Tabitha’s pipestem broke in her grasp. She didn’t notice the bowl fall, scattering ash and coals. “No,” she said.

Arinnian found he needn’t force himself to stop and glare at her as he did. “He’s more to you than your world?”

“God stoop on me if ever I make use of him,” she said.

“Well, if his noble spirit wouldn’t dream of abusing your trust, what have you to fear?”

“I will not make my honor unworthy of his,” said Hrill.

“That dungheart?” Draun gibed. Her eyes went to him, her hand to a table beside her whereon lay a knife.

He took a backward step. “Enough,” he muttered. It was a relief when the following stillness was broken. Someone banged on the door. Arinnian, being nearest, opened it. Rochefort stood there. Behind him were a horse and a zirraukh. He breathed unevenly and blood had retreated from under his dark skin. “You were not to come back yet,” Arinnian told him. “Eyath—” Rochefort began.

“What?” Arinnian grabbed him by the shoulders. “Where is she?”

“I don’t know. I… we were riding, talking… Suddenly she screamed. Christ, I can’t get that shriek out of my head. And she took off, her wings stormed, she disappeared past the treetops before I could call to her. I… I waited, till—”

Tabitha joined them. She started to push Arinnian aside, noticed his stance and how his fingers dug into Rochefort’s flesh, and refrained. “Phil,” she said low. “Darling, think. She must’ve heard something terrible. What was it?”

“I can’t imagine.” The Terran winced under Arinnian’s grip but stayed where he was. “She’d asked me to, well, describe the space war. My experiences. I was telling her of the last fight before we crash-landed. You remember. I’ve told you the same.”

“An item I didn’t ask about?”

“Well, I, I did happen to mention noticing the insigne on the Avalonian boat, and she asked how it looked.”

“And?”

“I told her. Shouldn’t I have?”

“What was it?”

“Three gilt stars placed along a hyperbolic curve.”

Arinnian let go of Rochefort. His fist smashed into the man’s face. Rochefort lurched backward and fell to the ground. Arinnian drew his knife, started to pursue curbed himself. Rochefort sat up, bewildered, bleeding at the mouth.

Tabitha knelt beside him. “You couldn’t know, my dear,” she said. Her own control was close to breaking. “What you told her was that her lover is dead.”

XV

Night brought rising wind. The clouds broke apart into ragged masses, their blue-black tinged by the humpbacked Morgana which fled among them. A few stars blinked hazily in and out of sight. Surf threshed in darkness beyond the beach and trees roared in darkness ashore. The chill made humans go fully clothed.

Rochefort and Tabitha paced along the dunes. “Where is she?” His voice was raw. “Alone,” she answered.

“In this weather? When it’s likely to worsen? Look, if Holm can go out searching, at least we—”

“They can both take care of themselves.” Tabitha drew her cloak tight. “I don’t think Chris really expects to find her, unless she wants to be found, and that’s doubtful. He simply must do something. And he has to be away from us for a while. Her grief grieves him. It’s typical Ythrian to do your first mourning by yourself.”

“Saints! I’ve bugged things good, haven’t I?”

He was a tall shadow at her side. She reached through an arm-slit, groped for and found the reality of his hand. “I tell you again, you couldn’t know,” she said. “Anyhow, best she learn like this, instead of dragging out more weeks or months, then never being sure he didn’t die in some ghastly fashion. Now she knows he went out cleanly, too fast to feel, right after he’d won over a brave foe.” She hesitated. “Besides, you didn’t kill him. Our own attack did. You might say the war did, like an avalanche or a lightning stroke.”

“The filthy war,” he grated. “Haven’t we had a gutful yet?”

Rage flared. She released him. “Your precious Empire can end it any time, you know.”

“It has ended, except for Avalon. What’s the sense of hanging on? You’ll force them to bombard you into submission.”

“Showing the rest of known space what kind of thing the Empire is. That could cost them a great deal in the long run.” Tabitha’s anger ebbed. O Phil, my only! “You know we’re banking on their not being monsters, and on their having a measure of enlightened self-interest. Let’s not talk-about it more.”

“I’ve got to. Tabby, you and Holm — but it’s old Holm, of course, and a few other old men and Ythrians, who don’t care how many young die as long as they’re spared confessing their own stupid, senile willfulness—”

“Stop. Please.”

“I can’t. You’re mounting some crazy new plan you think’ll let your one little colony hold off all those stars. I say to the extent it works, it’ll be a disaster. Because it may prolong the fight, sharpen it — No, I can’t stand idly by and let you do that to yourself.”

She halted. He did likewise. They peered at each other through the unrestful wan light. “Don’t worry,” she said. “We know what we’re about.”

“Do you? What is your plan?”

“I mustn’t tell you that, darling.”

“No,” he said bitterly, “but you can let me lie awake nights, you can poison my days, with fear for you. Listen, I know a fair amount about war. And about the psychology of the Imperial high command. I could give, you a pretty good guess at how they’d react to whatever you tried.”

Tabitha shook her head. She hoped he didn’t see her teeth catching her lip.

“Tell me,” he insisted. “What harm can I do? And my advice — Or maybe you don’t propose anything too reckless. If I could be sure of that—”

She could barely pronounce it: “Please. Please.”

He laid hands on her shoulders. Moonlight fell into his eyes, making them blank pools. “If you love me, you will,” he said.

She stood in the middle of the wind. I can’t lie to hinu Can I? But I can’t break my oath either. Can I?

What Arinnian wanted me to tell him—

But I’m not testing you, Phil, Phil. I’m… choosing the lesser evil… because you wouldn’t want your woman to break her oath, would you? I’m giving you what short-lived happiness I can, by an untruth that won’t make any difference to your behavior. Afterward, when you learn, I’ll kneel to ask your forgiveness.

She was appalled to hear from her throat: “Do we have your parole?”

“Not to use the information against you?” His voice checked for a fractional second. Waves hissed at his back. “Yes.”

“Oh, no!” She reached for him. “I never meant—”

“Well, you have my word, sweetheart mine.”

In that case — she thought But no, I couldn’t tell him the truth before I’d consulted Arinnian, who’d be sure to say no, and anyhow Phil would be miserable, in terror for me and, yes, for his friends in their navy, whom honor would not let him try to warn.

She clenched her fists, beneath the flapping, cloak, and said hurriedly: “Well, in fact it’s nothing fundamental. You know about Equatoria, the uninhabited continent. Nothing’s there except a few thinly scattered emplacements and a skeleton guard. They mostly sit in barracks, because that few trying to patrol that much territory is pointless. Chris has been worried.”

“Hm, yes, I’ve overheard him mention it to you.”

“He’s gotten his father to agree the defenses are inadequate. In particular, making a close study, they found the Scorpeluna tableland’s wjde open. Surrounding mountains, air turbulence, and so forth isolate it An enemy who concentrated on breaking through the orbital fortresses and coming down fast — as soon as he was below fifty kilometers, he’d be shielded from what few rays we can project, and he could doubtless handle what few missiles and aircraft we could send in time. Once on the ground, dug in — you savvy? Bridgehead. We want to strengthen the area. That’s all.”