"I didn't know she'd got that high,' Todd said, impressed. "But why didn't she make first?"

"Oh, you,' and Pat play-batted at him.

"She'll call in every favor she's owed on Earth. You just wait and see."

"Oh, Mom, how did we ever get ourselves in such a mess!" He dropped his head and began digging with the heels of his hands at eyes that hadn't seen the danger. Pat dropped beside him, her arm supportively about his shoulders. "When did that stuff get hidden on the Albie?"

"We'll find out, son, we'll find out,' his mother said.

"You've always been motivated by conscience, by truth, and you've always respected the rights of others and your responsibilities to them. No one who knows you and Hrriss will believe this vile canard."

"What about those who want to? Who want to see this colony disbanded, discredited?" Todd said in a soft but caustic tone.

"We both know such people exist and they have caused this entrapment,' his mother said. "But there is a way out of it. The truth, and we'll shove the doubting faces into that truth. Just you believe we will!" Todd uncovered his eyes, reddened by his rubbing and the tears he was trying to repress. "I wonder if we haven't been a little naive here on paradisiacal Doona.

"That's a possibility, but we're not too long in the tooth to protect what we've earned by hard work and fair dealings. You'll see!' She gave him a firm clap on the back, wanting him, he knew, to buck up.

"Yes, Mother, we will!" he replied with as much feeling as he could instill in his tone.

"Now, I've always found that the best way to work out a problem is to work! Since you've obviously been struck off the diplomatic lists, you can just go help Len Adjei round up the horses for their annual injections. Since Mark Aden went offplanet, we've been a little shorthanded. Not that he was much help as a stablehand when he spent so much time mooning over Inessa. She and Robin are already out there.

I'd go but we've had New Home Week callers all day long." She gave him a second, playftil thump on the back. "Go on, bon. Have a shower to clear your head.

Todd gave her a grateful glance. "That's the best idea anyone's had all day." He went to shower and change. Wrangling horses would get him away from the house and give him something to occupy his mind.

But, even as he showered, his mind kept whirling around the morning's bizarre events.

"Machines can't lie,' Rogitel had said. The phrase Fkept running through Todd's mind. No, they couldn't lie, but they could be tampered with. But when? And how? And by whom? No face filled the void when he tried to figure out who had set a trap for them. If only he and Hrriss could sit down and think this mess through . . . The two of them could discover the answers in no time, he knew they could. They had solved countless puzzles together over the years. Not to be able to communicate with Hrriss, as he had done every day since he was six years old, made him feel empty and lost. He jerked the shower control over to cold and steeled himself to accept the chill.

After a hard day's work, Todd returned home.

As the evening stretched interminably out before him, again and again, Todd found himself starting out the door to go over the bridge to the Hrruban village, as he had done nearly every day for the last quarter of a century. Quelling that urge, he sat down at the computer unit and almost typed in Hrriss's comp number. But that would be a violation. Could he send his brother Robin over the bridge with a note? Just to let Hrriss know he was thinking about him? No, not even that solace was permissible until the accusations were dismissed.

No communication meant just that, and Todd had given his solemn word. He had never broken it. He and Hrriss were honor bound, and honor meant everything to them. Someone was playing on that to keep them apart. Divide and conquer. Well, Todd was determined that no one would conquer without facing a fight.

CHAPTER 4.

"YOU'LL BE WELCOME AT HOME FOR A change, my cub,' Mrrva said kindly, bringing Hrriss inside as the guards withdrew from the door.

Hrriss still felt himself torn apart by the harshness of the restriction. He hadnever thought of himself as complacent, or smug about his reputation for honesty, but to have it so smirched and casually disregarded shocked him.

"There is considerable physical evidence against us, Mother,' he said wearily. From their front window, he could see the Friendship Bridge, built so long ago by Hrrubans and Hayumans in the spirit of cooperation. Across it, not very far, lay Zodd.

He forced himself to turn away. "It is false evidence, but they must believe what they see. I know only that if we were allowed to be together we could solve the mystery in half the time. We could discuss it until we understood it. It is so difficult to have a lifelong companion torn away from one's side, Mother." Mrrva's heart went out of him. "I am sorry to learn that you and Zodd must be separated but it will be only temporary. In no time they will see that Zodd and you are innocent of any crime, and you will be together again." She guided him through the house and out through the back door. "Wait here for me, little love." She settled him under the arbor in the garden behind the house, and hastened out to the dining area to bring cool drinks for both of them. It was a fine day, and the sun warmed the colors of her sprawling flower beds. She had nearly forgotten how solitary a cub Hrriss had been. Only the explosive arrival on the scene of the lively Hayuman boy zOdd had demonstrated how lonely he had been.

"Don't dwell on the apartness,' Mrrva said, urging him to take the cold drink. She had pitched her voice to intimate levels to give her words more weight. "You will only make yourself ill. Later, when you have relaxed, you shall explore the facts.

For now, let yourself relax. It is so seldom I have you all to myself." The herbal drink loosened some of the tightness in his throat.

"Have I neglected my duty to you?" Hrriss asked sadly. "I offer apologies to you and Father.

"No, no! Not at all,' Mrrva a.s.sured him in a purr.

"We are more than proud of the way you have grown up and the way you hold yourself in honor.

Since youfirst met, zOdd has been welcomed daily as your friend.

And ours. He is nearly my second cub. The tasks which I have set you over the years have been done twice as quickly by two sets of hands instead of one." Mrrva let her law drop ever so slightly. "The only way in which you have perhaps slipped in your duties is in the begetting of an heir to the Stripe. Have you forgotten that ~ou are Hrrestan's only cub? When will you choose a mate? I have waited for the matter to occur naturally to your mind." She paused, blinking solemnly.

Hrriss lowered his head, abashed. "I have not thought of a mate.

My life has been so full up until now that there has been no urgency.

Mrrva gave him an understanding sideways glance. "Please to consider it now, then. I wish for your happiness, but it would increase your father's if you do not allow the Stripe to pa.s.s to another's offspring." Hrriss flinched. He couldn't allow the line succession to die l.u.s.t because he was too indolent to find a mate. It would be easy, he thought, merely to mate with a willing female and produce an heir, but, without affection, such a union would be sterile.

Matches based on duty .were no longer common in Hrruban society, though they did still exist. But the example set by his parents, who were bound by mutual respect and admiration, was one he hoped to emulate. Hayumans chose their mates based on mutual appeal and affection. When they'd been just approaching manhood, he and zOdd had often talked about mating, but in a clinical fashion, comparing the difference imposed by the physical variations of their separate species. Once they had been able for the duties of adult males, they had both been too busy for wives and children. The time had come to review the situation. In several aspects.

Since the sordid accusations this morning, the previous tenor of his life and ways had been drastically altered. He had never imagined a different style of life. Certainly not a life without Zodd in it every day, going out on missions, or taking care of their tasks at home, but now that he thought of it, there was an itch he hadn't bothered to scratch. Who knew how long he would be kept from acting as an emissary of Doona, and whether others would ever again consider him to fit that post. A Stripe without honor had no place in society. He must be cleared and p.r.o.nounced innocent, or his life was over!

Since there was nothing more he could do that day to clear his name, Hrriss seriously considered his duty to his Stripe. Now was the time to find a suitable female. More than time. He was already much older than his father had been when he was born. It wasn't that he'd missed female companionship. He had joyfully given relief to many charming partners during their seasonal heats, vying with other young males to serve their need. No male Hrruban would touch a female without her permission, but many females had made their preference for his attentions quite blatant. Centuries of civilized behavior hadn't quite reduced that primal urge, though in these modern times, many females used contraception remedies when procreation wasn't an objective.

Hayumans were not as natural as Hrubbans about s.e.xual matters. It seemed strange to Hrriss that a society which was so much like his own often ruthlessly repressed their natural urges and behaviors.

Even when Hrruba had been reduced to crowded quarters for each den and new litters were no onger blessings, the traditional openness about s.e.x had remained.

--Mrreva left him alone in the garden with his thoughts. It was so quiet that the tiny breeze brought distant voices and the faint clatter of hooves and machinery from the property beside theirs. Turning over his mother's suggestion in his mind, Hrriss began to examine the possibilities of the females he knew. And came right up against a very important consideration: would she understand his friendship with the Hayuman? Would she like zOdd? More important, would Zodd like her?

"I suppose I shall have to trust to my own judgment alone for this,' Hrriss said out loud, and laughed.

Many of the females in this and other villages had sought him as their lifemate, and tempted him to commit while in their estrous cycles. There was never anything as cra.s.s as a demand for long-term relations, only a sighing and sensuous persuasion.

While the attractions were obvious, Hrriss felt there needed to be more to the perfect image than a s.e.xual being. He wanted a woman who thought, and created, and laughed. The image which kept coming back to his mind was the lithe, cinnamonfurred snake dancer at the feast. Her delicately graceful movements repeated in his memory again and again.

He remembered her name was Nrrna, a soft and pliant sound. She worked with Mrrva in the Health Center. He wondered if she was willing.

The last time she had gone through her fertile cycle, she had let him know that she would welcome him, but he had had to go off-planet then. When he returned, she had said nothing to him about what had gone on in his absence.

There was also Mrratah, a weaver whose textiles were wearable art.

Last year, after Snake Hunt, they had spent a wild night together.

The heavy musk in the air and the excitement of the chase had stirred him. She had been out on Hunt, too, and was as aroused as he by primal bloodl.u.s.t, the beat of the dance band's drums, and the scent in the air.

Hrriss's eyelids lowered as he remembered that night, let his body sway with the rhythm in his memory. There was a high-pitched snarl that was so like the voice of Mrratah in excitation that he opened his eyes. His female ocelot, Mehh, loped out of the house past him, with the male, Prem, in determined pursuit. Mehh was young, no more than two Doonan years old. She was coming into full heat for the first time. Her att.i.tude toward Prem was playful but firm. She intended the order of things to proceed as she pleased, not the way the male chose.

That was right, according to the Hiruban way of life.

The spotted cats dodged back and forth through the bushes Mrrva had planted around the green for privacy. They were not concerned with hiding what they were doing. Simple urges moved them. Sometimes Hrriss wished that he was not a thinking being. These creatures were acting out his unspoken dream.

Mehh skidded and rolled to a halt in the gra.s.s before him. Prem followed, and tried to mount her before she was upright again. A quick blow across the nose from a paw full of razor-sharp talons let him know that Mehh was not ready yet. Prem withdrew a few paces and waited, making a soft, urgent rumbling sound low in his throat. Mehh flipped onto her belly and crept insouciantly, provocatively, into the mating position with her tail high and to the side, presenting her nether quarters to the male. She was blatant about what she wanted, and her urgent throaty growls made it certain that she wanted it now. Without hesitation, Prem was on her back, teeth gripping the female's scruff as he mounted her.

With an odd sense of detachment, Hrriss watched them. The female snarled and rolled over, driving Prem a paw's length away, and just as swiftly invited him back again with raised tail. Prem crooned, a mild sound when compared with the green fire in his eyes. Hrriss, shaking his head to break the fascination, felt a creature sympathy for Prem.

Right now a relationship, wild and abandoned and fun, would take his mind off the ache in his heart and the anger in his mind. Both Nrrna and Mrratah could be extremely exciting in estrus, but they were good companions away from the mating dance as well.

His mother had made a valid point. It was more than time to seek a lifemate. While he was in this enforced separation from Todd, it might ease his loneliness to choose a mate. He would not be abandoning other aspects of his life, but filling in the parts that had too long remained empty.

Through the house, he heard a knock at the front door. Hrriss started to get up, but he heard his mother's soft footfalls emerge from the other wing and go toward the door. A short time pa.s.sed, and she came out to him.

"Hrriss, I will be going out later. Pat Rrev has said that she wants the four of us, Hrrestan and me, and Pat and Rrev, to speak together this evening.

She is as convinced of your innocence as your father and I." Hrriss nodded eagerly. "Tell Zodd. . he began, and then swallowed the rest of his words, hanging his head and letting his hands fall limp to his sides. "I may give no message for him. It is a matter of honor. "Poor Hrriss. He knows, my little one,' Mrrva said sympathetically. "He knows.

Hrriss cleared his throat tentatively. "Mother, you know Nrrna, don't you?"

"Yes,' the Hrruban woman said, clearly surprised. "She works at the Health Center in the laboratory where I conduct my research."

"Has she ever come to this house to join our evening meal?" Hrriss inquired.

He thought the pupils in his mother's eyes widened just slightly.

"She has, from time to time.

Her company is excellent. I shall inquire if she is free to join us." Then she turned and left the garden in a rather abrupt fashion that made Hrriss wonder if she was displeased in any way with his suggestion.

The afternoon was fair, and the air had a fresh crispness that was far more relaxing to Todd's jangled nerves than the tropical warmth of Treaty Island. He rode Gypsy down the narrow trail that circled around the fruit orchard at the edge of the Reeve Ranch. The fruit trees were fenced in for protection, though many a clever horse stretched his neck far enough to nip ripening apples off the nearer trees. Apart from the orchard, Lon Adjei, as manager of the ranch, gave the horse herds plenty of room to graze in, but the open land made it harder to find them.

Todd was after a foursome of colts who had hightailed it this way, avoiding capture as if it was a new game invented for them to show off.

He lost sight of them among the clumps of shrub and mature trees.

He and Hrriss had always worked together on this sort of a detail: the Hrruban had keener eyesight and sense of smell. He could find yearlings no matter where they hid themselves.

A scented breeze shifted, and blew directly into Todd's hot face.

Gratefully he took a deep breath and was nearly unseated as Gypsy slammed to a halt under him.

"What's the matter, boy?" The gelding propped his front legs, refusing to move forward. Gypsy was a sensible animal, so if he was scared to move, he had reason. Possibly there was a small ssorasos in the woods, which Gypsy had smelled when the wind changed. When surprised, the knee-high mammal attacked like a juggernaut. Todd dismounted and sidled cautiously a few feet up the path. In front of him was a clump of red-veined plants. Todd recognized them instantly.

Ssersa. It was toxic enough to Humans, but absolute poison for horses.

Gypsy had smelled the poisonous weed.

"Smart horse!" Todd said over his shoulder to rea.s.sure the gelding. Ssersa was nearly as bad a contact-toxin as rroamal. Most animals were wary of it while it was unripe. When it matured and dried, it lost its bitter aroma and smelled sweet and appealing. It was death for livestock, especially those of Earth origin. Ranchers a.s.siduously cleared it from their pastures or they lost stock. The trick was to get it before it dried and left its seeds for the unwary animal. Ben Adjei, Lon's father, called ssersa "silent death." Ranch hands automatically pulled it up wherever they saw it.

The radio at his waist crackled. "Todd, where are you? I've lost sight of you and I've got two more for you to hold for their shots.

"I'm on the trail behind the apple orchard, Lon, Todd replied into the radio. The horse snuffled his ear and he pushed him gently away.

"I was chasing a pair of yearlings and Lady Megan's twins. Gypsy got wind of a patch of ssersa back here. I'm uprooting it and bringing it in.

"Ssersa!" Lon's voice exclaimed. "d.a.m.n, I was sure I cleared the whole place of it. And before it could seed."

"Never mind. Probably some bird seeded it, Todd said. "Be with you as soon as I pull it up and catch those yearlings." Pulling on the hide gloves from his belt, he yanked the plant up and beat its roots on the ground to dislodge the dirt. Then he squashed it into a ball, which he shoved into his saddle bag.

The stink of ssersa sap made Gypsy restless and quite willing to move away from it.

Todd lifted the gelding into a canter. The trail was wide here and the surface firm enough to safely maintain a stiff pace. The colts were well ahead of him but, as he recalled it, there was a gra.s.sy meadow up ahead that would certainly cause them to stop and graze.

An eerie scream-like a horse in agony-made him dig his heels into Gypsy's ribs and they galloped over the breast of the hill. Two of the colts were skittering around the pasture nervously. The third was standing over the fourth, which lay still in a patch of bracken. He whinnied shrilly.

Todd brought Gypsy to a dirt-kicking halt and was out of the saddle at a run to the young horse on the ground. The remaining twin nudged its fallen brother with its nose, puzzled by its unresponsiveness.

"No more games for this lad,' Todd said sadly.

He still had his gloves on, so he turned back the upper lip to see the livid magenta of the membrane.

"Poisoned. d.a.m.n it. There can't be more ssersa.

Fearing for the other youngsters in this meadow, he looked all around him, and then at Gypsy, who was standing calmly. Turning back to th dead animal, he opened its lips again and saw what was stuck in the colt's teeth-the twigs of dried ssersa. Sitting back on his heels, he radioed Lon.

"More ssersa?" Lon demanded disbelievingly.

"Where? I cleared that meadow. I know I did." There was silence and a sigh from the speaker.

"Leave it. I'll get the flyer and bring the corpse in for burning. We can't even use the hide. The toxins will poison whatever it touches. Todd, there was no mature ssersa in that field, I promise you!"

"Then where did it come from?" Todd said, aggravated. Lon was a good farm manager. If he said he'd cleared ssersa weed, he had!

He remounted Gypsy and rounded up the other two. He had to la.s.so the mourning colt to get him away from his dead twin but gave him a few feed pellets to make up for the insult. Whooshing the others in front of him, he kept his eyes peeled for any further sign of ssersa. It was an active seeder, like many Doonan plants: so where there was one, there'd be others.

Then, just as he herded the colts over the lip of the ridge, he spotted a burned patch in the gra.s.s on the one level place on the entire field: a patch ju5t about the size of a small transport shuttle.

Todd got his charges back to the barn without further incident.

Lon examined the three young animals and entered the control numbers in their freeze brands into a hand-held computer unit.

Todd saw Robin and Inessa in the paddock, dragging one unwilling horse after another into the chute for inoculations.

"That's a hundred and forty-three,' Lon said, slapping the last one on the rump as he sent it running into the coual, "counting that poor poisoned colt. I think that's all we're going to find.

We've combed the landscape."