Dumarest looked at him, at the pair who had come to join him. Relatively rich, spoiled, enjoying their moment of power. The owner of the place would tolerate them for the guaranteed custom they brought. To argue was to invite attention and worse.
He said, 'I'm new. Just landed. Looking for somewhere to spend the night.'
'Enrolled?'
'Yes.'
'At Brunheld,' said the youth. 'At Nisen and Kings if those badges are to be believed. You'll find a place over to the west. Angeer's-they take anyone.'
Dumarest moved down the street, masking his gait, eyes watchful from beneath the shadow of the cowl. Soon there would be a reawakening of gaiety with crowds thronging the main avenues in dancing processions, with women shrieking their mirth or outrage, men drunk and poised on the edge of violence. Thieves would be busy and assassins unseen. At such a time a wise man sought refuge.
Dumarest moved on toward the field, swinging away from it as the ships came into sight, heading north in the thickening shadows. The festival was ending-tonight was its finish. When the ships left tomorrow he wanted to be with them. But first he had to pass the night.
The woman said harshly, 'You want more soup?'
Dumarest shook his head.
'Then out!' She jerked her thumb at the shelves lining the far end of the room behind the counter, the hourglasses on them. 'You've had your time.'
To stay he would need to buy more soup; a small bowl of tasteless swill, but if that was the cost he would pay it. He scowled as, delivering it, she demanded the money.
'A quarter? It was-'
'The price doubles after dark.' Impatiently she snapped her fingers. 'Give! The heat's got to be paid for, the lights, the shelter from the wind. The bench you're sitting on, the table, the bowl, the whole damned setup. If you don't like it the door's over there.'
Outside, the street was now scummed with ice, wind carried the burning touch of iced razors. A bleak area lacking the warmth of crowds, the shelter of massive buildings.
But, as a student, he was expected to complain.
'It's robbery. I'll report you to the university council and the student body. I'll have you-'
'Blasted and blacklisted and bedeviled-I've heard it all before. Now that's off your chest you staying or not?' Her fingers snapped again. 'A quarter and no more argument.'
He paid and lifted the bowl as she slouched back to the counter there to turn the hourglass. A woman with lank, dirty hair, a long, skinny body covered with a dingy gown, she matched the place she ran, the stained benches, the scarred tables, the uneven floor. The roof was low, the lights dim, other customers bulks of shapeless anonymity. Voices stirred the air like the rustle of dead and drifting leaves; arguments, discussions, the balancing of relative values as applied to certain teachers, the rare chuckle of amusement, the more common rising of an insistent tone.
'Pell has something, I swear it. The experiment was startling in its implications. He got his sensitives-you know that bunch of freaks he uses in his paraphysical studies at Higham -and directed them to apply their combined intelligence on the selected victim.'
'A student in his class?'
'Yes, of course, but one chosen at random and the whole point is that the subject didn't know he'd been chosen. Well, after a while we all began to notice signs of abnormal behavior. He grew irritable, seemed unable to relax, made stupid mistakes. Then he grew terrified and swore that people were after him. A classic case of paranoia. And all caused by the product of directed thinking.'
'Maybe.' His companions wasn't impressed. 'There are other explanations. I've heard of Pell and he isn't too reliable. He isn't above managing things so as to get a positive result of an experiment if he has to.'
'You accuse him of fraud?' The speaker snorted his impatience. 'That's the easy way out-blame the man conducting the experiment and just ignore his findings. They were genuine, I tell you.'
'But hardly as startling as you seem to think. It's well-known that one subject can influence another-any mental health worker will tell you that. One of the occupational hazards of dealing with the insane is the danger of distorted reality. So just what has Pell proved?'
'Induced paranoia by directed mental concentration. It must be obvious that the implications…'
The voice died to a whisper as if the speaker had suddenly become aware of the others in the room. In a corner a man woke to the woman's prod, to gasp and fumble for a coin for the soup she served him. Stuff he didn't want and he slumped to snore again over the cooling bowl. When his time was up she would throw it back into the pot to be sold again.
A shrewd operator, thought Dumarest, watching her. The price fixed at just the right level. A quarter veil an hour-but in the winter the nights were twelve hours long. Three veil a night for the sake of watered mush and a score rested on the benches. Most would stay-for two veil they could buy space in a community dorm and get eight hours use of the floor, but they would get no food. And in a dorm there was no light by which to study.
He slumped, pretending to doze, thinking of Myra and the way she had died, seeing her face as she had fallen, hair and gown fluttering in the wind, the oval of her face a screaming blob as she had dropped to smash into a bloody pulp on the ground below. A woman misjudged, perhaps, she could have been nothing more than she had seemed, the wine a foolish prank or the result of ignorance. Yet for him to trust another was to place his life in their hands. And she had died too soon-there had been questions he'd wanted to ask, details he needed to know. She and Boulaye had spent time together on Alba as she had admitted, but she had returned alone and long before the man had resumed his duties at the university. Where had he gone during that time? What had he found?
Things now he might never know and Dumarest tasted the bitterness of regret. If he had asked while he had the chance, forced the pace, demanded her full attention-but to press too hard would have been to lose all. A woman sensitive, easily alienated, once she turned stubborn what could he have done?
Now it was too late and what had he gained?
A name, Erce, another, Circe, or perhaps the two were one, the first a distortion of the second or the other way around. This discovery was denied by the man who had later claimed to his wife to have made it-a claim Dumarest believed. The possibility that Boulaye had visited more than one world but no proof as to which. The attention of the Cyclan could lead to his death.
When would they strike?
He shifted on the bench as the night dragged on, easing his weight to avoid cramps, acting the part of a man sleeping and uneasy in his rest. There were shiftings as students left, their places taken by new arrivals who sat shivering despite the thermal protection of their robes. The bad turn of the weather would hasten the end of the festival. Near to dawn a crowd thrust into the room, cowled figures with snow thick on their robes. Two came to sit beside Dumarest, pressing close on either side, bringing the touch of blizzard cold.
'Soup!' one yelled then added, 'It's bad out there. You could fall and freeze and never be noticed.'
This was an unasked-for comment and Dumarest wondered why he had made it. Wondered too why the men sat so close. As the woman left after serving the soup he moved, trying to rise, to find himself trapped by the bodies which pressed against him. The bodies retched and doubled beneath the stabbing thrust of his elbows.
Outside wind and snow had turned the streets into a blurred and freezing confusion.
Dumarest ran, stumbled over a curb, fell to roll and rise wearing a white camouflage. From behind him he heard shouts, saw a glow of light quickly extinguished by the closing of the door, tensed as the sharp blast of a whistle cut through the wind. The men were acting in concert and he could guess why.
He moved on, head bent to avoid the driven flakes, boots padding on a cushion of snow. The wind was from the north and he headed away from it, letting it urge him south toward the field. An obvious path to take but it was a time for simplicity and those hunting him could think him too devious to do something so natural. At a junction wind, caught by the buildings, rose in a twisting vortex which funneled snow up and outward to create a node of clarity. In the pale light of imminent dawn Dumarest saw the waiting bulk of a man, another to one side, figures which advanced as he watched, hands lifting to point as if holding weapons.
'You there! Halt! We are proctors!'
