"That's so like him," Ardan murmured. "He hates for others to be uncomfortable through no great fault of their own."

"I found that out. But I was still mortified to be caught crying like an infant. I said to him, 'I suppose you nevercry, do you?' And his answer comforted me instantly, though I have never quite understood what it meant"

Ardan gazed down at her. "And what did he say?"

Melissa's gray eyes were seeing into the past as she replied, "He said, The Starbird weeps inside.' Do you know what that means?"

For a moment, Ardan caught at an errant memory that evaporated the moment he tried to seize it in thought. "No, though I suspect it means something quite deep and important to Hanse. And I do know that he hates much of what he must do to maintain the balance of powers and influences that hold the Federated Suns stable. I wish I could tell you more..."

She rose. "You look tired. Back to bed with you!"

He found, to his astonishment, that she was right. The short walk, the brief time spent sitting and talking, had drained his energies.

As she accompanied him back to his room, Melissa whispered, "That was when I knew that I would not object ...not at all!...to becoming Hanse Davion's wife."

Ardan thought of that later. It might of course, have been policy...or Hanse's exquisite sense of the decent thing to do. But he suspected otherwise, that Melissa's story revealed a gende man comforting a stricken child. There were worse beginnings for political marriages.

22

As he grew stronger, Ardan took advantage of the Palace's excellent facilities, exercising to the limits of his ability every day. Sometimes Melissa joined him. Though there was a fragility about her, she had grown into a tall girl who was tough as whipcord.

They laughed and joked as they worked out in the gymnasium, using the computer-controlled exercise machines. But when they were alone in one end of the huge space, out of earshot of me trainers and other exercise enthusiasts, they often talked seriously.

Winter was on the wane when Ardan made a crucial decision. He knew that he had to return to Stein's Folly, but it would have to be done secretly. And for that he would need help. For one thing, he had to get a message to Sep. He hoped she had forgiven his harsh behavior and words during their last meeting, and that she would keep her promise to help him, if ever there was a need. He clung to that promise, which was his only hope of accomplishing what he intended.

He found Melissa an attentive listener, when he gasped out his conclusions between surges of effort on the Total Musculature Machine. He had felt, all along, that she alone of the people on Tharkad believed his story about that weird double of Hanse. Now he felt her agreement, though she said nothing while pumping the handles of her own exercise machine.

"I am just about back to normal," Ardan began. "Strong enough to hold up under long periods of effort, if the computer readouts are to be believed. That means that I'm going to have to find some way to look into...that matter."

Melissa nodded, her cheeks pink with exertion.

"I've got to go back to the Folly. Things have quieted down there since the enemy pulled back. All the mop-up has been done, too, from what your mother says. The garrison at Main Port has been beefed up, but all the lesser ones have been closed and booby-trapped. Hanse doesn't want anyone else to be able to use our own installations against us."

He paused to change machines and also to catch his breath.

"I have to have assistance. I need my junior officer, Candent Septarian. She said she'd come any time I called, and now I need to contact her as quickly as possible. Have you access to ComStar?" he asked Melissa.

She smiled secretively. "I have made close friends with the Acolyte here. She is very bright and most dutiful. She doesn't go by the book, either."

"She can access the HPG system? I need to get word to Sep as quickly as possible."

"Three weeks," said Melissa. "The laws of physics are pretty immutable. But in three weeks she will have word. What should I tell her?"

Ardan thought intensely for a few minutes. "Is there freighter service now between Tharkad and the Folly?" he asked finally.

"Kerrion has gone back into service there, since the restoration. His freighter DropShip is in port right now. But a freighter is too slow. You need your own JumpShip. A small and unobtrusive one that can get you there unremarked. They're not going to want you back on the Folly, you know."

"But I haven't a JumpShip," he said patiendy. "And I must do with what I can manage."

"Mother doesn't believe in your doppelganger," said Melissa, "but if I ask her, I know she'll lend you a ship."

He signed with relief. "Then tell Sep to rendezvous with me at Point X-r-23, behind the larger moon of Stein's Folly. The transit time for the message...plus time for getting herself ready and whoever she can recruit...plus the eight jumps from New Avalon...We should rendezvous fairly well together, timewise."

He sprang for the hanging rings and swung himself into a handstand. "Tell her to bring anyone who can manage some leave-time. And their 'Mechs, too, if possible. We may have a hard time breaking into that installation."

"She can ask Hanse for help," he gasped. "But make it private. Even secret. We don't know what's going on, or who is involved."

Melissa rose from the machine and reached for a towel. She wrapped it about her shoulders, put another over her sweat-soaked hair, and said, "I'm glad you're doing this. I've had a bad feeling about the whole situation from the start. Something is going on that I can't quite figure out"

She turned to add, "I'll send the message first Then I'll ask my mother for the ship. She hasn't lasted this long as Archon, much less as a Mech Warrior, by hanging back when action is called for. I don't think she's entirely comfortable with your 'delusion', either. Now, work hard!" Then she was gone.

As he pushed his still-painful body past its limits, Ardan thought deeply. There might not be anything left on the Folly to give him a clue to his weird vision. But if there were, he would find it

And then what? His only hope was to have an impartial and dependable observer present Not Sep...it might be said that she was prejudiced in his favor, having been his junior officer in their unit. He hoped that she would bring friends, but he also prayed that she would find someone who knew him only casually.

After finishing his exercise routine, Ardan showered and returned to his room, where there was an invitation to dinner from Katrina Steiner. Ardan rather suspected it meant that Melissa had been persuasive, and the first step in his enterprise was in the works. The loan of a JumpShip, even a small one, was no small matter—their being among the rarest and most prized remnants of the Star League era. Katrina Steiner must have much love as well as much confidence in her young daughter to grant such a tremendous favor.

He dressed carefully in the formal attire Katrina Steiner had thoughtfully provided. The Archon was never able to dine privately. There was always business to be done, as well as dignitaries to pacify or potentates to impress.

She did it well, too, he decided. He had attended such affairs before, but only as a member of the Guard. As a guest this time, he found the difference interesting. Here he was, mixing with a flower-garden of brighdy clad people, men and women from every corner of the Lyran Commonwealth, as well as representatives of lesser systems.