what…'
They were together, sitting very close on a couch, the man still wearing his coarse robe, the cowl thrown back to reveal the gaunt structure of his skull. Beside him the woman looked a thing of legendary evil, shimmering black accentuating the whiteness of her face, her neck, ebony-tipped nails reaching like claws, to hover an inch from the sunken cheek of her prey.
'Lisa!' Dumarest dropped his hand, lifted it with the knife, light splintering from the edge, the needle point. 'Drop your hand! Drop it!'
'Or what, Earl?' She turned to face him, the hand not moving, the sharpened tips of her nails like tiny spears. 'Will you throw that knife? Kill me, perhaps? Do you honestly believe you could move fast enough?'
'Do you think I couldn't?'
A gamble with her life as the stake, but one she couldn't win. It would take time to reach, to press, to break the skin, and already Salek, warned by some instinct, was moving from her side.
'What is wrong?' he said. 'What is happening?'
'She intends to kill you.'
'Lisa? But why? How?'
'Look at her hands,' snapped Dumarest. 'Those nails carry poison. And she intended to kill you, because your father wants you dead.'
From behind him Zenya said, 'Earl, that's ridiculous!'
'You heard the child?' Lisa leaned back on the couch, smiling, confident of her power. 'You were employed to find him. To return him to Paiyar. Has the war turned your mind so that you have forgotten why you were sent to Chard?'
'I was not employed, I was forced, and I do not like to be driven.'
'Have you any choice?' Lisa's voice was a feral purr as she spoke directly at him, ignoring the others. 'Do you want me to say that word again? Have you forgotten that also? Driven?' Her laughter was thin, brittle. 'Yes, you have been driven, and will continue to be so. Like a beast on a rein. My beast.'
Zenya whispered, 'Kill her, Earl. Kill her!'
He fought the temptation, lowering the knife, so that it hung loose at his side. She was a woman, they were on a civilized world, the death that closed her mouth would bring a kindred penalty.
To Salek he said, 'Have you never wondered why I tried to kill you when first we met?'
The slanted eyes narrowed, thoughtful. 'I thought that perhaps… I was wearing this robe, the light was red, for a moment you could have mistaken me for a cyber. Lisa…'
'Told you how much I love them?'
'Yes. She said that you feared and hated them. It would be natural for you to have wanted to kill one.'
A facile tale that would have satisfied a mind dulled by years of close proximity to innocence. Dumarest said, 'And all the time she was telling you this, she was moving closer, a warmly intimate relation talking over old times and, perhaps, making plans. Don't you realize that you are the greatest obstacle to her ambition? Did she ask you to marry her?'
Salek flushed. 'I will never marry. I told her that.'
'And so she decided to eliminate you. To obey her master's orders. Why, Lisa? Does he know you so well, that you have no mind of your own? Was it necessary to kill?'
'Be careful, Earl!'
Beside him Zenya whispered again, 'Kill her, Earl. Kill her!'
Mad, he thought, the entire family insane. Chan Parect didn't want his son returned alive. That would have presented a threat to his authority-the one thing he could never tolerate. And yet the man had been living, and might one day return. How simple to find a tool to dispose of the inconvenience. A complex plan, but when has simplicity ever appealed to a deranged mind? And, almost, it had worked. If it hadn't been for Hamshard, his own savage struggle against the ingrained command, Salek would be dead by now.
Lisa said urgently, 'Earl, nothing has been lost. Salek can vanish, Zenya also. Together we can return to Paiyar. The old man cannot last long, and when he dies, we shall rule.'
'No.'
She cried out, the same sound as she had made before, and again he felt what seemed to be a dull explosion within his skull. But minor now, and he made no move toward the phone. The trigger hadn't worked; a one-shot command, perhaps, an overlay of the deeper compulsion, an ironic jest of Chan Parect, or perhaps it had been negated by the hallucinogen he had inhaled, his own struggle in the cavern.
He said quietly, 'It doesn't work, Lisa. You can't rule me now.'
Zenya laughed.
It was as if she had lashed the woman across the face. The elfin features grew haggard, ugly, the eyes blazing with maniacal rage. Like a spring, she rose from the couch and lunged forward, hands extended, nails catching the light, reaching for his eyes.
His left arm swept upward, slamming beneath the wrists, lifting the poisoned fingers. As they rose, he felt the knife snatched from his hand, heard the blow, saw Lisa's sudden look of shocked disbelief, the unmistakable filming of her eyes.
'Earl,' she whispered. 'Earl…'
He caught her as she fell, blood running from her mouth as he rested her on the floor.
Zenya laughed again, high, shrill. She stood with the knife in her hand, ugly stains on her arm, the front of her dress. Her eyes blazed, alight, insane. 'I did it! I killed the bitch! Now we can be together!'
* * *
The cell was like others he had known, a barred window showing the lights of the field, the glow of the sky. More bars ran from roof to floor, enclosing a cot, toilet facilities, a square of faded carpet. From where he sat with his back against a wall, Dumarest could see a portion of the corridor and the foot of a barred door at its end. From beyond it came little sounds, the scrape of a chair, the coughing of the jailer, the thud of heavy boots.
More footsteps joined the others, softer, pausing as the door opened, halting again at the cell. As the door clanked open, Colonel Paran stepped inside.
'I know you didn't do it,' he said, dropping to the edge of the cot. 'Salek told me, the girl too.'
'What will happen to her?'
'Nothing. She will be put on the first ship leaving for Paiyar. That is the least we can do for the lady of the marshal of Chard.'
'Paiyar? You know?'
'From almost the first, Earl. Before I donned this,'- Paran touched his uniform- 'I was chief of police. I held that position for fifteen years. Long enough to have established certain habits, among them one of checking every important detail. And, to be honest, your lady was a little indiscreet.'
A danger impossible to avoid, but why had the pretense been allowed to continue?
Paran shrugged at the question. 'You seemed to know what you were doing, Earl. And you helped my boy. After that, I didn't give a damn who or what you were, just as long as you could resolve the mess.' He looked bleakly at the cell. 'I'm sorry about this, but the formalities had to be observed. You understand?'
'And now?'
'That's what I want to talk about, Earl. For me, yon could stay as marshal for as long as you like. The men are with you, the officers too. The pods have been tested, and what you said is true. A hell of a mess, but it has to be faced. I doubt if Chard will ever be the same again.'
'That needn't be a bad idea,' said Dumarest. 'You had a tight economic society here, and they are always vulnerable. Fire, storm, disease-anything can happen. What are your own plans now?'
'I'm not sure. The army-'
'Should be kept. You need a counterbalance to the influence of the growers.'
A counterbalance and a force to oppose the vested interests, which discounted human life in the search for gain. Dumarest said, 'The Ayutha need to be protected and their rights safeguarded. Salek could advise you on that if you decide to let him stay.'
'I'll think about it, Earl, but that can come later. You're more important. Oaken and Stone don't like you. Raougat has sworn to kill you. You can handle him, I know, but he isn't alone. You made him look small, and he can't forget that. That business with the pods…' Paran shook his head. 'You took a hell of a chance.'
