She turned to him with a look of radiant triumph. "Sandoval's warnings have not gone unheeded. This very morning, Queen Julianna sent a strike force to destroy Varzil Ridenow."

Exultation and dread tightened around Eduin's throat.

"Domna Romilla!" Callina said sharply. "Is it wise to speak of such things to one who is not in the confidence of the Queen?"

"Nonsense!" Romilla replied, "Eduardo here has spoken for his brother, Sandoval the Blessed, since they first came to Kirella. Sandoval has brought us nothing but good-for me, for all of Kirella. It was he who first warned us of the perfidious intentions of Varzil Ridenow. Now the shadow of Varzil's influence reaches out to engulf Valeron itself. By his own testimony, this man has given the Queen the evidence she needed to act. Why should he not learn the outcome and the elimination of so subtle and implacable an enemy?"

"Varzil-" Eduin's thoughts churned. Nothing made any sense. Varzil was no longer at Cedestri. Everyone knew that. "She has-she must have attacked Varzil at Asturias?"

"I think you are right, Romilla," Callina said. "These men were the first to give warning, and they have been constant friends to the throne of Aillard. I sensed the menace growing day by day, as has the Queen. Each new piece of news was like a stone in the tomb of Valeron."

"The Compact is but a diversion, a ruse to disarm everyone except his own masters," Romilla said, her brow tightening. As she spoke, she paced a few steps, then reseated herself. "I would not be surprised to learn that Cedestri Tower is once again making dreadful weapons. Only this time, they serve not Isoldir but Hastur. If we do not stop Varzil now, in the single moment he is vulnerable, we may never have another opportunity. Valeron will bend to the yoke of the Hasturs, or else be destroyed."

Eduin, too stunned to form a question, stood and listened. The women went on as if he were not there, continuing to discuss the night's events.

"I felt this need, do you see, to know where Varzil went, what he might next be scheming," Callina said with an expression of satisfaction.

"It is just as well he has not returned to Neskaya," Romilla said. "It makes a difficult target for aircars, being in such mountainous terrain. I do not think Her Majesty would risk a strike there. She has but this one opportunity before she loses the advantage of surprise. In addition, if we diverted our forces to Neskaya, we would leave Hali Tower intact and fully able to retaliate.

What would it profit us to eliminate Varzil and yet leave such a powerful force as our enemy?"

"You believe Hali Tower does not mean to abide by the Compact it has signed?" Callina asked.

Eduin too was surprised by Romilla's assertion. The heir to Kirella had never spoken mind-to-mind along the relays. She knew only the sort of spoken promises that might as easily be broken.

"I have not witnessed their oath under truthspell," Romilla temporized. "I would not put it past them to give out that they had done so, and yet secretly continue to develop even more powerful weapons. I believe that Varzil means to bring all Darkover under his influence, and woe betide anyone who has crossed him."

"You speak as if you hate him," Callina said. "I did not know you ever met him."

Romilla paused, her mouth working. Eduin sensed in her the lingering effects of Saravio's emotional manipulations, for which he himself had been responsible. Romilla was already attuned to the heights of euphoria that Saravio's singing produced; she had been equally vulnerable to the fear and anger that accompanied any mention of Varzil.

"I do not need to know the man personally to see what he is," Romilla retorted. "When I name Varzil a menace, I do not indulge in baseless prejudice. This is a matter of state, not of petty personal taste. I certainly have no reason to think ill of the folk at Hali Tower, except that they have fallen under his influence. For all I know, they are even now raising the Cataclysm device so that Varzil may use it to crush anyone who dares stand against him."

She paused, swallowing. Eduin saw tears glimmer in Callina's eyes for an instant.

"I-I have spoken with many of them through the relay screens," Callina said softly. "I will regret their passing."

Eduin's vision leaped into crystalline focus. "Varzil is at Hali Tower? You sent aircars to firebomb Hali Tower?"

"Calm yourself," Romilla told him. "There is nothing to fear. They will not suspect an attack from this quarter. Callina assures us that as of two days ago, Varzil Ridenow was within the Tower walls, and as you know, the Tower stands some distance from the city. No innocent people will be harmed. Even as Julianna spared DomRonal in the destruction of Cedestri Tower, so will she leave the city of Hali standing, with the rhu fead and all its ancient splendors. Without his pet Keeper and the laran resources of Hali Tower, King Carolin will not dare to strike back. The circle at Neskaya will be without its Keeper, so they cannot aid Carolin either. It is a brilliant move, to end a terrible threat with so little loss of life."

She smiled, her lips dark with blood. Eduin had not noticed the cruel lines of her mouth, the arrogant tilt of her chin. Blessed Cassilda, he had thought to control a tormented child and instead he had unleashed a monster.

Hali Tower!

Images washed across his mind, blotting out the room in which he stood.

The two women faded like ghosts as he watched the aircars, sleek silver engines of death, bear down on Hali. The Tower stood at the far end of the cloud-filled lake, reaching its slender whiteness to the heavens, shimmering in the morning brightness. The light caught the extravagance of translucent blue stone so that, for an instant, the entire Tower glowed like a matrix crystal. He felt the minds of the leronyn within, men and women he had lived with, worked with, linked minds with across the relays. The Tower would be psychically quiet now, the circles resting after a night's labor.

In his imagination, spheres of glowing orange and eye-searing vermilion arced across the sky, heading toward the blue-white Tower. He felt the unnatural fire within them, straining for release, hungering for flesh and bone ...

Screams . . . charring heat. . . dark smoke filling the sky ... a woman's body burning...

"No, this must not be!" The words burst from him. "We must stop it-call them back!"

"Why, whatever for?" Romilla said.

"What is the problem?" cried Callina. She had caught his terror. Her face paled.

Dyannis is at Hali Tower!

Callina rose and reached out one hand as if she would touch him. "You cannot save her, or any of them. Even as we speak, the aircars draw near their target. It is too late."

"No, you don't understand!" An emotion he had no name for came roaring out from the very depths of his soul.

In that moment, Eduin saw Dyannis as a young girl wreathed in silvery radiance, the personification of everything good and noble in his own life.

She had given herself to him freely, and for the first time, he had seen himself, reflected in the eyes of his beloved, as someone worthy of honor and love. Their time had been brief and long ago, but some kernel of its glory had nestled in his innermost heart, a place not even the whispers of his father's ghost could reach.

Surely, she had forgotten him. That made no difference, so long as she lived.

"We must send word to the pilots of the aircars!" he gasped. "Use the matrix screens of the Tower! Tell them there has been a dreadful mistake. They must return at once!"

"You cannot reach them, not even with the power of an entire circle,"

Callina said. "Queen Julianna feared that Varzil might sense an attack, and use his powers to turn the pilots from their course. To shield them, she equipped each aircar with a masking talisman. It is like the matrix stone in a telepathic damper, only it permits the use of laran within its field. It simply isolates the pilots from outside influence. As far as you are concerned, they might as well be deaf."

"There must be some other way, then-is there another aircar we can send after them?"

Before Callina could reply, Romilla said, "You are showing an unusual degree of interest in this expedition." She narrowed her eyes. "Why should you wish to stop the attack? You yourself warned us about Varzil Ridenow.

Have you changed your mind, perhaps because you have sold out to him?"

"I don't care if Varzil escapes this time. There will always be another chance," Eduin said. "You must not attack Hali Tower!"

"Must not? Eduardo, you forget your place, as servant and guest. Who are you to say what Julianna Aillard, Lady of Valeron, must or must not do?"

Behind Eduin's eyes, his father's ghost writhed in fury. You swore ... K-k-kill Varzil!

Eduin staggered under the onslaught. Pain lanced through his head. He doubled over, clutching his belly. Silently, desperately, he fought back against the compulsion spell that wound all through his guts, entangled his very soul. He clung to the only weapon he had-the only shred of sanity- Dyannis must live, no matter what the cost, "Romilla, there is more to this than we previously realized-" Callina began.

"There is no time to waste!" Eduin gasped, hauling himself upright. "While we stand here bickering, the attack may already have begun. At least let me try to bring them back!"

"I have told you," Callina said in a voice like the tolling of a bell, "there is nothing you or I or any of us can do." Her eyes softened, and he saw in them the grief she had carried since she watched as her twin brother died in battle, that terrible powerlessness. She could not shut out the memory any more than she could burn away her own laran.

If Dyannis dies, I die with her. He saw his father's skeletal hands reach for him, trailing rotten flesh and shroud.

He grabbed Callina so roughly that she let out a shriek. "The Tower-the relay screens-take me there now!"

"Release her this instant!" Romilla cried. "How dare you lay hands upon a leronis! And to give her orders- insufferable! You shall be whipped for such behavior!"

Callina went rigid, staring at Eduin. The physical closeness created a psychic bond.

Who are you? she cried.

For an instant he hesitated. Years of hiding, of drawing in upon himself, died hard. He could not bring himself to give her his true name.

I am a laranzu, trained at Arilinn Tower, and then at Hall Never mind Hestral, and all that had happened there, how he had plotted and brought about the death of Varzil's Felicia, how he had bespelled the Hastur forces and then fled in Hestral's destruction. I seek only to save the life of one leronis at Hall For this, I will storm your own Tower here, I will lie, I will kill anyone-even you-who stands in my way.

You will die. The words flowed from her mind with quiet certainty. Behind her, another woman spread out her shadowy cloak.

I don't care-just so long as she lives!

Callina pried his fingers from her shoulders. He could not resist her. "I will take you, although it will do no good. We are all of us caught up in this thing, and it will not release us until it has run its course."

She led the way to the door. Romilla watched aghast for a moment, then rushed after them.

"I will not leave you alone with this madman!"

"We will see," Callina shot back over her shoulder without missing a step, "who is truly mad."

Corridors and stairwells sped past in a blur. Callina led them, not through the courtyard where they might be challenged by armed soldiers, but by an inner route. She used her laran to project a wall of force, clearing the way ahead of her. Her stride was so determined and her expression so fierce that no one, not even the household guards, challenged them. A few bowed before scurrying out of the way. If anyone spoke, Eduin paid them no heed.

They crossed over a small stretch of yard to the entrance to the Tower itself.

A servant in Aillard livery hurried to open the massive outer doors. The wood was dark, almost black, inlaid with fine copper wire with the emblem of a gigantic eagle, wings outstretched. As he passed between the doors, Eduin remembered the old proverb about the prey that walks from the trap to the stewpot.

"Hurry!" Eduin urged Callina. She plunged on, with him on her heels and Romilla gamely following. Romilla had given up asking questions.

Inside, the central room of the Tower was smaller than he expected. It must have housed only a single circle and a small one at that, perhaps a half dozen.

Where is the Keeper? he asked Callina.

You will not see him, she replied with such a chill in her mental voice that he wondered for an instant if the Keeper were no longer alive. He did not have time to ask how a circle could function without one, for Callina crossed the room, gathered her skirts, and proceeded up a flight of circular stairs.

In every Tower Eduin had ever known, the working chambers were placed at the highest levels. This close to a bustling castle and city, the circle needed every degree of separation, of insulation. As he climbed, trying to avoid treading upon Callina's skirts, he felt as if he were leaving the ordinary world behind.

Something waited at the top of the stairs, in the circular chamber at the very top of the Tower. For an instant, Eduin regretted his rash words. It was too late to draw back now. It was aware of him, drawing him in. His feet flew over the stairs. Behind him, Romilla started sobbing.

The stairs led to a shallow landing, with a wide slit window to one side and a door to the other. Callina, her chest heaving, took hold of the latch. The door opened inward on soundless hinges. Callina stood back and gestured Eduin forward.

"Goin."

"The relay screens-"

"Are within."

And what else?

He had no choice. He had come too far to turn back.

41

Eduin's first impression upon entering the top chamber was one of light and spaciousness, although the floor could not have been more than five or six paces across. The room was round, its unadorned walls following the contours of the turret itself. On the far side, a relay screen sat on a narrow table. A padded bench was drawn up beside it, ready for use.

An intricate metallic armature dominated the center of the room. Silver wires meshed to form a five-legged base, soaring upward, dividing and recombining so that the effect was a frozen, freestanding waterfall. Eduin recognized it as a housing for a matrix device. He had designed and built similar structures, arrays of starstones integrated into higher-order matrices. He knew how to link individual stones, to amplify their powers, to attune them to a particular use. It was such a device he had used to assassinate Felicia Hastur-Acosta.

He had never seen anything like this one before. Instead of resting on a table, it stood alone, reaching as high as his chest. Near the top, surrounded by a mesh of fine fibers, a single starstone had been set. It pulsed blue-white like the beating of a heart, filling the entire chamber with its brilliance. Instinctively, he recoiled from it.

Callina caught him before he could retreat. Her fingers dug into his arms like grappling hooks. With preternatural strength and quickness, she whirled him around to face the matrix.

How could he have been so credulous as to think her a weak maiden, still grieving over the death of her brother-if that had not also been an illusion.

At this moment, he would have believed her capable of anything.

Once he had seen resin-trees, caught in a wildfire, send sparks like a horde of glowing eyes into the night sky before the white-gold flames engulfed them. So now her mind, her entire being, flared hotter than any smithy's furnace.

Before him, the blue light of the starstone intensified. Within its shifting radiance, he sensed a stirring, part psychoactive crystal, part intelligence . . .

part hunger. He struggled against Callina's grasp, but it was no use. His flesh had gone heavy and numb.

What-what is that thing? And what did it want with him?

Behind him, Romilla whimpered, "What are you doing? What's happening?"

"Silence!" Callina's voice, raucous as the cry of a kyorebni, shot out. She brought her mouth close to Eduin's ear. "You know what it is. You know what it wants."

If his father's spirit had placed itself into a starstone and condensed all his determination into that crystal lattice, it might have resembled the device Eduin now faced. Only this one was no mere repository of past hatreds; it sensed him.

Now he knew why no one had seen the Keeper of Valeron Tower, why the few leronyn went mutely about their duties.

The Keeper's crystal blazed with light. It perceived his nearness, his Gift.

Within the depths of his mind, the compulsion command left by his father shrieked out in warning. The crystal vibrated with desire. Like a double image to its brightness, a figure cloaked in shadow stretched out ethereal fingers.

You feel it, don't you-the curse upon this place? Callina's thought jittered across the roiling chaos of his mind. They sent me here out of concern for my health, or so they told me. A place of safety, they promised! They told me it would be an easy position with nothing more troubling than making possets for babes with the colic. The Lady was kind, and Valeron at peace.

No more bloody battles, no more deaths! I could rest and recover my strength, and yet still be of service.

Her mind slammed into his, and for an instant, he watched as a young girl, her brother's death still raw and fresh in her memory, climbed the stairs to meet her new Keeper. She followed a gray-robed laranzu, his hair white, his face incised with lines she assumed were caused by suffering. She thought his absence of telepathic overture was a gesture of respect for her sorrow.

She did not yet know how wrong she was.

Callina had stood, even as Eduin did now, gazing at the starstone in its silver mantle and wondering where the Keeper was. Confusion fell away as she sensed the adamantine will encased in crystal, the depth of craft and ingenuity.