“I’m sorry,” Geo said after a moment.
Urson looked up. “Why? I guess these are my jewels, huh? Maybe everyone has theirs some place. You think it was old Cat, maybe, sometimes when I was in the brig, perhaps, earning that third coin, slicing out that little four-armed monster’s tongue? Somehow I doubt it.”
“Look, I said I was sorry, Urson.”
“I know,” Urson said. “I know. I guess I’ve met a hell full of people in my short, wet life, and it could be any one of them.” He sighed. “Though I wish I knew which. But I don’t think that’s the answer.” He lifted his hand to his mouth now and gnawed at his thumb nail. “I hope that kid doesn’t get as nervous as I do,” he laughed. “He’ll have such a hell of a lot of nails to bite.”
Then their skulls nearly split apart.
“Hey,” said Geo, “that’s Snake.”
“And he’s in trouble too,” said Urson. He leaped onto the floor and started up the passageway. Geo came after him.
“Let me go first,” Geo said, “I know where he is.”
They reached the deck, raced along the side of the cabins, until they reached the door.
“Move,” ordered Urson. Then he rammed against the door and it flew open.
Inside, behind her desk, Argo whirled, her hand on her jewel. “What is the …”
But the moment her concentration turned, Snake, who had been immobile against the opposite wall, suddenly vaulted across the table toward Geo. Geo grabbed the boy to steady him, and immediately one of Snake’s hands was at Geo’s chest where the jewel hung.
“You fools!” hissed Argo. “Don’t you understand? He’s a spy for Aptor.”
There was a sudden silence.
Then Argo said, “Close the door.”
Urson closed it. Snake still held Geo and the jewel.
“Well,” she said. “It is too late now.”
“What do you mean?” asked Geo.
“That had you not come blundering in, one more of Aptor’s spies would have yielded up his secrets and then been reduced to ashes.” She breathed deeply. “But he has his jewel now, and I have mine. Well, little thief, there’s a stalemate. The forces are balanced now.” She looked at Geo. “How do you think he came so easily by the jewel? How do you think he knew when I would be at the shore? Oh, he’s a clever one, with all the intelligence of Aptor working behind him. He probably even had you planted without your knowing it to interrupt us at just that time.”
“No, he …” began Urson.
“We were walking by your door,” Geo interrupted, “when we heard a noise and thought there might be trouble.”
“Your concern may have cost us all our lives.”
“If he’s a spy, I gather that means he knows how this thing works,” said Geo. “Let Urson and I take him …”
“Take him anywhere you wish!” hissed Argo. “Get out!”
Just then the door opened. “I heard a sound, Priestess Argo, and I thought you might be in danger.” It was the first mate.
The Goddess Incarnate breathed deeply. “I am in no danger,” she said evenly. “Will you please leave me alone, all of you.”
“What’s the Snake doing here?” Jordde suddenly asked, seeing Geo still holding the boy.
“I said, leave me!”
Geo turned, away from Jordde, and stepped past him onto the deck, and Urson followed him. Ten steps farther on, he glanced back, and seeing that Jordde had emerged from the cabin and was walking in the other direction, he set Snake down on his feet. “All right, Little One. March!”
In the passage to the forecastle, Urson asked, “Hey, what’s going on?”
“Well, for one thing, our little friend here is no spy,” said Geo.
“How do you know?” asked Urson.
“Because she doesn’t know he can read minds.”
“How do you mean?” Urson asked.
“First of all, I was beginning to think something was wrong when I came back from talking to the priestess. You were too, and it lay in the same vein you were talking about. Why would our task be completely useless unless we accomplished all parts of her mission? Wouldn’t there be some value in just returning her sister, the rightful head of Leptar, to her former position? And I’m sure her sister may well have collected some useful information that could be used against Aptor, so that would be some value even if we didn’t find the jewel. It doesn’t sound too sisterly a thing to me to forsake the young priestess if there is no jewel in it for her. And her tone, the way she refers to the jewel as hers. There’s an old saying, from before the Great Fire even: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And I think she has not a little of the un-goddess-like desire for power first, peace afterwards.”
“But that doesn’t mean this one isn’t an Aptor spy,” said Urson.
“Wait a minute. I’m getting there. At first I thought he was too. The idea occurred to me first when I was talking to the priestess and she first mentioned that there were spies from Aptor. The coincidence of his appearance, that he had even managed to steal the jewel in the first place, that he would present it to her the way he did; all this hinted something so strange, that spy was the first thing I thought of, and I’m sure it was the first thing she thought as well. And she especially would think this if she did not know that Snake could read minds and broadcast mentally, because ignorance of his telepathy removes the one other possible explanation of the coincidences. But, Urson, why did he leave the jewel with us before he went to see her?”
“Because he thought she was going to try and take it away from him.”
“Exactly. When she told me to send him up to her, I was fairly sure that was the main reason she wanted him. But if he was a spy, and knew how to
