Zenya

When next he saluted, his movement was brisk.

'Yes, sir! As you order!'

Of the colonels, Paran was the first to speak. He stepped forward, hand extended. 'Marshal, my congratulations on your success. As I was telling the Council, you must have a good explanation for what you've done.'

'Yes, colonel.'

'By God, it had better be a good one!' Oaken, face flushed with rage, stood with hands clenched, trembling. 'Is this the arrangement you made with the Ayutha? That you would ruin us in return for their cooperation?'

'Treason,' said Stone. He sounded dazed. 'Three hundred square miles of lofios destroyed, not counting the plants you felled to make the line. Why, marshal? Why?'

'To end the war.'

'But you'd done that. The Ayutha-'

'Had nothing to do with what happened to the villages,' snapped Dumarest impatiently. 'I thought that would have been obvious by now. The line proved it. Nothing living could pass without my knowing it, and yet there still was trouble.'

Stone said slowly, 'Then someone else? Sabotage?'

'No, the lofios itself.' Dumarest turned toward the raft. 'Lieutenant!'

Fran Paran dropped the rifle he had been holding and lifted a sack. Jumping from the raft, he moved forward, to stand at Dumarest's side.

'The clue was there all along,' said Dumarest. 'But you couldn't see it. You were too close. When the trouble started, you naturally thought of the Ayutha, and from then on blamed everything on them. But the real cause was much closer to hand, in the plants you grow and harvest for profit.'

Oaken sucked in his breath. 'You're lying,' he said. 'Trying to justify what you've done. You have no proof!'

'How many more dead do you need before facing reality? Two more villages? Three? The city itself?' Dumarest reached for the sack. 'The lofios is a mutated hybrid. You have lived with it so long that you can't even begin to imagine that it could be anything else but harmless. But plants change. They mutate. In this case, the mutation has resulted in a subtle alteration of the pollen. A freak-it couldn't happen again perhaps for a million years-but once was enough. Now, some of the pollen isn't harmless. It contains a hallucinogenic of a particularly horrible nature. It affects the brain, turns people insane, makes them kill, and then causes them to die in turn. You have seen the effects.'

Paran said shrewdly, 'Some of the pollen, Earl?'

'Perhaps one plant out of ten. I don't know; your scientists can determine that. But some, certainly, there can be no doubt. All the evidence points to it; the villages destroyed without trace of an external enemy, that raft that landed and the men who fought each other-they must have broken open dangerous pods. I caught a scent of it myself, sweet, sickly, and I felt its effects.' Dumarest glanced at Lieutenant Paran standing at his side. 'I felt it and saw what it could do. We were lucky, breathing only a trace, but even that was enough to have killed us both. Now you know why I ordered clearings to be made around every village. The protection isn't enough, but with masks, working without them only when there is no wind, it should serve.' He added bitterly, 'I asked you to do that before. You refused. How many men, women, and children have died because of that refusal?'

Too many, but they were not wholly to blame. Old habits die hard, and when bolstered by greed, rarely die at all. The clearings had been made and the warning given; he could do no more.

Oaken said, 'I don't believe it. It's a trick of some kind. Maybe he got paid to ruin our economy and invented this story to cover himself.'

Stone added, 'But proof? We still have no proof.'

Ignoring the insult, Dumarest said, 'I checked all the weather reports. There had been wind each time a village was affected. And if you want more proof still…'

From the sack he took a lofios pod. It was ripe, the membrane taut. He said, 'I've twenty others in the sack. They could all be harmless, but the odds are against it. If not, they will prove what I say beyond any possibility of argument.'

He, Fran Paran, and the men Thomile commanded were all equipped with masks. Dumarest raised his own, waited until the others had followed suit. The wind was blowing from behind them, toward where Raougat stood with Oaken and Stone before his men. Raising the pod, Dumarest threw it hard to the ground.

It burst, releasing a fine cloud of misty particles, immediately caught by the wind, to swirl in a fine dust about their faces.

'Marshal! For God's sake!' Oaken sneezed, flapping his hands, dabbing at his eyes. 'What the devil are you doing?'

Dumarest lifted another pod.

'No!' Raougat sprang to one side, hand snatching at his pun. 'Don't do it! You'll kill us all!'

Lieutenant Thomile rapped, 'Drop that gun, captain! Drop it!'

His own pistol was lifted, the rifles of his men a steady line. As Raougat's pistol hit the ground he said, 'Carry on, marshal.'

Dumarest looked at Oaken, at Stone. 'You seem afraid, gentlemen. And yet why should you be? If you are so certain that I am wrong, then the pods must be harmless.'

'No,' said Stone. 'No more. Please.'

'Colonel Oaken?'

'Put the damned thing away!'

'You are convinced, then?' Dumarest dropped the pod into the bag. 'You had better be,' he said grimly. 'The mutation is spreading. I don't know how you're going to handle it, but you'd better do it soon. Before a strong wind rises from the hills and blows over the lofios toward the city.' Jerking tight the neck of the sack, he handed it to Colonel Paran. 'Here,' he said. 'Your enemy.'

* * *

The water was hot, scented, refreshing to his skin. Dumarest felt the beat of it wash away the grime and ease his muscles. Dried, he looked at the rumpled uniform, then turned to his own clothes. Tall, in neutral gray, he left the bathroom and met Zenya's incredulous stare.

'Earl! Why have you changed?'

'The war is over.'

'But surely they won't…' She broke off, regretting his altered status, the loss of his reflected glory. As the lady of the marshal of Chard she had been feted, spoiled wherever she went. With swift recovery she said, 'Well, darling, it doesn't matter. At least back home you won't be in danger every minute. We are going back home, Earl?'

'Yes, Zenya, I'll be leaving Chard.'

Too engrossed with her own concerns, she didn't recognize the ambiguity. 'You've done wonders, Earl. Not only have you stopped this stupid war, but you found Salek. Grandfather will be pleased, and you know what he promised. Us, together, on our own estate. Earl, we'll be so happy!'

For a while, he thought, until the novelty wore off and her own restless compulsion drove her to seek fresh titivation. And then, in order to retain his pride, he would have to fight and kill-that or beat her into submissive obedience. Two things which, for him, held no attraction.

A wanton, he thought, looking at her. Amoral, warped by the society in which she lived, the inbreeding which had accentuated weakness. A bitch in every sense of the word, yet beautiful, as all such women were.

Wine stood on a table, and she poured him a glass, resplendent as she turned, shimmering all in gold. Smiling, she handed it to him, waited as he sipped.

'We should go out, darling. For the last time, in your uniform, so that everyone can see the man who saved them.'

'Perhaps.'

'And you can tell me exactly what happened in the cavern. When you and Captain Hamshard shot down those savages. He told me about it when he arrived with Salek.'

'Salek.' Dumarest set down the glass. 'Where is he?'

'In the other room. With Lisa… Earl!' she cried out as he sprang to his feet and ran toward the door. 'Earl,