afe enough telling a
Speaker about it--"

"Or a Cor'naya?"

"Yes." Thinking back, Tarlac had to admit that all the n'Cor'naya he'd
met were individuals he'd trust not to panic, as Hovan had not. "But
Speakers and n'Cor'naya aren't exactly average. It's the risk to
people like . . . oh, like Sandre and your twins. I don't like what
learning about that loss may do to them. I guess I'll just have to
hope it's not as bad as I'm afraid it will be."

"I do not like such a risk either," Hovan said. "But since you have
made your Decision, I may advise you, if you wish."

"I wish," Tarlac said grimly.

"If you judge it possible, I would advise silence a little longer.
Those who concern you will be able to accept such things more easily
from one who has earned Honor scars, as you soon will."

Tarlac didn't feel, at the moment, like restating his conviction that
he wouldn't survive the last test of his Ordeal--but he still felt it.
By his previous reasoning, though, if the Lords had trusted him with
Kranath's Vision, which they had, there was a good chance he'd be
around afterward to make the safest possible use of it for the Traiti
race. If the Vision itself wasn't enough to accomplish that . . .

"Hovan, I'd like to ask a favor of you, as my sponsor."

The massive figure walking easily beside him nodded. "I believe I know
what."

"Probably, as well as you know me." Tarlac felt warmth for his ruhar.
"If I die before I can tell this the way I should, I'd like you to do
it for me. You're Cor'naya, and respected even by other n'Cor'naya."
It all fitted so well that Tarlac wondered for a moment if Hovan had
been selected to meet him and become his sponsor, the same way he
himself had been selected to meet the Traiti. It wouldn't surprise him
at all, given what he'd learned, but he didn't let himself dwell on the
implications.

"Besides that," he went on, "if I don't make it, someone's going to
have to get a message to Emperor Davis. You, preferably, or the
Supreme or First Speaker, if you think they'd be better. I'll leave a
set of instructions, and a message to His Majesty, explaining what I've
found out. As I said, since you're of Terran origin, you're
automatically Imperial citizens; at worst, you'd be treated as lost
colonists. That'll change things, I hope enough to end the war as a
misunderstanding." He grimaced. "A bad misunderstanding. It won't be
easy, but it should be possible to end it without