ad seen his pictures in the faxpapers, or even watched
some of his executions. But he wanted to know more than this, and he
tried to look deeper into the light and shadows of her eyes.

It was still there, he discovered, feeling a selfish sense of pleasure
that she had not found what he hadn't been able to give her. The endless
seeking, the search for something never put into words, the want
unfulfilled--all this was still there.

He knew that she was reading him in the same way, but he could not tell
what she found. Finally, it was she who looked away first, not in
retreat, rather to appraise him thoughtfully. He felt her eyes on the
knotted muscles of his cheeks, on his arms, on the whitened knuckles of
his scarred hands, on his boots, now grey with dust from the walk across
the arena. When her eyes came back to his, her unpainted lips parted in
a faint smile.

She knows, thought Jacques. She knows I don't want to kill her! And then
the torment in him became unbearable. What irony that out of all the
years of their lives they should come back together at this moment. An
impulse tugged at him to snatch his pistols from the squire's silver box
and try to take her from the arena, daring any to stop them.

Then he realized that the Bailiff was standing again, that the hundred
thousand spectators were surging to their feet. Trumpet fanfare blasted
from the main tunnel, signalling the arrival of the judges. Instinct
brought Jacques to his feet. Ann remained seated, and rose only after
the jailers nudged her with their curved staffs.

"Oyez, oyez, oyez!" cried the Bailiff into a microphone concealed in a
carved boar's head."'Tis now two of the clock at aftir noone, and yon
heralds bearing trumpets of devise give in knowledge unto all gentilmen,
ladyes and gentilwoomen the cooming of this high and most honourable
court! Remain at standing until said court is seated!"

The Chief Justice, regally stern, led the procession of judges, clerks
and pages across the arena. They mounted the platform, stepping in
cadence. When the robed and bewigged judges were all seated, the Bailiff
raised his staff and the crowd settled down with a buzz of anticipation.
High atop one of the north towers, hidden cameras picked up the scene
and vidcast it around the earth, and to the satellites and lonely planet
outposts.

One of the clerks picked up five rolls of parchment, untied the scarlet
ribbon on each, and passed them around to the judge