Again the silence and then the soft whispering as questions rippled across the gathering.

"Madness," said Shandhar. "What the hell's going on?"

"It's tradition," corrected Batrun. "Trial by consensus."

"Either way it could be trouble." Craig lifted his mask and let it ride on his cropped hair. "And Earl's caught up in it."

"Hear me!" Venicia's voice lifted as the trumpets ceased their demand for silence. "Does any deny the right?" A pause, then, for the third and last time, "Does any deny the right?" A longer pause then her hand lifted to point. "Tammi Canoyan! Step forward so you may be judged!"

"What?" Anger flushed the cold features with a tide of red beneath the paint. "This is insanity. You accuse me of attempted murder. Of treason. On what grounds, for God's sake? I wasn't even with you."

"You were the instrument."

"Of what?" Canoyan glanced around for support. "The woman's gone mad, can't you see that? Who will she accuse next? You, Belle? You, Fleur? Let her get away with this and who will be safe?"

"You deny the charge?"

"What charge? I traveled to Lomund with the matriarch and her party. I fell sick and needed medication. The Galya left without me. Later when I'd recovered, I took passage to Jourdan and arrived to learn the Galya hadn't arrived. I was as distraught as anyone at the thought of what could have happened. As relieved as the next when I heard of the rescue. Now I am being accused of attempted murder. Where is the evidence? The proof?"

Dumarest said, "The proof lies in what happened and how it happened. Sabotage and the one who arranged it."

"Proof?"

"Some may think it so." Dumarest looked at the ring of attentive faces. "I speak for the matriarch but have no personal interest. I shall have no vote in the final decision. I am only-"

"Get on with it, man!" Canoyan was impatient, already tasting the final victory. This apologetic fool could have nothing but empty words to back the accusation. "Where is your proof?"

"It is circumstantial," admitted Dumarest. "But, I think, conclusive. The background is common enough; a ship chartered to conduct a party, a usual arrangement. But the handler fell sick after departure with a virus condition which affected his mind and caused him to run amok. He killed, was restrained, broke free and ran into the engine room and opened the casing of the generator. The point is-why did he run into the engine room at all?"

"He was mad. You said so."

"No," said Dumarest. "I said his mind was affected. It's only a guess but I think he must have been ill for some time prior to the Galya's leaving Lomund. The condition could have sharpened his senses which is probably the reason he ran amok. An attempt to escape from overwhelming sensory stimulation." Pausing, he added, "The stimulation could have affected his hearing and that enabled him to learn something he was never intended to know."

"So?"

"A handler doesn't have much interest in the engine room. His job is to stack cargo, check supplies, take care of any passengers riding Low and livestock if any are carried. So what made him run into the engine room and remove the cover of the generator? To me there is only one logical answer-he tried to get rid of the device he knew had been planted there. The attempt triggered it with the results we know."

"So he heard something. What?"

Instead of answering the question Dumarest said, "Who would have been most suited to have set the device? It would need knowledge, skill and unquestioned access to the generator. Of the entire complement of the vessel the best person to do the job would be the engineer." Raising his voice, he called, "Guards! If you have arrested Olga Wenzer bring her here!"

She was still small, still brown, but now there was nothing meek in the way she stood and glared at Dumarest.

"Clever," she sneered. "You're too damned clever. Why should I have wanted to blow the generator? It was my neck too."

"Maybe not," he said. "I checked the sacs in the hold and one was equipped and supplied for a flight of long duration. And the handler jumped the gun. What if you'd left the Galya at a predetermined spot? The generator would have blown to leave it helpless but you could have altered course and drifted to a rendezvous, where you could have been picked up-maybe."

"Why should I have done all that?"

"That question bothered me but the answer lies in the records. Your sister was maimed for having stolen a collection of gems. Your mother was exiled. You have had good reason to hate the matriarch for years. Who found you, Olga? Learned you were a native of Jourdan? Got in touch with you and fed your hatred? Who suggested getting revenge?"

"No one!"

"So it was all your own idea? The device to blow the generator? The sac in which you hoped to escape? But there would have been no escape, Olga. You were to have been abandoned. Left to drift in the void, hoping for a rescue which would never come. Rescue had never been intended- dead you would no longer be an inconvenience."

"No!" She turned, her eyes, searching the crowd, setting on the tall figure of Tammi Canoyan. "No, she wouldn't-"

"Don't be a fool," snapped Dumarest. "What would she care about you? You're already frightened of her so why not make a clean breast of it? Tell the truth and the matriarch will be merciful-I promise it in her name. Why protect someone who would have left you to die?"

"Mercy?"

"I promise it."

"Then-" She turned, hand lifting, to stagger and slump, blood welling from her throat, the humming dart which spun in the center of a growing crater of cellular disruption.

The dart fired from the ring, which glowed like a baleful eye on the pointing finger of Tammi Canoyan's hand.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Standing at the open window Dumarest squared his shoulders and drew air deep into his lungs as he looked at the balcony outside, the expanse of the city beyond. The execution was over; Tammi Canoyan had paid the price of reckless ambition and was now nothing but a part of the heap of ash smoldering in the main square. He remembered the flames, the screams-Su Posta had not been gentle.

"It was necessary." She had come up from behind to stand at his side, guessing, with her woman's intuition, his thoughts. "An example had to be set to stop others from trying the same thing. A ruler dare not be gentle. And never forget that it could have been me out there."

He would but she would never rid herself of the fear she had known when, at the last, she had realized just how unpopular she had become. A gamble-so nearly lost! A word could have swayed the consensus to back her rival, a look, a tonal inflection-their faces had worn the feral hunger of beasts!

"It's over," said Dumarest, watching her. "Don't keep thinking about it."

Good advice but hard to follow. If Canoyan had fired at herself instead of silencing the engineer. If she had contained herself a while longer. If she had maintained her protestation of innocence-but the guards had prevented her from firing again and the dead woman had been proof enough of the accusation.

Details which now had no meaning. Dust to add to the rest, carried by the smoke, left to soil the gaudy pennons and streamers displayed throughout the city. It had begun to rain and in the dull harbinger of evening they hung like a collection of rags from their standards.

As she shivered, Dumarest reached forward and closed the leaves of the window. Wine stood on a low table and without asking her permission he poured, taking a sip before handing her the glass.

"Drink, my lady. It will warm you."

"And you made sure I knew you hadn't poisoned it."

"A custom on many worlds. Another glass?"