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"How can you doubt it? You are my only kinsman!"

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"You have Gabriel, and five children."

"But you are my father's son and my mother's," she said, giving him a short, hard hug. "You seem to be all right now. Get back into that bed before you take a chill and I must nurse you like one of the babies!"

But he knew now what the sharpness of her voice concealed and it did not trouble him. Obediently hegot under the covers. She sat on the bed.

"You should spend some time in one of the towers, Regis, just to learn control. Grandfather can send you to Neskaya or Arilinn. An untrained telepath is a menace to himself and everyone around him, they told me so when I was your age."

Regis thought of Danilo. Had anyone thought to warn him?

Javanne drew the covers up under his chin. He recalled now that she had done this when he was verysmall, before he knew the difference between elder sister and a never-known mother. She was only achild herself, but she had tried to mother him. Why had he forgotten that?

She kissed him gently on the forehead and Regis, feeling safe and protected for the moment, toppledover the edge of a vast gulf of sleep.

The next day he felt ill and dazed, but although Javanne told him to keep to his bed, he was too restlessto stay there.

"I must return at once, at once to Thendara," he insisted. "I've learned something which makes it

necessary to talk to

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Grandfather. You said, yourself, I should arrange to go to one of the towers. What can happen to mewith three Guardsmen for escort?"

"You know perfectly well you're not able to travel! I should spank you and put you to bed as I'd do with

Rafael if he were so unreasonable," she said crossly.

His new insight into her made him speak with gentleness. "I'd like to be young enough for your cosseting,sister, even if it meant a spanking. But I know what I must do, Javanne, and I've outgrown a woman'srule. Please don't treat me like a child."

His seriousness sobered her, too. Still unwilling, she sent for his escort and horses.

All that long day's ride, be seemed to move through torturing memories, repeating themselves over andover, and a growing unease and uncertainty: would they believe him, would they even listen? Danilo wasout of Dyan's reach, now; there was time enough to speak if he endangered another. Yet Regis knew thatif he was silent, he connived at what Dyan had done.

In midafternoon, still miles from Thendara, wet snow and sleet began to fall again, but Regis ignored thesuggestions of his escort that he should seek shelter and hospitality somewhere. Every moment between

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him and Thendara now was a torture; he yearned to be there, to have this frightening confrontation over. As the long miles dragged by, and he grew more and more soggy and wretched, he drew his soaked cape around him, huddling inside it like a protective cocoon. He knew his guards were talking about him, but he shut them firmly away from his consciousness, withdrawing further and further into his own misery.

As they came over the top of the pass he heard the distant vibration from the spaceport, carried thickand reverberating in the heavy, moist air. He thought with wild longing of the ships taking off, invisiblebehind the wall of rain and sleet, symbols of the freedom he wished he had now.

He let the thickening storm batter him, uncaring. He welcomed the icy wind, the sleet freezing in layerson his heavy riding-cloak, on his eyelashes and hair. It kept him from sliding back into that strange,hypersensitive, hallucinatory awareness.

What shall I say to Grandfather?

How did you face the Regent of Comyn and tell him his

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most trusted counselor was corrupt, a sadistic pervert using his telepathic powers to meddle with a mind

placed in his charge?

How do you tell the Commander of the Guard, your own commanding officer, that his most trustedfriend, holding the most trusted and responsible of posts, has ill-treated and shamefully misused a boy inhis care. How do you accuse your own uncle, the strongest telepath in Comyn, of standing by, indifferent,watching the rarest and most sensitive of tele-paths being falsely accused, his mind battered and bruisedand dishonored, while he, a tower-trained psi technician, did nothing?

The stone walls of the Castle closed about them, cutting off the biting wind. Regis heard his escortswearing as they led their horses away. He knew he should apologize to them for subjecting them to thiscold, wearying ride in such weather. It was a totally irresponsible thing to do to loyal men and the factthat they would never question his motives made it worse. He gave them brief formal thanks andadmonished them to go quickly for supper and rest, knowing that if he offered them any reward theywould be offended beyond measuring.

The long steps to the Hastur apartments seemed to loom over him, shrinking and expanding. Hisgrandfather's aged valet rushed at him, blurred and out of focus, clucking and shaking his head with theprivilege of long service, "Lord Regis, you're soaked through, you'll be ill, let me fetch you some wine,dry clothes-"

"Nothing, thank you." Regis blinked away the drops of ice melting on his eyelashes. "Ask the Lord

Regent if he"-he tensed to keep his teeth from chattering-"if he can receive me."

"He's at supper, Lord Regis. Go in and join him."

A small table had been laid before the fire in his grandfather's private sitting room, and Danvan Hasturlooked up, dismayed, almost comically echoing the elderly servant's dismay.

"My boy! At this hour, se wet and dripping? Marton, take his cloak, dry it at the fire! Child, you were to

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be with Javanne some days, what has happened?"

"Necessary-" Regis discovered his teeth were chattering so hard he could not speak; he clenched them

to get control. "To return at once-"

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The Regent shook his head skeptically. "Through a blizzard? Sit down there by the fire." He picked upthe jug on his table, tilted a thick stream of steaming soup into a stoneware mug and held it out to Regis. "Here. Drink this and warm yourself before you say anything."

Regis started to say he did not want it, but he had to take it to keep it from falling from the old man'shand. The hot fragrant steam was so enticing that he began to sip it, slowly. He felt enraged at his ownweakness and angrier at his grandfather for seeing it His barriers were down and he had a flash of Hasturas a young man, a commander in the field, knowing his men, judging each one's strengths andweaknesses, knowing what each one needed and precisely how and when to get it to him. As the hotsoup began to spread warmth through his shivering body he relaxed and began to breathe freely. Theheat of the stoneware mug comforted his fingers, which were blue with cold, and even when he hadfinished the soup he held it between his hands, enjoying the warmth.

"Grandfather, I must talk to you.**

"Well, I'm listening, child. Not even Council would call me out in such weather."

Regis glanced at the servants moving around the room. "Alone, sir. This concerns the honor of the

Hasturs."

A startled look crossed the old man's face and he waved them from the room. "You're not going to tellme Javanne has managed to disgrace herself!"

Even the thought of his staid and fastidious sister playing the wanton would have made Regis laugh, if hecould have laughed. "Indeed not, sir, all at Edelweiss is well and the babies thriving." He was not coldnow, but felt an inner trembling he did not even recognize as fear. He put down the empty mug which hadgrown chill in his hands, shook his head at the offer of a refill. "Grandfather. Do you remember Danilo Syrtis?** "Syrtis. The Syrtis people are old Hastur folk, your father's paxman and bodyguard bore thatname, old Dom Felix was my hawk-master. Wait, was there not some shameful thing in the Guards thisyear, a disgraced cadet, a sword-breaking? What has this to do with the honor of Hastur, Regis?"

Regis knew he must be very calm now, must keep his voice steady. He said, "The Syrtis men are ourwards and paxmen, sir. From their years of duty to us, is it not our duty

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to safeguard them from being attacked and abused, even by Comyn? I have learned ... Danilo Syrtis

was wrongfully attacked and disgraced, sir, and it's worse than that. Danilo is a ... a catalyst telepath, and

Lord Dyan ill-used him, contrived his disgrace for revenge-"

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Regis' voice broke. That searing moment of contact with Danilo flooded him again. Hastur looked at himin deep distress.

"Regis, this cannot possibly be true!"

He doesn't believe me! Regis heard his voice crack and break again. "Grandfather, I swear-"

"Child, child, I know you are not lying, I know you better than that!"

"You don't know me at all!" Regis flung at him, almost hysterical.

Hastur rose and came to him, laying a concerned hand on his forehead. "You are ill, Regis, feverish,perhaps delirious."

Regis shook the hand off. "I know perfectly well what I am saying. I had an attack of threshold sicknessat Edelweiss, it's better now."

The old man looked at him with startled skepticism. "Regis, threshold sickness is nothing to take lightly. One of the symptoms is delusion, hallucination. I cannot accuse Lord Dyan of the wild ravings of a sickchild. Let me send for Kennard Alton; he is tower-trained and can deal with this kind of illness."

"Send to Kennard indeed," Regis demanded, his voice wavering, "he is the one man in Thendara who will know for a fact that I am neither lying nor raving! This was by his contrivance, too; he stood by and watched Danilo disgraced and the cadet corps shamed!"

Hastur looked deeply troubled. He said, "Can it not wait-" He looked at Regis sharply and said, "No. Ifyou rode through a blizzard at this hour to bring me such news, it certainly cannot wait. But Kennard isvery ill, too. Can you possibly manage to go to him, child?"

Regis cut off another angry outburst and only said, with tight control, "I am not ill. I can go to him."

His grandfather looked at him steadily. "If you are not ill you will soon be so, if you stand there shiveringand dripping. Go to your room and change your clothes while I send word to Kennard."

He was angry at being sent like a child to change bis

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clothes but he obeyed. It seemed the best way to convince his grandfather of his rationality. When he returned, dry-clad and feeling better, his grandfather said shortly, "Kennard is willing to talk to you. Come with me."

As they went through the long corridors, Regis was aware of his grandfather's bristling disapproval. Inthe Alton rooms, Kennard was seated in the main hall, before the fire. He rose and took one step towardthem and Regis saw with deep compunction that the older man looked terribly ill, his gaunt face flushed,

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his hands looking hugely swollen and shapeless. But he smiled at Regis with heartfelt welcome and held

out the misshapen hand. "My lad, I'm glad to see you."

Regis touched the swollen fingers with awkward carefulness, unable to blur out Kennard's pain andexhaustion. He felt raw-edged, hypersensitive. Kennard could hardly stand!

"Lord Hastur, you honor me. How may I serve you?"

"My grandson has come to me with a strange and disturbing story. It's his tale, I'll leave him to tell it."

Regis felt consuming relief. He had feared to be treated like a sick child dragged unwilling to a doctor.

For once he was being treated like a man. He felt grateful, a little disarmed.

Kennard said, "I cannot stand like this long. You there-" He gestured to a servant "An armchair for the

Regent Sit beside me, Regis, tell me what's troubling you."

"My lord Alton-"

Kennard said kindly, "Am I no longer Uncle, my boy?"

Regis knew if he did not resist that fatherly warmth with all his strength, he would sob out his story like abeaten child. He said stiffly, "My lord, this is a serious matter concerning the honor of the Guardsmen. Ihave visited Danilo Syrtis at his home-**

"That was a kindly thought, nephew. Between ourselves, that was a bad business. I tried to talk Dyan out of it, but he chose to make an example of Dani and the law is the law. I couldn't have done anything if Dani had been my own son."

"Commander," Regis said, using the most formal of Kennard's military titles, "on my most solemn word as a cadet and a Hastur, there has been a terrible injustice done. Danilo was, I swear, wrongly accused, and Lord Dyan guilty of something so shameful I hardly dare name it. Is a cadet forced to submit-"

"Now you wait a minute," Kennard said, turning blazing

eyes on him. "I had this already from Lew. I don't know what those three years among the cristoforos did to you, but if you're going to come whining to me about the fact that Dyan likes young lads for lovers, and accuse-"