'The disk Brill selected happened to be a horror story. Lord Tern portrayed a Tal Tahir with something inherently wrong. He hated youth rather than worshipping them. The role he played was that of a kra'ith leader who turned against his members.'
'But Lord Tern wasn't dealing with a kra'ith,' Karyn pointed out.
'Lord Tern thought he was dealing with a kra'ith. He fitted the structure of his story around Fairhope, the Holy Order and the human inhabitants of Clarion. And the mission he had to play out was to destroy his kra'ith. That was why he issued proclamations to establish the Sons of God and the God Wall.'
'And Brill followed his orders to the letter,' Karyn said bitterly.
Paul nodded. 'Brill's interpretation of what Lord Tern did to his kra'ith members led to what Brill did to his own kra 'ith, which was in effect the entire population of Clarion.'
'If Lord Tern was a horror disk,' Karyn said,
'what was Elli?'
210 William Greenleaf
'I think she was a psychiatrist.' Frakes issued an involuntary bark of laughter.
'A ... shrink?'
'It took me a long time to figure out why Dorland and I were having such a hard time
communicating with her,' Paul went on. 'Then I realized we weren't talking about the same thing. We were trying to get Elli to help us defeat Lord Tern and High Elder Brill. But Elli was designed to help members of a kra'ith overcome their problems and fit in better with their kra'ith brothers and sisters. Her job was to make kra 'ith members feel better about themselves. That's all she could understand, so she naturally assumed we'd called on her because we needed emotional help. She thought Dorland was a kra'ith leader seeking advice.'
'No wonder you were confused,' Karyn said.
'We were,' Paul said. 'Until we convinced her the entire planet of Clarion was our kra'ith. Then she understood, and she knew Lord Tern wasn't a good leader. So she offered the only advice she could. A new leader. Dorland.'
Another silence intervened.
'If the disks are recordings,' Karyn said at last,
'That means . . .' She turned to look at the chauka.
'It means,' Paul said, 'that the chauka and the disks are thousands of years old.' He took the silver disk out of his pocket and looked down at it.
'We'll never get to meet the Tal Tahir. But I have a feeling they've left us something we'll find to be useful—'
A hoarse shout interrupted him, and Jacque
came clattering down the stairs. His words were drowned out by a sudden roar overhead. Paul looked up and saw a dozen silver warships hovering over the temple. The fuselage of each was emblazoned with a'bright blue crosshatch. The Fringe Alliance had arrived in force.
Epilogue
DANITA WAS SILENT FOR A LONG MOMENT AFTER
her grandfather had finished the story. Finally she looked up at him, her dark eyes reflecting the flame from the fire.
'That was when the Treaty of Clarion was signed?'
The old man nodded. 'The treaty was negotiated and signed during the next three days. Dorland called in the UNSA triumvirate members, as well as Hans Maiar and his top lieutenants. It wasn't hard to convince them to come. They all wanted to get their hands on Clarion.'
'But Dorland Avery didn't know he would be able to persuade them to sign the treaty. Wasn't that risky, bringing
