"Like Mother!" Melissa exclaimed.
"Very like," Ardan agreed. "We went boating on the river...almost drowned, too. I understand now that the convenient fishermen who pulled us out were there just for the purpose of seeing that the younger son of their ruler survived to grow up. And a good thing it was, too. Otherwise, when Ian was killed, that slimy Michael would have managed to seize power. Hanse's sister is no Katrina. She is easily swayed."
"And when he went away...to be trained as a Mech-Warrior...did you miss him?"
"Terribly. If it hadn't been for my father's promise that I would go, too, as soon as I was old enough, I might well have pined away. Like a pet whose master has left it behind."
Melissa set her chin on her fists. "I have heard that Hanse was a brilliant warrior. Brave and resourceful. Did you ever go into battle with him? When you were old enough?"
"Only once, just before his brother was killed. I was young. Just trained. Hanse used to see to my training personally when he could find the time and opportunity. We were attacking an enemy position from two sides. I was on the left flank, he was on the right of the center line in a WarHammer." Behind his eyes, Ardan could still see the battle. He felt his blood warm at the memory.
"There was a unit of 'Mechs there, backed by infantry with hand-weapons and tanks armed and ready. It was the last stronghold of the enemy onplanet, and we had to root them out.
"The position had been dug into a cliff with a heavy overhang of granite, where sandstone had been washed out beneath it by some ancient stream or sea. An impossible position, believe me. We were taking heavy losses, for we had to bunch up to rush the only entrance, and that brought us into the line of fire of everything they had."
Melissa had straightened, her eyes huge as she listened raptly.
"As Hanse came through our ranks, he signalled for us to fall back. When we did, he walked right up to that hellish entryway and threw in everything he had at it Then he stood there, taking fire from every direction, every kind you can imagine, while his PPC hammered at the pillar of sandstone at the edge of the portal."
"What happened then?" demanded Melissa, when he paused for breath.
"Hanse must have felt like a piece of cooked meat— with his 'Mech getting hotter every minute. But he kept right on firing until the granite roof caved in on the entire enemy installation—men, 'Mechs, tanks, and all. We dug them out later, but only a few men survived. We got 'Mechs and replacement parts out of there that we're still using." He recalled his ruined Victor and sighed.
"He is brave, then. And an original thinker...I like that," the girl said. "I don't think I could be happy with someone who went by the book all the time."
Ardan chuckled. "Never accuse Hanse of that!" he said. "He writes a new book whenever he has to, and never limits himself to what's been done before."
"He was so kind to me the one time we were together for any length of time," she said. "We had seen each other when he met with mother and the Councillors, but we'd spoken only once or twice. Mother gave an entertainment ...do you remember it?...when the treaty was finished.
Everything formal and elegant and dressed-up. It was my own engagement, and I insisted on going, even though I was too young." She giggled. "I also insisted on doing my hair up on top of my head and wearing a black dress. I must have looked a fright!"
"I was on duty that night, so I didn't see you. But you never look a fright, even when you're acting like one," Ardan grinned, recalling some of their antics when he had first known her.
"Anyway, Hanse had brought a fantastically ancient and valuable vase for Mother...one of those that really belong in a museum, you know. It was lovely, too. All iridescent peacock-blue with pinkish lights all over it. Gorgeous." She sighed.
"I was really too young for such an entertainment. I was overexcited and trying to make an impression. You know how young people are."
Ardan hid his smile.
"Anyway, I insisted on looking at the vase, holding it in my hands." She paused, remembering. "And I dropped it ...A world's ransom in antique vase, and I shattered it to splinters on the parquet flooring of the ballroom. I was mortified.
"Mother was really angry. It's one of the few times I have seen her so furious. And I could see everyone whispering and murmuring behind their hands...I felt like a worm. A veritable worm!"
"I can imagine," Ardan said, picturing the scene.
"I started to cry. Just like the child I was at the time, of course, but it embarrassed me even more than the accident did. I stood there in my sophisticated black dress, my hair beginning to tumble down, and my face wet with tears. I remember thinking that the Prince, mature and at ease and in control of everything around him, would never accept such a complete failure as a wife."
Melissa smiled. "I found a dark corner and was trying to sort myself out and clean up my face, when I felt someone touch my shoulder, and give me a kind of pat. When I looked up, it was Hanse. He was smiling at me."
"That's so like him," Ardan murmured. "He hates for others to be uncomfortable through no great fault of their own."
"I found that out. But I was still mortified to be caught crying like an infant. I said to him, 'I suppose you never cry, do you?' And his answer comforted me instantly, though I have never quite understood what it meant"
Ardan gazed down at her. "And what did he say?"
Melissa's gray eyes were seeing into the past as she replied, "He said, The Starbird weeps inside.' Do you know what that means?"
For a moment, Ardan caught at an errant memory that evaporated the moment he tried to seize it in thought. "No, though I suspect it means something quite deep and important to Hanse. And I do know that he hates much of what he must do to maintain the balance of powers and influences that hold the Federated Suns stable. I wish I could tell you more..."
She rose. "You look tired. Back to bed with you!"
He found, to his astonishment, that she was right. The short walk, the brief time spent sitting and talking, had drained his energies.
As she accompanied him back to his room, Melissa whispered, "That was when I knew that I would not object ...not at all!...to becoming Hanse Davion's wife."
Ardan thought of that later. It might of course, have been policy...or Hanse's exquisite sense of the decent thing to do. But he suspected otherwise, that Melissa's story revealed a gende man comforting a stricken child. There were worse beginnings for political marriages.
22
As he grew stronger, Ardan took advantage of the Palace's excellent facilities, exercising to the limits of his ability every day. Sometimes Melissa joined him. Though there was a fragility about her, she had grown into a tall girl who was tough as whipcord.
They laughed and joked as they worked out in the gymnasium, using the computer-controlled exercise machines. But when they were alone in one end of the huge space, out of earshot of me trainers and other exercise enthusiasts, they often talked seriously.
Winter was on the wane when Ardan made a crucial decision. He knew that he had to return to Stein's Folly, but it would have to be done secretly. And for that he would need help. For one thing, he had to get a message to Sep. He hoped she had forgiven his harsh behavior and words during their last meeting, and that she would keep her promise to help him, if ever there was a need. He clung to that promise, which was his only hope of accomplishing what he intended.
He found Melissa an attentive listener, when he gasped out his conclusions between surges of effort on the Total Musculature Machine. He had felt, all along, that she alone of the people on Tharkad believed his story about that weird double of Hanse. Now he felt her agreement, though she said nothing while pumping the handles of her own exercise machine.
"I am just about back to normal," Ardan began. "Strong enough to hold up under long periods of effort, if the computer readouts are to be believed. That means that I'm going to have to find some way to look into...that matter."
Melissa nodded, her cheeks pink with exertion.
"I've got to go back to the Folly. Things have quieted down there since the enemy pulled back. All the mop-up has been done, too, from what your mother says. The garrison at Main Port has been beefed up, but all the lesser ones have been closed and booby-trapped. Hanse doesn't want anyone else to be able to use our own installations against us."
He paused to change machines and also to catch his breath.
"I have to have assistance. I need my junior officer, Candent Septarian. She said she'd come any time I called, and now I need to contact her as quickly as possible. Have you access to ComStar?" he asked Melissa.
She smiled secretively. "I have made close friends with the Acolyte here. She is very bright and most dutiful. She doesn't go by the book, either."
"She can access the HPG system? I need to get word to Sep as quickly as possible."
"Three weeks," said Melissa. "The laws of physics are pretty immutable. But in three weeks she will have word. What should I tell her?"
Ardan thought intensely for a few minutes. "Is there freighter service now between Tharkad and the Folly?" he asked finally.
"Kerrion has gone back into service there, since the restoration. His freighter DropShip is in port right now. But a freighter is too slow. You need your own JumpShip. A small and unobtrusive one that can get you there unremarked. They're not going to want you back on the Folly, you know."
"But I haven't a JumpShip," he said patiendy. "And I must do with what I can manage."
"Mother doesn't believe in your doppelganger," said Melissa, "but if I ask her, I know she'll lend you a ship."
He signed with relief. "Then tell Sep to rendezvous with me at Point X-r-23, behind the larger moon of Stein's Folly. The transit time for the message...plus time for getting herself ready and whoever she can recruit...plus the eight jumps from New Avalon...We should rendezvous fairly well together, timewise."
He sprang for the hanging rings and swung himself into a handstand. "Tell her to bring anyone who can manage some leave-time. And their 'Mechs, too, if possible. We may have a hard time breaking into that installation."
"She can ask Hanse for help," he gasped. "But make it private. Even secret. We don't know what's going on, or who is involved."
Melissa rose from the machine and reached for a towel. She wrapped it about her shoulders, put another over her sweat-soaked hair, and said, "I'm glad you're doing this. I've had a bad feeling about the whole situation from the start. Something is going on that I can't quite figure out"
She turned to add, "I'll send the message first Then I'll ask my mother for the ship. She hasn't lasted this long as Archon, much less as a Mech Warrior, by hanging back when action is called for. I don't think she's entirely comfortable with your 'delusion', either. Now, work hard!" Then she was gone.
As he pushed his still-painful body past its limits, Ardan thought deeply. There might not be anything left on the Folly to give him a clue to his weird vision. But if there were, he would find it
And then what? His only hope was to have an impartial and dependable observer present Not Sep...it might be said that she was prejudiced in his favor, having been his junior officer in their unit. He hoped that she would bring friends, but he also prayed that she would find someone who knew him only casually.
After finishing his exercise routine, Ardan showered and returned to his room, where there was an invitation to dinner from Katrina Steiner. Ardan rather suspected it meant that Melissa had been persuasive, and the first step in his enterprise was in the works. The loan of a JumpShip, even a small one, was no small matter—their being among the rarest and most prized remnants of the Star League era. Katrina Steiner must have much love as well as much confidence in her young daughter to grant such a tremendous favor.
He dressed carefully in the formal attire Katrina Steiner had thoughtfully provided. The Archon was never able to dine privately. There was always business to be done, as well as dignitaries to pacify or potentates to impress.
She did it well, too, he decided. He had attended such affairs before, but only as a member of the Guard. As a guest this time, he found the difference interesting. Here he was, mixing with a flower-garden of brighdy clad people, men and women from every corner of the Lyran Commonwealth, as well as representatives of lesser systems.
Indeed, tonight Katrina had a full house. Also present were Kiefft, the ambassador from the Capellan system, who was talking intensely with Hardt, his opposite number from the Draconis Combine. And there was Baron Sefnes from New Syrtis...Ardan hadn't even been aware that Michael Hasek-Davion maintained his own diplomatic relations with Steiner. As head of the strongest economic force in the Inner Sphere, Katrina was a pragmatist who tried to keep trade and military matters from interfering too much with one another. No matter that her House was in conflict militarily with Kurita and Liao—business was business. Indeed, it was House Steiner's innovative economic and trade policies that had nurtured the continuing economic growth and strength of the resource-rich Commonwealth. Its military fortunes were another matter, of course, which was one of the reasons the ever-practical Katrina had wooed and won Hanse Davion as an ally and future son-in-law.
Ardan moved among the guests, talked idly with Melissa's cousin, the Margrafin Kelya, and watched intently the interactions of those on differing sides of the present conflict between Davion and Liao. There were undercurrents in that spacious chamber that he found it impossible to read.
When the gong announced dinner, Ardan found himself beside Melissa, who took his arm and steered him toward the tall arch of the doorway. "We are seated together. I arranged it with the arbiter elegantiae. He kicked a bit, but I know where a few of his skeletons are buried, in a manner of speaking. He daren't risk my blowing the whistle on him," she said, her tone smug.
An elegantly attired gentleman stood beside the dining room door announcing the entry of the important guests. Pointedly ignoring Ardan, he cried, "The Archon-Designate Melissa Steiner. And escort.''
Ardan tried not to grin. Feeling Melissa quiver lightly against his arm, he knew she was stifling laughter, too. They were of one mind when it came to formal occasions and the haughtiness attending them.
Once they were all seated at the long, richly covered table, Ardan watched Katrina discreetly, pondering once more the ways of life at the royal courts of the Inner Sphere. He had never been able to play the elegant and treacherous wordgames that passed for conversation there. Rarely did anyone say what he meant, and even the most innocuous comment might have some sinister double intent. Tonight, Katrina sat between the Kurita and Liao ambassadors, smiling, nodding, and interjecting a comment from time to time. Ardan couldn't always hear what the three were saying, nor could he read their bland, diplomatic expressions.
Just after the servants had brought out the first course of creamed aspergrot soup, Katrina glanced around at all her guests and lifted her voice so that all might hear. "Honored guests," she began, mustering her most gracious royal tone, "may we say what a pleasure it is to have you here. And may we add how especially gratifying it is to welcome several distinguished representatives from our neighboring Houses to our midst as well." Katrina smiled at Hardt, Kleff t, and Semes before continuing.
"We live in uncertain times, but House Steiner continues to forge strong bonds of trade and commerce wherever and whenever possible. This has ever been our strength. Our merchants are gifted and resourceful, and make us friends in even the most unlikely places."
"House Steiner's great gift for commerce is the envy of the Inner Sphere," said the ambassador from Liao, perhaps too smoothly. "All admire this talent..."
"...and would do well to emulate it," said Katrina, playing the game. "We have even had news of late that our free traders venturing into the Periphery have fared well among the outlanders there, prospering themselves and our House. As my scholarly daughter put it"—Katrina smiled down at Melissa—"our merchants seem to have the Midas touch!"
"Ah," said Kurita's man Hardt, "Your Grace
refers to the old Earth tale of the king who so loved wealth that he asked the gods to turn everything he touched into gold."
"So, the ambassador from Luthien is familiar with the old stories, too," said Katrina affably.
"Well, if memory serves, the story tells that this Midas almost starved to death when his magic touch also turned his food and drink to gold."
Katrina ignored the hidden sarcasm, and laughed easily. "Well, one thing is for certain, and that is that no one shall starve this night"—and she gestured at the mounds of delicacies piled up and down the table—"Let us enjoy this bounty, one and all, for it is the real thing, untainted by the Midas touch."
The servants continued to bring in course after course of viands imported from all over the Steiner sphere. The plain dishes Ardan accepted, but passed over the impossibly furbished and sauced ones. Now that he was getting better, it was no time to get sick again from sampling rich dishes from distant worlds.
When servants brought in silver basins for the convenience of guests who had indulged in finger-foods, Katrina took advantage of the pause to tap a cut glass bell with the handle of her knife.
"We have had, for the past few months, a most welcome guest here on Tharkad," she said, gesturing at Ardan. "Please meet Ardan Sortek, friend and subject of Hanse Davion, Prince of the Federated Suns. To our joy, he is now recovered from the wounds that brought him here. To our sorrow, he is now ready to rejoin his ruler at his summer retreat on Argyle."
She raised her heavy wineglass. "I propose a toast to this brave young officer. May we all command such devotion in time of trial!"
There was a polite murmur as the guests raised their glasses. Taking a sip from his own cup, Ardan noted that Klefft, from Sian, and Hardt, Kurita's man, seemed inscrutable, yet Ardan knew there was discomfiture in their very rigidity.
The sword and the dagger Page 16