Susette and her husband’s convenient absence? Otherwise I’d have stayed
longer at Thursday Landing, playing sleuth–long enough to give an
assassin, who was expecting me specifically, a chance at me.
No! This is fantastic! Forget it!
“Wasn’t that a disaster to the enemy?” Kossara asked.
” ‘Fraid not. I don’t imagine they’ll get their Diomedean insurgency.
But that’s a minor disappointment. I’m sure the whole operation was
chiefly a means to the end of maneuvering Terra into forcing Dennitza to
revolt And those false clues have long since been planted and let
sprout; the false authoritative report has been filed; in short, about
as much damage has been done on the planet as they could reasonably
expect.”
Anguish: “Do you think … we will find civil war?”
He laid an arm around her. She leaned into the curve of it, against his
side. “The Empire seldom bumbles fast,” he comforted her. “Remember,
Hans himself didn’t want to move without more information. He saw no
grounds for doubting the Maspes report–that Dennitzans were
involved–but he realized they weren’t necessarily the Gospodar’s
Dennitzans. That’s why I got recruited, to check further. In addition,
plain old bureaucratic inertia works in our favor. Yes, as far as the
problems created on Diomedes are concerned, I’m pretty sure well get you
home in time.”
“Thanks to you, Dominic.” Her murmur trembled. “To none but you.”
He did not remind her that Diomedes was not, could never have been the
only world on which the enemy had worked, and that events on Dennitza
would not have been frozen. This was no moment for reminders, when she
kissed him.
Her shyness in it made him afraid to pursue. But they sat together a
spell, mute before the stars, until she bade him goodnight.
{On the tundra far north of the Kazan, Bodin Miyatovich kept a hunting
lodge. Thence he rode forth on horseback, hounds clamorous around him,
in quest of gromatz, yegyupka, or ice troll. At other times he and his
guests boated on wild waters, skied on glacier slopes, sat indoors by a
giant hearthfire talking, drinking, playing chess, playing music,
harking to blizzard winds outside. Since her father bore her cradle from
aircar to door, Kossara had loved coming here.
Though this visit was harshly for business, she felt pleasure at what
surrounded her. She and her uncle stood on a slate terrace that jutted
blue-black from the granite blocks of the house. Zoria wheeled dazzling
through cloudless heaven, ringed with sun dogs. Left, right, and
rearward the land reached endless, red-purple mahovina turf, widespaced
clumps of firebush and stands of windblown plume, here and there a pool
ablink. Forward, growth yielded to tumbled boulders where water coursed.
In these parts, the barrens were a mere strip; she could see the ice
beyond them. Two kilometers high, its cliff stood over the horizon, a
worldwall, at its distance not dusty white but shimmering, streaked with
blue crevasses. The river which ran from its melting was still swift
when it passed near the lodge, a deep brawl beneath the lonesome tone of
wind, the remote cries of a sheerwing flock. The air was cold, dry,
altogether pure. The fur lining of her parka hood was soft and tickly on
her cheeks.
The big man beside her growled, “Yes, too many ears in Zorkagrad.
Damnation! I thought if we put Molitor on the throne, we’d again know
who was friend and who foe. But things only get more tangled. How many
faithful are left? I can’t tell. And that’s fouler than men becoming
outright turncoats.”
“You trust me, don’t you?” Kossara answered in pride.
“Yes,” Miyatovich said. “I trust you beyond your fidelity. You’re strong
and quick-witted. And your xenological background … qualifies you and
gives you a cover story … for a mission I hope you’ll undertake.”
“To Diomedes? My father’s told me rumors.”
“Worse. Accusations. Not public yet. I actually had bloody hard work
finding out, myself, why Imperial Intelligence agents have been snooping
amongst us in such numbers. I sent men to inquire elsewhere and–Well,
the upshot is, the Impies know revolt is brewing on Diomedes and think
Dennitzans are the yeast. The natural conclusion is that a cabal of mine