"What conditions do you put on this surrender?" General Marzan asked.

"None save that Your Majesty will swear to be a good and just queen to my people as well, accept our fealty, and not to demand that we forswear our other oaths."

Even through Romilla's eyes, Eduin saw the leap in tension in Julianna's body. "Exactly what might those other oaths be?"

"Vai domna, we have sworn to abide by the Compact of Honor, as presented to us by Varzil the Good. It is at his urging that I present myself here."

Varzil! I knew it! Varzil sent him here! Eduin raged inwardly.

Had Varzil discovered their location and did he now seek to extend his power over the court at Valeron? Or was he simply doing what he had always done, meddling in affairs that were no business of his own?

"You ask a great deal, Ronal of Isoldir," Julianna said.

"Why, when he presents no threat whatsoever?" the General asked. "He has surrendered, and is in no position to demand anything."

The lady sighed, almost imperceptibly. Eduin would not have noticed, except for Romilla's own sigh. The girl had enough statecraft to see what the General had yet to realize. To accept Isoldir's surrender would be tantamount to agreeing to the Compact. If Valeron tried to use either Isoldir's men or the leronyn of Cedestri Tower in any aggressive enterprise, they might well face rebellion throughout their own lands as well.

General Marzan cursed softly under his breath. "Better the sandal-wearer had stayed home."

Julianna silenced him with a raised hand. "I accept, but under these conditions. Valeron and Isoldir will make no more war upon one another.

You and whatever is left of your armies will swear allegiance to me. In exchange, Valeron will extend its protection to you. Any threat to Isoldir will be defended by Valeron, and all Isoldir soldiers will fight under my command. Isoldir itself may continue to manage its own local affairs, and I will appoint you governor under personal fealty to me. Whatever arrangements you have previously made may continue, so long as they do not nullify your primary oath to me. This shall be sworn by each of us, under truthspell, binding both ourselves and our descendants. Do you agree?"

"Lady, I had not expected such a fair and generous response. Summon your leronis and I will so swear."

With a sidelong, humorless smile, Julianna gestured to an attendant.

"Whether my offer is fair and generous remains to be seen. You will get no better one from me."

A few minutes later, Callina stepped into the room. Instead of her usual gray gown, she wore a loosely-belted, cowled robe. In it, she looked older, more grim. She halted in the center of the room and drew out her starstone from a silken cord around her neck. Eduin noted that the stone had already been freed from its usual locket, as if she were expecting this summons.

"Cast the truthspell," Julianna said, "and we will prove who is in earnest and who dares come before us with thoughts of treachery in his heart."

"In the light of this jewel..." Callina began speaking the ritual formula in her light, girlish voice. Even though he heard the words through Romilla's dreaming memory, Eduin felt a shiver of resonance. He himself had cast this very spell, under which no man could tell aught but the truth, or the light of the gemstone would vanish from his face. But he had also stood in that very light, shielded by the psychic manipulation his father had called the Deslucido Gift.

Callina's starstone gave off a pale blue light, spreading from one face to the next as it encompassed the entire chamber. It glinted on the unshed tears in Dom Ronal's eyes and washed the color from the Queen's cheeks, so that she resembled a marble sculpture, cast General Marzan's cragged features into the aspect of a giant raptor.

The room hushed, expectant, as Ronal of Isoldir clambered to his feet and began the recitation of his intentions and oath to Julianna. He lifted his face, though at one point his tears spilled over his pallid, blue-washed cheeks, so that everyone could see. There was not the slightest flicker in the truthspell.

As he spoke, an almost palpable ripple of relief spread across the room. Even Julianna softened. Impossible as it seemed, the man had come in earnest.

Ask about Varzil! Eduin urged silently. Then he reminded himself that these events were not actually taking place, they were memories only, seen imperfectly through Romilla's dreaming mind.

You are such a fool, Julianna, for all your oaths and treaties. If you only knew how easy it is to lie under truth-spell, to say one thing while holding another truth in your heart... The only sure way to end this is to slit the throat of every man who might stand against you.

But she did not know, and he dared not tell her. The secret must die with him.

The dream images tore like fine gauze in a wind as Romilla stirred, restless.

Eduin caught fragments of Julianna's face as she promised in turn to treat Isoldir with honor.

Success was slipping through Eduin's grasp. Even as the tatters of Romilla's memory fell away,-he saw Julianna turning a gracious eye toward Varzil, the man who had brought about an end to the conflict with Isoldir. Perhaps she might even consider an alliance with Hastur. He, Eduin, would be surrounded by his enemies. Desperately, he wondered if he could convince General Marzan to act on his own, to take a preemptive strike against Varzil in Asturias. Perhaps through the General's lady wife--no, Marzan would never defy Julianna.

Eduin could not rely on anyone else. Somehow he must find a way to convince the Queen that Varzil was not only dangerous, but treacherous, that he could not be reasoned with but must be destroyed before his in- sidious poison could spread.

Thrusting himself deep into Romilla's waking consciousness, Eduin drew on all his trained laran. He wakened the place within his own mind where his father's voice still whispered its compulsion.

Julianna must know the truth and only Sandoval the Blessed, speaking through his interpreter, can tell her.

I hear you, came the faint trace of Romilla's thought, I hear and obey.

Then tell the Queen this; that you believe Varzil hides his true purpose behind a veil of lies and appearances. That even now, he stretches out his hand to a terrible laran weapon. Worse by far than clingfire or even bonewater dust. It was for this that he helped to rebuild Cedestri Tower. It is for this he journeys to Asturias, to make alliance between them and King Carolin. Tell her you fear Carolin Hastur plans to strike at Valeron, the very heart of Aillard territory. Tell her that Sandoval the Blessed comes to testify of the potency of Varzil's new weapon. We saw proof at the riot at Hali Lake. She must hear us so that she can judge for herself!

Yes, she must judge ...

39

MM.

My lords! My lords!" The page stood on the threshold of Eduin and Saravio's chamber. He was one of the youngest, not more than six or seven. Exertion flushed his round face. He must have run all the way from the far side of the castle.

"Why, whatever is the matter?" Eduin lowered his laran shields slightly, but could make no sense of the boy's agitation.

"Her Majesty-she has sent-for you-to come- immediately-"

"And you are to bring us now?" Eduin frowned. He would have preferred to let Saravio sleep, for the periods of recovery wpre growing longer as each "healing" session seemed to drain more and more energy from the singer.

"We'll be but a moment," Eduin said, waving in a reassuring manner. "Wait out here."

Saravio roused slowly from his near-stupor. Eduin could sense how low his vital energies had dipped. He touched the other man's mind and found Naotalba's tattered image wrapped in storm clouds. Spiderweb lightning enveloped her like an aureole. Ashen smoke tinged the psychic atmosphere.

Eduin could superimpose some approximation of order upon Saravio's mind once more, but that would disintegrate just like his last efforts. He feared Saravio was near the point where no one could reach him, and the thought filled Eduin with both sadness and anger.

For a moment, he contemplated appearing alone before Julianna, rather than risk greater harm to Saravio.

Fortunately, Saravio was able to get to his feet. His eyes focused, although there was no way to tell what he really saw. He made no response when Eduin spoke to him, although at the mention of Naotalba, he put forth a wave of pleasure. His awareness might be impaired, but the mental commands Eduin had placed still held him in their grip.

Stronger than flesh, perhaps stronger than life itself...

Eduin paused before opening the door, caught for a moment in a sense of kinship with this poor, unfortunate man. He wondered if, when he himself was at last dead, his father's voice would remain, whispering its tortured commands to nothingness.

They went down the corridor, following the page. As they passed through the servants' quarters, Eduin searched mentally for any hint as to what was so urgent. He found nothing more than the ordinary, daily concerns.

Perhaps they did not know.

Shortly, he found himself in Queen Julianna's private presence chamber.

General Marzan flanked her, his face deeply furrowed. Marelie sat at Julianna's other side, coolly enigmatic, and beside her, Romilla, her hands folded on the table before her so tightly that her knuckles shone like marbles, her cheeks like ice. Lord Brynon was not in attendance.

Eduin bowed, schooling his features to reflect the proper deference. As usual, Saravio seemed oblivious of what was expected of him.

The Queen leaned forward, elbows resting on the table. Her eyes gleamed like onyx, unreadable. She drew the moment out, watching Eduin and Saravio like a falcon hovering over a rabbithorn den.

No, Eduin thought. Not a falcon, but a starving wolf circling fresh meat, wary of a trap. He saw the pattern of her thoughts, a dozen tiny pieces at last come together.

Varzil rebuilding Cedestri Tower, where terrible weapons had been created... Varzil scheming from afar, influencing lesser men to act... Varzil hiding behind a mask of goodness and King Carolin's favor . . . Varzil now at Asturias, ostensibly negotiating peace on behalf of Hastur, but perhaps on some other, far more deadly mission...

"So it seems," Julianna said, "that you may have something to tell us, after all."

Eduin suppressed a smile. In that brief moment, she had lost her capacity to intimidate him. Indeed, it was she who had fallen within his power. Since an answer seemed to be called for, Eduin bowed again and murmured that he attended Her Majesty's pleasure.

"I didn't mean you, I meant him." She indicated Saravio.

Saravio remained impassive and unresponsive. Romilla clenched her hands so tightly, her knuckles popped.

"I must serve to answer for him," Eduin said. "It is ever his way. What would Your Majesty ask?"

"I believe you and your brother were in Thendara at the time of the disturbance at Hali Lake."

Ah, Romilla had done her work well.

Word of the riot must surely have spread through the Towers to every corner of Darkover. Every competent monarch must keep alert to such populist uprisings, or be caught unawares when the tide turned against their own rule. It was only a small step from a handful of penniless refugees, howling in protest against the wars that had taken their lands and families, to a mob bent on revenge against their Comyn rulers.

Julianna was on guard, scenting a threat. From the way she was looking at Eduin, she considered it very likely that he was among the troublemakers.

"Alas, the Blessed Sandoval and I happened to be present at the lakeside on that fateful day," Eduin said. The statement, with its insinuation of innocence, would not fool Julianna, but that was not his aim. He wanted her to ask more questions.

"You were among those who attacked the circle from Hali Tower as they gathered on the shores of the lake?"

"Vai domna, I swear to you we were not."

She paused, watching him with those glittering black eyes, weighing his words. Eduin saw the tightness of her mouth, the preternatural stillness of her hands. Then what were you doing there? she asked him silently. And will you tell me the truth?

Julianna gestured to the guard standing beside the door on the far side of the room. An instant later, Call-ina glided into the room. She wore the loosely belted robe of a Tower worker and her starstone hung, unshielded, on its silken cord around her neck. Carefully avoiding looking at either Eduin or Saravio, she halted facing the Queen.

"Cast the spell, child," Julianna said.

Every other time Eduin had witnessed the setting of truthspell, the leronis or laranzu had bent over his matrix crystal, murmuring the ritual words while the psychoactive gem flared to life. Callina slipped the cord over her neck and held hers aloft. The stone glittered, blue and white, between her fingers. Her eyes went soft with inward focus. She began chanting in a low voice. Although Eduin could barely hear her words, he watched as the stone grew brighter with each phrase.

First, a radiance rose over Callina's face, then it engulfed her in a cone of blue-white brilliance. By the time she was half-way through the ceremony, the room glimmered as if caught in perpetual twilight, at once brighter and darker than any truthspell he had ever seen. For a long moment, no one dared speak, or even breathe.

"Now," said Julianna, in a voice that sliced through the stillness. "Now we will learn the truth of this matter."

"Sandoval the singer, called the Blessed, stand forth," General Marzan called out.

When Saravio did not move, Eduin nudged him forward.

"Do not interfere!" The general's voice rumbled like thunder on the peaks.

"Each man must answer only for himself."

Eduin let his hand drop. Let them make what they would of Saravio's unresponsiveness.

"Were you at Hali Lake? What happened there?" Several times, General Marzan put questions to Saravio, without any visible reaction. Finally, the general raised his hands, as if giving up, and turned to Julianna.

"They say he speaks only upon your command," she said to Eduin. "Order him to answer."

"You must tell these good people about the lake shore riot," Eduin said, enunciating every word with care so that there would be no misunderstanding. "Do you remember how we went there? We saw the circle, and the Lake of Clouds, and Varzil Ridenow had gone down into its depths."

At the mention of Varzil, recognition flared in Saravio's eyes. He sent a pulse of anguish through the room. Eduin slammed his laran barriers into place.

"Varzil was there," Saravio murmured. "Dragons came from the sky. The lake churned. The air turned dark. People ran away. Those that remained ...

died."

"Varzil the Good?" Julianna repeated. "So he was there, after all. He is loved in Hali, or so I have been told. I wonder why he did not speak to the people, to quiet them."

"Let us proceed with the questioning," said General Marzan, "now that Sandoval has recovered his tongue. What did you mean, dragons came from the sky? And where was Varzil the Good when this happened?"

Saravio flushed with emotion. He cried out, his voice like the raucous shriek of a kyorebni, "Varzil-he brings the fire, he brings the fire! Aiee, Naotalba, have mercy on us-" He flung himself down upon his knees, burying his face in his hands.

Terror and pain flooded from his mind to engulf the room. Romilla uttered a cry like a dying bird, quickly stifled.

"Have mercy," Saravio cried, "or we shall all perish!"

"Your Majesty, great Queen, worthy lords," Eduin held out his hands beseechingly. "You see how my brother fares." He referred to their disguise as "Eduardo" and "Sandoval." "This questioning is too harsh for one of his sensitivities. The tragedy at Hali Lake almost destroyed him. I beg you, let me take him away before he swoons."

"The fire! Naotalba, save us!" Saravio burst into wailing. He beat the sides of his head with his fists.

Even through his tightly-raised barriers, Eduin felt wave after wave of fear emanating from Saravio. Romilla paled to the color of unbleached linex and appeared on the verge of fainting. Even the General's ruddy complexion faded. Julianna sat very still. Callina trembled like a leaf in a Hellers blizzard, but did not break her concentration. The truthspell remained, un- wavering.

"Take him away," Julianna said. "Not you," to Eduin, "you stay here."

Two guards lifted Saravio to his feet. Saravio could barely stand, but he stumbled along between them, still moaning. The residue of his psychic emanations gradually died down.

"I don't know how much of that we can trust," Julianna commented to General Marzan. "Certainly, the man himself believed every word he spoke.

As to how reliable a witness he is, that is another matter entirely." She turned her attention to Eduin. "I sincerely hope you are able to give a more coherent description."

"Lady, I know only what I saw and what was said to me," he replied.

"Proceed, then."

Eduin stepped forward, placing himself so that Callina's truthspell would directly illuminate his face. He could say anything now, and so long as it was not frank raving, his words would be accepted. No one could lie under truthspell, or so they all believed.