Aryuk of the Tulat, the Vole people, is a hero. He kills the Cloud man that threatens to take his wife, then goes away alone so that the Cloud People's vengeance will fall only on him, not on his tribe.
When Aryuk is dying, Wanda Tamberly descends from the sky, affirms her friendship for the Tulat, embraces Aryuk, gives him chocolate, administers a painkiller and enables him to perform one last act that will drive the Cloud People away from Beringia. Thus, like Janne Floris in "Star of the Sea," Tamberly behaves exactly like a goddess.
Tamberly could even have prevented Aryuk's death. That would definitely have crossed a line from the point of view of the Time Patrol but might she have been able to prevent them from finding out that she had done it? The biggest problem from her point of view would have been that she would have duplicated herself. There would be one Tamberly that had appeared and prevented Aryuk's death and another Tamberly who had not had any reason to do that.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But the more Wanda tried to do and the more risks she took then it would be more likely she truly would have crossed a line too far, been discovered, and sent to the exile planet.
Ad astra! Sean
Did Wanda break her conditioning against telling others about time travel?
Kaor, Paul! That I don't know. I've not gotten that far in rereading the Time Patrol stories. Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I refer to what we know she did with Aryuk, helping him to haunt Red Wolf after Red Wolf had killed him.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I remember that, but I don't consider it the same as Wanda telling Aryuk about time traveling. To say nothing of how I doubt he would even understand the concept, or have time for grokking it.
Ad astra! Sean
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