Yon Ill Wind Read Free Page B

head, increasing the efficiency of her mind.
    She smiled.  “I'm getting smarter!  I can feel it!  I'm beginning to understand things I never did before.  My perspective is broadening immeasurably.” She paused.  “And so is my vocabulary.  I never talked like that before.”
    Nimby nodded.  He had improved not only the height of her intelligence, but also its breadth.  Now she could overwhelm problems by force of intellect, and have the judgment to know when to apply it.  Now she really would use the term “bladder infection.”
    She cocked her head, looking at him.  “You know, you're quite a creature, if I'm not dreaming this.  Your talent is quite strong.  But now I have the wit to look a gift dragon in the tooth.  Why are you doing this for me?  You said you need my company, but I'm sure my company is not unique.  Was it chance or design that brought you to me?”
    Nimby couldn't answer that, so just gazed at her.
    She was quick to understand, because of her new intellect.  “Let me rephrase that:  was it chance?”
    He nodded yes.  He had been looking for Miss Fortune, and ill chance had brought him Chlorine instead.
    “Chance that you found me,” she said slowly, feeling her way through the powerful mind she now possessed, becoming aware of the several informational options and their bypaths.  “But you must have had a design.  Did you need me specifically?”
    He shook no.
    “Is your ultimate intention toward me beneficial?”
    He nodded yes.  He had to do her enough good to make her care enough to shed a tear for him.
    But she was too canny, now, to accept that uncritically.
    “Beneficial for me as well as you?”
    She had caught a significant qualification.  He really didn't care about her long-term welfare, only about his victory in the contest.  But since he needed her emotion, so that she would cry for him, he intended to treat her well.  He wanted her to come to like him, to care about his welfare.  By her definition, as he understood it, his intention was ultimately beneficial, if not totally happy.  So he nodded yes.
    “So you just need a person—and not to eat or otherwise harm.”
    He nodded yes.
    “Of course, I can't be sure I can trust you,” she said sensibly, for common sense was now one of her strengths.
    “But with the powers you have demonstrated, I'm sure you could have rendered me unconscious and consumed me, had that been your desire.  So the evidence substantiates your claim.  You need company.”
    He made a small nod.
    “But there is more,” she said sagely.  “Yet I could surely guess for days and never happen to discover it.  I've never been good at the game of nineteen questions, or even five questions.” She paused again, startled.  “But I could be good at it now.  However, I see no need.  As long as I keep your company, I can be as I am now—and when I separate from you, I will revert to the way I normally am.”
    He nodded again.
    “So let's see what else I want to be,” she said, getting practical.  “Beauty is only skin-deep.  I want to be healthy, too.”
    He focused on her, making her supremely healthy.  He had already accomplished some of this when he made her beautiful and smart, and now her chemistry was good as well as her bones and flesh.  She would live a long time, and never suffer illness, and would heal quickly if injured.
    While she remained with him.
    “Yes, I can feel that health coursing through me,” she said.  “I feel like running and jumping.” She did so, and her body responded perfectly.
    She returned to him.  “What is the range of your ambiance with respect to these benefits?” she inquired.  “Ten of my paces?  A hundred?  A thousand?”
    He nodded yes at the third suggestion.  She had to be associated with him, and while distance wasn't the key, it would do as an approximation.
    But she did not think to ask a related question:  could she go beyond that ambiance, formally terminating the