“No, I didn’t know that,” Montray said. “I suppose I’d better take your advice, then; you’re supposed to be the expert on women’s customs.”
But as they went through the great gates, past the black-leathered Spaceforce man on duty, Montray scowled. “See what you’ve let me in for? He probably thinks I’ve picked myself up a Darkovan girlfriend.”
Magda shook her head, reminding him that the Spaceforce guards knew her, and were accustomed to seeing her in Darkovan clothing; she never went into the Old Town without it. But, too late, it occurred to her that she had, perhaps, let Montray in for trouble on the Darkovan side. Terrans were not precisely popular in the Old Town, and the sight of a Terran escorting a respectable Darkovan female could indeed causesome trouble, if some Darkovan hothead wanted to take advantage of it.
This is idiotic. I know fifteen times as much about Darkover as Montray ever will; yet by strict protocol I’m not even qualified to be an official translator, far less for any position more advanced than that; just because I’m a woman, and Darkover is a world where women don’t hold such positions.
So by accident of birth, I’m permanently disqualified from the work I know best, while an idiot like Montray needs a specially qualified linguist to write his speeches, and two nurses to hold his hand in case he gets lost or has to find his way a hundred meters outside the gates! I should have Montray’s job. He isn’t even qualified for mine!
Montray was shivering: Magda had no sympathy for him. Montray knew what the climate was like; he had authority to dress for it, or modify the official uniform in some more suitable way, but he didn’t even have the imagination for that.
I ought to get right off this damn world. There are plenty of planets where I could do the kind of work I’m best fitted for.
But Darkover is the one I know best. And here, I’m only fit for a woman’s job!
And I can only do even that because I’m a Terran. Darkovan women don’t even do my kind of work!
At the gates of the Comyn Castle, a man in the green-and-black uniform of the City Guard asked their business. He used the derogatory mode, and Magda bristled.
Montray would not have noticed, but Magda told him stiffly that they had been personally summoned by Lord Lorill Hastur. The Guard went away, returning almost immediately; this time he spoke in the respectful mode, saying that the Lord Hastur had given orders for them to be conducted at once into his presence.
The hallways of the Comyn Castle were drafty, cold and all but deserted. Magda knew that at this season of the year, most of the Comyn had withdrawn to their own estates throughout the Domains; they gathered here only in Council Season, near midsummer. The Hastur Domain was far away on the borders of the Hellers; she supposed Lord Hastur had stayed here only because events in the capital city required his presence. She carefully studied the corridors, the hangings and ornaments, wanting to make the most of an opportunity, which, for her, might never come again; no woman could hold an official post on Darkover, and she would probably never again enter the Comyn Castle.
At last they were led into a small audience chamber where Lorill Hastur awaited them: a slight, serious man, with dark red hair tinged with white at the temples. He greeted them with courteous phrases, which Magda translated automatically. She had seen that the only other person in the room was Lady Rohana Ardais. Magda would have said, if asked, that she did not believe in precognition and was skeptical about ESP. Yet the moment she saw the slender, copper-haired woman, in a dress of violet-blue, seated quietly on a cushioned bench, she knew.
This has to do with Peter …
“My kinswoman has made the long journey from Ardais purposely to speak with you,” Lorill Hastur said “Will you explain, Rohana?”
“I came to you from a sense of obligation,” Rohana said, “because you were kind to me when I came to you in deep trouble about my son.” She spoke to Montray, apparently, but it was obvious that the words were meant for Magda.
“My husband and I have just received a message from Rumal di Scarp.”
Magda could not quite control a shudder as she translated. “Sain Scarp is the most notorious bandit stronghold in the Hellers,” she explained to Montray. (As a child, that word had been used to frighten her little friends into good behavior: “The men from Sain Scarp will get you!”)
Lady Rohana continued: “Rumal hates the men of Ardais with a deadly hatred; my husband’s father hanged half a dozen of his men from the walls of Castle Ardais. So now Rumal has sent us a message: that he holds our son Kyril prisoner in the jorst of Sain Scarp; and he has named a ransom which we must pay before midwinter, or Kyril will be sent back to us”-Rohana shivered slightly-“in pieces.”
Montray said, “Lady, my deepest sympathies. But the Terran Empire cannot entangle itself in private feuds-”
Rohana’s eyes blazed. She did not wait for Magda to translate. “I see you still have not understood. When, after I spoke with you, I returned to Castle Ardais, I found my son safe and well at home; he had delayed because of frostbitten feet, and came when he was able to travel. When we received the word from Sain Scarp, he was in the room with us, and he thought it a tremendous joke.”
Magda turned pale, knowing what Rohana’s next words would be. “I knew, then, having seen the portrait you showed me, just who is being held in Sain Scarp. Your friend,” she said to Magda. “Is he your lover?” She had used the polite term, for which the nearest Terran equivalent was “promised husband”; the derogatory mode would have implied “paramour.”
Magda forced her words through dread. A whole childhood spent hearing tales of bandits in the Hellers made her throat tight. “He was my”-she searched for the precise Darkovan equivalent for “husband,” for there were at least three forms of Darkovan marriage-“my freemate. We have separated, but we were childhood friends and I am deeply concerned for his safety.”
Montray, who had followed all this with difficulty, was scowling. “Are you certain? It is rare for any of my men to go so far into the Hellers. Could it not be some other kinsman with a resemblance to your son, Lady?”
“Rumal sent this with his message,” Rohana said, and held out a man’s neck-ornament on a fine copper chain. “I know it is not my son’s; it was made in Dalereuth, and such work is not sold in the Hellers, nor worn much.”
Montray turned it uneasily in his hands. It was a carved medallion of some blue-green semiprecious stone, encircled in finely worked copper filigree. “You know Haldane better than I do, Magda. Do you recognize it?”
“I gave it to him.” Her mouth was dry. It had been shortly before their short-lived marriage; the one and only time they had traveled together to the plains of Dalereuth. She had bought it for herself, but Peter had admired it so extravagantly that Magda, who after all could not wear a man’s ornament, had made him a present of it, in return for-She raised her shaking hands to the nape of her neck, touching the silver butterfly-clasp she always wore.
He took off the one I had worn, and pinned this one there … as only a lover would dare to do … and I let him. …
“That’s pretty conclusive,” Montray said. “Damn him, he knew better than to try to get into the Hellers alone. What chance is there that this bandit-di Scarp-will turn him loose, if he finds out he’s got the wrong man?”
“None,” Hastur said. “The mountain bandits remember all too well those first few years at Caer Donn, when Aldaran deceived the Terrans into believing it was permitted to use your weapons against them. I hope, for his own sake, that your young man does not reveal his identity.”
Montray said, “Doesn’t that just prove that we were right to help the Aldarans, and that you were wrong to stop us? They are still ravaging your people worse than ever, and your Darkovan Compact makes it impossible to attack them effectively. You should have let us finish wiping them out!”
“I must respectfully refuse to debate the ethics of Compact with you,” Hastur said; “it has kept Darkover free of major wars for hundreds
of years, and is not open to debate. We still remember our Ages of Chaos.”
“That’s all very well,” Montray said, “but doesn’t it mean anything to you that an innocent bystander may be murdered in a quarrel that is none of his, and that you are condoning their actions by making it impossible for our people to rescue him?”
“It means a great deal,” said Hastur, and his eyes glowed with sudden anger. “I might remind you that he is hardly an innocent bystander, having walked into this situation of his own free will. We did not require him-for that matter, we did not even give him leave-to travel in the Hellers. He went of his free choice and for your purposes, or his own-not ours. But we did not forbid him to go, either; and it is really none of our affair if he suffers the same fate that our own men risk whenever they go there. I might remind you, also, that there was no compulsion upon us ever to tell you of his fate. Nor do we refuse you leave to rescue him, if you can do it as secretly as he went there.”
Montray shook his head. “In the Hellers, with winter coming on? Impossible. I’m afraid you’re right; he knew the risks he was taking, he knew what would happen if he got caught. I’m afraid he’ll have to take whatever he brought on himself.”
Magda said in horror, “You’re not going to-to abandon him, just write him off?”
Montray sighed heavily. “I don’t like it either, Magda. But what else can we do? He knew the risks; you all do.”
Magda felt her spine prickle, as if the small hairs on her body were all standing on end. Yes, that was the rule of the Intelligence service. The first law and the last is secrecy. Get into trouble, and there’s no way to pull you out again.
“We can ransom him,” Magda flared. “I’ll stand surety for the ransom myself, if you begrudge it!”
“Magda, it’s not that. We’d gladly pay to get him loose, but-”
“Impossible,” Lorill Hastur said. “Rumal di Scarp would never negotiate with the Terrans; the moment he knew his prisoner was a Terran he would take pleasure in killing him out of hand-by means I would prefer not to describe before women’s ears. Your man’s only hope is to conceal his origin.” He turned to Magda and said, courteously not looking at her (a gesture which spoke a great deal about the quality of Magda’s Darkovan dress and manners), “Not knowing otherwise, I would have taken you for a woman of the Hellers. Does your friend speak the language, and know our customs, as well as you?”
“Better,” Magda said truthfully. Her mind was racing. We must think of something! We must! “Lady Rohana, they evidently still believe he is your son. Can you negotiate with them for his ransom?”
“It was my first thought. I would gladly do this to save a life. But my husband has forbidden me, once and for all, to go near Sain Scarp on any such mission. It was only with difficulty that I won his consent to come and tell you this much.”
“Magda, it’s no use. The only hope would be for Peter to escape on his own,” Montray said. “If we go, and try to ransom him, as a Terran, we are only hastening his death-sentence.”
She said fiercely, “If I were a man, I would go myself and negotiate for his ransom! There is no man alive in the Hellers who would know me for a Terran! If I could use the lady’s name, and negotiate as if for a kinsman…” She turned, appealing directly to Rohana.
“Help me think of a way!”
I know she can do it, if she will. She is a law to herself, this lady of the Comyn, she will do what she thinks right and no one will forbid her. …
Rohana said to Hastur, “I told you this girl had spirit and strength. I will not disobey Gabriel-it is not worth the argument-but I will help her, if I can.” She turned to Magda, and said, “You would be willing to go yourself into the Hellers? With winter coming on? Many men might shrink from such a journey, my girl.” Again she spoke as if to a younger woman of her own caste. Magda set her chin, and said, “Lady, I was born near Caer Donn; I am not afraid of the mountains, nor of their worst weather.”
Montray said harshly, “Don’t be a damned fool, Magda! You’re supposed to be the expert on women’s customs on Darkover; but even I know that no woman can travel alone and unprotected! You may have guts enough-or damnfoolishness enough-but it’s impossible for you to travel alone, here on this planet You tell her, my Lady,” he appealed to Rohana “It would be impossible! Damn it, I admire her spirit, too, but there are things women just can’t do here!”
“You are right,” Rohana said. “Our customs make it impossible for a woman. An ordinary woman, that is. But there is one way, and only one, in which a woman can travel alone without danger and scandal. The Free Amazons alone do not accept the customs that bind other women.”
Magda said, “I don’t know much about the Free Amazons. I’ve heard the name.” She looked straight into Rohana’s eyes, and said, “If you think I can do it …”
“Once before, I employed a Free Amazon on a mission no man would undertake. It was a scandal, at the time.” She looked at Lorill with a mischievous small smile, as if, Magda thought, she were evoking a shared memory. “So it will evoke no great scandal-or if it does, no more scandal than I can bear-when it is known that I have sent a Free Amazon to Sain Scarp to negotiate in my place for my son’s release. And if Rumal di Scarp should chance to hear it rumored that my son Kyril is safe at Ardais, then he will only think that he has captured instead some kinsman or fosterling of our house, whom we are redeeming out of kindness or a bad conscience; and he will sneer at us for being so gullible, but he will take the ransom anyway and be glad to get it.
“I think I know enough of the Free Amazons to make it possible for you to pass as one, unchallenged. But there may be dangers by the way, child; can you defend yourself?”
Magda said, “Everyone in Intelligence-man and woman alike-is trained in unarmed combat and knife fighting.”
Rohana nodded. “I had heard about this,” she said, and Magda wished she knew how this information had come to Darkovan ears. Probably the same way we learn things about them!
“Go back, now,” Rohana said. “Arrange for the journey, and for the ransom, and come to me at dawn tomorrow morning. I will see that you have the proper clothing and necessities, and that you know how to carry yourself as a Free Amazon.”
Montray burst out, “Are you really going to do this harebrained thing, Magda? Free Amazons! Aren’t they lady soldiers?”
Rohana laughed. “It is easy to see you know nothing about them,” she said. “Indeed, it is comforting to think there is something you Terrans have not managed to discover about us!” Magda had to grin ruefully at that. “Yes, many of them are mercenary soldiers; others are trackers, hunters, horse breakers, blacksmiths; midwives, dairywomen, confectioners, bakers, ballad-singers and cheese-sellers! They work at any honest trade; for one to serve as a messenger and negotiate in a family feud is completely respectable, as such things go.”
“I don’t give a damn whether it’s respectable or not,” Magda told Montray, and Rohana smiled approvingly.
“Good,” she said. “Then it is settled.” She gave Magda her hand, with a kindly smile. “It is a pity, but you will have to cut that lovely hair,” she said.
Chapter
EIGHT
Magda woke in the gray dawn, hearing the thin patter of sleet on the roof of the travel-shelter. It was her seventh night on the road, and until now the weather had been fine.
She had till midwinter-night. With anything like reasonable weather, she had ample time. But could anyone expect reasonable weather in the Hellers, at this season?
From the far end of the shelter she could hear the soft stamping and the rustling breaths of her saddle horse and the pack animal, an antlered beast from the Kilghard Hills, better suited to the mountain weather than any horse. She wondered what time it was; it was still too dark to see.
It did not occur to her to regret-or even to think about-her chronometer. Like all Terrans allowed to work undercover on any planet anywhere in the Empire, she had undergone a long and intense conditio
ning, designed to make it virtually impossible for her to act in any way not consonant with her assigned character; and there was no item, in all her luggage and gear, of off-world manufacture. This was a habit of years; everyone in Intelligence learned the almost hypnotic mechanisms which meant that the moment she left the Trade City, Magdalen Lorne of Linguistics was gone, left wholly behind her; even her name was gone, packed away in a very small corner of her unconscious mind. Magdalen had no precise Darkovan equivalent; when she was a small girl in the mountains near Caer Donn, her Darkovan playmates had called her Margali.
She turned over restlessly in her sleeping bag, raising nervous fingers to her shorn head. It felt cold, strange, immodest.
Lady Rohana, in the long briefing session that had preceded her departure, had been sympathetic about that, too.
“I traveled once, in disguise, with a band of Free Amazons,” she said, “and I had to cut my hair; I can still remember the shock I felt. I remember that I cried, and how they laughed at me. It was worse for me, probably, than for you: you are accountable to no one, but I knew how angry my husband would be when he knew.”
Magda had asked, “And was he angry?” and Rohana smiled, a reminiscent smile. “Terribly. It was already done, so there was nothing he could do about it; but I felt his anger for almost a year, till it had grown to what he called a respectable length.”
Magda heard the sleet beginning to abate and crawled out of her sleeping bag. Shivering in the fire-less hut, she dressed quickly in the clothing Lady Rohana had provided: loose trousers, a long-sleeved and high-necked under tunic of embroidered linen, a fur-lined over tunic and riding-cloak. She had even measured Magda’s foot and sent a servant to buy boots in the marketplace. Magda laced the high boots and led her animals outside, feeding them from the stacked fodder in the nearby shed and slipping the prescribed amount of coins into the padlocked box there. She led them one by one to the watering trough, breaking the ice there with the small hammer on her saddle. While they munched and drank, she went inside, quickly made a small fire and boiled some water, stirring it into the precooked, powdered mixture of grains and nuts that made a kind of instant porridge. Mixed with a few shreds of dried fruit, it was edible when you were used to it.