But it was a Sufaki’s voice, not Bel’s, that urged on him the inevitable.

“You hold the weapons that could destroy the Indras fleet, that could free our city. A curse on you if you will not help us!”

But only Kta and Bel did he answer, and then always the same: “Go away. I am staying here.”

In time they did go away, and he relaxed somewhat, until he heard a gentle stirring at his barricade.

“Who is there?” he shouted out.

“My lord,” said Pai’s fearful voice from near the floor. “My lord, you will not use those weapons, will you?”

“No,” he said, “I will not.”

“They would have forced you. Not Kta. Not Bel. They would not harm you. But some would have forced you. They wanted to attack. Kta persuaded them not to. Please, may I come in?”

“No, Pai. I do not trust even you.”

“I will watch here all night, my lord. I will tell you if they come.”

“You do not blame me—because I will not do what they want?”

There was a long hesitation. “Djan also would not do what they wished. I honored her. I will watch for you, my lord. Rest. I will not sleep.”

He sat down then on the only remaining chair, with his head leaning back, and though he did not intend to, he slept for little periods. Sometimes he would ask Pai whether she slept—but her voice was always there, faithful and calm.

Then came morning, through the glass of the window that overlooked the west. When he went to look out, the sullen light exposed the whole of a great war fleet moving into the harbor.

Ylith’s fleet had come.

He waited for a long time after they had docked. There was no sign of fighting. Eventually he sent Pai downstairs to spy out what was happening.

“There are Indras lords in the lower hall,” she reported, “strangers. But they have been told you are here. They are trying to decide whether to attack this door or not. My lord, I am afraid.”

“Leave the door,” he told her. But she did not. He still heard her stirring occasionally outside.

Then he went around the various centers of the section, wrecking machinery, smashing delicate circuits.

“What are you doing?” Pai cried, when she heard the noise.

He did not trouble to answer. He dismantled the power sources as far as he could, the few handweapons he found also, everything. Then he took away the barricade before the door.

She waited outside, her large eyes wide with fear and with wonder,—perhaps no little shock, for he was filthy and bloody and almost staggering with exhaustion.

“They have not threatened you?” he asked.

She bowed her head gravely. “No, lord. They feared to make you angry. They know the power of the weapons.”

“Let us go to Elas.”

“I am chanto Methis,” she said. “It is not proper for me to quit my station.”

“I am afraid for you with conditions as they are. Visit Elas with me.”

She bowed very deeply, straightened and walked beside him.

The shock of seeing him in the lower hall all but paralyzed the men of Indresul, who watched there with a few of the Indras of Nephane. The presence of Nephanites among the occupying forces heartened him somewhat.

“The weapons,” he said, “are dismantled beyond my ability to repair them. I am going to Elas if you want to find me.”

And to his own surprise they let him pass, and puzzled guards on the Street of the Families did also, for a man of Indresul walked after them, watching them, his presence guarding them.

“No harm must come to you,” said that man at last. “This is the order of the Methi Ylith.”

There was no Hef to tend the door of Elas. Kurt opened it for himself and with Pai behind him entered its shadows. He stopped at the door of the rhmei,for he had not washed from the fighting and he wished to bring no pollution into the peace of that hall.

Kta rose to his feet from the chair of Nym, his face touched with deep relief. By him on lesser chairs sat Bel, Aimu, elders of the Sufaki and a stranger,—Vel t’Elas-in-Indresul.

Kurt bowed, realizing he had interrupted something of great moment, that an Indras of the shining city sat at this hearth.

“I beg your leave,” he said. “I have finished at the Afen. No human weapons threaten your peace any longer. Tell your Methi that, Vel t’Elas.”

“I had assured Ylith-methi,” said Kta, his voice even but full of controlled feeling, “that this would be your choice. Is that Pai t’Erefe with you?”

“She needed a place for a time,” he said. “If Elas will accept her as a guest.”

“Elas is honored,” murmured Kta. “Go wash, and come and sit with us, friend Kurt. We are in the midst of serious business.” But before he went upstairs, Kta left his guests and came to him in the hall.

“It was well done,” said Kta softly. “My friend, my brother Kurt,—go and wash, and come down to us. We are solving matters. It is a three- and a four-round problem, but the Methi Ylith has vowed to stay in port until it is done. We will talk here; then we will go down to the port to tell her our decisions. There are others of our cousins of Indresul in their several houses at this moment, and each Indras house has taken Sufaki among them, to shelter them at the sanctity of their hearths until this matter is resolved. Not a Sufaki will be harmed, who accepts house-friendship and the peace of our roofs.”

“Would they all come?”

“No,—not all, not all. But perhaps the violent ones have fled to their hills, or perhaps they will come down in peace when they see it possible. But on every door of Sufak some Indras Family has set its seal; there will be no plundering. And at every hearth we have taken house-friends. This we did,—while you barricaded yourself behind the Afen door.”

Kurt managed a smile. “And that,” he said, “was well done too. Am I still welcome here?”

“You are of Elas,” Kta exclaimed indignantly. “ Ofthis hearth and not simply beside it. Go upstairs.”

“I have to find t’Nethim’s family,” he protested.

“This has been done.—I need you,” Kta insisted. “ Ineed you. Elas does. When Ylith-methi knows what you have done, and she will, I have no doubt that she will wish to see you, and you cannot go like that, and you cannot go ignorant of the business of your hearth.”

He nodded wearily, felt for the stairs.

“Kta,” said Bel softly. “See to him if you wish, personally. We will keep peace at your hearth until you return—surely, my lord of Indresul. Perhaps we can even find some things to discuss while you are gone if my lady wife will bring us another round of tea.”

Kta considered the two of them, grave old Vel and the young Sufaki of his own age. Then he gave them a bemused slight bow and guided Kurt toward the stairs.

“Come,” he said. “You are home, my friend.”

HUNTER OF WORLDS

To my mother, my father,

and to David.

1

Halfway through the second watch the ship put into Kartos Station—the largest thing ever seen in the zone, a gleaming silver agglomeration of vanes cradling an immense saucer body. It was an Orithain craft, with no markings of nationality or identification: the Orithain disdained such conventions.

It nestled in belly-on, larger than the station itself, positioned beside an amaut freighter off Isthe II that was completely dwarfed by its bulk. The umbilical of the tube, the conveyor-connection, went out to it, scarcely long enough to reach, although the Orithain’s grapples had drawn herself and the Station into relative proximity.

As soon as that connection was secure, five members of the crew disembarked, four men and a woman. They were kallia, like many of the Station personnel—a race that belonged to Qao V, a tall graceful folk, azure-skinned and silver-haired; but these had never seen the surface of Aus Qao: each bore on the right wrist the platinum bracelet that marked a nas kame, a servant of the Orithain.