A queer sound made me turn back. She was staring helplessly at the clothes.
"I've no idea how to get into these things!"
"After what you were just thinking at me," I said, "I'm certainly not going to offer to help you."
It was her turn to blush. "Besides--how can I ride in skirts?"
"Zandru, girl," I exploded, genuinely shocked now. "What else?"-
"I've ridden all my life, but I never tried it in a skirt, and I'm not going to start. If you want me to ride anywhere, you can certainly get me some decent clothes."
"These clothes are perfectly decent."
"Damn it, get me some indecent ones then," she blazed. I laughed. I had to.
"I'll see what I can do, Kathie."
Fortunately, I knew where Dio slept, and no one stopped me. I parted the curtains and looked in. She was asleep, but sat up quickly, blinking. "Are things starting again?"
They had never stopped; we had simply been flung out of them. I explained what I wanted; she giggled, then the laughter broke off. "I know it isn't really funny, Lew. I just can't help it. All right, then. I think my things will fit Kathie."
"And can you find Regis, and tell him to slip out and find horses for ns?"
She nodded. "I can come and go pretty much as I please. Most of the Terrans know me. Lerrys--" she stopped, biting her lip. There was nothing I could say; I'd hated her brothers and she knew it. Dio was as alone, now, as I/was.
Seeing Dio made me remember something else. I slipped back to my rooms and got Rafe's pistol. There were still bullets in the chamber. I still abhorred these coward's weapons--but tonight I might be fighting men without honor or conscience.
When I went back to Kathie's rooms, Dio and Callina were already there, and the Terran girl had been dressed in the sleeveless tunic and close-fitting breeches which Dio had worn for riding on Vainwal. Callina, more conventionally dressed, looked on with mild disfavor.
"Fine, but how are we going to get out?"
I laughed. I was not Kennard Alton's son for nothing. The Altons, aeons ago, had designed the Comyn castle, and their knowledge was handed down, son to son. "Don't you know your own rooms, Callina?" I went into the central room of the suite, and stepped into certain imprints of the flooring. I cautioned them to stand back, then frowned; my father had told me of this doorway, but had never bothered to teach me the pattern; nor did I have a sounder to test the matrix lock. I tried two or three of the standard patterns, but they did not respond; then turned to Callina.
"Can you sound a fourth-level without equipment?"
Her face took on concentrated seriousness; after a minute a section of flooring dropped out of sight, revealing deep, dusty stairs that led away downward.
"Stay close to me," I warned, motioning them ahead. "I've never been down here before." Behind us the square of light revolved, spun--and we were in darkness.
"I wish that old great-grandfather of mine had provided a light! It's dark as Zandru's pockets!"
Callina raised her hand--and the tips began to glow. Light spread--sparkled--radiated from those twelve slender finger-tips! "Don't touch me," she warned softly. The passage was long and dark, with steep steps, and in spite of the ghost-light, dark and dangerous. Once Kathie slipped on the strangely slippery surfaces, and fell jarringly a step or two before I could catch her; and twice my outstretched hand broke sticky invisible webs. There was no rail and I found it hard to balance, but Callina picked her way securely and delicately, never stumbling, as if the way were perfectly well known to her.
Down, and down. Finally a door slid back and we stood in the semilight of Thendara under three waning moons. I looked around. We were in a disorderly section of the city, where the Terrans probably never came twice in fifteen years. Down the dark street was a place where horses were shod and swords and tools mended; here Regis was to meet me, if my message had reached him.
It had. He was there, standing in the shadow of several horses, in the deserted street.
"Lew, take me with you? Leave the women here."
"We need Kathie. And someone has to stay here, Regis. This is our only chance. If we don't make it, you'll have to make what terms you can. I think, as a last resort, you might be able to trust Lawton." I stopped, then shrugged, without finishing what I had started to say. There was no point in farewells and we made none.
Out through the streets of Thendara; into the open country. We passed a few houses and deserted farmsteads; they grew wider apart and finally ceased. No one rode this path now; on the Forbidden Road, radioactivity was still virulent, in spots, from the Years of Desolation. The road itself was safe now, but the fear lingered; too many men, in past days, had died. Hairless, toothless, their blood turned to water, because they had taken this path. The Comyn had fostered that fear, with tricks and traps; and now it was useful, because we could ride unseen. Only Dyan knew those tricks and traps as well as I.
We skirted the site of the ancient spaceships, their huge bulk still glowing feebly with the poisonous radiance. Then we were on the Forbidden Road itself; - the canyon, nature's own roadway, which stretches from the highest point in the Hellers down to the Sea of Dalereuth a thousand miles away. Just wide enough for six horses to ride abreast, thirty feet below the surface of the plain, and nearly a thousand miles long, the Forbidden Road runs all across the continent as if some giant or some God, in the lost years, had reached out and scratched the molten land with a titan fingernail, cutting across mountains, foothills, plains.
Legend had it the Forbidden Road was the track where the Gods walked, ages ago, when they spread their terror on the land and the children of the Comyn were born with their minds awry with the strange Comyn Gifts. A barren land, seared of growth, the track of something that had marred the land to freakishness, creating the Comyn. Mutation? The children of Gods? I did not know or care.
Two of the moons had set, leaving a single pallid face on the horizon, when we turned aside from the Road and saw the rhu fead, a white, dim, gleaming pile, rising above the thinly gleaming shore of the lake of Hali. We reined in our horses near the brink. Mist curled up whitely along the shore, where the sparse pink grass thinned out on the rocks. I kicked a pebble loose and it dropped into the glimmering cloud-waves, sinking without a splash, slowly, visible for a long time. Kathie stared at the strangely-surfaced lake. "That isn't water, is it?"
I shook my head. No living being, save those of Comyn blood, had ever set foot on the shores of Hali.
She said confusedly, "But I've been here before--" "No. You have some of my memories, that's all." I patted her wrist clumsily, as if she were Linnell. "Don't be afraid." Twin pillars rose white, a rainbow mist sparkling like a veil between them. I frowned at the trembling rainbow. "Even blocked, it would strip your mind. I'll have to do what I did before; hold your mind completely under mine." She shuddered, and I warned tonelessly, "I must. The veil is a force-field attuned to the Comyn brain. It won't hurt us but it would kill you."
She glanced at Callina. "Why not you?"
Callina shook her head. "It has something to do with polarity. I'm a Keeper. If I tried to submerge your mind for more than a second or two, it would destroy you--permanently." A curious horror showed in her mind. "Ashara showed me--once."
I picked Kathie up bodily. When she protested, I scowled. "You fainted once, and went into hysterics the second time I touched you," I reminded her grimly. "If you do that again, inside the Veil, I want to make sure you'll get out the other side."
This time, however, she was barriered against me, by my own bypass circuit. It was easy to damp out the alien brainwaves. We got through the shimmering, bunding rainbow, with blurred eyes; I set her down and withdrew as gently as I could.
The rhu fead stretched bare before us, dim and cool. There were doors and long passages, filled with chilly curls of mist. Kathie made a sudden turn into one passage and began to walk forward into the dimness.
"Lew, I know! How do I know where to go?"
&nb
sp; The passage angled into an open space of white stone and curtained crimson. A dais, set back into the wall and paneled in iridescent webs, held a blue crystal coffer. I set my foot on the first step--
I could not pass. This was the inner barrier; the barrier no Comyn could penetrate. I leaned on an invisible wall; Callina, curious, put out her hands and saw them jerk back of themselves. Kathie asked, "Are you still blocking my mind?"
"A little."
"Then don't. That bit of you is what holds me back."
I nodded and withdrew the blocking circuit. Kathie smiled at me, less like Linnell than she had ever looked; then walked through the invisible barrier.
She disappeared into a blue of darkening cloud. A blaze of fire seared up; I wanted to shout at her not to be afraid, it was only an illusion--but even my voice would not pass the barrier reared against the Comyn. A dim silhouette, she vanished; the flames swallowed her. Then a wild glare swept up to the roof and a burst of thunder rolled and rocked the floor.
Kathie darted back to us; and in her hand she held a sheathed sword.
* * *
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
So the Sword of Aldones was a real sword, after all; long and gleaming and deadly, and of so fine a temper that it made my own look like a child's leaden toy. In the hilt, through a thin layer of insulating silk, winking jewels gleamed blue.
It might have been a duplicate of the Sharra sword, but that now seemed an inferior forgery of the glorious thing I held.
This was not a concealment for a hidden matrix; rather it was a matrix. It seemed to have a life of its own. A tingle of power, not unpleasant, flowed up my arm. I gripped the hilt and drew it a little way--
"No," Callina said warningly, and gripped my hand. A moment, stubborn, I resisted; then slid it back into the sheath.
"That's that," I said harshly. "Let's get out of here."
Dawn was breaking over the lake when we came out, and the wet sunlight glinted, ominously, on steel. Kathie cried out, in terror, as three men stepped toward us.
Three men? No; two--and a woman. Kadarin, Dyan--and between them, slim and vital as a dark flame, Thyra Scott smiled up at me, her mocking mouth daring me to speak or strike. I caught the dagger from my belt. Thyra stood steady, her naked throat upturned to the steel.
My hand tilted and the knife fell from it.
"Get out of my way, witch!"
Her low, fey laughter raised a million ghosts, but her voice was steel. "What have you done with my daughter?"
"My daughter," I said. "She's safe. But you can't have her."
Dyan took a step, but Kadarin took his elbow and hauled him back. "Wait, you."
Thyra said, "We will bargain. Give me what the Keeper holds, and you go free."
"We will anyhow," I said.
Kadarin drew his sword. I should have known; it was the one bearing the Sharra matrix. "Will you?" he asked softly. "Better hand it over. I intend to kill you, but you couldn't give me a fair fight, not now." His eyes swept, with gentle contempt, from my bandaged head to my feet. "Don't try."
"I suppose you have Trailmen in hiding with your usual odds of twenty to one?"
Kadarin nodded. "They won't touch you. You're for me. But the women--"
"Go to hell," I snarled, and, flashing the sword from the sheath, I flung myself at Kadarin. The touch of the hilt poured that stream of overflowing life through me; the blood beat so hard in my temples that I was faint with it. Kadarin whipped up the Sharra sword. The swords-touched--
The Sword of Aldones blazed blue fire! Like a living thing it leaped from my hand and clattered down, coruscating blue fire from hilt to point. The two swords lay crossed on the ground, streams of wild blue flame cascading about them. Kadarin was reeling.
I picked myself up. We stood back, neither daring to approach the fallen blades.
But Kathie darted between us and caught up both swords. To her, I think, they were only swords. She held one in either hand, carefully. The blue flames died.
"That won't help," Kadarin said, and added grimly, "Don't be a self-sacrificing fool. Give me the Sharra matrix and go. We couldn't take the Sword of Aldones, maybe. But we can take the Sharra one, and we will. You could kill me, kill Dyan, kill Thyra--but you can't kill them all!"
Of course there was no choice. I had the women to guard. "Give it to him, Kathie," I said at last. This was only a draw. The real fight would come later.
"Give it up? Now?"
"I'm no hero," I said savagely, "and you've never seen the Trailmen fight." I took Sharra's matrix from her hand. Dyan stepped forward, but Kadarin elbowed him away. "Not you!"
It was fortunate we had Kadarin to deal with. When we fought, it would be to death--but it would be fair. "We can go. His word's good."
But Thyra flung herself forward, the knife bright in her hand. I twisted, just too late; she drove the knife into my side.
I got my arm up and knocked her hard, stunningly, across the face; then I sat down, hard, my hand to the numb slash. Blood dripped through my fingers. I heard Kadarin cry out like a berserker; dimly saw him shaking Thyra with maniac strength, back and forth, and finally he cast her to the ground, where she lay moaning. She had violated his word.
And then I blacked out.
There was a roaring sound around me. I was lying with my head in Kathie's lap.
"Lie still. They're taking us to Thendara in a rocket-car."
"Keep him quiet, Kathie."
I reached for Callina's hand, but it was the cool brittle fingertips of Ashara that were fetters on my wrist, her cold eyes in the grayness. I jolted awake; something had touched my mind. Marja! I reached for her, but where she had been was only an empty, place in the world--
I shook my brain free of delirium for a minute. Of course I could not touch Marja. Not in pain like this. I would not want to let her share this now.
But a man's mind is so alone, shut up inside the bones of the skull.
I sank into the gray night again.
I was walking…
There was an arm beneath my shoulders, and Kadarin's voice said, "Easy! He can walk. It's just a scratch, the knife turned on the ribs."
My eyes wouldn't focus. I heard someone say sharply "Good God! come in here, and sit down."
The dizziness cleared. I was standing in the Terran HQ, a rolling view of the spaceport lying far below me, and straight before me, at a big glass-topped desk, Dan Lawton was standing, looking at me with surprise and concern. Kadarin's arm was still holding me upright. I pulled away; from somewhere out of my range of vision, Regis Hastur got up, came to me, took me firmly by the shoulders and put me into a chair.
"Who in the hell are you?"
Kadarin bowed, ever so slightly.
"Robert Raymon Kadarin, z'par servu. And you?"
Behind us, a door opened and Kathie's voice said anxiously, "Is he really--oh, hello, Dan."
The Terran Legate shook his head. "In a minute," he said to nobody in particular, "I shall begin to gibber. Hello, Kathie. It is you?"
She looked dubiously at me. "May I tell him?"
"Wait, wait. One thing at a time. I'll go nuts, if I have to unravel anything more just now. Kadarin. I've wanted to set eyes on you for quite a while. You know you've finally stepped over the line?"
"I claim immunity," Kadarin said harshly. "Lew Alton would have died at Hall I had given him safe-conduct, and his life has been formally claimed; it is mine to dispose of as I will. I brought him here of my own free will, when I could have preserved my own immunity by staying away and letting him die. I claim immunity."
Lawton groaned. But Kadarin had the legal right of it. "All right. But no telepathic tricks."
He smiled bitterly. "I couldn't, if I would. Dyan Ardais ran off with the Sharra matrix. I'm as helpless as Lew, here!"
Rafe Scott came suddenly into the office. The boy's face took on a stunned look, as he saw me, and Regis, and Kadarin, and Kathie; but he spoke to Lawton.
"Why have you locked T
hyra up downstairs?"
"Do you know that woman?" Lawton demanded sharply.
"She's my sister," Kadarin said, while Rafe was still sputtering.
"Damn it!" Lawton exploded, "every troublemaker on the planet is related to you one way or another, Rafe! She tried to murder Lew Alton, that's all. When we brought her in, all of a sudden we had a screeching maniac on our hands, so I had the doctor give her a shot, and dumped her in a cell to cool off."
Rafe came to me, his voice urgent. "Lew, why would Thyra-"
"Let him alone, you!" Regis shoved Rafe roughly away. I gripped Regis' arm. "Don't start another fight," I implored. "Don't! Don't!"
A moment he resisted, then shrugged, and sat on the arm of my chair, glaring at Rafe. "Wasn't Callina with you?"
"The medical officer kept her too," Kathie said. "She was dizzy--sick. She kept falling asleep."
Trance again? I sat upright, feeling lightheaded. "I've got to get to her!"
"You can't do anything now," Regis said.
"What are you doing here?"
Lawton answered for him. "I sent, last night, for the Regent, and we've been talking most of the night."
Regis said quietly, "We're finished, Lew. The Comyn will have to make terms. Even Grandfather realizes that. And if Sharra gets out of hand--"
The Sword of Aldones was lying across Lawton's desk, Kadarin came and stood over it. "I let Sharra loose," he said, "It was an experiment that misfired, that's all. But our damned idiot hero here made matters worse by taking the Sharra matrix off-world, and for six years, all those activated spots just ran wild. And now Dyan has it!" He turned restlessly, a prowling animal. "I knew Alton wouldn't deal with me on any terms. So I tried to find someone in the Comyn, anyone who would steal the thing back for me. Just so I could monitor those sites, and then destroy the matrix. But after all that work--"his shoulders sagged. "I walked from the trap to the cookpot, when I tried to deal with Dyan Ardais!"
"Did he kill Marius to get it?" Regis asked.