which is to beget heirs. If a
polygamous marriage can permit us to fulfill that purpose it is--as you
pointed out--our duty."

Cortin swallowed, uncomfortable. "I intended no offense, Your
Highness."

"None taken, Your Excellency. Although it's not by intent, we have
failed." He turned to Bradford. "How do you think Enforcement
personnel and their families would react to the idea, Colonel?"

"Favorably," Bradford said. "Many of us already have such arrangements
informally, as I'm sure Your Highness knows, and quite a few--myself
included--would like to formalize them."

"And most of the nobility," the Prince said, "would be more intrigued
than offended, if it could be shown not to be sinful. The Church would
resist that, though, I'm afraid, and the landfolk would probably have
strong objections."

"I know," Cortin admitted. "I don't have any choice but to try,
though. I saw two possibilities in the vision, or whatever it was, and
I've got to work for the second. In the first, humanity kept on the
way it's going now, a slow decline with the terrorists getting stronger
until they reach a critical number and Shayan takes them over openly,
uses them to wipe out the rest of us in a final bloody massacre, then
amuses himself by torturing them to death one by one--which he and his
demons continue, of course, once they're in Sheol.

"The other wasn't quite as clear, maybe because there's more than one
way for it to go--I can't be certain. In it, we recognize the Satyr
Plague for what it is--"

"Shayan's attempt to corrupt us," Princess Ursula declared.

"With all respect, Your Highness," Cortin said firmly, "that's not
possible. I can't deny that Shayan has tremendous power, but there's
one power God has reserved to Himself, and that is the creation of
life. The satyr virus isn't very high on the scale, I agree, but it is
life, with no detectable connection to any other form in the Kingdoms.
So the Satyr Plague is from God, and it must be His Will that we use
it, within the limits of morality He's given us, to reverse the
decline."

"The Satyr Plague used within the bounds of morality?" Princess Ursula
sounded highly dubious.

"It can be done," Cortin said. "Troopers don't use their dispensation
to spend all their time having sex, do they?"

"No," the Princess admitted, "not even all their spare time. But
troopers are far better disciplined than the average civilian--give
landfolk the freedom to in