e a service in doing
that! But if he'd only let himself get killed quietly the whole affair
would be simplified!"

The Lady Fani said with quiet dignity:

"By the same reasoning, Father, it would simplify things greatly if I
let the Lord Ghek kidnap me."

"It's not the same thing at all--"

"At least," said Fani, "I wouldn't have a pack of spearmen following me
about like puppies everywhere I go!"

"It's not the same--"

"Their breaths smelling of wine except when they smell of beer, and they
breathe very noisily and--"

"It's not--"

"And it's especially unreasonable," said the Lady Fani with even greater
dignity, "when you could put Thal and this--Hoddan person on duty to
guard me instead. If they can fight twenty and thirty men at once, all
by themselves, it doesn't seem to me that you think much of my safety
when you want to lock them up somewhere instead of using them to keep
your daughter safe from that particularly horrible Ghek!"

Don Loris swore in a cracked voice. Then he said:

"To end the argument I'll think it over. Until tomorrow. Now go away!"

Fani, beaming, rose and kissed him on the forehead. He squirmed. She
turned to leave, and beckoned casually for Thal and Hoddan to follow
her.

"My chieftain," said Thal tremulously, "do we depart, too?"

"Yes!" rasped Don Loris. "Get out of my sight!"

Thal moved with agility in the wake of the Lady Fani. Hoddan picked up
his bag and followed. This, he considered darkly, was in the nature of a
reprieve only. And if those three spaceships overhead did come from
Walden--but why three?

* * * * *

The Lady Fani went out the door she'd entered by. Some of the spearmen
went ahead, and others closed in behind her. Hoddan followed. There were
stone steps leading upward. They were steep and uneven and interminable.
Hoddan climbed on aching legs for what seemed ages.

Stars appeared. The leading spearmen stepped out on a flagstoned level
area. When Hoddan got there he saw that they had arrived at the
battlements of a high part of the castle wall. Starlight showed a
rambling wall of circumvallation, with peaked roofs inside it. He could
look down into a courtyard where a fire burned and several men busily
did things beside it. But there were no other lights. Beyond the castle
wall the ground stretched away toward a nearby range of rugged low
mountains. It was vaguely splotched with different degrees of darkness,
where fi