Abruptly, the Elder appeared. "Commander Thrr-mezaz," he said. "You have a message for Prr't-casst-a?"

"Not for Prr't-casst-a, no," Thrr-mezaz said. "But I'd like to use the secure pathway she set up to contact my brother, Searcher Thrr-gilag. Can you do it?"

"I can try," the Elder said, sounding a bit doubtful. "I thought Thrr-gilag had returned to Oaccanv."

"He has," Thrr-mezaz confirmed. "He should be at either the Overclan Seating complex in Unity City, the Thrr-family shrine near Cliffside Dales, or at the Frr-family town of Reeds Village."

"I obey, Commander," the Elder said, and vanished.

"You think Thrr-gilag knows something about this CIRCE weapon?" Klnn-vavgi asked.

"He spent nineteen fullarcs on Base World Twelve interrogating the Human-Conqueror prisoner Pheylan Cavanagh," Thrr-mezaz reminded him. "If CIRCE is as dangerous as Lahettilas seems to think, there's a good chance it would have come up in conversation."

"Maybe." Klnn-vavgi looked around the damaged building. "While you're at it, you might ask him if he knows anything about Human-Conqueror explosive weapons."

The beats went by, adding up until they'd reached a hunbeat. Then two hunbeats, then three, then four. Thrr-mezaz looked around, feeling his tail gradually speeding up its spinning movement and wondering what could have gone wrong. Anchored at both his preserved fsss organ and at the small fsss cutting just east of the Dorcas beachhead, the Elder could transfer instantly back and forth across the light-cyclics between Dorcas and the Dhaa'rr homeworld of Dharanv. Passing the message on to an Elder on Dharanv who was also double-anchored to a cutting in the appropriate region of Oaccanv should likewise have been no problem. Could the Overclan Seating have moved up the departure time of the diplomatic mission to the Mrachani homeworld? Thrr-gilag was supposed to go on that mission, Thrr-mezaz knew; a changed departure schedule might account for no one's being able to find him.

And then, just as he'd decided that that was probably the case, the Elder reappeared. " 'This is Thrr-gilag,' " he quoted. " 'Hello, my brother. Is anything wrong?' "

"I was about to ask you the same thing," Thrr-mezaz said to the Elder, his tail slowing down slightly. "Where are you, anyway?"

The Elder nodded and vanished. This time he was back in less than half a hunbeat. " 'As it happens, I'm aboard a ship heading your way. I should be there in about five fullarcs.' "

Thrr-mezaz frowned. "I thought Klnn-dawan-a was going to be coming."

" 'She will be,' " the message came back. " 'She'll be leaving from Shamanv and ought to arrive there a fullarc or two ahead of me. She'll have the package with her.' "

Thrr-mezaz felt his tail twitch. The package: their private code word for the secret and highly illegal cutting Thrr-gilag and Klnn-dawan-a had somehow managed to get from Prr't-zevisti's fsss organ on Dharanv the previous fullarc.

A cutting that was probably Prr't-zevisti's last chance at life. But that wouldn't matter a flick of the tongue if anyone caught them with it. "Any problems on that side?" he asked.

" 'None that I know of. I haven't spoken with Klnn-dawan-a since I left Dharanv.' "

"So why are you coming here, too?" Thrr-mezaz asked. "I thought you were supposed to be going to the Mrachani homeworld."

" 'I was. I've been taken off that mission.' "

Klnn-vavgi muttered something under his breath. "Taken off?" Thrr-mezaz echoed. "Whose flat-headed idea was that?"

The Elder nodded and vanished. "I'll bet you twenty fullarcs' pay it was politics," Klnn-vavgi growled. "I can see the Speaker for Dhaa'rr's tongue marks in it from here."

"Maybe not," Thrr-mezaz said, uneasiness speeding up his tail again. "I talked to my father last fullarc, and he was trying desperately to locate Thrr-gilag. Something serious is going on with our family back home, and Thrr-gilag's being dropped from the Mrachani mission may be one of the repercussions."

"Must be something really serious to get Thrr't-rokik desperate," Klnn-vavgi commented. "I've only met him a couple of times, but he never struck me as the excitable type."

"He's not," Thrr-mezaz agreed grimly.

"I take it you don't want to talk about the situation?"

Thrr-mezaz flicked his tongue in a negative. "Most of what I could say right now would be just speculation."

The Elder reappeared. " 'It was a joint decision by the Speaker for Dhaa'rr and the Overclan Prime,' " he quoted Thrr-gilag's reply. " 'I'll give you the details when I arrive.' "

"All right," Thrr-mezaz said. "A couple of other questions for you. First: do you know anything about Human-Conqueror explosives?"

" 'Only that they're as effective as lasers for raising Zhirrzh to Eldership,' " the bitter-tasting reply came back a hunbeat later.

"I know that much," Thrr-mezaz said. "Second: do you know anything about a Human-Conqueror weapon called CIRCE?"

The Elder vanished... and once again the beats began to drag by. "It's being awfully quiet out there," Klnn-vavgi said as the silence entered its third hunbeat. "How secure did you say this pathway was?"

The Elder was back before Thrr-mezaz could answer. " 'I'm sorry, Thrr-mezaz, but this really isn't something I can discuss.' "

Thrr-mezaz threw a look at Klnn-vavgi. So they'd been right on both counts. There was something about CIRCE that Warrior Command didn't want anyone else to know. And Thrr-gilag knew what that something was. "I understand, my brother," Thrr-mezaz said to the Elder. "Have a safe journey."

" 'You take care, too. I'll see you in a few fullarcs.' "

Thrr-mezaz nodded to the Elder. "Thank you. You may release the pathway."

"I obey, Commander," the Elder said, and once again vanished.

"So we were right," Klnn-vavgi murmured.

"Looks that way." Thrr-mezaz looked around the empty storehouse, wondering if any of the other Elders might have eavesdropped on their conversation. "We'd better be getting back."

"I wonder what kind of weapon it is," Klnn-vavgi commented as they headed back across the landing area. "Some kind of nuclear explosive, you think?"

"I have no idea," Thrr-mezaz said, squinting against the bright postmidarc sunlight and the dust being kicked up by a brisk northerly wind. "What bothers me more than the what is the why. Specifically, why haven't they already used it against us?"

"Maybe they have," Klnn-vavgi suggested. "Maybe what the Mrachanis are calling CIRCE are what we call the Copperhead warriors."

"I doubt it," Thrr-mezaz said. "Thrr-gilag's study group got the name Copperheads directly from their prisoner. Surely the Mrachanis have had enough contact with the Human-Conquerors not to make that kind of mistake."

"Unless the Human-Conquerors use different words when talking to different races," Klnn-vavgi pointed out. "It would be a simple way to impede communication among their enemies."

Thrr-mezaz flicked his tongue. "Interesting thought."

"Something else to ask Thrr-gilag when he gets here," Klnn-vavgi said. "Find out if the prisoner ever mentioned CIRCE to them—"

Abruptly, an Elder appeared in front of them. "Commander Thrr-mezaz: urgent message from Supreme Ship Commander Dkll-kumvit," he said, his faint voice almost lost in the wind. "He's received news from Warrior Command that Shamanv was attacked two tentharcs ago by a group of Human-Conqueror warcraft."

Thrr-mezaz's tail twitched. Shamanv—that was where Thrr-gilag had said Klnn-dawan-a would be leaving from. Carrying Prr't-zevisti's new cutting with her... "Damage?" he asked.

"Unclear," the Elder said. "The message said only that two Zhirrzh warships were involved in driving the attackers away and that one of them suffered severe internal damage from the Human-Conqueror explosive missiles. It was also reported that one enemy warcraft was destroyed. Supreme Ship Commander Dkll-kumvit thinks it may signal the beginning of a new Human-Conqueror offensive."