“Has it ever happened that a country did lose its crown?” asked Roane.
The Princess shivered, but with more than just the chill of the passage through which they walked now.
“Once, in Arothner. The crown—it was the Shell Crown, for Arothner was of the sea—was destroyed in a tidal wave. And what followed was horrible. The people—a madness fell upon them. They turned upon their own lords, upon each other, so that all the nations on their boundaries set up armies to keep them in their own torn land. And thereafter it has been accursed and no one goes there for fear the same mind-blasting force might strike them. What was once a great nation with many ships, and the trading city of Arth as its capital, is now only barren waste, and if any still live there, they are no longer men—
“At least the Ice Crown has not been destroyed, for then the same fate would have fallen on Reveny. And to that hope we hold. But it must be found!”
“It would seem that there are those who also know the secret and do not want this crown discovered—if your father and the others died and this has happened to you.” “Yes.” The Princess’s lips tightened. “I guess and think I guess rightly, though I have no proof, that it is Reddick’s doing. Though I never thought he would go so far as to have me taken out of Hitherhow when it was well known I was within those walls. There must be some desperate need to bring him so into open action. It may be this passage he would protect. Roane, does it seem warmer here to you?”
Ludorica slowed, put out her hand as if to touch the wall, but did not quite complete that gesture.
She was right! The chill which had closed about them in the fore part of the passage was gone. This was like walking under a gentle sun, just comfortingly warm. Roane touched the wall. There was warmth there, more so than in the air about them. And also something else, a faint vibration.
Excitement surged in her. A Forerunner installation still alive? It had happened on other worlds—Limbo, Arzor. If that were possible then this would be one of the big finds, and anything—even breaking cover on a closed planet—would be forgiven the discoverers! This could be the answer to her problem.
“What is it?” Ludorica, watching her closely, must have read the elation on her face.
“I do not know—not yet—” Roane returned quickly and then asked:
“Who is Reddick, and why would he want to hold the Crown?” “Though the King would not claim Olava’s son, he ennobled the boy and gave him command of Hitherhow in his lifetime, a right which must be renewed in each generation. Reddick is his grandson. But so might he have the secret of Och’s Hide. If I can only find the Crown, Duke Reddick has no chance. Then he cannot lay hand to it before the King’s death, or as long as I live-”
“As long as you live,” Roane echoed her meaningfully.
“You mean—but of course! That is why—he had a double purpose.” The Princess nodded. “Stop me from searching, or else make sure if I did chance upon it— Which also means—” Her face now mirrored not only determination and cold anger but also fear.
“Roane, I have not seen King Niklas for five days. It was he who told me I must make haste to find the Crown, gave into rny hands all he had denied me for years, the clues he had tried to gift and follow, all that my father and uncles had when they went seeking. Perhaps he is more ill than he would have me know, or else has since grown worse. And Reddick knows this. If the King were himself, the Duke would never have dared to have me stolen from Hitherhow.” “Do you not have someone to depend on?” “None sharing the Crown secret. But if I can now find that and reach Yatton or the border, I can cross over into Leichstan with the Crown and gain a breathing space in which to rally the loyal lords. My mother was a princess of Leichstan, though she died at my birthing and he who sits the throne there is but a distant cousin. Yet I can claim blood kin, and all must aid one who wears a crownl”
She flicked the beamer ahead. “Come! If it lies here—do you not See? I must have it, and soon!” Now she began to run.
But the beam had picked up something else, a change in the wall to their right. Roane pressed to that side and then halted at a slab of transparent material. Inside—an installation! It could be nothing else. Rows of machines, with here and there a flashing point of colored light. She pressed her face to the glass, trying to see more of what lay there. But the light was too intermittent—she had only glimpses as one flash was echoed by another. Green, blue, red, orange, a multitude of colors and combinations. Yet those did not reflect into the passage where she stood. “Come on!” The Princess was ahead, paying no attention to what held Roane fascinated. “Why do you stop?” “The lights—this must be an installation. But what—” Ludorica came back reluctantly. “What lights?” she demanded, flashing the beamer directly onto the panel, thus revealing two machines of pillar shape inside, spinning off flecks of color. “What lights?” The Princess pulled at Roane’s arm. “Why do you stand staring at bare wall and talking of lights? Are you mind-twisted?” She dropped her hold, drew back a little. “What do you see there, then?” Roane asked. “Wall—just as there, and there, and there—” With a stabbing finger the Princess pointed ahead, to the side, behind them. “Nothing but wall.”
Roane was shaken. But she did see a strange installation behind a transparent panell She could not be mistaken or imagine that! There could be only one reason why the Princess did not see it too—conditioning!
And such conditioning could mean something else. Roane’s thoughts took a leap into dark surmise. Perhaps what they had uncovered was not Forerunner remains, but rather something left by the Psychocrats who had decreed Clio’s fate. While such a find might not have as much impact as the discovery of a genuine Forerunner installation, it could be important in another way. The Service knew little of the techniques of conditioning on the various closed worlds. To discover part of such an experiment might excite those in fields beyond that which Uncle OfBas represented. So she might have a bargaining point after all, some claim for consideration for the Princess.
“It is just bare wall!” Ludorica proclaimed again, still backing away from Roane, now eyeing the off-worlder as if she expected some dangerous outburst.
“A trick of the light.” Roane thought that a feeble answer, but she knew that if the Princess was conditioned she would resist even the thought of what might lie there.
“Trick of the light?” repeated the Princess doubtfully. “Oh, perhaps Olava set her own safeguards against seekers. I have heard of such tricks but they only work with some people.” She now regarded Roane pityingly and put out her hand. “Let me guide you past. I cannot be so bemused, you know. None of the Blood Royal can be caught in a fore-set mind-maze.”
Ironic, Roane thought with wry amusement, a case of the blind leading the sighted. But if the Princess was, willing to accept that explanation, she should be thankful. She did not look again at the panel.
Shortly thereafter the nature of the passage changed. The wider, smoothed walls gave way abruptly to a narrower way With rough rock on either side—as if those who had cut this path had used a natural break in the cliff for their purposes and this was the original cave unmarked by their improvements.
As the beamer caught the narrowing of those rough walls the Princess slackened pace, looked puzzled.
“Why should it change so?” she asked, more as if she questioned in her own mind than expected an answer from her companion.
“Do you still think this is Och’s Hide?”
“What else could it be? There would be no other reason to cut a passage through rock. Yet—”
‘ “Wait!” Roane lifted her free hand, held it before that crevice. There is air—a current of it. Maybe there is another way out ahead.”
They found the narrow passage a rough one. Twice walls closed to, so that they had to scrape through, and Roane had no idea how far they might be from the entrance. What if those from camp cleared the blockage there and did not find her? But at least they would have her report and so go exploring. Of course, the men might run into difficulties raised by some hunting the Princess and thus be delayed.