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“I heard you had fled from Arilinn,” he said, looking at her humble garments and coarse cloak with distaste, “and with a Terran. Sorrow upon Arilinn, that twice within forty years this must happen to them. Is this the Terran?”

“He is no Terran, my brother,” she said, “but the true son of Lewis-Arnad Lanart-Alton, elder son of Valdir, Lord Alton, by Cleindori; who laid down her office, though unpermitted, by the laws of Arilinn, to take a consort of her own rank and station; and this is her son. A Keeper, Dyan, is responsible only to her own conscience. Cleindori did only what the law would have permitted; she is not responsible for those who denied the right of the Lady of Arilinn to declare just laws for her circle.”

He looked at her, frowning. His eyes, Kerwin thought, were colorless as cold metal, grey steel. He said, “Some of this I had from Kennard, who tried to tell me of Cleindori’s innocence; though I called it folly. Lewis, too, was a foolish idealist. But he was Kennard’s brother; and I owe to his son a kinsman’sdues.” His thin lips moved into a sarcastic grin. “So we have here a rabbithorn in the fur of a catman; Comyn in Terran garb, which is a change after the ranks of spies and imposters we have had to face fromtime to time. Well, what did they name you, then, Cleindori’s son? Lewis, for your father, and with abetter right to that name than Kennard’s bastard?”

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Kerwin had the uncomfortable feeling that Dyan was amused—no, that he took a positive pleasure— inhis discomfiture. In years to come, knowing Dyan better, he knew that Dyan seldom missed anopportunity to twist a knife of malice. He said sharply, “I am not ashamed of bearing the name of my Terran foster-father; it would hardly be honorable to disown him at this stage of my life; but my mothercalled me Damon.”

Dyan threw back his head and laughed, a long shrill laugh like the screaming of a falcon. “The name ofone renegade for another! I had never suspected that Cleindori had such a sense of the right thing,” hesaid, when he had done laughing. “Well, what do you want from me. Elorie? I don’t suppose you want totake your husband—” actually the word he used was
freemate
 
; if he had shaded the word to make itmean
paramour
 
, Jeff would have struck him— “to our mad father at Ardais?”

“I need to see Lord Hastur, Dyan. You can arrange it, as
 
seconde
 
for Valdir!”

“In the name of all nine of Zandru’s hells, Lori! Doesn’t the Lord Danvan have enough troubles? Will

you bring down the shadow of the Forbidden Tower on him again, after a quarter of a century?”

“I must see him,” Elorie insisted, and her face crumpled. “Dyan, I beg you. You were always kind to me when I was a child; and my mother loved you. You saved me from Father’s drunken friends. I swear to you—”

Dyan’s mouth twisted and he said cruelly, “The standard oath is, Elorie,
I swear it by the virginity ofthe Keeper of Arilinn
 
. I doubt even you would have the insolence to take that oath now.”

Elorie flared at him: “That is the kind of stupid madness and fanaticism that has kept the Keepers of Arilinn as ritual dolls, priestesses, sorceresses. I thought better of you than to think you would throw it atme! Do you want the Tower of Arilinn to be the laughingstock of all our people, because they are moreconcerned with a Keeper’s virginity than her powers as Keeper? You have a good mind, Dyan, and youare not a fool or a fanatic! Dyan, I beg of you,” she said, her anger suddenly vanishing into seriousness. “Iswear to you, by the memory of my mother, who loved you when you were a motherless boy, that I willnot abuse the Lord Hastur’s kindness, and that it is not a trivial or a frivolous request. Won’t you take meto him?”

His face softened. “As you will,
 
breda
 
,” he said with unusual gentleness. “A Keeper of Arilinn isresponsible only to her own conscience. I will show respect to yours until I learn otherwise, little sister. Come with me. Hastur is in his presence-chamber, and he should be finished now with the last delegationfor today.”

He led them into the Castle, through broad corridors and into a long pillared passageway; Jeff stiffened,shaking, again a child, carried through this long corridor.
 
One of the strange and colorful dreams thathad haunted him in the Spacemen’s Orphanage
 
…

Dyan ushered them into a small anteroom; gestured to them to wait. After a little while he came back,saying, “He’ll see you. But Avarra protect you if you waste his time or try his patience, Lori, for I won’t.” He motioned them into a small presence-chamber, where Danvan Hastur sat on his high seat; bowed andwent away.

Lord Hastur bowed to Elorie; his brows ridged briefly in displeasure as he saw Kerwin, but immediatelythe frown vanished; he was reserving judgment. He gave Kerwin the briefest possible polite nod ofacknowledgment, and said, “Well, Elorie?”

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“It is kind of you to see me, kinsman,” Elorie said. Then, and Jeff could hear her voice shake, she said,

“Or—don’t you know—”

Danvan Hastur’s voice was courteous and grave.

“Many, many years ago,” he said, “I refused to listen when a kinsman begged for my understanding.

And as result, Damon Ridenow and all his household were burned by a fire whose origin I refused to question, telling myself that it was the hand of the Gods that burned their household to cinders. And I stood by and raised no hand to help, and I have never felt guiltless of Cleindori’s death. At the time I thought it the just vengeance of the Gods, even though I did not sanction, and I knew nothing of the fanatical assassins who had actually compassed her death. I thought, may all the Gods forgive me, that

the breaking of the Forbidden Tower, cruel as the deaths were, would restore our land and our Towers to the old, righteous ways. Oh, I had no hand in any of the deaths, and if the murderers had come into my hands I would have delivered them into the hands of vengeance; but I did not stretch out my hand to prevent the murders, either, or to discredit the fanatics who were responsible for the death of so many of the Comyn whom we could spare so ill. I told myself, when she appealed to me, that Cleindori had forfeited all right to my protection. I don’t intend to make that mistake twice; if I can prevent it, there will be no more deaths in Comyn. Nor will I visit the sins of men long dead on the heads of their descendants. What do you want from me, Elorie Ardais?”

“Now just a minute here,” said Kerwin, before Elorie could open her mouth, “let’s get one thing straight. I didn’t come here to ask for anybody’s protection. The Arilinn Tower threw me out, and when Elorie stuck by me, they threw her out too. But coming here wasn’t my idea, and we don’t need any favors.”

Hastur blinked; then, over his stern and austere face, an unmistakable smile spread. “I stand reproved,son. Tell it your way.”

“To start with,” Elorie said, “he isn’t a Terran. He isn’t Jeff Kerwin’s son.” She explained what she had

found out.

Hastur looked startled. He said softly, “Yes. Yes, I should have known. You have a look of the Altons;but Cleindori’s father had Alton blood, and so I never thought anything of it.” Gravely, he bowed to Elorie. “I have done you a grave injustice,” he said. “Any Keeper may, at the promptings of her ownconscience, lay down her holy office and take a consort of her own rank and station. We wronged Cleindori; and now we have wronged you. The status of your
 
Comyn
 
husband shall be regularized,kinswoman; may all your sons and daughters be gifted with
 
laran
 
…”

“Oh, the hell with that,” Jeff said, in a sudden rage. “I haven’t changed one damn bit from what I was four days ago, when they thought I wasn’t good enough for Elorie to spit on! So if I marry her while they think I’m Jeff Kerwin, Junior, she’s a bitch and a whore, but if I marry her after I find my father was one of your high-and-mighty Comyn, who couldn’t even be bothered to notify his family that I existed, all of a sudden it’s all right again—”

“Jeff, Jeff,
please
 
—” Elorie begged, and he heard her frightened thoughts,
 
nobody dares speak like

this to the Lord Hastur
 
—

“I dare,” he said curtly. “Tell him what you came to tell him, Elorie, and then let’s get the hell out of this place! You married me thinking I was a Terran, remember? I’m not ashamed of my name or the man who gave it to me when my own father wasn’t around to protect me!”

He broke off, suddenly abashed before the old man’s steady blue eyes. Hastur smiled at him.

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“There speaks the Alton pride—and the pride of the Terrans, which is different, but very real,” he said. “Take pride in your Terran fostering as well as your heritage of blood, my son; my words were to ease Elorie’s heart, not to cast disparagement on your Terran foster-father. By all accounts he was a good and brave man, and I would have saved his life if I could. But now tell me, both of you, why you came here.”

His face grew graver as he listened.

“I knew Auster had been in the hands of the Terrans,” he said, “but it never occurred to me that they could use him in any way; he was so very young. Nor did I know that Cassilde had borne twins. We did the other child a grave injustice; and you say, Kerwin—” he stumbled a little over the name, making it nearer to the Darkovan name
 
Kieran
 
, “that he is embittered, and a Terran spy. Something must be done for him. Why, I wonder, did not Dyan tell me?”

Elorie said, shaking her head, “Dyan knew from Kennard something of the ways of the Forbidden

Tower. The children were unlike; perhaps he thought one of them, being dark-haired and dark-eyed,was the son of the Terran; and he helped you only to reclaim the one he believed to be Arnad Ridenow’sson.”

“It is true that we acknowledged Auster as son to Arnad Ridenow,” Hastur said. “He had the Ridenow gift; but he could have had it through Cassilde, who was Callista Lanart-Carr’s daughter by Damon Ridenow.” He shook his head with a sigh.

“The thing is, Lord Hastur,” Jeff said, “that I thought
I
was the time-bomb the Terrans had planted; and

it’s Auster.
 
And he is still in the matrix circle at Arilinn
 
!”

“But he has
 
laran
 
! He grew up among us! He is Comyn!” Hastur said in dismay, and Kerwin shook his

head.

“No. He is Jeff Kerwin’s son,” Kerwin said, “and I’m not.” Auster, then, had been his foster-brother; they had played together as children. He did not like Auster; but he owed him loyalty. Yes, and love—for Auster was the son of the man who had given him name and place in the Terran Empire. Auster was his brother, and more, his friend within the matrix circle. He did not want Auster used to break the Arilinn Tower.

“But—a Terran? In Arilinn?”

“He thought he was Comyn,” Kerwin said, a curious yeasting excitement boiling within him as he began to understand. “He
 
believed
he was Comyn, he
 
expected
 
to have
 
laran
 
—and so he had it, he never developed any mental block against believing in his own psi powers!”

“But don’t you see,” Elorie interrupted. “We have to warn them at Arilinn! They may try the mining

operation—and Auster is still linked to Ragan—and it will fail!”

Hastur looked pale. “Yes,” he said. “They sent the little Keeper from Neskaya there—and they weregoing to try it tonight.”

“Tonight,” Elorie gasped. “We’ve got to warn them! It’s their only chance!”

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Kerwin’s thoughts were bitter as they flew through the night. Rain beat and battered at the little airship; astrange young Comyn knelt in the front of the machine, controlling it, but Kerwin had neither eyes northought for him.

They had tried to warn Arilinn through the relay screen high in Comyn Castle; but Arilinn had alreadybeen taken out of the relay net. Neskaya Tower had told them that they had closed the relays to Arilinnthree days ago, when they had sent for Callina Lindir.

So he was going back to Arilinn. Going, after all, to warn them, perhaps to save them—for there was noquestion that this, the greatest of the Tower operations, was the primary target of the Terrans whowanted Arilinn to fail; fail, so that the Domains would fall into the hands of the Terran advisers, engineers,industrialists.

The young Comyn flying the ship had looked with reverence at Elorie when the name of Arilinn wasspoken. It seemed that they all knew about the tremendous experiment at Arilinn, which might keep Darkover and the Domains out of the hands of the Terran Empire.

But it would fail. They were racing through the night to stop it before it started; but if they didn’t do it atall, it would be default, and default would have the same weight as failure, which was why they weretrying this desperate experiment with a half-trained Keeper. Either way, it meant the end of the Darkoverthey knew.

If only I had never come back to Darkover!

“Don’t, Jeff,” she said softly. “It’s not fair to blame yourself.”

But he did. If he had not come back, they might have found someone else to take the vacant place at Arilinn. And Auster, without Jeff to antagonize him, would perhaps have discovered the truth about the Terran spy. But now they were all bound to abide by the success or failure of this experiment; and if itfailed—and it would fail—then they were all pledged, on the word of Hastur, to offer no more resistanceto Terran industrialization, Terran trade, the Terran culture, the Terran way.