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did."

He saw Danilo visibly struggling between the impulse to fling the polite gesture back into his face-whatmore had he to lose?-and the lifelong habit of hospitality. At last he said, "My house and I are at yourservice, Lord Regis." His politeness was exaggerated almost to a caricature. "What is my lord's will?"

Regis said, "I want to talk to you."

"As you see, my lord, I am very much occupied. But I am entirely at your bidding."

Regis ignored the irony and took him at his word.

"Come here, then, and sit down," he said, taking his seat on a fallen log, felled so long ago that it was covered with gray lichen. Silently Danilo obeyed, keeping as far away as the dimensions of the log allowed.

Regis said after a moment, "I want you to know one thing: I have no idea why you were thrown out ofthe Guards, or rather, I only know what I heard that day. But from the way everyone acted, you'd think Ileft you to take the blame for something I myself did. Why? What did I do?"

"You know-" Danilo broke off, kicking a windfall apple

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with the point of his clog. It broke with a rotten, slushy clunk. "It's over. Whatever I did to offend you,

I've paid."

Then for a moment the rapport, the awareness Danilo had wakened in him, flared again between them. He could feel Danilo's despair and grief as if it were his own. He said, harsh with the pain of it, "Danilo Syrtis, speak your grudge and let me avow or deny it! I triSS not to think ill of you even in disgrace! Butyou called me foul names when I meant you nothing but kindness, and if you have spread lies about meor my kinsmen, then you deserve everything they have done to you, and you still have a score to settlewith me!" Without realizing it, he had sprung to his feet, his hand going to the hilt of his sword.

Danilo stood defiant. His gray eyes, gleaming like molten metal beneath dark brows, blazed with angerand sorrow. "Dom Regis, I beg you, leave me in peace! Isn't it enough that I am here, my hopes gone,my father shamed forever-I might as well be dead!" he cried out desperately, his words tumbling overthemselves. "Grudge, Regis? No, no, none against you, you showed me nothing but kindness, but youwere one of them, one of those, those-" He stopped again, his voice tight with the effort not to cry. Atlast he cried out passionately, "Regis Hastur, as the Gods live, my conscience is clear and your Lord of Light and the God of the cristo-foros may judge between the Sons of Hastur and me!"

Almost without volition, Regis drew his sword. Danilo, startled, took a step backward in fear; then hestraightened and stiffened his mouth. "Do you punish blasphemy so quickly, lord? I am unarmed, but ifmy offense merits death, then kill me now where I stand! My life is no good to me!"

Shocked, Regis lowered the point of the sword. "Kill you, Dani?" he said in horror. "God forbid! Itnever crossed my mind! I wished ... Dani, lay your hand on the hilt of my sword."

Confused, startled into obedience, Danilo put a tentative hand on the hilt Regis gripped hand and hilttogether in his own fingers.

"Son of Hastur who is the Son of Aldones who is the Lord of Light! May this hand and this sword pierce my heart and my honor, Danilo, if I had part or knowledge in your disgrace, or if anything you say now shall be used to work you harml" Again, from the hand-touch, he felt that odd little

shock running up his arm, blurring his own thoughts, felt Danilo's sobs tight in his own throat.

Danilo said on a drawn breath, "No Hastur would forswear that oath!"

"No Hastur would forswear his naked word," Regis retorted proudly, "but if it took an oath to convince

you, an oath you have." He sheathed the sword.

"Now tell me what happened, Dani. Was the charge a lie, then?"

Danilo was still visibly dazed. "The night I came in-it had been raining. You woke, you knew-"

"I knew only that you were in pain, Dani. No more. I asked if I could help, but you drove me away."

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The pain and shock he had felt that night returned to him in full force and he felt his heart pounding againwith the agony of it, as he had done when Danilo thrust him away.

Danilo said, "You are a telepath. I thought-"

"A very rudimentary one, Danilo," said Regis, trying to steady his voice. "I sensed only that you were

unhappy, in pain. I didn't know why and you would not tell me."

"Why should you care?"

Regis put out his hand, slowly closed it around Danilo's wrist. "I am Hastur and Comyn. It touches thehonor of my clan and my caste that anyone should have cause to speak til of us. With false slanders wecan deal, but with truth, we can only try to right the wrong. We Comyn can be mistaken." Dimly, at theback of his mind, he realized he had said "We Comyn" for the first time. "More," he said, and smiledfleet-ingly, "I like your father, Dani. He was willing to anger a Hastur in order to have you left in peace."

Danilo stood nervously locking and unlocking his hands. He said, "The charge is true. I drew my daggeron Lord Dyan. I only wish I had cut his throat while I was about it; whatever they did to me, the worldwould be a cleaner place."

Regis stared, disbelieving. "Zandru! Dani-"

"I know, in days past, the men who touched Comyn lord in irreverence would have been torn on hooks.

In those days, perhaps, Comyn were worth reverence-"

"Leave that," Regis said sharply. "Dani, I am heir to Hastur, but even I could not draw steel on an officer without disgrace. Even if the officer I struck were no Comyn lord but young Hjalmar, whose mother is a harlot of the streets."

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Danilo stood fighting for control. "If I struck young Hjal-mar, Regis, then I would have deserved mypunishment; he is an honorable man. It was not as my officer I drew on Lord Dyan. He had forfeited allclaim to obedience or respect."

"Is that for you to judge?"

"In those circumstances ..." Danilo swallowed. "Could I respect and obey a man who had so far forgotten himself as to try to make me his-" He used a cahuenga word Regis did not know, only that it was unspeakably obscene. But he was still hi rapport with Danilo, so there was no scrap of doubt about his meaning. Regis went white. He literally could not speak under the shock of it.

"At first I thought he was joking," Danilo said, almost stammering. "I do not like such jests-I am a cristoforo-but I gave him some similar joke for an answer and thought that was the end of it, for if he meant the jest in seriousness, then I had given him his answer without offense. Then he made himself

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clearer and grew angry when I answered him no, and swore he could force me to it. I don't know what he did to me, Regis, he did something with his mind, so that wherever I was, alone or with others, I felt him touching me, heard his ... his foul whispers, that awful, mocking laugh of his. He pursued me, he seemed to be inside my mind all the time. All the time. I thought he meant to drive me out of my mind! I had thought ... a telepath could not inflict pain. ... I can't stand it even to be around anyone who's really unhappy, but he took some awful, hateful kind of pleasure in it." Danilo sobbed suddenly. "I went to him, then, I begged him to let me be! Regis, I am no gutter-brat, my family has served the Hasturs honorably for years, but if I were a whore's foundling and he the king on his throne, he would have had no right to use me so shamefully!" Danilo broke down again and sobbed. "And then . . . and then he said I knew perfectly well how I could be free of him. He laughed at me, that awful, hideous laugh. And then I had my dagger out, I hardly know how I came to draw it, or what I meant to do with it, kill myself maybe. . . ." Danilo put his hands over his face. "You know the rest," he said through them.

Regis could hardly draw breath. "Zandru send him scorpion whips! Dani, why didn't you lay a chargeand claim immunity? He is subject to the laws of Comyn too, and a tele-path who misuses his laran thatway ..."

Danilo gave a weary little shrug. It said more than words.

Regis felt wholly numbed by the revelation. How could he ever face Dyan again, knowing this?

/ knew it wasn't true what they said of you, Regis. But you •were Comyn too, and Dyan showed you so

much favor, and that last night, when you touched me, 1 was afraid . . .

Regis looked up, outraged, then realized Danilo had not spoken at all. They were deeply in rapport; hefelt the other boy's thoughts. He sat back down on the log, feeling that his legs were unable to hold himupright.

"I touched you ... only to quiet you." he said at last.

"I know that now. What good would it do to say I am sorry for that, Regis? It was a shameful thing to

say."

"It is no wonder you cannot believe in honor or decency from my kin. But it is for us to prove it to you.

All the more since you are one of us. Danilo, how long have you had laranT

"I? Laran? I, Lord Regis?"

"Didn't you know? How long have you been able to read thoughts?"

"That? Why, all my life, it seems. Since I was twelve or so. Is that..."

"Don't you know what it means, if you have one of the Comyn gifts? You do, you know. Telepaths aren't uncommon, but you opened up my own gift, even after Lew Alton failed." With a flood of emotion, he thought, you brought me my heritage. "I think you're what they call a catalyst tele-path. That's very rare and a precious gift." He forebore to say it was an Ardais gift. He doubted if Danilo would appreciate that information just now. "Have you told anyone else?"

"How could I, when I didn't know myself? I thought everyone could read thoughts."

"No, it's rarer than that. It means you too are Comyn, Dani."

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"Are you saying my parentage is-"

"Zandru's hells, no! But your family is noble, it may well be that your mother had Comyn kinsmen, Comyn blood, even generations ago. With full laran, though, it means you yourself are eligible for Comyn Council, that you should be trained to use these gifts, sealed to Comyn." He saw revulsion on Danilo's face and said quickly, "Think. It means you are Lord Dyan's equal. He can be held accountable for having misused you,"

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Regis blessed the impulse that had brought him here. Alone, his mind burdened with the brooding,hypersensitive nature of the untrained telepath, under his father's grim displeasure . . . Danilo might havekilled himself after all.

"I won't, though," Danilo said aloud. Regis realized they had slid into rapport again. He reached out to touch Danilo, remembered and didn't. To conceal the move he bent and picked up a windfall apple. Danilo got to his feet and began putting on his shirt. Regis finished the apple and dropped the core into a pile of mulch.

"Dani, I am expected to sleep tonight at my sister's house. But I give my word: you shall be vindicated.

Meanwhile, is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Yes, Regis! YesI Tell my father the disgrace and dishonor were not mine! He asked no questions and spofce no word of reproach, but no man in our family has ever been dishonored. I can bear anything but his belief that I lied to him!"

"I promise you he shall know the full-no." Regis broke off suddenly. "Isn't that why you dared not tell

him yourself? He would kill-" He saw that he had, in truth, reached the heart of Danilo's fear.

"He would challenge Dyan," Danilo said haltingly, "and though he looks strong he is an old man and his heart is far from sound. If he knew the truth-I wanted to tell him everything, but I would rather have him . . . despise me ... than ruin himself.**

"Well, I shall try to clear your name with your father without endangering him. But for yourself, Dani?

We owe you something for the injury."

"You owe me nothing, Regis. If my name is clean before my kinsmen, I am content."

"Still, the honor of Comyn demands we right this injustice. If there is rot at our heart, well, it must be cleansed." At this moment, filled with righteous anger, he was ready to fling himself against a whole regiment of unjust men who abused their powers. If the older men in Comyn were corrupt or power-mad, and the younger ones idle, then boys would have to set it right!

Danilo dropped to one knee. He held out his hands, his voice breaking. "There is a life between us. My

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brother died to shield your father. As for me, I ask no more than to give my life in the service of Hastur.

Take my sword and my

oath, Lord Regis. By the hand I place on your sword, I pledge my life."

Startled, deeply moved, Regis drew his sword again, held out the hilt to Danilo. Their hands met on thehilt again as Regis, stumbling on the ritual words, trying to recall them one by one, said, "Danilo-Felix Syrtis, be from this day paxman and shield-arm to me ... and this sword strike me if I be not.just lord andshield to you. ..." He bit his lip, fighting to remember what came next. Finally he said, "The Gods witnessit, and the holy things at Hali." It seemed there was something else, but at least their intention was clear,he thought. He slid the sword back into its sheath, raised Danilo to his feet and shyly kissed him on eithercheek. He saw tears on Danilo's eyelids and knew that his own were not wholly dry.