lexander said. His
voice was cold. "But you have no right to insult me."

"I'm not saying it, am I?" Kennon snapped. The moonflower on the
bookcase behind Alexander was a thing of beauty. Alexander liked beauty.
He had said so, and the Great Hall below them bore it out. It was a
lovely room. Those four bronze Lani in the fountain were works of art.
One of them looked remarkably like Copper. Copper in bronze. The little
witch had probably posed for the casting. Maybe it had even been made
from her body.

"They're all of Susy," Alexander said. "I can see why you are angry, and
I don't blame you. But remember I warned you about Lani."

Copper--Kennon wrenched his thoughts back to the moonflower. It had
twelve petals, limpid white on the borders shading to deep blue in the
center-from which the cream-colored stamen surrounded by transparent
pistils sprang to burst into a golden glory of pollen that dripped
in tiny yellow flecks to the broad petals below. It was a magnificent
flower. There was nothing like it on Beta. That was a marvelous thing
about flowers--wherever one went in the universe, plants used the same
methods to fertilize their seed and spread their germ plasm. It was too
bad that--Kennon jerked his attention to Alexander's face. He detested
the thought that his mind was common property. A man should have
something he can call his own. There had been a clinics instructor
in Year Six who was a sensitive. The classes had protected themselves
against his prying with a circlet--a thought screen--he had done it too.
Maybe he had brought the circlet with him. If he did, no one was going
to catch him without it. It was a dirty business, this reading of
others' thought. Now where had he put that circlet? Was it among his old
books--or was it with his instruments?

"Why don't you go back to your house and find it?" Alexander snapped.
"As you are, you're nothing but a disruption. I want you in on this
meeting, but not the way you're acting."

"I'm not going to act any other way until I get some protection from
peeping," Kennon said grimly. "And if you think this is bad wait till I
start going through comparative anatomy.''

"What's the matter with you two?" Blalok asked.

"Be quiet," Alexander snapped. "This isn't your problem. Kennon is
behaving like a spoiled child!"

"He's a telepath!" Kennon said. "And he didn't tell me."

"So what? I've known that for years."

"And you stand for it?"

"I'm a Mystic, not