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“But this is absurd!” I cried. “The only evidence against me is protected by the sanctity of the godhouse! How can Jidd place a complaint against me based on what I’ve drained to him? I’ll have him up on charges for violation of contract!”
“There is other evidence,” the Marquis of Woyn said sadly.
“There is?”
“Using what he heard from your own lips,” the Marquis said, “Jidd was able to guide your enemies into cha
“The beasts.”
“They have also,” the Duke of Sumar said, “been able to link several of us to you. Not all, but several. This morning some of us were presented, by their own subordinates, with demands to resign their offices or face exposure. We met these threats firmly, and those who made them are now under detention, but there is no telling how many allies they have in high places. It is possible that by next moonrise we will all have been cast down and new men will hold our power. However, I doubt this, since, so far as we can determine, the only solid evidence so far is the confession of the slut, who has implicated only you, Ki
“We can destroy her credibility,” I said. “I’ll claim I never knew her. I’ll—”
“Too late,” said the Procurator-General. “Her deposition is on record. I’ve had a copy from the Grand Justiciar. It will stand up. You’re hopelessly implicated.”
“What will happen?” I asked.
“We will crush the ambitions of the blackmailers,” said the Duke of Sumar, “and send them into poverty. We will break Jidd’s prestige and drive him from the Stone Chapel. We will deny all of the charges of selfbaring that may be brought against us. You, however, must leave Ma
“Why?” I looked at the duke in perplexity. “I’m not without influence. If you can withstand the charges, why not I?”
“Your guilt is on record,” the Duke of Ma
It was wholly plain to me now.
I was dangerous to them. My strength might be broken in court and their guilt thus exposed. Thus far I was the only one indicted, and I was the only one vulnerable to the processes of Ma
59
Once more a refugee. In a single day all the power I had accumulated in fifteen years in Ma
I had nothing with me but the clothes I wore. My wardrobe, my weapons, my ornaments, my wealth itself, must remain behind in Ma
Here at least my friends were of service. The Procurator-General, who was nearly of a size with me, had brought several changes of handsome clothing. The Commissioner of the Treasury had obtained for me a fair fortune in Sallan currency. The Duke of Ma
Lastly, the Duke of Sumar came to me at the deepest time of the night, when I sat alone sourly eating the di
“In an hour’s time you will leave,” said the duke, to smother my gush of gratitude.
I asked to be allowed to make a call first.
“Segvord will explain matters to your wife,” the duke said.
“One did not mean one’s wife. One meant one’s bondsister.” In speaking of Halum I could not drop easily into the rough grammar we selfbarers affected. “One has had no chance to make one’s farewell to her.”
The duke understood my anguish, for he had been within my soul. But he would not grant me the call. Lines might be tapped; he could not risk having my voice go forth from his home this night. I realized then how delicate a position even he must be in, and I did not force the issue. I could call Halum tomorrow, when I had crossed the Woyn and was safe in Salla.
Shortly it was time for me to depart. My friends had already gone, some hours since; the duke alone led me from the house. His majestic groundcar waited, and a corps of bodyguards on individual powercycles. The duke embraced me. I climbed into the car and settled back against the cushions. The driver opaqued the windows, hiding me from view though not interfering with my own vision. The car rolled silently forward, picked up speed, plunged into the night, with my outriders, six of them, hovering about it like insects. It seemed that hours went by before we came even to the main gate of the duke’s estate. Then we were on the highway. I sat like a man carved of ice, scarcely thinking of what had befallen me. Northward lay our route, and we went at such a rate that the sun was not yet up when we reached the margin of the Marquis of Woyn’s estate, on the border between Ma