like an
irrelevant question. "Is it true what he told me? That the Empire has a
standing offer of a reward for a working model of a matter transmitter?"

"That offer's been standing for three hundred years, Terran reckoning.
One million credits cash. Don't tell me he was figuring to invent one?"

"I don't think so. But I think he heard rumors about one. He said with
that kind of money he could bargain the Terrans right out of Shainsa.
That was where it started. He began coming and going at odd times, but
he never said any more about it. He wouldn't talk to me at all."

"When was all this?"

"About four months ago."

"In other words, just about the time of the riots in Charin."

She nodded. "Yes. He was away in Charin when the Ghost Wind blew, and he
came back with knife cuts in his thigh. I asked if he had been mixed-up
in the anti-Terran rioting, but he wouldn't tell me. Race, I don't know
anything about politics. I don't really care. But just about that time,
the Great House in Shainsa changed hands. I'm sure Rakhal had something
to do with that.

"And then--" Juli twisted her chained hands together in her lap--"he
tried to mix Rindy up in it. It was crazy, awful! He'd brought her some
sort of nonhuman toy from one of the lowland towns, Charin I think. It
was a weird thing, scared me. But he'd sit Rindy down in the sunlight
and have her look into it, and Rindy would gabble all sorts of nonsense
about little men and birds and a toymaker."

The chains about Juli's wrists clashed as she twisted her hands
together. I stared somberly at the fetters. The chain, which was long,
did not really hamper her movements much. Such chains were symbolic
ornaments, and most Dry-town women went all their lives with fettered
hands. But even after the years I'd spent in the Dry-towns, the sight
still brought an uneasiness to my throat, a vague discomfort.

"We had a terrible fight over that," Juli went on. "I was afraid, afraid
of what it was doing to Rindy. I threw it out, and Rindy woke up and
screamed--" Juli checked herself and caught at vanishing self-control.

"But you don't want to hear about that. It was then I threatened to
leave him and take Rindy. The next day--" Suddenly the hysteria Juli had
been forcing back broke free, and she rocked back and forth in her
chair, shaken and strangled with sobs. "He took Rindy! Oh, Race, he's
crazy, crazy. I think he hates Rindy, he--he, Race, _he smashed her
toys_. He took every