upon that situation, stressing the sordid interpretation, he might turn her off it before it started. She might even resign her office within the trial period. That would certainly foil much of Gabriel's plan for her.

Niobe floated out into the center of the Void, where Parry did not dare go. He was afraid he would get lost despite being near her, and did not care to risk it. JHVH would probably rescue him again if he called, but he preferred not to impose on the Deity of the Jews again if he could avoid it.

The woman seemed to spend an eternity there, gathering the substance of chaos into her craft. She, alone of all, could spin chaos into thread. At last she emerged, hauling herself along by the thread she had played out behind.

As she came to the solid portion of the path. Parry knew it was time for him to act. He did not like what he had to do, but certainly it would be better to nullify the woman this way than Lucifer's way.

He made himself visible. "Hi, babe." Niobe jumped. She caught sight of him, and stood appalled.

"I hate you!" she cried. Parry laughed, getting into the role. "Of course you do, you lovely creature."

"You killed my husband!" she flared. Oh, she was as lovely in her anger as in her confusion!

He saw that he could, by the mechanism of judicious interpretation, use her very grief for her husband to turn her away from the other Incarnations. First he explained about the nature of the substance of chaos: good and evil inextricably mixed, so that the whole of the process of mortal living was required to define and separate the two. He made sure to refer frequently to her appearance, calling her "sweets" and "sugar" and "delicious" and "luscious plum" so as to prepare her for the denouncement. The irony was that it was true; she was the most delectable mortal creature he had encountered, though she was now immortal. He was using the terms for a purpose, but each time he did, it reminded him of the truth of it. Niobe really was not his type, but even so, her beauty smote him with increasing force. She was appropriately appalled. "All life is just a laboratory to cla.s.sify the substance of the Void?"

"Indeed. Beautiful, isn't it? Just like you, cutie," If only his words were not so true! He wished he were not her antagonist, so that he could-what? Use this Aspect of Fate as Chronos would? No chance of that! No chance? Suddenly he realized that this could be another aspect of Gabriel's ploy. To cause the Incarnation of Evil. FOR LOVE OF EVIL. MS himself to be smitten by one of the Incarnations on G.o.d's side! That would surely destroy his effectiveness in opposing G.o.d! It was insidiously clever: Gabriel had made sure that Parry would take a personal interest in this woman, so as to discover how to nullify her, knowing that Parry had always had an eye for the fairest of female forms. That he had grown inevitably tired of the knowledgeability of demonesses and d.a.m.ned souls, and found true innocence appealing. Niobe was perfectly cast to appeal to him!

Parry steeled himself and proceeded to the necessary finale. "The Incarnations are human, doll," he said. "They have human ambitions, weaknesses and l.u.s.ts."

She reacted beautifully, in the various senses of the word. "l.u.s.ts! What are you talking about?"

"I'm so glad you asked, precious." He went on to introduce the notion of Chronos' need for a lovely young female Incarnation. She continued to react with ideal horror. On one level he hated what he was doing, but on another he liked it, because it was all too easy to imagine himself in Chronos' position. "You see, honeypot, we Incarnations have to get along with each other. We are not antagonists; we must cooperate. Chronos can be awkward, because he lives backward, but in this respect he is typically human."

"I can't believe that!"

"You may verify it very simply, roundheels," he said cruelly. "Ask Chronos. He remembers."

She was appalled, but beginning to believe. Now he proceeded to the lie, his specialty. He explained how the Incarnations could have cooperated to eliminate Niobe's mortal husband, so that the most beautiful of mortal women could become an Incarnation and satisfy Chronos' l.u.s.t. "I suggest you relax and enjoy it, toots," he concluded.

"Relax, h.e.l.l!" she screamed, forgetting her innocence enough to utter that foul word.

He smiled. "Exactly." He had really gotten through to her; she was now ready to kill Chronos.

He added one more detail, unable to resist. He a.s.sumed the likeness of her departed husband.

She recognized it, and screamed incoherently at him.

"Shall I kiss you, sweetlips?" he inquired. "I, too, find you desirable, and can make you forget-"

She struck at him with her distaff. "Get out! Get out!"

Parry resumed his normal form. "Another time, perhaps, when you have been suitably broken in." That was the final fillup; she would remember it the moment she saw Chronos. First the Lord of Time, then the Lord of Evil.

He faded out, leaving her sobbing with grief and outrage. He watched long enough to be sure she had not been feigning.

He left her, satisfied that he had done what he could. But somehow he had no joy in this operation. He hated to do this to such a lovely young woman, and he was sorry to do it to Chronos, whose other officeholders had been his only friends among the Incarnations. But mostly he was ashamed of the fact that he had been striking as much at his own sensitivities as at hers; he really did find her desirable, and hated the necessity of treating such a creature with such contempt.

But the treatment was not effective, almost to his relief. The other Aspects of Fate managed to talk Niobe around, and she proceeded to have the affair with Chronos. She opposed Satan implacably, and he could hardly blame her. His effort to turn her off Chronos had been a double-or-nothing gesture; he had known that if it proved unsuccessful, all her anger would focus on him, Satan.

But her tenure as Clotho did not seem to alter that balance of good and evil in the mortal world significantly. Parry was unable to make real progress, but he did fend off the mischief of the other Incarnations. The standoff that had existed for centuries continued.

Mephistopheles continued to watch, however, for the mischief had three generations to run. Perhaps it was not Niobe but her son or his offspring that would prove to be the key.

That son grew up to be a magician of surprising potential. But he was unmarried. If he died without issue, that would end the matter, for as long as Niobe remained an Incarnation she could not have another child. Incarnations were frozen at the age they entered the office unless, as in his own case, they had the wit to choose to settle in at another age. Lilah had known, and given him the clue at the outset. But whatever the physical age, their inability to change meant sterility, for the process of gestation was an aspect of aging.

Then the magician son decided to marry his cousin Blenda, who was another mortal of Niobe's stripe: the most beautiful other generation. Mephistopheles informed Parry the moment the engagement was made.

"Take him out," Parry said curtly. He did not like such business, but he could not afford to have that third generation launched.

"I shall have to free a demon to the mortal realm, my Lord," Mephistopheles said.

That was a complicated business; demons were hard to free for even a few hours, and the prospects were limited. But this was critical. "Do it."

Mephistopheles faded out with a smile; he liked dirty business.

But again destiny proved to be difficult to balk. The ploy misfired, and instead of the magician or his bride it was the bride's mother the demon killed. Gabriel's ploy continued, and Niobe was, if anything, even more implacably set against Satan.

Niobe continued to be a nuisance. She tried to save a Senator Parry had marked for extinction, and succeeded in that; Parry was, however, able to salvage the situation by destroying the Senator's reputation instead.

Then, abruptly, Niobe decided to step down from office. "What?" Parry demanded, astonished. "How can she interfere with Me if she steps down?"

"She can bear another child," Lilah said darkly.

That would do it! "Find out about this," he snapped.

Lilah vanished. Soon enough she was back with her report. "She plans to marry her husband's cousin Pacian, who has the magic music."

"Music?"

"I thought that would perk Your ears, my Lord! Yes, he does not sing as well as You, but his magic enhances it so that the effect can be as great."

There was a certain malice in her remark that annoyed him, but he kept it reined. He was getting somewhat tired of Lilah's mannerisms, though she remained has most effective s.e.xual partner. One of these decades he would have to send her away on a long a.s.signment so he could have a turn at some fresher female. "Is that all?"

"Plenty more, my Lord. There is a set of prophecies in her possession. It seems that when she was new in office, and still attached to her son, she prevailed on Atropos to pose as a grandmotherly figure and-"

"Atropos!" he interrupted. "The senior Aspect of Fate? She cuts the threads of Life. Some grandmother!"

"Yes, my Lord. But Atropos took the little boy and his cousin Pacian to two seers who happened to be competent, and asked the same question of each: Whom were the two boys to marry, and what would become of their children?"

"That is of interest to Me," Parry agreed. "Why was I not advised before?"

"The demon that Mephistopheles a.s.signed to spy on them did not realize that the prophecies were valid. Most seers are impostors, making up items to please the clients. So it was only now, when I investigated, that I recognized these prophecies for what they are: sendings from Gabriel. The Angel was giving Niobe a hint of the destiny of her line."

"In such a way that it bypa.s.sed the demon," Parry said with grudging admiration. "Continue."

The first seer said, and I quote, 'Each to possess the most beautiful woman of her generation, who will bear him the most talented daughter of her type. Both daughters to stand athwart the tangled skein, and one may marry Death and the other Evil.' "

Parry's jaw dropped.

"The other seer said, and I quote again, 'One to be savior of deer, his child savior of man; other to love an Incarnation, his child to be one. But the skein is tangled.' More she would not say." Parry found his voice. "And Niobe's son, the magician, did marry Pacian's daughter Blenda, the most beautiful woman of her generation. Now Pacian, a widower, is marrying Niobe herself, the most beautiful woman of her generation."

"As I said, my Lord, they were true prophecies. So it seems there will be two daughters, highly talented, and one may marry Thanatos-"

"And the other may marry Me!" Parry finished. "How can this be? I will never marry again!"

"Not while I'm with You," Lilah agreed darkly. "But there is a lot of leeway in that word 'may,' my Lord."

"Not enough leeway! This complicates the plot considerably!"

"The girls will stand athwart a tangled skein," Lilah agreed. "One to save man, the other to be an Incarnation."

"The daughter of the man who loves an Incarnation," Parry agreed. "That would be Pacian. I must watch out for his daughter."

"And for the other girl," she reminded him. "She is the one who will save man-which means You will lose."

"I must be rid of both of them!" Parry snapped. "One is Niobe's daughter, the other her granddaughter."

"But each time You have tried to take out one of that line, You have failed. In fact, it was the last failure that caused Pacian to become a widower, so that now Niobe can marry him. You played into G.o.d's hands!"

Parry definitely did not like her att.i.tude. She was enjoying this, in her covert way. "I shall be paying closer attention henceforth," he said darkly. "This contest is not yet done." Still, he heeded the warning of experience; with the amount of attention that was focusing on this matter, it would be extraordinarily difficult to eliminate those girls. He would have to try other methods first, defusing this matter in some more devious and effective manner.

His first chance was to prevent at least one of the girls from coming into existence. Therefore the next time Niobe went to gather chaos from the Void, he intercepted her. That was the one place she had to listen to him, because her other Aspects were damped out and she was alone.

"So you are quitting, cutie," he said, as if it were of no account.

"Go to h.e.l.l," she snapped back.

He tried to suggest to her that he was glad she was departing the office, but she was now too canny to be deceived. "I am fated to produce a mortal child who will be a real pain in the tail for you." He could not fool her and, oddly, he found he did not want to. She had fought him for decades, and he had admired her for the same period. He decided to talk seriously. "There are currents of destiny that perhaps only G.o.d comprehends. Our glimpses of the future are fleeting and imperfect, but I have taken a reading on your daughter and see only a terrible storm perhaps forty years hence. I do not know the outcome."

"And one may marry Death, the other Evil," she said, recalling the prophecy.

"Why should I ever bind Myself to a mortal woman?" he demanded with genuine ire. Yet he knew that had Niobe herself been interested, in her youth, he would have been sorely tempted. But she had the answer. "She is to be an Incarnation."

"And what woman, whether mortal or Incarnation, would ever bind herself to Me?" There was a second level to that question, because of their past interaction. Even at this stage, if Niobe were to change her mind about him as a man... "Only an evil one," Niobe said. She looked no happier about it than he felt.

"You are indeed a good woman, as well as a lovely one," he said with feeling. "Yet the prophecy-"

"Satan, what are you getting at?"

Now he spoke straight from the heart. "Niobe, there is a tangle coming in your skein that neither of us understands. Something strange is brewing. Let's avoid the whole issue, and oppose each other on conventional grounds. Keep your present office, O lovely woman! Do not generate that child."

"You're crazy!"

"No, I am evil, not crazy. You know Me-" he tried to stop himself, but was carried away by a surge of emotion. "Therefore you will not do for Me what you did for Chronos."

She stared at him. "You-desire my favor?"

"I do desire it." He had not realized it fully until this moment. Perhaps Lilah had, though; that would account for her creeping alienation. She tolerated his affairs with d.a.m.ned souls, but she realized that his love of an Incarnation, particularly this one, was mischief indeed.

"You will never have it!" Niobe said.

"That I know," he said heavily. "Still, I wish you would remain in office."

She laughed in his face.

Now sudden wrath overcame him. He had spoken truth to her, and she had rejected it. That was the humiliation that stung worst! "Then feel the brunt of My wrath!" he cried. "And your child will suffer too. You and yours will rue this hour!" He departed.

He had made a terrific fool of himself, he knew. He had been blinded by the beauty of his opponent, and allowed his true emotion to surface. Now he was in worse trouble than ever.

More than a decade later. Parry's attention was called to Niobe again. He had not bothered with her in the interim, because her nuisance of a magician son had crafted spells to protect her and the children, and the magician knew what he was doing. But now she was taking the two girls into the Hall of the Mountain King to obtain the gifts of instruments that would greatly enhance their powers. He had to prevent that!

He sent a demon to trigger the Mountain King's defenses, so that the gifts could not be removed from the premises. The demon performed, but the Mountain King himself investigated, and as Fate would have it, he recognized Niobe from her period as an Aspect and let the gifts go. It seemed impossible to impede the progress of this juggernaut!

But he continued with the routine business of his office, evoking evil wherever he could. One of the mortal organizations that interfered with his activities was the United Nations. He had succeeded in corrupting aspects of it, but the main part still stood for decency and order in the world, and so remained a problem. He worked out a plan to detonate a psychic stink bomb at its headquarters that would cause the organization to be expelled from America and moved to a hostile country. That would blunt its effectiveness.

Naturally Fate meddled in. He was ready far that. He had arranged irresistible situations that caused all three Aspects to retire at almost the same time, so that Fate was a complete novice at the moment. By the time the new officeholders became experienced and canny, he would have won a major coup. He still hoped to gain a sufficient advantage of the inattentive G.o.d before the skein Niobe had started ran its full course; then that skein would become irrelevant.

Then, at last, he would be able to take control, and commence a more efficient and gentle program for defining the universe. The need was becoming more pressing, for in these centuries of G.o.d's dereliction mankind was getting rapidly into more trouble. Population was exploding, and the world was getting polluted, and the threat of a holocaustic war was increasing. Someone had to act to abate the situation before everything accomplished in thousands of years was destroyed.

Just to be sure that Fate did not muddle through to a victory, he arranged to have false data inserted in the Purgatory computer. The computer was a modernistic science device that now kept track of the numbers and ident.i.ties of souls being processed. If the new Fate queried it, she would be sent on a spurious chase. The old Fate would never have been fooled, but the new one should be vulnerable.