Indeed, if she could be tamed and taught moderation; if practice (but could he himself survive the practice?) brought her to a better sense of her own capacities, and, even more important, his, it might be pleasant to-
The snoring stopped suddenly and she stirred. He placed his hand on the shoulder nearest him and stroked it lightly-and her eyes opened. Trevize was leaning on his elbow, and did his best to look unworn and full of life.
"I'm glad you were sleeping, dear," he said. "You needed your rest."
She smiled at him sleepily and, for one queasy moment, Trevize thought she might suggest renewed activity, but she merely heaved herself about till she was resting on her back. She said, in a soft and satisfied voice, "I had you judged correctly from the start. You are a king of sexuality."
Trevize tried to look modest. "I must be more moderate."
"Nonsense. You were just right. I was afraid that you had been kept active and drained by that young woman, but you assured me you had not. That it true, isn't it?"
"Have I acted like someone who was half-sated to begin with?"
"No, you did not," and her laughter boomed.
"Are you still thinking of Psychic Probes?"
She laughed again. "Are you mad? Would I want to lose you now?"
"Yet it would be better if you lost me temporarily-"
"What!" She frowned.
"If I were to stay here permanently, my-my dear, how long would it be before eyes would begin to watch, and mouths would begin to whisper? It I went off on my mission, however, I would naturally return periodically to, report, and it would then be only natural that we should be closeted together for a while-and my mission is important."
She thought about that, scratching idly at her right hip. Then she said, "I suppose you're right. I hate the thought but-I suppose you're right."
"And you need not think I would not come back," said Trevize. "I am not so witless as to forget what I would have waiting for me here."
She smiled at him, touched his cheek gently, and said, looking into his eyes, "Did you find it pleasant, love?"
"Much more than pleasant, dear."
"Yet you are a Foundationer. A man in the prime of youth from Terminus itself. You must be accustomed to all sorts of women with all soul skills-"**
"I have encountered nothing-nothing-in the least like you," said Trevize, with a forcefulness that came easily to someone who was but telling the truth, after all.
Lizalor said complacently, "Well, if you say so. Still, old habits die hard, you know, and I don't think I could bring myself to trust a man's word without some sort of surety. You and your friend, Pelorat, might conceivably go on this mission of yours once I hear about it and approve, but I will keep the young woman here. She will be well treated, never fear, but I presume your Dr. Pelorat will want her, and he will see to it that there are frequent returns to Comporellon, even if your enthusiasm for this mission you to stay away too long."
"But, Lizalor, that's impossible."
"Indeed?" Suspicion at once seeped into her eyes. "Why impossible? For what purpose would you need the woman?"
"Not for sex. I told you that, and I told you truthfully. She is Pelorat's and I have no interest in her. Besides, I'm sure she'd break in two if she attempted what you so triumphantly carried through."
Lizalor almost smiled, but repressed it and said severely, "What is it to you, then, if she remains on Comporellon?"
"Because she is of essential importance to our mission. That is why we must have her."
"Well, then, what is your mission? It is time you told me."
Trevize hesitated very briefly. It would have to be the truth. He could think of no lie as effective.
"Listen to me," he said. "Comporellon may be an old world, even among the oldest, but it can't be the oldest. Human life did not originate here. The earliest human beings reached here from some other world, and perhaps human life didn't originate there either, but came from still another and still older world. Eventually, though, those probings back into time must stop, and we must reach the first world, the world of human origins. I am seeking Earth."
The change that suddenly came over Mitza Lizalor staggered him.
Her eyes had widened, her breathing took on a sudden urgency, and every muscle seemed to stiffen as she lay there in bed. Her arms shot upward rigidly, and the first two fingers of both hands crossed.
"You named it," she whispered hoarsely.
23.
SHE DIDN'T say anything after that; she didn't look at him. Her arms slowly came down, her legs swung over the side of the bed, and she sat up, back to him. Trevize lay where he was, frozen.
He could hear, in memory, the words of Munn Li Compor, as they stood there in the empty tourist center at Sayshell. He could hear him saying of his own ancestral planet-the one that Trevize was on now-"They're superstitious about it. Every time they mention the word, they lift up both hands with first and second fingers crossed to ward off misfortune."
How useless to remember after the fact.
"What should I have said, Mitza?" he muttered.
She shook her head slightly, stood up, stalked toward and then through a door. It closed behind her and, after a moment, there was the sound of water running.
He had no recourse but to wait, bare, undignified, wondering whether to join her in the shower, and then quite certain he had better not. And because, in a way, he felt the shower denied him, he at once experienced a growing need for one.
She emerged at last and silently began to select clothing.