Rockford and do what I can to help if you wantme to."
"Lyla"--it was the grating voice of Narf who seemed to have the abilityto materialize anywhere--"I'm sure the man knows his business. Besides,I want to talk to you about something as soon as I have finished mydiscussion with Mr. Sonig."
With that, Narf started on toward his cabin. Sonig, close behind him,paused long enough to bow to Lyla and say with the meaningless smile,"Good afternoon, Princess Lyla. Your husband was just demonstrating hismarvelous skill with weapons. I would very much dislike"--the littleeyes darted to Hunter and back again--"being the man who aroused hislordship's wrath."
Then Sonig followed Narf, with one last flickering glance at Hunter tosee how the remark had fallen.
Rockford came out of the cabin with his brief case and said to Val, "Arewe ready to go?"
"I just told Val"--Lyla spoke quickly--"that I would be glad to go alongand help any way I can." The words were addressed to Rockford but hereyes were on Val, with the same wistful expression. "Do you want me to?"
Val answered her with cool, formal courtesy: "The librarian can find allthe records we will need, Princess Lyla, without our interrupting yourschedule for the day or your discussion with your husband. Thank youvery much."
For an instant Lyla's face had the hurt expression of a child rebuffedwithout reason. Then she looked away and Val turned to Rockford andsaid, "I'm ready when you are, sir."
Lyla watched them walk away and she was still watching when thehelicopter had lifted into the air and faded from sight.
Hunter hesitated, then spoke to her:
"I understand you want to talk more about the Space Guard, PrincessLyla?"
"_Princess_ Lyla!" Her lips curled as she turned to face him and sheseemed to spit the words at him in sudden, unexpected resentment. "Ilove the meaningless sound of my official figurehead title! It's so muchbetter than being regarded as a living person with feelings that can behurt!"
"But Princ ... I mean--" He floundered, not quite sure what had causedher reaction.
She made a visible effort to compose herself. "I'm sorry," she said. "Isuppose my ... husband ... is quite right; an immature female has nobusiness trying to rule a world and the sooner the marriage isconfirmed, the sooner a competent man can take over the job."
"No," he said. "I think--"
He decided that what he thought had better be left unsaid.
"I'll"--she looked toward the cabin she shared with Narf--"let you knowwhen we can talk."
She went back toward the cabin, walking slowly. From inside Narf's halfof it came the sound of Narf's voice as he spoke to Sonig:
"... Of course, this collection of heads is nothing compared with what Ihave in the Sea Islands ... but some interesting stories here ... takethat snow fox there...."
Hunter sighed, and saw that Lyla had stopped before her door, as thoughdreading to enter. Narf's voice droned on:
"... Only wounded, so I finished it with a knife. Even with its hearthalf cut out, it still wanted to live ... beautiful pelt ... coat forJanalee, the strip-tease queen ... always had a way with women--Lylacould tell you that ... had my pick of hundreds but I'm letting her bemy choice...."
He saw Lyla half lift her hand, as in some mute gesture of protest, thenshe turned and walked swiftly away; up the path that led into the ghosttrees, and out of sight.
He waited, but she did not come back. He went into his cabin and movedabout restlessly, hearing again Narf's sadism-and-sex boasting andseeing again how she turned and almost ran from it--
* * * * *
"_Rootenant!_"
Alonzo was panting, a look of frantic appeal in his eyes.
"Prease herp me ... Princess Ryra ... she wirr die!"
He felt his heart lurch. "She's hurt?" he demanded, and was already onhis way to the door.
"She are about to cry and she are going to where the tree tigers riv.They wirr kirr her--prease come with me!"
He asked no more questions but went out the door and up the path, Alonzorunning ahead of him.
The ghost trees grew thinner as they went up the mountain's slope, andthe blue-green fernlike trees of the tiger forest began to appear. Theygrew thicker and thicker, until the ground was black with their shadowsand the midday sunlight was filtered out by the foliage overhead. Alonzowas trailing her, his nose to the ground, and Hunter hurried closebehind him, watching for the red-and-white of the clothes she waswearing and hoping they would not find her too late.
They were deep in the forest when they found her.
She was standing motionless in the center of a clearing, facing awayfrom him and looking as small and alone as a lost child. She seemed tobe waiting....
He realized for the first time how alone she really was, with only adoglike alien, Alonzo, to love her or care what might happen to her, andwith a future she could not bear to face. But Rockford had been wrongwhen he had said, _For her, there is no escape_.
There was escape for her. She had only to wait, as she was waiting now,and it would come in the windlike whisper of a tiger's rush through thegrass behind her....
He hurried to her. She turned, and he saw the stains of tears now dry onher face and in her eyes the darkness of utter defeat.
"I was afraid you might get hurt, Lyla--"
Then, seemingly without volition on his part, he put his arms around herand she was clinging to him and crying in muffled sobs and trying to saysomething about, "_I didn't think anybody cared...._"
It was some time later, when her crying was finished, that he wasreminded of the tigers by Alonzo:
"Rootenant ... awr the time, some tigers are coming croser and croser.We better get her out of here, Rootenant, before they find us."
Lyla looked down at Alonzo. "Thank you, Alonzo, for watching over me and... and--" Her voice caught and she dropped to her knees and hugged theshaggy head tight against her.
Hunter watched ahead, Lyla beside him as they went through the densetrees. Alonzo walked soft-footed behind them, watching the rear. Whenthey came to the first ghost trees and the dwindling of the tiger trees,Hunter thought it safe to walk slower and talk to her.
"I saw you go," he said. "I didn't know where until Alonzo came runningto tell me."
"I heard him bragging about killing, and about his women--I was weak,wasn't I?"
"Weak?"
"I was afraid to face the future, just because it isn't to be exactlylike I thought I wanted."
"What was the kind you wanted, Lyla?"
"Oh ... I guess I wanted a husband who could see me only, and children,and evenings together in the flower garden, and ... well, all the silly,sentimental little things that mean so much to a woman."
He thought, _Even with its heart half cut out, it still wanted to live... Coat for Janalee ... the strip-tease queen...._
They passed through the last of the tiger trees and she said, "We'resafe, now. The tigers never attack anyone outside their forest."
She was walking slowly and he said, "We should get on back before you'remissed, shouldn't we?"
"Who would miss me?" she asked. "So long as I remain physically intactfor the marriage night, who cares where or why I went away?"
There was the cold bleakness of winter in her eyes as she spoke, and inher voice the first undertone of brass. He saw that this was already thebeginning of the change that Narf would make in her; the transformationof a girl young and wanting to love and be loved into a hard and cynicalwoman.
He put his arm around her shoulder, thinking that he should tell herthat _he_ cared and that she must never let Narf change her.
"Lyla, I--"
He realized how futile and foolish the words would sound. She wouldmarry Narf, he would return to Earth, and they would never meet again.There were no words for him to speak on this last walk together, no wayto tell her that he wanted to help her, to protect and care for her. Noway to express the feeling inside him....
He did what seemed as natural under the circumst
ances as it had been forhim to put his arm around her in the clearing. He tilted up her face andbent his head to kiss her.
And walked with jarring impact into the knobby elbow of a ghost treelimb.
* * * * * * * * *
The sun was down and dusk was darkening the camp when they arrived backat her cabin.
"Thank you, Dale," she said. Her hand squeezed his arm. "I didn't know Ihad a friend ... but now we'll have to be strangers because--"
Gravel crunched loudly on one of the paths in the ghost trees and theylooked back, to see Narf and Sonig coming, walking swiftly. Even at thedistance, there was anger like a red aura about Narf.
"Well," Lyla said softly, "here comes my medicine."
Sonig stopped at his own cabin, to stand just within the doorway,watching. Narf strode on and stopped before Hunter and Lyla, his facetwisted with savage hatred as he looked at Hunter. He spoke to Lyla withgrating vehemence:
"You've done an excellent job of making an ass of yourself--and ofme--haven't you? Come on in the cabin!"
Narf seized her by the arm, towering over her as he jerked her aroundtoward the door. Hunter stepped quickly forward, feeling the hot flashof his own anger, but there was the paleness of Lyla's face as shelooked back, an appeal on it that said, _No!_ He stopped, realizing thatNarf would not physically harm the woman who would make him king ofVesta, and that any interference on his part would only make everythingthe harder for her.
He watched the two go into the cabin--into Lyla's half--and Narf slammedthe door shut behind them. There followed the quick bang of windowsbeing closed, and then Narf's muffled tirade began: "_... May think I'ma fool ... I'm going to tell you a few things...._"
Sonig was still standing within his doorway. Hunter knew, without seeingit, that the thin-lipped smile would be on Sonig's face.
He turned and walked back to his own cabin. There was nothing he coulddo but withdraw--and listen from a distance and be ready to act if itseemed she was in danger.
He sat on his doorstep in the darkness, hearing occasional phrases inNarf's unrelenting abuse. One was: "_So prim you had to countermand myorder for a key to that lock--then you went out to play with that secondlieutenant...._"
Alonzo materialized out of the darkness, coming as silently as a shadow.He was no longer the bumbling clown. The idiotic grin was gone and hiseyes were green fire, slanted and catlike, his teeth flashing white in asnarl as he looked back toward the sound of Narf's voice.
"She are _my_ Princess Ryra," Alonzo said. "He are cursing her. If heever hurt her, I wirr tear out his throat and his river."
"He won't hurt her, Alonzo," Hunter said, wishing he could be sure."He'll only use words on her."
"He never ask her _why_ she run away--he onry curse her and threaten herbecause she embarrass him."
"Embarrass him?"
"He and Sonig, they see you coming out of the forest with your armaround her. They watch with high-power grasses."
"But there was nothing wrong in that--"
"That are what Princess Ryra say. She say you onry put your arm aroundher because she are stirr scared of the tigers. And then he say, whatabout the other? And he cawr her awrful bad names."
"What other?"
"Oh, when you are bending down to kiss Princess Ryra and are wawrkinginto tree."
He gulped. "_They saw that?_"
"Oh, sure. Rord Narf are so mad he want to kirr you right then but Sonigsay, 'Wait, I have a pran.' Then Sonig say, 'It are too bad we don'thave a camera--we could have made that rootenant the raffing stock offorty worlds.'"
The thought made Hunter gulp again.
"What was Sonig's plan that Narf told Lyla about?" He asked.
"Oh, he not terr _her_. I hear Sonig terr Rord Narf when I spy. Sonigsay, 'Tomorrow we be friendry and we ret those two go for another wawrkin the woods. And we have cameras with terescope rens and when they kissand hug we take moving pictures.'"
"Why, the gutter-bred rat--"
"And Rord Narf say, 'That is what we wirr do. And then I wirr kirr himas soon as we have the pictures and she wirr have to toe the mark fromthen on because if I pubricry show the pictures of what she did, shewirr be ashamed to show her face anywhere on Vesta.'"
"Why, the--" He could not think of a suitable expression.
"And then Sonig say, 'To make sure she go out tomorrow, you bawr her outgood so she wirr want to cry on the rootenant's shourder again.' AndRord Narf say, 'I wirr be very grad to terr the two-timing hussy what Ithink of her, don't worry.'"
"Why, she was only a scared girl and that rat thinks she--"
* * * * *
"_... Your promise to your dying father_," Narf's voice came inaccusation. "_He's gone, now, and you can betray him, too! Why don't yougo all the way in your deceptions ... your father will never know...._"
Alonzo said, "I think I go back and stay croser to her cabin,Rootenant."
It was an hour later, and Narf's voice had settled to a low, steadygrowling, when Hunter heard a helicopter settle down near the camp. Aminute later, Val Boran was outlined momentarily in the doorway of thecabin he shared with Sonig. There followed the exchange of a fewwords--interrogation in Val's tone--and then the sound of Sonig's voicealone, which continued for minute after minute.
_Sonig is telling him all about it_, Hunter thought, _including mywalking into that tree. But there won't be one word in sympathy withLyla._
Sonig's story ended and Hunter saw Val leave the cabin. He came straightup the path toward Hunter, looming tall in the darkness as he stoppedbefore him. There was the pale gleam of metal in Val's belt--a blaster.His voice came cold and flat:
"I want to talk to you, Lieutenant."
Hunter sighed, thinking, _I suppose he wants to kill me, too_.
He got up and said, "We'll go inside. Shut the door behind you--I don'twant your friend straining his ears to hear us."
Val sat tall even in the chair, his face like a carving in a darkgranite and his eyes as bright and hard.
"I understand that you took Princess Lyla into the tiger forest today."Val's hand was very near the blaster. "I understand you then played therole of affectionate rescuer."
"Do you believe that story?" Hunter asked.
"Do you have a different one?"
"You might ask Lyla. Or Alonzo. Alonzo is the one who came to me forhelp when he saw she was going out to die."
"To die?" A startled expression came into the black eyes. "She _wanted_to die?"
"I'll tell you what happened," Hunter said, and told him the story,omitting only the embarrassing kissing incident and knowing that Sonighad not.
Val was silent for a while after Hunter finished speaking, then he said,"It isn't for me to comment upon Lord Narf's character or actions. Sheis his wife by her own choice. But the thought of someone else takingher out and--"
"I know. It wasn't so." Then Hunter added, "You think a great deal ofher, don't you?"
Val's face hardened and Hunter thought he would not answer. Then hesmiled a little, even though without humor, and said:
"Since I came here to kill you if I thought you deserved it, I suppose Iam obligated to answer your question. My regard for Princess Lyla is therespectful one that any civilized man would have for another man'swife."
There was an unintended implication in the statement and Hunter made aconjecture:
"You and Princess Lyla were engaged--how long ago?"
There was surprise on Val's face, and something like pain quicklymasked. "So she's already making it public information?"
"No. I learned of it from ... other sources. I don't know, of course,why you persuaded her to break the engagement--that's none of mybusiness, anyway."
"No," Val said. "It's none of your business. I'll tell you this: _I_didn't ask her to break the engagement. But so long as that was what shewanted, I certainly wasn't going to beg her to change her mind."
Val stood up to go
. "If you don't mind, I would rather you said nothingto Princess Lyla about this visit tonight. I'm afraid my misplaced surgeof chivalry would make me look like a fool to her."
Then, as an afterthought, Val added, "Mr. Rockford had further businessin the city."
* * * * * * * * *
It was late when Narf finally left Lyla's part of the cabin. He went tothe cabin occupied by Val and Sonig, aroused Sonig, and the two of themwent to the helicopter field. Hunter heard the helicopter leaving forthe city a few minutes later. Val's cabin remained dark and after awhile, the light in Lyla's cabin went out.
He went to bed, but not to sleep. Over and over, a lonely littlePrincess Lyla clung to him for comfort, crying, while he held her close.He twisted and turned restlessly as he thought of the hours she had satalone and unloved while Narf poured out his hatred and fury on her.
There was a yearning for her, a desire to hold her and always protecther, that would not let him sleep. And he realized the reason why.
He thought miserably, _I'm in love with her_!
* * * * *
Rockford was in bed, snoring loudly, with six empty