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“Are you prepared to assume wardship of the Domain, should the lawful head of the Domain be unable through age, illness or infirmity to act in such capacity; and to swear that you will guard and protect the next heirs to Alton with your own life, if the Gods shall ordain it so?”

“I do so swear.”

Ellemir, watching from her place, could see the fine sweat at Damon’s hairline, and knew that Damondid not want this. He would do it for the sake of the children, Valdir and her son, but he did not want it. And fiercely, to herself, she hoped her father knew what he was doing to Damon!

Lorill Hastur said, “Do you solemnly declare that to the best of your knowledge you are fit to assumethis responsibility? Is there any man who will challenge your right to this solemn wardship of the people ofyour Domain, the people of all the Domains, the people of, all Darkover?”

Kneeling, Damon thought,
 
Who would be truly fit for such a responsibility? Not I, Aldones, Lord of Light, not I! Yet I will do the best I can, I swear it before all the Gods. For Valdir, for Ellemir andher child
 
.

He said aloud, “I will abide the challenge.”

Danvan Hastur, commander of the Honor Guard for the Council, strode to the center of the room,where Damon still knelt, the rainbow light playing over his face. Sword in hand, he called in a loud voice, “Is there any to challenge the wardship of Damon Ridenow-Alton, Regent of Alton?”

Into the silence a young voice said, “I challenge.” Damon, startled, feeling Andrew’s consternation evenfrom where he sat at the very back of the Alton seats, raised his head to see Dezi step forward, take thesword from Lorill’s hand.

“On what grounds?” Lorill inquired. “And by what right? You are not known to me, young man.”

Dom
Esteban looked at Dezi in dismay. His voice trembled. “Do you not trust me, Dezi, my son?”

Deri ignored the words and the tenderness in them. “I am Desiderio Leynier,
 
nedestro
 
son of Gwennis Leynier by Esteban Lanart-Alton, as the only surviving grown son of the lord of the Domain, I claim theright to act as guardian to my brother and the unborn son of my sister.”

Lorill said sternly, “We have no records of any acknowledged
nedestro
 
sons of Esteban Lanart-Altonsave for the two sons of Larissa d’Asturien, who are without
 
laran
 
and thus by law excluded from this Council. May I ask why you were never acknowledged?”

“As for that,” said Dezi, with a smile that barely escaped insolence, “you must ask my father. But I call

the Lady of Arilinn to witness that I am Alton, and bear the gift of the Domain in full measure.”

At Lorill’s question, Leonie rose, her frown showing her distaste for this proceeding. “It is none of myaffair to designate heirships in Comyn, yet since I have been called to witness, I must state that Desideriospeaks truth: he is son to Esteban Lanart and bears the Alton gift.”

Esteban said heavily, “I am ready and willing to acknowledge Dezi as my son if this Council will have it

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so; I brought him here for that purpose. But I do not feel him the most appropriate Guardian for my young son or my unborn grandson. Damon is a man of mature years, Dezi but a youth. I ask Dezi to withdraw the challenge.”

“With all respect, Father,” Dezi said deferentially, “I cannot.”

Damon, kneeling, wondered, what would happen now. Traditionally the challenge could be settled bycombat, a formal duel, or one challenger could withdraw, or either one could present evidence to beexamined by Council, purporting to prove that the other was unfit. Lorill was explaining this.

“Have you reason to think Damon unfit, Desiderio Leynier,
 
nedestro
 
of Alton?”

“I have.” Dezi’s voice was shrill. “I submit that Damon attempted to murder me, to make his own claim more secure. He knew me Esteban’s son, while he was but son-in-law to Alton, and therefore he stripped me of my matrix. It was only my own skill at
 
laran
 
which kept him from blood-guilt on a brother-by-marriage.”

Oh, my God
, thought Andrew, feeling the breath catch in his throat.
 
That bastard, that Goddamnedstinking young bastard. Who but Dezi could cook up something like this
 
?

Lorill Hastur said, “That is an extremely serious accusation, Damon. You have honorably served the

Comyn for many years. We need not even listen to it, if you can give us some explanation.”

Damon swallowed and looked up, conscious of the eyes of all of them on his face. He said steadily, “Iwas sworn to Arilinn; I took oath there to prevent misuse of any matrix. I took it from Dezi under thatoath, for he had misused
 
laran
 
by forcing his will upon my sister’s husband, Ann’dra.”

“True,” Dezi said defiantly without waiting for the challenge. “My sister Callista is besotted by this come-by-chance from nowhere, a
 
Terranan
 
. I sought only to get rid of this fellow from nowhere who has cast such an evil spell on her, so that she may make a marriage worthy of a Comyn lady, not disgrace herself in the bed of a
 
Terranan
 
spy.”

General uproar. Damon sprang to his feet, enraged, but Dezi stood facing him, defiant, slightly mocking. It seemed that everyone in the Crystal Chamber was talking, shouting, questioning at once. Lorill Hasturagain and again vainly commanded silence.

When some semblance of order was restored he said, looking grave, “We must inquire into this matterprivately. Very serious charges and counter-charges have been laid. For now, I bid you to disperse, andnot to discuss this matter among yourselves. Gossip will not better it. Beware of careless fire in the forest;beware of careless talk even among the wise. But be assured, we will look into the rights and wrongs ofthis matter, and present it for your judgment within three days from now.”

Slowly the room emptied. Esteban deathly pale, looked sadly at Damon and Dezi. He said, “Whenbrothers are at odds, strangers step in to widen the gap. Dezi, how can you do this?”

Dezi set his jaw. He said, “Father, I live only to serve you. Do you doubt me?” He looked at Ellemir,clinging to Damon’s arm, then said to Callista, “Some day you will thank me, my sister.”

“Sister!” Callistra looked Dezi full in the eyes, then, deliberately, she spat in his face and turned away. Laying her fingertips on Andrew’s arm, she said clearly, “Take me out of here, my husband. The place stinks of treachery.”

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“Daughter—”
Dom
 
Esteban pleaded, but Callista turned her back and Andrew had no choice but to

follow. But his heart was pounding, and his thoughts seemed to echo the troubled rhythm:
 
What now
 
?

Chapter Nineteen

«^»

In their own rooms, Callista turned to Andrew, saying vehemently, “He killed Domenic! I do not knowhow he managed it, but I am sure of it!”

“There is only one way it could have been done,” Damon said, “and I am afraid to believe he was that

strong!”

Ellemir asked, “Could he have forced Cathal’s mind, made him strike Domenic at a vulnerable spot? Hehas the Alton gift and can force rapport…” But she sounded hesitant, and Callista shook her head.

“Not without killing Cathal, or inflicting so much brain damage that Cathal’s very condition would tell the

tale.”

Damon’s face was bleak and unreadable. “Dezi has the talent to do a Keeper’s work,” he said, “we allsaw that when I took his matrix from him. He can handle or modify another’s stone, adapt it to his ownresonances. I think, left alone with Domenic, injured, but alive, he could not resist the temptation to haveone in his hands again. And when he took Domenic’s from his throat”—he flinched, and Andrew sawthat his hands were shaking— “Domenic’s heart stopped with the shock. A perfect, undetectablemurder, since there was no known Keeper there, and most people did not know Domenic evenpossessed a matrix. And it would explain why Dezi is barricaded from me.”

Callista’s voice shook. “Among telepaths he must go barricaded till the day of his death, a dreadful fateindeed!”

Ellemir said savagely, “Not half so dreadful as the death he gave Domenic!”

“It is worse than you realize,” Damon said in a low voice. “Do you think, now that he knows his power, that Valdir is safe? How long will he spare Valdir, now that only Valdir lies between him and the heritage of Alton? And when he has
Dom
 
Esteban’s ear and perfect trust, who else lies between him and the lordship of the Domain?”

Ellemir turned white, her hands going to her body as if to shield the child who cradled there. “I told youyou should have killed him,” she said, beginning to cry. Callista looked at Ellemir in consternation.

“It would be all too simple, a few fragile blood vessels to sever, and the unborn child bleeds to death, his

link to life gone.”

“Don’t!” Ellemir cried.

“Why do you think we are so careful, in teaching psi monitors?” Callista asked. “Women in the Towers are careful not to get pregnant during their term of work, but it does happen, of course. And Dezi learned there to monitor—Avarra’s mercy, it was I who taught him! And learning the vulnerable spots, learning how
not
 
to damage mother or child, makes it easy to learn to violate them.”

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“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Andrew said, speaking for the first time, “but I wouldn’t hang a dog without more proof than we have here. Will there ever be any way to prove it?” Even if Dezi had killed Domenic by taking the matrix from the stunned and unconscious boy, he had only to fling away a bit of dead crystal.

Damon’s face was set. “I believe Dezi’s own weakness will expose him. True, he could have disposedof the proof, but I do not believe he could give up that kind of power. Would he be able to resist thetemptation to have one again in his own hands? Not if I know our Dezi. And he could modify the stone tohis use, which means there is still a witness against him. Silent. But a witness.”

“Fine,” said Andrew sarcastically. “We have only to go to him and say hand over the matrix you killed

Domenic to get, like a good boy.”

Damon’s hand clutched his own matrix as if for reassurance. “If he is carrying a modified matrix the relayscreens in Arilinn and the other Towers will show it.”

“Fine,” Andrew said again. “How far is Arilinri from here? A tenday’s ride, or more?”

“It is simpler than that,” Callista told him. “There are relay screens here in the Old Tower of Comyn Castle. In time past, so they say, technicians could teleport themselves between Towers by use of the great screens. It isn’t done much anymore. But there are also monitor screens, attuned to those in the other Towers. Any mechanic can link into those and trace any licensed matrix on Darkover.” She hesitated. “I cannot… I have given back my oath.”

Damon was impatient with this technicality. Such a loss to the Towers, such a loss to Callista, butwhatever Keeper or mechanic was now in charge of the Old Tower,
 
she
 
would observe the prohibition,and there was nothing to be done.

“Who keeps the Old Tower, Callista? I cannot believe that the Mother Ashara would receive us on such

an errand.”

“No one within living memory has seen Ashara outside the Tower,” Callista said. “I think she could no longer leave it if she would, she is so old. I myself have never seen her, except in the screens, nor, I think, has even Leonie. But when last I heard, Margwenn Elhalyn was her under-Keeper; she will tell you what you want to know.”

“Margwenn was psi monitor at Arilinn when I was Third there,” Damon said. “She went from us to Hali; I did not know she had come here.” Technicians, mechanics, monitors were moved from Tower to Tower, as the need was greatest. If Margwenn Elhalyn was not precisely an old friend, at least she knew who he was and it saved lengthy explanations about what he wanted.

He had never been inside the Old Tower of Comyn Castle. Margwenn admitted him to the matrixchamber, a place of ancient screens and lattices, machinery whose very existence had been forgottensince the Ages of Chaos. Damon, his errand forgotten for a moment, stared at it in avid curiosity. Whyhad all this technology, the ancient science of Darkover, been allowed to sink into obscurity? Even at Arilinn he had not learned to use all these things. True, there were too few technicians and mechanicseven to staff the relays which provided communications and generated essential energy for certaintechnologies, but even if matrix workers were no longer willing, in these self-indulgent days, to give uptheir lives and live guarded behind walls, surely
some
 
of these things could be done outside!