The pretender could be recognized by his sulky, disappointed expression. He had been rushed into his festival finery, for the cloak was caught up in the waistband of his ballooning trousers. Tis noted in shock that the boy still wore a mother badge twined about his left wrist. Not yet twenty – a baby! – and someone had made him a target.

Tis raked the rest of the assembly, searching for the Svengali. Egyon, Taj had said. Yes, that would fit. Zabb’s thought concurred with her conclusion. Tis also had to admire Taj’s intelligence sources. The personal guard of the Sennari line well outnumbered the more ceremonial escort protecting the Kou’nar conspirators.

Tis ignored the boy with his spun caramel hair dressed to form two horns rising from above each ear. Instead she addressed his trainer.

“Not yet, I think, vindi. There are still three lives between you and your ambition.”

Egyon pivoted elegantly to face her. He was dressed in fencing leathers dyed in multicolored squares, and his pale brown hair was clasped with a knife-and-sheath barrette. Obviously he had been caught unawares, but Tisianne had to grudgingly admire the speed of his response.

“Three, Tisianne brant Ts’ara sek Halima sek Ragnar? Are you counting that unplanned abortion you’re carrying?” Egyon asked sweetly.

The need to do murder flickered once like a whipping snake’s tail. Tis buried the urge. “Your powers must be failing, Egyon. This is a girlchild. And you forget my father, who is not dead yet.”

“As good as!” flared the pouting child.

“Quiet!” Egyon ordered.

“Yes, quiet, little one,” Tisianne agreed. “I’m trying to save your life.” The boy’s eyes widened slightly. “Yes, consider that. Do you really feel you have the experience to lead this House?”

There was an instant of silence, then Zabb showed his teeth and said softly, “No, that’s not a good idea.”

Her cousin had read the boy’s mind. Tisianne his body language, but she understood nonetheless.

“Zabb’s my heir,” Tis said. “You could put him in command of your troops, but will he fight the Vayawand or usurp you?” She shrugged eloquently.

“We have no proof this is Tisianne,” Egyon said. “Just the unsupported word of the regent. You’re all Sennari seed. You’d do anything to keep the Raiyis’tet from falling to the Kou’nar.”

“Test her,” said Zabb, and Tis took a quick, sidling step away from her cousin. He reached out and caught her above the elbow, held her still. “But not you, Egyon. This poor little human mind can’t protect itself well enough, and I’m not going to have my cousin conveniently die from a brain aneurysm.”

Relief suddenly removed the clog from her throat, and Tis quickly followed Zabb’s lead. “I’ll submit to an examination by the full Ajayiz. That should establish to anyone’s satisfaction that I am Tisianne.”

Zabb threw back his head and shouted, “And you can’t tell me you old beldams aren’t monitoring this little drama. So get in here, and let us do it.”

“Zabb,” said Taj warningly.

“They’d rather be amused than defend the House. Better to sit in the ashes and stir them with the stumps of their arms than miss one moment of emotional turmoil from their descendants.” In a more moderate tone he said to Taj, “Sorry, vindi, but I’ve always thought they were manipulative old spiders.”

“There’s no need to convene the Ajayiz. It was already decided that Onyze should ascend -”

“The situation’s changed, Egyon, you’ll have to do better than that,” Tis said.

Suddenly the House rang with a tone so high that it pained the ears and vibrated in the bones. The exterior manifestation of that call was painful enough – for the telepaths it was almost unbearable. The Takisians staggered, and Taj, who was a powerful and subtle telepath, was driven almost to his knees. Tisianne held up better than any of them because of the feeble abilities of her borrowed human body. But she felt it, drawn like a knife across her nerve endings. Only the Tarhiji guards and the humans were unaffected.

Mark, kind to the last and always concerned, supported Taj, even checked the old man’s pulse. The final aching harmonics died away, and the Takisians recovered. Taj pulled abruptly away from Mark, leaving the ace blinking in hurt confusion. Taj noticed. Glancing back, he said gruffly, “Your kindness was appreciated if unnecessary.”

Mark brightened perceptibly, and Tis was reminded again how much he loved this fine old man. Taj truly was a grand seigneur.

“Is that the Takisian version of a dog whistle?” asked Jay.

Zabb gave a short bark of laughter. In a manner of speaking, yes.”

“It is the Council Call,” Taj said, irritated by their flippancy.

Zabb’s grin became even broader. “Little cousin, you are more troublesome and get a bigger reaction than a swarm of scissor wings. They’re actually coming down.”

Panic took a brief run around the pit of her stomach like a frightened rabbit seeking its burrow.

“You can take some credit for this,” Taj said gruffly. “Pulling in the Network on us -”

“Which makes him a renegade and a traitor,” Egyon said with that tight, prissy voice that lawyers use when addressing a jury. “A perfect candidate for the Raiyis’tet.”

“Zabb is not the issue here, I am,” flared Tis.

“You’re bickering like the blind,” Taj exploded. “We now all wait on the decision of the Ajayiz, which will be several hours in coming. I suggest we adjourn to wait in more comfortable surroundings.” He paused and eyed the two humans: Jay dressed in his brown slacks and sports jacket, Mark in jeans, tennis shoes, and a T-shirt. He shuddered slightly. “And get something decent for these stirpes to wear.”

“Go away, Egyon,” Tis said softly. “Taj is still regent of House Ilkazam… and despite his courtesy I don’t think that was a request.”

Out-and-out warfare is rare in a Takisian noble house. Murder, when it occurs, is accomplished in shadowed corners, cloaked in the trappings of an accident.

This was how Blaise did it, thought Tisianne. If I possessed the jump power, I could take Egyon, manipulate the puppet body to attack, and jump back as the guards killed him.

But Egyon obeyed, and she didn’t possess the jump power, so she regretfully watched as the Kou’nar filed obediently from the audience chamber. Well, since no new and arcane powers were available to her, she would have to rely upon those fundamental Takisian talents – conspiracy and treachery.

Mark’s touch on her shoulder pulled her out of her reverie. “You should rest,” he said.

“No.” She shook her head. “First I must find a toilet. Then I must see my father.” She forced a casualness into her voice which she didn’t feel.

Zabb and Taj both looked at her sharply, and Zabb took her by the elbow and walked her forward until they stood at the base of the dais looking up at the throne. He seemed uncomfortable, like a man who was picking up and inspecting words to find the ones with the least potential for pain. At last Zabb said, “You’ve been warned what you’ll find.”

“Yes.”

“You can do a scan?”

“With Taj’s help.”

“Then you know what to do.”

Zabb turned and walked away, and Tis watched him go with hatred growing in her heart.

When Zabb’s hand fell like a stroke of doom on his shoulder, Mark wanted to shrug it contemptuously away. He could tell by the Doc’s expression that her cousin had again delivered some emotional body blow, but rudeness didn’t come easily to the gawky ace, and he secretly feared that he couldn’t carry off the gesture with anything approaching aplomb. Mark had looked ridiculous too many times in his life for it to be an unfamiliar sensation, but close association with the emotion didn’t make it any more welcome.

It took a quarter second for all these random, regretful, and scattered thoughts to shoot through Mark’s head, and then Zabb was saying, “Come, I need you with me.”