CHAPTER VII

THE HORNETS' NEST




Ecelyn Byrull pushed aside the heavy draperies at the back
of the podium and revealed a narrow passage, which they
traversed quickly without encountering hostility until they
came upon a steel door that unlocked at her code. The door
swung open onto a square landing of an escalator. Rows of
blister lights along the railings supplied fitful
illumination. Ecelyn pointed downwards, to the murky ravine
the escalator would lead them to, into the deeper cellars of
the palace.

The steel door slammed to behind their backs shutting out
the roar of the storm outside. A silence, heavy and close,
wrapped around them like smog. A faint smell of mould and
decay hung in the damp and chill air. Trajan could feel
Ecelyn shivering against him.

"We'd better hurry," she urged them.

One of the commanders who had gone a few steps forward
raised a hand. "Captain, the place is wired with
surveillance optics."

"Do a blinker sweep. Take them all out."

The escalator was like a boring shaft penetrating a
substratum of rough-hewn stone and transported them from the
splendour above deeper, and deeper still, into the gloom of
the dank caverns beneath Hern Byrull's palace. They came to
a halt in a wide half-circle before the mouth of a tunnel
that gaped like a black pit of which the end was lost in
unfathomable darkness.

Royan muttered cantankerously, "What is the meaning of this?
You would say that he is waging a war right from under his
house."

As soon as he had spoken the string of lights along both
sides of the escalator and in the centre of the ceiling
fluttered out one after the other. Ecelyn gave out a little
shriek.

"The lights are being turned off. We can't find our way in
the tunnel in the dark and with no buggies around it's a
long way. What are we going to do?"

A burst of white lancet beams knifed through the oncoming
gulf of midnight behind and the gaping pitch-black in front
as the commanders thumbed on their stylet torches.

"You are right, Eskar," Trajan said, "he is preparing a war
and he is playing a game with us."

He nudged with his chin towards Ecelyn who was breathing in
short rasps. She was holding her side and her frantic run
had slowed down to a stumble. Trajan and Lieutenant Royan
grabbed her by the armpits and half-lifting her between them
they followed the other commanders who had gone ahead and
penetrated the long, winding darkness with the thrust of
their blazing lancet lights. The company maintained their
speed unyieldingly along the meandering trail that seemed to
stretch into infinity and they only began to slow down when
a wan glow shimmered at the far side of the passageway. The
vanguard reported that they had reached the end of the
tunnel and the area was clear.

An arch marked the gate that led into an open space, as wide
and lofty as the guest hall several floors above and
sparsely lit with overhead tubular lights.

"We are safe," Ecelyn gasped as they thudded through the
arch, "we are through that dreadful tunnel." They hardly had
the time to take pause for breath when bars sliced through
the walls and sealed the archway.

"That is a fine way of putting it," Royan commented tartly,
"now they shut us in. The tolobos."

With a face as pale as chalk, Ecelyn looked as if she was on
the verge of swooning and Trajan firmly took her arm. "What
is the purpose of this place, Cestress Byrull?"

She threw him a quick, nervous glance. "Hern calls this his
giant rat trap. His and Lisaloran's. I've followed them a
few times when they have gone down below. That's how I know
the way but I don't know what he is using it for."

"Did he ever ask you to come with him?"

Ecelyn did not answer and Trajan felt profoundly sorry for
her. Little Ecelyn spying on her master and the illustrious
Dama who weren't even bothered at the least because in their
eyes she meant nothing.

"Captain, there is a doorway right across."

"Yes," Ecelyn said, "there is a room right over there where
we can rest."

She pointed vaguely with her hand to a creamy rectangle that
had glistened out in the twilight surroundings. Two
commanders reported the coast was clear after a brief
inspection. Still cupping a hand around her elbow Trajan
brought Ecelyn inside the room.

The room was spacious, empty of breathing presence and
starkly furnished with a few chairs, a settee, a sofa and
portable heater. Sighing in relief, Ecelyn wound her way
between the chairs towards the sofa that stood facing the
wall. She suddenly drew back with a gasp of alarm and Trajan
was beside her with a quick stride. He nudged her gently
aside and dropped on one knee, with a quick hand examining
the form who was already occupying the sofa, supine and
motionless.

"Leoynar," he called softly.

"Is he all right?" Royan asked.

"Apparently so, maybe drugged."

Trajan pushed to his feet. "Where are Terglyn and the
others?"

"They're outside guarding the exit."

"Ask them to come in. I have a funny feeling about this
place. We'd better stay together as close as possible and
inside it is warmer anyway."

For lack of a better place, Ecelyn had seated herself on the
settee and stretched out her legs. A smattering of colour
had returned to her cheeks. "What a fright that was!" she
exclaimed. "If the darkness had caught up with us in that
long tunnel, it would be a frightful experience trying to
get out from there."

Trajan took her in with pensive eyes. "Cestress Byrull, now
that I have found Leoynar I have achieved my prime
objective. I am going to go back up while my commanders and
I are still hale and hearty. Up in the open, there are far
better ways to deal with Hern Byrull and his guards than a
handful of us here."

"You promised that you would help me find my husband,"
Ecelyn lisped.

"Your husband has made his choice a long time ago. He has
gone too far to turn back. This is as far as I go into his
giant rat trap."

Ecelyn looked up at him. A film of tears misted over her
eyes, violet on pale gold. "Yes," she said between swallows.
"He has chosen the way of treason but I must be with him.
Hern has always exerted a strong influence over me, so
strong that I feel I am nothing without him. I was nothing
until he turned me into something and gave me a place in
society. But of course being as I am, I am unable to offer
him more, other than just being his foolish and
unintelligent lady."

"You could abandon him as he has abandoned you."

"No, there is a way," Ecelyn persisted with such
stubbornness that it astonished him. "I have watched you
this evening, Captain Schurell. You, who have tamed the
Light Force, the one instrument of power which Hern was
trying his utmost to bring under his control. He will learn
to respect you. You can bring him back to me."

"I shall not use Starglory as a means of persuading your
husband," Trajan said, "not ever."

Ecelyn turned dark pink and she opened her mouth to rebut
when Royan interrupted.

"Captain, Lar Leoynar is coming to."

With quick steps Trajan approached his uncle, who was making
feeble efforts to sit up. "How are you feeling, Leoynar?" he
asked, leaning over anxiously.

Leoynar looked at Trajan and his blurred eyes gave no signs
of recognition. Then he gave his head a bewildered shake and
mumbled: "What happened? What are we doing here?"

Trajan grabbed his shoulder affectionately and smiled: "You
are doing fine. We are taking you home."

Leoynar sprang to his feet and seized Trajan's jacket with
both hands. His eyes were wild with hysteria.

"There are others--captured!"

"I know, but there is very little I can do right now. I was
not aware of the magnitude of this place. This is a fortress
and I need a whole army. We will take you to safety first
and then we will return."

Trajan signalled to his commanders. "Come, we have waited
long enough."

He walked back to Ecelyn and with his hand around her arm
nudged her to stand up. "It is better for you to come with
us. We are all in danger here."

As a direct taunt to his words, power in the room suddenly
gave out and they were plunged into pitch-darkness. Ecelyn
uttered a shrill scream. "To the door, quick. We must get
out of this room."

"Stay where you are!" Trajan commanded. "Stay close
together!"

Under the umbrella of the stylet light that ballooned
through the inkiness, they could see the walls rotating in a
haze. A creaking and grinding sound accompanied this
surreptitious shifting of dimensions and a flow of cooler
and mustier air replaced the earlier warmth. Explosive
moments ticked by and no one dared to move even a finger
when abruptly the lights went on again. Everything in the
room appeared like it was before except that it appeared to
have shrunk to two-thirds of its former size; the door was
now on the opposite wall, and Leoynar, the heater and the
sofa had vanished.

"The old trick of interchanging walls."

Trajan gazed at his commanders, their number still intact
and then to Ecelyn.

"There is no other alternative except going through that
door. Are you coming with us?"

Ecelyn rushed to him and tremblingly took his hand.

"Yes, I go wherever you go."

Trajan nodded, and Royan taking his rephar into his hand,
opened the door.

Before their eyes no longer stood the hall and the archway,
but tall, palatial chambers cobwebbed by the shadows of rank
after rank of massive dark-slate pillars. No present was
within eyeshot. Fluorescent tubes were fitted along some of
the pillars but it was only a half-hearted measure to bring
some luminance in the sombre dusky ambience.

Trajan paused in the doorway, his finger on the amplifier of
his rephar, all his sensors--aural, Oracles, seventh sense,
and one more--straining to the utmost.
"Commanders, do any of you hear anything?"

"No, Captain," was their answer.

"Captain," one young commander said, "these pillars and the
walls, they look ancient to me. I'd say that we are under
the old castle."

"You have a fine eye, Terglyn, and you are right. We have
seen similar structures in the courtyard of the castle."
Trajan's grip on Ecelyn's hand tightened. "Where shall we
go, Cestress?"

Ecelyn shivered. "I don't know. I have never seen this place
before."

"Come," Trajan said softly, "we don't know where to go but
we have to take our chances."

They cautiously wandered and crept from one section to the
other, chamber after chamber encompassed in deathly
stillness, and the overlay of fine grit sheeting the floor
made a crisp crunching sound under their boots. Trajan
looked at Ecelyn askance and thought that although in due
time she would be pointing them out to her master in union
without a moment's hesitation, for the present she appeared
haggard and shaken.

"Have you ever thought of your son?" he asked.

Ecelyn stared at him in surprise. "Rylan?" she said. "Of
course I think of him. But he is so independent. I doubt he
will ever have need of me."

"Have you ever thought you could be wrong, that being
independent has nothing to do with his need of love and care
of a mother?"

Ecelyn sucked in her breath sharply. "Are you criticizing
me?"

"Not at all, I hardly have the right. I am only thinking
that perhaps reconciliation with your son is a far better
solution than finding your master. Suppose we find Cestor
Byrull and we get out from here alive. He has to face a
tribunal and where would you go?"

With a wry grin Trajan continued: "Of course, the outcome
could be entirely different. Then you could stay here with
him for as long as it takes, under the ground, plotting a
rebellion against the Tres-Tiorem of Iucari-Tres. Is that
really what you want?"

Ecelyn shook her head vehemently. "No, no. This sort of
thing has never entered my mind. Yes, it is true, I wedded
Hern for security but I also love him, or so I thought
anyway. But things have changed so dramatically. I can no
longer cope, I don't know what to do. I could always ask
Rylan for help, couldn't I? He wouldn't turn me away? And
what about his grandfather? The old Lar is not particularly
fond of me!"

Trajan shrugged. Ecelyn would cope, she would be fine,
because Rylan would soon be Lar Protector of Myaron. A
desperate plea for help, a mother in distress, Rylan will
come running to her; Ecelyn will make sure of that.

"Look!" Royan cursed aloud, "We are back where we started!"

Turning sharply round a corner they found themselves
standing once again in front of the room they had vacated

"We have been walking in circles," one of the commanders
said infuriated.

Planting his hands on his hips with a sigh, Trajan said
looking around with a frown, "These macabre halls; they are
built to let intruders astray. As a matter of course we have
walked around and stayed in the illuminated section but what
if there are doors hidden in the darker areas?" He gestured
to his commanders. "Let's spread out and explore." He put a
restraining hand on Ecelyn. "Stay close to me."

The company separated in three groups and penetrated the
darkness with the pronged flares of their stylet torches
glinting white and sharp like swinging blades in the gloom
of the cavernous halls. Ecelyn was only too happy to have
Trajan as her persistent escort. Anxious moments crawled
away into history as she trailed behind him and heard
nothing, not even their breathing in the heavy hanging murk.

"I can feel a draft over here," the voice of one of the
commanders echoed round the pillars.

"Vreár may have found something!" exclaimed Royan,
materializing from the dusk before their eyes like a muscled
phantom, and with him in the lead they speeded to where they
heard the voice of their fellow commander calling.

"What have you found, Sergeant?" Trajan asked.

"I am not too sure," she said, "it seems to me to be some
sort of corridor."

Like she said they could feel a ghostly breath of air
stroking their faces. In the pool of their torchlight a
narrow corridor stretched away ending in a distant thin
ribbon of light.

"Captain, let me survey the area."

"All right, Terglyn."

The commander hastened forward, a lean shade darting into
the corridor's drift of night. They lost sight of him
momentarily when he covered the strip of illumination. Then
a wide band of yellow flushed revealing coarsely bricked
walls as he seemed to open a door. Not long after Terglyn
coded his all clear communication. They crossed the passage
and stood in a spacious laboratory.

Terglyn winked and gestured with his head towards a desk in
the corner. The space was unoccupied except where an
individual reclined in a chair with his feet on the desk,
his arms hanging like dead wood and his mouth slack, blowing
a series of loud snores.

"There is nobody else here, Captain. What shall we do with
him?"

"Wake him up. Put 'm on the grill." Trajan grinned, stepped
back and crossed his arms. Royan did likewise. It was time
for their junior officers to run the interrogation show and
spell out to everyone in this underground stronghold that
they are enemy first, no questions asked.

The commanders gathered round in a tight circle and trained
their rephars on the figure sprawling in oblivious stupor in
his chair. The needle-sharp beams of their stylet torches
poked into the eyes of the sleeper and with an abrupt gasp
the snoring ground to a halt. The eyelids twitched
spasmodically, the eyes pulled open slowly and then stared
in terror at the grim faces of the commanders as if they
were the manifestation of the spectres of his dreams . He
would have jumped up if their severe hands had not held him
down in his chair.

"Who are you? What are you doing here? How did you get
here?"

Sergeant Vreár glared at him in sudden bewilderment. "I know
you. I have once watched your discourse on the Vision-Net.
You are Doctor Reball of the Ermizgarth Physicists' Council,
but are you not supposed to be on Orbit Base CI-ô? We have
not brought a tracerlog with us to check his voice print,
Captain, but I am pretty sure he is who I say he is!"

Trajan signalled with his eyes to the commanders to let the
Doctor go and looked hard at Ecelyn. "Well?" he asked, "you
should know better than the rest of us here."

Pale and distraught Ecelyn observed the physicist who was
now allowed to leave his chair in dignity. She slowly shook
her head. "No, I don't know him. I know nothing. I am
telling you, whatever Hern is doing, I know nothing!"

"But I know you," the Doctor said, "You are the charming
Ecelyn Byrull."

Trajan walked up to the physicist and studied him with the
stormy grey of his eyes. "Are you the one that my sergeant
says you are?"

Doctor Reball fixed his bloodshot eyes on Trajan and studied
him, and his outfit, in turn. "Commanders of the Spacio
Command, what are you doing here? Has the long arm of
interplanetary law finally caught up with us? I think that's
the case, and you are the captain in command, I presume.
Yes, your lady sergeant is perfectly correct in her
observation: I am Doctor Reball, sometimes orbiting Calitre,
but most of the time under the ground in Myaron."

"What are you doing here?"

"Before I give you my answer, you must first answer my
question. How did you find this lab?"

"Through that corridor which linked this room with the halls
outside."

Doctor Reball darted a fierce look at Trajan. "Did you
encounter anything or anyone?"

"Should we?"

His sallow face blanching further in horror, the Doctor
asked again: "How long have you been in those chambers?"

Trajan shrugged. "Not very long, I suppose. Thirty minutes
at the most?"

"And you have not seen or felt anything. Astonishing!"

"Was there something in those big chambers?" Ecelyn asked
fearfully, shuffling closer to Trajan.

"I don't want to frighten you unnecessarily, my lady." the
Doctor cautioned, "since you can consider yourself in
relative safety here. But listen."

Doctor Reball raised his hand and in the ensuing pause
something, a whimper, a sound floated from beyond the far
end of the corridor and slowly filled the air of the
laboratory with the frenzied, high-pitched, in a certain way
melodious, humming of eerie voices. They listened like
hypnotized as the singsong buzzing chilled their hearts and
wove a web around the fields of their sensors and the
channels of their brainwaves.

Trajan seized the Doctor's shoulder violently, and the good
doctor thought he had a moment's hallucination of an
electric flash of blue, jolting him back into reality.

"Shut the door!" Trajan ordered. Doctor Reball sped to an
instrument board and his fingers slid in jerky movements
over several panels. A gauze of glowing current shuttered
the door opening of the laboratory and as abruptly as it
began, the humming fell back and faded away.

"They were there, all right," Doctor Reball remarked, "I
thought at first we were rid of them through some miracle.
Anyway, there is no need to worry now. The stingfield will
keep them out."

"What are they?" Lieutenant Royan's voice boomed out. "Never
in my life have I heard such a creepy thing before."

Doctor Reball plucked at his sparse hair in a burst of
aggravation. "Others, others from diabolical places. Demonic
creatures without substance playing havoc with your mental
processes. Carlomon's handiwork. You have been extremely
lucky to have evaded them while you were wandering in those
halls. The weapons you are holding would be quite useless
against them, young brave commanders!"

"Luck has nothing to do with it," Trajan said, "We did not
meet them while we were in those halls because we simply did
not know they exist. We were not thinking of them. But as
soon as you mentioned them, they appeared, Doctor. It is
your thoughts, or rather your fear of them, which have
summoned them. Ignoring their presence would be as effective
as that power current you've pulled up across the door."

"But we heard them, didn't we?" Ecelyn blurted, trembling in
every limb of her body. "I had some inclination that Hern
was carrying out experiments down here but I never would
have dreamt that he, or Carlomon, would be concocting
dreadful things of that sort."

Royan raised his bushy eyebrows. "What is our next step,
Captain?"

Trajan pushed him and his other commanders to where a settee
and a table occupied a corner of the laboratory.

"Go take a break, mates. As the doctor said, as long as we
stay here we will be safe. Come, Cestress, you'd better join
my commanders and take a rest. I would like to ask the
Doctor some questions. Come with me, Doctor. Take that
armchair and make yourself comfortable. Now, where shall we
start?"

The Doctor smacked his lips. "First of all I think I need a
stiff mindopener."

"I think you've had more than enough. Let us sit down."

Doctor Reball sighed and rubbed his eyes. He looked worn out
and a little ill. No doubt, once he had been a
broad-shouldered man of great energy. Now little remained of
it other than a state of apathy and Trajan wondered how much
misfortune or disillusion one had to go through before being
so sadly reduced.

"What do you want to know of me, Captain? As you all realize
by now, I was once one of the foremost physicists of
Iucari-Tres. Then, what am I doing here, in a stinking hole
under the ground? Ambition lured me here, ambition and a
burning desire to achieve the impossible. Ambitions that I
shared not long ago with Hern and Carlomon as equal
partners."

"What are those ambitions, Doctor?"

"To unleash a power so great it would dominate the entire
world. A device converting Quantum Light Plasma into a
single powerful radiation Entity capable of opening and
penetrating the gates of other dimensions beyond this
world--the IsoMén Equation."

"The IsoMén Equation? Your invention?"

"Not exactly mine," the Doctor confessed ruefully. "Some
other brilliant mind had constructed the theory of the
Equation on parchment; I only put it into practice. In a
nutshell, the IsoMén Equation consists of a Body and a Soul,
and the Soul is the ultimate energy equalizing time and
distance across the voids of space. Through the workings of
the Equation sectors of galaxies can be reached within the
twinkling of an eye."

"Who designed the Equation?"

"I can't tell you. I don't know."

Doctor Reball leant back in his armchair and folded his
hands on his stomach with a momentary expression of smugness
that animated his otherwise pallid face.

"I can only tell you this. When Councillor Byrull approached
me with the antiquated parchments, I was able to combine my
knowledge with the doctrine set out on the parchments and
construct my own Equation: a bridge of radiation connecting
outer worlds. I am still staggered by the magnitude of my
achievement; I fear I have created a fiend. I am aware that
every time we use the Equation we trigger a chain of natural
calamities on the planet's surface."

"What went wrong?"

"The bridge is highly unstable and the IsoMén Plasma
radiation deadly. You see, Captain, the purpose is not only
paving a way but connecting one end with another End of the
Equation beyond, like digging a tunnel of non-space, and by
doing that we seem to have fallen foul of nature's rule and
order. Nevertheless Councillor Byrull went ahead with the
project."

The doctor lifted his head. The deep lines in his face
bespoke of long days burdened with fatigue and longer nights
wrestling with guilt.

"Believe me, Captain, I would have done everything in my
power to get the whole project undone but it has gone too
far. They were not merely experimenting; they were using it!
Of course, initially I was flattered by the confidence
Councillor Byrull had shown in me, and his generosity in
providing me with every means possible, means that the
Stewardship would have denied me, to turn my dream into a
reality; the reality of this terrible machine with its
frightful Soul, the incubus haunting the rest of my life!"

The doctor's voice lowered to a whisper as if he feared the
things he had to say: "We have already established a link
with another world. When we discovered that world we went
almost insane with the flush of success, and insanity has
ever since dictated our actions. This underground fortress
of bygone ages is the purported liaison office between that
world and ours. If this is an invasion then the invaders
have paid a heavy price already, because the radiation Soul
have mutated, and are still mutating, numbers of them in a
most horrifying way. Only a powerful equilibrator can
neutralize the radiation but so far we have not found it."

"Has Byrull ever revealed to you the source of the
parchments?"

"No, never. He is very tightlipped about everything. Snaring
me into his little plot with delusions of grandeur was
sufficient; I need not know the real facts."

"Who is Carlomon, Doctor?"

The sudden question seemed to catch the doctor off guard. He
stared vacantly into the air, then blurted out annoyed: "How
should I know! Aren't you commanders of the Spacio Command
supposed to know everything?"

"I have a hunch he is not Iucarian."

The doctor scrutinized him through narrowed bloodshot eyes.
"Your hunch may be right, Captain. He purports himself to be
an Indoctrinator, and so he has indoctrinated all of us here
under the ground. But what about you? You seem to know what
those creatures in the halls really are, the Unliving as
they are called. I am curious to know how you know."

Trajan stood up. "I cannot satisfy your curiosity, Doctor.
There is so little that I understand but I am beginning to."
He beckoned with his hand to his commanders to come closer.

"On a final note, what are Councillor Byrull's further
plans?"

Doctor Reball bowed his head low as he grunted unhappily: "I
am not sure. I am sickened to the core at the way he
manipulates my machine and my skills. Look at me! Once a
chief physicist I am now reduced to a mere maintenance
technician who sometimes drinks too much. In my opinion, the
wisest thing for you is to get out of here, the sooner the
better."

"Now that you have told me about the IsoMén Equation,"
Trajan said, "I cannot leave and I have to find my uncle
first of all." He turned to Ecelyn. "Stay here until I come
back. Remember our conversation in the chambers. Do not
forget your son. Think of what he has achieved on his own.
He deserves your respect and your love."

Trajan then turned to Doctor Reball who had been
replenishing his depleted energy with several glasses of
red-brown liquor.

"You know where the exit is to the main area. Please open
it."

"As you so desire, dear Captain" said the Doctor, and
swaying he made his way to the instrument panel and palmed a
switch. Without a whisper a section on the opposite wall
fissioned to reveal a doorway. Not wasting another minute
Vreár and Terglyn, after first making sure no one was
blocking their way, went through it, followed by their
Captain, Royan and the rest of their stealth group.

* * *

Coming into an open area Trajan took the lead, speeding
forward, closely followed by his commanders, fleeting
wolfer-like along their intended track, bending low all the
time, scrupulously keeping to the shadows. The huge area was
honeycombed with spiral staircases and footbridges linking
one tower platform to the other. Now and then under the dim
spotlights, they sighted a lonely tar-clad guard standing on
watch on a landing. The commanders crossed a hall where
ceiling-high structures resembling torus reactors occupied
most of the space. Although not immediately visible to them,
they believed there must be a crew of technicians manning
these installations. They injected more stealth and caution
in their movements even if the speed of their course did not
diminish and finally they came upon a wide passageway.

Trajan halted for a second, crouching, concentrating with
his finger on the amplifier of his rephar, ready to spring
away at the first whisper of danger. No second access to
other parts of this underground bastion or better options
seemed at hand, but he knew he was on the right track and
signalled again to his commanders to follow him.

They crossed the semidark passageway with swift and quiet
steps, keeping themselves close to the walls and at times
slowing down to listen. Echoes of voices and clanging of
tools flowed vaguely along the passage like the sounds of
another life. A cool draft met them halfway, playing on
their faces hesitantly at first, then stiffening into a
breeze as they approached the outer end. A faint scent of
spring water hung around like rain in the morning.

Upon reaching the terminus of the passage they stood at the
entrance of a palatial cavern where the air was
astonishingly fresh and clean, and the white stalactites
adorning the tall ceilings of rock gleamed like silver
candelabra in the casting light of the hanging tubes. Coming
closer they saw that the great cavern was cloven into two
sections by a chasm of unknown depth.

Leaning over the edge of the chasm Trajan thought he could
hear far below the lapping sounds of water. A river or an
underground lake was deep down below. Besides that he
thought he heard other noises he could not exactly place.

'Surely there couldn't be people down below,' he wondered
and looked up when Royan tapped him on the shoulder. The
Lieutenant pointed to a contraption overhead, a rope bridge
linking the two parts of the cavern. Trajan made a motion to
his commanders to stay where they were, hidden in the
shadows, while he himself hastened to the centre of the
cavern.

Beneath the rope bridge, a stairway climbed to a railed
underpass and there before the bottom rung, sitting on the
sand-covered ground, immersed in thought, was Leoynar.

Trajan called softly: "Leoynar."

Leoynar started, gazing up and instant joy lit up his face.
"Trajan!" he exclaimed, "I am so glad you've found me at
last."

Trajan stooped down, gazing into Leoynar's eyes. "Have they
mistreated you?" he asked, circling a comforting arm around
his uncle's shoulders.

Leoynar heaved a sigh. "I cannot tell for sure. I must have
had a blackout at some time. Was there a fight? All that I
can remember was that I woke up lying here on the sand."

Trajan tugged at his arm. "Come away with me quick."

Leoynar looked around in a daze. "There is something else,
someone. Yes, I've seen Lisaloran. I must speak to her."

"Lisaloran? No, Leoynar, no! Come with me! Stand up, come
now!"

Royan coded down an enquiry through the intra-cyphers of the
Insignia and Trajan sent an order back to the commanders not
to budge from their hiding place.

"Lisaloran," Leoynar said thickly. "What is she doing in
this dreadful hole with all those horrid people around? Has
she sunk so low?"

"We are leaving, Leoynar, come with me now!" Trajan forcibly
dragged Leoynar to his feet. Suddenly a storm of lights
blazed down from the upper structures. Stunned they both
glanced upwards, and at the top of the staircase, on the
platform, accompanied by a row of his black-suited phalanx,
Hern Byrull smiled down benignly.

Leoynar stumbled backwards. Trajan did not move, still
clutching his rephar and Byrull's peals of laughter rolled
down towards them like an angry wind.

He proceeded to walk down the stairs with a light,
nonchalant step, his hands in the pockets of his dinner
jacket. "Well, well, what have we here? We couldn't have
caught a better pair of fish in our nets!" Coming at the
bottom of the stairs he stood with a straight back, eying
them both curiously and remarked: "I know I could use the
uncle to trap the nephew."

Leoynar felt his face stinging with humiliation and anger.
Clenching his fists he took a few steps forward and
confronted the bristle of a dozen guns pointed at him. "Hern
Byrull, demon you, what do you intend to do with us?"

Byrull pursed his lips and cocked his head. "Let me think. I
think I have great plans in mind for you both. In fact, more
for your young Praecel commander than for yourself."
Focussing all his attention on Trajan, Byrull appraised him
minutely. "He does do credit to your lineage, Leoynar, a
Lars' Kindred! He will make a nicer test subject, far better
than your whimpering friends."

His voice grew hard as he slowly backtreaded up the stairs
and several more of his guards came down and formed a half
ring of tarry-clad menace.

"Enough talk. Drop your rephar, commander, and let my guards
take care of you. I don't think you would be so foolish as
attempting to escape. My guards will mow you down before you
can even blink an eye."

Leoynar glanced helplessly at Trajan who stood perfectly
still; only his purple-grey eyes betrayed his inner turmoil.
The eyes delivered a command that pierced Leoynar's brain
like a flaming dart. 'Throw yourself on the ground!'

'I am so sorry, Trajan.' As Leoynar's mind kept stalling and
his limbs were in the stranglehold of inertia, the ceiling
light-tubes shattered and sudden deep night swallowed up the
cavern. One moment later the volley of weapons blasted
through the air. A torrent of ice-white flares countered the
swarm of red dots that spewed through the darkness. Leoynar
was thrown hard on the ground. Sprawling flat he cried out:
"Trajan!"

Someone grunted in pain. Unrelenting hands grasped and
pulled him across the gritty surface. "Jump down, Leoynar".

Several seconds later Leoynar heard a faraway splash, after
which he himself rolled over the edge of the chasm into a
pit of blackest midnight.