"We'd best stow the 'Mechs in the woods and check out the palace on foot," said Sep. "One of us can stay to watch them. The other two can split up to see if we can find out what is going on."

They thudded through the summer grass toward the towering forest that stood between the meadow and the grasslands around the Summer Palace. There was enough cover there for an army of 'Mechs. Stowed in a thicket of heavy-leaved bushes, the heads and shoulders of the ‘Mechs were screened by arching boughs of the trees overhanging the thicket. From a distance, nothing was visible to anyone who didn't know to look closely.

It was decided that Ref and Sep would probably be able to melt into the palace background fairly easily, but that Jarlik would probably be recognized instantly. They decided that he would remain behind.

Sep and Ref went to separate entrances, where their retinal scans admitted them through the portals into the complex. Almost reflexively, Sep found herself headed toward the barracks.

Denek was coming down the steps as she mounted them.

"How goes it Den?" she asked. He looked up, startled, then grinned. "Sep, by golly, it's good to see you back. I never knew managing a unit could be so much hassle. Come with me and tell me what you've been doing!"

She turned companionably and moved with him toward the Palace. "Everything going well?" she asked again.

He looked doubtful. "I don't know about well. Not that there's any trouble, but with getting the guard ready to move back to New Avalon and all, it's been confusing. And the trouble with Steiner, too, right on the heels of that."

Sep stopped in her tracks. "Trouble with Steiner? What trouble? I've been on R and R, remember?"

He nodded. "Come on, then. I've got to hurry. Final inspection before jump. Davion's already gone. We all registered a protest that it was a bad move, but he insisted that he must attend to some important business on New Avalon. So off he went, with just a skeleton guard, his aide, and one unit."

"But what about Steiner?" she asked impatiently.

"We'd all thought there was some sort of agreement between the Commonwealth and the Federation. You remember, we used to talk about it. Well, just a week or so ago, Hanse went up by Command Circuit to meet with Katrina on Sol. Came back in a towering rage, saying he'd rather tie up with a she-bear. All connections have been severed."

Denek turned abrupdy into the gate of the drillground. "And it puts us into a real bind, if Liao tries to retake Stein's Folly. We'll be standing alone now, with all the major systems against us."

Sep digested Denek's words as he checked out the unit and sent the 'Mechs to their DropShips, the warriors to quarters. When Denek was done, she pulled him aside. "We have to talk. Now," she said, and began at the beginning. Denek listened, but his expression grew more and more skeptical as she spoke.

"Sep, Ardan was out of it. The doctors, the Meds, everyone said so."

She stared at him sternly. "So just about the time Ardan would have gotten here, Hanse just happens to change drastically. Not to mention the fact that there's no sign of Ardan and hasn't been, even though he was using the Jump-Ship Hanse Davion assigned to us so that we could get to the Folly and meet him."

She set her hand on his shoulder and shook him gendy. "Ardan got into that installation where he'd been held. He found a holo set up with pictures of Hanse in every sort of situation. Also of Argyle, in detail. When he brought Ref and me back to see it, the booby-traps began to go, and we had to get out or die. But he had put a set of holos in his pocket."

"He what?"

"Just what I said. He had a packet of them in his pocket. When we put them in the viewer, we saw the Palace at Argyle. There were holos of everything, in so much detail that if you studied them, it'd be almost like having lived here most of your life. From the Prince's private can to the bird sanctuary, with the names of all Hanse's favorite birds marked onto the case of the holo. It told ussomething. Doesn't it say anything to you?"

Denek might behave as if he were a foolish young fellow out for a good time, but he was a MechWarrior, and a good one. That meant he was no fool.

"They were training someone to take the Prince's place. And he's done it. If Ardan did show up here unannounced, he was probably either killed or is in hiding or has been ...detained."

He looked steadily into Sep's eyes.

"I have to get the unit offworld right now. You stay here and learn what you can. There's a ship, for emergencies only, stashed in Hangar Twelve at the private port. Old Sarnov lives in the village north of the grounds. He was one of the best pilots ever. When you find something...if you find something...you come to New Avalon. You're due back off leave, anyway. Nobody is going to ask how you got onworld, once you're there.

"I'll put your impending arrival on the incoming chart, as soon as I get in, with the notation that you are allowed recharge time and your exact time of arrival is unknown."

She patted his shoulder. "Good thinking. And put it as 'Candent Septarian and group', will you? We just might be able to slip Ardan in that way. Not to mention Hanse, if he should still be around."

She turned back to the forest, her mind busy. Where would the false Hanse have put his captives? Would he be naive enough to put them in the cells beneath the palace?

Where?

30

Ardan found himself at the outlet of the ventilation slot while the sun was still high. Hanse, behind him, was silent, and Ardan recalled suddenly that the Prince had a tendency toward claustrophobia. He felt a twinge of guilt at bringing him through such a tight place.

Then he chuckled.

"What's so funny?" asked Hanse.

"I was feeling sorry about getting you into such a smothery position, when I remembered that the alternative was the detention cells. Have you ever taken the tour? It's enough to make your gorge rise. I wonder why your what-ever-it-is-great grandfather built them as he did."

Hanse sighed and crouched beside Ardan in the narrow passageway. "Old Lucien was a complex character, I suspect. He had, among other things, a mania for the antique. Not what we call antique, mind you, but the really ancient He was an able administrator, a wonderful organizer, but he had several important screws pretty loose, indeed. He made his detention cells just like the dungeons in the ancient records. Odd thing. We've never used them much for any but important prisoners who were in danger of their lives."

As the sun set, Ardan watched the line of light work its way along the wall. Only a shoulder's width of space marked the slit on the outside wall, he knew. It was decorated around its edges with carved stone and looked like a high-set window.

"Well, I'd rather be here than down in those ghastly deeps," he said. "It'll be dark before too long. Then we can get onto the roof and take off."

The sky darkened gradually. The slit of warm gold was gone, and the sky turned to lilac, then to gray, and then to midnight black. Stars sprinkled the expanse when the two fugitives worked their way from the slit and began climbing the sheer wall.

Lucien had liked stone-carving. His decorations, old as they were, were still firm, and they gave finger and toeholds to his descendant as Hanse and Ardan made their painful way up the wall toward the roof. From time to time, they froze in place, as the thud of giant feet announced the presence of a 'Mech guard on the paved terrace below.