circumstances, sir, I felt conformity would be imprudent. I endeavored
not to damage irreparably men who wore his Majesty’s uniform, and in due
course will return the borrowed blaster you observe me wearing.
Thereupon I took refuge with a gentleman I suspected of vehement
anti-Terran sentiments. May I respectfully request his name and the
names of his associates be omitted from your official cognizance?
Besides their hospitality and helpfulness toward me, they exhibited no
more than a misguided zeal for the welfare of this planet, and indeed I
was the occasion of their first overt unlawful act. They sheltered me
only after I had convinced them I was a revolutionary for my own
society, and that my public designation as a Merseian agent was a
calumny which the Imperialists could be expected to employ against their
kind too. They were persuaded rather easily; I would not recommend them
for the Intelligence Corps. I got from them clothes, disguise materials,
equipment convertible to surveillance purposes, and went about
collecting data for myself.
“They do possess a rudimentary organization. Through this, via a phone
call, my host learned that a large delegation of zmays was moving on the
Capitol. Recalling Donna Vymezal’s accounts of her background, and
trusting she and you had not perished after all, I thought you might be
here. To have this deduction confirmed was … most gratifying, sir.”
Flandry chewed his lip for a while before he said,
“Those were Imperials who came to arrest you? Not Dennitzans?”
“No, sir, not Dennitzans. There could be no mistake.” Chives spoke
mutedly. His thin green fingers hauled the cowl closer around his face.
“You went unmolested for days, and then in a blink–” Flandry’s speech
chopped off. They were at their goal.
Well into Old Town, the party passed between two many-balconied
mansions, out onto a plateau of Royal Hill. Constitution Square opened
before them, broad, slate-flagged, benches, flowerbeds, trees–empty,
empty. In the middle was a big fountain, granite catchbasin, Toman
Obilich and Vladimir locked in bronze combat, water dancing white but
its sound and spray borne off by the wind. Westward buildings stood well
apart, giving a view down across roofs to Lake Stoyan, metal-bright
shimmer and shiver beyond the curve of the world. Directly across the
square was the Capitol, a sprawling, porticoed marble mass beneath a
gilt dome whose point upheld an argent star. A pair of kilometers
further on, a rock lifted nearly sheer, helmeted with the battlements
and banners of the Zamok.
Flandry’s gaze flickered. He identified a large hotel, office buildings,
cafes, fashionable stores, everything antiquated but dignified, the gray
stones wearing well; how many Constitution Squares had he known in his
life? But this lay deserted under wind, chill, and hasty cloud shadows.
A militia squad stood six men on the Capitol verandah, six flanking the
bottom of the stairs; their capes flapped, their rifles gleamed whenever
a sunbeam smote and then went dull again. Aircraft circled far overhead.
Otherwise none save the newcomers were in sight. Yet surely watchers
waited behind yonder shut doors, yonder blank panes: proprietors,
caretakers, maybe a few police–a few, since the turmoil was elsewhere
in town and no disturbance expected here. Who besides? He walked as if
through a labyrinth of mirages. Nothing was wholly what he sensed,
except the blaster butt under his hand and a stray russet lock of
Kossara’s hair.
She had no such dreads. As they trod into the plaza, he heard her
whisper, “Here we go, my brave beloved. They’ll sing of you for a
thousand years.”
He shoved hesitation out of his mind and readied himself to fight.
But no clash came. Despite what they told him when the move was being
planned, he’d more or less awaited behavior like that when a gaggle of
demonstrators wanted to invade a legislative session on any human planet
he knew–prohibition, resistance, then either a riot or one of the sides
yielding. If officialdom conceded in order to avoid the riot, it would
be grudgingly, after prolonged haggling; and whatever protesters were
admitted would enter under strict conditions, well guarded, to meet
indignant stares.
Dennitza, though, had institutionalized if not quite legalized
procedures like the ispravka. Through the officer he met on the way,