“Yes,” Kenmuir said dully. “Your son.”
“They’re dead. They died on dead rocks in deep . space. ‘Mond and Kaino are dead.”
“I know.” In desperation: “That’s what I’m here about. You, you carried on. You lived on, for all the others.”
The download began to sing, softly and minor-key.
“He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead ana gone; At his head a grass-green turf;
At his heels a stone.”
She stopped. “Only—no grass grows yonder.”
“It may yet,” Kenmuir said. “If you will help, this
one last time.” The eyes stood unbending, the voice went grim.
“Lars promised.”
“He did. But—”
“To ‘Mond, you said, Lars. I’d go to where ‘Mond is.”
“He hoped, with his whole heart he hoped.” She laughed. He heard the bitterness. “Estupido.Dagny went there. She was free to. Ghosts aren’t. How could they have a birthright? They were never bora.”
“You are Dagny Beynac,” he said into her delirium. “As Anson Guthrie the download is Anson Guthrie. The man, his spirit.”
Eyestalks trembled, voice quickened. “Guthrie? Uncans? He still is?”
“Not here,” Kenmuir sighed. “At far Centaurus. It’s been centuries, Madame Beynac.”
“And the wind blew and blew,” she murmured.
“Centuries.”
She didn’t seem to hear him. “From a story I read once when I was a child. By Lord Dunsany. They hanged a highwayman out on the heath and left him there alone. And the wind blew and blew.”
Bring her attention back, hold it to the point. “Yes, Lars Rydberg broke his word to you. In a way. He hoped you’d rest in peace forever as you wished, that nobody would have to raise you. But I must. For a moment, a single moment. One question.” Time was blowing by. How many minutes were left him?
“Where is your face, ‘Mond?” The voice cracked across. “I can’t bring back your face any more.”
“One question, and /’// give you peace. But now, at once, or it’s no good.”
“’Mond, ‘You are Dagny’s son,’ you said to Lars, ‘Mond. ‘You shall be welcome here, by damn, always.’ “ How might a download weep?
And Lars had betrayed them both, Kerimuir thought. Or had he?
As if from the stars beyond the door, an idea struck through. “I’ve seen his images, Edmond Beynac’s. His face was wide and, and angular, with high cheekbones and green eyes.”
“Yes!” Dagny shouted. “Yes! Oh, ‘Mond, welcome back! Bienvenu, mon chfri!”
Pursue. “He showed the way to Proserpina.”
“Bloody hell, yes, he did!”
Kenmuir spoke fast, but as he would have spoken to a beloved. “Hear me, I beg you. Your people, his descendants and yours, they need Proserpina now, they need it terribly, and it’s been lost. Do you remember how to find it?”
Anger flashed. “For this you woke me?”
He stood straight before the eyes. “Yes. If you can’t forgive me, will^ou anyhow help?”
Suddenly he heard warmth. “I have ‘Mond back. For that, thanks.”
“Will you tell me?”
“Will you send me home to him?”
“Yes.” He bent down to his pack, loosed certain knots, and lifted the sledgehammer in his hands. “I have this.” Each single’word he must ram out of his mouth.
“Then quickly,” she implored, “before I lose him again.”
He could say no more? The silence took them.
“Far and far,” she sighed, “a long way to go for a death. But Proserpina brings the springtime with her. Apple blossoms behind Daddy’s and Mother’s house … ”
Was she slipping back into nightmare? “The orbital elements!” Kenmuir yelled.
“Quiet,” she bade him. “My caveman’s hunting them for me.”
He waited. Through the open door, .the stars watched.
“Yes,” Dagny said. “Here they are. Thanks, old bear.” She recited the numbers. “Do you have them?”
“I do,”.he answered: on a recorder and cut into his brain.
“Good,” she said calmly. “Now, your promise.”
Terror snatched at him. “Do you truly want—?”
“For me,” she said. “And for Lars.”
“I owe it you, then,” he heard himself say. His hands closed hard on the helve. “Goodbye, my lady.”
“Fare you well,” she said like a benediction. Command rang forth: “Now!”
He swung the hammer up over his head and back down, with all his force. The case was strong, but it