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come with being a part of the Empire!”

Hastur said quietly, “Do you understand the decision of the Council, to retain the integrity of the

Darkovan way of life, rather than becoming just another Empire satellite state?”

“With all respect, Lord Hastur, when you talk about the Darkovan way of life, you’re talking about

letting us stay a barbarian culture forever? Some of us want civilization and technology—”

Hastur said quietly, “I have seen the Terran civilization more closely than you. I tell you, Darkover wantsnone of it.”

“Speak for yourselves,
 
vai dom
 
, not for us! Perhaps in the old days there was some justification for the rule of the Seven Domains; in those days, Comyn gave us something to compensate for what we gave them in the way of allegiance and support!”

Valdir Alton said, “Man, am I listening to treason against the Council and Hastur?”

Valdrin of Carthon said heavily, “Treason? Not that, sir. God forbid. And we don’t want to be part ofthe Empire any more than you do. We’re talking about trade, technological advances. There was a daywhen Darkover had its own science and technology. But those days are gone, and we’ve got to havesomething to replace them, or else sink into a second Ages of Chaos. It’s time to admit that they’re gone,and find something to replace them. And if the Terrans want to be here, they can offer us something—trade, metals, tools, technological consultants. Because it’s for certain that the old sciences of the Towersare gone forever.”

Kerwin was beginning to see it clearly. By virtue of their inborn psi powers, once, the Comyn had beenrulers—and, in a certain sense, slaves—of Darkover and the Domains. Through the tremendous energyof the matrixes, not the small individual ones, but the great ones demanding linked circles of Tower-trained telepaths linked under a Keeper, they had given Darkover her own science and her owntechnology. This explained the vast ruins of a forgotten technology, the traditions of ancient sciences…

But what had the cost been, in human terms? The men and women possessed of these powers had lived,perforce, lives constrained and circumscribed, guarding their precious powers carefully, spoilt forordinary human contacts.

Kerwin wondered if the natural drift of evolution, in nature, toward the norm and away from extremes,had been responsible for the waning of these powers. For they had waned. Arilinn, Mesyr had told him,

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had once held three circles, each with its own Keeper; and Arilinn had been only one of many Towers. Fewer and fewer were born in these days with a full measure of the precious
 
laran
 
. The science of Darkover had become a forgotten myth and a few psi tricks… And this was not enough to keep Darkover independent of the lure of Terran trade and Terran technology.

“We have dealt with the Terrans,” Valdrin of Carthon said, “and I think, also, that we have won most of

the people to our side.”

Valdir said, “In Thendara, the people are loyal to Comyn Council!”

“But, under favor,
 
vai dom
 
, Thendara is only a very small part of the Domains,” Valdrin said, “and the Domains are not all of Darkover. The Terrans have pledged that they will lend us technicians, engineers, industrial developers and experts—everything necessary to begin extensive mining and manufacturing operations here. Metals and ores are the key, my lord. Before we have technology we must have machinery, and before we have machinery we must have—”

Hastur raised a hand. He said, “I know it all like an old song. Before you have mines you must havemachinery, and someone must make the machinery, and someone must mine the materials to make themachinery. We are not a mechanized civilization, Valdrin—”

“True, more’s the pity!”

“Is it such a pity? The people of Darkover are content on their farms and lands and cities. We have what industries we need; dairy farming, cheesemaking, the milling of grains, and weaving of cloth. There are papermills and felting-mills, the processing of nuts and cereals—”

“Transported at horseback pace!”

“And,” Hastur said, “no men to slave at the building of roads to keep them in condition for monstrous

robot vehicles to whiz over at breakneck speed and make our clean air rotten with their chemical fuels!”

“We have a right to industries and wealth—”

“And to factories? To wealth gained by forcing men to labor in inhuman conditions, to build things that men do not really need or want? To work done by automatic machinery, leaving men with nothing to do but drug their senses with cheap amusements, and work at repairing the machinery? To mines, and people herded together in cities to build and repair these machines, so they have no time to grow and prepare the food they need? So that the raising of food becomes another monster factory enterprise, and a man’s children become a liability instead of an asset?”

Valdrin’s voice was calm, tinged with contempt. “You are a romantic, my lord, but your biased picturewill not convince those men who want something better than starving on their land from year to year anddying in a bad year. You cannot hold us back forever to a primitive culture, my lord.”

“Do you really want to become a replica of the Terran Empire, then?”

“Not that,” Valdrin said, “not what you think. We can take what we need from the Terran system

without being corrupted by it.”

Hastur smiled faintly and said, “That is a delusion that has seduced many peoples and worlds, my goodman. Do you think we can fight the Terrans on their own ground? No, my friend; the world that accepts

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the good things that come from the Terran Empire— and I am not deceived, there are many—must also accept the evil that comes with it. And yet perhaps you are right; we cannot bar the way forever, and keep our people poor and simple, an agricultural society in an interstellar age. It may be that your accusation is just. Once we were more powerful than now; it is true that we are just emerging from a Dark Ages. But it is not true that we must go Terra’s way. What if the old powers were to return? What if the Comyn could do again all the things that legend said they could do? What if energy sources were available again, without the endless search for fuels, without the evils that blasted our land in the years before the Compact?”

“What if Durraman’s donkey could fly?” asked Valdrin. “It’s a good dream, but there hasn’t been a

competent Keeper, let alone a fully qualified circle, for years.”

“There is now.” Hastur turned with a gesture. “A Comyn circle complete and ready to demonstrate their powers. I ask only this; that you keep free of the Terrans, and their ruinous, dehumanizing methods. Don’t accept their technicians and their engineers, to destroy our lands! And if you must trade with Terra, do it as equals, not as poor protégés, being helped up from barbarian status! Our world is old, older than Terra dreams, and prouder. Don’t shame us this way!”

He had caught them on their pride and their patriotism, and Kerwin saw it catch fire in the eyes of eachof the delegation, although Valdrin still seemed skeptical.

“Can the Tower circle do this?”

“We can,” Rannirl said. “I’m the technician; we have the skill and we know how to use it. What do you

need?”

“We’ve been dealing with a group of Terran engineers, to make a survey of the natural resources in the Domains for us,” Valdrin said. “Our major needs are for metals: tin, copper, silver, iron, tungsten. Then for fuels, for sulfur, hydrocarbons, chemicals—they promised us a complete inventory, to locate with their surveying equipment all the major accessible deposits of natural resources for mining—”

Rannirl held up a hand. “At the same time finding out where they are,” he drawled, “and spreading allover Darkover with their infernal machines instead of staying decently shut up in their Trade Cities!”

Valdrin said hotly, “I deplore that as much as you do! I have no love for the Empire, but if the alternativeis to slip backward into primitivism…”

“There is an alternative,” Rannirl said. “We can make your survey for you—and do the mining, too, if

you like. And we can do it quicker than the Terrans.”

Kerwin drew a deep breath. He should have guessed. If a matrix crystal could power an aircraft, whatwere the limits of that power?

God, what a concept! And to keep the Terran engineers out of the Domains…

Kerwin had not realized until this moment how deeply he felt on this subject; his years on Terra cameback to his mind, dirty industrialized cities, men living for machinery, his dismay when he came back to Thendara and found the Trade City only a little corner of the Empire. With the passionate love of an exilefor his home, he understood Hastur’s dream; to keep Darkover what it was, keep it out of the Empire.

Valdrin said, “It sounds good, my lords, but the Comyn haven’t been that strong, not for centuries—

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maybe never. My great-granfer used to tell stories of buildings raised by matrix power, and roads built,

and such-like things, but in my time it’s been all a man can do to get enough iron to shoe his horses!”

“It sounds good, yes,” said another of the men, “but I think it more likely the Comyn are just trying to

delay us until the Terrans lose interest and go elsewhere. I think we ought to deal with the Terrans.”

Valdrin said, “Lord Hastur, we need more than vague talk about the old Comyn powers and the Towercircles. How long would it take you to make this survey for us?”

Rannirl glanced at Hastur, as if asking permission to speak. He asked, “How long would the Terransneed to do it?”

“They’ve promised it to us in half a year.”

Rannirl glanced at Elorie, at Kennard, and Kerwin felt that they shared an exchange from which he wasexcluded. Then he said, “Half a year, eh? What would you say to forty days?”

“On one condition,” Auster broke in passionately. “That if we do it for you, you’ll abandon all ideas of

dealing with the Terran engineers!”

“That seems only fair,” said Elorie, speaking for the first time, and Kerwin noticed how a silence dropped in the room as the Keeper spoke. “If we prove to you that we can do more for you than your Terran engineers, will you be content to be guided by the Council? Our only desire is that Darkover shall continue to be Darkover, not a replica of the Terran Empire… or a third-rate imitation! If we succeed, you will allow yourselves to be guided by Comyn Council and Arilinn in all things.”

“That seems fair enough, my lady,” Valdrin said. “But it’s only fair it should go both ways. If you can’t deliver what you say, will Comyn Council pledge itself to withdraw all objections, and let us deal with the Terrans without interference?”

Elorie said, “I can only speak for Arilinn, not for Comyn Council,” but Hastur rose. In the quiet, resonantvoice that filled the Council chamber without being loud, he said, “On the word of a Hastur, it shall beso.”

Kerwin met Taniquel’s eyes, seeing the shock in them. The word of Hastur was proverbial. And now itwas all in their hands—if they could indeed do what Rannirl had said they could do, what Hastur hadpledged they could do. The whole future direction of Darkover hung on their success or failure. And thatsuccess or failure hung on him, on Jeff Kerwin, on “Elorie’s barbarian”—the newest member of thecircle, the weak link in the chain! It was a paralyzing responsibility, and Kerwin was terrified by theimplications.

The formalities of leavetaking were endless, and halfway through them Kerwin slipped away unseen,back through the courtyards and through the shimmering haze of the Veil.

It was too heavy a weight to be borne, that their success or failure should hang on him alone… and hehad thought he would have more time to learn! He remembered the agony of the first rapports, and washorribly afraid. He turned into his room and flung himself down on his bed in silent despair. It wasn’t fairto demand so much of him, so soon! It was too much, to insist that the whole fate of Darkover, the Darkover he knew and loved, should depend on his untried powers!

The ghostly scent in the room felt strong to him; in a flash of remote recognition, it penetrated a closed

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place in his memory.

Cleindon. My mother, who broke her vows to the Comyn, for an Earthman… must I pay for herbetrayal?

A flash of something, recognition, memory, hovered at the edge of his senses, a voice that said
 
it wasnot betrayal
 
… He could not identify the dark, closing door of memory, standing half-ajar, a voice…

Blinding pain struck through his head; it was gone. He stood in his room, crying out in despair. “It’s toomuch! It’s not fair, that it should all depend on me…” And heard the words echoing in his mind, as iffrom the walls, as if someone else had stood here, crying these words in the same despair.

A soft step in the room, a voice that whispered his name, and Taniquel was at his side, the web ofrapport meshing between them. The girl’s face, now solemn and free of mischief, was drawn and grievedwith his trouble.

“But it’s not like that, Jeff,” she whispered at last. “We trust you, we all trust you. If we fail, it’s not your doing alone. Don’t you know that?” Her voice broke and she clung to him, holding him in her arms. Kerwin, shaken with a new, violent emotion, crushed the girl to him. Their lips met; and Kerwin knew that he had been wanting this since he first saw her, through the rain and sleet of a Darkovan night, through the smoke of a Terran room. The woman of his own people, the first to accept him as one of themselves.