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And yet—nothing could ever be the same.

She remembered, shuddering, the walls crashing with a sound like the world’s end; men surging from thegap; her youngest brother, Edric, bleeding from face and leg and white as a ghost after they tore himaway from the last defenses; her sister Allira, screaming insanely as she fled from Brynat; the madscreams suddenly silenced in a cry of pain—then nothing. Melitta had run after them, fighting with barehands and screaming, screaming until three men had seized and borne her, struggling like a trussed hen, toher own chamber. They had thrust her roughly within and barred the door.

She forced away the crowding memories. She had some freedom, now she must make use of it. Shefound a warm cape and went out of the room. The mercenaries at the door rose and followed her at arespectful, careful ten paces.

Apprehension throbbed in her, she walked through the deserted halls like a ghost through a hauntedhouse, dogged by the steps of the strange brutes. Everywhere were the marks of siege, sack and ruin. Hangings were torn away, furniture hacked and stained. There were marks of fire and smoke in the greathall, and, hearing voices, she tiptoed past; Brynat’s men caroused there and even if he had given ordersto leave her alone, would drunken men heed?

Now, where is Allira?

Brynat, in hateful jesting—had he been jesting?—had referred to Allira as his lady wife. Melitta had beenbrought up in the mountains; even in these peaceful days she knew stories of such bandit invasions: castle

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sacked, men killed, lady forcibly married—if rape could be called marriage because some priest presided—announcement made that the bandit had married into the family and all was peaceful—on the surface. It was a fine subject for sagas and tales, but Melitta’s blood ran cold at the thought of her delicate sister in that man’s hands.

Where had Brynat taken her? Doubtless, to the old royal suite, furnished by her forefathers forentertaining the Hastur-Lords should they ever honor Storn Castle with their presence. That would be thesort of mixed blasphemy and conquest that would appeal to Brynat. Her heart racing, Melitta ran up thestairs, knowing suddenly what she would find there.

The royal suite was a scant four hundred years old; the carpeting felt new underfoot. The insignia of the Hasturs had been inlaid in sapphires and emeralds over the door, but hammer and pick had ripped thejewels from the wall and only broken stone remained.

Melitta burst into the room like a whirlwind, inner conviction—the old, seldom-used, half-remembered
knowing
 
inside her mind, the scrap of telepathic power from some almost-forgotten forefather— forcingher to look here for her sister. She sped through the rooms, hardly seeing the ravages of conquest there.

She found Allira in the farthest room. The girl was huddled in a window seat with her head in her arms,so quenched and trembling that she did not lift her head as Melitta ran into the room, but only coweredinto a smaller and smaller bundle of torn silks. She started with a scream of weak terror as Melitta put ahand on her arm.

“Stop that, Allira. It’s only me.”

Allira Storn’s face was so bleared with crying that it was almost unrecognizable. She flung herself on theother girl, wrapped her arms round her, and burst into a hurricane of sobs and cries.

Melitta’s heart quailed with sickening pity, but she grasped Allira firmly in both hands, held her off andshook her hard, until her head flapped loosely up and down. “Lira, in Aldones’ name, stop that squalling! That won’t help you—or me, or Edric, or Storn, or our people! While I’m here, let’s think. Use whatbrains you have left!”

But Allira could only gasp, “He—he—huh— Buh—Brynat—” She stared at her sister with such dazed,glassy eyes that Melitta wondered in a spasm of terror if harsh usage had left Allira witless or worse. Ifso, she was frighteningly alone, and might as well give up at once.

She freed herself, searched, and found on a sideboard a half-empty bottle of
firi
 
. She would ratherhave had water, or even wine, but in these straits anything would do. She dashed half the contents fullinto Allira’s face. Eyes stung by the fiery spirits, Allira gasped and looked up; but now she saw her sisterwith eyes at least briefly sane. Melitta grasped her chin, tilted the bottle and forced a half-cup of the rawliquor down her sister’s throat. Allira gulped, swallowed, coughed, choked, dribbled, then, angerreplacing hysteria, struck down Melitta’s arm and the cup.

“Have you lost your wits, Meli?”

“I was going to ask you that, but I didn’t think you were in any shape to answer,” Melitta said vigorously. Then her voice became more tender. “I didn’t mean to frighten or hurt you, love; you’ve had more than enough of that, I know. But I had to make you listen to me.”

“I’m all right now—as much as I can ever be,” she amended, bitterly.

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“You don’t have to tell me,” Melitta said quickly, flinching from what she could read in her sister’s mind;

they were both wide open to each other. “But—he came and mocked me, calling you his lady wife—”

“There was even some mummery with one of his red-robed priests, and he sat me in the high seat at his

side,” Allira confirmed, “with knife near enough my ribs that I didn’t dare speak—”

“But he didn’t harm you, apart from that?”

“He used neither knife nor whip, if that’s what you mean,” Allira said, and dropped her eyes. Before the accusing silence of the younger girl, she burst out, “What could I have done? Edric dead, for all I knew—you, Zandru knew where—he would have killed me,” she cried out on another gust of sobs. “You would have done the same!”

“Had you no dagger?” Melitta raged.

“He—he took it away from me,” Allira wept.

Melitta thought,
I would have used it on myself before he could make me his doxy-puppet in hishigh hall
 
. But she did not speak the words aloud. Allira had always been a fragile, gentle girl, frightenedby the cry of a hawk, too timid to ride any horse but the gentlest of palfreys, so shy and home-loving thatshe sought neither lover nor husband. Melitta subdued her anger and her voice to gentleness. “Well, love,no one’s blaming you; our people know better and it’s no one else’s business; and all the smiths of Zandru can’t mend a broken egg or a girl’s maidenhead, so let’s think what’s to be done now.”

“Did they hurt you, Meli?”

“If you mean did they rape me, no; that scarface, a curse to his manhood, had no time for me, and I suppose he thought me too fine a prize for any of his men offhand—though he’ll probably fling me to one of them when the time comes, if we can’t stop it.” In a renewed spasm of horror, she thought of Brynat’s rabble of renegades, bandits, and half-human things from far back in the Hellers. She caught Allira’s thought, even the brutal protection of the bandit chief was better than that rabble’s hands. Well, she couldn’t blame Lira—had she had the same choice what might she have done? Not all porridge cooked is eaten, and not all brave words can be put into acts. Nevertheless, a revulsion she could not quite conceal made her loose her sister from her arms and say dispassionately, “Edric, I think, is in the dungeons; Brynat forbade me to go there. But I think I would feel it if he were dead. You are more psychic than I; when you pull yourself together, try to reach his mind.”

“And Storn!” Allira broke out again in frenzy. “What has he done to protect us—lying like a log, safe

and guarded by his own magic, and leaving us all to
 
their
 
tender mercies!”

“What could he have done otherwise?” Melitta asked reasonably. “He cannot hold a sword or see to use it; at least he has made sure that no one can use him for a puppet—as they are using you.” Her eyes, fierce and angry, bored into her sister; “Has he gotten you with child yet?”

“I don’t know—it could be.”

“Curse you for a whittling,” Melitta raged. “Don’t you, even now, see what it is he wants? If it were only a willing girl, why not one—or a dozen— of the maids? Listen. I have a plan, but you must use what little sense the gods gave you for a few days at least. Wash your face, robe yourself decently, try to look like the Lady of Storn, not some camp follower torn from the kennel! Brynat thinks he has you tamed and

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well-married, but he is a ruffian and you are a lady; you have the blood of the Seven Domains; you can outwit him if you try. Play for time, Allira! Have the vapors, play at mourning, put him off with promises—at worst, tell him that the day you know you are pregnant you will throw yourself from the battlements—and
 
make him believe it
 
! He daren’t kill you, Allira; he needs you robed and jewelled in the high seat beside him, at least until he can be sure no follower or enemy will try to topple him from this height. Put him off for a few days, no more, and then—”

“Can you waken Storn to help us?” Allira gasped.

“By all the gods, what an idiot you are! Storn in trance is all that keeps us safe, Lira, and gives us time. Storn roused and in his hands—that devil’s whelp would stick a knife in Edric’s guts, toss me to his soldiers for a few hours’ sport while I lived, and who knows if he’d even want a child from you? No, Lira, pray Storn keeps safe in trance till I can think of a plan! You do your part, keep up your courage, and I’ll do mine.”

In her heart a small desperate plan was maturing. She dared not tell Allira. They might be overheard, or,if she formulated it in words, there might be among Brynat’s rabble, some half-human telepath whowould win favor from his outlaw lord by bearing tales of the plot. But a seed of hope had been born inher.

“Come, Allira, let us dress you as befits the Lady of Storn, and bedazzle that ruffian into respect,” she

said, and prepared, again, to face Brynat without revealing anything.

III

«^»

BARRON had been in the service of the Terran Empire since he was a lad in his late teens and he hadserved on three planets before coming to Darkover. He discovered that afternoon that he had never left Terra. He found it out by leaving it for the first time.

At the designated gate from the Terran Zone, a bored young clerk looked him over as he examined theslip from Transportation and Personnel, which stated that Barron, Class Two, was being released onliaison assignment beyond the Zone. He remarked, “So you’re the fellow who’s going back into themountains? You’d better get rid of those clothes and pick up some sort of suitable outfit for travellinghere. Those togs you’re wearing might do for the Zone, but back in the hills you’ll get frozen—or maybelynched. Didn’t they tell you?”

They hadn’t told him anything. Barron felt nonplussed; was he expected to go native? He was a Terran Empire liaison man, not a secret agent. But the clerk was the first person since the accident who hadtreated him like a human being, and he was grateful. “I thought I was going as an official representative. No safe-conducts, then?”

The clerk shrugged. “Who’d give it? You ought to be planet-wise after five years here. Terrans, or any Empire men, aren’t popular outside Trade City. Or didn’t you bother reading Official Directive Number Two?”

“Not the fine print.” He knew that it made it illegal, on penalty of instant deportation, for Empire men to enter, without permits, any portion of the planet outside the designated trade zones. Barron had never wanted to, and so it never entered his head to wonder why. An alien planet was an alien planet— there

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were thousands of them—and his work had always been inside the Zone.

But it was no longer.

The clerk was feeling talkative. “Almost all the Terrans in Mapping and Exploring or the other liaisonjobs wear Darkovan clothes. Warmer, and you don’t collect a crowd that way. Didn’t anybody tellyou?”

Barron shook his head stubbornly. He didn’t remind the clerk that nobody had been telling him anythingfor some days. In any case, he was feeling stubborn. He was doing his proper work for the Empire—hewas officially appointed to it—and the Darkovans were not to tell him how to dress or act. If the Darkovans didn’t like the clothes he was wearing, they could start learning the tolerance for alien customswhich was the first thing required of every man who accepted work for the Terran Empire. He wassatisfied with his light, warm synthetic tunic and breeches, his soft, low-cut sandals, and his short linedovercoat, which kept out the wind. Many Darkovans had adopted them in Trade City; the clothing wascomfortable and indestructible. Why change it? He said a little stiffly, “It isn’t as if I were wearing Spaceforce uniform. I can see where that might be a breach of good taste. But these?”