Mists of the Ages
(1988)
A novel by 

Sharon Green



SHARON GREEN

has written:

THE FAR SIDE OF FOREVER
LADY BLADE, LORD FIGHTER
MISTS OF THE AGES
THE REBEL PRINCE

The Terrilian Series

THE WARRIOR WITHIN
THE WARRIOR ENCHAINED
THE WARRIOR REARMED
THE WARRIOR CHALLENGED
THE WARRIOR VICTORIOUS

The Jalav: Amazon Warrior Series

THE CRYSTALS OF MIDA
AN OATH TO MIDA
CHOSEN OF MIDA
THE WILL OF THE GODS
TO BATTLE THE GODS

The Diana Santee Series

MIND GUEST
GATEWAY TO XANADU

MISTS

OF THE

AGES

SHAROHOREEH

DAW BOOKS, INC.

DONALD A. WOLLHEIM, PUBLISHER

1633 Broadway. New York, NY 10019

Copyright ® 1988 by Sharon Green
All Rights Reserved.

Cover art by Ken Kelly-
DAW Book Collectors No. 756.

Dedication:

This one, with apologies, is for, in alphabetical order;

Robert Adams and Pamela Crippen Adams,
Alexis Giililand and Dolly Gillilaod,
Joel Rosenberg and Felicia Hermann Rosenberg.
Six people who are delightfully easy to like.

First Printing, September 1988
123456789
Printed in the U.S.A.

Chapter 1

I stood in the middle of the veiy posh office, looking
around by the light of the faint glow coming from the
eight-foot desk, trying to feel where the hidey-hole
was. With the building shut down for the night most
of the maintenance systems were on low-power
standby, leaving only the security checks fully active
and alert. If you stop to listen you can hear mainte-
nance systems, but security nets can only be detected
by instruments or nerve endings. I'd used both to get
through the net, and now stood in low-power silence
trying to detect where the safe spot had been put.

Even the heavy shadows couldn't hide the position
of the wall vault from me. and I had to turn my back
on the comer before it would stop jumping up and
down in my face, waving its arms trying to get my
attention. Sometimes the talent of finding things like
that makes itself more of a handicap than a help, get-
ting in your way when it's the really obscure location
you're trying to pinpoint. The wall vault would have
illegal documents and negotiable securities and a good
chunk of cash and possibly even jewelry and drugs that
were exchangeable for cash, but I had no use for fri-
volities and no time to waste picking them up. I was
after something a lot more delicate in nature and val-
uable in potential, a special prize that would not be
kept with everything else.

Turning away from the wall vault faced me toward
one of the rows of windows, me one that had been on
my left when I'd entered the office. The second row
had faced me when I'd come in and now decorated

6                   Sharwt Green

most of the wall to the right. Comer offices had been
high status just about forever, but wouldn't have been
quite as popular if the occupants had to wash all those
windows they were so proud of. The thought made me
grin into me near dark I stood in, a little female humor
injected into an otherwise dull time, and then I began
laughing softly instead of grinning. What I had thought
of as a joke was my subconscious noticing something
the rest of me hadn't, and I was forced to admire the
skill that had almost gotten it past me. The safe spot
in that office was very well situated, but "almost"
doesn't make me mark.

I moved carefully around the desk and approached
the second window-section from the left, every sense
I had extended and alert. It seemed possible that some
part of the floor would be pressure sensitive, and I
found out rather quickly that ft certainly was. Once I
discovered that, it was back to the desk to check for
the controls that would not be part of the general sys-
tems, but once found the switches weren't difficult to
neutralize. They couldn't be turned off without acti-
vating a different set of alarms, of course, something
a large number of my contemporaries had learned the
hard way, but setting them to neutral didn't produce
the same results.

Neutral was off enough to suit my purposes, and let
me turn away from the desk to examine what I'd found.
The window-section that had caught my attention was
no window-section, and with the system deactivated I
was able to get a good look at the four-foot by four-
foot safe spot. The repeater screen that covered it most
of the time was excellently made. but that very excel-
lence had been its greatest flaw. The other windows in
the office were filthy with the usual city grime that
settles on everything no matter how often washing is
done, but that section of window was measurably
cleaner. The system designer hadn't been stupid
enough to leave it spotless, but had erred on the short
side when it came to "dirty enough." Most people
would never have noticed something like that, but
that's what makes me more valuable than most people.

There was a fairly complex maze lock on the safe

MISTS OF THE AGES          7

spot entry, but maze locks, as they say, are only good
for keeping out the honest. Opening it took no more
than a few minutes, and then I was able to slide the
entry down out of my way so that I might look at what
it normally hid. Only four of the dozen or so com-
partments were filled, two with off-planet bank notes
• that might well have been counterfeit, a third with a
large, tightly-stoppered vial filled with something
bright yellow that glowed very faintly, and a fourtE
with a narrow envelope which was clearly from an
expensive set of stationery. I took the envelope and
folded it, stuffed it inside a pocket of my belt, then
put the safe spot entry back where it belonged.

Returning everything to normal took almost as long
as deactivating it had, but under those circumstances
it wasn't a waste of time. Once I'd rechecked the last
set of circuits I'd worked, I connected the final lead
that meshed everything back into place, then was able
to disconnect my diddle box, allowing the next intru-
sion signal generated to go to the security force board
instead of a dead-end panel in the box. I'd been taught
to cover the possibility that I wasn't as good as I
thought I was and would therefore set off some kind
of alarm during the prowl, and found it wise to never
forget the lesson. Seero had taught me that, just as
he'd taught me all the rest, but I'd learned on my own
that there were times when all the caution in the Em-
pire just wasn't enough to make a difference.

I left the building through a maintenance duct that
led to the parking level of the building next door,
stayed out of range of the scanners until I was back in
a normal, street-type bodysuit, then ambled to my
jump-around with all the nonconcem of any woman
who knows she's parked in a total visibility area. Not
only are there no blind spots in a t.v. area, anyone
stepping or driving into the section activates real-time
monitoring by the duty guards. If an emergency hap-
pens they can get there fast, and they usually make the
effort to move. There are cash bonuses and public rec-
ognition each month for the fastest response to any
activated emergency, and any team logging twelve
wins gets put on a roster of perpetual commendation.

8                         
Gryphon was a world that knew the benefits in paying
for what it wanted, and what it wanted was maximum
effort from the people whose job it was to protect oth-
ers. Substantial annual salaries attracted the best, bo-
nuses and public commendations kept them; with those
who couldn't afford to have the notoriety, stroking was
arranged on a somewhat more discreet level.

My jump-around unlocked itself at my approach, and
I unobtrusively checked the back before getting in and
starting it up. I didn't really expect to find anyone
hiding in the back seat, but when you know how to
get around t.v. areas and approach locks, you tend to
remember that others can do the same. No one should
have known where I was and what I was doing, but
that didn't mean no one did; the faster you learned
should-haves can turn quickly into dids, the better your
chances became of surviving.

I had casually thrown my shoulder bag to the front
seat beside me, but once I was out of the parking level
and skimming along a concourse, my main priority
became getting the contents of the bag property seen
to. I wasn't due to deliver the envelope I'd taken for
another two and a half hours; simply carrying it with
me would have been possible but not terribly bright. I
was scheduled to visit some old friends during me time
I had free, but not everyone around them would also
be friends. If you make a habit of wiggling your back-
side at the Pates, you can't really complain when they
arrange a suitable response to the gesture.

Not being the sort to make gestures for no reason,
by the time I reached the nightclub district I had my
prowling suit, tools, and belt all neatly tucked away
in the safe spot in my Jump-around. No hiding place
is really safe if its location can change as soon as you
turn your back on it, but many tiroes half measures are
better than none at all. Even if someone managed to
steal the Jump-around, they would only be close to the
rest, not have it.

And having the Jump-around stolen wasn't that far
out of the question, not in thai neighborhood. Once      ^
off the concourse I drove more slowly, paying atten-      §
tion to the darkened, dirty streets and watching those      ^

MISTS OF THE AGES           9

who roamed about on them. OH the outer fringes of
the district were most of the nightclubs the city
boasted, and the foot traffic moved easily under bright
lights with easy companionship and enjoyment. About
three blocks beyond that thedistrict changed, and al-
though there were still clubs they weren't the sort to
announce their whereabouts with lights and laughter.
Those who patronized this sub-district usually had
money and the urge for anonymity, a combination
which encouraged the presence of those who mot lOBcd
to take things whose absence would not bettported to
the proper authorities. If you're only gofflg to Heal
what's safe. I don't understand why you'd boAer, but
that's a personal prejudice. Others don't took at it the
same, which is really too bad.

The parking lot of the Dark of the Moon Club sat
beneath the delicate blue glow of its name sign, at
least three-quarters of it neatly and quietly fifled. I
pulled into a spot between a limo and a new-model
sports job, which was the best I could do in me way
of protective prevention. In company like that, my lit-
tle jump-around was hardly worth looking at, and that,
hopefully, meant it would still be there when I came
out.

Getting out of my transportation brought me the stale
but familiar smell of the air in that district, air that
seemed to be holding itself as still as possible to avoid
being noticed. It was an attitude that seemed to be
shared by a lot of the denizens of the area, and one
that had never failed to annoy me. I could understand
not wanting to be noticed at certain times, but to spend
your lire slipping from shadow to shadow, afraid to be
touched by the light of day, afraid to be seen by any-
one who might take note and remember—I had grown
up in that area and learned a lot of things there, but
that particular attitude wasn't one of them. I enjoyed
standing tall no matter who was watching, and if the
day ever came that I couldn't, I would know my lire
was coming to an end.

Walking through the dark to the modest front en-
trance of the club didn't take long, and I smiled when
I remembered the days there had been scanners which

10 Sharon Green

checked out all new arrivals. What the club had of-
fered then was blatantly illegal rather than just mildly
so, and they*d had to be careful not to be surprised by
unexpected visits. When the club had changed hands
its policies had also changed, and it had become a
place where people could meet friends and sit and talk
in relative comfort, or indulge in certain vices mat
affected no one but themselves. Those of us who be-
came old time regulars after the change preferred it
that way, and with the amounts of money the club was
now making legally, it wasn't likely to change back
again. When I reached the front entrance I pushed in-
side to the outer foyer, and the maitre d' on duty
glanced up from his station, then suddenly grinned.

"Well, will you look at that." he drawled in greet-
ing, nothing left of his usual professional aloofness of
manner. "We must be starting that age of miracles the
preachers keep telling us is on me way. Inky has fi-
nally decided to come home."

"You may be a dear, Mal, but home isn't necessar-
ily where the heart is," I answered, not letting the
familiarity of the noisy dining room behind him reach
all the way through to me. "All I'm back for is a visit,
and to ask myself what I ever saw in this dump. I don't
expect to do it a second time."

"You'll change your mind," he said, the grin soft-
ening to a smile, which also softened his handsome
features. "Home is where your friends arc, where you
can be yourself with others like you. We all knew why
you left, doll. and we all understood. Now that you're
back again, everything will be the way it used to be."

"Not quite everything," I corrected, almost losing
it so far that I told him not to call me doll. That was
what Seero had most often called me, and Seero was
dead.

"No, not quite everything," he agreed, losing his
smile as he remembered. "But things do change, and
the rest of us are still here. Tris, Riccom and Sharp
said to send you back as soon as you showed up."

"I'm willing to bet they said if I show up," I coun-
tered. deliberately pushing away the air of gloom that
was trying to descend like a falling building. "I didn't

MISTS OF THE AGES          11

know if I'd be able to make it. so-I didn't commit to
anything definite. All I promised to do was try."

"Which is why they said when. not if," he coun-
tered back, the grin beginning to return. "We know
the people we can trust from those we can*t. I'd be
there with them myself if I didn't have to work. so I'll
have to catch you next time. They're waiting in the
quiet comer."

As expected. I nodded my thanks to Mal and headed
into the room his station guarded, paying no attention
to the people at the curtain tables which crowded al-
most every inch of floor. About a fifth of the tables
had nothing of a distortion field around them, double
that number had shadow curtains to tease passersby,
and all the rest were completely hidden by fields that
let no one see who was at them, what those people
were watching, or what the watchers were doing. How
you set your table depended on what you had come to
the club to see and do, and very few of the table pa-
trons were there for wholesome entertainment. The
club had a full spectrum licence, though, which meant
even opera and ballet were available, and some of the
tables were automatically set to those frequencies. Do-
ing it that way meant no one could prove what anyone
had chosen to view unless they were right there beside
a particular individual, an anonymity which meant
quite a lot to some of the regulars.

I was almost across the floor to the booths when Tris
spotted me, and then Riccom and Sharp were turning
around, adding their grins to Tris'. Most of the booths
in me quiet comer were taken, which was usually the
way it went. Our kind of people preferred keeping their
conversations private even if they were only discuss-
ing the weather, a topic that wasn't often at the head
of the list.

"Inky!" Sharp exclaimed as soon as I was inside
the silencing field and could hear her. the delight in
her voice all too obvious. "I knew you would make
it, and I told these doubters so. Have you any idea
how long it's been?"

"For me, it's been almost a year." I answered, sit-

12

Sharon Green

ting down in the place Tris had moved from to make
for me. "How long has it been for you, Sharp?"

"You're not amusing," she stated while Tris and
Riccom chuckled, her pale, delicate face flushing faintly
with embarrassment. "I wasn't referring to the amount
of calendar time, and you know it. What I was trying
to say was that we missed you."

"And I missed you three," I admitted without hes-
itation, telling them nothing but the truth. "If all
you're after now is rekindling old friendships, I'm all
for it. If there happens to be an irresistible business
deal you're dying to include me in on, I think I'm late
for another appointment."

"Why do you have to be such a stinker?" Sharp
demanded in annoyance while the chuckling around us
changed to outright laughter. "Most people in the trade
would give up their vices for the chance to work with
us. Did you hear us asking you to give up even a small
vice?"

"I don't think she has any vices to give up," Tris
remarked, his green eyes studying me where I sat. Tris
was good looking in a smooth-featured way, and his
physical grace had been the cause of some problems
for him. When it came to enjoying himself he pre-
ferred doing it with females, but some people had dif-
ficulty accepting that. When Tris was propositioned
politely by the wrong gender, his refusal was just as
polite; if the suggestion then turned to insistence, Tris
reached for a knife.

"She certainly doesn't look like she has any vices,"
Ricco agreed with Tris, his blue eyes even more
amused than the other man's green ones. "Have you
ever seen such an innocent, open face, hair that black
in such a plain, unassuming style, black eyes so large
and guileless that you could trip and fall right into
them? I'll bet most places she still has to prove she's
old enough to drink."

I offered Riccom a wordless gesture that made all
three of them laugh, but it wasn't anything they hadn't
been expecting. They'd never let me forget the time
Ricco and I had gone together to make an assessment
of the possibility of approaching a target Seero had

MISTS OF THE AGES          13

been interested in. The point of entry to the target
would have been through the posh bar next door, and
Ricco and I had dressed to the eyebrows so they'd let
us in. We'd made our entrance in a grand way. letting
our attitudes say we didn't own the place only because
we didn't go in for petty-cash investments, and the
maitre d' guarding the entrance was very impressed.
He inspected Ricco from light brown hair to broad
shoulders to zilf-hide shoes, smiled faintly in total ap-
proval, men began to apologize. It took a minute for
us to understand that the man was apologizing for the
regrettable fact that they couldn't serve children in
their establishment, and then Ricco had broken up.
He'd laughed so hard we'd had to leave before we
were thrown out, and I hadn't had to ask what was so
funny. Since I was five months older than Ricco I knew
what he found so funny, but I'd never been quite up
to sharing the joke.

"I love talking about old times, don't you?" Sharp
asked me with a wide grin still in place, one hand
brushing at her reddish brown hair. She was a small
woman but very rounded for her size. and looked even
smaller sitting beside Ricco. "We used to have such
fun together. Inky, but the fun doesn't have to stay in
the past. If you come back to us, we can have the same
all over again.'*

"We might have fan, but it would never be what
we once had," I disagreed, deciding it was time we
got the matter settled out loud. "You three worked
with Seero for a couple of years, but I was raised by
him. If he hadn't kept his word to my mother to look
after me, I would have ended up in one of those or-
phan shelters after she died. He forced me to go to
school, bribed me into learning something there by
refusing to teach me anything he knew unless I got
good grades, and always had the time to listen if there
was something I needed to talk about. He was always
there for me. Sharp, but when he needed me, all I
could do was stand by and watch him die."

"You were there?'* she asked, sharing her distur-
bance with the glances she sent Tris and Ricco, getting
the same back from them. "We thought Seero was out

14 Shanm Green

alone that night. But Inky—his getting killed was an
accident, something no one could have prevented. His
line slipped, and even if you'd been right next to it
you couldn't have . . ."

"His line didn't slip," I corrected flatly, watching
her pale as her eyes flinched away from my gaze. I
knew what I looked like when I thought or spoke about
that night, and innocent was about as far from it as
it's possible to get. I was about to go on when a buzz
sounded, letting us know someone was entering our
field, and then a harried waiter was beside the booth,
putting a cup ofjavi on the table in front of me. If I'd
wanted something to eat I would have used the booth
menu to order it directly from the kitchen, but javi,
unless refused when you first come in, is brought au-
tomatically to everyone. Our part of the crowd of reg-
ulars had developed that custom for the club, and it
had slowly spread until everyone was doing the same.
We all waited until the waiter was gone out of the field
again, and then Ricco leaned forward.

"What do you mean, Seero's line didn't slip?" he
demanded, his big hands on the table's edge, his ex-
pression harsh with confusion. "It was all over the
news. the next day, and the thuds read a statement about
it. 'Death by misadventure during an attempted fel-
ony' was the way it was put, and that was after they'd
investigated. Are you trying to say it was a cover-
up?"

"I'm trying to say they weren't there," I answered,
reaching for my cup ofjavi. Black was the way I drank
it, as black as my hair, and preferably as strong as my
resolve for revenge. "Ricco, you and Sharp and Tris
have a decision to make. I can tell you the whole story,
or we can simply drink javi and reminisce about old
times. If you decide on the story, I can't guarantee the
safety of any of you."

That time even Sharp didn't have anything imme-
diate to say, and their three expressions were almost
identical. In the life-niche we and others like us oc-
cupied, there was a great deal of truth to the proverb,
"Ignorance is bliss." Too often just knowing about
something put you in line for erasure, and it made no

MISTS OF THE AGES            15

difference whether or not you intended using, selling
or even giving away the information. Knowing it meant
you might pass it on, and that was more of a chance
than the people involved were willing to take. It wasn't
considered polite to tell people things without first
warning them you were going to do it, so I'd given
the warning. What happened after that was entirely up
to them, and Tris was the first one to acknowledge it.

"I think I'd like to stay and hear about this," he
said after a minute, stirring where he sat to my left.
"Seero once did something for me I*H never forget,
and if there's a question on how he died. I want to
know about it. I can meet you two later, somewhere
else."

"The hell you can," Ricco said in a flat-voiced way,
leaning back in his seat opposite me as he looked at
Tris. "You aren't the only one Seero did things for,
which means I'm not in the mood for a walk. But it
also doesn't mean we all have to stay."

He and Tris turned to Sharp with that, telling her
they had no intentions of making any decisions for her,
and for an instant she didn't seem to know what Ricco
meant. Then she understood they were saying she
could leave, and she was suddenly made of indigna-
tion rather than flesh.

"Ricco, is your head as muscle-bound as your
body?" she demanded, bristling up like an inside-out
pincushion. "If you two think you owed Seero, you
ought to hear my story. I happen to know he didn't
even tell Inky, which means I owe him for that, too.
If anyone misses what she has to say, it isn't going to
be me."

"That's it, then," Ricco said with a shrug, moving
his eyes back to my vicinity. "We're all in and we*re
ail ears. Let's get a pot of javi ordered, and then we
can start."

"Let's start by not ordering a pot ofjavi," I said,
reaching over to catch his arm before he activated the
menu. "Seero once told me that most people know
they're opening a circuit through the silencing field
when they order, but think the circuit is dead once the
menu-acknowledge light goes out. All it really means

16

Sharon Green

is that the light is out, not that the circuit is closed.
Let's let that waiter bring us refills when he manages
to get around to it.*'

"You think the thuds could have this place tapped?"
Tris asked with a frown, exchanging glances with
Ricco. "Even if they were covering something up
when they called Seero's death accidental, how could
they get in here? And after all this time, why would
they bother?"

"It isn't the police we have to worry about," I an-
swered. speaking to all of them. "It's the Twilight
Houses that arc involved, and they can get in any-
where. Arc you still sure you want to hear about it?"

"More than ever," Sharp said as she rested her
forearms on the table, nothing left of the empty-headed
high-lifer she enjoyed pretending to be. "If the thuds
put Seero out of the way, I could understand it even
while hating it. The Twi Houses are another matter
entirely."

Ricco nodded his agreement while Tris simply sat
and waited, so I shrugged and shifted sideways on the

seat.

"As we've already noticed, this was almost a year
ago," I began, toying with my cup as my mind went
back to that soul-tearing night. "Seero had intended
going out alone, but when I showed up with nothing
of my own scheduled, he invited me along. The stroke
was set up as a solo and that's the way he intended
keeping it, but he didn't mind the idea of having com-
pany on the ride back. He also intended having some-
thing to show off, and you know how he enjoyed
showing off."

They all smiled faintly at the reminder, also remem-
bering how we used to tease him about it, but no one
interrupted.

' 'The location of the stroke was in one of those open
high-rise enclaves that pretend to be closed, the kind
that keeps out no one but the innocent people who live
there," I continued. "For anyone with a little skill
there are a dozen private ways in, and Seero took one
of them. He intended using the top of the north tower
to reach one of the penthouses in the south, so as soon

MISTS OF THE AGES          17

as he left I found a way into the west tower. I wanted
to watch him without being in the way, you under-
stand, which I might have been if I'd gone up with
him to the north.

"By the time I reached the roof of the west tower,
he'd already set his line onto the balcony wall of his
target apartment," I said, raising my cup to sip from
it. "A minute later he was moving up the line by shift-
ing his coasters an armspan at a time, making it look
as easy as he always did. Going back it would be
downhill, of course, and he'd simply hold on and let
gravity do all the work. He reached the balcony,
dropped down to it after locking the coasters in place
on the line, then went to half-kneel in front of the
balcony doors. He already knew what sort of a lock
was on them, and even Mal could have gotten it open
without a key."

That time they chuckled, knowing how badly Mal
did with anything that had a lock- If anyone was ever
born to be honest Mal was it, a point finally brought
home to him the time he'd lost his key ring. After
finding it impossible to get into his jump-around he'd
had to walk home, and then had discovered that we,
who were his neighbors and who kept a spare set of
his keys. were out. He'd decided then and there that
he'd be damned if he'd simply sit down and wait until
we got back, so he began trying to pick the lock on
his door.

By the time Tris and I got back there he'd apparently
been at it for hours, and had reached the point where
he wouldn't have used a key even if he'd had to spend
the rest of his life out in that hall. It was do or die
with no other acceptable options, and Tris and I were
trying to decide whether or not to mention something
rather important to him when Ricco showed up. Ricco,
having no idea about what was going on immediately
congratulated Mal, and when Mal looked up at him
.blankly, Ricco reached over and opened the door with
a simple turn of the knob. At some point or other Mal
had managed to pick the lock, but the tragedy of it
was Mal hadn't noticed. It took quite a while before
we were able to get Mal to stop crying, but once he

18 Sharw Green

MISTS OF THE AGES          19

the hand weapons. From where I stood, it looked like
Seero had been told he was free to go."

When I paused to swallow at my javi, none of them
Jumped in with prompts or questions or comments.
They knew what was coming, and although they had
already decided to listen, they were in no hurry to hear
it.

"I watched Seero go back to his line with what
seemed to be reluctance, and couldn't understand why
he wasn't acting as relieved as I felt." I continued
beyond the pause. "After thinking about it I've de-
cided he knew what was coming, which is another
thing those four will regret. Seero jumped for the
coasters, had them unlocked in a moment, then slid
away from the balcony. He was about halfway across
when one of the heavies reached up to the line anchor
with something too small for me to see, but which
.must have been made of plastic. It broke the holding
field that kept the anchor firmly attached to the wall,
and suddenly Seero wasn't sliding down the line, he
and the line were falling toward the inner face of the
north tower. He tried absolving most of the shock of
contact with his legs, but the angle of descent was too
Btecp and he was moving too fast. He slammed into
the building between two terraces, the impact so hard
I could hear it, and then he was gone from the line
and falling toward the ground so many stories below.
When I looked back to the terrace, the four and their
heavies had already disappeared."

By then I was staring down into my javi cup, wish-
ing it held something a lot stronger than javi, feeling
fte new silence that surrounded me. All the expecta-
tion from eariier had disappeared, leaving behind a
limping, wordless plea for some sort of explanation.

"I don't understand," Tris said after the gap had
grown almost awkward, his voice filled with confu-
sion. "If they knew Seero and didn't even have a com-
^ pleted stroke to complain about, why did they wipe
i him? And how did he end up in a Twi House meeting
place to begin with? He was always so careful about
checking a layout before going in."

"They must have been discussing something they

was back to normal his mind had been made up. He     "^
still considered himself one of us, but he never tried
breaking into anything again.

"I watched Seero fade through the balcony doors,
and automatically checked the time," I went on with      ^
a sigh, wondering if Mal knew how really fortunate
he was. "Seero's maximum time on a stroke never      "
went beyond nine minutes, no matter what he had to     ^
leave behind. Better to get out and come back some     ^
other time, he always said, rather than stay that extra      ^
minute or two and maybe lose all your some-other-
times together. At any rate I knew it wouldn't be long
before he was out again, but it turned out to be a lot
less than not very long. It couldn't even have been a
minute before he reappeared, and he immediately tried
jumping for the coasters."

"Without stopping to relock the balcony doors?"      ^
Sharp asked with shock in her voice. "I can't believe
Seero would overlook anything that important."          ^

"He didn't overlook it," I said, answering the ques-     js
tion for all of them. "He didn't stop because they were     f
right behind him, too close, as it turned out, for him     ||
to get the coasters moving before they were on top of     ^
him. They had hand weapons out and ready, so all he     [:•'
could do was drop back down to the terrace."             ^

"But he wasn't supposed to have been killed with a
hand weapon," Ricco pointed out, his expression      ^
strange. "Did the thuds cover up that part of it?"         ^

"They didn't use the weapons, they just covered
him with them." I said with a headshake. "At first it
was only the two heavies who stopped him, and I was
sure they were private security, which would have     ^
meant Seero was caught. Then three men and a woman
stepped out on the balcony, four races I recognized     ^
instantly in the light coming from inside, and I began     ^ /
to think everything would be all right. I knew for a
fact that Seero had done strokes for at least two of
them, and they would therefore understand he could
be counted on to keep quiet about whatever he'd seen
or heard. One of the men spoke to Seero with an
amused smile on his face, turned and said something
to the others, then gestured away the two heavies with

20 Sharon Green

considered more important than Seero's life.'* I an-
swered, looking up to see the way all three of them
stared at me. "They could have decided to depend on
his silence the way they had in the past, but chose
instead not to bother. As for how Seero ended up in
the middle of a meeting between the heads of four
Houses who never in the past got together on any-
thing, that one is easy. He was set up.

"Is that a guess, or do you know it for certain?*'
Sharp asked, her voice very soft in contrast to the look
in her eyes. "If it's confirmed, give us a name."

"I didn't have to guess." I said. running a finger
around die rim of my cup without looking down. "On
the way to the stroke Seero told me who had put him
onto die target, and the idea made him chuckle. The
man who considered himself Seero's greatest rival had
worked for months digging out the location of this
shady political bigshot's city address, had confirmed
what artwork and other valuables the apartment held
by visiting it as a repairman or some such, and had
only been waiting for the bigshot to be out of town.
As soon as that happened he started getting ready to
go—and while he was moving around managed to slip
and fall because of a small pool of salad oil that had
been spilled by his roommate on their kitchen floor.
He ended up with a very painful sprained ankle, which
meant he needed someone he could trust to take over
for him. He'd hated the idea of calling Seero, but Seero
was the only one he knew who could be relied on to
play it straight."

"And the reason he didn't simply wait until he was
healed, and then go ahead without a reluctantly-taken
partner?" Tris asked, filling in the line as he and the
others knew it must have gone. They weren't wrong,
and my nod acknowledged that fact.

"The bigshot had sold the apartment, and would be
moving his things to an in-city estate as soon as he got
back," I supplied. "If the stroke didn't come off right
then, all those months of work would be worse than
wasted. Better half the rake than losing it all."

"And Seero believed him," Sharp stated, her dark
eyes furious. "Just as we all would have. because of

MISTS OF THE AGES          21

the one bit of truth he used: Seero was the only one
among us who could be counted on to play it straight.
There was no way anyone would have thought it was
a trap."

"The slig must have found out about the Twi meet-
ing while he was sniffing around," Tris said, coming
to the same conclusion I had. "There's never been
even a whisper about a connection between that polit-
ico and the Houses, so the slig must have counted on
their wiping Seero to keep that quiet, if for nothing
else. They must be into him below his underwear if
they used his apartment for their high-level hush-hush.
Seero never had a chance, not with the kind of heavies
they use to keep those meetings private. Give us the
name of that slig. Inky. We want to pay him a visit
and tell him how much we admire his planning abil-
ity."

"I don't think we can pay him a visit," Ricco said.
the first words he'd spoken in a while, his light eyes
directly on me, "It was Tardin who did that to Seero,
wasn't it. Inky? Tardin the slime, who could never
forgive Seero for being better than him. Am I wrong?"

"No, you aren't wrong, Ricco," I allowed, feeling
myself smile for the first time since that conversation
had started. "Tardin was the one who set Seero up,
but 1 don't think he'll ever be doing something like
that again, do you?"

"Tardin was convicted of those murders!" Sharp
said with a hiss of shock, her stare now on the wide-
eyed side. "It made all the news progs, and more than
half the editorial slots! Everyone wanted the courts to
forget the law and sentence him to a lifetime of torture
instead of simple execution. The evidence against him
was so overwhelming, not even his court-appointed
lawyer believed him when he screamed he was inno-
cent."

"That was because of how sickening the crime
was," Tris said, giving me the same sort of thoughtful
look Ricco had been maintaining for the last couple of
minutes. "When the victims are children it's bad
enough, but when they're also physically handicapped
children who have managed to win outstanding awards

22 Sharon Green

despite their handicap— And when they aren't simply
killed, but put through what the autopsies showed— It
was all they could do to find thuds to guard him. Most
of them wanted to join everyone else and tear him
apart."

"And all those of us who knew him wondered was
how he'd kept that much twisting from showing
sooner," Ricco said, closing the circle he'd opened.
"I don't think it would bother any of us to find out he
was framed. Inky, but what about the one who really
is guilty? With Tardin tagged for the thing, they
stopped looking for anyone else."

"Why look for a dead man?" I asked, letting my
smile broaden. "One of the earlier victims had a rel-
ative none of the news progs found out about, a half-
brother who had loved the little giri very much. The
naif-brother had a lot of friends and acquaintances,
»M I don't think I have to tell you what it's possible
(0 pick up when almost everyone on the street is
watching and listening for you. Seero had introduced
me to him a few years ago, so when it was time to
take a good look around a certain apartment, I was the
one he asked to do it. Finding those grisly trophies the
slime had kept wasn't hard, but once they'd served
the purpose of telling us we'd located the right sicko.
no one had any more use for them. My acquaintance
took charge of the sicko. and when I explained why I
wanted the trophies, he thought my taking them was a
good idea. It even turned out that one of his friends
was the woman who cleaned Tardin's apartment, the
very woman who accidentally found all that horror and
immediately called the police."

"Finding Tardin's name on the membership list of
that group of fanatics who want all handicapped new-
boms put to sleep really sealed the lid on it," Ricco
said, a grin finally breaking through on his face. "Was
he really a member, or did your acquaintance have
another friend?"

"That time it was a friend of mine," I answered,
watching Tris and Sharp stir where they sat, as though
waking from a daydream. "She owed Seero a lot more
than one, and computer files will whistle the latest hit

MISTS OF THE AGES          23

r'

'^"t
^

^

&

r

-T'   I

if she asks them to. Getting them to accept Tardin's
name as a long-time member of that group took about
ten minutes."

"No wonder you kept refusing to work with us,"
Sharp said, satisfied acceptance in her voice. "You
were too busy doing things that really needed doing.
But now that it's just about over, you shouldn't be
busy any longer. Tardin's appeal was denied last week.
which means his execution is set for the forty day min-
imum. Why don't we all celebrate by pulling off a
really spectacular stroke?"

"That would be a good idea except for one thing,"
I said, quickly interrupting the agreement coming from
Tris and Ricco. "I won't be ready to celebrate until
there isn't even a foundation left of four certain
Houses. Taroin may have been the one who set Seero
up for wiping, but he wasn't the one who actually did
the job. Until that happens, I expect to have quite a
lot to do that's best done alone."

"You don't mean you're taking on four of the Twi-
light Houses!" Tris said in almost the same hiss Sharp
had used earlier, his expression full of outrage. "Inky.
that's crazy! I can understand refusing to take com-
missions from them, or maybe even cheenng on the
thuds, but actively working against them? They'll wipe
you the same way they did Seero, and you won't ever
be able to say you didn't ask for it! If Seero was still
around, he'd be the first to tell you to forget it."

"If Seero was still around, there'd be nothing to
forget," I pointed out, raising my cup to finish the last
of the Javi. "I only told you three about this so you'd
know why it isn't smart associating with me. I haven't
been sitting around with my feet up for the past few
months, and although I've been careful not to be
sloppy, it's only a matter of time before they find out
who's been stroking them. When that happens, you
don't want to confuse them by standing next to their
target. They usually settle confusions like that by tak-
ing out everyone in sight."

"They seem to have a thing about playing it on the
safe side," Sharp agreed with familiar dryness, but
there was more frustration behind the words than

24 Sharon Green

amusement. "Damn it. Inky, all you'll do is get your-
self killed, and no one will be able to help you! Do
you expect us to just sit back and let it happen?'*

"The only way you can stop me is by tipping the
Houses," I said, taking a deep breath before making
the effort to shake off the gloom that had grabbed me
again. "If you decide to do that, hold out for as much
as you think the information should be worth, but stay
out of reach both before and after you collect. They're
already feeling the pinch, and I'm told they're not in
a very good mood."

"Told by who?" Ricco asked, as annoyed as Sharp
and Tris by the suggestion I'd made. "I can believe
you've been stroking them. and I believe they don't
know who's doing it. Seero always said you were the
best he ever taught, and if you ask me you're even
better than that. You're also not suicidal, so I'm will-
ing to bet you're not doing this alone. Who do you
have who's telling you about their mood, and what are
they doing with the rake from your strokes?**

"I don't think you really need to know that," I said
as I looked around at the three with a friendly smile.
Sharp and Tris were startled by the guess Ricco had
made, but he always had been the swiftest on the up-
take. "Let's just say I've found the perfect place to
drop what I come across, and it's possible I may even
be around to some day celebrate cracked foundations.
I'm not counting on the possibility very heavily, but
it could happen. And now I really do have another
appointment."

"Was mis your way of saying good-bye to us?"
Tris demanded as I began getting ready to leave the
booth, his tone almost harsh. "You don't want us get-
ting killed along with you, so you took some time out
to cut the ties? That was really thoughtful of you. Inky,
but what if one or two of us don't want to say good-
bye? What if we're willing to take our own chances
with getting killed?"

"I'm sony. Tris, but this is my way of getting
killed," I said with a glance around, trying not to
laugh. "If you or Ricco or Sharp decide you're inter-

MISTS OF THE AGES          25

ested, you'll have to find your own way. You know
how I've always hated sharing things."

I put my left hand on his arm to keep him from
saying any more, then reached my right hand toward
Sharp and Ricco. Both of them took it. Sharp with
tears in her eyes, Ricco almost as broken up as Tris,
but I refused to let any of their sadness touch me.

"I'll say this as plainly as I can, so I won't ever
have to repeat it: stay out of the argument!** I told
them, looking at each of them in turn. starting with
Tris and ending with Ricco. "I've got m^f covered
ID a certain extent, but the coverage isn't enough for
four. I'd hate to make it through all this, only to find
that one or more of you three didn't. And dont forget,
if one of you trips, you might take me down right
along with you. If for no other reason, will you let
that make you back off and forget all about it?"

Once again I let my eyes touch each of mem, and
despite their reluctance they didn't refuse me the nods
of agreement I'd asked for. They'd given me their
words to stay out of it, but Tris felt it necessary to add
one last comment as I freed my hands and stood.

"If you ever change your mind about wanting com-
pany, you know where you can find us," he said, then
gave me a smile that was trying very hard to become
a grin. "Don't forget how bad I am at thinking of my
own ways to get killed."

There was nothing to do but laugh at that, and then
wave once before turning and walking away. Tris was
most probably feeling the short time we'd lived to-
gether, but he'd get over it and then he'd be fine. I'd
made sure they would all be fine, but that was some-
thing else they didn't need to know about. When the
Houses finally found out I was the one stroking them,
not knowing where I was would be no protection at all
for people who were named as friends of mine. What
I'd arranged would be protection, but they definitely
would not have enjoyed hearing about it.

On the way out I said good-bye to Mat without giv-
ing him the chance to press me as to when I'd be back,
then left to keep an appointment which centered about
the delivery of an envelope.

Chapter 2

My new associates had very little imagination, which
mewit they insisted on my meeting them in their own
offices. It might have been true that none of their peo-
pte ooold have betrayed them even if they'd wanted
to, "but tint didn't make me any happier about becom-
ing a familiar figure to the workers on all four of their
shifts. I was used to having no one or almost no one
know what I was into; Stellar Intelligence didn't be-
lieve ia running it the same. As far as they're con-
cerned, if everyone around you doesn't know what
you're doing, you probably shouldn't be doing it.
Needless to say, the difference of opinion made our
association even more pleasant than it would normally
have been-

I left my jump-around parked in a street-level square
a couple of blocks from my destination, preferring to
lose it among the various vehicles of neighborhood
night-shift workers over sitting it down all alone in
plain sight in front of the building where the offices
were. It wasn't exactly common knowledge that the
Empire offices building also housed Stellar Intelli-
gence, but among those who did know, very few cared.
S.I. was a branch of the Empire administration that
supposedly concerned itself with nothing less than
things like treason on a planetary scale, and that, of
course, made it nothing to worry about to anyone who
wasn't plotting the overthrow of the Empire. I'd found
out differently one night, and the revelation had mod-
ified my plans in an interesting way—if you consider
that sort of thing interesting.
26

MISTS OF THE AGES           27

The Empire building was as brightly lit and as full
of people going in and out as it always was, which
means I accessed their underground parking area
through a service conduit that bypassed their security
system, then made my way to the upper floors from
there. My getting into the building like that was more
of a game than a necessity, especially since S.I. hadn't
yet gotten around to finding the route. The other end
of the conduit was supposed to be completely inacces-
sible, and they still believed that; for people who
shouldn't have believed anything they hadn't checked
personally, it was sad to see how trusting they were.
ft was also one of the reasons I wasn't precisely thrilled
to be working with them, but they were definitely the
lesser choice between evils.

The lift took me up to the fifty-fourth floor, and
when the doors opened I stepped out to see the trans-
parent wall on my left that told me I'd found the of-
fices of the Empire Messenger Corps. Beyond the wall
was a rather unplush reception area which contained a
brittly-pretty giri behind a desk polishing her nails,
and a bored-looking man in the blinding-red uniform
of the Messenger Corps leaning against die wall not
far from her. When the lift doors closed behind me the
gut stopped polishing and the man stopped looking
Bored, but neither one tried to say anything until I'd
pushed through the entrance panel in the transparent
wall. At that point, the giri grinned wide.

"Raksall's expecting you, so you can go right in."
she said, sounding nothing like what her looks would
lead someone to expect. "And by the way, thanks for
earning me a little extra cash. Again."

She made no real effort to look at the man in the red
uniform, but she didn't have to. Her final won) had
let him know he was being laughed at, and his ex-
pression said he wasn't enjoying the experience.

"It's not a joke," he said in a near growl, his dark
eyes sending accusation in my direction rather than
toward his partner in disguise. "If she's getting into
the building in a way we don't know about, there can
be others doing the same thing. Betting on whether
or not she makes it through without getting caught

28 Sharw Green

isn't as good an idea as trying to find out how she does

*t."

"Our current assignment doesn't call for finding

things out," the woman said, her grin still in place as
she swiveled her chair to turn her in the man's direc-
tion. "And if you think betting is such a bad idea,
why wasn't I the only one doing it?"

The man looked down at her without answering the
question, but also without visible enjoyment of the an-
kle-length, veed-to-the-waist work dress the woman
was wearing. She had no trouble at all filling out the
standard red and white dress, but men seem to lose
interest in such things when their pride—or wallets-
have been brutalized.

"Is Raksall in her office?" I asked, more to change
the subject than because I wasn't sure. "I'm still a
little eariy."

"She expected you to be late instead, but she came
in on time," the woman told me, and then her expres-
sion wept solemn. "It may be the next thing to im-
morality to mention it. but I think she earned some
extra cash, too."

The man came away from the wall with his fists to
his hips at that, and even though I was no longer the
target for his killing stare, I still headed on back to the
offices beyond the corridor leading out of the reception
area. S.I. people seemed to be much freer souls than
I'd expected them to be, but I wasn't involved with
them to make friends. We had a joint business venture
going, they and I, and in that area things weren't doing
badly.

There were as many people hurrying around the in-
ner S.I. office as the rest of the building suffered from,
all because of the need of the place to be fully staffed
at all times. When you have to deal with information
and requests coming in from hundreds of planets and
going out to the same number, you run every minute
of the local day and night or you don't run at all. I
usually preferred night hours because of how much
more peaceful they were than the daytime, but in that
place it was like middle of the morning any time you
got there. I ignored the bustle as best I could, made

MISTS OF THE AGES          29

't

my way across the floor to the office I wanted, and
simply walked in.

Raksall looked up at the sound of the door opening,
her transparent desk showing all of the stylish orange
and brown business suit she wore. The legs of the
pants were so full they even looked like a full-length
skirt while she was sitting down, and the tight-waisted
jacket was more frilly-lace-concealing than straight-
line form-revealing. Using lace instead of body lines
was the very newest rage in fashion, and it surprised
me not at all that Raksall was already wearing it.

"Well. well, eariy instead of late," my S.I. contact
said with an amused look, leaning back in her chair
while I closed the door behind me. "With everything
you had on your schedule tonight, I thought it would
be the other way around."

"I have a feeling you thought it would be the other
way around because of the number of guards stationed
all over the building," I came back, walking forward
to my usual chair and then sitting in it. "They were
trying to spot me coming in, but somehow they
missed."

"I've learned there's nothing of the 'somehow*
about it when people miss seeing you," she said, her
stronger amusement now showing in a grin. "If we
hadn't had Fieran's luck, we wouldn't have stumbled
over you die first time. I hope it went just as success-
fully earlier tonight."

"They're not quite as clever as they think they are,"
I said with a smile of my own, reaching down to the
wide black shimmer-belt I wore above my semi-skirt.
"If you don't have a pair of gloves, I recommend
leaving the thing in the belt until you can get a lab to
check it for you. They had it in a safe spot, but I have
the distinct feeling they decided to play it double safe.
If unprotected skin touches that envelope, I'd rather
not be around to see what the results are."

"That means they're beginning to try doing some-
thing about you," she said, her grin gone as she
reached across the desk to take the belt. "What you've
gotten from them over the last few months hasn't been
used against them yet, so they must think that ridding

30

Sharon Green

themselves of you will make sure it never is. I'd say
it's time you let up on them for a while."

"And I say if I let up on them, what I've done so
far will be wasted effort," I countered, watching how
carefully she handled the belt. "You're the one who
told me how straight-line all this evidence has to be,
now an Empire court will accept it if there aren't any
carefully timed gaps in the gathering of it. You said if
we can prove these Houses are constantly and consis-
toatty involved in large-scale illegalities rather than
occasionally dabbling over the line of the law, the Em-
pire court will accept jurisdiction as the only certifi-
ably unbiased source of justice for the people. We both
know their bought bodies on this world won't even let
them be accused here let alone convicted, and the
chance of throwing them to an Empire court was the
only reason I agreed to work with you people. If you
try backing out now . . ."

^*Toi not trying to back out of the deal," she inter-
rupted in annoyance, the look in her brown eyes half
impatient and half concerned. "I promised we'd break
those Houses for you if you helped us get the evidence
we need, and that promise stands. I'd just like to know
how well you'll uphold your end of the bargain if you
get yourself killed. None of our own people ever man-
aged a fraction of what you have in locating the sort
of damaging proof we can't go ahead without. If the
enemy succeeds in stopping you, where does that leave
our effort?"

"Before the question becomes relevant, they have
to succeed in stopping me," I answered, working hard
to control the furious anger that had suddenly risen
inside me. "You told me stolen evidence is just as
good in an Empire court as whatever is gotten on a
warrant, as long as it's documented as true and isn't
unreasonably out of date. If I back off now, you know
we'll have a gap, and that gap could get them off. If
this is how dedicated you law-and-order types are, I
would have been better off going with my original
idea."

"Your original idea was to use the other Twilight
Houses to destroy the four you're after,'' she said with

MISTS OF THE AGES          31

a brusque gesture of dismissal, still annoyed. "You
may or may not have succeeded in that, but when you
came to this building to see if the Empire had any file
information you could take for the other Houses to
use, you walked into one of our security areas. We
had to use a Question Beam to find out what you were
after, but once we did, didn't we agree to drop all
charges against you? Didn't we decide together it
would be better to eradicate those Houses completely,
rather than simply helping the other Houses to absorb
them?"

"Is that what we 'decided together'?" I asked,
making a rude face as I leaned back in my chair. "I
thought what we decided was that I'd be better off
getting evidence for your group, instead of vegetating
in a heavy detention center while those four Houses
went blithely on the way they had been going. If I'd
known you scared this easy, I would have opted for
the heavy detention."

"Since I'm not the one whose life is on the line,
scared doesn't enter into it much, does it?" she coun-
tered, ignoring what I'd said about how I'd been co-
erced into the partnership. "And I'm not trying to tell
you to back off for good. I want these people as badly
as you do. but throwing away the life of the only one
able to get me my evidence doesn't make much sense.
What you picked up for us four days ago from the
Larcher House was a coded list of scheduled ventures
involving drugs, prostitution, soul-selling, air smug-
gling, puppet-stringing—at least a third of everything
they're into. Since we've got to take the time to doc-
ument that stellium-mine of a list, there won't be any-
thing of a gap showing in our evidence trail. And don't
forget what you got for us tonight. If that works out
the way I expect it to, what's in that envelope will
give the Empire court no choice but to step in. When
politicians that big are owned by a House, trying to
find an unbiased planetary court is an exercise in fu-
tility."

"All of which is a reason for you people to sit back
a while, but doesn't in any way apply to me," I said,
refusing to buy the wiggler oil she was so good at

32 Sharon Green

selling. "That list you're so hot about involves only
one of the Houses, which leaves three more for me to
go after while you're playing with the first- In case
you've forgotten, it's all four I want, not just a token
one or two."

"But you can't get all four if one of them gets you
first," she said through her teeth, her fist clenched and
her short blond hair almost bristling. "If you leave
them alone for a while they'll have to dismantle their
traps, or take the chance of losing one of their own.
with legitimate business, to something meant to get
you. Can't you under—"

Her little speech of useless repetition probably would
have gone on until she ran out of breath, but she was
interrupted by something other than my impatience. A
single knock came at the door, and I turned in time to
see a man walking in. He was of average height and
build, wearing the tight trousers, tight-waisted jacket,
sad severely cut shirt that was the masculine equiva-
lent of RaksalFs outfit, but his was a conservative yel-
low and tan. He had brown hair and eyes and a narrow,
humorless face, was carrying a file of some sort, and
I'd seen him once or twice during my previous visits
to those offices.

"I'm sony, Filster. but we're in the middle of an
important discussion here," Raksall said to the man,
making an obvious effort not to be too short with him.
"I'll let you know as soon as I'm through, and . . ."

"This can't wait until you're through," the man
Filster said, coming forward after having closed the
door behind himself. "When you're through, the girt
will disappear the way she always does, and I need
her here for this."

"For what?" Raksall demanded, letting the river of
annoyance inside her wash over the man who was pull-
ing up a chair to her side of the desk. "She isn't an
operative who shifts from one department to the next
and therefore needs to know everything going on ev-
erywhere. She has a limited association with my de-
partment, so what could you possibly have that
concerns her?"

"I have a Situation," the man answered, the word

MISTS OF THE AGES          33

so clearly capitalized that his glance at Raksall was
unnecessary. "I queried the main files in search of
someone to suit my needs, but rather than offering me
a choice of our own operatives, I was given the sug-
gestion of that girl. After considering the matter, I was
forced to agree with the decision."

His narrow-faced sourness showed how unhappy he
was over being forced into whatever it was he was
talking about, but I wasn't in the least curious as to
what that could be. I'd already done what I'd come to
that place to do, and wasting any more time there
would have been—a waste of time.

"I think I'll be going now," I said to Raksall as I
got out of my chair. "From what you said I'm assum-
ing you and your people will be too busy for a while
to come up with any target assignments, so I'll take
care of finding my own. If I happen across anything
interesting, I'll be sure to let you know."

"Just a moment, young woman!" the man Filster
said in a very stem way as I turned toward the door,
interrupting whatever Raksall had been about to come
up with. "You and I have a matter to discuss, which
means you're to sit back down and listen to me. I
didn't come in here just to watch you walk away."

"I don't much give a damn what you came in here
to do," I told the disapproving frown I was getting,
liking the man as much as he obviously liked me.
"You and I don't have anything to discuss on any
subject I can think of, and I really would prefer keep-
ing it that way. Have a nice evening."

"How about your four friends?" he countered at
once as I began turning away from him again, his tone
unpleasantly triumphant. "My department is the one
responsible for assigning operatives to make sure the
Twilight Houses don't try to use them in an effort to
locate you. I've had no trouble finding enough people
to assign up until now, but with a Situation demanding
all me attention and manpower I can give it . . ."

He let the sentence trail off without finishing it, and
when I looked at him his smug expression was all but
pure enjoyment. They really did enjoy threatening
without using the words, those people, and I was be-

34

Sharon Green

ginning to dislike the habit more than I'd thought was
possible.

"Part of my agreement with your group covers the
protection of the four people my efforts put in the most
danger," I said, speaking primarily to a Raksall who
was mostly mad but partly upset. "If that aspect of
the deal falls through, so does the rest of it. You may
need me to get the Twi Houses* but I can do my
own getting with people who don't have your prob-
lems- Would you like to tell me which way you want

^ff

• **We want it our way," Filster said with narrow-
faced aggressiveness before Raksall could answer me,
a gHeam of satisfaction still inexplicably in his eyes.
"If yoo don't do your getting with us, you won't do
i(«f afi, especially not from the cell of a heavy deten-
tion center. You are a thief, young miss, and we have
eoough evidence against you in your dossier to keep
you in a cell until long past the time the designation
'young* is no longer appropriate. What will happen
to your friends during that time, I have no idea.
If you aren't identified as the one who robbed the
Houses, they may well survive without any sort of
difficulty."

Or they may not, his tone suggested, me man ig-
noring the way I straightened where I stood. He
seemed to know as well as I that if the Houses found
out I was the one who had been stroking them, also
learning where I was would not keep my closest friends
safe. There was still what I'd taken to sustain interest
in my background, and until they had that back no one
I'd known would be safe.

"Inky, a department with a Situation has priority
over all other departments until the Situation is being
handled," Raksall got out with difficulty, her intention
probably to smooth things over despite her own raging
anger. "If you discuss the matter with Filster and can
prove to him you can't be of any help, he'll just have
to look elsewhere. Let's listen to what he has to
say, and afterward you and I can talk for a minute or
two."

And get things back to where they were, she didn't

MISTS OF THE AGES          35

bother adding, at least not aloud. At that point I had
lost my appetite for dealing with any of them, and if
it hadn't been for Tris, Sharp, Ricco and Mal, I would
have walked out of there and let them try to catch me.
But I did have my friends to consider, so I went back
to the chair and sat.

"Your wisdom is exceeded only by your gracious-
ness. young miss," Filster said when I crossed my
legs, his tone as dry as abrasive powder. "Despite
your obvious opinions to the contrary, I'm not enjoy-
ing this any more than you are. With that glowering
expression you're now wearing, you look more than
ever like the innocent child you most certainly are
not."

"If all you came in here to do was insult her, Fils-
ter, you can just get out again," Raksall said with a
hard look in her eyes, her voice thick with the anger
she was feeling. "And however this turns out, don't
think for a minute that I won't be reporting you. Even
having a Situation is no excuse for ruining another
department's dealings with essential associates."

"For all the control you have over her, even *asso-
ciate' is too binding a descriptive word," the man
came back with complete unconcern, paying more at-
tention to his papers than to his co-worker. "You can
report me as much as you like, as long as you're ready
to tell the same board why so essential an 'associate'
of yours does as she damned well pleases. And would
either of you mind if we got on with this now?"

He finally raised his dark eyes to look at each of us
in turn, but not even Raksall had anything else to say.
She made herself more comfortable in her chair with
her fingers laced together in front of her, and the look
in her eyes that promised the man more argument to
come at a later, better time didn't bother him in the
least.

"About five standard years ago, the planet Joelare
announced the opening of its new vacation continent,
and within a year it was on the 'must' list of three-
quarters of the people in the Empire," Filster said,
keeping his eyes on me even as he lectured. "The
planet has an anomaly area that does cover just about

36 Sharon Green

an entire continent, an area of perpetual fog, and the
section was considered a waste of good worid-space
until someone came up with the idea of turning it into
a tourist attraction. They had a hell of a time doing
the necessary building and developing, but when it was
finally completed they had the Mists of the Ages."

He paused then, as though expecting Raksall or me
to comment, and when we didn't he smiled faintly.

"What are the Mists of the Ages, you ask?" he said
in the lightest tone he'd used yet. "I thought everyone
already Knew about them, but since you don't. I*U ex-
plain. Towns, villages, and even cities were built in
me fog, each area depicting a different historical pe-
riod from the past of dozens of the worids of the Em-
pire. No one really knows yet why so many human
and humanoid-populated worids arose independently
to eventually reach the stars and become the corc-
woridfl of the Empire, but that doesn't mean people
area't interested in what other people lived through
before they reached contact capabilities. Joelare hasn't
been settled long enough to have picturesque historical
eras of its own, so it used everyone else's. With tours
ranging from basic to aristocratic, everyone chooses
what he or she can afford, and everyone has a fabulous
time.

"Or so claim the press releases,*' Pilster went on,
impatient disapproval suddenly back in his voice.
"Approximately six standard months ago. odd reports
began being filed. People who were supposed to have
been on the tours were reported missing by friends or
relatives, but a couple of days later the reports were
canceled. The missing people weren't really missing,
they'd only been enjoying themselves so much they'd
extended their tours beyond their original intentions.
Some of me reports, however, weren't canceled; the
missing people really were missing, and eventually
turned up dead. They'd wandered off on their own
into areas which were restricted because of danger-
ous conditions and had had accidents that turned out
fatal. What was left of each body was returned to its
home world, and then those reports were officially
closed."

MISTS OF THE AGES          37

"I'm not seeing what you consider so odd," Raksall
said to the man, interest rather than criticism narrow-
ing her eyes. "People do enjoy themselves so much
they extend their vacations, and people do die when
they wander into places they shouldn't be. All natural-
habitat resorts have restricted areas; that's why you
sign a release when you vacation in spots like that. If
you're properly warned and the restricted areas are
clearly marked, your getting killed doesn't entitle your
estate to sue."

"Everything you say is absolutely correct, but you
haven't seen the reports," Filster answered with a
shake of his head- "The computers considered them
all together, did a little records checking, men kicked
the matter out with gongs clanging and blazing red
Situation flags flying. Thirty of the canceled missing
persons reports stated that the people involved couldn't
possibly have simply stayed past their intended time;

they had previous, very important commitments, and
weren't the sort to forget those commitments. When it
turned out they had only stayed a little longer, the ones
who had filed the reports were bewildered. The objects
of their concern had laughed off the entire matter, and
none of the thirty showed even the faintest regret for
what they'd done. That was the point the computers
checked the cash and credit accounts of those thirty
and the other 'missing' vacationers for the additional
payments they should have had to make to Joelare
for their extended stays, and then the alarms went
off."

"The payments hadn't been made?" Raksall
guessed, her brows higher than they had been. "That
would make even an adding machine suspicious."

"Which is probably why most of the additional pay-
ments had been made," Filster said, grudging respect
only very faintly coloring his continuing disapproval.
"Where there were no funds or available credit to meet
the payments, suits had been filed against the default-
ing parties. All nice and proper and legal, except for
two things: the suits were in perpetual continuance de-
spite the fact that not even token payments had been
made, and most of those who had paid hadn't really

38 Sharon Green

been in a position to take those extra days. They'd
strapped themselves badly by doing it, and were right
then woridng their backsides off trying to make up the
losses."

*Td hate to be the computer who had to specify a
Situation like that,'' Raksall said, one finger to her lips
as her mind raced behind distracted eyes. "Is there
something in the mists on Joelare that causes reliable
people to become uncaring spendthrifts, and if so, do
the friendly natives running the show know about it?
JlAey don't know about it, why aren't they pressing
for payment from everyone? If they do know about it.
are they taking advantage of an existing situation, or
Caufiwg the situation to begin with? If me reaction is
a ftatool phenomenon, why aren't more people suffer-
ing from ft? And as a temporary last. how, if in any
way a all, do the dead bodies fit in?"

•fAneat summation as to why we have a Situation,"
Faster said to her, his attitude indicating anyone in
Raksall's position would have been expected to do the
same. "There are people being hurt and taken advan-
tage of somehow, but we don*t yet know who is in-
nocent and who isn't. It's also been pointed out that
the number of people actually reported as missing is
guaranteed to be a lot less than the grand total in that
category. Some planetary authorities operate under the
absurd conviction that people who never deviate from
schedule even once in their lives, can't be considered
missing until a prechosen amount of time has passed.
Places like that would have nothing in the way of re-
ports filed."

"So the questions asked need immediate answers,
and then we'll know what we're dealing with," Rak-
sall said with a slow nod. "If it turns out the people
of Joelare decided to help hurry the return on their
investment by convincing certain people to stay longer
and therefore spend more money, our branch of the
Service won't be involved any longer. What we need
to do is get those answers,"

"Which is the reason I'm in your office now instead
of my own," Filster said, back to looking at me rather
than Raksall. "We need someone to go in there who

MISTS OF THE AGES          39

will not only not arouse any suspicion, but who also
has the ability to check records and files that arc out
of easy reach. Mists of the Ages is run from a central
location situated itself in the mist, which means the
very finding of it won't be a matter of checking the
address and then walking in. Our computer tells roc
your—associate—over there has a definite talent for
finding things, so she's the one I want."

By that time Raksall was sharing in the stare di-
rected at me, and I didn't need to hear her saying any-
thing to remember the "we" she'd used with Filster.
After hearing his problem, she was no longer blaming
him for barging in on us and was also no longer invit-
ing him to look elsewhere for help. I'd somehow had
the feeling things would work out like that, but they
and the computer who had suggested me all had
equally randomized circuits.

"Anyone with a little intelligence can be expected
to find things," I said after a decent pause, making it
seem as though I'd considered his request. "What isn't
quite as reasonable is hauling someone off the streets
and expecting them to be able to do the sort of Job you
people are trained for. Not only wouldn't I know where
to begin, I wouldn't even know when to look unsus-
picious. They'd have me spotted five minutes after I
got there, and that would be the end of my playing
snoop. My talent is in extracting things from places
people have them hidden, not inserting myself in
places people don't want me to be."

"Your talent is in stealing," Filster contradicted
with no change of expression, his dark eyes still di-
rectly on me. "You specialize in preying on those who
have managed to acquire possessions of worth, and
haven't enough social conscience to feel shame over
such a thing no matter how badly your victims are hurt
by it. I despise parasites like you and your sort, who
live well themselves by causing misery for others. If
I had any choice in the matter I'd see you all in heavy
detention, but instead of that I'm forced to work with
you. I need information stolen from a place others can't
get near, and for that you are exactly right. If you
refuse to do it. the trash you call friends will be en-

40

Sharon Green

tircly on their own* just as they really deserve to be.
Make yocr decision now, and make it fast."

If I'd been in the habit of showing enemies how I
felt, I probably would have shivered from the pure
hate and disgust coming at me. The man's eyes were
all but glowing with it, and I couldn't ever remember
feeling so sick. People won't understand, Seero had
always told me, sometimes not even if you explain.
Don't waste your time, little Inky, just let them go on
believing as they like. It won't change what we're do-
tog, it will Just make it a little harder. Filster made it
hafder, all right, but not just a little.

"faky^ if you think about it, you'll find this is all
probably for the best," Raksall said, the pitying em-
barrassment so thick in her voice that I hated her.
^you need to take some time off from our own project
anyway, so why don't you see what you can do with
Pilsters? We know you're not a professional, but that
might be Just the thing to get you past any safeguards
they may have erected. We'll give you what informa-
tion and help we can, and your friends—you have my
word that they'll be perfectly all right. You can look
at it as a paid vacation, and by the time you get back
we can probably get on with our work again. —What
do you say?"

In actual fact I didn't say anything, primarily be-
cause I couldn't. I also couldn't quite meet Filster's
eyes or look Raksall directly in the face, not the way
Seero would have been able to. He had always been
so serenely sure that what he did was right, so gently
willing to forgive anyone and everyone the awful
things they might say about him. I didn't have the
same inner strength, but at least I was able to refuse
the urge to make excuses for myself. Making excuses
only means you think you're doing wrong, Seero al-
ways used to say, and if you think what you're doing
is wrong, you shouldn't be doing it. The only wrong
I saw was in what I was about to do, but I couldn't
betray four people whose safety was my responsibil-
ity. I nodded my head stiffly, agreeing to the demand
they'd made on me, then stood up and got out of there
as fast as I could.

MISTS OF THE AGES          41

The lobby of the Empire braiding had dozens of
public call squares, every one of them undoubtedly
monitored. I chose one at random and made the call I
had to, setting in motion a sequence of events all the
monitoring in the Empire couldn't have followed. Then
I walked out one of the lobby doors, and went to the
place I was then calling home.                 ;

Chapter 3

The S.I. didn't believe in wasting time. I'd intended
dmgaig my feet for a while, at least until the com-
pictionof the events I'd started the night before with
•ao-view call, but Filster began taking immediate ad-
vantage. I don't know if he realized I'd let myself be
followed back to the place where I was sleeping those
days, but the very next morning one of his people was
pounding on my door. The racket woke me to see it
wasn't even noon yet, which gave me second thoughts
about how wise I'd been in using myself as a diver-
sion. I pulled on a bodysuit without bothering to add
shorts or a skirt, yanked the door open, and glared at
the large blond-haired, blue-eyed man standing right
outside.

"Don't you people have any sense at all?" I de-
manded in a hiss, working to keep my voice down.
"Are you trying to let everyone in the Empire know
we have a deal going?"

"How did you know I was sent by a mutual friend?"
the man asked mildly, his squarish face openly sur-
prised. "Since you're staying in this over-night for
working girls, you—and everyone else—were sup-
posed to think I was an early customer looking for
some fun."

"Don't you think they know I'm not wiggling for
the trade?" I asked in turn with a lot of the weariness
I was feeling, wondering again how people of their
supposed caliber could be so innocent. "The ones who
run this place make it their business to know what's
going on; if they slip, they could be out of business."
42

MISTS OF THE AGES          43

"Then we'll just have to say I'm your boyfriend."
he decided with a grin, totally unbothered by anything
I'd told him. "Just because you don't get paid for it,
doesn*t mean you have to pretend you never do it.
Aren't you going to invite me in?*'

I gave it up with a shake of my head and simply
stepped back out of the way, and he walked in while
looking around in curiosity. He was the sort of really
big man I usually find attractive when I'm not three-
quarters asleep, and he was dressed like a long-haul
jockey whose usual run takes him through the wilds:

leather jacket, leather boots, hugging zilf-skin pants
and bright svalk singlet. Wilds jockies nuke large
amounts of money and aren't shy about spending it,
which some people think is what puts the swagger in
their walk. What really does it is a knowledge of just
how good they are. undoubtedly the same thing that
did it for my visitor.

"You know, this isn't bad," he decided by the time
I got the door closed, his all-around inspection of the
predominantly pink room finally turning his back in
my direction. "The carpeting and walls are clean, the
mirrors are shiny and clear, the bed is big enough for
three, and the leather is out of sight while it isn't being
used. What more can you ask from a temporary lay-
over?"

"Watch your language," I said with a yawn, head-
ing for the counter with the javi spout and cups. "Fe-
males not doing the trade aren't usually allowed to
stay in places like this, but I have friends who owe me
favors. Its greatest benefit is that I'm not the only one
coming and going at all hours of the day and night."

"Now you watch your language," he said with a
small laugh, following me over to the counter. "If
you're in the mood to pour two cups of that, we can
sit down with them while I tell you what I came to tell
you. After that you can get dressed and start getting
on with it."

"What's the hurry?" I asked, turning to hand him
the first cup of javi I'd filled. "According to our mu-
tual friend, the game-playing has been going on for at
least six months. Since whoever they tick will even-

44 Sharon Green

tually be paid back, what difference can another cou-
ple of days make?"

"They'll get paid back if we can prove the Joelare
natives are game-playing," he corrected, his blue eyes
serious as he took the javi. "If we can't prove it, all
we'll be able to do is make the Mists people check
cash and credit before anyone is allowed on future
tours. Those who can't afford extra time on the planet
will then either be separated from their tours at the
proper time, or Mists won't be permitted to bill them.
That will still leave their previous victims in the hole,
and that might not even be the worst of it. We still
have those dead bodies to think about."

With my own cup filled with javi I was able to try
frowning at him, but he was already heading for the
comfortably stuffed chair only a few feet away. He sat
down. began settling himself, then moved his head
quickly from side to side, a sure sign that he'd just
noticed he was in the only chair in the room. When
he was certain of that, he looked up at me.

"It seems these rooms weren't furnished with con-
versation in mind," he observed, his grin faint but
definitely there. "We'll either have to move to the bed
where there's room for both of us, or you'll have to
sit in my lap.'*

"That's the benefit in having carpeted floors," I
countered, folding into a cross-legged position oppo-
site his chair. "They give you all the extra options
you need. Now, what's all this about dead bodies?"

"Some of those who were reported missing on Joe-
lare turned up dead instead of late," he said with a
supposedly disappointed sigh, forcing himself to get
back to business. "Any place like the Mists of the
Ages is bound to have areas of high danger, and tour-
ists are notorious for going past flashing lights and
screaming sirens without ever seeing or hearing them.
Going on vacation seems to turn normal people into
instant idiots, so just having bodies isn't what bothers
us. The disturbing part centers around the fact that
there isn't much left of most of the bodies they send
back to the home worlds, only enough to make a pos-
itive I.D. A certain percentage of those bodies arc go-

MISTS OF THE AGES          45

ing to be true accidental deaths, but what about the
rest?"

"You mean you think they might have been delib-
erately killed?" I asked, putting both hands around my
cup to fight off the sudden chill I was feeling. "Pos-
sibly because they found out what was going on?"

"Possibly, but somehow it doesn't feel right." he
grumbled, raising his cup to sip from it while distrac-
tion showed in his eyes. "It isn't unheard of for people
to kill to protect the secret of what they^re doing, but
this Mists whiz isn't all that big and profitable, and it
isn't being run by professionals. In most instances am-
ateurs try to buy silence rather than resort to killing,
and most people offered bribes will accept them. It's
a piece that doesn't fit in the puzzle we're trying to
work, and even though it's colored the same it ought
fit in another puzzle entirely. You'll just have to keep
your eyes open when you get there."

"Assuming I don't end up in that second puzzle,
and have my eyes closed for me in some permanent
way," I said, looking up at him with very little enthu-
siasm. "I keep telling you types I wasn't trained for
this, but none of you want to hear me."

"We hear you." he disagreed with a shadow of
amusement behind his expression. "We're just having
trouble believing what we're hearing. You claim to be
afraid to get involved in this, afraid of getting killed.
For someone who refuses to let up the pressure on four
Twilight Houses, any of which would be more man
happy to arrange a messy, permanent send-off for her.
you're unexpectedly worried about checking into the
doings of a whiz run by nervous, almost-innocent am-
ateurs. You consider us unreasonable for feeling the
least bit skeptical?"

"If nothing else, the way you dismiss amateurs
makes me nervous," I came back, disliking his entire
attitude. "I'd hate to tell you how many competent
pros are killed or almost killed because of them. And
this thing between me and the Twilight Houses is en-
tirely different. With them it's a personal matter, and
I really don't care if they end up getting me, as long
as I get them at the same time."

46 Sharon Green

"With us, everything is a personal matter," he said,
the amusement gone as he leaned forward just a little.
"We hate seeing people being taken advantage of in
any way at all, and we*ve sworn to stop it every time
we can. But letting them get us when we get mem
doesn't make much sense, not if we want to go on
getting them. That's why we're as cautious as it's pos-
sible to be, and glad to be giving you a vacation from
your personal vendetta. We don't like the idea of los-
ing you, and this should keep it from happening. While
you're gone we'll be looking after your friends, so you
don't have to spend even a minute worrying about
them. All you need to do is use that talent of yours,
and get as the evidence we need against whoever is
doing things to innocent, unsuspecting people."

"My taient for stealing," I said as I looked away
from him, remembering the way Filster had said it.
After tfainlring about it I*d decided Filster was actually
the most honest of all of them, saying aloud what the       -,
others had probably only been feeling. None of them      t,
understood or even particularly wanted to, which was      f^
the reason I'd made the call that began setting up es-      ^
cape routes for Mal. Sharp, Tris and Ricco. When ev-       ts
erything was set the four would be slid into the routes,
and then they would be gone from the planet with no
possible way of tracing them. I'd set up the routine as
an emergency exit before the first time I'd stroked any
of the Houses, before I'd gotten involved with the S.I.
I'd thought the S.I. could be counted on to keep those
closest to me safe, but S.I. worried most about vie-      ^
tims, not about those who created victims. It would      )
take a few days, but then my friends would be really
safe, and after that I could do as I pleased.

"Your talent for stealing," my visitor mused in a
calm, even voice as I sipped my javi, making no corn-      ^
ment on the fact that I still wasn't looking at him.      ^
"That's the way Filster put it, along with everything      f
else he said. The man is really good at the job he does,       ^
but he has no true understanding of people. To him,       ^
if you aren't prey you have to be a predator, and he       ^
can't forget what predators did to his family. He      (
doesn't see himself as a predator, only as prey fighting      j|

MISTS OF THE AGES           47

back, so he's incapable of understanding any other
mode of existence. You'll find it easier forgiving him
for what he said if you tell yourself the rest of us don't
see it the same.' *

"I don't tell myself much of anything," I said. fi-
nally bringing my eyes back to him. "Talking to your-
self is a bad habit to get into, especially in my line of
work. Was there anything else, or arc you ready to
leave so I can go back to bed?"

"Sony, but you don't have time to go back to bed."
he informed me, the grin accompanying the words the
least little bit forced. "I still have to tell you about the
special ring I have for you, and about the people who
will be showing up to help you. After that you have
to get your things together in time to catch a shuttle.
Your liner to Joelarc will be ready to load passengers
about three hours from now."

"You people really don't waste any time." I mut-
tered, not terribly pleased with the way things were
going. If I could have put them off for the couple of
days necessary until my friends were gone from the
planet, I would then have been free to refuse to go at
all. The four should no longer be where they had been,
not since a very short time after I'd made the call, but
they were still on Gryphon and would be for another
day or two. If S.I. really tried, they could keep them
from leaving, which meant I would have to work S.I.'s
job before I'd be free to melt into shadow.

"We try not to waste any time, but it doesn't always
work." the man in the chair above me said, still trying
for a grin. "If it did, you and I would be exchanging
more than information, and from a lot closer than three
feet. I usually don't have quite this much trouble mak-
ing friendly suggestions, but Filster has a knack for
ruining things for everybody. What say we put off the
briefing for an hour or so, and use the intervening time
to—re-cement good relations?"

He watched me as he sipped his javi, nothing show-
ing in the way of anxiety over the question he'd put.
As attractive as he was he had no real reason to be
anxious, but I prefer getting to know someone before
getting into bed with them. Many people consider that

48

Sharon Green

narrow-minded of me but, as my choice of occupation
showed, I didn't much care what other people thought.
And I also didn't feel the need to be any closer to the
people of S.I. than I already was.

"I don't have that sort of relationship with S.I., so
there's nothing to re-cement," I told him, wondering
in passing if the idea had been his own, or if he'd been
instructed to make the suggestion. "We have a very
limited association, your group and me, and that's the
way I'd like to keep it. If I have a shuttle to catch,
you'd better tell me whatever it is you're supposed to
teUme."

"I think I'll have a long talk with Filster when I get
back to the offices," he said sourly, letting his eyes
^maw over me in a very deliberate way. "And if I
can't get you to change your mind once you're back
from Joelare, I'll have a second talk with him. Not all
of our people are full-time agents, you know, and after
this thing with the Houses is done, you'll probably be
made a different kind of offer. Not that I don't prefer
my own sort."

His grin came all the way out with that, showing he
was still in there selling. As hard as he was trying, he
probably was under orders to get me into bed, which
was an even better example than Filster's of what his
people thought of me. I knew well enough how inno-
cent I looked, but leave it to S.I. to equate innocent
with gullible, I stirred impatiently where I sat, too dis-
gusted to let myself say anything, and he finally got
the message.

"All right, all right, strictly business," he con-
ceded, briefly holding up his free hand. "We have
almost no information on the Mists of the Ages and
certainly no details on the headquarters building you'll
be looking for, but one thing we were able to accom-
plish. We had the Division of Records send the Mists
board a supposedly new form to be used when send-
ing Information Request responses, but the form was
really a flat-circuit transponder. We expected it to be
filed with the rest of their records, which should have
been what was done. Unless we're a lot more unlucky
than usual, their main offices are somewhere to the

MISTS OF THE AGES          49

east of the major entry point to the Mists, so we've
booked you on the tour that goes that way. Once you're
down and moving in the proper direction, you'll use
this ring to guide you nearer."

He reached into his leather jacket and pulled out a
flat, dull silver band that looked well-worn and tar-
nished, then handed me the thing. The circular ring
was about a quarter of an inch wide and very plain
except for three small pieces of plastic that were sup-
posed to look like jewels. When paste isn't even good
enough to make you think it's glass, you have a real
example of junk, and all I wanted to do with it was
send it back to the two-for-a-slug vending machine it
obviously came from.

"Don't just look at it, put it on," my visitor di-
rected, sounding somewhat amused again. "I know it
probably offends your every esthetic sense, but that's
only because it's in disguise. It's not jewelry, it's a
homing device for the flat-circuit transponder and will
keep you from getting lost in the fog. When you want
to know which way to go, clench your fist and hold it
up in front of you. If you need to bear left the left
jewel will flash, right and the right Jewel will do the
same. Once you're dead on, the central jewel will
flash, and then you just keep walking until you run
right into it."

"Walking," I echoed, hoping hard the thing
wouldn't fit as I put my cup down then reluctantly
slipped the ring on my right ring finger. "And running
right into it. Every time you open your mouth, you
make this all sound better and better."

"It'll work out beautifully," he assured me with
confidence, supported, no doubt, by the fact that the
monstrosity fit my finger perfectly. "That ring will
also identify you for the ones who will be working
with you, two of our associated part-time agents who
help us out when the need arises. They were already
on their way when the computer decided your talent
fits in exactly with theirs, so they were alerted to watch
for you. When they think it's safe, they'll come over
and introduce themselves."

"Safe," I couldn't help echoing again as I re-

50

Sharon Green

claimed my javi, wondering if there ever really was
such a thing. "What son of talents do they have that
I fit in so well with them? Arson and mayhem?"

"You intend getting a lot of mileage out of what
Filstersaid, don't you?" he asked with a strange light-
ness, leaning back in the chair to cross his legs.
"Bearing people over the head with mistakes seems to
come natural to some females, but it wasn't my mis-
take in the first place, so I think my head's taken
enough. I also think we'll both be better off if we con-
sider that part of our discussion closed."

For a field agent he was getting awfully pushy, but
all I did was shrug at the order thinly disguised as a
suggestion. How I reacted or didn't react to things was
aooa of his business, especially since his being there
hada't been my idea. If he was trying to disassociate
Binuelfand the rest of S.I. from Filster, he'd even-
tually find out he didn't do much of a job of it.

**xhe two people you'll be working with have never
woriced together before either," he went on after a
moment, realizing that my shrug was all the answer
I'd be giving to his comment. "The woman was cho-
sen because it was realized the Mists headquarters
would be guarded by the most sophisticated electronic
devices available, and her specialty area is electronics.
There's nothing so advanced that she doesn't know
about it, but a number of her own gadgets can't be
matched or countered by anything. Once you reach the
building she'll be able to get you into it, especially if
you're able to spot parts of the system she might oth-
erwise miss."

"And the other is a man?" I asked, my inner mind
suddenly very interested in the woman I'd be meeting.
There were a couple of very important places begging
to be stroked, but had proven untouchable because of
security devices that couldn't be gotten around. I al-
ways knew where those devices were. but had never
found anyone with the knowledge of how they could
be neutralized. If the woman turned out to have that
knowledge . . .

"Yes, the other is a man," the field agent said,
again sipping at his javi. "He was included because

MISTS OF THE AGES          51

of the dead bodies, the ones there was so little left of
only identification was possible. All sorts of explana-
tions accompanied the bodies as to how the people
died, but the various home-planet medical authorities
were able to confirm the causes of only a few. The
third member of your team is a medical specialist, one
who concentrates on research but at the same time
knows more than a little about other branches of med-
icine. If you happen to come across another body, he'll
be able to tell us if the death was natural, accidental-
or caused."

"As long as the body in question isn't me. I hope
he has fun," I said with a small shiver. "Far be it
from me to criticize other people's tastes in leisure-
time activities, but he must have had a very limited
social life in his youth if pathology is one of his hob-
bies. Is that it, or do we have more to talk about before
I can start packing?"

"Except for handing you these papers, reservations
and fund vouchers, that's all the business I have," he
answered, reaching into his jacket again for the packet
in question before passing it over. "Now, about our
date for when you get back. I thought we'd start with
dinner and dancing, maybe visit a club or two, and
then I can show you my apartment. It took me a while
to get it fixed up the way I wanted it, and I think you'll
like it."

"Of course I will," I answered smoothly as I rose
to my feet, giving his renewed grin a very small smile.
"I always enjoy seeing apartments people have put a
lot of money into. I certainly hope you won't be off
on a run through the wilds by the time I make it back."

"I can guarantee I won't be," he answered, the di-
rect look he gave me as he also stood showing that he
knew what I was hinting at. "I haven't met a woman
yet I was afraid of, and you're no exception. Since I
actually do make runs through the wilds, you might as
well stop trying to scare me. Whatever happens, I don't
expect to have any trouble handling it."

I discovered that he no longer had his cup when he
put his arms around me, and then he was giving me
the sort of kiss that can't in any way be described as

52 Sharon Green

shy or passing-friendly. He seemed to have taken my
threat to strip his apartment as a challenge, and if he
really did do mns through the wilds, he couldn't be
the sort who let challenges go unanswered. My hands
were not only trapped between us, they were also filled
with papers and a javi cup, which made it almost im-
possible to push or pull away from his demanding lips.
I squirmed around trying to get loose, upset over the
way he was making me kiss him, and then, suddenly,
I no longer was.

"Now Fin really looking forward to that date," he
alid softly, letting me go so that he might put a finger
W my face. * * Make sure you take care of yourself dur-
ing (ins thing. I don't like being stood up."

—He grinned and kissed me lightly one last time, and
Am he was striding toward the door. I watched him
«^tiloe was gone and I was alone.again, and then I
ahywiy shook my head, answering him even though he
wttoo longer there. No, I would not be goin^ on a
date with him when I got back, not for anything he
would find it possible to name. I had just found out
how attractive I really considered him, and even if I
intended continuing my association with S.I.—which
I didn't—he would not be any part of it. I'd have
enough interest brought into my lire by the efforts of
the Twi Houses; letting him add to that would be worse
than suicidal.

I went back to die counter with my javi cup, thought
about packing, then said to hell with it and refilled the
cup. I didn't have all that much to pack, and I needed
the javi to help me get my reactions down from bio-
logical and back up to intellectual. I had almost for-
gotten that he had most likely been assigned to get me
interested in him, which went to show how thoroughly
S.I. had investigated me. They knew I liked big men
so they had provided one for me to become interested
in, an interest that would keep me with S.I. for as long
as they needed me. Associate, free-lance worker,
whatever they wanted to call it. I'd be theirs to use
any time they needed my abilities.

I left the packet of papers on the counter and took
my cup to the chair my visitor had used, still enough

MISTS OF THE AGES          53

bothered by what he'd done that the thought of re-
venge was very satisfying. He'd tried romancing me
to get what his bosses wanted, but no matter how pos-
itive a report he wrote, subsequent happenings would
not prove a match to it. We'd see how wide a grin he
wore when I not only didn't continue with S.I.. but
used whatever I could get from their electronics expert
for myself. I didn't really care who was ultimately re-
sponsible for the destruction of the four Houses that
had killed Seero as long as I was the one who made it
possible, and as soon as I returned to Gryphon that's
what I would be getting on with. The destruction of
four Houses. Without the help of the mighty S.I.

I sipped my javi as I felt the pleasure in thinking
about what I would do, then ran into something a little
less satisfying. I liked knowing the identity of the per-
son I decided to teach a lesson to, and the bastard who
had been here hadn't even told me his name.

Chapter 4

Being a member of the bodysuit generation is a benefit
10 more than your cash account. Considering how light
sad (lun bodysuits and their accessories are, you can
pack a month's worth of changes in a single, medium-
flaaed grip, and still have room left over for odds and
eads. Fd moved into the over-night with the single grip
afid that's die way I moved out again, only not to go
back to my apartment. I took a public glide directly to
the shuttle port, surrendered the grip when the man
confirming my presence at the port demanded it, then
went to the appointed place where the shuttle was ex-
pected to land at any minute. I had DO doubt that die
shuttle was ready to land, but it's less hassle traveling
from planet to planet than it is taking off from or land-
ing on one. We who waited in the all-weather shelter
waited fifteen minutes longer than they'd told us we
would have to, were finally rewarded with die sight of
our transportation arriving, then were allowed to
board. Another fifteen minutes after we were settled
die shuttle began taxiing up the runway, and that meant
the worst of it was behind us. It took no time at all
before we were high enough to switch from thin-air
flying to no-air power assist, and then we were match-
ing with the liner.

If it wasn't such a pain getting off the ground, I
would enjoy everything about traveling. Liners move
so fast it isn't possible to even come close to imagin-
ing dieir speed, but no one on board ever feels the
slightest hint of motion. Multiple light speed and ar-
tificial gravity all come from the same math the big
54

MISTS OF THE AGES          55

brains say, but as far as my understanding of it goes,
they might as well say it's done with magic. Before
they found the math everyone was told it wasn't pos-
sible to travel at light speed or beyond, but now we
can do almost anything we please. Except, of course,
get off the ground on time.

Once aboard the liner I was shown to die cabin diat
had my grip in it, was handed a five-dimensional fold-
up that showed liner layout and scheduled mealtimes,
and then was left alone. If I'd needed help with die
fold-up I would have had it for the asking from the
steward who showed me to my cabin, but services like
that arc added to the cost of your trip, something the
inexperienced traveler doesn't realize. I wasn't in any
way short of funds, but I do have dlis thing about
paying tribute when it isn't absolutely necessary. I took
time out to sneer at S.I. for having missed finding that
little whiz, at die same time trying to fold the fold-up
widi the meal schedule out and, by pretending I had
six-foot-long arms, finally managed to do it. I hadn't
had the chance to eat before it was time to head for
the port, so when I saw we were just about right on
top of a scheduled meal, I tossed the fold-up onto my
bed and headed out.

Cabins on liners tend to be somewhat on the small
side, but with the extra amount of fun space that gives
you, no one really minds. There are game rooms and
lounges and bars and soda fountains and sensor rooms
and libraries and exercise halls and just about anything
you can name, all there for the use of passengers. Only
a very few, very exclusive entertainments aren't in-
cluded in the price of your ticket and if you've devel-
oped a taste for those things you can usually afford to
pay extra for them. If you can't afford them but want
to do diem anyway, you're best off trying to get some
help. Those who don't too often wind up in my field.
which doesn't really crowd the rest of us. Stealing,
like anything else, takes training and ability; if you try
to do without those requirements, you soon find your-
self doing without your freedom.

The wide yellow ship's corridors weren't really
crowded, not even with the numl>er of people heading

56

Sharon Green

for the dining area. I ambled along with everyone else,
looking forward to the meal, noticing how many other
people were wearing bodysuits like mine. The body-
suit covers you from shoulders to feet bottoms and
down to the wrists, stretches to fit easily no matter
what sort of contours you have, comes in eveiy color
there is, and is so light you hardly know you're wear-
ing one. Most of the people I walked among wore
contrasting shorts as an accessory just as I did, but
some wore skirts, or vests with their shorts or skirts,
or fancy collars and cuffs along with everything else,
or maybe just jewelry. One woman with a spun svalk
suit of orange-red had blue-white ice gems decorating
it, her hair dyed to match the gems and her walk in-
flating die gems were real. There were quite a few
men around the woman, all trying to capture her at-
tention, all working very hard to pretend they weren't
having trouble deciding which to watch, the jewels or
her body.

I, myself, had no trouble deciding which I wanted
to look at, and not being into women was only a pan
of it. I was curious as to whether those gems were the
genuine article, but not because I had any designs on
them. It happened that ice gems were something of a
hobby with me, and I enjoy comparing me ones I own
with what other people put their money out for. A
glance ahead showed me we were almost to the dining
hall. but if I maneuvered myself into the proper posi-
tion, I ought to have at least a minute or two to check
on their authenticity. Phony ice gems are easy to spot,
even without a loupe.

By increasing my pace I was able to begin moving
through the crowd, half an eye on where I was going,
the other eye and a half on the jewels. To avoid trouble
I was also trying to pretend I wasn't looking at the
gems at all, and all that watch ing-not-watching activ-
ity took too much of my attention. The clumsy clod
was right on top of me before I caught the first glimpse
of him, and by then it was too late. I couldn't keep
from moving toward him just as he moved toward me,
his attention obviously elsewhere, and then we col-
lided the way jump-arounds sometimes do, glancingly

MISTS OF THE AGES           57

but hard enough to notice. I "oofed" as I bounced off
him, staying on my feet only because of my trained
balance, but his problem wasn't keeping erect. He'd
been holding his fold-up liner guide when we came
together, and the crash sent it flying out of his hand.

Now, reflexes are supposed to be the things that keep
us alive in hostile environments, but in civilized sur-
roundings you're expected to leam to control them.
The clod who ran into me had apparently never learned
that; without stopping to think about it, he jumped
to catch the fold-up before it hit the deck. Why he
bothered, I have no idea; the thing isn't really five-
dimensional, it only feels that way when you have to
refold it. Whatever his reasons he did move fast
enough to accomplish his aim, but when his oversized
foot came down on my normal one I screeched, im-
mediately losing interest in admiring his agility. He
hobbled the fold-up at the sound, but finally he had it
and then was kind enough to take his monstrous weight
off the extremity he had just crushed.

"Sorry about that, but maybe next time you'll leam
to watch where you're going," a deep voice came as
I balanced on one foot. trying to clutch at the mangled
other. "If you hadn't been trying to plow through the
crowd, you wouldn't have run into me."

"/ ran into you?" 1 demanded in outrage, finally
looking up at the mindless fool. "You were the one
too busy ogling the scenery to watch where you were
going, and you were also the genius who thought the
fold-up would break if it hit the floor. I thought they
knew better than to let your sort out without a han-
dler."

His jaw tightened at the insult and his big hand
closed harder around the fold-up he held. but there
wasn't much he could say. He was really big with
longish red hair and a mustache down to his chin to
match, hard gray eyes in a square-jawed, masculine
race, and a wide-muscled body that his tunic and leg-
gings didn't do anything to hide. Adding soft ankle-
boots to that let you see at a glance that he was from
Rober Tay, the arena world, the place that specialized
in breeding and training fighters for their sand arenas.

58                   Sharon Green

Eveiy worid in the Empire followed the top-named
fighters in their tries for the golden circlets, then bet
on their favorites in the multi-circlet challenges. Many
fighters died before they won anything at all, others
were crippled and permanently disqualified, but only
rarely did any of them retire for good without one of
those reasons forcing them to it. The most commonly
attributed reason for that was supposed to be total lack
of human intelligence, and the fact that most fighters
traveled with attendants started people calling the at-
tendants animal-handlers instead. It wasn't the sort of
comment you usually made to the fighter himself, not
if you had any interest in finding out what your natural
ufe span would turn out to be, but he had gotten me
myd amore ways than one, and I didn't really mind
returning the favor.

^"If my—'sort'—needed handlers, you'd be regret-
ting that question right about now," he said at last, a
deluute growl in his voice to match the coldness in his
eyes. "And if I was ogling anything, that's only be-
came I'm used to going after the best in sight. It's
also the reason I didn't happen to see you. But try
coming back when you're all grown up, maybe I'll
change my mind. Until then, though, I'd appreciate it
if you'd keep your suicide attempts at least twenty feet
away from wherever I happen to be."

His gray eyes swept over me in a quick, dismissive
way, and then he was striding toward the dining hall,
leaving me to stare furiously after him. Our argument
had collected a small crowd, and half of them were
chuckling while the other half looked after the depart-
ing fighter as though he were crazy. For my own part
I knew he was crazy, especially for thinking I didn't
know what I looked like. Most men had no trouble at
all finding me attractive, so his considering me sub-
standard was hardly a crushing blow to my ego. What
was getting me so mad was his crack about my not
being fully grown, a point I was justifiably touchy
about. As I watched the fool disappear into the dining
hall, I promised myself he would end up regretting
having said that.

It took another minute or two of flexing my foot,

MISTS OF THE AGES          59

and then I was able to use it to make my own way into
the dining hall without limping. I looked around the
paneled and carpeted room as I entered, hoping there
were some empty tables left, and spotted a small one
straight back and to the right, just in front of the pro-
jection-screen wall. The screen on that side was show-
ing a typical Adexian rainstorm, complete with chain
lightning and three-hundred-mile-an-hour winds,
which made it a perfect match to my mood of the mo-
ment. I headed for the table, reached it before anyone
else, and claimed it by sitting down.

I couldn't have been studying the table-top menu for
more than two minutes, when I was interrupted by the
presence of someone hovering at my left elbow. I gave
the presence about thirty seconds to see if it would go
away, and when it didn't I looked up ready to ask it
to go away. I was in no mood for company, but the
nastiness I'd been about to speak disappeared at sight
of the giri who stood there, almost wringing her hands.
She wasn't very tall but was definitely on the chubby
side, had long blond hair streaked with purple to match
her bodysuit, and had the largest, widest brown eyes
I'd ever seen. She looked to be just short of terrified,
and I couldn't imagine what was bothering her.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, glancing over my
right shoulder to check on the storm. It wasn't any
worse than it had been when I'd arrived, and surely
the giri knew it wasn't really there. The wall may have
looked like a window, but even liners aren't big
enough to cany storms for the viewing pleasure of
their passengers.

"I—know this—is an awful—imposition, but is
that—seat taken?" the girt forced herself to say, the
words coming out like a request for charity. 'Tin-
supposed to meet—someone here. but he hasn't—
arrived yet. and I really couldn't—take up a table
all—by myself—"

"No. the seat isn't taken," I assured her quickly,
coming close to feeling my own pain over her very
painful embarrassment. "You can sit here until your
friend comes, and then the two of you can find a table
together."

60 Sharon Green

"That's really good of you," the girl said in almost
a whisper, moving to the chair opposite me with a shy
but brightly warm smile. "I'm—bad at speaking to
strangers, so I appreciate this more than you know.
I'm Lidra Kament."

"It's nice to know you, Lidra," I said, returning
her smile. "Would you like a cup ofjavi or something
while you're waiting? I'm about to place my order, so
I can just add whatever you want to it."

"You really are nice," the giri said in a very soft
voice, a shadow of unexpected amusement lurking
somewhere behind her words. "Most people I do this
to don't even look in my direction, let alone ask me
questions or offer me things. 1*11 order when our third
gets here. but just for form's sake you'd better tell me
your name."

I forced myself to pay attention to the menu I was
ordering from instead of jerking my head up to stare
at the girl. but once I'd pressed the proper boxes I did
look up. There wasn't a chance anyone had heard what
she'd said to me. and after the routine she'd gone
through when she'd first appeared, no one would won-
der why they couldn't hear her and certainly wouldn't
make the effort to listen. I know I hadn't expected to
be found by my coworicers quite that soon, and my
expression must have held a trace of my surprise.

"There are times you do get lucky with liner con-
nections," the giri Lidra said with a hidden grin, her
voice still so low I was almost reading her lips. "Since
we knew you were due to come on board at Gryphon,
I synched with the frequency of your ring when the
shuttle came back and spotted you that way. Chal and
I met completely by accident too, and once we all find
we're going to the same place, we can decide to pal
around together. Now will you please share your name
out loud?"

"By the way, I'm Dalisse Imbro," I said, putting
my palms on the table as I leaned back in my chair,
trying to decide if I liked what had happened. "Most
people call me Inky, because my favorite color is
black. What's your favorite color, Lidra?"

"No matter how it looks, it really isn't red," she

w

S!
-».-

MISTS OF THE AGES          61

answered, now appearing the least bit uncomfortable.
"I wasn't trying to embarrass you. Inky, this is just
my standard contact routine. People deliberately tune
out of conversations they find distasteful, and having
them ignore what we're saying is better than using a
damper field to make it happen. We'll find enough
need for that sort of thing later on."

**I suppose we will," I allowed, accepting the ex-
planation in place of an apology. I'm not very good at
apologizing myself, which may be why I don't think
much of people who start out by glibly saying the worn
*sony.' If you're really sorry, the word isn't quite that
easy to say. And there was no denying that her way
of making contact was clever, which led me to add,
"I'm glad you decided to sit here, Lidra. My friend
was supposed to go on this vacation with me, but at
the last minute she got sick. It hasn't even been an
hour. but I'm already learning how lonely a solitary
vacation can be."

"Then I'm glad I stopped here, too," the giri said
with that not-quite-hidden grin, relief clear in her large
eyes. "Even if we don't happen to be going to the
same place, .Inky, at least we can hang around together
here on the liner."

We had enough time to discover—with great sur-
prise—that we were both going to Joelare, and then
my rood was brought. Lidra watched without comment
while the dishes were set in front of me. but once the
waiter had gone on his way she produced a strange
grimace.

"If you make a habit of eating that sort of junk
rood, you won't be living very long," she said, an
odd kind of amusement behind the criticism. "That
stuff will kill you faster than an enemy. If you have
any doubts, wait until Chal gets here. He'll be glad to
tell you all about it."

"He isn't one of those." I groaned, understanding
why she'd been amused, then I detemunedly took an-
other bite of my grilled meat-round on a bun. "Well.
he can be as finicky as he likes about his own rood.
but if he tries changing my eating habits I'll defend
myself. Once he loses the contents of his pouch or

62

Sharon Green

pockets a time or three, he'll get the message and leave
me alone."

"I haven't known him very long, but I have the
feeling he may not be that easy to discourage," she
said with a small laugh, her dark eyes dancing. "When
we first met he thought I really was as heavy as I look,
not realizing there's some of my equipment I don't
want anyone putting hands on without my being there.
He was already into a very gentle lecture before I knew
what he was doing, and I actually had to show him the
truth before he let up on me. There is a way to distract
him from nutrition, a way 1 discovered to be very en-
joyable, but you may not share my tastes for that sort
of thing."

The expression in her eyes had turned very amused.
bat as I looked at her I had the sudden impression she
was more an experienced, self-controlled woman than
a young, flighty giri. She'd been fishing around in my
direction for reactions, trying to find out as much as
she' could about me without coming straight out and
asking, but was being as fair as possible in her game-
playing. Before checking my preferences and habits
she was telling me her own, and there's not much more
you can ask from a near-total stranger.

"I'm not above enjoying myself, but I don't believe
in buying freedom from pestering," I said, beginning
to share her amusement. "I was raised by someone
who never tried running my life; he only made sure I
knew what all my options were before I came to a
decision about something. The only problem with be-
ing raised like mat is it doesn't prepare you for every-
one else in the universe, three-quarters of whom know
what's best for you and are determined to see you do
things their way. I have an abysmally small amount of
patience when it comes to that son, which they tend
to find out if they bang around very long."

"I have a feeling poor Chal is in for it," she said,
her attempt at a sigh buried beneath delighted laugh-
ter. "Just try keeping in mind that he's basically a
very decent person—and that we're probably going to
need him, one way or the other. He's— Oh, wait a
minute. Here he conies."

MISTS OF THE AGES          63

Her chair had her facing the doors leading into the
dining hall, and when I turned I saw a man coming
toward us who wasn't quite what I'd been expecting.
He was fairly tall and broad-shouldered, had very light
brown hair with light-colored eyes. and sported a tan
that most sensor stars would have envied. He was
dressed in light-blue slacks and white, long-sleeved
shirt, a style favored by some of the more conservative
planets of the Empire, which meant he also had to
wear shoes. Bodysuits relieve you of that necessity
unless you intend going some place where there's
likely to be mud or snow or some such, but the length
and ease of his stride said he didn't mind wearing
them. He grinned a grin at my companion that turned
his face downright handsome, and snagged an empty
chair from a nearby table as he passed it, giving him-
self something to sit in when he joined us at our table.

"Wait till you hear," he enthused in a voice he
wasn't able to hold down much. his excitement almost
enough to make him bounce where he sat. "Lidra, you
won't believe who's on board this liner!"

"Chal, I'd like you to say hello to Dalisse Imbro,
known to a certain select few as Inky," the giri said
with what was turning out to be usual amusement, her
hand making a graceful gesture in my direction. "She
and I met in the same lucky, accidental way you and
I did. and believe it or not, she's also going to Joe-
lare."

"Well, what a surprise," the man said, turning his
head to give me a nod and a grin. "Someone else
going to the Mists of the Ages. I certainly hope you
suggested we all go together, Lidra. With three of us,
we should have a wonderful time. Now, don't you
giris want to hear the news?"

"What news is that, Chal?" Lidra asked with a
glance toward me, one that had something of a shrug
m it. "From your reaction, I'm ready to believe the
newest Miss Empire is on boaro with us."

"Better than that." Chal answered with a laugh.
apparently too sure of himself to be bothered by teas-
ing. "I just found out that Serendel is on board, some-
thing no one was expecting. He seems to nave picked

64

Sharon Green

up the liner at Forge, the port of call just before
Gryphon."

"Are you serious?" Lidra asked him as she leaned
forward, the widening of her eyes destroying all traces
of the sophisticated woman she had only just started
to show. "Serendel is my absolute favorite, and I'd
kill for an hour alone with him! Chal, are you sure it's

true?"

"He's been seen by any number of people," the
man assured her with confidence, enjoying her reac-
tion as he leaned forward to put his arms on the table.
"Serendel has always been my favorite too, but if /
ever got an hour alone with him, I don't think he'd
enjoy it as much as he would yours. I don't believe
wnat they've published about his diet, and I'd give my
next year's research budget to get a piece of him under
toy cans-field microscope. Under ideal conditions, the
piece would still be attached to him."

"Who are you two talking about?" I interrupted to
ask, mostly to divert Chal from what he'd been say-
ing. If you're a mass murderer and you chop people
up, planetary governments pull out all the stops in an
effort to get you. If you're a research scientist, though.
you can chop up Just about anyone you like, and every
official in sight will smile and nod in approval.

"You can't mean you don't know who Serendel is!"
Lidra said with the next thing to outrage, she and Chal
both looking at me now. "Where could you possibly
have been hiding these last four years? Serendel is the
best of the five triple-gold winners, and most people
believe he'll take the crown this year. Do you know
how few glads have taken the crown after only a tri-
ple?"

"So he's a Rober Tay fighter," I said with no en-
thusiasm at all, lifting my cup of javi before leaning
back in my chair. "I think I have heard something
about him, but I don't pay much attention to arena
doings. I usually have a pretty heavy schedule, and if
I were going to back any of them, it would probably
be Farison."

They continued to stare at me for a few seconds,
their expressions an identical sort of blankness that

MISTS OF THE AGES           65

declared my insanity without words, and then, an in-
stant later, were happily back to being caught up in
their enthusiasm

"How could he have been on the liner for three days
without anyone finding out about it?" Lidra asked
Chal, the ardent worshiper eager for the latest word
about her god. "Everyone in the Empire must know
what he looks like, even if he doesn't happen to be in
fighting leather."

"He must have stayed in his cabin after coming
aboard," Chal answered with a matching eagerness,
the two of them proving that even above-average in-
telligence is often no proof against low-taste diver-
sions. "If he disguised himself on the shuttle up and
had his meals delivered by chute instead of waiter, no
one would have been the wiser. If I know anything at
all about fighters, three days of being locked up gave
him a case of screaming cabin fever. That has to be
why he suddenly showed himself.' *

"But not just ordinary cabin fever," Lidra said in
the tones of revelation, her finger and stare pointing
toward Chal. "If he came aboard in disguise, he could
have come out of his cabin in the same, anonymous
way. If he came out as himself, he must be after some-
thing he can get most easily by being himself! Oh,
Chal, if I only knew where he was!"

"Sony, Lidra, but if you're right, he's already found
what he was looking for," the man replied, his totally
unapologetic expression reinforcing my belief about
those who started sentences with the word "sorry."
"Take a look over there, and you'll see what I mean."

Chal turned his head toward the back of the hall
rather than pointing, and when the girl followed his
gaze she made a sound of deep disappointment. Hav-
ing nothing better to do I looked in that direction as
well, and saw the pretty woman in her red-orange
bodysuit with the ice gems—sitting at a table with the
clumsy hulk who had nearly run me over and crippled
me!

"You don't mean that's your magnificent Seren-
del?" I asked, the sight of him annoying me all over
again. "That big fool with the red hair?"

66 Sharon Green

"Yes, the big fool with the red hair who has every
woman in the room—including me—drooling over
him." Lidra turned back to say, a dangerous edge to
her voice and near-murder in her eyes. "Do you have
any final words you'd like to utter before I kill you
where you sit?"

"Not a one," I came back, returning her stare over
the run of my cup. "If my continued existence de-
pends on my saying something nice about that jerk,
I'd rather keep quiet and have it end."

"You sound as though you have something personal
against him," Chal remarked with obvious curiosity,
his hand patting Lidra's arm in an effort to calm her.
"Don't tell me you were silly enough to bet against
fcim, and now blame him for whatever money you

lost?"

, "Money has nothing to do with it," I answered with
A snort, clanking my cup down on the table. "I was
on my way here for a meal, minding my own business,
when flie damned fool ran right into me. He was so
busy staring at the object of his desire he almost broke
my foot. then had the nerve to insist the collision was
my fault. If he was that hot, he should have had an
escort sent to his cabin."

"I think it's against the laws of the glad guild for
any of them to pay for it." Lidra said in a breathless
sort of way, her eyes wide again. "You mean you
actually came close enough to him to get stepped on?
Why can't / ever have luck like that?"

"Lidra, remember what his fighting weight is,"
Chal put in, chuckling at the face I was making in
response to the girl's ridiculous comment. "If our new
friend here really was stepped on, she's lucky she can
still walk. Just to be on the safe side, after we eat 1*11
check the foot over. And biologically speaking. Inky,
you can't blame him for being that—eager. He really
has no choice in the matter."

"I can blame him for anything I like," I came back,
uninterested in listening to excuses for the man, even
supposed medical ones. "If other men can control
themselves, so can he. The plain fact of the matter is,
fighters don't care to control themselves. They're so

MISTS OF THE AGES          67

used to having women throw themselves all over them,
they get to the point of thinking it's owed them."

"My dear girl, it is owed them," Chal said with a
lot of amusement, leaning back in his chair as he
looked at me. "Our species may have advanced to the
point of conquering the stars, but our genetic refer-
ences are just what they were when we huddled around
tribal fires, fearing the dark and the creatures it held.
Female codes demand that they seek out the strongest
and most successful of the males, to insure as far as
possible the strength and success of their offspring.
Male codes insist that they take the most attractive
females—the definition of attractive varying with cul-
tural needs and biases—and that as often as possible
before they're rendered incapable of adding to the race
through death or crippling. The drive is strongest
among those who face physical danger on a regular
basis, which means, of course, among the glads. The
rest of us know we have time, so we're not driven by
the same urgency. Serendel could die in his very next
challenge, and his body won't let him forget that. I'm
really surprised he was able to hold out for as long as
three days."

"It's too bad / wasn't around when he lost the
fight," Lidra said glumly, elbow on table and face
held in palm. "There aren't many men in this Empire
I would choose to have children by, but he's certainly
one of them. And I want to have my kids soon, while
I'm still young enough to have fun with them. I sup-
pose I'd better face the fact that if Inky couldn't dis-
tract him, I'd have no chance at all unless I used one
of my gadgets. That means you're still at the top of
the list. Chal, so don't forget about applying for leave
after this thing is over. Now that we've finally met,
there's no sense in wasting time."

"I won't forget,'* the man said softly, looking at
the girl with a very faint smile she didn't happen to
-see, and men he was back to looking at me with an-
other expression entirely. "And now that you've men-
tioned it. I wonder why Serendel wasn 't distracted by
Inky. She's attractive enough by any standards you'd
care to use, so why didn't he choose her?'

68 Sharon Green

"Can't we find anything else to talk about?" I
asked, the annoyance I'd been feeling beginning to
reach for new heights. "My reservation in the Mists
calls for a three day tour, what they call a half-week.
I understand that many of the tours are for even less
than that, which doesn't make sense. Why would they
limit a tourist's stay like that?"

"Maybe it has something to do with the constant
fog,** Lidra answered, allowing herself only reluc-
tantly to be distracted from the previous topic. "When
-you leave a day-night schedule—even an artificial
one—for nothing but gray that varies only a little,
something inside you could start getting anxious. Dif-
ferent people are probably able to take the sameness
(or different amounts of time, but maybe most people
ape quick to reach the point of screaming to be let out
and have to work up to being able to take more. Since
the Mists people would like to have you come back
again to tour a different section, they try to get you
out the first time before the screaming starts."

"I hope it's also before the, mold sets in," I mut-
tered, trying to keep my distaste only among the three
of us. "Wandering around in damp, constant fog isn't
my idea of a fun time. no matter what they've done to
pretty it up. I hope you two are in good enough shape
to keep up with the pace I intend setting."

"The pace you'll be setting depends on how the tour
is set up," Lidra told me, her tone of voice back to
being one step above inaudible despite the fact that
her expression hadn't changed. "They'll be sending
us through the section we're booked for, and it has to
have something besides fog. And let's not forget the
contention that it's so compelling some people have
insisted on staying longer. That's one of the points
we're supposed to be verifying."

"Well, if you hear me deciding to stay longer, you
won't have to wonder if they've gotten to me," I told
her, sure she heard the dryness no matter how softly I
was speaking. "At that point you'll know, and hope-
fully will have enough time to yell for help before you
go the same route. It's just too bad any help will be
too far away to help."

MISTS OF THE AGES          69

"But it won't be," she said, and the amusement was
back to lurking in her eyes. "It's highly unlikely that
we'll need them, but a destroyer stuffed with Empire
shock troops won't be far from the planet while we're
on it. If it turns out we do need them, all we have to
do is call. For you, that consists of covering all three
of the jewels in your ring, then pressing down on them
three times in a row in rapid succession. You do it
nine times with a ten second pause between each set
of three, and before you know it the place is being
overrun. Chal and I have different means, but the re-
sults will be the same. Our friends don't want to lose
any of us, not if they can possibly help it."

"That certainly does make me feel loved," I com-
mented, experiencing a need to say something about
the awe and gratitude with which I was being filled.
The field agent who had given me the ring must have
known about its additional ability, but he hadn't men-
tioned it. Either he was counting on Lidra to give me
all the data I needed—which is one hell of a way to
design a briefing—or he didn't care to see me too over-
burdened with unnecessary knowledge. When you trust
someone, you don't tend to pick over the available
information before passing it on, which said quite a
lot about how far S.I. trusted me.

"Now I know why Serendel didn't choose Inky,"
Chal said suddenly, his light eyes filled with the sat-
isfaction of a puzzle solved. "I've been seeing it all
along, but only just now noticed it when her expres-
sion changed. I think the best words I can use to de-
scribe it are innocent and wholesome."

"Watch it, Chal," Lidra warned with a laugh. "As
close as she is, if she throws that cup at you she's not
likely to miss. I can see what you mean about the way
she looks, but what does it have to do with Serendel?
Is he supposed to be turned off by innocence and
wholesomeness? * *

"If all those articles are right about his sense of
decency, he is," my almost-target answered with a
grin, keeping an eye on the cup I still held without
letting it discourage his fun time. "If a man has any
standards at all, one of the firmest will be on the point

70 Sharon Green

of 'mining' a 'nice* giri. If he gets serious about that
nice giri, that's another story, but if all he's looking
for is horizontal exercise, he* 11 choose an already ex-
perienced female. If you look at it right, his rejection
of Inky could mean he's really quite attracted to her."

"Chal, that's disgusting," I told him while Lidra
laughed, failing to see what they both found so amus-
ing. "I may like my men big, but I also insist that
they have personalities and intelligence. Since the
mighty Serendel doesn't qualify on those last two
points, he can be attracted in someone else's direction.
As for me, I think I can use a nap to make up for the
sleep I lost hurrying to catch this liner. Maybe by the
time I wake up, you two will be ready to talk about
something other than your favorite fighter."

"Haven't you checked your planetary-destination
schedule yet?'* Lidra asked as I started to get out of
my chair, a faint amusement still with her. "If you
shift over right now, what you just ate was dinner,
with a night's sleep ahead of you. Chal and I are al-
ready on the schedule, and we were going to spend
some time in the game rooms after our own dinner.
Why don't you join us, and turn in for the night later?"

"Thanks anyway, but I don't think so." I said,
really in no mood to be entertained. If I'd still been on
Gryphon I could have done some work during that
night, but liner nights are good for nothing but sleep.
"If I don't get my rest I stop looking pure and whole-
some, and that would be a crime against humanity or
something. Suppose I meet you two here for break-
fast?"

"Maybe a good night's sleep and a fortifying break-
fast will bring you back to your senses," Lidra said,
the gleam in her eye downright evil. "Anyone who
thinks Farison would have a chance against Serendel
needs something to bring them back to reality."

Chal laughed outright at that, but all I did was shake
my head and turn away without saying anything else.
Glad-groupies are impossible to argue with, and I
should have known better than to even think about
trying. What I wanted right then wasn't an argument,
but me privacy of my small cabin. I needed some time

MISTS OF THE AGES          71

alone to curse everyone who thought I was sweet or
wholesome or innocent-looking—or still hadn't grown
up—and to think about what I would do first once I
had gotten back to Gryphon. I strode out of the dining
hall, trying to decide which of the Twi Houses I would
do best allying with, and thought nothing further about
all the people I'd seen hovering around the area where
Serendel sat, happily drinking in the sight of him.

Chapter 5

The next ship's morning found me wide awake and
feeling really good, which lasted until I met Lidra and
Chal in the dining hall. They'd taken a larger table not
far from where we'd sat the night before, about fifteen
feet from the right-hand wall window which now
snowed a violently spectacular vista of volcanic erup-
tions. My two new acquaintances were paying more
attention to their food than to the supplied scenery,
but when I came up to the table they actually took a
second or two out to smile and nod.

"Morning, Inky," Lidra said around a mouthful of
cereal as I sat. "There isn't much time, so you'd bet-
ter order and eat as fast as you can."

"She can order fast, but you'll have to let her take
her time with the eating," Chal put in, the words more
of an order than a comment. "She won't enjoy it very
much if she has indigestion, which is what you'll get
if you don't stop swallowing without tasting. And by
the way. Inky, how's your foot feeling this morning?
I didn't get a chance to look at it last night the way I
wanted to."

"My foot is fine," I answered as I ordered juice
and javi and two slices of pro-pure. "I know you're
probably disappointed, but they won't be able to add
me to your idol's maim stats. And what am I supposed
to be hurry ing-but-not-hurrying for?"

"If she takes her time eating, she'll miss the open-
ing warm-ups," Lidra said to Chal, ignoring the ques-
tion I'd asked. "Even more to the point, we'll miss
them. If we don't stay here until she's through and
72

MISTS OF THE AGES          73

then drag her along, do you think she'll go anywhere
near the gym?"

"Getting her sick won't help in changing her mind,"
Chal returned as he took another spoonful of his soft-
boiled eggs, obviously unimpressed with Lidra's ar-
guments. "And speaking about getting sick, you
really will have to add to your breakfast order, Inky.
Pro-pure isn't a food, it's a supplement—and an arti-
ficial one at that. If you don't want to die from mal-
nutrition, what you need in your body is rood."

"Food doesn't do well in my body while I'm work-
ing out, Chal," I answered with a sweet, innocent
smile as I looked at him. "Throwing up isn't my idea
of fan, and the pro-pure is all protein with enough
electrolytes to get me through the session. After that
I'll be able to eat all the greasy hot-fries and grilled
meat-rounds I like. And what's supposed to be hap-
pening in the gym?"

They immediately began choking, Lidra with laugh-
ter and Chal with outraged indignation, the result of
trying to talk and swallow both at the same time. A
waiter came over with my order while they were still
fighting to stop coughing, so I was able to drink my
juice without being bothered. By the time I put the
emptied glass aside and reached for the first slice of
pro-pure, though, Chal had recovered enough to be
able to split his stem-stare between Lidra and me.

"You don't have to encourage her, Lidra," the gid
was told, an obvious effort to banish her continuing
amusement. "If she starts thinking what she said was
cute and clever, she might even go so far as to try it.
Inky—Dalisse—I know you're not a child, so I won't
spend time lecturing you. All I'll say is that what we're
about to do is very important, too important for any
of us not to be in peak condition. To be sure of that
I'll order all of our meals from now on, and then none
of us will have to worry."

"The hell you will," I countered as Lidra almost
choked again, the good mood I'd been in beginning to
thin in the presence of his "helpful" attitude. "You,
more than anyone else, should know, Chal, that spe-
cies survival depends most heavily on the ability to

74

Sharwt Green

adapt. Anyone can keep going on the best and health-
iest foods available, but it takes true survival ability
to thrive on the junk food most prevalent in our society
today. If you're interested in continuing on with the
rest of the species, my friend, you'd better hurry up
and start adapting."

Chal stared at me wordlessly with his mouth moving
just a little, but Lidra put her head back and laughed
like hell. I didn't know if she was laughing at what
l*d said or at the way Cnal was taking it, but it didn't
really matter. This time I was able to finish the slice
of pro-pure and half my javi in relative peace, and then
Chal managed to pull himself together.

"That has to be one of the most ridiculous argu-
ments I've ever heard,*' he stated, annoyed with Lid-
it's ongoing chuckling, but apparently determined to
ignore it. "You can't possibly believe that any more
dum I do, and even beyond that . . ."

"What has belief got to do with truth?" I inter-
rupted to ask. still blandly innocent. ' 'If I jump off the
top of the Empire building on Gryphon while believing
I can fly, will that stop me from splattering when I hit
the pavement? Some things can be affected by belief,
but Ultimate Truth isn't one of them. And isn't eating
right considered to be an Ultimate Truth?"

"I always thought it was just plain good sense,"
Chal came back, finally understanding that the
straighter he played it, the worse off he would be. "I
can prove it's good sense by the kind of physical shape
I'm in, which happens to be excellent. Can you and
your Ultimate Truth say the same?"

"Well, I am a little on the underdeveloped side," I
admitted with a sigh that caused dial's eyes to briefly
flicker down from my face to the top of my bodysuit.
"That's why I work out, to see if I can't improve on
the physical shape I'm in. If you and your good sense
think you're in better condition than me and my Ulti-
mate Truth, why don't we test the theory by working
out together for a while? You may have noticed I al-
ready have on my exercise bodysuit."

"Don*t be silly, of course he hasn't noticed," Lidra
said with a small laugh that brought a grin to Chal.

MISTS OF THE AGES          75

r
<<•,

"Why would he notice a skin-tight black suit that
seems to be promising to go transparent if it's stared
at for a while? And don't try to tell me you're wearing
anything under that. If you were, you wouldn't have
brought that large an eyeball collection to the table
with you. Or are you going to pretend you didn't no-
tice all the stares when you walked in?"

"As a matter of fact, I didn't," I said, feeling the
least bit uncomfortable over the way Lidra was teasing
me. "Getting stared at sometimes is just one of those
things that happen. As long as it doesn't happen at the
wrong time, there's no sense in making a fuss over it.
But I still don't have an answer to my question. Are
you up to working out with me, Chal?"

"With Lidra sitting here right next to me. I refuse
to answer that question," he came back, his grin and
words making the giri chuckle again. "Whether or not
I'll join you in the gym is another matter entirely. I
can't see any reason not to join you—except for the
fact that there probably won't be any room for us to
work out, together or individually. The crowds will be
too thick.'*

"That's the reason I was trying to hurry you," Lidra
said, her amusement finally withdrawn in favor of faint
wariness, possibly due to the frown I could feel myself
wearing. "Someone else will be working out in the
gym this morning, and if half the ship doesn't show
up to watch, you can bet they're nothing less than
dead. Seeing it on the specials is nothing like seeing
it when you're right there."

"Don't tell me," I said, my tone so flat it could
have been used to land a shuttle on. "Your idol is
putting on a show for the benefit of the lowly masses,
and you can't wait to ooh and ahh. I hate to tell you
this, but I left every one of my hoorays back on
Gryphon, right next to my yays and lookatthats. I think
you two had better count on going without me."

"But we won't do that," Lidra came back, a sleek
assurance edging aside the wariness she no longer
seemed to need. "We're supposed to be a team, and
teams like ours should stay together while they're
learning each other. If you end up in the sticky, it

76 Sharon Green

helps to know what to expect from the people around
you. We can't get to know each other if you keep
going your own way, so this time you'll go ours- If
It'll make you feel any better, you can criticize Ser-
endel while we defend him—if you can find anything
about him to criticize."

"We won't be together long enough for me to list
everything there is to criticize about him," I coun-
tered, just to let her know I was taking her up on her
offer. The girl was right about our needing to leam to
know one another, especially when our lives could
conceivably depend on that knowledge. I had experi-
ence going out with teams, and didn't have to be told
how important it was to know beforehand which way
everyone would jump if the stroke went sour. "And
you sound as though you've worked with strangers be-
fore," I added after a moment.

"I certainly have," she said with a grimace, reach-
ing for her cup ofjavi. "If the first time hadn't been
against intellectual types rather than heavies, it could
also have been the last time. My teammate was sup-
posed to be the best with computers ever born, an
opinion he managed to slip into every conversation we
had, and he did seem to have very little trouble crack-
ing the access code of our targets once I got him past
the electronics they had on guard. The only problem
was, when someone unexpectedly showed up in the
offices, I turned around to find him gone, leaving me
to get out or get caught on my own."

"What did you do?" Chal demanded, his frown
showing more than faint disapproval. "If I'd been
there, he would have needed specialists once I caught
up with him."

"He almost needed them when / caught up with
him," Lidra returned with a snort, sharing his feeling.
"If he'd stayed he couldn't have helped, but at least
he would have made me feel less abandoned. What 1
did at the time, though, was the only thing I could do:

I turned invisible."

"Now, that's a trick I'd like to learn," I said with
a grin, pushing aside the empty pro-pure plate to lean
my forearms on the table. "Some people will swear I

MISTS OF THE AGES          77

already know how, but there's a difference between
talent and true invisibility. Are you into giving les-
sons?"

"I'm afraid lessons won't do it," she said with a
laugh, only glancing at the odd expression on ChaTs
face. It was part amusement and part admiration, but
his mad against her former partner was still there as
well. "One of my gadgets caused the invisibility, but
it's really very simple to build. It's based on the prin-
ciple used by privacy curtains, but generates a 180
degree reflecting surface rather than simply distorting
a preset field of vision. Designing the function is easy
when you compare it to the time you need to spend
recircuiting, but even the recircuiting only takes about
a week."

"Oh, is that all it takes," I said in a way that made
Chal laugh as I sat back again. "If I'd known it was
that easy, I would have done it years ago."

"Well, you should have asked me," she said with
a smoothly innocent expression, taking the teasing bet-
ter than I had. "I wouldn't have minded telling you.
Are we all ready to go now? If we wait much longer,
we won't even get in the doors."

I groaned at the reminder and reluctantly finished
the last of my javi, then got to my feet under protest
and let them drag me out. There were any number of
things I'd rather have been doing instead of watching
a fighter work out, but if it was that important to my
new teammates it would hardly kill me to go along
with them. With the number of people bound to be
there it wasn't likely I was in danger of needing to
speak to the big fool, after all, and once he had left
and had taken his admirers with him, I'd be able to
use the gym for my own workout.

There was a thin stream of people moving through
the main corridor heading for the gym. so we simply
joined them and went with the flow. The overwide
double doors of the room were standing open when we
got there, and we entered to see that half the ship re-
ally had shown up. An area of about twenty feet by
twenty had been roped off to the far left of the gym,
and the buzz of the crowd surrounding the area

78

Sharon Green

sounded child-level excited. There was enough room
left over for a couple of people to be involved in their
own workouts, but even as we came to a stop to the
right of the incoming flow of new arrivals, one of those
exercising gave it up to go and wait with those who
had come for a show.

"Oh, good, he hasn't gotten here yet," Lidra said
in a low voice, eyeing the crowd with excitement of
her own. "Remember to stay as close to me as you
can, you two, but don't go past the line of my shoul-
dcra. I*!! be using a hemispherical repellent field to get
as as for front as we want to go, and you're best off
Btxying out of it. It won't hurt you, but it's everyone
else we want to make uncomfortable enough to move,
not one of us."

1 "I'm glad to see you come well-enough equipped to
get toe-job done," I commented, having no intentions
whatsoever of asking her what a repellent field was.
••It*s a good thing this isn't a real vacation, or you
might have gotten caught short."

"I make it a practice never to leave home without
the essentials," she answered with a smugness Chal
and I both found funny, waving one hand in airy dis-
missal. "I was tempted to leave some of it behind in
my cabin on the chance that Serendel might look my
way, but mat sort of off-again on-again poundage is
too hard to explain. I guess I'll have to settle for me
looking at him. Are we ready to move?"

"Why don't you two go ahead, and I'll join you
once he gets here?" I suggested, having taken a min-
ute to look around the unoccupied part of the gym. "I
really hate standing in crowds doing nothing, and I see
a mat over there where I can get some loosening up
in. Then once the show is over, Chal and I can see
which of us follows the most profitable eating regi-
men."

"But if we go ahead without you, how will you
get through?" Lidra asked, turning to glance at the
waiting spectators. "People like that sometimes get
huffy if all you do is try to crowd them. An attempt
to get ahead of them is usually considered a capital
crime."

MISTS OF THE AGES          79

"Only for those who don't know how to move
through crowds," I said with all the assurance she
seemed to need, at the same time giving her a grin.
"The man who raised me had a lot of friends, and
they all felt they were under some kind ofgeas to teach
me everything they could of their various specialties,
even if I never intended using any of it. Every one of
them considered me a star pupil, so I don't mink you
have to worry."

"I guess I'll just have to take your word for it,"
she grudged, but was already on the way to matching
my grin. "And if it does work out right, maybe you
could give me some lessons. That way I can think
about catching Serendel's eye next time."

She gave me a small wave and then headed off" with
Chal following, which meant I was able to aim my
own steps toward the deserted mat to the right of the
doorway, not too far from the wall. This comer of the
gym looked almost bare, with nothing but mats and
climbing ropes and wall peg lifters and such between
a couple of private-looking doors. The more sophisti-
cated equipment was over near where the exhibition
would take place, and a lot of it had people sitting or
standing on its benches and frames to allow them a
better view. It was a pure waste of good equipment,
but happily I didn't need it just for loosening up.

I walked to the center of the mat and immediately
bent over, stretching my arms down to where my palms
were flat on the rough surface I stood on, then sending
them back between my ankles as I stretched even
lower. For some reason I was remembering how Seero
used to tease me when I said I had to loosen up, in-
sisting that I didn't have to, I only wanted to. I started
out with the flexibility most people had to work up to,
he'd always told me, and then went on from there to
places most, including him, couldn't reach. I could
almost hear him chuckling as he watched, telling me
my palms-to-the-floor handicap ought to be my having
to stand on two-inch-high blocks. . . .

I straightened up and then folded into sitting on the
mat, trying to drive those thoughts away from me. It
had been a long time since I'd last stopped to feel my

80

Sharon Green

loss, to send out my need for the close companionship
and warm support I'd known for all those years—only
to find the usual place of it forever emptied. Seero had
always been there for me, always, and like a silly child
I'd assumed he always would be. I couldn't yet cope
with the thought of his being gone, not on an emo-
tional level, so I hadn't even tried. All I'd done had
been to look at those who had thrown his life away,
and swear they would feel the same loss they'd given
me, the same helplessness while knowing exactly what
was happening. I needed to get on with fulfilling that
vow even more than I needed to breathe, but there I
sat, on my way to investigating something utterly un-
important, wasting the time I should be spending on
what was really vital . . .

I took a deep breath, spread my legs and stretched
iny body down to the mat left, right and center, then
bent my legs back at the knees so that my heels were
dose to my thighs. Letting all that burning impatience
get the better of me would be stupid, most especially
since there wasn't anything I could do about it just
then. For the most pan I'd have to wait it out, but if
Lidra thought I'd be letting the tour people set my pace
in the Mists, she wasn't as bright as she was supposed
to be. Ours would be the fastest tour in the history of
the Mists of the Ages, and that would include finding
and breaking into their headquarters building.

Slowly, using muscle control, I began letting my
body bend backward toward the mat. Lying flat while
your legs are bent at the knees gives strength and
stretch to your thigh muscles and tone to your body,
and isn't anywhere near as painful as some people
claim. You may be able to feel some strain if you pay
attention to it, but relaxing is easier if you look at
something else while you're doing it. I looked up at
the gym ceiling hanging a full thirty feet above me,
seeing the network of narrow and wide metal beams
spanning the room about ten feet below that, con-
sciously relaxing my muscles once I was flat down on
the mat. I intended staying like that only a minute or
two before raising myself again just as slowly, but

MISTS OF THE AGES          81

suddenly something besides the ceiling appeared high
above me.

I didn't know where he'd come from, but from my
place on the mat he looked almost as tall as the net-
work of beams I'd been inspecting. He was dressed in
nothing but the heavy leather of a fighter, knee-high
boots, narrow groin-cover, wide brown chest plate,
bracers from wrist to elbow, and a brow-band. Around
his waist was a swordbelt, and at his side hung a leg-
endary multi-blade, the weapon allowed only to the
best of the besi. Gtads started out with uniswords,
worked at mastering them, then, if they lived, moved
on to trithrusters. You had to be a double-gold winner
at the very least in order to merit a multi-blade, and
Serendel was supposed to be the best of the three-cir-
clet winners. He put his fingertips to his swordbelt as
he looked down at me, and faint amusement filled his
cold gray eyes.

"I think I understand now why you blundered into
me yesterday," he said, his wide-legged stance an ar-
rogant challenge even when his words were nothing
but mild. "If you do that on any sort of a regular
basis, it's a miracle you can ever walk straight."

"Since you were the one who ran into me, I wonder
what your excuse is," I retorted, staying down just for
the hell of it. Some people claim that simply watching
others do the stretch is painful, and if Serendel was
one of those, he deserved every twitch. "Maybe you
ought to trade in your equipment for a sonic tapping
cane."

"If I were blind, I wouldn't have been in so much
of a hurry that I couldn't have kept you from tripping
under my feet," he returned, that long red mustache
rising slightly with the increase of his amusement.
"And if you've come to watch the show, little giri,
remember what I said about staying back away from
me. Someone with balance as bad as yours needs all
the distance from danger she can get."

He turned and walked away then, coming up on the
crowd from a direction they obviously hadn't been ex-
pecting him to appear, and I was so mad I sat up again
without taking it slow. Someone with balance as bad

82 Sharon Green

as mine? From a man who couldn't be trusted not to
stampede in the middle of a group of innocent people?
He had a hell of a lot of nerve making cracks about
me, especially in view of the way everyone stepped
back out of his path, opening a broad aisle for him to
stomp up. That was the sort of thing he was used to,
people scrambling to get out of his way, and too bad
about anyone who didn't.

I sat there on the mat with my fists to my thighs,
fuming mad, watching as the crowd closed up behind
him before surging forward a very little bit- They
couldn't wait for the big show to start, the sort of
exhibition of skill a top fighter put on even when he
was only warming up or practicing. It was too bad
nothing was likely to interrupt that exhibition, making
Urn look like the stumbling incompetent he was.

**You*d better stay back away from me," I mim-
icked in a mutter, hot enough to boil over. "Remem-
ber what I said about that.''

What he'd said was twenty feet, but if he'd asked
my opinion, I wouldn't have settled for less than a
hundred. Twenty feet was a good deal closer than I
ever wanted to be to him, unless it was to watch him
hang by the neck from a rope—

The thought broke off as another one came to me.
an idea that brought a sudden grin to my face. So he
wanted me to stay twenty feet away from him, did he?
I raised my head slowly to look up at the network of
metal beams above me, thought about it for at least
ten seconds, then smoothly rose to my feet.

The crowd had already started their oohing and ahh-
ing and applauding as I turned to look for a climbing
rope, showing that the big hero bad undoubtedly be-
gun warming up. I knew I'd promised to join Lidra
and Chal as soon as that happened, but maybe they'd
be satisfied if all I did was spot them and wave. They
wouldn't be able to claim I hadn't watched the work-
out the way I'd said I would, because my seat was
going to be the best one in the house.

The climbing ropes were anchored into the ceiling,
so all I had to do was choose the one that fell closest
to the metal framework and unhook the bottom of it

MISTS OF THE AGES          83

from the wall. It was a heavy rope that looked sturdy
enough, but I still hung my full weight from it for a
minute while I was close enough to the ground that a
fall wouldn't matter. Seero had taught me to distrust
everyone's rigging but my own, and not to expect mir-
acles even then. Things can happen even to an un-
breakable line, and if you don't really believe that,
you'll never find it possible to be prepared.

The climbing rope seemed as solidly anchored as
possible, so I began pulling myself up it, hand over
hand. It didn't take long to reach the framework the
rope hung beside, and swinging over to it with my legs
was also no problem. The metal beam was a narrow
one, no more than a couple of inches wide, but I'd
walked smaller and with a lot less light. I stood with
the help of a ceiling-set comer brace, glad that the
framework was as steady with me on it as it looked
from below, then started moving toward the brace on
the other side. The metal was hard under my feet and
a little too smooth, but I still made it all the way with-
out slipping.

When I reached the second brace I took a minute to
look down, which confirmed the fact that no one had
spotted me yet. Everyone's eyes were locked to Ser-
endel, watching with fanatic pleasure as he swung his
multi-sworo on its lowest setting, moving through a
glad drill that was meant to warm him up. The drill
demanded grace rather than strength, finesse rather
than attack, and watching him it was almost possible
to believe he'd negated most of his own weight as well
as his sword's. Most big men weren't that quick—
which is not the same as being fast—and I thought I
could see why so many people expected so many great
things from him.

But none of that changed my own intentions. The
man wanted me at least twenty feet away from him,
so that's what he would get. Past the brace I held to
was a triple line of metal framework, three times the
width of what I'd walked and more than wide enough
for what I planned. I swung around the brace to its
other side, got both feet onto the triple beam and then,
with my arms only a small distance from my sides,

84

Sharon Green

walked to the spot I'd been aiming for all along. It
was about two-thirds of the way along the beam, and
when I got there I bent carefully, then stretched myself
out along the metal.

Grandstanding on a beam that high off the ground
isn't very smart, but as I pretended to make myself
comfortable on my right side, I knew that right then I
preferred feeling satisfied to feeling intelligent. The
fighter was about ten feet ahead of my position and
twenty feet down, which, if I remembered my school
math correctly, meant I was a little better than twenty-
two feet away from him. Since I'd done just what he'd
asked me to, he couldn't very well complain, could

he?

Everyone applauded when Serendel finished his
worn-ups, and then gasped in delight when the fighter
whirled his sword over his head to reset its weight.
the jewels in its finger-guard blazed with a light that
was almost life, and everyone watching undoubtedly
wondered exactly how much weight the sword was
now being allowed to manifest. During multi-blade
combats the glads themselves usually had that ques-
tion, wondering just how much it would take to stop
the strike coming at them. It wasn't unknown for a
fighter to defend against an attack that seemed to have
everything behind it, only to find that the multi-sword
striking his was set at minimum and therefore was im-
mediately bouncing off. What usually happened after
that was seeing his opponent ride the bounce away in
an arc that brought the sword back faster than he could
defend against, most often with maximum weight re-
turned to it, and that ended the bout in a bloody and
very final way. Knowing when to change the weight
of the sword, how much to change it, and performing
the changeovers smoothly were skills the fighters
worked very hard to master; those who made it sur-
vived and prospered, while those who didn't had their
names added to the lists of the fallen.

I was leaning on my right elbow and supporting my
head with the hand, watching with supposed fiul at-
tention while I kept my balance with my left hand on
the beam, when someone finally spotted me. One of

MISTS OF THE AGES           85

the people on the far side of the crowd happened to
glance up, did a double take, then started nudging oth-
ers around him as he pointed. Even more eyes began
coming to me then, the nudging and pointing spread-
ing left and right away from its starting point, and
before very long it had migrated around the circle to
those who stood with their backs to me. When more
and more people began turning around, looking up and
gasping, it finally came to the star of the exhibition
that he was losing his audience. He finished a run-
through of a series of attacks and counters, frowned
when he saw how many people had their backs to him,
then finally looked up.

"By the five-pointed crown of Lethen Highwin-
ner!" the fighter blurted, letting his point fall almost
to the deck plates as he saw me. "What in hell are
you doing up there?"

"I'm watching the show," I called back, making
sure I didn't let the speaking shift me off balance.
"You did tell me to stay at least twenty feet away from
you, and this was the only way I could do it and still
get to see something. That isn't all you're going to be
doing, is it?"

"Get the hell down from there before you fall and
break your neck!" the magnificent Serendel ordered in
a growl, resheathing his sword before putting his fists
to his hips. "How in the name of sanity did you get
up there in the first place?"

"I used a climbing rope," I answered^ innocently,
moving my head in the general direction of where the
rope still hung. "If heights bother you, you don't have
to look at me, you know. Just turn your back and pre-
tend I'm somewhere underfoot, and then you'll be able
tp get on with your practice.*'

The man's head came up in annoyance as most of
the crowd chuckled, his appreciation of my comment
a lot less than theirs. They were interested and amused
because they thought I was challenging the fighter, the
way any number of misguided fools did with glads on
a more or less regular basis. What only the fighter
himself realized was that I was answering a challenge.

86 Sharon Green

not offering one, and he didn't seem to care for it
much.

"You're not interested in coming down right now?"
he asked once the laughter had quieted, his tone sud-
denly as smooth as the glint in his eyes. "Well, in
that case there's something that should be taken care
of, and since you're way up there, I'll see to it for
you."

I didn't understand what he was talking about any
more than the other people in the room, but they got
out of his way fast enough when he stepped over the
rope around his practice area and began striding across
the floor. I sat up on the beam, shifted my feet under
me before standing carefully, then turned to walk back
me way I*d come. I had a very strong hunch I needed
to be back to where I'd started from as fast as humanly
possible, and when I reached the end brace I saw I'd
been right but was already too late. The miserable fiend
had i^ached the climbing rope before I got to the brace,
and even as I watched he finished hooking it tight to
the wall in its original position. Pulled that far out of
line I couldn't reach it from the framework of beams,
something my adversary had known would happen
even before he'd done it.

"There we are, now everything's neat and tidy,'*
he said as he turned from the wall, looking up to send
me the faintest of grins. "Leaving a rope just hanging
down like that can cause someone to get hurt, and I
really hate seeing people get hurt. You be sure and let
me know as soon as you're ready to come down, and
we'll see about untying that rope again."

This time the laughter was in support of him, half a
dozen people going so far as to applaud as well. The
upstart's challenge to their hero had been answered
with style, and the foolish female would be stuck up
on the beams for as long as he wanted her there. They
also seemed to be hoping he would make her ask him
nicely before he let her down, and I really did feel
sony that their hopes would end up being dashed. The
foolish female would have stayed in the metalwork
until she died of thirst and hunger before asking their

MISTS OF THE AGES           87

hero for anything, but happily for her, staying and dy-
ing weren't going to be necessary.

Serendel had already turned and started back to his
practice area when I swung around the brace, then be-
gan walking the single beam back toward the center
of it. I couldn't afford to spare attention for anything
but what I was doing and planned to do, but I heard
the muttering and gasps of the crowd telling me they
were still watching. The highest point I'd ever for-
mally dismounted from was fifteen feet, but I knew
there had been an informal time or two when I'd bet-
tered that. I hadn't had the opportunity to measure back
then, but if twenty feet was more than I could handle,
I*d certainly find out soon enough.

By the time I reached the center of the beam, I had
driven all doubt away, setting myself fimuy into the
proper confidence and concentration for dismounting.
I had all the room and time I needed, all the balance
and ability, so I turned head on in the center of the
beam, kicked off it backward, caught it with my hands
as I dropped, then sent myself swinging below and
past it into the empty, open air.

I don't think dismounting will ever stop making me
feel as though I can fly. Flipping over in the air slows
your rate of descent and gives you control of the drop,
but while you're doing it you feel as though you don't
have to land, you're simply doing it because you've
decided to. I turned twice in the air and twisted, and
then I was down on the mat I'd been stretching on,
my landing crouch a little deeper than proper form
approves of, but doing nothing to keep me from stay-
ing erect. Once I was sure I would continue that way,
I turned my head toward my trusty opponent.

"I think I'd like to come down now," I said, work-
ing to sound as helpless as possible. "Would you
please see about untying the rope?"

Serendel was frozen in place less than ten feet way,
everyone else silent and gawping behind him, and then
the cheering and applause erupted, making it sound
like there were a thousand people in the room. I wasn't
used to being cheered and applauded—audiences tend
to be minimal or absent entirely when I perform--and

88

Sharon Green

I was so distracted by die unexpected enthusiasm that
Serendel was standing right in front of me before I
even knew he'd moved.

"I have to ask you to forgive me for the boorish
way I've been insulting you," he said, looking down
at me with an odd expression in those cold gray eyes.
"I can see now our collision couldn't have been any-
one's fault but mine, which means I must offer a be-
lated apology. From now on, please feel free to come
as dose to me as you like."

If I'd been distracted a minute eariier by the cheer-
tog and applause, his apologizing sent me into virtual
shock- Never in a million years had I expected him to
say something like that, which is most likely the rea-
son he had my hand before I so much as realized he'd
taken it. I felt the touch of shock again, only stronger,
when be actually bent over it and kissed it, and it was
afi I could do to keep from staring after him like a
gaping idiot when he turned to go back to his practice
area. Never in my life had I seen anything like that-
net to mention having it done to me—and it took a
minute to realize that Lidra and Chal hadn't followed
the crowd back to where it had come from.

"So that's what it takes to get his attention," Lidra
said, her amusement still very much with her. "The
equivalent of diving off a rooftop. Okay, no prob-
lem. Next time it'll be my turn to be kissed."

"Before or after you get out of traction?" Chal
asked with a chuckle, looking at me with very bright
eyes. "Inky here was obviously born to fly, but we
lesser mortals have to make do with being chained to
the ground. And in case you were wondering. Inky,
our competition date is off. If that's the kind of shape
eating greasy hot-fries and meat-rounds puts you in, I
don't even want to know what decent food would do.
The Empire isn't yet ready for the perfect woman."

"Why, Chal, I thought you said / was the perfect
woman," Lidra protested with pretend insult, her pout
just about as believable as her claim, her hand com-
ing up to take his arm. "If the Empire isn't yet ready
for me, whatever will I do with my time?"

MISTS OF THE AGES          89

"We'll figure something out." the man reassured
her with a grin, patting the hand that held to his ami.
"But until we do, we still have an exercise session to
watch. Are you ready. Inky? With the sort of personal
invitation you were given, you won't need Lidra*s re-
pellent field to get you right up to the front line."

"Why don't you two go ahead without me," I sug-
gested, for some reason very embarrassed by what had
happened. "I don't find much interest in watching
other people exercise, and it would be rude if he caught
me yawning in boredom. He apologized for that mis-
understanding yesterday, you know."

"For the—'misunderstanding,' " Lidra said dryly,
apparently trying to hide some son of new amusement.
"Yes. we know, we saw him do it. Don't you just
love the way fighters apologize? It makes you want to
start an argument, just to give him another chance to
do it. If you're sure you don't want to come with us.
meet us later in the dining hall for lunch. We can tell
you how it went over a nutritious meal of hot-fries and
meat-rounds."

I smiled and nodded while Chal laughed, and then
we separated to go our individual ways. I left the gym
and got back to my cabin as quickly as possible, then
sat down in a chair to look at the hand that had been
kissed. It was such an odd feeling to have been treated
like that, to have been made to feel that I'd been raised
in palaces rather than on the dusk side of respectabil-
ity. I'd never regret the way I'd been raised or what
Seero had taught me, but somehow I wished we had
lived more often among those who inhabited palaces,
so that I would have learned what to do when a man
kissed my hand. There had to be something to do be-
sides standing there staring like a moron, but I suppose
it takes time and experience to learn what,

I folded my legs under me and leaned back in the
chair, regretting the fact that we'd be getting to Joelare
in less than another two ship's days. If the time were
going to be longer I would have seriously considered
Serendel's offer, but with no more than a day and a
half to woik with, all I could do was forget it. My co-
workers and I had things to do on Joelare, and after

90                   Sharon Green

that I had things of my own to occupy me on Gryphon.
That meant I would be wisest avoiding all contact with
Serendel for the rest of the trip, to keep from starting
something I might not want to see end.

I sighed as I closed my eyes, called up a picture of
the man in his fighting leathers to look at, and spent
some time wondering if I would ever see him again.

Chapter 6

The rest of our time on the liner went by as quickly
as I'd known it would, and my only major chore turned
out to be putting up with Lidra's teasing. She under-
stood well enough why I'd decided against getting in-
volved with Serendel; it would be more than awkward
if the fighter decided to pay my way to wherever he
was going, just to give us more time together. Fighters
did that sort of thing on a regular basis with women
they found attractive, and what kind of excuse could I
use as a reason for refusing? Previous reservations?
He'd be sure to insist on paying me back for them.
Lack of interest? Then why did I get involved with
him in the first place? No, the only option I had was
to stay away from the man, that or tell him what we'd
be up to on Joelare.

Since Lidra understood the point at least as well as
I did, she didn't let herself be more than disappointed
that she and Chal would not be introduced to the fighter
the way they'd been looking forward to. What she did
do, though, was give me a detailed description of all
Serendel's public movements, including the fact that
there were times he seemed to be surreptitiously
searching the crowds around him. This, to Lidra, was
Highly Significant, an action she didn't hesitate to in-
terpret.

"He's obviously looking for you," she proclaimed
once, delighted to be privy to limited, inside infor-
mation. "Every time I see the poor thing doing it, my
heart goes out to him.**

"I'll bet that's not all you'd like to have going out
91

92

Sharon Green

to him,*' I couldn't help saying, her pious pity quickly
getting to be more than annoying. "And chances are
what he's really looking for is that elegant female he
appropriated the first day out of his cabin."

"Why would he be looking for her?" the very in-
nocent question came, changing Chal's grin to chuck-
ling. "She showed up at that first practice right after
you left, carved entirely out of smug self-satisfaction
and obviously thinking she was making an entrance.
When no one even glanced at her she started getting
annoyed, but when she tried to get through the crowd
and no one would let her by, she went furious. I didn't
have a directional pick-up handy, so I couldn't hear
what she said, but she must have convinced the people
around her that she was entitled to be in front because
she was sleeping with the guy. They must have be-
lieved her because they finally let her through."

"But not very willingly," Chal added, laughing
softiy at the memory. "I don't think they would have
minded if it had been you trying to get past them, and
some of them actually seemed to resent her. After that
she gave up on the entrances, and strutted into places
on Serendel's arm."

"Why do you people feel you have the right to ap-
prove or disapprove of your hero's personal life?" I
asked, suddenly resentful of the supporter mentality.
"He didn't ask any of you to support him, so what
gives you the right to tell him who he should or
shouldn't be sleeping with? Unless one of you is
scheduled to be his bed stand-in, it's really none of
your business."

"But of course it is," Chal answered at once, beat-
ing Lidra to it, neither of them the least bit insulted.
"His being as good as he is forced us to be his sup-
porters, and now that he belongs to us we want nothing
but the best for him. He's entitled to it, you see, and
if he doesn't find it for himself, we don't mind helping
out. It's the least we can do in appreciation of what
he does for us.'*

"And since we female fans can't have him for our-
selves. we're damned well going to see him with
someone we can stomach," Lidra said, one hand

MISTS OF THE AGES          93

smoothing her purple-streaked hair. "That slinker he
picked up is okay as a bed-bunny in the absence of
anyone better, but there's nothing she can do that the
rest of us couldn't, so why should she have special
privileges? What you did. on the other hand. was spe-
cial, which is the reason most of us would rather see
him with you. We know we can't compete with an
accomplishment like that, so we can accept your being
with him in place of one of us. That's not to say we
like it, but we can accept it."

At that point I sat back in my lounge chair and
sipped at my javi, far from satisfied but deciding not
to pursue the point any further. The whole thing felt
too much like the sort of prearranged lifestyles some
elements of the Empire still insisted on, the kind that
sewed you into what other people thought was best for
you. I'd been outraged the first time I'd heard about
the practice and had known that those people were
lucky they'd never tried their nonsense on me. Telling
them what to do with themselves would have been the
least of my reactions, and somehow this approval of
me for Serendel felt almost like the same attitude.
Lidra, Chal and I had been taking our meals in various
lounges rather than in the dining hall despite the fact
that it cost more that way. preferring the cash outlay
to the possibility of running into Serendel. At first I'd
been disappointed that it had to be done like that, but
after our conversation concerning approval, I was more
relieved than disappointed.

When the shuttle took us down to Aeon, Joelare's
newest port, Lidra and Chal finally found something
other than their hero to talk about. We left the vehicle
with at least twenty other people, gasping out our awed
delight with the port's decor, admiring the fairyland
castle which was their entry-admin building for those
booked into the Mists of the Ages. People who were
coming to Joelare for reasons other than tourism had
to make do with an ordinary customs building of metal
and glasstic, but we who were the chosen were es-
corted into the Castle of Beginning -

"... where all you lucky people will be given
orientation information about your individual tours,"

94

Sharon Green

our chief guide burbled as she walked ahead of us,
smiling and gesturing at our destination. Assistant
guides or aides were also among us, carrying any hand
luggage we were willing to part with, cautioning us to
watch our steps, and taking food and drink orders from
anyone who felt themselves in dire need.

"Costumes like mine and other tour area variations
will be available for you as soon as we have your mea-
surements," she went on in great enjoyment, pausing
to turn once in front of us to let us see the many-
layered gown of gold she was wearing. The slyrts were
so wide she probably needed double doors to get into
a room, the front of the dress dipped so low her upper
measurements could have been taken by eye, and the
three-quarter sleeves on the thing trailed so much white
lace it was surprising she was able to lift her arms.

* *What if gold isn' t our best color?' * a mild but very
deep voice asked, the voice of one of the men with us.
We all laughed at the way he'd avoided asking the
most obvious question, and even our guide enjoyed the
effort.

"I was about to add that masculine equivalents of
this gown will be available for viewing on the castle
servants," she answered with a laugh as she resumed
walking, the first real laugh we'd heard out of her. "If
you'd rather, though, we can have the gowns made up
in any color you like. As our guest, the choice will be
entirely yours,"

The man acknowledged her comment with a deep-
voiced chuckle of appreciation shared by most of the
rest of us, but some of us weren't very happy with the
entire idea. We weren't even near the Mists yet, but
some of us were already impatient to be leaving.

"Oh, Inky, stop looking so sour," Lidra said to me
with no effort at keeping her voice down, her exasper-
ation with my attitude clear to anyone who heard her.
"Dressing up in costumes will bejun, as long as you
make yourself forget you couldn't cancel your reser-
vations without losing your deposit money. It isn't
their fault your friend got sick at the last minute, so
what*s the sense in deciding beforehand that you aren't

MISTS OF THE AGES           95

going to enjoy yourself no matter what? As long as
you're paying for it, you might as well enjoy it."

"I may have to pay for it. but I sure as hell don't
have to enjoy it," I countered, also making no effort
to keep my voice down. "If I've got to be here /'//
decide what I will and won't wear, not some overpaid
flunky with an underactive imagination."

Lidra sighed and simply shook her head, but that
didn't mean she wasn't satisfied with the way the con-
versation had gone. We'd decided back on the liner
that a reluctant guest would be the best thing for me
to be, especially if everyone was made fully aware of
my attitude. There would be times I'd need to be away
from the tour group or dressed in a way that would let
me work, and being tagged uncooperative right from
the start would get us past the need for later excuses.
Chal had helped us build a logically consistent story,
and I was a lot happier with it than I would have been
with pretend enthusiasm.

"You don't need to watch your steps on the draw-
bridge, the entire area is shielded," our guide said,
moving first onto a wide ramp of golden vapor. "Once
you enter the Mists there will be areas you mustn't
move through except with your journey scouts, but
you'll be warned about them well in advance, and the
warnings will be repeated on a regular basis until after
the area is behind you. You will, of course, be told
more about that later. Right now, please follow me."

The first people to follow the woman felt a need to
test the solidity of the vapor with one foot before trust-
ing the rest of themselves to it, but after them no one
else bothered. The golden vapor was as solid under-
foot as you would expect a force field to be, and we
climbed the ramp without difficulty through a golden
arch that led us to a wide entrance hall of marble and
rainbows. The hall was roofed over with something
transparent that took the outer day's sunshine and di-
vided it into its prismatic parts, and I had to be careful
not to gasp with everyone else. The hall was abso-
lutely beautiful, and there wasn't anyone there who
didn't appreciate it.

"Just show your reservation slips to the attendants

96 Sharon Green

moving among you, and they'll direct you to the proper
Customs section," our guide told us after a moment,
having given us a chance to stare at the loveliness.
"You'll relax in comfort while our Customs people
clear you, and then you'll be allowed the choice of
starting for the Mists as soon as your wardrobes are
ready, or spending the night here in the castle and
starting in the morning. Those of you on A and AA
class tours won't be supplied with wardrobes, and will
therefore be able to leave as soon as you've gone
through Customs. We know none of you will want to
waste even one extra minute reaching the Mists, and
we can't blame you. We hope you all enjoy your stay
at Mists of the Ages, and look forward to welcoming
you back many times in the future."

The woman gave us a final smile and then went to
stand at the far side of the room, all finished with her
part of the job unless someone had a question they
wanted to ask. The attendants who moved among us
were both male and female, the men wearing knee-
pants and hose and more-or-less elegant coats and
such, the women wearing long-skirted gowns that for
the most part were nearly the equal of our former
guide's dress. Eight closed doorways were spaced
around the otherwise empty hall, and each of the door-
ways had one additional attendant standing in front of
it. From what I could see, the door attendants were
dressed somewhat differently from those who circu-
lated among us, and then one of the latter was up to
Chal, Lidra and me, checking our slips with a glance.

"Portal number three, counting from the left, is your
destination, my lord and ladies," the man said with a
bow, sweeping his arm in the proper direction. "If you
should be interested in the period my costume repre-
sents, just ask about the tour through sectors six,
eleven and twenty-one."

He bowed again before moving on, and Lidra and I
turned briefly to watch him go. His costume had been
mostly tights with the addition of a large, intricately
decorated codpiece, and the tights were as tight behind
as they had been in front. I'm not quite sure what our

MISTS OF THE AGES          97

expressions were like, but Chal put a hand on each of
our shoulders from behind.

"Don't even think about it,'* he said in a low voice,
but not so low that we couldn't hear the flat finality in
it. "After we finish our fun time here you girls can go
wherever you like, but don't even think about suggest-
ing we go through his sector on the way. Anybody
who tries to get me into a get-up like that will have a
fight on his hands."

"Why, Chal!" Lidra said with surprise, turning to
look at him. "That's the second time you've talked
about committing violence. I thought you were dedi-
cated to healing the hurt, not causing them the problem
in the first place."

"When you're willing to fight, you usually don't
have to," he answered with calm confidence, the look
in his eyes the same. "And just because my greatest
joy comes from curing the sick and hurt, that doesn't
mean I have to stand helplessly by while people take
advantage of me and those around me. I don't usually
go out looking for people to mangle, but if you two
don't get that calculation out of your eyes, I'll be
happy to make your cases an exception."

"We surrender," Lidra said with both hands raised
before her while I laughed. "You're bigger and
stronger and nastier than we are, so there won't be any
side trips. I just think it's such a pity. Women who
haven't seen your behind don't know what they're
missing."

Her glance was very bland when she slid it away
from him, and most likely the only thing that saved
her was the fact that she immediately began walking
toward the "portal" which had been pointed out to us.
It was possible that Chal would have strangled her if
she'd stayed within reach, and the embarrassed flush
on his face as he and I followed her said it might still
happen as soon as they were alone together.

When we reached door three it was opened for us
by the attendant standing in front of it, a man wearing
a leather skirt that came down to his knees and leather
sandals that laced all the way up his legs. For the most
part his chest was bare, except for two straps of leather

Sfwrott Green

that crossed it, then spread out very wide over his
shoulders. Both shoulders were completely covered
and the leather extended a least two inches beyond

them, an odd sort of arrangement I'd never seen be-
fore.

"Now that's something I can live with," Chal res-
marked as we entered the room, gesturing back toward

the attendant with his head. "Especially if you girls
get costumes just like it."

That time it was ChaTs turn to grin while Lidra gave
him a stare that promised a lingering death, which
made-me the only one left to look around. The room
we'd entered was open and airy while still giving the
impression of privacy, but above that it was very in-
terestingly furnished. The carpeting under our feet ap-
peared to be open, blue-green water, the sort you sail
OB and swim in, but rarely walk on. Chairs and
couches were white, fluffy clouds, billowing a little
where they hung, and large fluttering birds hovered in
die air beside the couches and chairs. Two servants in
costumes made up of gauze and wings stood on two
of four tiny islands spaced around the room, while two
more servants dressed the same way were offering trays
of food and drink to the four older people already in
the room and seated on the clouds.

"Well, will you look at that," Lidra said from be-
hind my right shoulder, Chal to her right. "It does pay
not to be on a class A orAA tour, doesn't it? If they're
not willing to give them costumes or a bed for the

night, they certainly won't be giving them something
like this."

"I've got to try one of those clouds," Chal said,
for all the world like an eager tourist. "I've always
wanted to stretch out on one, but I'm too practical not

to know I'd rail through. If I fall through here, I can
sue."

"If you don't drown first." Lidra said, looking
down at what our feet rested on. "Are those fish I see
swimming down there? Maybe we would be better off
sitting down. The idea of being submerged is not one
I care for at the moment."

She headed for one of the cloud-couches without

MISTS OF THE AGES          99

adding anything to what she'd said, but Chal and I
still got the message. Lidra had never told me exactly
how much of her electronic equipment she carried with
her. but from her reaction to the ocean-carpeting, most
of it must have been of the non-waterproof sort. I
thought briefly about swimming while wrapped up in
a working electrified fence, shuddered a little, then
followed along to the couch.

The cloud felt just the way a cloud should feel, soft
and billowing but still firm enough to support us. We
had barely made ourselves comfortable when one of
the winged servants came over for our food and drink
orders, telling us we could name just about anything
and it would be supplied—for a price. Standard for our
tour at that particular moment was a beverage and
sandwiches, but we would be given an assortment of
the sandwiches and could eat as many as we liked.
One of the other tours included a free choice of edibles
and drinkables at no extra charge, and before the ser-
vant left to get our food and javi we were told which
one it was. Lidra waited until the servant was out of
easy hearing range, and then she shook her head.

"They do believe in advertising in this place, don't
they?" she asked, one hand brushing at her purple-
streaked hair. "I wonder what they try to sell you if
you've booked the best they've got?"

"Possibly a life membership," Chal suggested, too
pleased with his section of cloud to really care. "I
think those people over there ordered more than the
sandwiches. If our standard dinner isn't a good deal
above snack level, we ought to consider spending the
extra money ourselves."

Lidra made a noncommittal noise and I shrugged,
but I was seriously considering going along with Chal's
suggestion. The man had been annoyed with me for
teasing him when he found out I usually did eat well-
balanced meals rather than junk, but I'd been arguing
a principle rather than a belief. If I wanted to eat junk
food I should be free to do it, whether or not I actually
indulged in the freedom. Chal had refused to see that,
insisting 1 was only trying to be difficult, but I still
intended joining him in any superior meals that were

100               SfuuWt Grew

offered. After all, with S.I. paying for it, there was no
reason I shouldn't.

By the time our food and drink had been brought,
there were two new arrivals over with the older peo-
ple. The two men were dressed in svalk pants, hose,
ruffled shirts and patterned svalk vests, and they chat-
ted comfortably with the newly arrived guests as they
checked and stamped their papers. Customs inspection
i8 something you go through no matter which worid
of the Empire you visit, but some are a little less fa-
••;..ntK about it than others. Joeiare officials seemed to

Iji^lfciwaright human, which was a pleasant surprise.
^I^Cte^TOCups had been refilled two or three times
w WWB it became our turn, and the two men called for
'JgWi-.of ttieir own before they settled down near us.
^^1^-llRldied our papers so thoroughly they couldn't
^ ; lUm miswd anything that was there to be found, and
^^Ifaooe of the two men looked up at us with a smile.
^ :ttaee you three young people each came here on
your-own," he said, looking very satisfied with that
idn* "Did you meet on the liner me way those two
couples over there did? Yes. I thought you might have.
People do that all the time. coming here as strangers
and leaving as friends. Right now you'll probably mink
I'm boasting, but our world does bring people together
and make fast friends of them. It's sharing the expe-
riences you have ahead of you that does it, and even
if you never come back you won't forget the time.
Very few worlds can say the same, and that makes us
rather proud."




"And also pleased to welcome you here," the sec-
ond man said, adding his own smile. "You list noth-
ing but clothing and a few convenience devices on
your declaration statements, but for safety's sake there
are specific questions we need to ask. Are any of you
taking a prescribed medication of any sort? We've
found there are certain substances mat don't react well
with me vapor of the Mists, and we can tell you
whether or not a given prescription is one of them. It
isn't necessary to ask about illegal substances, and for
good reason. Anyone taking one or more of the current
crop of dustings and fixings will find they don't get

MISTS OF THE AGES          101

along with the Mists at all. If throwing up every ten
minutes for your entire tour appeals to you, we
wouldn't think of asking you to forgo the pleasure."

Lidra, Chal and I exchanged glances while the two
men grinned at us, that more than anything else assur-
ing us they were telling the truth. If they hadn't been,
they would have been working to get us to believe
them, not telling us to go ahead and try it for our-
selves. It was an interesting way of doing things, but
I found myself faintly curioas.

"I'm not taking anything of any sort, but I have a
question for you," I said, keeping my tone mild but
not looking in any way impressed. "Did you make the
same point to our older companions over there, or do
you save the speech for the Empire's flowering
youth?"

"Oh, we make sure to announce it to people like
them first," the second man told me, neither one of
them looking the least insulted. "Kids know they're
doing something wrong, so all but the really lost
among them will try for caution if not moderation.
Many so-called grownups, though, know the laws
aren't made for them. so why should they bother with
caution beyond surface appearances? Some are so
deeply into it they become violently ill in the Mists,
and end up in a hospital for the rest of their vacation.
It's one of the reasons for these ironclad releases you'll
be signing. When you look through them, you'll find
other reasons."

My two companions and I were then handed small
leather books, and each of us got the book with our
name on it. Inside were a number of pages with ques-
tions and statements, and if a question didn't call for
a specific answer, the directions ordered us to sign our
full names instead. We were also handed indelible
markers, and then the first of the men signaled for
more javi.

By the time I was ready to hand the book back, I'd
shared all of my personal preferences, most of the
things I'd tried doing during my life, some of the
things I thought I could do in the future, and no longer
remembered how to spell my name. The thing was a

102 Sharon Green

good deal more than just a release in the event of an
accident, and once the two men had glanced through
what we'd written, one of them told Chal he had noth-
ing to worry about, then the two of them thanked us
with smiles and went on their way.

"Phew!" Lidra said as she let herself fall back
against our cloud, holding her right hand up in a claw.
"Did anyone notice if that thing held them blameless
in the event of an acute case of writer's cramp? If it
didn't, I'm seriously considering calling my lawyer."

'"What aren't you supposed to worry about, Chal?"
I asked, turning my head to see the way he massaged
his right hand with his left. I'd already flexed my fin-
gers back to normal, but still half-wished Lidra wasn't
just fooling around about suing.

"I listed the medication I'm taking, and apparently
I don't have to worry about it getting into a fight with
the Mists," Chal answered, his light eyes very open
and innocent, no more than a friendly smile on his
face. "It's really nothing more than a general health
enhancer with a complex base, my doctor tells me, but
there was no sense in taking chances by keeping quiet
about it."

I nodded vaguely and performed a small shrug. Just
as though I were dismissing the whole thing after un-
derstanding almost nothing of what he'd said, but to
describe me as curious would be like describing the
room we sat in as faintly unusual. I hadn't known Lidra
and Chal long, but the one thing I was absolutely cer-
tain of was that neither of them took any sort of med-
ication, necessary or unnecessary, legal or illegal.
Lidra was like me in that she could never remember
to take something even when she was sick. and Chal
believed almost fanatically that to become dependent
on a drug in anything but the most extreme emergen-
cy was as good as cutting your own throat. For him,
the key to true survival health was to strengthen the
body's own defenses, not ignore them in favor of ar-
tificial supplements- With that in mind I knew Chal
wasn't taking anything, so why had he said he was?

I would have enjoyed being able to ask someone
other than myself, but even though I'd never done that

MISTS OF THE AGES          103

sort of S.I. sneaking around before, I wasn't simple-
minded. Since we didn't know whether or not we were
being listened to by people out of sight, we had to
assume we were being listened to and therefore had to
watch what we said. That, at least, was the way / saw
it, and my companions seemed to be operating under
the same set of rules. I shifted around on the cloud.
about to wonder aloud what would be coming next,
but the appearance of a woman in the same sort of
golden gown as our original greeter and guide saved
me the trouble.

"My lords and ladies, I bid you all a good day,"
the woman announced with a practiced smile, appar-
ently unaware of the fact that she sounded as though
she were leaving rather than arriving. "I'd like to take
my own turn at welcoming you to the Mists of the
Ages, the vacation land you'll never forget. I'm Filla,
and after you answer a few questions for me, I'll be
glad to answer any you might have. To begin with,
have you all decided whether or not you'll be staying
in the castle tonight? If you haven't, please take a mo-
ment or two to make the decision now."

"What do you think, giris?" Chal asked as quiet
conversation arose among our four fellow tourists
where they sat. "I'd rather stay with you two than take
off on my own, so which way do you want to do it?"

"I'd rather leave now and get it over with that much
faster," I answered, still sticking with my impatient-
and-unhappy pose. "Hanging around here will just
drag it out longer, but I don't want to go on alone
either. If you two decide to stay, so will I."

"Come on, Inky, being in a hurry is dumb," Lidra
said with a shake of her head, adding a sigh for good
measure. "We'll be spending a total of three days here,
and staying over until tomorrow morning doesn't mean
the three days begin then, because they've already be-
gun. Starting tomorrow morning only means we spend
less time in the Mists. Didn't you read the brochure?**

"No," I answered a second time, trying not to show
how stupid I felt for not knowing that. "My friend
was the one who talked me into all this, and I'd never

104               a—wGwCT
even heud of the {dace. Does that mean you want to

stay ovci?"

"Hell no." she cattie back with a grin, sitting up
straighter on her piece of cloud. "Since we came to
see the Mists, why waste time sitting around in this
{dace? Let's get going as soon as we can."

"Then that's our decision,'* Chal said, getting to
^8 feet. "I'll go over and tell her.'*

As he walked away I could see the other four people
were still talking it over, but our decision wasn't just
"\ it was also justified. We weren't likely to find
Mrf anything to investigate out in the open and
_ at the port, so Lidra had come up with a reason
^l|d)ty we didn't want to stay there. My own try at
Icaboa had been on the flimsy side, but at least I
.,-.^,. ,<lfild a reason for asking about the place. And a
^leasoe for not knowing about most of what was going
""• Ott. Udra and Chal were supposed to have filled me in
ot) the liner ride, and probably would have if most of
their time and conversation hadn't been taken up by
their favorite fighter. I felt a brief flash of annoyance,
but getting mad at the two would have been useless.
If those S.I. people had briefed me property I wouldn't
have needed anyone else doing it, but they'd been in
too much of a hurry to get rid of me to come up with
so much as a brochure. If I'd had any intentions of
continuing to work with them, that alone would have
made me stop to think about it.

By the time Chal finished talking to the woman, one
of me men from the other group was on his way over
to her with their own decision. The woman thanked
them both with a smile, then turned to include the rest
of us in on the conversation.

"My lords and ladies, the group of four will remain
our guests for the night," she said, sounding as though
everything had worked out exactly the way it was sup-
posed to. "If the smaller group will follow me, I'll
get them started toward the costuming area. As soon
as that's done, I'll be back to take accommodation and
dinner orders from those who will be staying. La-
dies?"                                    -

The last word was addressed to Lidra and me, and

MISTS OF THE AGES          105

I didn't know about her, but I found it—inappropriate.
I had always considered a lady to be someone who did
nothing but stand or sit around looking cool, aloof,
and untouchable, totally useless and helpless and very
pleased to have it like that. Seero had tried more than
once to tell me I was wrong, but that was a point we
had never agreed on. He'd said it was possible for a
woman to be a lady no matter what she looked like or
did, but that was silly. How could you be a lady if
you didn*t look or act like one?

The woman in the golden gown led us to one section
of a light blue wall, which slid out of her way when
she stopped in front of it. Beyond the now-opened
doorway was a thirty-foot corridor of rich brown wood,
and the woman pointed toward the narrow wall at the
other end of the corridor.

"Just walk straight at it, and it will open for you,"
she said, giving us another professionally warm smile.
* "The dressers there will have your costumes, and once
you're into them you'll be ready to go. Your measure-
ments were taken electronically when you first entered
the castle, so what was made up for you should need
no more than minor adjustment."

"What about the luggage we brought with us?" I
asked, stopping Lidra and Chal as they began to enter
the corridor. "Your costumes may be absolutely won-
derful, but if I should decide I'm not in the mood to
wear one, I don't want my only other choice to be
skin."

"Your luggage has already been passed through
Customs, and will be sent with you to the (daces you'll
be staying in the Mists," she answered, her pleasant-
ness still intact. "Whether or not you wear a costume
will, of course, be your choice alone, but I certainly
hope you don't decide against them. Only those who
are costumed can be considered part of the scene, and
missing the interaction will take half the fun out of
your vacation. Without a costume all you can do is
watch, and unless there are physical reasons for that
sort of a decision, I don't recommend it. Please step
ahead now, and do enjoy your trip."

With my question answered there was nothing to

106 Sharon Green

keep me standing there, and the woman did have the
decency not to turn away from us until after we reached
the other end of the corridor and the door there slid
open. As we stepped through I could also see her step-
ping back, letting the wall on her end close again, the
gesture possibly meant to keep us from feeling trapped.
That had been something of a narrow corridor, and I
could see how some people might feel uncomfortable
in it.

The room we stepped into from the corridor was not
only normal, it was downright dull. The plain brown
walls to right and left had nothing but closed doors to
decorate them, and the lighting came from ordinary
overheads. The man and woman who waited for us
with smiles wore bodysuits like Lidra's and mine, both
of them having added shorts and vests, and they were
briskly firm about separating Chal from us. The man
took him to the first room on the left, and the woman
led the "ladies" to the first door on the right.

**Your costumes are in the two cubicles, girls," our
newest guide said, throwing open the door to show us
a large mirrored room with curtained alcoves to the far
left and right. ' 'The lilac set is for you with your blond
hair, dear, and the rose-red is meant to go with your
black hair, honey. Once you*re into the outfits, ring
the bell between the cubicles, and I'll come in and
check the fit."

The woman gently bustled us inside, then closed the
door behind us, so Lidra and I shrugged at one an-
other and went to check out our "outfits." It was to
be expected that we each went to the other* s alcove,
but once we traded I stood by the closed curtain and
studied what had been made for me. The color was a
very delicate rose-red, all right, but it was also a fe-
male version of the costume the door attendant outside
our Customs room had been wearing. Rather than be-
ing leather it was made of svalk, the knee-length skirt
neatly pleated, the top a sleeveless cross-over wrap,
the whole thing belted with a side-knotted scarf. The
sandals that went along with them had soft leather bot-
toms and svalk upper parts and lacings,' and didn't look
as though they would be all that uncomfortable. Taken

MISTS OF THE AGES           107

together it wasn't a bad little outfit, and it came to me
that I would have to try their costumes at least once
before I could safely "decide' I didn't want any more
of them. It would obviously be best if I did that trying
in the beginning, where nothing of interest to us was
likely to be found, and then I would be set for later
on. The decision was a logical one, not to mention
easy. which meant I barely hesitated before starting to
get out of my bodysuit.

Once I had the sandals laced, I stood up from the
alcove's cushion stack and went out to see what I
looked like. I knew I'd probably like the way the cos-
tume fit, so I made sure to set my expression into
something closer to resignation than enjoyment before
I looked into one of the mirror walls. It was a good
thing I'd had the foresight to do that; as I turned just
a little in front of the mirror, frowning slightly at my
reflection, on the inside I was grinning in full appre-
ciation.

"Hey, look at you!" Lidra said as she stepped out
of her alcove, her eyes going from me to my mirror
image. "If I look half that good, I may never leave
this place. What do you think?"

She came up to me on my right and began posing in
front of die mirror, more than just passing satisfaction
in her voice. It wasn't hard seeing she looked a good
deal slimmer than she did in a bodysuit, and then I
suddenly understood what her question had really
meant. She hadn't been asking whether or not she
looked good, but whether or not her equipment was
showing. I inspected her as closely as I could without
being too obvious about it, but didn't see anything that
looked remotely like equipment. At that point I would
have loved asking where the hell she'd put it all, but
even if I'd been able to, her laugh of delight would
have come first.

"I think I've decided to bum all my bodysuits as
soon as I get home," she said. examining the back of
herself with the help of the double reflection from the
other mirror wall. "Someone once told me they make
you look thirty pounds heavier than you really are even
if you're only five pounds overweight, but until this

108                 Sharon Green

minute I didn't believe it. Look at these shoulder
scarves, aren't they adorable? Like the leather on that
door attendant's costume, only these don't stand out
and they're much softer."

She fluffed out the short scarves that, like mine, were
tied around the two-inch-wide shoulder straps of the
tunic top, and no one looking at her would have
guessed she was interested in anything but her appear-
ance as a woman. Standing next to her I could see the
way her eyes rested just a little longer on certain parts
of her reflection than on others, the expression in her
gaze very direct and almost coldly calculating, but if
I hadn't been looking for something like that, I never
would have seen it. I wondered just exactly how much
experience she did have at doing jobs like that, but
that was another question 1 couldn't ask aloud.

*'I suppose I can live with it for a little while," I
grudged, looking again at my own costume with outer
lack of enthusiasm. "If I get tired if it, I will change
back to my own clothes, even if that keeps me from
being part of me 'scene.' Whatever that's supposed to
mean.**

"I really do think we have to get you a brochure to
read," Lidra decided, still very much into admiring
her reflection. "It only gives you very broad hints
about things, but having the hints lets you understand
what's going on once you see that release we signed.
For instance, didn't you wonder when you got to the
question that asked whether or not you were a vir-
gin?"

"It was under the physical health section," I an-
swered with a shrug, looking at her reflection rather
than at her. "Most of the questions in that section
were intrusive, so why would I wonder about one
more?'*

"Because that particular question is significant/'
she said. looking very positive. "People have to be in
good physical health to come here because there's a
lot of walking 'and such' involved, the brochure says,
but if you answered that you weren't a virgin, the way
I did. you were asked one more question. Did you
happen to see it?"

MISTS OF THE AGES          109

"Yes, I saw it," I allowed, smiling inwardly at the
way she'd put her own question. "They asked if I
would mind being intimate with men who were
strangers, but who were also professionals. If I cared
to answer no to that one, they were offering a guar-
antee that I wouldn't be hurt. There was also some-
thing about the tour being more interesting if I were a
"full participant.' "

"Well, of course there was," she said, now looking
somewhat exasperated as she turned away from the
mirror. "Don't you see? They've recreated scenes
from the histories of some of the planets, but you can
bet none of the tours take you through a lazy free-day
afternoon at nap time. They'll be showing significant
happenings with lots of action, and being a full parti-
cipant has to mean we'll be right in the middle of it,
having it happen to us! We'll be full participants in
whatever they stage, and I don't mean simply being
jostled in a crowd' They'll provide sex, giri, and prob-
ably lots of it!"

"You know, I think that word *sex* sounds famil-
iar," I said. turning to meet her stare with one finger
to my lips. "Is that when a couple of people get to-
gether and spend most of their time yelling at each
other?"

"You're an absolute riot," she said, now examining
me sourly as she folded her arms. "And no, that's not
the definition of sex, that's the definition of marriage.
Did you opt for full part. or didn't you?"

"Sure I took it." I said, tossing my head a little as
I turned back to the mirror. "When this thing is over
and I still haven't enjoyed myself, I don't want them
to have any easy reasons why that they can smugly
point to. Sex is all right, but it's hardly such a big deal
that it's guaranteed to make me change my mind. And
I don't think I have to ask whether or not you chose
it."

"No, you certainly don't," she answered, only her
head turning back to the mirror, her mood now thickly
self-satisfied. "You can be as stubborn as you like
about not enjoying yourself, but I intend having fun.
I've never tried a man with professional training, and

110 Sharon Green

I'm really looking forward to it. I want to know if
those groups that say all men should have the same
are right."

' 'I wonder if they offered female professionals to the
men," I commented, this time not even glancing in
her direction. "If so, Chal might soon be deciding all
women should have training the way those groups in-
sist."

Her annoyance was so thick I could feel it without
looking at her, but she didn't get to vocalize any of it.
A knock came at the door, immediately followed by
the entrance of the woman who had directed us to our
costumes, and that was the end of casual conversation.
The woman examined Lidra and me with a frown,
briefly tugged and smoothed at our costumes, then an-
nounced with a smile that no alterations seemed to be
necessary. Now that our sizes had been confirmed ex-
tra outfits woujd be produced and made available when
they were needed, and me clothing we'd taken off
would be cleaned and returned to our personal lug-
gage. Since everything was satisfactorily taken care
of, we were then free to leave the fitting room and
really begin the Great Adventure.

It took some doing not to react to the capitals in the
woman's voice, but we made it out of the room with-
out insulting her and rejoined Chal, who was waiting.
for us. His costume was exactly like the one the door
attendant had worn, all leather with straps across the
chest, and on him it looked even better than it had on
the attendant. Lidra hummed low in interest when she
saw him, but I was the only one who heard it. Chal
was talking to a boy in his mid-teens who was wearing
a page costume when we came out, and only when the
boy had finished what he was saying did Chal turn to
us with a grin.

"Say, you girls look great even if you do have more
than simple chest straps," he said, then gestured to
the boy at his right. "This is Tad, our newest guide,
and he'll be sending us on our way as soon as he gives
you two your watches.**

"Watches?*' Lidra asked for the two of us. appar-

MISTS OF THE AGES          111

ently as surprised and curious as I was. "What
watches?"

"People always say that, and in just that way," the
boy Tad responded with a grin, handing Lidra and me
plain leather bands no more than an inch and a half
wide. "You'll need some way of telling the time once
you're in the Mists, and ordinary timepieces don't do
well in them. If you use these, you'll know exactly
what's happening. Just smooth them closed around
your wrist, and then follow me."

The leather band was very soft and flexible, and
once I'd smoothed it closed around my left wrist I
looked at the face of the timepiece embedded in the
center of it. Rather than give the date and local time,
it showed days, hours and minutes, all of it going
backward. K took no more than seconds to realize the
countdown had started at three full days, and even as
we stood there the minutes disappeared into the past
and were then no more. With a couple of hours already
gone, it was clear Lidra had been right about when our
vacation had started, which meant that when Tad be-
gan leading the way past the fitting rooms, we fol-
lowed along without much foot-dragging.

An ordinary door at the end of the fitting area
brought us to a wide, well-lit section of stairway that
led downward, the stairs themselves curving around
out of sight to the left. We continued to follow Tad as
he followed the stairs, and after a few minutes of
walking we reached the bottom. It was rairiy clear we
were well below-ground at that point, but the area was
brightly lit and painted with cheerful pastel colors that
suggested a party atmosphere. There were leather
couches and chairs spaced along the two walls to the
right of the foot of the stairs, a sign made of dancing
.black letters on the wall to the left that said. "The
Castie of Beginning," and something that looked like
a wall with windows and doors straight ahead. It
wasn't immediately clear where we were supposed to
go from there, but Tad answered the question before
it was asked.

"That right there is what will be taking you into the
Mists,** he said, gesturing toward what I'd thought

112 Sharon Green

was a wall with windows and doors. "I was supposed
to have sent you on your way immediately, but while
coming down I was told to have you wait a minute or
two. There's someone else starting this tour right now,
and it will be more convenient for everyone involved
if you all travel together. He was given his costume
in another fitting room, so there won't be much of a
wait at all. In appreciation for your patience, the man-
agement has arranged to compensate you for the loss
of time."

His smile accompanied a gesture to his wrist, which
naturally made us look at our new watches. The first
thing I saw was that the countdown had stopped, and
then the minute window blinked twice before advanc-
ing for a count of five. After that it blinked another
two times then froze again, which obviously meant we
were now on hold. The countdown had stopped while
we were waiting as we'd been asked to do, and to
thank us for being patient we'd been given a bonus of
five whole minutes extra. I was seriously considering
mentioning how impressed I was with their generosity,
but Lidra beat me to it with a comment on a different
subject.

"Then that button in your ear is a communicator,"
she said, sounding pleased and impressed. "Is it one
way or two way?"'

"One way is all it has to be," the boy said as I
looked up to notice for the first time the button Lidra
had mentioned. "I don't usually spend enough time
with guests that I*d be likely to need to pass things
back up the line, but if I have to I can use one of the
house phones. I'm sure you didn't notice them, but
every area you've been in has had at least one. Like
here, for instance."

He moved between us to go to the wall that had been
to the right of the stairs, and pushed aside one light
orange section of it to show a quietly modest light
orange phone. I felt the urge to ask if the bright yellow
and Fight pink sections also had matching phones be-
hind them, but decided that wouldn't be very discreet
of me. From their reactions I was fairly sure Chal and
Lktra hadn't known there was anything behind the light

MISTS OF THE AGES          113

orange section of wall, which meant it would be best
if I joined them in ignorance. Our page guide reclosed
the section and began turning back to us, then put his
hand to his ear and turned to the stairs instead.

"See, they weren't exaggerating," he said, and at
that point we also became aware of the sound of two
sets of footsteps descending. "A couple of minutes
was what they said, and a couple of minutes was all it
was. Now you can be on your way, and the man won't
have to travel alone."

If the boy had been facing in our direction he might
have seen the glance exchanged between Chal and
Lidra, a glance that didn't have much in the way of
welcoming fellowship in it. Since we three were sup-
posed to be virtual strangers to one another, we
couldn't very well refuse the company of another
stranger without having it look very suspicious. That
left us with no option other than to accept him, at least
on a temporary basis- If his presence couldn't be turned
to a diversion once we reached our objective, we'd
have to find some way of getting rid of him.

Waiting with bated breath for someone to appear has
never been one of my favorite pastimes, so I turned
away from the stairs the others were watching to glance
again at the sections of the wall that were obviously
meant to be pushed aside. I really would have enjoyed
knowing what was behind those sections even if it was
nothing but light switches and thermostats, but I
couldn't very well walk over to them and open them
up to look. I was seriously considering camouflaging
my knowledge by trying all of the differently-colored
sections in order, starting with the pale brown right
next to the light orange, when I heard the sound of a
gasp. The origin of noises like that are often hard to
figure out, but it hadn't sounded like Chal or Lidra,
and that left no one but the boy Tad, I turned around,
immediately curious as to why he would make a sound
like that, and }ust as immediately found out. My two
companions were doing nothing more than staring in
silence, but our page couldn't seem to control himself.

"I know you!" he said excitedly to the man who
was coming down the last of the steps, another shin-

114 Sharon Green

ing-eyed teena&e boy trailing adoringly behind.
"You're my absolute favorite, and I've memorized
every stat they ever put out about you! Can I shake
your hand, just to be able to say that I did?"

The man reached the bottom of the stairs and put
his hand out for the boy to take, but only part of his
attention was on the exchange. The rest of it was in-
volved in the faint smile he wore, the smile he'd de-
veloped when his gray eyes had turned in my direction.
For my own part I didn't know how to feel, now that
it was clear the fourth of our party was the one and
only Serendel.

Chapter 7

"I think I'm starting to become a believer," Lidra said
in something of a mutter, the gloating delight so thick
in her voice she might as well have shouted. "My
mother always told me that if I was a good giri Pd be
rewarded, and was she ever right! After this I'll be
willing to eat everybody's vegetables, not just my
own."

Chal smiled faintly as he glanced at her. but he
didn't seem to be as amused—or as pleased—as I'd
expected him to be. Lidra, her stare still glued to Ser-
endel, missed ChaTs reaction, but didn't miss it when
Serendel looked at her with a frown.

"I'm sony, but I'm afraid I didn't hear that," he
said, honestly puzzled. "Were you talking to me about
vegetables?"

"No, not really," she said with a small cough and
a swallowed laugh, gesturing aside everything she was
very glad he hadn't heard. "We*re delighted you'll be
joining us. Winner, and we promise not to chew off
more than one of your ears with questions. Don't we.
Chal?"

"We certainly do." my other teammate answered,
this time more amused as he put a hand out. ' 'I'm Chal
Amor. and this is Lidra Kament. As I'm sure you've
already noticed, we're also fans of yours."

"I usually prefer fans to enemies," Serendel said
with a grin as he took Chal's hand. "Or, to be more
precise, fans of mine. I once found myself sharing
ground transportation with a small army of one of my
main rival's supporters, and I didn't know if I would
115

116 Sharon Green

make it to my destination in any condition to fight.
Between looks meant to kill and acres of frozen si-
lence, I almost ended up with poisoned frostbite,"

"Oh, you poor thing," Lidra commiserated even
while she chuckled in enjoyment of the story. "But
this time Chal and I are here to protect you, so don't
let it worry you a single minute that Inky has declared
for Farison. We won't let her hurt you."

"Inky?" Serendel said with a puzzled look, and then
he seemed to remember the first face he'd seen. He
looked in my direction with his brows raised, hope-
fully missing the blush I could feel in my cheeks over
what that miserable Lidra had told him, and Chal
cleared his throat.

"To complete the introductions, that's Dalisse Im-
bro, known to those around her as Inky," Chal said,
sounding suspiciously bland. "Since she isn't much of
a fight fan she hasn't really declared for Farison, but
above that, I think you two have already met."

"You might say we've run into each other once or
twice.*' the big man answered, speaking to Chal but
still looking at me, definite amusement now in his
eyes. "We've never before been formally introduced,
though, so I appreciate having it done."

"Excuse me, my lords and ladies, but I'm afraid
it's time for you to leave now," our page Tad inter-
rupted with obvious reluctance, one hand to his ear.
"If you'll foHow me into the car, I'll get you settled
for the trip."

"Or," Lidra muttered low as the boy moved past
us, " *get them going, you idiot!' His boss apparently
has very little appreciation for the art of conversa-
tion."

"Which may be a good thing for us," Chal added
in a matching murmur. "Our watches have started
again, which means time flies swiftly before us. We
can yak all we like once we're on our way."

"On, Chal, you're so practical," Lidra told him
with a sigh, an utter condemnation Serendel found
more amusing than Chal did. Our male teammate might
have been tempted to defend himself against the
charge, but just then Tad pressed a switch in the recess

MISTS OF THE AGES           117

he'd uncovered beside one of the doors, and what I'd
thought was a wall opened and lit up inside to show
what looked like a wide lounge. We followed the boy
inside, and he gestured around to the chairs, dispens-
ers, consoles and carpeting.

"We hope everything here will make this short trip
a comfortable one," he recited, the speech one he'd
clearly made any number of times before. "Drinks and
snacks are available from the dispensers, music from
the consoles, and even news or fiction, if you should
want them. When this car stops, you'll have reached
the Mists of the Ages. I hope you have the best time
ever. Winner Serendel!"

The last line was said faster than all the rest, and
after the universe's quickest bow, the boy got himself
out of there before his blush set the room on fire. We
all chuckled as the door slid back in its place to close
us in, and then we felt a small, very smooth lurch.

"Well, it looks like we're on our way," Chal said,
rubbing his hands together. "Would you like some-
thing to drink, Inky? Serendel?"

"How about me?'* Lidra asked before Chal could
get any answers, her tone puzzled. "Were you under
the impression I got left back at the castle?"

"I couldn't be that lucky," Chal returned, his back
as stiff as his leather shoulder pieces as he walked
toward the drink dispenser. "Since you obviously
don't think much of people who are practical, I was
sure you wouldn't want to be offered a drink by one.
If you can't manage on your own, you'll have to stay
thirsty."

"Men!" Lidra muttered darkly with her fists on her
hips, glaring at the back that was still toward us. "Say
even a single word to them. and they get all bent out
of shape. And from a distance they look so solid! I
think I'd better make sure I don't die of thirst on this
trip."

She glanced at us to excuse herself and then fol-
lowed Chal to the dispenser, apparently with the in-
tention of fence-mending and bridge-unbuming. That
left me in the middle of the car with the fourth of our
number, and I suddenly discovered that the trip wasn*t

118 Sharon Green

going as comfortably as it was supposed to. I looked
around at the fifteen foot square that was our under-
ground transportation, seeing dark walls rushing by
beyond the sealed windows, and then my most im-
mediate companion stirred.

"I think it's going to be a while before we see those
drinks," Serendel observed, his voice held low.
"Would you like to sit down while we're waiting?"

His big hand gestured toward a cozy grouping of six
chairs around a polished-wood table, and I think if I
could have refused the suggestion I would have. I felt
like an idiot practicing to be an awkward adolescent,
and I didn't understand why that was. Sercndel was
hardly the first man I'd ever met, and being asked if
I*d like to sit down was hardly the most intimate sug-
gestion ever made me. I finally managed to force a
smile and a nod, walked over to the chairs and picked
one, then sat down. I discovered I'd been hoping Ser-
endel would choose a place a few chairs over when he
sat down right next to me, but at least things could
have been worse. If the chairs had been couches in-
stead, I probably would have stayed on my feet.

"I'm finding out why so many women wear body-
suits instead of skirts," Serendel said once he was set-
tled, his eyes on his costume as his hands smoothed
the bottom of it. "If I get to the point of sitting down
without paying enough attention, I'm guaranteed to be
accused of advertising."

He looked up at me with a grin. and I couldn*t help
smiling at his problem. Svalk makes a skirt that's much
easier to live with than the leather variety, but I sup-
pose it's harder to feel manly in svalk. My own skirt
lay obligingly relaxed around my knees, and didn't
need smoothing of any sort. With that in view I de-
cided it was time I pretended to be adult, and made
my own contribution to the conversation.

"My friends and I were surprised to see you." I
offered, hanging onto the smile I'd gained. "We
thought we were the only familiar faces coming to the
Mists of the Ages."

"One of the prices of fame is sometimes having to
sneak around." he answered, a look of apology ap-

MISTS OF THE AGES         119

pearing briefly in his eyes. "If that crowd on the liner
had found out what my destination was, right now
we'd be up to our ears in watchers. I never knew how
many people can afford and are more than willing to
abandon their own plans to follow around after their
favorite, not until the first time it happened to me- It
ruined the quiet couple of days of relaxation I'd
planned, and even ruined the time for the other people
at the resort. After that I learned how to make private
arrangements with liners and resorts, and I'm usually
gone before anyone notices. This time the liner captain
used a later run to bring me down with some of the
freight, which is why you and your friends were de-
layed. I hope it wasn't too long a wait."

"We managed to live through the extra two min-
utes," I said. trying to control the outrage I felt. Hav-
ing to sneak around like a criminal just to get some
privacy simply wasn't right, not for someone who
didn't thrive on that kind of treatment. If it had been
me, I would have refused to live like that, would have
told those people to get away from me and stay away.
I probably wouldn't have been liked very well, but
people take me as I am or they don't have me at all.

"And I don't know how you can stand it," I went
on, finding it impossible not to mention the point.
"You can't scratch at a private itch without having
twelve people offering to help. If it was me, I'd be
insane in about a minute and a half."

"It's not quite that bad," he said with a chuckle,
his gray eyes now empty of apology. "For the most
part they're really good people, and because they're
so involved with my life it usually doesn't occur to
them that I'm not actually a member of their immedi-
ate family. Ninety percent of them will gladly and
willingly give me privacy any time I ask for it, without
feeling in the least insulted. It's that last ten percent
you have to watch out for, the ones who think their
support means they own you. Not only don't they take
hints, they have to be shoved out of the way before
you can close your cabin door. Real fans don't like
their sort any more than the fighters do, but there's

120

Sharon Green

nothing any of us can do about diem short of exter-
mination."

"What's wrong with extermination?" I asked, lik-
ing me sound of it. "The Empire would end up being
a much better place, and if fighters aren't equipped to
do the job no one is."

"You're overlooking one small problem," he an-
swered with a laugh, shifting just a little in his chair.
"There are laws against doing things like that outside
of an arena, no matter how soul-satisfying we'd find
it. Do you think they'd be suicidal enough to push
fighters the way they do if they weren 't protected by

the law?"

"That's only one of the things wrong with me law,"
I told him firmly, not about to be talked out of my
opinion. "It protects the guilty instead of the innocent,
which isn^t the way it was supposed to be'. If the ones
who made the laws were forced to live with them rather
than above or around them, you'd see how fast things
would change."

"If it makes you feel any better, I agree with you
completely," he said, trying not to look too amused
at my outrage. "I'd love to put one of the lawmakers
in my position, and then see how long the pests would
last. I'd give it until the first time the man saw an
attractive woman he really wanted to meet, but
couldn't get anywhere near her because mat ten per-
cent was constantly in the way. Some women don't
mind the unending hoopla, but the really special ones
often dislike being crowded and jostled. When they
stay away from you after the first meeting or two, you
sometimes wonder if it's the crowds—or you."

Those light gray eyes were no longer filled with
amusement, and somehow the conversation had
changed from what it had started out as. I discovered
that my outrage had disappeared along with his amuse-
ment, a cowardly move if I ever saw one. Outrage
never seemed to be there when you really needed it.
but fluster and awkwardness were always quick as a
bunny when it came to showing up. I really didn't
know what to say. and when he saw my hesitation he
smiled faintly.

MISTS OF THE AGES          121

"Farison isn't Just a good fighter, he's also a very
lucky man," Serendel said, trying to make the words
sound light-hearted. "His followers don't believe in
letting themselves be lured away from him."

"But I'm not really a follower of Farison," I
blurted, not even thinking about what I was saying.
"I've hardly seen him fight, no more than once or
twice, but he happened to look better than the ones I
did see more of. On the liner— It wasn't you I was
staying away from, it was an involvement—with so
many people around, and so short a trip—"

"Now that's what I was hoping to hear," he inter-
rupted my rambling with a grin, his sadness evaporat-
ing so fast it might never have been there in the first
place. "It's crushing to think a pretty girl is avoiding
you because she can't stand looking at your ugly face.
I do hope you noticed there aren't any crowds around
now."

He leaned toward me with that and reached for my
hand, his grin so infuriating I would have happily
smacked him in the face with something. Instead of
moving my hand out of reach I simply curied it into a
fist, and that got his attention the way my silence
hadn't.

"You did that on purpose," I stated, so hopping
mad my voice was absolutely steady. "You made me
feel sorry for you in order to take advantage of me. I
dare you to deny it."

"I had to do something to make you talk to me,"
he protested with light-eyed innocence, not a trace of
guilt in him at having been caught. "After you stopped
yelling at me on the liner you avoided me completely,
and when we met again Just a few minutes ago, you
looked like you were about to go back to the avoiding.
I. just thought I'd let you know I don't want to be
avoided."

"I'll file your preference in with the rest of your
stats," I said, standing up before he could reach for
my hand again. "If you happen to get curious about
how I'm looking at it, try making a wild guess."

I turned my back and walked away then, giving him
help with the guess he'd be making. I really hated it

122

Sharon Green

when people tried to take advantage of me, which they
usually did because they thought I was innocent. Seero
had always told me I was lucky to look the way I did,
as it helped me to find out veiy quickly who was trust-
worthy and who wasn't. I, myself, had never consid-
ered the talent that much of a convenience, and I was
still so annoyed I almost ran directly into Chal and
what he was carrying.

"Hey, look out!" he squawked, stopping very short
to avoid the collision, his hands holding the spill-
threatening drinks away from his costume. "I have
your cup ofjavi right here, Inky. You didn't have to
come after it yourself."

"Thanks for the javi, Chal," I said. taking the cup
out of his hand with a brisk nod. "I'll be drinking it
over here by myself, so you and Lidra enjoy your own

drinks."

I gave him a second nod and then marched away,
barely glancing at a Lidra who stood silently beside
him with brows raised high. To the left of the drink
dispenser was another cozy grouping of chairs, one
that looked more attractive than the first in that I would
be using it alone. I sat down with my back to the
others, crossed my legs, and sipped at the javi.

"What in hell is going on?" Chal demanded, com-
ing around to where he could see me. "One minute
you're sitting over there, having a quiet conversation,
and the next you're practically running me down to
get to another seat. Do they charge more for that part
of the car, or what?"

"You could say the price of sitting over there is
higher than I care to pay," I agreed with a judicious
nod, giving the javi most of my attention. "That
doesn't mean you two have to do without, not on my
account. I'm perfectly capable of spending the trip time
alone, and in fact I think I'd prefer it."

"I have a feeling we've been through this conver-
sation before," Lidra said, coming to stand beside
Chal, each of her hands holding a glass. "Don't tell
me: you and Serendel are back to looking for your own
private arena."

"Don't include me in on that," the big man himself

MISTS OF THE AGES          123

said, making it unanimous as he stopped beside Lidra.
"All I was trying to do was get acquainted, but ap-
parently I picked the wrong track to take. It looks like
I owe everyone another apology."

"Chal and I spend enough time apologizing to each
other." Lidra said, looking up at Serendel with a grin.
"I don't think we have room for anyone else's apol-
ogies, so why don't you save what you have for Inky?
And by the way, this drink is for you."

"It's cream-clear," he said in surprise after taking
the glass and sniffing at it. "How did you know it's
my favorite drink? Winners never state preferences like
that one way or the other. If we did, it would be like
forcing everyone who follows us to eat or drink the
same."

"Which is against fighter codes," she said with a
nod, sipping at her own drink. "The only thing is,
you didn't start out as a triple-gold winner, and some-
one did an interview with you after your second or
third successful showing. The interviewer mentioned
she spent two hours drinking cream-clear with you,
which led me to suspect it might be one of your fa-
vorites. How much did I have to lose by taking the
chance?"

"Absolutely nothing." he agreed with a grin that
matched her eariier one, raising his glass to her. "I
gladly toast one of the ninety rather than one of the
ten, and tender my thanks for your consideration. And
by the way, even though there isn't enough alcohol in
cream-clear to affect an infant, the toast is still valid.
The codes arc clear on that point, too."

The three of them chuckled as they all drank to
whatever ritual fighter-toast he'd proposed, getting
'along as well together as I'd known they would. I
moved my attention to one of the windows as I sipped
my javi. watching dark walls rush by no more than six
inches from the car. They hadn't told us how long a
trip we'd be making, and I really hoped that was be-
cause the time would be too short to be worth men-
tioning. With problems of real importance waiting for
me to get home, I wanted that job over with as soon
as possible.

124 Sharon Green

"And now that you've been fortified, why don't you
tiy that apology on Inky?" Lidra's voice came, back
to sounding amused. "I'd be more than happy to spend
this vacation entertaining you myself, but Chal said he
sees very poor health ahead for me if I do more than
flirt with you and daydream. I'd hate putting my health
in jeopardy, so Inky's your only other chance. I know
you don't find her very interesting, so I guess you'll
have to force yourself."

"Well, we all have to sacrifice something on a joint
vacation, for the sake, of course, of the others with
us," Serendel agreed in a solemn voice, probably
looking just as sober. "I'm sure most men run scream-
ing from the sight of Inky, but I'm strong enough to
hold my ground and stick it out. Closing my eyes every
now and then should help, at least until I get used to
her looks. After that, she may not even notice I'm
forcing myself."

"No wonder you don't mind entering the arena to
answer a challenge," Chal said to him, his tone dryly
amused. "If that's the sort of thing you say to every
woman you meet, you have to be safer in the arena
than out of it."

"Well, she didn't seem to like hearing me say I
found her attractive." Serendel protested, and I could
hear that innocence again in his voice. "If she prefers
being told she's an eyesore, who am I to deny it to
her? I try to give all women what they like best, with-
out passing judgment on their taste."

"Did you hear that. Inky?" Lidra said with a very
heavy leer in her voice. "A man who gives women
what they want instead of what he wants. You'd better
grab him quick before he gets away."

"Yes, I heard what he said, and I couldn't be more
delighted," I answered, continuing to watch the
unending black outside the window. "Since what I
want most is to be left alone, I'm glad to hear I'll be
getting it. Repeating yourself a dozen times or more
can be unbelievably boring."

"Look, I really do apologize for what I did a few
minutes ago," Serendei said as I sipped at my javi,
sounding seriously serious as he stepped closer to my

MISTS OF THE AGES          125

chair. "The truth of the matter is I wasn't trying to
take advantage of you, but I was trying to play on your
sympathies. I've found that some women—hesitate—
when it comes to getting involved with me, and that
because of the number of women I've already been
involved with. I thought if I made you feel sony for
me you would let me know if you considered me at all
interesting, and then we could go on from there. If I
had really been trying to take advantage of you, would
I have been so fast to drop the act? Wouldn't I have
kept on with it, at least until I'd gotten what I
wanted?**

"I don't know," I answered, finally moving my eyes
back to look up at him. "Would you have?"

A flash of frustration showed in his gaze, brief but
fair-to-middling intense, the sort of thing no profes-
sional con artist would ever have let himself show.
Push the mark off-balance and keep her there was the
standard way of doing it, make her question herself
rather than you. I'd been taught more than basic tactics
even before I was out of lower school, a self-defense
course given gratis by some of Seero's vast multitude
of friends. My teachers had all been experienced
professionals, but "talented amateur" was the best that
could be said about Serendel. He'd conned me once,
and I wasn't in the mood to give him a second shot at
it.

"Come OB, Inky, you're being unreasonable," Lidra
protested, glancing uncomfortably at Serendel.
"You're acting like he's trying to apologize for at-
tempted assassination. You know he was looking in
your direction even before we got here, so you can't
possibly believe he's handing you a line. Give the guy
a chance!"

"You give him a chance." I said. getting out of my
chair to head toward the drink dispenser. "I'm not
here just to fill in his empty time until he reaches the
next group of dancing giris. If there's a law written
somewhere that says I have to associate with him,
snow it to me. If there doesn't happen to be that kind
of law, leave me the hell alone."

I put my cup in the slot and pressed for a refill of

126 Sharon Green

thejavi, hearing the heavy silence my last remarks had
produced. After having given me her full approval,
Lidra was obviously not very happy that I refused to
fall swooning at the feet of her idol, but that was just
too bad about her. They were all expecting me to let
that big jerk treat me any way he pleased and simply
be grateful for the attention, but I'd be damned if I
would. They all had so much in common it was sick-
ening; since the choice was mine I'd be staying out of
it, and they could all have fun sickening each other.

"It might be a good idea to talk about something
else for a while," Chal's voice came after a minute,
trying to smooth the awkwardness out of the moment.
"This is supposed to be a vacation, after all, so let*s
just relax and enjoy ourselves. Have you ever been
here before, Serendel?"

"No, this is my first visit," me man answered after
the briefest of hesitations, apparently agreeing with
Chal about a change of subjects. "There aren't many
places I can go to get away from the general public
for a while, but this promises to be one of them. My
business manager contacted them for me, and was told
that the number of people on each tour session is de-
liberately kept small, to encourage those people to Join
in on the action as a pan of it. Their workers, who
stage the scenes in the Mists, either stay in character
no matter who comes past them as a guest, or they get
fired. If I can spend my time enjoying the tour rather
than being one of its main attractions, I'll probably
become a regular visitor.**

"Lidra and I have never been here before either,"
Chal said, and I heard them moving around as though
they were sitting down. I, myself, was in the middle
of going back to my original chair with my freshened
cup ofjavi, pleased that they finally seemed to be leav-
ing me alone. "As a matter of fact Lidra and I met on
the liner coming here, the same liner you were on.
Since we're both fans of yours, it worked out very well
in bringing us even closer together."

"How about your other friend over there?" Seren-
del asked as I sat down all alone, his tone not quite as

MISTS OF THE AGES         127

friendly as it had been. "Did either of you know
Smudge before you met on the liner?"

"Ah—that's *Inky,* and no, we didn't." Lidra said
hastily when Chal stayed silent, something odd in her
voice. "We all became friends on the liner, especially
after we found out we were all going to the same place.
Inky isn't very happy to be here, because vacationing
in the Mists was her friend's idea, her friend got sick
at the last minute, and the Mists people refused to
return Inky's deposit. She came alone rather than sim-
ply lose the money, but she really is determined not
to enjoy herself. Knowing that, you may be able to
understand now why she's being somewhat un-
friendly."

*'What I think I understand even better is why her
friend got sick," was the terribly clever reply, the
words dry and spoken clearly enough so that everyone
could hear them. "Under similar circumstances, I
might do the same myself."

They went on to talk about other things after that,
but I had stopped listening. As I sipped my javi, it had
come to me how familiar that situation seemed, and
then I remembered an incident in upper school that I
thought I'd forgotten completely. All schools have
their in-sets and exclusive power groups, and mine was
no different; those of us who had little or no interest
in that sort of flock nonsense simply left them to their
games and went about our own business. I'd had no
intentions of ever getting involved with those people—
until one of them decided to do me a favor.

I sighed as I crossed my legs in the comfortable
chair, remembering how excited my best friend had
been when I was asked to a dance by the boy who was
the star member of the most exclusive of the in-groups.
They were the ones who had the money and the social
position, and the boy had decided that my guardian,
Seero, had enough money to justify my being included
in their group. The fact that he was also hot to try
scoring with me had helped him make that important
a decision, but I hadn't known about that part of it;

I'd thought he was simply interested in me as a person.
Seero had chuckled at my excitement and had told me

128

Sharon Green

to go for it, and my best friend had decided it was the
most marvelous thing that could ever have happened
to me. If I'd had any sense I would have refused, but
with my best friend urging me on I ended up accept-
ing.

The dance itself had been a little on the bonng side,
but I'd had fun when some of the older members of
the group tried making me feel uncomfortable by dis-
cussing all the places they'd been. Much to their dis-
may it had turned out I'd been to all those places too,
and a number of others besides. When I'd mentioned
I'd even been on a run through the wilds they'd all
gasped, and for the next hour I'd been flooded with
questions about the time. My escort had been abso-
lutely delighted that he'd chosen so well in a partner
for the dance, but only because I hadn't mentioned the
strokes that had taken Seero and me to all those places,
or the reason we'd had to make the wilds run. There
aren't any strokes to be made in the wilds, but there
are other things.

When the dance was over, my escort had taken me
home in his expensive new sports model—or at least
he was supposed to have taken me home. What he'd
actually done was end us up in a really bad neighbor-
hood, parked in a deserted shopping-traffic lane, and
then had pleasantly announced the way I was going to
thank him for taking me to the dance. When I'd an-
nounced back that he must have had too much of the
mixed-fruit punch he hadn't been amused, and had then
proceeded to explain my choice. Either I gave him
what he wanted or I got out and walked home, or at
least tried to walk home. In that neighborhood there
was no guarantee I would make it without losing a lot
more than he was asking for, but the choice was com-
pletely mine. His grin of enjoyment had twisted his
handsome face into a leering glimpse of his true na-
ture, but the grin had lasted only until I got out of his
sports model and slammed the door hard enough to
crack its paint job.

As an added statement to the sort he was, he actually
drove away and left me there. I'd waited until he was
completely out of sight, and then I'd followed one of

MISTS OF THE AGES           129

the dark, uneasily-deserted streets to the place of busi-
ness of one of Seero's friends. The woman had been
furious over what had been done to me, and had had
one of her largest bouncers drive me home. My former
escort had been right about the sort of things that could
happen to a girl alone in a neighborhood like that, but
I hadn't been as alone as he'd thought. Thanks to Seero
and the shadow-life he'd shared with me, I hadn't had
to do anything I would have found extremely distaste-
ful, and I hadn't been harmed because of the refusal I
would have made in any event.

After that I'd stayed as far away as possible from
exclusive in-groups, and hadn't even paid attention
when my escort of that night had begun having expen-
sive, embarrassing accidents. Seero had been really
angry over what the boy had tried to force me into,
and Seero had had an awful lot of friends. My own
best friend had tried telling me I'd been an idiot, that
what the boy had asked for would have been a small
price to pay for admission to their group, and not long
after that she'd found someone else to be friends with.
The someone else had already been accepted on the
fringes of the group my ex-friend had had so much
interest in, and only then had I understood that she'd
wanted me accepted so that she could have an associ-
ated acceptance. Finding that out had really gotten me
mad, and I'd sworn never to let myself be put in a
situation like that again.

I stirred in my seat as I heard the laughter coming
from those I shared the car with, the people who had
so very much in common. It was a shame Serendel
would have to be dumped when we got to where we
had work to do, but Lidra and Chal would just have
to live with it. Once we were finished they'd be able
to find him again, of course, and I'd be able to get out
of there and go back to work that really needed doing.
I had no interest in belonging to in-groups—of any
kind—and once I was back home I'd never have to be
bothered by them again.

I was just finishing my third cup of javi when the
car began slowing down from a headlong rush. There
was still nothing but featureless black walls around us

130

Sharon Green

when we reached an easy gliding pace, and then sud-
denly there was an open area of lights and color that
looked very much like the one we'd left. As the car
came to a smooth and uneventful stop I was able to
see the one difference between there and the place we'd
started, the sign on the wall that was now to the right
of the stairs we faced. The sign read, "The Mists of
Llexis," and as the doors opened there was another
boy dressed as a page to greet us.

"Welcome, gentle travelers, welcome to the Mists
of Uexis," the boy said, watching as we approached
the doors from where we'd been when the car had
stopped. "I'm here to take you to your journey scout,
who will then get you settled in your accommodations
in this part of the city. Please follow me."

Chal and Lidra stepped through the doorway without
hesitation, following as requested, but Serendel didn't
go with them. He stopped beside the door instead,
looked down at me with those cold gray eyes, then
gestured me out ahead of him with a small, sardonic
bow. I was tempted to say thanks anyway, but I'd
rather not have you behind me, but it really wasn't
worth the effort. Rather than saying anything at all, I
simply walked past him as though he weren't there,
glancing around before moving after me three who had
already begun climbing the stairs. That multi-colored
area had the same panels with things behind them that
the first place had had, but there still wasn't any way
for me to check them out.

The climb up wasn't as long as the climb down had
been, which was a lucky thing for Lidra. She was al-
ready breathing heavily when we reached the top, but
at least she wasn't gasping. Our page paused then to
let us look around, which was really very wise of him.
If he'd just continued on he would have found himself
alone, and not because any of us, including Lidra,
needed to rest. There had been some stray wisps of
fog on the stairs as we'd rounded the last turn near the
top, finding it thickening the higher we went, but it
hadn't prepared us for what we finally moved up into.

All around us was swirling gray fog, roiling mists
that refused us sight of the sky, and the sun, and even

MISTS OF THE AGES          131

the ground we stood on. The only things that were
visible were the items that had been built in and for
the Mists, things like buildings. Not far from where
we stood, on our left, was a line of buildings and stores
and shops and stalls, all of it glowing faintly as though
the construction material had been the very sun that
the fog refused sight of, a sun that had been reduced
to individual pieces of its spectrum. Reds and yellows
and greens and blues glowed faintly through the gray
of the fog, coloring small patches of the mist, looking
like ghosts of things that were bright and real. Some-
one clattered past us on a greenly-glowing cart, what
was drawing the cart invisible in the fog, and finally
our page decided he'd waited long enough.

"This way now, travelers, if you please," he said
in a very firm tone, apparently having experience with
needing to be firm. "Your journey scout is waiting for
you in the assistance booth right over there. If at any
time during your tour you happen to need help and
your scout isn't available, simply go to one of those
booths. There will be someone on duty at all times,
and anyone you speak to will be glad to help."

We were being led off to the right during all that, in
a direction that seemed to take us through a gap in
other stalls, shops and buildings, toward a structure
that was brighter than all the glowing objects around
it. It looked very much like a slender pyramid built of
cold, blue-white fire, and was obviously made to be
easily visible in all directions. I tried to watch where
I was putting my feet as I walked, and for that reason
noticed the ground beneath us was cobblestoned in
wide blocks, every fourth block glowing the way the
buildings did. Strangely enough the mist felt warm and
dry rather than damp as I passed through it, just as
though someone had blotted up whatever moisture
might have originally been present. I might have felt
too warm if I'd been wearing normal clothing, which
could have been one of the reasons we'd been given
costumes.

It took only a couple of minutes to walk to the pyr-
amid, and during that time a number of other people
appeared out of the fog, passed us, men disappeared

132 Sharon Green

again. Only one of them was dressed in the same sort
of leather costume the male members of our group
wore, and that one strolled along being followed by
men in short-skirted tunics of cloth. The one in leather
paid no real attention to the ones in cloth, just as
though he were allowing them the honor of being near
him, but still didn't find it necessary to acknowledge
their existence. The rest of the passersby wore noth-
ing but cloth, walked alone, and moved so slowly they
seemed to have all the time in the universe. Everyone
we'd seen was moving slowly, except for our newest
page.

"And here we are, gentle travelers," our page said,
opening a door in the side of the pyramid that faced
us, then leading the way inside. "Allow me to present
Vdix, the journey scout who will look after you dur-
ing your stay in the Mists."

"Words fail me to describe my delight in meeting
you. lords and ladies,'* the scout said as we stopped
just inside the doorway to stare at him, the comment
most definitely on me dry side. "As you may have
noticed from die release you all signed, during your
stay here in the Mists, my suggestions are your com-
mands. You go nowhere and do nothing without my
express permission, or the one place you will go is
back to the port to wait for your liner. Your time in
the Mists will be the most unusual vacation you've
ever had, but if you don't obey me it can also be the
most dangerous. Since you* re paying for fun rather
than harm, let's make sure that's what you get, eh?
Are we all clear on how it will work?"

He looked around at each of us, calm arrogance and
authority in the bright eyes that touched us. but he
didn't get the sort of immediate agreement he was ob-
viously looking for. I didn't know what was keeping
the others quiet, but I was still too busy staring at him
to have time to react to what he'd said. He was sitting
calmly in the middle of the booth floor, paying no
attention to the page behind him or the one who had
brought us there, apparently also unaware of the fog
that swirled around all of us, fighting with the bright
lighting inside the booth. Sitting on his haunches his

MISTS OF THE AGES          133

head was as high as mine, his beaked nose and mouth
giving his dark eyes an even fiercer look. If I hadn't
had other things to take my attention I might have
wondered how he spoke our language so easily, but
the impatient swishing of his long, tufted tail was too
distracting. That tail led back up to a dark yellow body
that was positively huge, and it was possible to see
how well-muscled it was even with the folded dark
green wings covering his back. I couldn't quite tell if
his mane was fur or feathers, but it came more than
halfway down his huge chest, toward four feet that
were rather clearly taloned.

I had been expecting our journey scout to be an older
version of the pages, but what he had turned out to be
was a nonhuman Griddenth.

Chapter 8

"For the amount of money I'm being charged, I ex-
pect to have some say in what I see and do," Lidra
remarked at last, the first of us to come out of it.
"Paying for the privilege of being bossed around isn't
my idea of a fun vacation, Velix, and I think my at-
torneys will see it the way I do. I agreed to obey the
rules of the Mists in the release I signed, but I never
agreed to become a puppet or a slave. If that's the way
you intend interpreting the release, you'd better get
one of your bosses in here to discuss the point with
us."

"I'm afraid I'll have to go along with the lady,"
Serendel put in as the Griddenth glared at Lidra, the
man's words sounding almost amused. "I'll be more
than happy to have your advice and guidance, but I
don't obey anyone without question. If that's the way
you intend running this tour, you'd better find a dif-
ferent group to do it with."

"So I've been blessed with not one but two free
souls this time around," the Griddenth growled, look-
ing between Lidra and Serendel, his bearing now much
more aristocratic and even less distantly familiar than
it had been. "You both seem to think I'm exaggerating
the danger and playing tyrant for the fun of it, but
that's only because you've never been through here
before. You're the ones who decide which way you'll
go after the set tour areas are visited and what you'll
do when you get there, but I'm the one who tells you
whether it's smart to go that way or do as you intend.
That point doesn't happen to be subject to debate with
134

MISTS OF THE AGES          135

me or my superiors, and if you can't accept it you'll
simply have to leave. Now, which way will it be: do
you stay, or do you go back where you came from?"

He set the question flatly in front of them, no doubt
at all in any part of his bearing, and Lidra, at least,
seemed more than simply annoyed. Considering the
fact that we couldn 't just turn around and go back, she
wasn't free to push the matter too far, not if there was
any chance at all the management of the Mists would
back Velix. As a matter of fact she'd already made
more of a fuss than she should have; if they thought
we were likely to cause trouble, they'd watch us more
closely than we'd find comfortable or convenient. I
saw her lips tighten in angry determination, as though
she'd just decided not to let herself be pushed around,
and if I'd had the time I would have groaned. Since I
didn't have the time, what I did instead was step for-
ward before she put all our feet in it-

"What difference can it possibly make who decides
what?" I asked, addressing most of the question to
Lidra while hoping she'd understand what I was really
saying. "Maybe you and Chal expect to have a good
time here, but for my part I've come for no more than
a single reason. If I listen to them and do exactly as
they say and still don't enjoy myself, they can't very
well complain I didn't go along, now can they?"

She had her eyes on me by the time I'd finished, and
this time I could see frustration in them instead of the
previous looking-for-a-fight. She'd read my message
ten and zero and was wishing she could argue, but
wasn't dim enough to think she really could. Behind
her to the left Chal stood with nothing but blandness
in his expression, but if that wasn't a hint of relief in
his eyes, I've never seen the emotion. No more than
seconds went by while Lidra swallowed the bitter pill,
and then she nodded with no indication of defeat what-
soever.

"You know. Inky, you've made a very good point,"
she said, then moved her gaze directly to the Grid-
denth. "It will be a much stronger stand if we go along
with their absurd demands, and our vacation is ruined
because of it- My lawyers have won any number of

136 Sharon Green

cases like that, but the position does require full co-
operation. I'll have to be very careful to see that I do
exactly what Velix says—within reason, of course."

"Your graciousness is an inspiration to us all,
Lady," Velix said with an infinitesimal bow of his
head, sarcasm dripping from every word. **I look for-
ward to our association during this tour. And what
decision have you made, lord Serendel?"

With our own problem solved I found myself hoping
th&fighter would stick to his previous stance and turn
around and leave, but no such luck. He smiled faintly,
possibly at the realization that Velix had recognized
him but hadn't shown it in any way other than using
his name, and then he shrugged.

**I can't afford the time leaving and going some-
where else would cost me,*' he said, sounding no more
apologetic or defeated than Lidra had. "I'm here so
m be staying here, but it's only fair to warn you about
one important point. If I'm told why I shouldn't be
doing something I'll most likely go along with the rec-
ommendation, but if I'm simply given an order I tend
to get annoyed. You really should understand that I,
unlike me lady, rarely hand over my annoyances to
lawyers. When people understand I prefer dealing with
them myself, I find a much smaller number of annoy-
ances to deal with."

"Hardly surprising," the Griddenth commented,
and I would have sworn he'd developed the same sort
of faint smile worn by the man. "When one refuses
to accept petty annoyances, one finds fewer of them
offered. I'm sure we'll strike a balance acceptable to
both of us. Are there any other questions or protests
waiting their turn to be placed or lodged?"

He looked around at all of us again, giving it plenty
of time rather than none at all, but even though Lidra
stirred where she stood, no one took him up on his
offer of an argument. I had the feeling he was neatly
reestablishing his authority, and when no one chal-
lenged it he nodded his head and stood.

"We'll go on to your accommodations, then, and on
the way I'll explain what your places are in this town,"
he said, briefly shaking out his wings as he moved

MISTS OF THE AGES          137

toward us. "The period of time is taken from the planet
Llexis* distant past, and although they all consider it
fact-bound history, the rest of the Empire tends to think
of it more as fanciful imagination. Llexians like to
believe their distant ancestors had the ability to do
magic."

"I've heard that before," Chal put in as we fol-
lowed our scout back into the fog, leaving the two
pages behind in the booth. **I used to wonder how they
could believe that in the face of logic and reason, and
then I found out. They think the ability was lost some-
where along the road to advanced civilization, that
whatever caused the talent to do magic atrophied like
the appendix some members of our race once had. It's
been theorized that the appendix allowed the human
animal to take nutrition from the bark of trees, but
once they developed a hunting and farming culture to
replace simple gathering, they no longer had a need
for it. It was . . ."

"Exactly, exactly," Velix interrupted courteously
but hastily, happily heading off what promised to be a
very long lecture on comparative biology. "Our peo-
ple felt the belief would do very well here in the Mists,
and this town is the result of that conviction. Those
who wear plain cloth are commoners, those in leather
like that worn by you gentlemen are upper class lords,
and those in glowing robes are magicians. You ladies
are also dressed as members of the upper class, and
that's the way you'll all be treated— except by the other
members of the upper class."

"Sounds to me like the rivalry was somewhat in-
tense," Serendel commented, apparently interested. I,
myself, was more interested in something I'd noticed
about Velix, a fact that could turn out to be very handy
later on. As I walked beside him through the ever-
present fog, the sound of his talons clicking against
the cobblestones was very clear. If he didn't have some
way of muting that sound, we'd never have to wonder
whether or not he was in the immediate vicinity. En-
gaging in frowned-upon activities went easier and more
successfully with a break like that, but before we re-
lied on the theory it would have to be tested.

138 Sharon Green

"The rivalry was more than 'somewhat' intense,"
Velix said to Serendel, now apparently amused.
"Every member of the upper class was ready, at a
moment's notice, to insult or destroy any other mem-
ber. The only thing that kept it from being a time of
constant, all-out warfare was the presence of the ma-
gicians. Every lord had a magician backing his House,
and the strength of his magician determined what he
could and couldn't do against the others. After you've
rested, you gentlemen will have the chance to choose
magicians of your own."

"What about 'we ladies'?" Lidra asked at once,
taking her attention from a pinkly-glowing house on
the left that seemed to have a lot of windows, all of
them lit. "Don't we get to choose magicians for our
own Houses?"

"Alas. dear lady, the period of time didn't work that
way," Velix answered as he turned his head to her,
his amusement perfectly clear under the sorrowful tone
he'd adopted. "Only lords were permitted to be heads
of Households, never a lady alone. The ladies were
another popular point of contention for the lords, and
may well have been the most popular. If a lady struck
a lord's fancy he simply claimed her, and the strength
of his magician determined whether or not he got to
keep her. You two ladies will certainly be claimed
almost immediately, and if the magicians chosen by
the lords who accompany you aren't powerful enough,
you'll need to accede to the wishes of the claiming
lord- If the chosen magicians prove more powerful than
their adversaries, you'll be the undisputed property of
the lord accompanying you. That's the way the game
works, and I believe both of you ladies indicated com-
plete willingness to comply in your releases."

"But what if we don't have a lord accompanying
us?" I said, finally finding something of my own to
argue about. "I agreed to go along with the game
where the people working here are concerned, but
nothing was said about my having to be stuck with
some other guest like myself. If something had been
said, I would have had the chance to enter a refusal,
just the way I'm doing now."

MISTS OF THE AGES           139

"My dear young lady, we do have experience in
arranging these matters," Velix said as he this time
looked at me, superior and almost condescending re-
proof in his voice. "If there had been no other ac-
ceptable guest to add to your party, one of our own
would have been added to balance your numbers. With
lord Serendel available, however, the effort became
unnecessary. For you, he's the lord accompanying
you."

I thought I heard a sound like swallowed laughter,
but when I turned my head fast to the right, the fighter
was looking down at me with the blandest expression
I'd ever seen. When he saw me looking at him he
shrugged just a little, his small headshake adding to
the impression of total resignation in the face of com-
plete helplessness, a defeat accepted even before battle
had been joined. I'm sure he thought he was being
really cute, but I was in no mood to be the butt of
anyone's joke.

"As I said, I never agreed to let myself get stuck
with some stranger," I told Velix as I turned back to
look at him, even less friendliness in my tone than
there had been. "Since there isn't anyone acceptable
around to be my lord, I'll just have to do without one.''

"No one acceptable?" the Griddenth echoed in near
outrage, those bright, dark eyes glaring at me. "My
dear young woman, have you any idea what you're
saying? Don't you know—"

He broke off in the middle of the sentence, obvi-
ously fighting to keep from talking about things his
job didn't allow him to talk about, and then he got a
firmer grip on himself.

"All right, I think it's fairiy clear that whatever gods
there may be are displeased with me," he said, a
strong determination to cope now in his tone. "Nev-
ertheless, I think 1*11 be best off ignoring that and sim-
ply going ahead as though they weren't. If you intend
arguing the term 'acceptable,' young lady, you ought
to know how these matters are judged. A court will
poll a hundred women from your own home world,
and if three-quarters of them or more disagree with
your decision, the court will find against you. You will

140 Sharon Green

be told that we had every right to eject you from the
Mists for breach of contract, and not only won't you
be relieved of the necessity for paying us the full
amount charged, you'll also be given the burden of
paying court costs. And just in case you're uncertain
as to how the poll will turn out, I'll let you in on a
little secret. One of the larger glad program networks
already did a poll about three months ago, using the
top five winners as their offering and every woman
between the ages of sixteen and ninety on every planet
the network broadcast to as their base. Based on the
results of that poll, and bearing in mind the fact that
even women who weren't regular viewers of arena
events were counted in, my advice to you would be to
not waste your time and money."

"I seriously doubt whether any court can tell me I
have to like what everyone else likes," I countered,
feeling the need to dent his heavy satisfaction a little,
but more concerned with a different point he'd men-
tioned. "My planet has laws guaranteeing my right to
my own taste in things as long as no one else is af-
fected by my choice, but I don't understand why you're
being so unbending about this. Why would I be ejected
from the tour if all I did was refuse to associate with
someone in my own group?"

"The answer to that, dear lady, is that a choice of
such a sort on your part would afreet many more peo-
ple than just yourself," he answered with a sigh, stop-
ping where we were in the fog to look directly at me.
"Based on the answers given in your release, certain
specifics were arranged for this group's tour, and lord
Serendel was added to it. If you try changing your
mind now, after everything has been arranged, our tour
plans are ruined and so is lord Serendel's vacation.
With that in view our only option would be to eject
you, replace you with one of our own people, and then
charge you for the time lost. You would also be ex-
pected to pay for the tour as though you'd taken it,
and if it came down to going to court, your signatures
of agreement on the release would make the term 'ac-
ceptable' a matter of general opinion rather than a spe-
cific. Do you understand what I'm saying, or must I

MISTS OF THE AGES          141

go through it again more slowly and in greater detail?
I'll be happy to go over it as many times as you like,
but I really must have an answer from you now. If you
insist on keeping to your refusal, I have to see about
sending you back and bringing one of our workers in
to replace you."

I didn't answer him immediately, but not because I
didn't understand him or was worried about having to
pay for a tour I hadn't taken. My hesitation was based
entirely on the apparent fact that if I refused to go
along with their game, they'd kick me out without
waiting for another reason- Having to go back home
immediately rather than after a delay would not be my
idea of a heartbreaking outcome, but that would leave
Lidra and Chal in a bind after I'd given my word to
help them. I stood there for a minute without being
able to see any way out of the mess, and then Chal
decided to do for me what I'd done for Lidra.

"Come on. Inky, you don't want to spoil our va-
cation, too," he coaxed. "If you aren't here with us
we'll have a miserable time no matter how much fun
it turns out to be, so tiy to be reasonable. And I'll tell
you what: if it happens that Serendel's magician is
stronger than a claimant's and you make an effort to
get along with the winner but can't, you and Lidra can
trade lords for a while. You don't consider me unac-
ceptable, do you?"

He gave me a smile with the question, emphasizing
the personal and deemphasizing the fact that he'd re-
minded me I was needed, and because he was looking
at me he missed the peculiar expression that Lidra
briefly showed. She'd agreed completely with the first
part of his speech, but when she realized he'd offered
himself in the place of Serendel, she hadn't seemed to
like the idea. Considering the way she supposedly felt
about the big fighter her reaction was very interesting,
but I had no rime at all to think about it. Velix seemed
even more pleased with dial's offer, and quickly added
some urging of his own.

"And you really must remember that a lord is
needed no place but here, in the Mists of Llexis," he
said, settling his wings flatter in a very comfortable

142

Sharon Green

way. "Once we move on to the next place on your
tour, the scenario will be entirely different."

"And it could turn out that my—lord—picks a ma-
gician who can't cut it," I added my own oar, trying
to sound as though that possibility in itself made it
worth taking a chance. "All right, I'll agree to give it
a try, and if the try doesn't work I'll go for the swap.
As long as there isn't some rule or regulation against
swapping."

I looked at Velix as I said that, daring him to even
hint there was, but all I got was a headshake and the
suggestion of a smile of amusement. I thought that
would be the end of the subject, but someone else
turned out to have a question.

"Now that the point's been mentioned, how do we
pick our magicians?" Serendel asked, totally placid
and not even glancing in my direction. "I want to
make sure, you understand, that I don't pick anything
but the best available."

He gave our journey scout a very innocent smile
then, and I think if Velix had been human he would
have had to mb at his face while he coughed into his
hand. The Griddenth found Serendel amusing, but I
still didn't.

"We'll discuss the matter of choosing after you've
all rested," Velix's answer came in a familiarly bland
and innocent way, as he leaned back on his haunches
to gesture behind us with one taloned forepaw. "The
guest house right there is where you'll be introduced
to the magicians, so the stop is essential. After that
you'll plunge right into upper class society, and will
be given accommodations at the palace any time you
want them. The activities go on nonstop over there,
and you're free to go on with them as long as you feel
yourselves able. My humble advice to you is to take
full advantage of this stop to restore yourselves.â

After having stressed the word "humble" he got
back to his feet and moved through our line to lead the
way into the guest house, leaving behind him the dis-
tinct impression that he was doing all in hisàpower to
keepàfrom insultingàus with orders rather than sugges-
tions. I'd never met a Griddenth before getting to that

r ^

^

MISTS OF THE AGES           143

planet, even though they'd been full members of the
Empire for more than a hundred years. If they were
all as arrogant and sarcastic as Velix, though, it was
fairly clear I hadn't missed much.

We followed our scout through the front door of the
guest house and were met Just inside by two people, a
man and a woman, in the cloth outfits of the lower
class. They greeted us warmly, told us we could have
anything we wanted just by asking for it, then led us
through the large entrance room to a stairway going
up. There were a lot of lamps lit all around the room
and on the wall by the stairs, but their numbers didn't
help that much against the thick fog hanging every-
where. The guest house seemed to be made entirely of
wood with heavy leather furniture standing around
waiting to be used, but th& fog turned everything into
a suggestion of itself, insubstantial-looking and there-
fore possibly unreal.

We were taken to the second floor and shown to
rooms, one for each of us and no nonsense about shar-
ing between lords and their ladies. The man who had
opened the room for me urged me to look around while
he got Lidra settled, and if there was anything I wanted
he would be available very shortly to supply it. The
first thing I looked at was him leaving and closing the
door as he went, wondering if his offer was really as
broad as he'd made it sound. He was definitely on the
handsome side and hadn't looked bad in his short cloth
outfit, but for some reason I couldn't generate much
interest in taking him up on the suggestion he might
have been making. I wasn't on that trip for the purpose
of having fun, and the urge to get on with it was be-
ginning to grow stronger than it had been.

I did take the time to look around the room, and was
unsurprised to find a fully equipped bathroom behind
one of the doors. What did surprise me was finding
my luggage behind the door that hid a closet, and I
couldn't help noticing that it hadn't been unpacked. It
seemed to have been sent along with me in case I
needed something from it, but otherwise could simply
be ignored. Since I didn't need anything right then I
ignored it. but felt a little better knowing my bodysuits

144 Sharon Green

were handy if I wanted one- I was looking forward to
it not being very long before I was able to get down
to work, and that would be when I wanted one.

My temporary accommodations were moderate in
size, with a large bed opposite the door to the hall,
three leather chairs scattered around the room, the
bathroom and closet doors in the wall to the left, and
three wide windows in the wall to the right. All the
windows showed was more fog with ghost-lights ap-
pearing here and there in it, the same sort of fog that
shared the room with me, the stuff I was beginning to
get tired of looking at. I went to the bed and sat down
on it, wondering what you were supposed to do during
that rest time if you didn't feel like resting. The bed-
cover seemed to be svalk, comfortable but not terribly
interesting even though the color was a pretty rose. I
lay down on it for a while, counted wounded minutes
dragging themselves by, then finally sat up again. Even
more lame time limped past, possibly a year or two,
and then a knock came at my door.

"Who is it?" I asked, wondering if it was the man
who had brought me to the room, coming back to re-
offer his suggestion in case I was bored. I still wasn't
interested in that sort of a distraction, but I needn't
have worried. The door opened to admit Chal, cany-
ing what looked like a blue flame in a small, round
copper dish, and when he closed the door behind him-
self he turned to face me with a grin.

"Isn't this the wildest thing you've ever seen?" he
asked as he came toward me, sounding like a little boy
with a brand-new gadgettoy. "That woman is the most
brilliantly creative person I've ever met, male or fe-
male. I can't get rid of the delightful feeling that I'm
in the middle of a children's adventure book."

"If we end up getting caught doing the wrong thing,
I doubt if you'll have trouble losing the feeling," I
commented, trying to be as specific and yet obscure
as it was possible to be. I didn't know why he was
suddenly acting as though we didn't have to watch
what we said, but it didn't seem wise to go along with
him in it.

"Oh, you don*t have to worry about anyone over-

MISTS OF THE AGES           145

hearing us," he said as he sat at the foot of the bed
opposite me, just as though he'd read my mind. "As
long as this flame stays blue, there aren't any listening
devices operating near us and we can speak as we like.
If anyone tries eavesdropping with nothing but ears,
they'll find our conversation is too low for them to
hear. If the flame suddenly turns orange, though, we'd
better be fast about finding something innocent to dis-
cuss."

"That's one of Lidra's devices?" I asked in sur-
prise, finally understanding what he'd been talking
about. "It doesn't look like anything but a plain cop-
per bowl, and a small one at that. How can it do all
that?"

"You're asking me?" he came back with a snort of
amusement, giving me a wid® grin as he set the bowl
down between us. "When it comes to electronics, I
know nipping the switch up turns it on and down turns
it off. If it doesn't have an on/off switch, which this
doesn't, I usually ignore it entirely. That saves me
from having to admit how far beyond me it is."

"You and me both," I muttered, leaning forward a
little to peer at the bowl and the blue flame it held.
"Isn't it too hot to Just set down on svalk like that? If
we start a fire, we'll have to explain how it hap-
pened- ''

"It isn't hot at all," he said, still enjoying whatever
my expression must have been like. "No matter how
real it looks, that flame isn't a flame, and it isn't bum-
ing. I had to put my hand in it before I believed that,
but there's really nothing there. Go ahead and try it
for yourself."

"I'd rather take your word for it," I denied, sitting
straight again. "With the way my luck's been going,
I'd probably find out it only bums females. How did
Lidra smuggle something like that in here?"

"She simply tossed it into her luggage," Chal said
with a chuckle, leaning back against the padded foot-
board. Serendel had complained about having trouble
with the skirt of his costume, but even leaning back
Chal wasn't having the same. "She tells anyone who
asks that it's an ashtray for puffers, and even has the

146 Sharw Green

puffers to prove she indulges. She isn't anything like
an habitual smoker, but every now and then she has
one. She brought it to my room to explain how it
works, then suggested I show it to you."

"Your being here is her idea?" I asked with brows
high, finding myself distracted at last from the copper
bowl and its nonflame. "After the offer you made me,
that's about the last thing I would have expected her
to do. Is she trying to show how broadminded she is,
or that she doesn't really care?"

"Neither," he answered with a good deal of satis-
faction, folding his arms as he looked at me. "You
had to be told there was a way to speak freely when
we had to, and I had something to pass on that I didn't
want overheard. That made it my place to come in
•here, but not with company. If Lidra had come with
me without our inviting Serendel to join us, it wouldn't
have looked right. And if the time comes that you want
to speak to one or both of us in private, just make
some comment about puffers. We'll get the message
and be with you as quickly as possible."

"Puffers," I acknowledged with a nod, certain that
he knew he hadn't really answered my question. "And
what was it you felt you had to pass on in private?"

"I wanted you and Lidra to know about some of the
things I brought along to help us," he answered, his
expression now more businesslike. "According to
what Velix said I expect us to be offered a lot of par-
tying, and there's no reason for us to arouse suspicion
by refusing to join in. If there's a lot of drinking going
on, for instance, I can give you something to take be-
forehand to keep you sober no matter how much you
swallow, or I can give you something afterward that
will sober you up in about fifteen minutes. If we have
to stay awake for long periods of time you have the
same choice, something to keep you awake, alert and
refreshed, or something to make you that way when
you're dead on your feet. We'll be smartest eating as
much as we can as often as we're able, but if for some
reason provisions become unavailable, I can take care
of that, too. In addition to those I also have a good
supply of pain-killers, antibiotics, sleep-assists, and

MISTS OF THE AGES         147

me like, and all of it's compatible with the biosphere
around us. My initial research made sure of that, but
I double-checked with the entrance officials here just
to be on the safe side. We may need to take time to
recover from the strain afterward, but for the short
time we'll be using the compounds, we should sustain
no lasting physical damage."

"And you brought it in as your own medication,"
I said with another nod, remembering when he'd men-
tioned it to the Customs officials. "I hadn't expected
something like mat, and I have to admit I'm im-
pressed. Do you happen to have something to take
against the possibility of sudden, extreme nausea?"

He frowned briefly at that, at first taking the ques-
tion seriously, and then he understood what I meant.

"I'm realty sorry you've decided you'll be feeling
that way with Serendel," he said, his light eyes ex-
amining me soberiy. "I still don't really understand
what went on between you two, or why you refused
to accept his apology."

"What went on was that he tried to con me, and
apologizing for something like that is never more than
an extension of the con," I said, turning to stand a
thick pillow against the headboard for me to lean
against. Chal had been polite enough not to put his
curiosity as a question, which meant I didn't mind an-
swering what he hadn't asked. "I also don't like being
done favors, and that's what Serendel's attention feels
like to me. The big man has graciously decided to give
the little girl a giant thrill, but the little girl isn't in-
terested in buying. The man who raised me taught me
that people who grant you favors aren't worth know-
ing; only the ones who are willing to exchange favors
think of themselves as dealing with equals rather than
doormats."

"I really do think you're misjudging Serendel," he
said with a sigh, shifting a little against the footboard.
"I'm willing to bet more than one of the top fighters
are like that, but I don't think he is. If I'm right,
though, you'll probably find it out for yourself. The
man you mentioned, the one who raised you—he
sounds like an extraordinary person."

148 Sharon Green

"He was," I said, smiling just a little at the mem-
ories all the ruthless killing in the Empire couldn't
destroy. "There was a time right after my mother died
that I pretended Seero was my father, taking the trou-
ble to raise and protect me even though he didn't want
to acknowledge me. He wasn 't my biological father,
but by the time I was able to admit that to myself, it
no longer mattered. He proved himself my father with
everything he said and did, and the fact that we shared
no common blood made it better than if we had. He
didn't have to take care of me, he wanted to; if that
didn't make him my father, nothing in the universe
including blood would have."

"I see I was right about him being extraordinary,"
Chal said with a smile, and then the smile faded. "I—
don't quite know how to ask this without insulting you,
but there's something I've been very curious about. If
the man who raised you was so special, and everything
you've said confirms that—how did you end up in the-
unusual—occupation you've reportedly become so
good at?"

"That must be the most tactful way of putting it I've
ever heard," I said with a grin. finding his open em-
barrassment amusing. "Seero told me right at the be-
ginning that there were two kinds-of people: those who
would understand what we were doing, and those who
wouldn't. He said I'd know which were which by the
way they approached the subject, and damned if he
wasn't right as usual."

"I hope that means you think I'm one who would,"
he said, a wry expression showing that was probably
the result of my grin. ' 'I really meant what I said about
not wanting to insult you, so if you'd rather not talk
about it all you have to do is say so. On the other hand
my curiosity is close to killing me, so ..."

"... so why don't I save your life by giving you
a chance to understand," I finished for him with a
chuckle when he just let the last word trail off. "It so
happens I do think you're the type to understand, but
I also think you have the right to make up your own
mind about it. Let's start with the way Seero first ex-
plained it to me, when I asked him why he took things

MISTS OF THE AGES         149

rather than working for them the way my mother had.
I was very young at the time, and he knew I wasn't
judging or criticizing, only asking."

"Just the way I'm doing," Chal put in, abruptly
looking very virtuous despite the amusement in his
eyes.

"Yes, just the way you're doing, sweetheart," I
agreed with the sort of oil you use on a child when
you think it's too young to understand it's being pa-
tronized. Chal winced and held his hands up in sur-
render, admitting defeat and letting me go on-

" Seero took me out onto the dining terrace, sat me
down with a soft drink the two of us shared, and then
told me gently that the Empire wasn't the fair, just
place everyone liked to pretend it was. There were
people who worked hard for'what they had and others
who tried to take those things away from them, but
not all of those who took were arrested, tried and put
in a cell. Some were too clever or competent to be
caught by the police, but by far the largest number of
them bought their way out of trouble. Some did the
buying with the jobs they held, as politicians or judges
or maybe even as police. Others used part of the money
they stole to buy themselves out of trouble with poli-
ticians or judges or police, using what they took to
keep themselves in a position to take even more. The
honest police couldn't touch them because the honest
police had to work within the law, and it was almost
impossible to have them do that and still expect them
to get anywhere. That made the bad people think they
were something special, that they had the right to keep
stealing from innocent people and getting away with
it. Seero said he didn't blame them for thinking that,
but he didn't agree."

"Don't tell me that's who you took from!" Chal
said with sudden delight, sitting up away from the
footboard. "You and he went after the crooks who
stole and got away with it?"

"Yes, but it's not quite the virtue you're trying to
make it sound like," I answered, smiling only faintly
at his enthusiasm. "No matter who the targets of our
stroking were, it was still stealing and against the law.

150 Sharon Green

We ended up being responsible for quite a few of the
supposedly untouchable getting caught, because when
we cleaned them out we forced them to go back to the
well before it was really safe, thereby setting them up.
We even helped put the skids to small Twilight Houses
on behalf of larger Houses, to keep the small-fry from
growing up and carving out pieces of their own terri-
tory. But that, Chal, doesn't mean we weren't steal-
ing. It only means we stole from those who had no
legitimate claim to what they had. Seero refused to
start training me until I proved to him I understood the
point. We might have been stealing only from scum,
but if we*d gotten caught we would have been the ones
who ended up in a cell."

'-- "If you ask me, you were both making too much of
die point," he said, and damned if he wasn't acting
stiff-necked and offended on Seero's and my behalf-
**If the law can't touch somebody, does that mean
they're entitled to get away with what they do? No
matter who gets hurt? I don't happen to believe that,
which is one of the reasons I'm here right now. The
S.I. isn't as helpless as planetary officials are, and I'll
bet they don't think you did wrong, either."

"Don't make bets you can't afford to lose," I told
him, remembering what that S.I. man Filster had said
to me. "Most people can't be bothered with differen-
tiating between one thief and the next, and you can't
really blame them. Stealing is stealing, no matter how
well you justify it. Seero and I simply felt that what-
ever ends we accomplished made the rest of it worth-
while; I'm just glad you're one of the few who agree."

"Damned right I agree," he huffed as he leaned
back again, still touchy but beginning to calm down.
"People who take advantage of the helpless set their
own rules for the game, and have no call to complain
when others play by those rules. If they're as helpless
before you and the man who raised you as others are
before them, who could have the gall to say it's un-
fair? And—ah—I think I've been very insensitive. It's
only just come through to me from the way you were
speaking— The man Seero is dead?"

"Yes, he's dead," I said, looking down away from

MISTS OF THE AGES         151

Chal to keep the whole thing from flooding over me
again. Every time I met someone I liked, my first urge
was to drag them home and introduce them to Seero,
to let them see for themselves how wonderful he was.
Even after almost a year, I still hadn't learned not to
do that. Somehow I didn't think I would ever leam not
to.

"Inky, I'm sorry," Chal said, and the tone of his
voice was compassion rather than pity. "I didn't mean
to bring the pain back to you, not for the sake of noth-
ing but curiosity. I can see I should have kept my big
mouth closed.'*

"No, Chal, it wasn't your fault," I said, looking
back to his very serious face and forcing a smile. "You
couldn't have known, and talking about it just helps
to remind me that it's all being taken care of- But I've
also been reminded of something else, and since we're
into asking each other openly direct questions I'm go-
ing to repeat one to you: why didn't Lidra mind your
coming here to talk to me alone?"

"I never said she didn't mind," he corrected me, a
faint look of satisfaction suddenly back on his face. I
didn't know if he realized I was changing subjects on
purpose, but he didn't seem reluctant to cooperate in
the effort. * 'What I said was that Lidra understood why
she couldn't come with me and suggested that I come
alone, not that she didn't mind staying behind. But
that's not all she was bothered by, only I didn't see it
until she came to my room."

"She isn't as happy about the swap as she expected
to be," I guessed, positive that had something to do
with it. "She thinks Serendel might not be attracted to
her, and she doesn't want her idol yawning in her
face."

"Inky, Lidra's not like that at all," he protested,
moving around again where he sat, his expression now
faintly hurt. "She knows Serendel is too much of a
decent person to do something like that to her, and it
isn't even the fact that she knows he prefers you. When
she came into my room she was so quiet I almost didn't
recognize her, and although I could see she really
didn't want me coming in here alone, she forced her-

152 Sharon Green

self to tell me I had to. We all have a job to do, and
Lidra knows that has to come first."

"Then what could her problem possibly be?" I de-
manded, sitting up away from the pillow. "I thought
she was jealous over the offer you made, but what
you're describing doesn't sound like jealousy."

"I'm hoping it's better than jealousy," he said, and
now he was back to grinning faintly, a definite twinkle
in his light eyes. "I have a feeling the first part of
Lidra's problem is that she isn't quite as—eager—to
have sex with every acceptable male in sight as she
pretends to be. It wasn't until she realized I was seri-
ously attracted to her that she let me come closer than
arm's length, and just between the two of us,-I'm not
very used to that. I may not be a fighter like Serendel,
but I seem to attract women almost as easily as he
does. When Lidra told me she wanted children I agreed
to father at least one of them, but nothing was dis-
cussed about any sort of relationship beyond that, and
I never told her I didn't want her getting involved with
Serendel. I didn't have the right to tell her something
like that, especially not without specific agreements
between us."

"But—then. I don't understand at all," I protested,
really feeling confused. "She kept insisting she would
do just about anything to get Serendel into bed, and
now that she practically has him there she's trying to
turn and run the other way. And why isn't she at least
faintly annoyed that you offered to swap her for me?
More than once I had the impression she was looking
at you like private property."

"I think she realized she hasn't done anything to
give her the right to look at me that way," he an-
swered, and again that satisfaction was there. "I'm
convinced she didn't oner anything in the way of a
relationship because she's been hurt in the past, quite
a few times, and didn't want it happening again. I
thought she understood how deep my interest in her
goes, but now I can see she's been deliberately letting
it slide right past her. And I didn't swap Lidra for you;

I swapped Serendel for me, and that Lidra does un-
derstand."

MISTS OF THE AGES         153

"I'm glad someone's following what's happening,"
I muttered, leaning back on the pillow again to give
him what I like to think of as a balefiil stare. "What's
the difference who got swapped for whom? We're still
talking about the same swap, aren't we?"

"Oh no, we're not," he came back, grinning at my
annoyance. "Lidra realizes I used the opportunity of
a near-crisis to not only smooth things over for you.
but to also give her what she kept insisting she wanted.
I don't think anyone's ever done that for her before,
and I'm certain she didn't expect it to be done this
time either. She's been very careful to maintain the
attitude that says there's nothing between us but an
agreement to make a child, all the while loudly ex-
claiming how acceptable she found Serendel. I'm sure
she does consider him acceptable, but only in a dis-
tant, biological way."

"You mean she kept drooling out loud over Seren-
del because she never expected to end up anywhere
near him," I said slowly as the light finally came,
distantly knowing Seero would have understood a good
deal sooner. "And she barely glanced in your direc-
tion because you were right there and closer than arm's
reach, able to hurt her badly if she showed the least
sign of interest going deeper than plain sex. Now she's
trapped because Serendel and I aren't getting along,
and she may even be put into the position of having
to sleep with him. Chal, you have to do something!
Hitting her with a problem like that just isn't fair."

"You have to remember how unfair a place the Em-
pire really is," he answered with a smile for the way
I was sitting straight again, then held up a hand to cut
off the immediate protest I began. "Inky, Lidra cer-
tainly does have a terrible problem, but it's nothing I
can help her with. If I work very hard and manage to
convince her I want her on a more permanent basis
than the one she's offering, she may come around to
agreeing to go along with it, but she'll never really
believe it. She has to decide on taking one last chance
of letting her own feelings out, and give me the chance
to respond to them. That way she'll be able to accept
what I'm offering, and won't ever have to wonder if

154 Sharon Green

it's the truth. If I don't make her do that, then we'll
never have anything worthwhile between us."

"Worthwhile," I echoed, wondering how so inno-
cent-sounding a word could be responsible for so many
difficulties. "And just what do you consider that to
be, Chal? What is it you want happening between you
andLidra?"

"I want us to make a life together," he answered
very simply, his warm, happy smile turning him even
more handsome than usual. "I've always found it very
convenient having so many women attracted to me; it
gave me the chance to look carefully for the one I
wanted. I was certain I would find her some day, and
when I met Lidra I knew that some day had come. We
share so many pastime interests we might as well be
the same person, but our major career paths are so
widely separated that one can never intrude on the
other. Since she's as brilliant in her field as I am in
mine, our children will have the potential of being just
about anything they please. Our house can have two
labs, one for her, one for me, and I'll never have to
worry about her coming into mine to 'straighten a lit-
tle.' There are all sorts of benefits in marrying a highly
intelligent woman, and that's just the best of them."

By then he was grinning at me, the joke he'd made
trying to turn the situation funny rather than touching,
but I couldn't see it that way. His intentions seemed
like the most wonderful thing I'd ever heard, the son
of romantic drivel you laugh at in books, but can't
quite laugh at in real life. I found myself envying Lidra
instead of feeling sorry for her, as it seemed fairly
clear that Chal had no intentions of letting her get
away. I spent a very short instant wondering what that
would be like, and then I smiled at him.

"I hope it works out the way you want it to," I told
him, and I was sure he could see I wasn't just saying
that. "I suppose I'd also better hope now that it doesn't
come down to my having to swap Serendel for you.
That would just make things harder all around."

"Not at all," he said with a continuing grin, begin-
ning to get back to his feet. "The swap might be just
the thing to push Lidra past that blind spot of hers. If

MISTS OF THE AGES           155

she wants my attention while not having to give any-
one else hers, she'll have to talk to me. I'm sure she
feels about me the way I feel about her; all I have to
do now is get her to admit it."

"All," I repeated with a laugh, watching as he re-
trieved the copper bowl with its blue fire from the bed.
"I'm glad my end of this three-way partnership is the
easy one; the only thing I have to do is get us into a
place people don't want us getting into. Security sys-
tems are a lot easier to get past than emotional de-
fenses."

"You may be right, but emotional defenses are all
I'm equipped to handle," he answered with a chuckle,
then sobered just a little. "And speaking of emotions,
if Serendel wasn't truly sorry for his misjudgment in
his conversation with you, he ought to leave the arena
and take up acting. He was trying to make associating
with him easier for you by evoking faint pity first and
then humor, but you reacted in a way he wasn't ex-
pecting. He said if he'd known you had the soul of a
female glad, he wouldn't have worried about your be-
ing afraid of him."

"Well, he's right about my not being afraid of
him," I said with a snort, leaning back against the
pillow again. "As far as the rest of it goes, though, I
don't want associating with him made any easier. Bot-
tom line is, I don't intend associating with him at all.
There's the faint possibility I may have to sleep with
him, but that doesn't mean I have to talk to him."

"Inky, don't make the mistake of offering him a
challenge," Chal warned, now completely serious.
"He ignores that son of thing from noncombatants,
but he seems to have classified you differently- If you
annoy him too badly, you may find him reacting in the
mental set that makes him a very successful fighter. If
you find you need to talk about that or anything else,
Just come to my room. Lidra is next to you on the
right, I'm beyond her, and Serendel is beyond me.
Right now, I'd better get back to where I belong."

I nodded to show I agreed he'd already been in my
room long enough as far as possible suspicion went,
and once he was gone I was able to look down at my

156 Sharon Green

hands without being bothered by someone who had
obviously studied the mental sciences as well as the
biological ones. I didn't feel uncomfortable, exactly,
most certainly not where that big fool Serendel was
involved, but I didn't quite understand what Chal had
meant when he'd said the fighter had classified me as
other than a noncombatant. I didn't like the sound of
it any more than I liked the man himself, and snorted
out loud at the thought of how solicitous he'd been of
my feelings. I wasn't afraid of him or anyone, and if
I had to prove it there on Joelare the way I had on
Gryphon, I would.

I sat up to lay the pillow flat, then stretched out,
wondering in annoyed impatience Just how long a time
we'd be wasting in "rest.'* If it turned out to be too
long, they'd find themselves in possession of a com-
plaint they couldn't simply gloss over. Having a guest
dying of boredom was very bad press, and if they knew
what was good for them they'd try hard to avoid it.

Chapter 9

Our rest time was long enough for me to fall asleep
for a while, which didn't turn out to be as unwelcome
as I'd thought it would. When I woke I had enough
time to stretch comfortably while I considered getting
up, and then soft, pleasant music began playing in the
room. The music went on only long enough to wake
me if I'd been asleep, and then a woman's voice an-
nounced that my presence was requested in the dining
room downstairs at my earliest convenience. Once the
voice had stopped I wondered very briefly what they
would do if I simply turned over and went back to
sleep, but I was only curious, not interested in trying
to find out. I yawned and stretched a second time, then
got up to use the bathroom.

As expected, even sleeping in the svalk costume
hadn't wrinkled it. so all I had to do was throw a little
cold water on my face and brush my hair, and then I
was ready to go. The hall outside my door was de-
serted when I walked out into it, and I couldn't help
noticing how eerie the fog made everything look.
There had been just as much fog inside my room, but
there had also been a lot more light and the presence
of windows. For some reason having fog around when
there were also windows was less disturbing, but I
hadn't any idea why that should be. I raised my head
a little to show the fog I wasn't afraid of it either, and
then moved deliberately through it toward the stairs
leading down.

When I reached the lobby it was also deserted, but
a glowing sign hanging in midair showed an arrow
157

158 Sharon Green

indicating the dining room somewhere off to the left
around the staircase. I walked through the fog into the
next room, expecting it to be just as empty as the
lobby, but found instead that the next hovering arrow,
still pointing left, also indicated a group of people.
Our trusty journey scout Velix stood between Chal and
Serendel, talking to them as he indicated four men
seated in large, ornate wooden chairs which stood side
by side in front of the wall the two men and Velix
faced. The seated four had long white hair and beards,
eyes which glittered even from where I was, and wore
ankle-length, long-sleeved robes that glowed even
more strongly than the lights and signs around us.
None of the four looked at the men who were exam-
ining them, instead gazing straight ahead while resting
their arms on the chair arms, and as I came up behind
those who were observing them I was able to hear
what Velix was saying.

** ... are the ones you'll be choosing among for
your personal magicians," the Griddenth told the two
men, sounding very firm. "Whether or not there are
others available makes no difference at all, lord Ser-
endel. These four arc representatives of the available
talent, and it's up to you gentlemen to each choose the
one you think will serve you best. You may each ask
one question of any two of them, and then you must
state your choice. Since lord Serendel got down here
first and therefore gets to choose first, lord Chal may
ask his questions first."

"That's your idea of giving me a break?" Chal said
with wry amusement, his eyes still moving among the
four who were seated. "How am I supposed to know
what to ask them?"

"You're supposed to ask them questions which will
tell you whether or not you want their protection,"
Velix answered, less wry and more amused. "Look at
them carefully, remember what their purpose will be,
and then choose two to question. I can't be any more
specific than that, or it won't be fair."

"I'd consider it fair," Chal came back in a way that
made Serendel chuckle, and then he shook his head.
"Well, if I have to, I suppose I might as well get on

MISTS OF THE AGES           159

with it. You said to ignore the fact that they don't
seem to be paying attention, and simply address the
one I want to talk to? All right, then I'm addressing
you, sir, the gentleman on the extreme left. Who's the
most powerful magician among you four?"

"I am," the man addressed answered, sounding
considerably younger than his appearance suggested.
He'd answered without hesitation, but he hadn't even
glanced at Chal.

"Since I don't get to choose first, maybe I shouldn't
have asked that question," Chal said. looking to his
right at Velix with raised brows. "What do I do now?"

"I would strongly suggest asking your second ques-
tion," the Griddenth answered, now apparently even
more amused. "You don't get involved much with
gameplaying, do you, lord Chal?"

"I don't have the spare time most of it requires,"
Chal said, suspecting the Griddenth was trying to tell
him something, but not knowing what- "I can't think
of anything to ask that would better my first try, so all
I can do is save Serendel the trouble and confirm what
I've already been told. You, sir, second from the left.
Who's the most powerful magician among you four?"

"I am," the second long-bearded man answered
with as little hesitation as the first, also sounding
equally as positive. He also made no attempt to look
at Chal, but this time Chal was returning the compli-
ment.

"I'll bet I wasted both of my questions, didn't I?"
he asked Velix as he stared at the Griddenth, sounding
more excited and enthusiastic than depressed over hav-
ing messed up. "It didn't matter that I asked what I
did, because it doesn't help Serendel any more than it
helped me. Am I right?"

"In a way, you certainly are. lord Chal," Velix an-
swered, his wings moving a little with his amusement.
"At the very least, as far as your own efforts go, you
have wasted your questions. Let's see if lord Serendel
can do any better."

I joined the two of them in looking at the fighter.
but probably unlike them I was hoping he would not
do better. For his part Serendel was staring narrow-

160 Sharon Green

eyed at each of the four magicians, but rather than
simply looking them over, he seemed to be searching
for something in particular. After a minute or so his
inspection ended, and a faint smile raised the ends of
that long red mustache.

"I believe you said they would all tell the truth, at
least as far as they see it," he stated to rather than
asked Velix, only glancing at the Griddenth long
enough to see his nod of confirmation. "In that case,
I'll address my first question to the one here in front
of me, on the far right. After yourself, who's the most
powerful magician in this group of four?"

"After me, the most powerful is Jejin,*' the man
answered at once, still staring off into space some-
where but giving me the distinct impression he was
beginning to be amused. Serendel nodded as though
he*d gotten exactly the answer he'd been looking for,
and then his eyes moved to one of the ones Chal had
already questioned.

"You, second from the left," he said, his tone a
good deal less respectful than Chal's had been.
"Which one of you four is Jejin?"

"Jejin sits beside me to my left," the man an-
swered, and I would have put money on the fact that
he was enjoying himself as much as the other one had.
Serendel nodded again, this time with that faint smile
he liked so much, and then he was looking directly at
Velix.

"Since first choice is mine, that's the one I want,"
he said, calm satisfaction in the decision. "The one
named Jejin, who I believe is sitting second from the
right. Do I have to do anything beyond stating the
choice?"

"No, but I'd say lord Chal is curious as to why you
did it the way you did," Velix answered, his tufted
tail flicking back and forth. "You don't owe him an
answer unless you want to give one, and you certainly
don't have to say anything until he's made a choice of
his own."

"But I can comment if I want to, which it so hap-
pens I do," Serendel summed up, then looked at his
fellow tourist. "Chal. we were told twice to look them

MISTS OF THE AGES           161

over, and when I finally heard the hint and followed
it, I noticed something interesting. They're all wearing
the same kind of clothes, but not the same quality.
They may all consider their own power the strongest,
but if it isn't so, which it probably isn't, how other
people see them is the most telling point. The strong-
est will pull down more wealth than the others, so he
should be dressed better than them. I asked who the
second strongest was, got an answer that should nave
been true, then double-checked it against appearances.
The two matched, so I made my choice."

"Damned if you aren't right," Chal muttered, this
time looking at the four magicians with purpose rather
than aimlessly- "The one you picked is better dressed
than any of the other three. And you did get use out
of my wasted questions, by realizing that they can't
be trusted to speak anything but opinion when it comes
to themselves. I appreciate the help, my friend, and
I'll use it to choose that one."

Chal pointed to the magician on our far left, the one
he'd spoken to first, the one who, after the fighter's
choice, was dressed in the best quality robe. It came
to me to wonder if that was how Llexian magicians
really had shown off their status spots, with more ma-
terial acquisitions rather than fewer, but I didn't men-
tion the point- My nemesis seemed to have overlooked
the consideration, and I wouldn't have wanted to bring
it up even if Velix hadn't already started going back
to his take-charge guidance.

"Now that the choosing is taken care of, my lords,
you and your ladies and your magicians are free to
have your meal." the Griddenth said, just short of
purring. "When you've finished eating I'll conduct you
all to the nearest palace and its revelries, where you'll
certainly have opportunity to test the wisdom in your
choices of magicians. If you'll follow me?"

The two designated magicians had gotten out of their
chairs to join our little group, and when Velix moved
off to the left leading Chal and Serendel, they followed
along behind. I hesitated for a moment, wondering how
Lidra was supposed to find us, then glanced around to
discover that she already had. She stood a few feet

162

Sharon Green

back from where we'd all been, a phantom of a ghost
in the swirling fog, an odd, secret smile on her face
as she watched the men moving behind Velix. She
seemed more calmly amused than in the grip of the
sort of disturbance Chal had described earlier, and
when she saw me looking at her she actually grinned
and winked. If she'd had her copper bowl I would
have asked her what she found so funny, but without
it all I could do was join her in adding to the parade
behind Velix.

The room the magicians had been sitting in was
wider than it was long, and the doors in the short left-
hand wall were double with servants to see to their
opening. We sailed on through as though we had just
bought the place, and once into the next room we could
see two long tables facing one another across a space
of about ten feet. There were three heavy chairs set at
the outer sides of each table, and a servant stood be-
hind each of the six chairs. Velix stopped short of the
tables, then nodded toward the one on the right.

"That one is for you and yours, lord Serendel, and
the one to the left is yours, lord Chal," he said, his
head moving around as though he were making sure
everything had been set up right. "There will be en-
tertainment during the meal, but I would advise using
part of the time for getting acquainted with your newly
acquired magicians. I'll rejoin you all after you've
eaten."

He glanced at the two men he'd been talking to,
again giving them the chance to ask any questions they
might have. then moved off to the far right when they
didn't take him up on the offer. As soon as he was
gone from among us, the servants came forward to
welcome us while deftly herding us to our respective
places, and I found myself being seated first, in the
center chair of the right-hand table. Through the fog I
could see Lidra was being given the same honor at her
own table, but I still would have made a fuss if I'd
thought it would do any good. My digestion would
have been considerably improved if the magician had
been seated between me and Serendel instead of to my
left with the fighter on my right, but our hosts obvi-

MISTS OF THE AGES           163

ously didn't want it like that. Since I hadn't been given
a choice there was nothing I could do but sit back in
the padded, thronelike chair and pretend I was as com-
fortable as it's possible to be.

"I feel as if I'm starving," Serendel said as he set-
tled himself in his place, glancing at me and the ma-
gician both. "I haven't eaten since early this morning
on the liner, not even so much as a snack in the car
that brought us here. When was the last time you and
the others got something to eat?"

The question he'd put was casual small talk, nothing
of earth-shattering importance—but also nothing the
magician could be expected to answer. It looked like
the companion who had been forced on me was trying
to break the conversational ice, but that sort of thing
isn't hard to get around.

"We all had a snack during Customs inspection," I
answered without even glancing at him, then turned
my head to the magician with a smile. "How long has
it been since the last time you were chosen to be the
protector of a visiting House?" I asked as though
really interested. "And are you truly as pleased to be
included in on this meal as you look?"

"I'm delighted to be included in on this meal, and
as soon as they bring out the food you*ll understand
why," he answered in a light and easy voice accom-
panied by a return smile, apparently all through with
staring off into the distance. "As far as being chosen
as a protector goes, I'm picked at least as often as any
of the others, but rarely for so—distinguished—a
House. I may be putting my foot in it by saying this,
but—am I wrong in thinking you don't agree with me
about how much of an honor it is?"

He was examining me with guileless, light blue
eyes, waiting for an answer to his admittedly bald-
faced question, most of his expression hidden behind
that long white beard. I really wasn't much interested
in going into detail on my dissenting opinion, but
someone else proved more than happy to jump in for
me.

"The lady feels I insulted her," Serendel supplied
in the same calm and easy tone that he'd used earlier,

164                 Sharon Green

drawing the magician's gaze. "All I thought I was
doing was soothing the nervousness many women feel
in my presence, but apparently she doesn't see it like
that. She's decided I insulted her on purpose, and isn't
interested in hearing any statements to the— Ah, here
comes the first of the food.*'

He interrupted his own story to watch the approach
of four tray-bearers, three carrying tureens and tiny
cups and spoons, the fourth carrying nine empty bowls
and nine regular-sized spoons. The tureen-bearers put
their burdens down on the far side of the table opposite
us, paying no attention to the golden cloth covering
the table, and with the help of the servants who stood
behind our chairs, we very quickly had three tiny cups
standing in front of each of us, samples of the different
sorts of soup which had been brought. As other ser-
vants came by to drop off baskets of more kinds of
bread than I knew there were, the servant who had
been carrying the bowls stepped in front of the three
soup-men.

"Gentles, please taste our offerings and indicate
which of them you find most pleasing." he said, per-
forming a general bow that was apparently meant for
us all. "Should you find two or even three equally as
pleasing, simply instruct your personal servant to fetch
you some of each. Three or none, the choice is, of
course, yours."

He bowed again before going back to his tray, and
the annoyance I'd been feeling with the fighter sitting
next to me spread to cover the Mists people almost as
thickly. Giving us soup before offering anything more
substantial wasn't too obvious a ploy to cut our ap-
petites for and possible consumption of more expen-
sive dishes, and that idea was a perfect kicker to
SerendeFs attempt at showing just how unreasonable
I was being. If I hadn't realized just how hungry I was
I would have ignored the soup samples the way I was
still ignoring the fighter, but the smells coming out of
the three tiny sample cups were just too good to resist.
I knew I had to taste all of them. and then I might be
able to get back at Velix's bosses by refusing all three,

After tasting the samples, the best I could do was

MISTS OF THE AGES          165

settle on just one of the three. I couldn't remember
ever tasting soup that good even at the very expensive
resorts Seero and I had visited over the years, but I
wasn't ready to admit I might be wrong about the scam
the Mists people were trying to run. Seeing the chilled
fruit and cheese and even more hot baked goods added
to our table let me stay suspicious, but once they be-
gan bringing out the meats and vegetables and gra-
vies—and wines—I decided I might be wise dropping
all thoughts of a scam. We were urged to try as much
of as many different dishes as we liked, and despite
the soup I found I wasn't reluctant to go along with
the suggestions. I felt as though I were eating ten times
more than I ever had in my life, but I enjoyed every
bite without also feeling that I was about to explode.
When I finally finished I was most aware of satisfac-
tion, that and the impression that I was now prepared
to get on to other things.

"That has to be the best meal I've ever eaten,"
Serendel announced once his wine glass had been re-
filled for the twentieth time, a pleasant nod of thanks
for the servant who had poured. There hadn't been any
conversation while the food had held our attention, but
there had been music as well as dancers who spun
gracefully between the tables. The dancers had been
mostly female, which was probably why I'd had the
opportunity of noticing how little the magician had
eaten in comparison to the fighter. Our bearded friend
hadn't been shy about helping himself, but even my
capacity had been greater than his. I wondered if the
difference meant anything, but couldn't think of any
way it might.

"There's never any stinting when it comes to a feast
of greeting," the magician—Jejin, that was his name-
said in answer, his own wine glass still more than half
full and close to his hand. "You won't go hungry in
any of the Mists, but this one is far and away the best.
Before the meal, lord Serendel, you were saying some-
thing about many women being nervous in your pres-
ence. I think you understand there are certain things I
can't mention here and now, but with those things in
mind even though absent from tongue, I must confess

166 Sharon Green

I don't understand why that would be. I should think
you would find it the complete opposite."

"Most people think it's the complete opposite," the
glad answered, faint amusement in the gray gaze he
rested on Jejin, his body relaxed back in its chair ex-
cept for the hand that gently swiried the wine in its
glass prison. "There are enough amateur wigglers and
hot crazies around to give that impression, but you
can't lump them in under the general heading of
'women.' They may be female, but they're not inter-
ested in what you might want to say to them, only in
what you can do for them, in bed or in supplying pres-
tige. Those who can be listed under the heading of
women are capable of occasionally doing something
really unusual, Uke carrying on an intelligent conver-
sation.'*

The dryness in his voice made Jejin chuckle, but I
was busy paying more attention to the newest dancers
performing in the space between the tables. One male
and one female they were, and their costumes were
definitely on the skimpy side.

"Yes, men of action aren't supposed to be inter-
ested in something as unusual as conversation," the
magician agreed, his appreciation of the comment still
clear. * 'Some observers seem to be afraid that if they're
allowed that, the next things they might take an inter-
est in could be the unthinkable realms of poetry or
music or literature. I can see that, but what I can't see
is why you maintain women are nervous in your pres-
ence, Is conversation with you considered that much
of a danger?"

"You forget it's not supposed to be conversation
that I'm interested in," Serendel returned, just short
of sounding like a martyr. "A woman finds herself
face to face with me, suddenly remembers all those
things everyone 'knows' are tme about people like me,
and that's the end of any chance at conversation. Calm
friendliness changes so fast to nervous tension that
you'd need an open lens to catch the action, and all
because they're afraid I won't be able to keep from
attacking them."

"And men say women aren't perceptive," I mur-

MISTS OF THE AGES           167

mured to myself, still keeping my eyes and attention
on the dancers. I knew I shouldn't have cut the hook
from the dangling fishing line, but the temptation had
been too heavy to resist, I was supposed to have been
filling up with pity for the poor little misunderstood
fighter, but it hadn't quite worked out that way. I un-
derstood him better than he knew, and if he decided
to argue I could always cite Chal as my authority.
Rather than argument a lot of silence came from my
right, and then there was a throat-clearing sound from
my left.

"I beg your pardon, my lady, but are you saying
you agree with those who judge from nothing but idle
gossip?" Jejin asked, his tone a good deal more dip-
lomatic than his words. "Were you afraid lord Ser-
endel would attack you before you and he began
arguing?"

"I was never 'afraid' of anything in connection with
lord Serendel," I came back, shifting in my chair as I
glanced at the bearded man in annoyance. "It so hap-
pens I don't believe in being afraid of things, or people
either for that matter. If all your friend wanted out of
me was a little conversation, why was he so interested
in choosing the strongest magician available? Is that
what 'lords' win in this section of the Mists, the right
to talk to the lady of their choice?"

"If that's what would please them most,"Jejin be-
gan to say in counterargument, making it sound no
more than reasonable and to be expected, but that was
as far as he got. A sound like the hissing of vexation
through teeth came from my right, and then I had un-
expected support on my side of the disagreement.

"The lady is absolutely right, Jejin," Serendel said
in what was neariy a growl, drawing my attention as
well as the magician's. "All I want from her is the
use of her body, and that's what I intend getting. What
do I have to know or do, to be sure no one succeeds
in claiming her from me?"

"You have very little more to do than has already
been done," the bearded man said with the faintest of
hesitations while I glared at the miserable beast of a
fighter. "If you're challenged by another lord, you

168 Sharon Green

simply order me to protect what's yours. If my powers
are stronger than those of the magician I go up against,
you win. If they aren't, you lose."

"Can't you tell beforehand which of you is
stronger?" the fighter demanded, completely ignoring
the way I was looking at him. "Haven't you been here
long enough to have been tested against most if not all
of the others?"

"It doesn't work that way," Jejin answered, shift-
ing just a little under the cold gray stare he was get-
ting. "The magicians here come in grades of ability,
and if your original choice is someone from the low-
est grades, you might as well give up the idea of win-
ning against anyone of higher ability. If your choice
brings you someone of high ability, that in itself should
guarantee success in most cases. The only time diffi-
culty arises is when your challenger's magician is of
the same caliber as your own. There's always uncer-
tainty when two master magicians face one another,
so the meetings are usually governed by pure chance-
But that's a circumstance covering the meeting of
equals, which only happens occasionally. It really isn't
worth getting too upset about."

By that time the bearded man's voice was nearly
trembling, and the sweat beaded on his forehead wasn't
being caused by the closeness of the room. He was
obviously required to tell Serendel just what he had
been telling him, but what the fighter wanted to hear
was how he could win, not the reasons why he might
lose.

"Then maybe we can find something I should get
upset about," he said in that same near-growl, his eyes
refusing to turn Jejin loose. "That list of grades we
were just discussing—on what part of the list does your
name appear?"

"I—I'm the strongest magician of them all," the
man mumbled in the faintest of voices, close to being
terrified at having to give an answer that was obviously
required of him. Serendel's head went up when he
heard it, those gray eyes growing even colder, but I'd
had enough of that nonsense.

"Stop it!" I snapped to the fighter, the anger in my

MISTS OF THE AGES          169

voice enough to finally get his attention. "Can't you
see you're not supposed to find out how good or bad
he is until after the first challenge? And where the hell
do you come off giving him a hard time? It wasn't his
idea to be chosen, it was yours! If you're mad at me
and looking to start a fight because of it, start the fight
with me, not some innocent bystander! I said I wasn't
afraid of you, and I meant it!"

"Yes, you did say that, didn't you?" he murmured,
most of the coldness gone from his eyes as he leaned
back to stare at me. "It obviously slipped my mind
that you have the soul of a female glad, but I'll try not
to let it happen again. And for the second time, the
lady is absolutely right, Jejin. I was taking my mad at
her out on you, and I apologize. None of this stupidity
is any fault of yours."

"Thank you for understanding that, lord Serendel,"
the magician answered, vast relief in the words. "The
explanations we're required to give are designed to
keep guests in eager suspense, but it's clear they
weren't anticipating guests like yourself. And my most
heartfelt thanks to you, lady Dalisse, for interceding
on my behalf. I'm afraid my bravery isn't quite on a
par with yours."

"Don't tell me you're someone who believes all that
idle gossip about how untrustworthy fighters are?" I
asked with inch-thick innocence, turning my head in
time to see the magician flinch over having his own
words fed back to him. "Don't you know they're men
of iron self-control, who have absolutely no need of
the handlers it's been suggested they shouldn't be al-
lowed to walk around without? Were you afraid of the
man before he started flexing a bad temper in your
direction?"

"Of course he was afraid of me," the fighter an-
swered for Jejin in a very neutral way, the ghost of
guilty agreement flashing briefly in the bearded man's
eyes. "Everyone with sense is afraid of a man—or
woman—whose career is based on the ability to kill.
Any other reaction is the result of never having thought
the thing through. But don't forget, Jejin, it wasn't
bravery that made her defend you. Without fear brav-

170 Sharon Green

ery isn't possible, and she isn't afraid of me. And you
should also know that she prefers her nickname, so
please don't call her lady Dalisse. Call her lady
Smudge."

"That's Inky, not Smudge," I said with a growl of
my own, turning again to send daggers toward the big
fool. "Don't pretend you don't know that, because I
heard you being corrected once before. And in any
event, what the name is or isn't doesn't concern you.
My nickname is reserved for the use of friends, and
you don't happen to qualify."

"Why are you acting so outraged?" he asked with
brows raised high, the innocent child being unjustly
accused. "Didn't you just now say that if I wanted to
start a fight, you were the one I ought to be starting it
with? Don't you consider being insulted a good way
to start a fight?"

"Oh, it's a wonderful way," I agreed as I seethed,
hating the grin he couldn't quite swallow—not to men-
tion the chuckling Jejin was doing. "The only problem
I can see is that it isn't quite fair on my end. There
are so many things about you open to comment, I'm
having trouble deciding which to use first. Maybe I
ought to settle for asking how you can speak so clearly
with your foot constantly in your mouth. If you doubt
the contention, just remember how many times you've
had to apologize over the last few days."

"At least I'm bright enough to recognize those times
apology is called for," he came back as he straight-
ened in his chair, a good deal of his amusement having
dissolved. "That's more than can be said for other
people at this table, specifically other female people.
You ..."

"My lords and ladies, may I have your attention
please," a voice suddenly came to interrupt the fighter,
and I reluctantly looked away from the argument to
see Velix standing in the space between the tables, a
replacement for the dancers I hadn't seen leave. "If
you're all quite finished with your meal, we can leave
for the palace now. Nibbles and drinks will also be
available there, and I have transportation outside be-

MISTS OF THE AGES           171

fitting those of your station. Please rise now and fol-
low me."

"Just a minute," I called as I stood, making no
effort to look at the fighter again. "Is that transporta-
tion one of your ironclad requirements, or is it possible
to walk off part of that meal I just swallowed? I'm not
worried about getting lost in the fog. If I have to ride
in anything right now, it's much more likely I'll have
being sick to worry about."

Most especially from the company, I added to my-
self as Velix paused, wishing I could read the Grid-
denth's expression. If he refused my request and I
ended up anywhere near Serendel in whatever we were
supposed to ride in, everyone else was in danger of
ending up knee-deep in spilled blood. Lidra wasn't the
only one who had managed to smuggle something past
Customs and the clothes change, and another five min-
utes of arguing with that stupid glad would guarantee
everyone's finding out just what that something was.
Serendel and Jejin got to their feet the way the three
people at the other table did, and Velix looked around
at us all before performing a gesture that was very like

a shrug.

"I meant to mention this once we'd reached the
lobby, but since the point has been raised I might as
well go into it now," he said, sounding calm and un-
disturbed. "It so happens you do have the choice of
walking, but not through the heavy mists in the street.
Anyone not thoroughly familiar with this area couldn't
help getting lost, that's why another route was pre-
pared. It reaches the palace by means of an under-
ground passage, and although the passageway isn't
used very often, it's not really possible to become lost
in it. I, unfortunately, must stay aboveground with the
transportation, but any of you wishing to use the pas-
sageway may certainly do so."

"Then that works out really well," I said before
anyone else could jump in. "You'll go along with my
fellow travelers in the transportation, and I'll have the
passageway and a little time to myself. Every now and
then I need to be alone, and this seems the perfect

172 Sharon Green

opportunity to satisfy the need. No one objects, I
hope?"

I'd tried making the request sound like sweet reason
incarnate, primarily to have a strong basis for protest
if the mighty Serendel decided to open his mighty
mouth in disagreement. I'd stated a need and had asked
for everyone's help in seeing to it; if the fighter tried
arguing he would be the unreasonable one, and his
suitability as an acceptable companion would begin
losing all those legs it had been standing on. I waited
with a friendly smile on my face, not really looking at
the way Chal and Lidra exchanged a silent glance, and
then Velix gave that sort-of shrug again.

"Apparently no one does object," he said, delib-
erately looking around as he said it. "The passageway
is all yours then, and we'll meet again when you reach
the palace. We'll all walk to the lobby together, and
then go our separate ways."

The servants pulled the chairs out of everyone's way
to make it easier to leave the tables, and I followed
after Velix without even a single glance behind me.
As I passed Jejin, I noticed a faint frown on his face.
but I didn't ask him the reason for it and he didn't
volunteer any data. I was too delighted at the thought
of getting away from that glad to wonder why the ma-
gician was unhappy, and then it occurred to me our
reasons might be exactly the same. I was happy to get
away even for a little while, but that meant Jejin would
be all alone with Serendel until I rejoined them. If he
was as afraid of the fighter as he'd claimed to be, my
not being there as a buffer would make the time a good
deal less than pleasant for him.

Getting back to the lobby didn't take very long, and
we hadn't gone more than a couple of steps before
Velix stopped and turned to look at me.

"Our transportation lies through the doors straight
ahead, the doors you all came in by," he said, ges-
turing behind himself with his head. "Your point of
departure, dear lady, lies behind you to your left,
through that portal. A servant will be here in a moment
to open it for you."

I wondered why I needed anyone to open a door for

MISTS OF THE AGES          173

me, but once I'd turned to look I began to understand.
Portal Velix had called it and portal it was, a heavy,
metal-bound wooden door that had a large ring of metal
on the left, halfway up. If I wasn't mistaken, it was
the thick ring that was used to open the door, and with
the swirls of mist all around it it really did look as
though it hadn't been opened in a while. I wasn't ac-
tually beginning to have second thoughts about going
through the door, not with the alternative being what
it was, but the arrival of two big men ended the time
I had even to toy with the consideration.

"Very good, men, just as prompt as ever," Velix
said to the new arrivals, watching them walk to the
door. "There's only one to go through this time, and
then you can close it again."

"Close it again?" I asked as the two men put hands
to the ring and shoulders to the wood, then began
pushing with all their strength. "You mean you're just
going to—close that behind me?"

"Well, of course," Velix said with an indulgent
chuckle, his bright, dark eyes faintly amused, "We
can't very well leave it open, not with the number of
other guests around. We really do need to keep track
of all of you for safety's sake, and if we left that door
open, half our charges would disappear through it, just
to find out if it really does go where we say it goes.
Surely you can appreciate the problem."

"Surely." I said in a voice that sounded very hol-
low to me, which is why I said no more than the single
word. I hadn't known I was going to be closed behind
a door I had no chance of opening again, but it was
much too late to back out by refusing to go. I'd look
and feel like a complete idiot, and I knew I'd rather
die than give Serendel the satisfaction of that. I'd just
walk as fast as I could until I got to the other end of
the passageway, and then it would all be behind me.

"When you reach the palace, the servants there, sta-
tioned inside the portal, will open it for you,** Velix
said, his tail moving in sharp arcs in contrast to the
smoothness of his tone. "I believe the opening is wide
enough for you to fit through rather easily now. ..."

He let the sentence trail off as he moved closer to

174 Sharon Green

examine the efforts of the two men, and when I made
myself follow I could see he was right. They'd pushed
the door more than halfway open, and behind it and
them I could see mist-shrouded stairs that trended
downward. Through the fog I could also see the faint
glow of intermittent light, which meant there was no
reason including dangerous dark to keep me from get-
ting started. My lips felt the least bit dry when my
tongue wet them, but then I realized there was really
nothing to be nervous about. I was being sent through
that door in front of witnesses, so if anything hap-
pened to me the Mists people would be liable. It was
like crossing a street in the middle of ground traffic;

no matter how badly the drivers wanted to hit you,
none of them would or their insurance would go up. I
was safe and I knew it, so I simply stepped through
the opening without the slightest worry.

Chapter 10

The lack of worry lasted until that impossible door was
pulled slowly and silently shut behind me, then the
lack of worry became conspicuously absent. The back
of the door was completely smooth, with nothing for
anyone without talons like Velix's to get a grip on,
and somehow it seemed out of character for the thing
to have opened and closed without making a sound.
By rights there should have been the eerie scream of
protesting hinges, much like the moaning cries of lost,
tormented souls . . .

"Are you completely out of your mind, or just a
little on the weird side?" I demanded in a hiss, talking
to myself the way I deserved to be talked to. "If you
do any more of that, you'll be having hysterics even
before you've gone down the stairs! I thought you were
supposed to be the one who wasn't afraid of things."

I conceded that an excellent point had been made,
then took a deep breath and looked around a little
more. Between the fog and the plain, stonelike mate-
rial of walls, steps and ceiling, there wasn't much of
anything to see, so I simply started going down the
stairs.

By the time I reached the bottom of the flight, I was
certain I'd gone lower than the level of the transpor-
tation system that had brought us to that section of
the Mists. The descent had been long, tedious, dizzy-
making, boring—but it hadn't been hard on me phys-
ically even when I'd jumped down one section of me
steps. I'd done the jumping because I'd been curious
about what the steps were made of, which wasn't stone
175

176 Sharon Green

even though it looked like it. The material was unex-
pectedly springy while still being very firm, and the
sharp edges of the steps were anything but sharp. It
came to me that I probably couldn't hurt myself on the
stuff even if I tried, and when I looked more closely
at the walls I saw they were made of the same mate-
rial. I realized the Mists people really were being cau-
tious about my safety, and after that felt a lot better
about continuing down.

The ever-present fog didn't thin at the bottom the
way I'd been hoping it would, but the passageway I
found before me was wide enough and almost well-
enough lit to make that a minor problem. As I began
walking I noticed there wasn't a sound anywhere,
nothing but the very soft, very faint scuff of my san-
dals against the not-stone of the passageway floor.
Even right on top of it I could barely hear it, and that
gave me an odd sense of being absolutely alone. The
thought was disturbing, and I didn't understand why
that should be. I'd been alone before, most especially
on strokings, but I'd never felt the way I did right
then.

The only thing I could do about the feeling was
shrug, so I shrugged and just kept going. The pas-
sageway took me straight ahead for a while, and then
it began curving first right, then left, then right again.
After another few minutes it was a toss-up as to which
way the curve would go, and that no matter which way
the previous curve had gone. I wasn"t completely sure,
but I was beginning to think the light was a little less
than it had been, and the passageway walls looked
somehow different. The fog hung too thick around the
walls for me to see them at all easily, but I was sure
there was something different about them. If I'd
stopped to examine them I might have found out what,
but I didn't stop. I just kept going while trying to look
everywhere at once.

"This is stupid," I whispered to myself, the words
coming out with a lot less sound than I'd wanted them
to have. "There's nothing here, not even a shadow.
Why are you so nervous?"

I would have enjoyed being able to answer that

MISTS OF THE AGES           177

question, but I couldn't think of an answer. The fog
was just as warm and dry as it had been all along, but
it seemed to be threatening to go chill and dank at any
moment. The mist-diffused light was trying to hide the
fact that it was slowly fading, the walls were sneakily
changing in some way, and even though I'd been try-
ing not to admit it, I thought I heard small sounds both
behind and ahead of me where there had been nothing
but silence earlier. Velix had said the passageway
wasn't used very often, but although it had felt empty
when I'd first begun walking, it didn't feel that way
any longer, I knew something was down there with
me, I just didn't know what.

"And wouldn't it be nice if we could keep it like
that," I muttered to myself, still looking around at
fog-covered nothing. If the passageway was usually
empty, something could have moved in and made the
area its home; it was possible the stretch had been
safe, but now no longer was. I looked around again,
remembered that one of the reasons the S.I. had sent
me to that world was to keep me away from traps that
had been set and waiting, and almost laughed. There
wasn't a day or night I wouldn't have preferred facing
Twi House traps to what was right then in front of me,
but it was much too late to make that sort of a choice.

The urge to laugh didn't last any time at all, espe-
cially once I'd turned the sharpest bend yet and found
something like a fairly large room beyond it. To be
honest it was more of a chamber than a room, circular,
completely undecorated, fog-blurred not-stone with an
archway leading out of it again on the far side. I
stopped just inside the entrance archway to look
around, but the curving walls to left and right were too
obscured by the mist for anything but vague outlines
to be seen. I decided it must have been meant as a rest
area for those using the passageway, and might even
have comfortable benches near the walls for anyone
who wanted to sit down and rest a while. Since sitting
and relaxing was the last thing I wanted to do, I began
crossing the area to the only other way out of there. I
suppose if I'd stopped to think about it. I would have

178 Sharon Green

realized that that was the perfect time and place for
the lights to go out.

I froze almost in midstride in the thick, ominous
blackness, my heart thudding so loud I would have
missed the sound of a ten-foot-tall behemoth charging
at me, my imagination immediately sending a lot more
than one of them in my direction. I was even sure there
were other things creeping at me, and that thought was
much worse than the idea of being charged. How all
those attackers were supposed to see me in mat end-
less, enveloping dark was beside the point; things like
that never had trouble finding their victims in the dark,
something everybody knew. I was sure I heard faint
sounds all around me, and if I hadn't been beyond
movement of any son, I would have trembled like
someone trying to stand upright in an earthquake.

That was when the lights came on again, too faint
to be anywhere near the level I wanted, but at least a
thousand times better than absolute dark. It couldn't
have been more than a minute that I'd been without
light, but while it was happening it had felt like ages
and eons and time without end. I forced some spittle
down my very dry throat, so relieved to find nothing
in creeping distance that the feeling was indescribable,
my mind grabbing wildly at die thought that the loss
of light had only been a brief, meaningless, power
outage. Nothing sinister, nothing trying to get me—
and then I finally looked up to see what had become
of the previously solid walls.

"That's not possible," I breathed as I looked fran-
tically around, but it wasn't just possible, it had al-
ready happened. Instead of one archway leading into
the room and one leading out, the walls were now
covered with archways, some lit, some as black as the
darkness I'd so recently been through. The passage-
ways I could see were riddled with crevasses and
openings, places where anything or anyone could lurk
unseen, none of them as smooth-walled as what I'd
walked past to get there. I didn't know which way I'd
come in, couldn't tell which passageway led out again,
but knew beyond the faintest doubt that if I chose the
wrong one I'd deeply regret it.

MISTS OF THE AGES          179

And then I heard a sound I wasn't at all unsure
about, a sound that froze the blood in my veins and
almost brought a whimper to my throat. Something
was moving in the darkest passageway to my right.
something that shuffled and dragged part of itself,
something that breathed with a gargling, burbling
sound, something that was definitely coming toward
the chamber I stood in. Dizziness swept over me, and
the need to be violently sick, and it was all I could do
to fumble out the tiny palm dagger I had sheathed high
up on my right thigh. The weapon was too small to be
useful against anything but people, which meant it
would be no help at all against whatever was coming
out of the passageway. I held the useless dagger in a
fist of whitened knuckles, and began backing away
from the passageway without light. I backed three
steps, four steps, still seeing nothing in that dark, only
hearing it—and then I backed into something that was
definitely not a wall.

At that moment quite a lot of me was ready to pass
out, but what was left refused to do anything that su-
icidal. I may have screamed as I whirled around, but
I certainly brought the palm dagger around with me,
sweeping up at the belly of whatever might be there.
It was one of the movements I'd been carefully taught,
a crippling swipe even if it failed to be lethal, but the
blow, never landed. A thought-fast hand wrapped
around my wrist, stopping the attack cold, and then I
was staring stupidly up into the face of the fighter Ser-
endel.

"I know you said you wanted to be alone," he
drawled, "but I didn't think you'd go to these lengths
to be sure you were. If I let you go, will you put that
thing back where it came from?"

His glance was for the palm dagger, and I realized
he was one of the very few people who had seen it
who didn't consider it a harmless toy. I'd found it
possible more than once to say it was a nail file, but
the ones who had believed that weren't professional
glads. The one who was still had his fingers closed
tight around my wrist, undoubtedly waiting for me to
agree to his offer, but that wasn't going to happen.

180 Sharon Green

"I'm not putting it away until I'm out of here," I
said, the words unbelievably steady in comparison with
how I felt. "There's something heading this way from
that darkened passage, and if you think I'm going to
meet it emptyhanded, you're out of your mind."

"What do you mean, 'something' heading this
way?" he asked with a frown, his eyes and attention
immediately on the section of room I'd mentioned. "If
Acre's anyone there it has to be one of the Mists peo-
ple, but I don't hear or see a thing. Are you sure you
didn't imagine it?"

"My imagination most prefers supplying horrors
without adding details," I answered, pulling my hand
out of his loosened grip before turning to eye the guilty
passageway. "What I heard moving along in there may
have been imagination, but it certainly wasn't mine.
And now that you mention it, I don't hear it anymore
either."

**It probably decided to take its stroll in a different
direction, one where it would run less of a risk of
getting sliced info strips," he said, a faint amusement
now in his voice. "If I'd known you were that well
armed, I might not have started that insult exchange.
Female glads can be pushed only to a certain point,
and then they'll use whatever they might be carrying."

"I'm not a female glad," I told him sourly, giving
him no more than a glance. "And don't bother trying
to pretend you're afraid of me with a weapon in my
hand. I saw just how afraid you were when I acciden-
tally attacked you. What are you doing here?"

"I'm walking to the palace," he answered, making
it sound absolutely usual and routine. "I was in no
more of a mood to ride than you were, but I felt I'd
crowded you enough for one day. I waited until you
were well on your way before having them open that
door again, and then I started out. I really didn't ex-
pect to meet you on the way, but I can't say I'm dis-
appointed that I did."

I looked over at him then, to see the very open,
frank and sincere expression he wore. None of it was
overdone or in any way phony-looking, but for some
reason I didn't believe him. His gray eyes rested on

MISTS OF THE AGES          181

me with easy unconcern, which just seemed to add to
all the rest.

"You enjoy arguing so much you're happy you
caught up to me?" I asked, wondering if it was my
previous annoyance that was making me so suspicious.
"Now I know why you became a fighter. You must
consider being in the arena the ultimate party.'*

"It keeps me out of barroom brawls," he offered
with a faint grin, his long red mustache moving with
his lips. "And it isn't the prospect of more argument
that makes me happy to see you. Don't forget that I'm
after your body."

My first response to that was to come back with
something smart, but despite being able to think of any
number of things to say, I somehow couldn't bring
myself to say them. Even if the accusation I'd made
was true, it was hardly so unusual and despicable a
thing that I'd had to make it sound like perversion. As
far as females went, I wasn't too close to being an
eyesore, which meant most healthy males looked at
me with one and the same idea. It wasn't a novel con-
cept, it certainly wasn't insulting, and I had the dis-
tinct impression that if Seero had been around to hear
me say what I had, his anger would not have been
aimed at Serendel. I found myself hoping it was too
dim in that place for the warmth in my cheeks to show,
but just in case I found an excuse to turn away from
the fighter.

"Have you any idea which of those passageways is
the right one to use?" I asked, very busily examining
the archways in question. "When I first got here there
was only a single way out, but now I can't tell which
one it was."

"I have the feeling this place was originally sup-
posed to be part of the show, but so few people went
for it they decided to turn it off," he said, making no
further mention of the subject I'd avoided so grace-
fully. "The first part of the walk was so boring I
thought I'd fall asleep on my feet, and then everything
suddenly changed. Maybe they realized they'd forgot-
ten to turn on the special effects, and decided to go
along with 'Better late than never,' If that's true, then

182 Sharon Green

it doesn't much matter which passageway we take.
They should all lead to the same place."

"What kind of 'show' could they be putting on?" I
asked, confused and faintly disturbed. Just before
reaching the chamber I remembered thinking the walls
of the passage looked different, but hadn't been able
to figure out different in what way. If Serendel was
right—and it was hard to argue the point—then the
difference in the walls meant they were supposed to
change. "What could they have in mind that this sort
of special effects would be called for?'*

"They're probably trying to make us think we have
to hunt for the way out," he answered, looking around
with faint amusement. "You know, make the right
choice or wander around forever. Some of those pas-
sageways may make the walk a little longer, but I'm
sure they all lead to the palace eventually. Why don't
you choose one, and we'll see if I'm right."

"As long as there's light, I don't care one way or
the other," I said, frowning at the choices he'd given
me. "This place reminds me a little too much of a
certain section of the wilds on Gryphon. How about
that one?"

"That one it is," he agreed, beginning to walk with
me toward the passageway I'd pointed to, but he was
suddenly giving me more attention than the direction
in which we were going. "You've been through the
wilds on Gryphon? I was there myself once, so I think
you'll know I'm not joking when I say I'm impressed.
It isn't a place for tourists."

"Well, most of it wasn't all that bad," I said, for
some reason embarrassed by how serious he sounded,
finding it easier watching the passage we were about
to enter than looking up at him. "We had a couple of
guides who had as much experience with the area as
it's possible to get and they were both well-armed, so
the trouble was kept to a minimum. The worst part
was going through the mountain caverns to get to the
other side of the range; that was where we lost one of
the guides, and the rest of us weren't sure we 'd make
it either. If it was possible to fly in rather than needing

MISTS OF THE AGES           183

to go overiand on wheels or on foot—but of course
they won't allow that."

"Not when you never know who'll be taken over
and who won't be," he agreed, distaste now coloring
his tone. "They told me pilots have almost no chance
of resisting the mental attack, even if they've gone in
on foot before with nothing happening. The muties
hate each other as much as they hate humankind, but
they apparently band together if there's a chance of
getting an air vehicle. I'm told as soon as they get one,
they crash it in the middle of one of the cities."

"It had to happen three times before the planetary
officials got the idea and banned air traffic into the
area," I said, spending only a little disgust on people
who'd been dead even before I'd been born. "The
planet was settled because the muties lived nowhere
but in the wilds, but they should have expected trouble
when they found it impossible to sign treaties or agree-
ments with any of them. I suppose they were feeling
too superior and advanced to worry about trouble, so
people had to pay with their lives before they under-
stood more advanced doesn't mean indestructible. I
hate stupidity like that, but it seems to be the common
curse of humans everywhere,"

"Which is one of the reasons why I like the way my
home planet sees to the problem," he said, dividing
his glance between me and the crevasses and folds of
the walls we were passing. "No matter what you want
to do on Rober Tay, you have to prove you're the best
one for the job. Not that you want the job more than
anyone else, but that you're also the best. If you want
to work in the government, you and your opponent or
opponents don't run for election, you all do the job
for a year in simulation by interactive computer pro-
grams, facing the same problems actually faced by the
one who is doing the job. If one of your moves is so
wild and brainless it leads to a crisis, you're immedi-
ately disqualified. If all you do is play it safe by taking
no chances not backed by precedent, you're disquali-
fied. You have to show imagination and ability, oth-
erwise you have no business involving yourself in other
people's lives."

184 Sharon Green

"Gryphon isn't quite that advanced," I said, decid-
ing I liked the way his planet did it. "Our people still
think it's possible to make an unknown stranger into a
good leader by pushing a lever in a voting machine.
Or by taking the word of his or her party as to how
competent the candidate is. After all the times they
got duds instead of doers, you'd think they'd have
learned their lesson."

"Change is the hardest thing for people to accept,"
he said, sounding a good deal more tolerant than I was
feeling. "The established way of doing something
might not be the best way, but what guarantee is there
that a new way won't be a lot worse? You have to be
in a position where nothing could be worse than what
you have, and then change becomes the best of all
options. Not the most eagerly accepted, just the best."

"You know, that's very deep," I said with a small
laugh, looking up to his face where he walked beside
me. "You sound more like a philosopher or a psy-
chologist than a—"

"Than a mindless, bloodthirsty glad?" he finished
when I didn't, more amusement in him than anything
else. For my part I was back to being painfully em-
barrassed, but silently cursing the big, flapping mouth
I come equipped with didn't call the words back. It
also didn't help me understand why he wasn't feeling
insulted, as he had every right to be.

"Despite a lot of people's opinions to the contrary,
there really is no law that keeps a fighter from being
able to think," he went on, his grin wider than it had
been, probably because of whatever my expression was
like. "I wasn't forced into becoming a glad, I made
the career choice as soon as I was old enough to un-
derstand what the choice entailed. It was a field that
suited my temperament perfectly, one that kept me
from ending up fighting society instead of other bom
fighters like myself. I began training when I was very
young, just the way everyone on my worid is encour-
aged to do even if they never intend going near an
arena, but that doesn't mean I stopped going to school.
I enjoyed school almost as much as I enjoyed training,

MISTS OF THE AGES          185

and I like to believe I may have stopped going now.
but I haven't stopped learning."

"Maybe there's a law keeping me from thinking,"
I suggested, feeling even worse than I had earlier. "It
might not be an excuse for the way I've been behav-
ing, but at least it would be a reason."

"I can think of a better reason than that," he said
with a chuckle, accepting my halfhearted and fully
inadequate apology as though it been perfect instead.
"All those people who kept telling you how wonderful
I was—they turned the mistake I made into a crime of
gigantic proportions. If they'd left you alone, you
would have seen for yourself that I'd just been stupid
in my estimation of you. Instead of that they kept try-
ing to insist I was too marvelous to do anything wrong,
which you knew damned well was a lie. And you don't
like having people telling you who to associate with,
do you."

The last was a statement rather than a question, those
gray eyes still faintly amused as they looked down at
me. I could see he was sharing a joke rather than
laughing at me, and I couldn't help smiling myself.

"No, as a matter of fact I don't like having people
telling me who to associate with," I agreed. "And I'll
bet you paid a lot of attention in school to courses on
psychology. An awful lot."

"Enough to know when it becomes time to keep
quiet'," he said as he laughed, understanding imme-
diately that I'd caught him trying to play me again.
"Let's see if there's any more to their show than mak-
ing us think that we're lost."

The suggestion was a very sensible one, so we both
began putting it into effect. The passageway we walked
along almost seemed to be hovering menacingly, but
with the presence of someone there besides myself, the
menace wasn't as—menacing—as it had been. I grudg-
ingly sheathed my palm dagger and we walked on
through the fog for a while, following the twists and
turns of the passageway, and then Serendel said some-
thing or other that was no more than conversational. I
know I answered him in a way that made him chuckle
and say something else, but I really wasn't paying at-

186 Sharon Green

tention to the chit-chat. I'd begun hearing small noises
from some of the openings in the walls we were pass-
ing, but I couldn't tell what they were. Very soft noises
that stop as soon as you try listening to them are an-
noying, but in a place like that they're something else
as well.

"You're not listening to me, are you?" Serendel
said abruptly, but his voice was filled with curiosity
rather than annoyance or anger. "Is something
wrong?"

"I think someone's starting to exercise their imagi-
nation again," I muttered, silently cursing all that fog
and darkness. "There's movement of some son going
on in those unlit openings, but I'm damned if I know
what's doing the moving."

"I haven't heard a thing," he said, now sounding
puzzled. "Of course, I also haven't been listening.
Maybe the problem is that this place does remind you
too much of the caverns under the mountains in the
wilds. Is this any help?"

"This*' was his arm coming gently but firmly around
my shoulders, a gesture I hadn't been expecting. Star-
tled, I looked up at him, seeing the faint, calm smile
in his gray eyes, and that told me he really was asking
whether or not I minded. He wasn't expecting me to
mind, but the attitude was more a matter of assurance
than arrogance, a mature outlook of serene confi-
dence. I remembered the times in school and afterward
when boys and men had done the same, most of them
self-conscious, nervous or aggressive, all of them us-
ing the gesture as an opening move toward taking
more. None of them had asked, not even the nervous
ones, and this time I somehow knew the arm around
me wasn't meant as an opening gesture. The man I
looked up at didn't need gestures of that son, an ob-
vious truth that managed to make me inexplicably un-
comfortable again.

"If this is the way you usually guard yourself against
possible attack, remind me to bet on the other guy the
next time you fight," I said, holding the words as
steady as I could. His hand was so very warm on my
arm, and my left shoulder touched one of the leather

MISTS OF THE AGES          187

straps on his otherwise bare chest, and that was the
closest we'd come to one another since our very first
meeting. Thought of that time made me laugh just a
little, breaking the mood of embarrassment, which in
turn let me add, "And is this supposed to make me
feel better? The last time we were this close I was
nearly trampled."

"You're in absolutely no danger of that now," he
said with an answering laugh and a grin, enjoying the
comment. "I usually limit the number of times I tram-
ple any one woman, just to keep the rest from getting
jealous. If I trampled you more than once, I'd have to
do it to all of them.''

"I hope you know you're not really kidding," I said,
remembering Lidra's comments on the subject. "And
I also hope you know you have my sincere sympa-
thies. Living with something like that would drive me
crazy in no time."

' 'If you do your best to win the loaf, you can't com-
plain when the crust comes along with it," he said in
a very pious way, deliberately making it sound like an
ancient adage I wasn't old enough to have learned. I
stuck my tongue out at him while making a very rude
noise, and his grin came back doubled. "But it hap-
pens to be true," he protested through a laugh, and
then the arm around me tightened. "And you can't
deny'there are occasional compensations. If I wasn't
who J am, you might have been able to get away with
calling me unsuitable as a companion for this tour.
Then I'd really need someone's sympathy."

His grin eased off as his head began lowering toward
mine, his intention obvious, and I wasn't surprised to
find I didn't mind the thought of kissing him. He was
more than just a handsome hunk of meat; at the very
least he was acceptable to have vacation fun with, and
I began to raise my own face, when—

"What the hell?" he exclaimed as I whirled away
from him, the palm dagger already in my hand. "What
are you doing?"

"Damn it, something pinched me," I answered with
a snari, my eyes searching the thick, swiriing fog. "I

188 Sharon Green

know men come equipped with more than two hands,
but I really don't think it was you. Am I wrong?"

"No," he said with a frown I could hear, also un-
doubtedly searching the fog. "But how could anything
have pinched you? If anyone had been behind you, I
would have seen them."

"If you're going to suggest it's my imagination
again, let me assure you it never works overtime with-
out getting paid," I responded sourly, reluctantly giv-
ing up the useless search as I turned back to him.
"There's something weird going on here, something
we're just not—"

The word I'd been going to use was "seeing," but
suddenly it no longer fit. There, just beyond Seren-
del's left shoulder, was a six-inch line of dark blue, a
streak that stood out clearly against the gray of the
fog. The streak was just hovering in the air, unsup-
ported and all alone, and if it's possible for a six-inch
blue line to laugh at someone, that damned line was
laughing at me.

"If I end up paranoid, I won't have to wonder
why," I muttered as I resheathed the obviously useless
palm dagger, more than aware of the strange look I
was getting from Serendel. "Turn very slowly that
way, and then tell me I'm imagining things."

His brows went up as though he thought I was be-
coming a candidate for protective restraint, but he still
turned slowly to his left as I'd suggested with my nod.
I felt grimly pleased that he hadn't hesitated, but the
pleasure dissolved fast when the line began moving
with him, just enough to keep out of his range of
vision. The damned thing really was playing games,
and I was so instantly furious I'm surprised I didn't
start foaming at the mouth. If Serendel didn't see the
thing he'd never believe me, and the thing was making
very sure the fighter didn't see it.

"Is this where I get to say you're imagining
things?" the man in front of me remarked mildly,
turning back after having examined nothing but fog.
"Now let's see, where were we?"

Very suddenly both of his arms were around me,
holding me tight against him, and before I could make

MISTS OF THE AGES          189

a single sound he had taken my lips with his. I strug-
gled to get free, damned if I was going to be kissed in
front of a line with a warped sense of humor, but
struggling abruptly became entirely unnecessary. The
arms that had closed around me quickly opened again,
and Serendel's head drew back as he voiced a wordless
shout.

"Damn it, something bit me!" he growled, turning
completely around to reexamine the fog that had shown
him nothing only a minute eariier. "I'd love to be able
to blame you, but girls don't come equipped with more
than two hands."

"Remind me to introduce you to some of the giris /
know," I said, trying not to laugh out loud at the way
I'd been vindicated. "Are you sure it wasn't my imag-
ination? Some people feel it can be very vivid."

"Is vivid supposed to include having teeth?" he
asked, fists to hips as he glared around. "I don't like
being attacked from behind, and especially don't like
having that attacker then refuse to face me. Do you
still see whatever it was you saw?"

"It was a thin blue line, and no, I don't," I re-
sponded, also looking all around in the fog. "When
you missed it, it hid behind you, but I don't see it
now. Are we going to search for it?"

"Search where?" he asked, finally turning back to
show me heavy annoyance—aimed elsewhere. "The
thing could be hiding ten feet away from us, but with
this fog we'd never know it. Our best bet is to just
keep going—and have a little talk with our—hosts-
when we get to the palace."

"You knock 'em down, and I'll stomp on 'em," I
agreed with a laugh I couldn't hold back, looking up
at his continuing anger. "I didn't like where I got
pinched any more than you like—ah—the way you
were bitten."

"The way I was bitten," he repeated, surrendering
to a grin that refused to be denied, "1 like women who
are diplomatic. Let's go get 'em."

We resumed our walk up the passageway, and al-
though I was still able to hear sounds from the dark-
ened openings, there was no sign of interfering blue

190 Sharon Green

lines. The passage continued to twist and turn as it
pleased, but absolutely nothing happened. My com-
panion and I were trying to be very alert, but boredom
and nothingness will wear down sharpness faster than
any number of attacks. After about fifteen minutes we
reached a stretch of wall with fewer openings than
there had been, and suddenly I was no longer walking
ahead but was being pulled around and folded into
Serendel's arms.

"I think we've earned a short break,** he said as he
held me to him, his voice very, very low. "If they
don't know about it they can't bother us, and this looks
like a perfect place."

His head lowered and his lips touched mine, briefly
testing the waters, so to speak. The waters were fine
as my smile and return kiss proved, and then our lips
were touching with less brevity and more sustained
interest. He held me to him with my hands against his
chest, his arms delightfully tight around me, one of
his hands to my hair. Our bodies moved closer to one
another, the taste of warmth rising, and then—

"Slig!" I yelled, and "Slime-wiggling jark!" Ser-
endel snaded, the two of us pulling away to whirl
around in murder-rage. This time there were two of
them, one blue line hovering behind each of us, and
although I didn't know what had happened to the
fighter, I knew damned well what had been done to
me. It was the next step up from pinching, the sort of
long-finger effort that was usually the trademark of
sidewalk idlers, and the only other time it had hap-
pened to me I'd gone after the doer with a length of
two-by-four that had been lying handily about. Not
only was there no handy wood this time, I had the
definite feeling it wouldn't have done any good even
if there had been.

"The damned things are laughing at us!" Serendel
growled, probably still glaring at his the way I was
doing with mine, making me feel less paranoid. "I
wasn't wrong, they are trying to keep us apart. What
in hell are they?"

"Part of whatever game our hosts are playing," I
answered, jumping forward fast to try grabbing my

MISTS OF THE AGES          191

line. My hand closed on nothing as the line darted up
and away, which made me feel better despite the miss-
If getting my hands on it wouldn't have done any good,
the line would have had no reason to dodge. Since it
had dodged, / now had reason to try again, at a time
it would hopefully not be expecting the grab-

*Tve now gotten to the point of not liking the game
at all," the fighter said very flatly, his voice slightly
raised as though he spoke not only to me and the lines,
but also to whoever else might be listening in. "Ev-
eryone's entitled to fair warning, so I'll say it once
clearly, and then I won't bother again: stop the game
and cancel any other plans you have in regard to me
and the lady in this place, or you're the ones who will
be responsible for what happens. You won't be able
to say you didn't know. Come on, Dalisse."

He took my arm and went marching up the passage-
way again, ignoring the two blue lines we left hover-
ing behind us. The lines now seemed more unsure than
amused, and if that was true I couldn't say I blamed
them. The fighter was so angry his gray eyes were
frozen slow-sparks, which made me decide to tell him
some other time that I didn't like being called Dalisse.
Right then my most central concern was keeping up
with him without running.

After a couple of minutes Serendel slowed down,
but more because he'd gotten his anger under control
than because it was any less. He made no attempt to
look behind us to see if the lines were following, but
I didn't have the same unspokenly-deadly image to
maintain. I looked back a few times without making
any attempt to hide what I was doing, and finally
glanced at Serendel.

*'I don't know if it means anything, but they aren't
following," I told him. "Or at least I can't see them
following. Maybe they'll be smart and take your ad-

'        i*

vice.

"They'd better be that smart, because it wasn't ad-
vice," he came back without looking at me, all of the
growl gone from his voice but the faintest of shadows.
"Doing things like that to people isn't the joke some
consider it, especially when there's a lady involved.

192 Sharon Green

My parents taught me manners while I was growing
up; if theirs didn't do the same for them, it's more
than time the oversight was corrected."

I lapsed back into silence at that, not quite sure what
to say. The fighter was angry, all right, but not for the
reasons I'd thought and he wasn't only angry. He also
seemed to be indignant and outraged, in large measure
on my behalf. A reaction like that wasn't something
I'd expected from a virtual stranger, especially not one
I'd exchanged more argument with than conversation.
Obviously there was more to Serendel than just being
a brainless glad, and he'd been very right: if people
bad left us alone, I might have found that out sooner.

Once again we just kept walking, something that
was beginning to be really boring. I felt as though
we'd already come miles, and there was no knowing
how far we had left to go. Serendel didn't seem inter-
ested in more conversation, and I agreed with that.
When two people begin getting to know each other,
the personal items they exchange are meant for each
other, not an audience. We'd had more than enough
proof that someone was keeping track of us; if they
really were also listening in, the rest of our conver-
sation could wait.

Possibly another ten minutes went by, and then I
began noticing different sounds coming from the dark-
ened openings we passed, with some not confined to
the openings. I hadn't realized it sooner but the fog
also seemed to be thickening, which made seeing more
than a few feet beyond us just about impossible. Some
of the noises sounded like dragging, some shuffling, a
few like scrapes, and one or two were nothing but
strange breathing. At first I considered the whole thing
stupid, but when the noises began sounding closer and
there was still nothing in view to account for them, /
began thinking about changing my mind.

"I think it's safe to assume my warning was heard
and believed," Serendel said suddenly, almost making
me jump. "Since I didn't like the first game, they've
decided to play a different one."

"Do you think they'd listen if I said / didn't like
this one?" I asked, the words very nearly a mutter. "I

MISTS OF THE AGES          193

know I don't have your standing or size, but I am
supposed to be a paying customer."

"I hope you're not taking any of this seriously," he
returned, and there was no doubt he was back to being
amused. "Strange noises in the dark, breathing out of
the fog—it's the sort of thing you use to frighten little
children.' *

"Little children aren't the only ones smart enough
to distrust what prefers hiding out of easy sight," I
told him with a glance, disliking the faint grin he was
wearing. "And there's a big difference between fright
and caution, something someone in your position ought
to know."

"That's right, you're the one who isn't afraid of
anything," he said, and if he didn't sound even more
amused it was only because he was consciously re-
fraining. "Believe it or not. I'm glad you reminded
me about that. Now I don't have to spend any time
reassuring you, or protecting you, or anything like
what I'd have to do with a different woman. It feels
good having a companion rather than a dependent."

With that he pounded me on the back a couple of
times, not quite hard enough to knock me down, but
certainly with brother-and-equal vigor. When I glared
at him he chuckled, wordlessly admitting he was the
kind who never passed up an opportunity for teasing,
which told me I'd be wasting my time getting mad.
He fully intended pulling my leg until it came off in
his hand, and people like that are beyond help. All
you can do is shake your head at them and sigh, and
then get on with what you were doing before they
started their nonsense.

Which meant I went back to wondering just what
the hell was making those noises, and even more to
the point, why they were being made. They couldn't
seriously be expecting to scare anyone, not even if it
did sound like dead bodies and whatever had made
diem dead were just out of sight, waiting to add one
or two more to their group. The fog was really thick
at that point, cutting down visibility to arm's length
or less, and the fighter beside me was giving most of
his attention to the ground under our feet. Since he

194 Sharon Green

was doing that my own area of responsibility became
obvious, and that was why I kept a close watch on the
fog all around. If anything was going to jump out at
us in attack, it would find at least one of us on guard.

Our having to move so slowly made it seem as
though we spent a really long time in the extra-thick
fog, but it couldn't have been much more than another
ten minutes before our range of sight began expanding
again. The fog thinned rather than receded, and when
we were finally able to look all around, most of my
companion's amusement thinned with the mist.

"This doesn't look anything like the passageway we
were in.** he said with a frown, staring at the much
wider area we suddenly found all around us. "As a
matter of fact. it doesn't look like anywhere I'd ever
choose to be. Could we have taken a wrong turn?**

"Through all that completely transparent fog?" I
asked with a soon, no happier than he was. "Of course
we couldn't have taken a wrong turn. This must be
pan of die palace.*'

At that point it was his turn to make a sound of
ridicule, all due to what we were seeing more and
more of as the fog thinned. The walls of the area had
wide, uneven gaps rather than archways, and where
there wasn't a gap it was possible to see some sort of
long. drooping, creeping plant growing on the wall
surface. What looked to be trails of slime could be
seen under the plants, and here and there the floor had
matching trails. Even though I didn't want to, I looked
up toward the ceiling, and was indecently relieved to
see that it was just ceiling with some mist below it. If
those plants had been on the ceiling as well, even
someone Serendel's size couldn't have kept me from
stampeding out of there.

"If this is the palace, I'm going back the way we
came.** Serendel said. turning slowly to look all
around himself. "That ragged gap behind us must be
the way we came in, but I*d like to know how much
more of this we're supposed to . . .'*

His voice trailed off because he had heard the same
thing I had. me sudden sharpening of a sound that had
probably been hovering just below the level of our

MISTS OF THE AGES           195

conscious awareness for the last couple of minutes. It
was the sound of deep, body-racking, heartbroken
sobbing, the voice cleariy a woman's, also cleaiiy
coming closer. For some reason it was difficult decid-
ing from what direction the crying was coming, but it
was definitely getting closer. It got nearer and nearer,
louder and more like a totally shattered soul, and then,
with what seemed like no warning despite all the sob-
bing, the woman was there in the room with us.

I think every drop of blood in my body froze at her
appearance. It wasn't the fact that she and her floor-
length gown were as white as the fog was gray, or
even mat she was surrounded by at least a dozen of
those dark blue lines, all of them taking turns stroking
and touching her. What turned my stomach upside
down and aimed it at my mouth was the fact that the
sobbing woman held her arms out toward us as though
begging for our help, but she couldn't also stretch out
her hands. Her arms ended where her wrists should
have been, nothing but stumps without proper finish-
ing.

"I can't find them,*' the sobbing woman said, look-
ing at us from where she'd stopped, at least twenty
feet away. Her voice was muffled by the crying but
was also unbelievably clear, as though the words and
the woman herself were no more than inches away.

"I can't find them,** she said. sounding like a little
girt who had lost her brand-new birthday boots. ' 'They
took them and won't give them back. and now what
am I going to do?**

Serendel made no more effort to answer the question
than I did, but he stood staring at the woman with no
visible sign of the shuddering storm I could feel inside
me. I would have loved being able to say something
smart, but at that point I couldn't even get my heart
to stop the exploding it considered beating. Although
I don*t know what I would have done with it. I was
wishing I could make myself reach for the palm dag-
ger—and that's when we began hearing the laughter.

Have you ever heard someone who was really in-
sane, laughing in chilling delight at something you
have no hope of seeing the humor in? The laughter we

196 Sharw Green

heard then was very much like that, and then all the
ragged openings behind and around the woman were
filled with hideous creatures, showing themselves as
the ones who were laughing. Two of them, one to the
left and one to the right, each held a slender white
hand, and even as we watched they approached the
woman with their burdens. They were humanoid in
shape but horribly twisted and malformed, wearing
rags rather than clothing, and when they reached the
woman they each set a severed hand at the end of a
stump of a wrist. The woman's sobbing trailed off
when they began their grisly attempt at reconstruction,
and once it was done she began to laugh the way the
others were doing. I couldn't see what there was to
laugh about—until she held up arms and hands that
were complete.

, "Oh. thank you, thank you for giving them back,"
she sang, beside herself with joy, and then her horrible
white eyes returned to Serendel and me. "Now you
can take theirs!"

A chorus of insane laughter greeted the suggestion,
and then all of the creatures were producing very long,
very sharp-looking knives from somewhere. Every one
of them was staring straight at Serendel and me, and
then they began moving toward us.

I wasn't exactly frozen in place any longer, but I
might as well have been, for all I could figure out what
to do. My palm dagger was useless against the knives
the creatures were holding, and even if there had been
some definite place to run to, I didn't want those things
coming right behind me. Running was a bad idea and
I had nothing to stand and fight with, all of which
meant I might as well have been frozen in shock for
all the good being relatively free did me. I took a step
back from the slowly advancing creatures, watching
as many of them as I could while I frantically tried to
think of something—and then something happened that
was even more unexpected than what had already oc-
curred.

I hadn't forgotten about the man who stood only a
few feet away and ahead of me on my right, but de-
spite Serendel's size and training. I couldn't see that

MISTS OF THE AGES         197

he had any more of a chance to accomplish something
than I did. Numbers and weapons tend to negate size
and skill, but our intended attackers were due for a
shock. They, like me, had thought the fighter was un-
armed, but suddenly, unbelievably, he proved he was
anything but.

The fighter took one short step forward and his right
hand reached left, but rather than finding nothing but
air his fingers seemed to close around something. He
drew his fist up and away, as though he unsheathed
that giant sword I'd seen him wearing on the liner,
and then I had to rub my eyes and blink very hard
because he was holding the sword! I hadn't the faintest
idea of where it could have come from, but there was
no doubt that it was there; he wrapped both of his fists
around its hilt, set himself as he held it up before him,
then grinned that faint, deadly grin at the advancing
creatures.

Formerly advancing creatures. When I looked at
them again, they were as still as paintings, decorations
for the room that had been posed staring at the gleam-
ing sword held by a man who had proven he was very
good at using it. Even the woman was staring in
shocked silence, and then one of the creatures swal-
lowed hard.

"Shit," he muttered, and the word rang hollowly
but cleariy all over the room. "That is Serendel, and
he sure as hell does have his multi-sword with him. I
don't know about the rest of you, but I didn't take this
job to get sliced into sections. I think it's time for my
javi break."

With the last of his words the creature turned and
began striding back the way he had come, suddenly
looking more like a man in costume than a malformed
monster. The rest of the creatures lost no time follow-
ing his example, some almost tripping over their own
feet in their hurry, and in less than a minute only me
woman was left. She looked as though she wanted to
call to the creatures to wait for her, but there turned
out to be something she had to say instead.

"The—the way up into the palace is just through
there, sir," she quavered, pointing with a long-

198 Sharon Green

fingered hand toward the largest gap on our right as
she backed away. "I'm sony we— I mean, it's only
what we're supposed to— Please don't be angry—"

Serendel's lack of response finally got to her, and
she turned and ran into the nearest wall gap as though
she was being chased, her hands holding up the bottom
of her gown. I was seriously tempted to let myself
collapse into a heap on the floor, but couldn't do it
with all that slime they'd spread around.

"And that's another benefit to having people know
who you are and what you can do," the fighter said
with heavy satisfaction when the woman was out of
sight. "Their own game ended as soon as they saw I
was about to start one of my own, and that's Just what
I wanted- They couldn't— Hey, are you all right?"
^ Sas question obviously referred to the way I stood
; tbece with my eyes closed and one hand to my head,
"•Hbe Kst of me trying to get the sour taste out of my
mourn. If the scene Serendel had broken up was the
Wits people's idea of fun. there'd be no pretense
gbout it when I hated the rest of the tour.

-"We*d better get you up into the palace where you
can sit down for a while/* die fighter said as his arm
went around me, nothing at all patronizing in his tone.
"I'm as mindless as they are for not understanding
how you'd take this nonsense. Come on, it shouldn't
be far."

I opened my eyes to see his concerned face looking
down at me, but he didn't know the half of it. I felt
very pale as we took the gap pointed out by the woman
in white, a corridor that turned out to be no more than
fifteen feet long. On the other side of it was another
room with a stairway leading up, but it was a normal
room with normal walls and floor, and two normal,
human men.

"Is the lady all right?" one of the men said when
he saw us. the other frowning and coming forward

with the first. "Was there an accident? Does she need
a doctor?"

"All she needs is to sit down for a while, and what
happened was no accident," Serendel told them in a
very hard voice, one that stopped the men before they

MISTS OF THE AGES          199

reached us. "Don't you people have sense enough to
check the home planets of your guests before you pull
childish jokes on them? If I hadn't been there, some-
one could have been very seriously hurt."

"I—don't understand," the same man said, ex-
changing a bewildered glance with his friend. "The
passageways scene is an extremely popular one with
guests, especially the very end. What could home
planets have to do with any of that?"

"The lady comes from Gryphon, and Gryphon has
the wilds," Serendel answered, still sounding very un-
friendly. "Anyone who has ever been in the wilds
knows that the fastest way to get killed is to doubt
what you're seeing, no matter how fantastically unreal
it looks. Some part of the seeming fantasy will always
be real, and if you don't figure out which part that is,
you'll never get another chance. The lady has been
through one of the worst sections of the wilds, and
because of that everything she just went through was
real rather than a joke. Is there any way up to the
palace besides that stairway?"

"Certainly, sir, there's an emergency lift right over
here," the second man said hastily when the first just
stood with his mouth open, looking almost as pale as
I felt. "Please follow me and I'll accompany you
aboveground, and then pass on what happened to my
superiqrs. I know they'll be very upset, and they'll
also want to apologize to the lady."

"Give me a couple of minutes, and 1*11 be glad to
tell you what they can do with their apologies," I
managed to say, making the second man look very
unhappy. He pressed a section of the not-stone wall
and a part of it slid aside to reveal a small lift-car,
then moved into the car to hold the door open while
Serendel helped me in after the man. The fighter's
sword had disappeared again, back to wherever it had
come from, I supposed, but I wasn't quite up to won-
dering where that was. What I needed right then was
a good, stiff drink, or maybe two or three drinks of
the sort that bring you alive again. I still had the fun
of the palace to look forward to, and I could hardly
wait.

Chapter 11

The man who was accompanying us aboveground had
due choice of letting the lift move as fast as it could,
or setting it to a much more leisurely pace. I'm not

- (mite sure why he opted for the slower rise, but by the
' .tone we got to the top and the door opened, I'd pulled

"t;, affyaetf together enough to stand without help. I hadn't
realized Just how hard I'd been hit until it began wear-
ing off, and I didn't know yet whether or not to be
angry. I*d have to speak to Lidra first, in private, and
then I'd be able to decide.

The open door let us out into what looked like a
private alcove off a much larger room, part of which
could be seen through the crystal-like walls of the al-
cove. Besides being absolutely enormous, the area be-
yond was filled with fountains, and crystal staircases,
and couches and servants and music and partying peo-
ple, none of which caused crowding in any of me parts
I could see. It looked as if someone had roofed over
an acne or more, fog and all, of course, but nobody
seemed to be minding the fog. The scene was so op-
ulently compelling it was hard to look away from, at

least until Chal, Lidra and Velix came hurrying up to
us.

"Inky, are you all right?" Lidra demanded as she
reached me, more outraged than the ones who had
asked the same question before her. "These people
must substitute this fog for their brains, always assum-
ing, of course, they had any brains to begin with. I
think a doctor should look you over."

*'I could have used one down below to restart my
200

MISTS OF THE AGES         201

heart, but I'm over that now," I told her, pretending
I didn't see how carefully Chal was studying me. "If
I had any wishes coming I'd wish I was still a smoker,
though. A drink and a puffer and a quiet place to sit
down for a couple of minutes are things I would enjoy
right now."

"Well, I can take care of the puffer," Lidra said,
turning to look at a Velix who was on the verge of
hovering behind her. "Do you think anyone in this
place is up to supplying the rest, 0 faithful and capa-
ble journey scout? If not, I'm not above opening doors
until I find what I want."

"There's certainly no need for something like mat,"
the Griddenth answered stiffly, trying to balance his
annoyance with Lidra and his concern for me.
"There's a ladies* retiring room just up the corridor
here which should do nicely, and I can have drinks
brought to you there. If there's anything else you'd
like, just ask for it."

"How about the head of whoever thought up that
cute idea for the passageway?" I muttered as Velix
fussed his way past me to show where the "ladies'
retiring area" was. The Griddenth's wings were
threatening to start flapping, his fur was practically on
end. and he ignored my comment in a way that made
me think he wanted the same thing. I hadn't expected
him toJbe that upset over what had happened to me,
and couldn't understand why he was.

Velix led the way to the right of the lift, away fipom
the area beyond the crystal wall, and stopped a few
feet down in front of an archway on the left sur-
rounded by opaque pink crystal walls. The pink was
obviously a sign to be read as giris only, which most
of the men with us seemed ready to go along with.
The sole exception to that was someone I'd forgotten
I was still being held around by, but Lidra noticed and
stopped just short of the archway.

"It*s all right. Winner, you can trust her in my care
for a little while," she said to Serendel as she put a
hand on my arm, smiling up at him warmly. "Before
you know it, I'll have her back to you just the way she
was."

202 Sharon Green

"Anything but that," the fighter murmured only
loud enough for me to hear, giving me the job of keep-
ing myself from laughing out loud, then he raised his
voice to a normal level. "I'm not doubting your trust-
worthiness, Lidra, but I can supervise her sitting down
and putting her feet up just as easily as you can. She
and I were getting acquainted when this happened, so
we can use the time she rests up to go on with it."

I knew I couldn't very well talk privately with Lidra
if the fighter was there, and Lidra, of course, had to
know the same. The only problem was, she didn't look
like she knew it; instead of arguing, all she did was
smile again.

"Well, if that's the case, then come on in with us,"
she invited pleasantly, her eyes sparkling as her hand
tightened on my arm. "Come on. Inky."

. I stepped forward with her, feeling as confused as I
ever had, but it was only a moment before I under-
stood completely, Lidra and I moved through the arch-
way without any difficulty, but Serendel stopped so
abruptly it looked like he'd run into a brick wall. I'd
heard about exclusionary gender screens but had never
seen one before, not even in me resorts Seero and I
had. stayed at. The area was open only to those who
were biologically female, and the way Lidra chuckled
softly as she led me deeper inside said she'd known
the screen was there.

"I'm glad you two are finally getting along so well,
but I really don't think ten or fifteen minutes of being
apart will ruin anything," she said, directing me
around the comer to the left. "We'll let the men ex-
plain the facts of life to him, and in me meantime you
and I can sit down and rest a little. We may nave
ridden here rather than walked, but once we arrived
they started giving us the Grand Tour. You won't be-
lieve how big this place is until you see it for your-
self."

There was a very pleasant, pinkly-lit resting area
around the comer we'd turned, one with etched crystal
walls and soft carpeting and svalk-covered lounge
couches and one mirrored wall. Beyond the etched
crystal I could see the man who had ridden up with us

MISTS OF THE AGES         203

in the lift and the Griddenth Velix, both working to
soothe a very annoyed Serendel. Nothing of what any
of them were saying came through, but it was possible
to see that even the two previously-chosen magicians
were now there.

"And here come our drinks," Lidra said, nodding
toward the female servant who was circling the group
of men with her tray held carefully away from them.
"One-way walls are fun, but you're not in here to
stand and sight-see through one. Sit down on that
lounge-couch, and close your eyes for a minute."

I let her urge me down with my back to the one-way
wall, then closed my eyes as she'd suggested. I didn't
really need to do any of that, but if she and I were
going to speak privately, there had to be an overt rea-
son for our being alone. I heard the female servant
come in and put her tray down, and then she offered
to stay and help Lidra take care of me. Lidra told her
it would probably be a couple of minutes before I was
up to taking anything from Mists people including their
help, and happily the woman didn't argue. I heard her
leave, heard Lidra sit down, and then a minute or so
later there was the clink of glasses.

"Okay, you can have your drink and conversation
now," Lidra said, and I opened my eyes to see her
holding out a filled glass toward me. "This place is
completely clean, although that giri who came in
wasn't. As long as we're careful to watch for any
new arrivals, there shouldn't be a problem. You didn't
really want a puffer, did you?"

"No," I answered with a shake of my head, taking
the glass being held out to me. The wine in it was a
very pale orange, and although it was smooth going
down, it caused my blood to surge a little in greeting.
I could have done without the drink, but as I leaned
back on the couch I admitted to myself I was glad I
had it.

"What in hell did they put you through down
there?'* Lidra asked, and I saw that she held a lit puffer
as well as a glass of her own. I admired her dedication
to her image, but certainly didn't envy it. "All we
were told was that you'd had some sort of unexpected

204 Sharon Green

trouble. It couldn't have had anything to do with the
reason you chose this place to vacation, could it?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," I answered,
sipping at my wine as I answered her real question
about the assignment. "Serendel thought I was scared
gray because I believed everything going on was real.
It*s true that someone who has been through the wilds
on my world tends to come away believing that every-
thing they see after that, no matter how strange, is
real. but after a while the belief fades. Their cute little
honor show may have shaken me a little, but it wasn't
until toe very end that it took me by the throat. Lidra,
die woman who was the first to show herself to us had
both hands cut off at the wrists."

The giri sat in silence staring at me, both the puffer
and her drink forgotten. I'd thought I might have to
explain what the symbolism meant, but the way she'd
pued a little showed she understood without explana-
tions. The very old, very standard way of punishing
thieves was the removal of one or both hands, and
from the time I'd first heard of that. at a relatively
young age, I'd had periodic nightmares about it. It
hadn't been enough to make me let Seero down by not
joining in his private social protest, but I also had never
mentioned the point to him.

"You think they may have been warning you off,"
Lidra said at last, the sentence a statement she was
weighing the truth of. "It presupposes the fact that
they know who and what you are as well as the reason
why you're here, and although not impossible, the
consideration is highly unlikely. If they know about
you they know about Chal and me, which means they
would have warned all of us and that hasn't happened.
Are you disagreeing with anything I*m saying?"

"I'm not disagreeing with anything that comes out
rational and levelheaded rather than scared gray," I
told her, reeling a great deal of relief. "I couldn't
think about this thing, all I could do was look for a
corner to shiver in. I agree it isn't very likely for them
to know anything yet, so as long as you and Chal are
left alone, I can be indignant instead of shaky."

"If anyone ever did something like that to me, I'd

MISTS OF THE AGES         205

^   be a hell of a lot more than shaky," she said with a
'I    definite shudder, now beyond considering the matter
?.    professionally and into the realm of the personal. "I'm
not joking when I say I think the whole thing is a
nauseating coincidence, but I wonder if I can ask a
very intrusive question- What would you do if it wcisn 't
•^    a coincidence? What would happen if they really were
warning you off?'*

"That's two questions," I pointed out, raising my
wine glass, hesitating, then putting it down again be-
fore looking bleakly at a very sober Lidra. "What I'd
want to do is run not walk to the nearest exit, then
take a liner going any place at all. What I would do,
unfortunately, is pretend I didn't know what they were
talking about, then set the stroking for as soon as it
was possible to schedule. Once I commit to something
I'm stuck with seeing it through, especially if it can't
be done without me. Maybe you and Chal would be
interested in a quick course on lifting and stroking for
fun and profit."

"I don't think so," she said with a laugh, some sort
of satisfaction in her light eyes. "The first rule you
learn in this business is not to try spreading over into
someone else's specialty. If it was possible for you to
be as good as they are, you would have been given the
training before you were sent out. It looks like it's a
good thing luck is on our side, though. With Serendel
around for you to stand next to, your nerves shouldn't
be spending too much time regretting your commit-
ment."

"What do you mean, stand next to?" I asked with
a snort, this time swallowing more of the wine without
changing my mind. "The place I stood was behind
him, a position I can't possibly recommend too highly.
Those make-believe monsters the woman sent against
us had knives, and no matter how idiotically melodra-
matic everyone else considered the scene, I thought
sure we'd had it. That was when Serendel pulled his
sword out of thin air, and if I'd been capable of speech
I would have thanked every god ever conceived of."

"I don't think you're as over your time in those
wilds as you believe you are," she said, her smile less

206 Sharon Green

amused than sharing. "And Serendel didn't pull his
sword out of thin air, he didn't have to. It's a multi-
sword, after all, so all he did was shift it full-in and
overt, bringing it on-line instead of off. He probably
wouldn't have done it if he hadn't been considering
you, but I'll bet those monsters changed their minds
in a hurry. People tend to forget multi-sword wielders
are never without the weapon once they win the right
to use it; being reminded the hard way is just a little
unsettling.'*

"Most especially in the bowel and bladder regions,**
I said, wondering if I should ask, then decided I might
as well. "I know I'm going to sound ignorant as hell,
and I won't even try to find out how you know this
place is clear while the serving woman wasn't, but—
what was that you said about the multi-sword? That
OQ-line instead of off made it sound like a computer
printer."

"In a manner of speaking, that's not too far from
what it is," she said with a laugh, reaching to the
crystal carafe of wine still on me tray and refilling both
of our glasses. "If I could show you the math it would
be much easier to understand, not to mention explain.
Multi-swords are quasi-paradimensional constructs
made to manifest fully, partially or negatively in a
specific mathematical locus. If you want to think of
them as computer analogs with sharp edges and a point
you won*t be wrong, but you also won't be completely
right. They're very complex in nature, which is one
of the reasons why their usage is so limited, and teams
all over the Empire are working on their basic princi-
ple to find out where it can take us. The breakthrough
was made by an arena buff. who was trying to make a
weapon worthy of use by Winners. He made the
weapon and was delighted with the accomplishment,
and never once stopped to consider what else he had
done. I hear the various research teams use his name
as a curse word; they lost two years of work through
having to find out about the breakthrough from an
arena telecast accidently viewed by someone who
could appreciate what he was seeing.*'

"Well. at least I can understand that part of it," I

MISTS OF THE AGES         207

said, shaking my head. "I've also come across the
idea that a 'negative manifestation' is considered pos-
itive and measurable to the sorts who use the kind of
math mat has no numbers, but if you don't mind I'd
rather not think about things like that. I tend to picture
people with nets chasing after invisible glow-flits."

"Well, of course they use nets," she said, a straight-
faced, reasonable expression all over her. "You can't
catch an invisible glow-flit without using a net."

"Since I don't doubt you're one of those who do it
on a regular basis, I'll take your word for it," I told
her, the dryness in my tone making her grin. "I also
won't be surprised if I hear people have started chas-
ing you with nets. How much longer do you think it'll
be before we get close enough to our objective to get
to work?"

"I think we may very well be within range when we
get to our next tour area," she said, controlled eager-
ness quickly taking the place of playful teasing as she
leaned forward. "We're closer now than we were at
the port, and the route we're on is supposed to swing
us right by there. 1*11 check again once we get to the
designated area, and if we seem close enough you can
do a physical check. If you. can find some way of shak-
ing yourself loose from Serendel."

The last of her words were filled with sudden dis-
turbance, as though she hadn't considered the point
sooner, and she leaned back again on her couch look-
ing thoughtful. It was nice to see her matchmaking
enthusiasm dimmed, but that didn't solve the problem.

"I'm glad you finally noticed," I said, watching her
take a last drag on her puffer before she dumped it in
the couch slot provided for the purpose. "I think it
would have been easier if he and I had stayed enemies.
but it's too late for that now. If I started snarling at
him again after what he just helped me get through,
even his great-aunt Nellie would be suspicious. When
the time comes, you and Chal will have to divert him."

"If we can," she answered doubtfully, still looking
bothered. "In case the point went past you, it took an
exclusion field to separate you two a few minutes ago.
All we can hope is that he was just feeling very pro-

208 Sharon Green

tective because of the way you reacted to the passage-
way game, and will back off on his own once he sees
you're all right. That's not too much to hope for, is
it?"

"You're asking me?" I said with a sound of ridi-
cule, taking a last sip of the wine before returning the
glass to the tray. "You and Chal are supposed to be
the experts on that particular glad, and I don't like
infringing on other people's areas of expertise. I'm
going to use the facilities in the next room, and then I
think we ought to rejoin the others."

**Before Serendel finds a way in here," she said,
gesturing with her chin toward the wall behind me. I
got off me couch and turned to look, and at first I
couldn't see anything but the fighter standing with
folded arms, staring at the wall he wasn't able to get
through. It took a moment before I noticed the look in
his cold gray eyes, and then I suddenly understood
what Lidra was talking about.

*TH hurry." I said. and began to do exactly that.
If there was ever a man calmly considering which point
or an annoying obstruction he was very soon going to
be attacking first. . .

When Lidra and I walked out of the comfort area,
no one was there but Serendel. Everyone else seemed
to have vanished, and we found out to where when the
fighter came over to join us.

"Chal and the magicians are in the men's area down
there on the right, Velix and the man from below went
somewhere to file a report, and that leaves me," he
said, answering our question before we asked it out
loud, and then his eyes came to me. "You're looking
a lot better than you were. but you weren't in there
very long. Would you like to find some place else to
sit down, preferably some place with equal access?"

"I think I'd rather see what this place has in the
way of diversions first," I answered, using Lidra's
theory as a basis for the response. If Serendel would
ease off as soon as his worry about me did the same,
I intended being as recovered as possible as quickly as
reasonable. Letting him get into the habit of sticking
dow would be stupid, and I had the feeling there

MISTS OF THE AGES         209

would be enough stupidity on our project without my
deliberately adding to it.

"If she gets tired too quickly, she can always
change her mind," Lidra put in when the fighter hes-
itated, his expression saying he wasn't sure he ought
to agree with that reckless a decision. "She wasn't
physically hurt, after all, not the way you 've been hurt
from time to time, and even though you undoubtedly
heal faster than she does, you have to consider where
she's starting ..."

"Hold it," the glad interrupted quickly, raising a
palm in Lidra's direction. "I should have asked this
as soon as I saw you, and would have mentioned it
before you went into the rest area if I hadn't been
caught by surprise. Did you spend any more time tell-
ing her how great I am? If you did, I just may turn
very violent."

"Relax, my friend, she didn't say a word," I an-
swered for a bewildered Lidra, finding it impossible to
hide how funny I thought, the situation was. "I haven't
decided to walk around ibecause I'm trying to avoid
being alone with you. What I'm trying to do is find a
little fun / can appreciate ^the sort of thing everyone
keeps assuring me this place is loaded with. If you
don't think you can handle something like that, just
say so. I still have the option of trading you in for
Chal.."

"You can't exercise that option until after you've
tried me," he said with a faint grin, finally less intense
than he had been, the amusement reaching even to the
gray eyes looking down at me. "1*11 go get the others,
and then we can start searching for that fun."

He turned and moved off toward the blue-walled area
farther down on the right, and once he reached it and
disappeared inside, Lidra put a hand on my arm.

"What in hell was that all about?" She demanded
in a hiss, still wide-eyed and confused. * *If I ever won-
dered bow his opponents must feel, I'll never have to
wonder again."

"I don't think he actually would have killed you,"
I said with a laugh, perversely pleased with the way
that had gone. "If you'd said anything nice about him

210 Sharon Green

he might have broken some of your bones, but I really
don't think he would nave killed you. After all, you
are one of his biggest fans."

"I can see I stepped into some sort of private joke,"
she said as she sighed, smart enough to give up asking
for an explanation she could see she wouldn't be get-
ting. "If you decide to trade him for Chal after all,
give me a couple of minutes of prior warning, will
you? That will give me time to formulate the questions
I want to ask while I can still think. After that, he 'II
.betfaeooe to find out how his opponents tend to feel."
^{iarcy«8 were on the place where the fighter had
^lrrlT"1—1"*^, a lip-licking expression of hopeful antic-
her face, and I didn't understand that. Ac-
Chal she didn't want Serendel the way she
ie did, but that wasn't what I was getting
Bg at her. I spent a minute wrestling with
. n of whether or not to pry, and even though
true hesitation I still lost the opportunity. The
„ „„.,,   » we were waiting for came out of the rest
OBM^ and we DO longer had time for the discussion of
deticaEtc subjects.

"I've been led to believe there are ladies out here
who are interested in finding some fun,"Chal said as
he came up to us, his grin wider than Serendel's. "If
that turns out to be true, we're pleased to inform you
that we know two lords interested in me same. May
we be of service, ladies?"

"Only if you mean that in all senses of the word,"
Lidra answered with a grin of her own, reaching over
:. to take Chal's arm. "So far the only things we've got-
ten out of this trip are one new outfit each and a mod-
^-;«Rtely lavish meal, but we expect that to change. If it
|i^lte»B*t, we'll be the ones who change—to a vacation
p^®ot where the fun times aren't quite so well hidden."
§^^**I;have the definite reeling the second half of that
^^"•TO't include us, Serendel." Chal said to the fighter
i an expression of anxiety no one above the age of
would have believed. "We'd better hurry up and
something to change their minds, or you and I
be left with no one but each other."

[ tUcc you, Chal, but I don't like you that much,"

MISTS OF THE AGES         211

Serendel said with a chuckle as he came closer to me,
men took my right arm to put around his left, the way
Lidra held Chal. "I'm sure there's something in this
place to divert the ladies, and if it turns out there isn't,
we'll Just have to—improvise. Jejin—is it beyond your
range of duties to act as a guide for us?"

"I'm supposed to be more of a silent companion,
lord Serendel, but there's nothing to keep me from
commenting on some of the things you stroll past,'*
the magician answered, he and Chal's man both smil-
ing under their beards. "We're also meant to answer
questions put to us, so if you see something you'd like
explained, simply ask. There shouldn't be too much
of that sort of thing, as most of the diversions in the
palace are no more complicated than they look.**

**In that case, let's get started," Chal said to us all.
then led off with Lidra. His magician moved to follow
along behind him, and Jejin kept his place behind us.

It wasn't more than a dozen steps to the end of the
alcove area, and then we were suddenly in the midst
of a giant structure of crystal and mirrors and mist.
I'm sure the mirrors helped to add to me impression
of size, as did the fact that the second floor didn't start
until where the third floor should have been. but it was
large to begin with. Chandeliers hung from the thirty-
foot ceiling, multicolored glowings that lightened and
tinted'the mist, fountains gurgled happily as their con-
tents poured endlessly from various beautifully-cast
statues, and people wandered everywhere. Most groups
were six-people big and some larger, but few, if the
man was in leather and the woman in svalk. were
smaller than three.

"Now, that's something you two ought to know
about,'' Chal said as he stopped and turned to Serendel
.and me. "The first thing Lidra and I were told about
when we got here was those fountains. Do you see all
those goblets around the rims, almost as though they
were decorations? Well, they're not decorations, be-
cause the fountains aren't filled with water. That's
wine they're throwing about so casually, and anyone
who wants some is free to help himself. Why don't
we start by helping ourselves?"

212 Sharon Green

My companion thought Chal had come up with a
great idea, so we all went to the nearest fountain and
started to help ourselves. Serendel took a goblet and
tried to hold it in the froth of spray coming out of the
gills of some sort of water beast, but after a few sec-
onds it was clear he was getting more wine on his band
and ann than in the goblet. I'd chosen the heavier
stream coming out of the statue's mouth, so I had
enough to drink in no time at all. When I pulled the
gpblet back I sipped from it, then raised my brows.

"Hey, this isn't bad at all," I told the fighter, turn-
iltg to watch his much less successful efforts. "If you
.any, you'll probably like it. Do you think that
fus. of yours, and doesn't want to see you




,is, it'll just have to close its eyes," the fighter
1'back, paying more determined attention to what
RS doing than to the words he spoke. "I'm here
flft ideation, and I'll be damned if I'll let people—or
fM&—tell me what to do. I have enough of that when
r.fla,ifl training."

^tyour meager size, I can understand how every-
one coming by must push you around," I said with a
nod of Compassion, smiling inwardly when he gave up
on the froth and switched to the stream I'd used. "You      ?
really should hire someone to protect you."

"I've considered the idea," he agreed solemnly, fi-      $
nally pulling back a filled goblet. "I'd need somebody      %
who was tough, preferably armed, and wasn't afraid      ^
of anything. Would you like a job?"                     ^

"I'll have to check my employment schedule," I      2
answered, seeing the amusement in his eyes as he      %.
flipped at his wine. "I'm in such demand as a body-      f
~ws^ that I'm just about booked solid, which I'm sure      |
ttcan understand. If I find any uncommitted time,
B let you know."




gfSy poor abused body will be grateful," he said
ft chuckle, then shifted the goblet to his left hand
"^r to shake the right and hold the arm away from
1*4 also be grateful for something to take care
mess. Wine in the mouth is a treat for the pal-
an arm, all it is is sticky."

MISTS OF THE AGES           213

"That small fountain over there has nothing but wa-
ter," Jejin said from behind us, waiting until we turned
before pointing in the proper direction. "There are also
towels to be found in its base, as this sort of thing
happens on a regular basis."

"Then let's take advantage of it," Serendel said,
immediately starting for the pretty little spout and ba-
sin to the left of the fountain we'd gotten the wine
from. "We still have fun to find, and I'd like the use
of my arm while we're looking. Just in case I have to
improvise, you understand."

The grin he sent to me said he now had another
subject to tease about, and as I followed along I made
a mental note to thank Chal for that. People who con-
sider teasing their second calling in life don't need to
be handed a subject by those around them; they do
well enough finding ammunition on their own. Jejin
chuckled softly as he followed in turn, but that was
only because he knew he was hardly likely to be made
victim in my place.

As soon as Serendel reached the water fountain, he
put down his goblet of wine and began washing his
ann. Just to save time I bent to look for the towels
that were supposed to be in the base, saw immediately
which carved panel was supposed to be slid back, and
uncovered the hidden cache without any trouble. I did
have <o put my own wine aside in order to pull out
one of the giant monsters folded fluffily inside, and
then I had to stand in order to open it.

"I think they were anticipating bathing orgies," I
said as I unfolded about a quarter of that bright yellow
towel. "This thing is big enough for half a dozen peo-
ple all at once, and may even be a tent in disguise. If
you aren't careful, you could get lost in it."

"Only if you're there to get lost with me," the
fighter said, coming over to put his now-clean-but-wet
ann into the towel. "Getting lost all alone is never
any fun."

Those gray eyes were looking down at me with only
a hint of amusement, and it actually took a minute or
two before I realized he was just standing there while
I used the towel to dry his ann. Finding that out was

214 Skarmt Green

somewhat embarrassing, mainly because I also found
I wanted to do the drying. It has also occurred to me
to wonder what diying the rest of him would be like,
and that was even more embarrassing. I was sure the
eyes watching me knew exactly what I was thinking,
but I was saved from having to retreat in total fluster
by the intervention of Jejin.

"The towel can be left right there, in front of the
fountain," the magician said, drawing Serendel's gaze
and thereby earning my profound, undying gratitude.
"The servants will take care of it in a minute, and you
"'""" i^tNiave all the palace to see. What do you think

t8ke to do first? Have a snack to go with the      ^
Wifely slaves at the auction? Gamble with some      ^
•'"•other lords? Watch the races or other athletic      ^..
There arc also shows, and music, and ..."       ^
Ban's voice went on and on, listing our choices,       .
topped the towel, turned away to retrieve my      ]•
tel was fight then busy sipping it. I didn't know      |
tifae fighter, but the one thing / was interested in      • *.
'I; been on Jejin's list. I didn't know what was      '•
[with me, suddenly wanting a man so badly my       '
; were nearly trembling with the effort not to let      ^
it show. The wine undoubtedly had something to do      ;-
with it, but I was used to having more capacity than      ^
that, and more resistance to the beast called male. Most      ..
men were fun to be with, but I'd never experienced      ^
the—draw—I did with Serendel, the urge to be some-      M
where alone with him without mindless blue lines      ||
around to spoil things. ...                              II

"And now. my lady, you may consider yourself
^ claimed," a smug voice said suddenly, bringing me
S:. abruptly out of my thoughts. I looked up to see that
^'|F4 apparently drifted away from the water fountain to
|^^|tf -open section of the floor, and there was a strange
^: ''—"• "in leather standing about five feet in front of me.
vss the one who had spoken, and as an apparent
basis he gestured to the robed magician on his
-That worthy stood with one hand up, and in the
; was a glittering rope of light. I looked down again
^ that the light stretched from him to me and
Lay waist, a special effect that was mildly im-





MISTS OF THE AGES          215

pressive. I remembered then what Velix had said about
my being subject to claiming, but I really wasn't in
me mood for that.

"Why don't you find someone else to claim?" I
suggested with a smile, an attempt to show the hand-
some newcomer that it wasn't him I was refusing.
"We've only just gotten here, and I haven't even had
a chance to look around."

"You may have that chance once I'm done enjoying
your favors," he answered with a grin, the way he
looked me over turning it more into a leer. "The
choice in the matter is mine, lovely lady, as you are.
You will now accompany me to a privacy chamber,
where I may take pleasure from my claim choice."

I was about to tell him exactly what he could take
and also what he could do with it, when I was inter-
rupted by something I hadn't been expecting. The
string of light around my waist tightened to a point
where I could actually feel it, and then it began tug-
ging me forward. A glance at the magician showed
that he was the one pulling on the light, but the grin-
ning man in leather was the one I was being pulled
toward.

"Damn it, I said I'm not interested!" I snapped to
the man, trying to dig in nonexistent sandal heels.
"You can't just drag me off as though my opinion
doesn't count."

"Alas, dear lady, but your interest and opinion do
not count," he said, really enjoying the game he was
playing. "Here, your lord may do with you as he
pleases, and at the moment / am your lord."

"But not for much longer," another voice said, this
time from behind me, and suddenly I felt the counter-
tug of another rope of light. A glance back showed
Jejin holding the second rope, and Serendel, of course.
had been the one who had spoken.

"You mean to challenge my claim?" the man in
leather asked the fighter, scorn in his voice and ridi-
cule on his face. "With the aid of the least magician
in these precincts? You could not possibly have chosen
worse, my friend, and you will certainly shame your-
self if you continue. For your own sake I advise you

216 Sharon Green

to withdraw the challenge, and accept a quiet defeat
rather than a public one."

"The only time to accept defeat is when you're
dead," Serendel returned flatly, erasing the smirk from
the other man's face with the softness of his words.
"And if Jejin was all that bad, you wouldn't be trying
to talk me out of the win. The woman was mine when
this first started, and she'll still be mine when it's over.
Magician, defend my property."

The other man was scowling by the time Serendel
finished his speech, and had obviously decided
«guost wasting any more words. His gesture to his
am magician was even more curt than the fighter's
^nmand had been, but it managed to serve the pur-
ytMe. Tfae two magicians moved to face each other to
iftQrJeft, both of them taking the straight pans of their
*^Ka»g»of light with them. I discovered that the loops
^HkBnBKl my waist had been left when I tried to turn
•Mid walk away. finding out only then that I was still
bong held in place. My anger flipped up a notch at
mat, right into the spitting-furious range; your lord
can do as he pleases with you, and magician defend
my property?

The two men to my right who were so eager to win
me weren't even looking in my direction, but instead
were giving all their attention to their magicians. The
gray-bearded figures had shortened their light-strings
as they faced one another, and then suddenly the
strange magician sent his string flaring toward Jejin.
The end of the string widened immediately into a cone
mouth that reached for Serendel's servant, but Jejin
wasn't asleep or in any way unready. His own string
widened and flashed to intercept the first, which it did
with no difficulty at all but with lots of pretty sparks.
The two widened strings fought each other with cor-
uscating colors that lit the swirling, ever-present fog,
and groups of people who had only been passing by
stopped to watch the duel of powers.

If I'd been in a better mood I might have enjoyed
the show, but then again I might not have. The two
magicians made a real production out of it, first one
of them gaining an edge only to lose it, then it was

MISTS OF THE AGES         217

f

s

^

^

the other's turn. I stood there with my arms folded,
waiting to see which of my admirers would be the one
to learn just how well I enjoyed being treated like a
stick of furniture, and then the soon-to-be lucky man
was decided on. Jejin's string-cone of light began
forcing the other magician's string back, and as it lost
ground it also lost size and strength. The second ma-
gician struggled, bringing up his left hand in an effort
to brace the right, but it wasn't any good. His light
retreated so far back it became no more than a short-
ened string, and then the remaining string and one of
the loops around my waist abruptly winked out. Jejin's
cone touched the other magician from head to foot.
and when it retreated back to a simple string form, the
second magician stood as still as a carving.

"Mind rot!" the other man in leather snarled, stalk-
ing over to stare at his magician before turning again
to scowl at Serendel. "He's out for a full turn at least.
perhaps even two! You must surely now be well-
pleased with yourself!"

"Why shouldn't I be?" the fighter returned, his faint
grin intended for the purpose of making things worse
for the other. "I wasn't the one who started this by
trying to appropriate someone else's woman. Next time
stop to think about it first."

The small crowd watching the goings-on laughed,
which got to the losing side even more. He turned
again and stalked away, looking as though he intended
finding someone smaller than him to beat up on, and
that ended the show completely. As the crowd began
to disperse, Jejin and Serendel both moved closer to
me.

"That must have been terrible for him," the fighter
said to the magician when they reached me, his grin
now wider. "Having your man beaten by the least ma-
gician in these precincts is embarrassing. Did he really
think I'd believe him?"

"A certain number do believe, and I'm sure he was
hoping you'd be one of them," Jejin answered with a
chuckle. "He knows I'm rated stronger than his own
magician, but he's one of those who really enjoy the
laws of this land. Your lady took his fancy so he de-

218 Sharon Green

cided to take her, trusting to luck that her companion
would allow himself to be talked into backing down.
Now he has to wait at least the minimum time before
his magician comes out of it, and until then he can't
claim any women at all. I have the feeling he'll be
finding the wait a long one no matter how short it turns
out to be."

"Serves him right for being fool enough to think I'd
hand over what was mine without a fight,*' Serendel
said in a voice filled with satisfaction, then his atten-
tion turned to me. He started to say something, noticed
my expression before any of it got said, and then that
teasing look was back in his eye. "Watch it, Jejin,"
he warned, trying to sound nervous. "I think we're
•bout to have a second confrontation. I hope you're
^Ot too tired to protect me."

'^\**you*re as funny as a shuttle crash," I growled,
arms still folded as I gave him a frozen stare. "How
coold a man be afraid of something that's 'his'? Jejin,
take this stupid child's toy off me. I don't like being
tied, even with real, honest-to-gosh light.'*

For some reason the man hadn't canceled his special
effects, and the string he had taken to fight with was
now reattached to the loop around my waist. It was a
cute gimmick to amuse the tourists, but there was at
least one tourist who had had enough of it.

"My dear lady, I will be more than happy to release
you," the magician answered, his tone very neutral.
"We'll see it done as quickly as I have the command
from your lord." •

I immediately switched a thawed and furious gaze
to the man who was pretending to be a magician, but
he didn't even have the decency to avoid my eyes. It's
all a game, his calm expression seemed to be trying to
tell me, no one's serious, so there's no reason to get
upset. I could understand that, I really could, but ac-
cepting something intellectually, I was learning, wasn't
the same as accepting it emotionally.

"Then there should be no problem," I said as evenly
as I could, trying to calm the emotional anger. "I'm
sure my—noble and generous lord won't consider hes-

MISTS OF THE AGES         219

itating even a moment. Will you, 0 noble and gener-
ous lord?"

I looked again at Serendel, working to keep as much
of the desire for bloody dismemberment out of the stare
as possible, but I don't think I did very well. His grin
widened as he gazed down at me, and then he was
shaking his head.

"I don't know if I can go along with that," he de-
nied, the doubt deliberately added. "Since I won you
I am your lord, but you don't seem ready to believe
it. I think I need a demonstration of some sort con-
cerning your sincerity of purpose, your purity of in-
tent. In other words, what'U you give me if I have you
turned loose?"

He was teasing me again, I could see from his grin
that he wasn't completely serious, but that was only
on an intellectual level. Emotionally I reacted just the
way he very obviously wanted me to, with enough
outrage to build a ten-floor office building out of. I
tried calling him names, making obscene observations,
and flatly refusing all at the same time, which means
I stood there gabbling and foaming with nothing at all
intelligible coming through. Jejin glanced at my
clenched fists, then looked away with a pained ex-
pression on his face, but the red-headed fighter de-
cided it was time for deep concern.

"Damn it, Jejin, now look what I've done," Ser-
endel said, the gleam in his eyes wiping out all effort
toward self-condemnation. "I said something wrong.
and now the poor little thing is upset. The least I can
do to make up for it is to take her some place quiet to
calm down. Where did you say those privacy cham-
bers are?"

"Oh, now I am going to commit murder!" I snarled,
telling nothing but the absolute truth. All I wanted to
do was get my hands on him to rip and tear, but he
was only warped and twisted, not suicidal. As soon as
I started for him, he ducked out of my reach, then
came forward again fast. and suddenly I was being
lifted from the floor on his shoulder- I screamed in
rage and tried to struggle free again, but the grip of
his arm around my legs kept me from doing it.

220 Sharon Green

"We're all ready to follow you, Jejin," the miser-
able monster said lightly to the magician, totally ig-
noring the way I was pounding on his back with my
fists. "The chambers are spaced around the supporting
walls of this fountain room, you said?"

"And, for the convenience of guests, also on the
floor above," the man answered, sounding reluctantly
amused but still amused. "I see a number of unoccu-
pied chambers in this direction, lord Serendel, so you
can have your choice from among them. Clear crystal
walls means vacant, heavy swiriing fog means occu-
pied- Once you enter a chamber the fog will close off
all view of you and your lady, but you must say aloud
whether or not you want the room left open. The words
*open' or 'closed* will either allow others to enter and
join you or give you complete privacy, whichever you
prefer. Also, of course, any chamber where entry is
j|0t barred may be entered by you if you so desire."
h The beast carrying me simply made a noise of ac-
knowledging receipt of the information, nothing of a
comment on it one way or another. Jejin had obviously
been giving him a prepared speech, something I'd had
no trouble telling even through my continued strug-
gles, and had no need of a specific answer. The "lord"
would decide which way he wanted it, without needing
to consult anyone else. I growled and kicked and
pounded harder at the heavily-muscled back under my
fists, but all I accomplished was to give the people we
passed something to laugh at. They thought the sight
of the big glad carrying me across the wide floor a
riot, and even Chal and Lidra, left behind after the
magical confrontation, seemed to be sharing in the
general amusement.

Needless to say, I was not viewing Serendel's ac-
tions with a big grin and a hearty knee-slap. I had the
feeling I was doing more damage to my hands than I
was to the back I kept beating on, but that didn't stop
me from struggling all the way across the very wide
room. I found out we'd arrived where we were going
when we passed a Jejin who was pointedly not looking
at me, and then I saw the crystal-walled doorway we'd
just passed through. As soon as we cleared it heavy

MISTS OF THE AGES           221

fog began cutting off all sight of me fountain room
beyond, and then I heard the single word, "Closed."

"If you think that'll do you any good, you're even
more feebleminded than you look," I announced, giv-
ing the back I'd been attacking an extra hard thump.
"I want out of here, and I want it now. "

"That's too bad about you," he said, sounding
completely unconcerned as he continued crossing what
seemed to be a room decorated in crystal and blue.
Crystal benches with blue svalk cushions, crystal ta-
bles with carved blue knick-knacks, blue carpeting and
crystal walls. Our forward progress was slowed and
then stopped by something I couldn't see from where
I was slung over his shoulder, and then my outrage
was replaced by true fury. A big hand hit my backside
three times, the shoulder I was on dipped, and sud-
denly I was falling toward damned-if-I-knew-what.
The next second I hit something soft, and even though
I was flat on my back I tried to go into action. My
right hand darted for the palm dagger in its sheath as
I tried to struggle to sitting, but as fast as I'd moved
it wasn't quite fast enough. An oversized hand flashed
to my wrist, a big body forced me flat again with my
right arm above my head, and then those gray eyes
were looking down at me from little more than a foot
away.

"Do you intend turning this attack thing into a
habit?" the beast asked in a very mild way, the look
in his eyes no more than curious. "If you do, I strongly
suggest a reconsideration of the decision. Someone
could get hurt."

"I'll think about it after someone gets hurt," I
grunted, fighting to get my wrist out of the unmoving
metal grip that had wrapped all the way around it. "A
touch or two of red would do wonders for the color
scheme of this room. I consider it a matter of principle
to help out like that whenever I can."

"I have the feeling your 'matter of principle' stems
more from that very brief smacking you just got," he
said, those eyes unmoving from my face. "You're of
the opinion you can beat on me as much as you tike,
but I'm not entitled to give back any of it? Did I miss

222 Sharon Green

the announcement of the law making me a public
punching bag?"

"I'm not the one who forcibly carried you in here,"
I returned heatedly, even more outraged over his co-
lossal nerve. "Maybe your reputation lets you push
other people around, but I'm not other people! If I
have to use this dagger before I can walk out of here
1*11 do it, because I am going to walk out of here.
Either let me go this instant, or don't complain later
about what happens to you."

"I can understand not liking to be told what to do,
but letting the attitude rule you to the exclusion of all
reason isn't very smart," he said, the words a little
harder than they'd been until then, the look in his eyes
matching. "You were told about the game they're
playing here and you twice agreed to go along with it,
out as soon as it came to living up to the commitment,
you forgot all about it and got insulted instead. If I
hadn't carried you in here, you would have forced them
to throw you out of the Mists, and if you walk out
again without doing as you said you would, the same
thing will happen. Is that what you really want? To
have to pay for a vacation you won't be allowed to
continue with?"

I moved just a little in discomfort under that cold
gray stare, finally remembering what Velix had said to
me—and what I had said in return. The fighter had
something of a point, but conceding it didn't mean I
liked it.

' "There are some emotional reactions none of us can
help responding to," I answered, trying not to feel as
defensive as I might have sounded. "If you hadn't
teased me about it I probably could have kept quiet,
but that consideration didn't do anything to stop you.
Now it looks like there's only one thing I can do: stay
in here long enough to keep them from getting suspi-
cious, and then trade you for Chal. After that you'll
get everything you want and then some."

"I don't think so," he disagreed immediately, do-
ing nothing in the way of turning me loose. "The deal
you made was to try me first, and go for the swap only
if you didn't like what you got. Sitting around waiting

MISTS OF THE AGES         223

out a sufficient amount of time will negate the deal,
and the next thing you'll be doing is going back to the
port."

"There's no way they can know that all I did was
sit around," I came back with a snort, trying to move
my wrist in his hand. "Unless they have this place
bugged they'll think everything is just fine, so will you
please let go of me?"

"There's one way they can know what you did,"
he said, a faint smile turning the comers of his mouth.
"Would you like to guess what that one way is?"

"You would tell them?" I demanded, the outrage
coming back to me the instant I understood what he
meant. "You would do something that low and dirty?
But of course you would, why am I even asking?"

"Stop feeling so self-righteously put upon," he said,
the dryness coming close to setting exasperation in his
voice. "This is my vacation you're trying to ruin. and
all because you don't know how to keep your word.
What gives you the right to ask me to lie for you? The
warm and gracious way you've been treating me since
the first time we met? Somehow I don't think so."

I wanted to give back the same kind of lecture he
was giving me, but I was having trouble figuring out
a properly adequate response. I didn't see anything
wrong in not keeping a word I'd been forced to give,
and I'd certainly had cause to be less than friendly
toward him, but he was twisting eveiything around.
He claimed to be the one who was being banned, but
I had a feeling his true reasons were something else
entirely.

"I may be mistaken, but I think you like the idea of
owning a woman,'* I stated, voicing the dirty suspi-
cion that had come to me. "You don't give a damn
whether or not / like it, you're just enjoying the situ-
ation. If you weren't, you wouldn't be so morally in-
tent on holding me to my word. Tell me I'm wrong."

"Of course you're not wrong," he answered, his
grin back and strong. "I don't mind dealing with
women who are free to do as they like, so why should
I mind dealing with ones who aren't? Equality of in-
terest is my philosophy, equality in everything. And it

224 Sharon Green

isn't the thought of owning just any woman Fin en-
joying, it's the thought of owning you. Are you going
to keep the word you gave, or are you going to accept
being thrown out?"

"You know damned well I don't want to be thrown
out," I growled, moving my wrist in his hand again
as I silently admitted I couldn't allow myself to be
thrown out. * 'I can't stop you from doing anything you
please even though I don't please the same, which
means you're about to do something that's beneath any
real man. If you're that desperate go ahead and get it
done, and after-ward you can hold your breath until I
thank you. That way you'll end up matching this room
perfectly."

"I don't look all that good in blue," he said, his
grin widening as he got what I meant. "And I think
you'd be surprised to find out how few men, real or
otherwise, would hesitate over accepting the tempo-
rary ownership of a desirable woman. Permanent own-
ership would be boring and more trouble than fun, but
ahort-tcrm owning is another story entirely. Especially
if the woman is one whose body you really want."

He gave me enough time to redden at bis, teasing,
and then he lowered bis lips to mine with a gentle kiss.
The last thing I wanted was something like that, bat
bracing myself to hate the whole episode didn't do
well against gentleness. It's force that bracing works
best against, and aside from the way he was refusing
to allow me to use my palm dagger on him, the man
wasn't forcing me to do anything. He kissed me gen-
tly, his free hand stroking my hair, for all the worid
making it seem as though being there was my own
choice. After a moment it came to me that I had cho-
sen to be there, and in all fairness had to admit I was
trapped by circumstance rather than by the effort of
the fighter. If not for that S.I. job I could have done
as I pleased, up to and including walking away from
the man. After another moment I remembered how in-
terested I'd been in finding some place quiet where
Serendel and I could kiss without being interrupted,
and my resentments over everything he'd insisted on
began melting away.

MISTS OF THE AGES          225

It's strange the way some kissing keeps you from
noticing how much time is going by, especially when
the kissing becomes two-sided rather than an individ-
ual effort. I don't know when I started kissing him
back, and also don't know how long I spent doing it;

when he finally raised his head to end the time. all I
knew was that I'd never experienced the same with
any other man.

"Considering the amount of time I've been wanting
to do that, you didn't have much chance of talking me
into lying for you," he said with a smile, still stroking
my hair. "I really have no intention of hurting you,
you know, no matter what you've heard about glads
and their nasty, bestial ways. Most of us save the
bestiality for the arena, and those of us who don't ei-
ther end up in a cell, or all alone in the bathroom.
Word spreads faster among fans than anywhere else,
and the honestly vicious ones don't have more than a
handful of followers. Do you believe what I'm say-
ing?"

"I never thought about it one way or the other," I
answered honestly, feeling almost unbearably shy as I
realized he was telling me exactly what he intended
doing. "Is it safe to say 1*11 soon be finding out first
hand?"

"yery soon," he agreed with a faint grin, moving
his nand from my hair to my face. "It's a lucky thing
for me you're a woman who isn't afraid of anything,
not even a fighter with a reputation like mine. I find it
very comforting."

He gave me a quick kiss with that, then let me go
as he stood up again. Unfortunately for my peace of
mind he took my dagger before he stood, and I sat up
slowly with the partial wish that I still had it. What I
sat on was a giant couch quilted with blue svalk, big
enough to accommodate four people Serendel's size,
big enough to make me feel almost lost on it. It wasn*t
that I didn't trust the glad, only that he brought me
very strange sensations, and I couldn't quite look at
what he was doing where he stood. It was nice that he
was comforted, but the fact that he was getting out of
the leather outfit didn't make me feel the same.

226 Sharon Green

"Now that*s a lot better," he said as he came back
onto the couch next to me, to sit as I was doing. "That
leather may look authentic to the costumers. in this
place, but I'll bet any amount you care to name that
the original outfits were totally different. This stuff is
a little too stiff to wear comfortably, and not boiled
properly to be adequate protection. It's good for noth-
ing but show—or taking someone's eyes out with those
shoulder pieces. Is something bothering you?"

By the time he asked the question I had inadver-
tently glanced at him, which meant I was less bothered
than I had been. Instead of being stalk naked under
the leather the way he'd hinted he was, he wore a very
brief pair of snorts that were like a male model's bath-
ing trunks. For some silly reason I felt better having
him like that, but I still found very little in the way of
comfort in the situation. His body was really massive
with muscle, the sort that comes with strength rather
man empty exercising, and even in the face of all his
assurances I still couldn't help realizing he was like
no man I'd ever been with before.

"Of course nothing is bothering me," I answered
after the briefest hesitation, very aware of how close
he was. "I haven't been a child for quite a number of
years now."

"I didn't say anything about considering you a
child," he returned, his right hand coming to my back
under my hair. "If I'd thought you were a child, I
would have sent you to bed, not taken you there.
You've been taken to bed by men before, haven't
you?"

"I used to think so." I muttered, trying to under-
stand why it was all I could do to keep from pulling
away from his hand, and then I raised my voice a
little. "What I meant was, of course I've had sex with
men before. There's nothing to it, really, and most of
the time it's fun."

"You sound like you're trying to talk me into it."
he said with a chuckle, his hand sliding across my
back to curve around my right arm. "I know most
people consider me shy and hesitant, but I don't really
need convincing. If you're sure there isn't anything

MISTS OF THE AGES         227

bothering you, why don't you try relaxing a little?
Here, let's make both of us a bit more comfortable."

The next thing I knew both of his hands were on my
shoulders, and then the wide straps of the top of my
costume were being slid gently down my arms. The
effort almost immediately turned me as bare-chested
as he was, and before I could even begin to react, he
had wrapped me in this arms and had stretched us out
on our sides on the couch.

"Ah, yes, this is a lot better," he said as he settled
me more closely to him, my breasts tight against his
chest. "There have been times I've gotten to bed so
tired that even falling asleep seemed like too much of
an effort, but there's no such thing as being too tired
to cuddle."

"Cuddle?" I echoed, looking up at him without be-
ing able to decide whether I wanted to raise my eye-
brows or lower them. "Arc you sure that's the word
you wanted to use? And are you sure you're a fighter
and not a ladies' hairdresser?"

"Stop being a little snob," he said in a stem way,
but I could see the amusement lurking in his eyes.
"Fighters have just as much right to enjoy cuddling
as hairdressers do, and maybe even more if you stop
to think which group would do better if the right had
to be fought for. I happen to like cuddling with certain
giris, and I don't mind saying so. Do you have any-
body you'd like to bring over to tell me I shouldn 't be
saying it?"

"I think the twelve-foot Monster of Isak is busy
right now, so I'll have to get back to you.'' I muttered.
feeling very firmly put in my place. "The biggest
problem in acceptance of that is trying to picture a glad
'snuggling.* It's not exactly the sort of scene that
comes first and most easily to mind."

"I'm not responsible for your prejudices," he said,
that faint, now-familiar grin visible again. "If you ever
hear me tell someone I like snuggling in the arena,
that's when you can lodge a protest. When it comes
to what I do in bed, no one has a say but me."

"How about your bed partner?" I asked, suddenly

228 Sbaron Green

aware of the arms around me in a different way. "Do
you get the say over her as well?"

"Usually," he agreed with a widening grin, then
quickly tightened his hold on me as I began pulling
away. "But only because that's the way most of my
bed partners prefer it. You'll never find me telling the
woman I'm in bed with that her preferences are wrong.
Something like that could take the friendliness out of
the occasion."

"You mean there are actually women in this uni-
verse who feel friendly toward you?" I asked, utterly
delighted to find that he was teasing me again. "And
here I thought you inspired nothing but lust."

"Life is tough for those of us who are sex objects,
but you leam to take the bad with the good," he al-
lowed in a way that was just short of noble. "Women
by the thousands come after me and force me into bed,
and all I can do is accommodate their preferences. Af-
ter that, I find this change of pace very refreshing."

1 started to ask what change of pace he was talking
about, and then I remembered: as long as we were in
that particular section of the Mists, his was the only
opinion that counted. I could see from the gleam in
his gray eyes that I was supposed to get wild and try
to start another fight with him, but it had finally gotten
through to my temper that he was enjoying the reaction
far too much for it to be smart letting it go on. If my
getting mad was his version of fun, then mad was the
last thing I should be getting.

"Oh, I understand now," I exclaimed, turning my
right hand to put it on the chest I was being held
against "What you're all that tired of is being in
charge, and what you'd like is to have someone else
take over. Why didn't you say so right away? I'll be
glad to take over."

The gray eyes looking at me turned briefly startled
as be began shaking his head, that close to telling me
I had it wrong. I knew he didn't want me in charge as
well as he did, but I Hilly intended making him say it
so that / could laugh for a change. I waited for the
protest and disagreement, already enjoying what I

MISTS OF THE AGES         229

would hear—and then I heard something I neither en-
joyed nor particularly understood.

"You know, you may not have a bad idea there,"
he said slowly, his head nodding as the agreement in
his voice strengthened. "As a matter of fact, the more
I think about it the more I like the way it sounds.
You're absolutely right about what I need, so let's do
it that way."

He let me go and lay back flat on the couch, tucking
his hands behind his head as he grinned. I was sure he
couldn't be serious—or at least almost sure—but I
didn't know whether to go along with the joke or tell
him to stop messing around.

"Well, what arc you waiting for?" he prompted.
not moving an inch out of the position he'd taken.
"You said you'd be glad to be in charge, so let's see
some of that gladness. Or are you afraid?"

"I'm not afraid of anything," I snapped, stung by
his mockery and moved out of indecision. "If it's fe-
male aggressiveness you're looking for, consider it
round."

I twisted around and put my hands to his chest, then
took his lips with a lot more strength and passion than
he'd used. He made no effort to stop me, or even to
try taking over direction of what I was doing; all he
did .was cooperate completely by returning the kiss he
was getting. It went on for a short while, the warmth
of his body and lips slowly coming through to my
awareness, my doubts and hesitations melting away a
good deal more quickly. I found myself running eager
hands over the hardness of him, and also found that
something was definitely missing.

"I hate breaking in on your rest," I said between
shortened kisses, "but I'd like to be held and touched.
too. Do you want me to send for a servant to show
you how it's done?"

"If I practice a little, I should be able to figure it
out," he answered with a chuckle, and then his arms
were around me, his hands moving in silent appreci-
ation of what they touched. It felt so good I almost
moaned, and the heat coming to fiery life all through
me was startling. Sex had always been something I

230 Shwon Green

could take or leave alone, something pleasant to be
indulged in with a pleasant paitner. With Serendel
there was nothing easy or meaningless about the situ-
ation, and very briefly part of me tried to become
frightened. I couldn't afford to be involved with any-
thing that wasn 't meaningless, and I remembered what
Chal had said back on the liner. The fighter was that
strange kind of man who would not touch certain
women unless he was serious about them. That was
the part that tried to frighten me, but with Serendel's
hands touching and stroking everywhere, the fear was
drowned beneath waves of churning desire. I wanted
him no matter what, and he seemed to feel the same
about me.

We spent half of forever kissing and touching, at
least five or ten minutes, and then the glad could DO
longer control himself. Rather than me working on
him, I suddenly found myself on my back with him
crouching above me, his shorts having disappeared
Somewhere without my noticing their departure. I
laughed as he held me down, knowing I'd won the
point of who would be in charge after all, and then he
was entering me and there was nothing left to laugh
at. His presence inside me was sheer bliss and the very
beginning of desire fulfilled, and when his face came
to take a kiss he found one already waiting for him.
He held me tight as he stroked and kissed me, my fists
locked in his hair, and I had truly never experienced
anything that wonderful before in my entire life.

Chapter 12

After it was over I refused to move for a while, partly
because I didn't know if I could move. Every ounce
of strength seemed to have been briefly drained out of
my body, but it was a marvelous draining that I didn't
want to lose the sensation of. I*d just learned that it
takes a man's efforts to turn sex into love-making for
a woman, and I also wanted to spend some time si-
lently demanding why more men weren't familiar with
the technique. I'd lived with Tris for more than half a
year, and although the time had been pleasant it had
never been as good as what I*d just experienced with
Serendel.

"As soon as you don't need me as a pillow any
more, be sure to let me know," the object of my
thoughts said from above my head, "This chamber has
a tiled bathing tub in the back righthand comer, and it
won't hurt either of us to use it."

"You're an unfeeling, inhuman slave driver," I
mumbled into his chest, refraining from asking why
he was holding me so tight if he was all that anxious
to get up. "Not to mention the fact that you cheat. If
that was your idea of me being in charge, I'd hate to
see what your being in charge is like."

"So I lied," he admitted without hesitation, the
cheerful dismissal a rumble I could hear in his chest.
"I don't mind lying in a good cause, and anyone in
this room who tries claiming what we just shared
wasn 't a good cause will find herself in a very tight
spot."

"As tight a spot as the one you found yourself in?"
231

232 Sharon Green

I asked with wide-eyed innocence, raising my head to
look at him. "Some men seem to consider being in a
tight spot fun, but you're not silly enough to be one
of them, are you?"

"Absolutely not." he agreed very solemnly with a
slow shake of his head. "Abstinence and decorum are
the very cornerstones of my life. The other two are
honesty and reticence, and by the way— when you're
ready to go again, just give me a wink."

"You forgot to include reluctance and hesitation
among your cornerstones," I said with a laugh, run-
ning one hand over the light hair on his chest. "How
does a wink go again?"

"You're trying to min me, that's what you're doing,*'
he said with narrowed eyes, pointing a finger at me.
"You're in the pay of Farison, and you're trying to make
sure I can't walk when it comes time to face him. I knew
it as soon as I met you, but the evil plan won't work.
You won't find me in your bed more than five or six times
a day, and 1*11 be throwing you out into the street a good
half hour before any fight between us is scheduled. Even
if ft isn't scheduled tor another five or ten years."

The last sentence of his teasing came out with very
little of the lightness of the previous nonsense, and I
suddenly felt the weight of those gray eyes on me,
making his words more than they'd been all by them-
selves. I wanted very much to look away, to listen to
the fear inside telling me I couldn't afford to get in-
volved with a man, but I had to admit it was too late
for sensible advice. There was something about the
man who held me that I just couldn't turn away from.
and his own obvious interest made my heart thump and
my blood sing. Trite reactions for a situation I'd never
anticipated or imagined, but trite doesn't mean it can't
be wonderful.

"Serendel," I said with a smile, holding to his gaze
with complete willingness. "I think I'll have to re-
member that name for a while. Do you have something
I can write it down on?"

"If you make ft Seren, you might be able to remem-
ber ft without writing it down," he answered with a
grin. one big hand coming to stroke my hair. "That's

MISTS OF THE AGES         233

"I

J        ^

t

what my baby sister used to call me, after deciding the
full name was too formal. She was my favorite sister,
and I'd really like having you call me the same."

"Was your favorite sister?" I asked, reluctant to put
the question but wanting to know. "Did something
happen?"

"She was killed," he answered, his eyes going mo-
mentarily inhuman, and then a smile banished the
deep, terrible cold. "But I think she really would have
liked you, and wouldn't have minded your using her
version of my name. Your own name, though, prob-
ably would have given her problems. Even she
wouldn't have been able to do much with Smudge."

"I'll smudge you," I said with a growl, getting to
my knees beside him in order to reach his throat more
easily. "I'm about to strangle you, and you can't say
you don't deserve it. When you take a girl to bed, the
least you can do is remember her name while she's
still in that bed. Afterward it isn't necessary, but dur-
ing it is. It's a shame you didn't learn that soon enough
to save you."

He grinned while I wrapped my fingers around his
throat and tried to squeeze, and very quickly it became
clear why he was grinning. His neck was so massive
I could barely get my hands around it, and squeezing
against the cords was completely impossible. If I'd
been seriously interested in doing him harm, I would
have been out of luck.

"Out of the goodness of my heart, I've decided to
spare you," I announced after a minute's worth of
useless effort, looking down at his amusement. "I cer-
tainly hope you've learned your lesson, since the next
woman you take to bed might not be as generous."

"I don't think I'll have to worry about that for a
while," he said, and then his arms were around me,
pulling me down and holding me close. "For a time
there will only be one woman sharing my bed, and
who knows? As generous as she is, I might get lucky
enough to have her agree to extending the time. She
and I haven't known each other long, but some things
don't take very long in developing. All I can hope is

234 Sharon Green

that they take a whole lot longer before ending. Maybe
even a lifetime long."

He started to lean up with a kiss, but I was already
coming down with one, the only answer I could make
to what he'd said. I think everyone wonders what love
will be like, how it will feel, how they'll react, and
how they'll know it if they do come across it. I'd had
those same questions myself, but as I held Seren's face
between my hands while kissing him, I knew the an-
swers and many more besides. I was already three-
quarters in love with him, I had just been told he felt
Ae same about me, and there were no other questions.
All the answers in the universe were mine, and I would
use them to solve any problem that tried to come along.

We spent some time simply kissing, and then we
went together to the bathing tub Seren had mentioned.
It was almost big enough to swim in, more than large
enough for the two of us, and while we bathed we
talked. Seren told me about his family and I told him
about Seero, and with everything the two of us wanted
to share we almost missed seeing the blinking blue
light over a panel of the wall to the left of the pool. A
closer inspection showed us a hand plate in the panel,
and pressing the hand plate brought to view a small
closet space which contained a fresh leather outfit for
him and a fresh svalk costume in yellow for me. I was
about to take the fresh clothing, but Seren just grinned
and told me to leave it there for the moment, then took
my hand and dragged me back to the couch. We'd
made the mistake of drying each other after getting out
of the pool, and I was more than willing to let the
clothing wait. Somehow the second time was even bet-
ter man the first, and the minutes passed by without
either of us noticing.

When we finally got out of that chamber, we dis-
covered that Lidra and Chal were in one of their own.
Jejin told us that ChaFs magician had bested the one
representing a challenger for Lidra, and Chal had then
carried Lidra off just the way Seren had done with me.
Jejin grinned and said he thought a new tradition may
well have been started, and we laughed at the idea
with him. then all three of us went looking for drinks

MISTS OF THE AGES         235

and entertainment. The shows being put on were ab-
solutely marvelous, and when Lidra and Chal got
around to joining us, they thought so too.

After that a lot of our time at the palace was blurry,
but we seemed able to go on and on without rest and
the partying around us never stopped. Twice Seren was
challenged for me and twice Jejin won without trou-
ble. but the third time his hesitation and uncertainty
were horribly obvious. Jejin knew something about the
rival magician that we didn't, and when Seren read his
expression he didn't hesitate. The fighter seemed to be
remembering the way Chal had lost Lidra in one chal-
lenge, and although the loss had only been a temporary
one, he didn't appear prepared to accept me same.
Despite what were probably rules to the contrary,
Seren approached the man who had challenged him,
spoke very quietly, then took a step back. None of us
knew what the fighter had said, but the other man
paled, apologized for bothering us, then hurried away
with a very puzzled magician trailing behind him. Af-
ter that episode, no one came with a challenge again.

More than once Seren and I made use of the privacy
chambers, and there finally came a time when we fell
asleep after making love instead of returning to the
partying. When I woke again, I had the feeling quite
a lot of time had passed; I was back to being able to
see cleariy what was around me, and I also felt well-
rested and ready to get up. When Seren awoke, I had
my mind changed for me about the getting up part,
and I was more than happy to cooperate. I couldn't
seem to get enough of the man, in bed or out, and was
no longer even interested in complaining about the way
he teased me. Very eariy on I'd contracted the teasing
disease myself, and thereafter worked at giving as good
as I got.

We left the chamber to find that a breakfastish meal
would be served to us as soon as Chal and Lidra joined
us, and that made me feel odd. The fog both inside
and out hadn't changed at all, which made it seem as
though we were still living the same day we'd started
on, no matter how long it was stretching. The thought
upset me just a little, but before I could find a reason

236 Sharon Green

for the reaction Chal and Lidra came up, and we all
went for our meal. We had been given over into the
care of servants, and our magicians were nowhere in
sight. When they didn't join us for the meal, we de-
cided their jobs might have been finished, and they'd
gone back to offer themselves to the next batch of tour-
ists. They never did show up again, and aside from
wishing they'd at least said good-bye, we quickly for-
got about them.

We weren't far from finishing when Velix arrived,
confirming our speculation on the possibility of a
change in the offing, but he stood to one side of the
room until the floor show was over. The man and
woman dancing were dressed in the rags and chains of
slaves, and at intervals during the meal the man had
slopped the dance by capturing and holding the woman
m one way or another, and then had asked Chal and
Scren what they wanted him to do with her. The man
wore a big grin at those times despite the look he was
getting from the giri he held, and seemed only faintly
disappointed when his first requests resulted in nothing
more than an order to go back to dancing. He seemed
to know that the "lords" would not be refusing him
forever, and he was right.

The third time he asked he was told to go ahead and
have some fun, and even though Lidra and I tried talk-
ing Chal and Seren out of it, the two men refused to
change their minds. The giri's dancing had been more
and more deliberately provocative, they insisted, and
they were simply seeing that she got what she'd asked
for. Since the man put her to the floor right there in
front of our knee table we all saw her getting what
she'd asked for, and the way she quickly switched from
indignation to enjoyment was very unsettling. I didn't
know how Lidra was looking at it. but even though I
was trying to be annoyed with Seren, I was also sud-
denly very hot for him. I tried not to let it show. but
his grin said he knew all about it and was simply wait-
ing until I attacked him. I would have enjoyed being
able to laugh in his face. but I knew as well as he did
that that attack would not be unreasonably long in
coming.

MISTS OF THE AGES         237

When the man and woman finally left the floor, Ve-
lix came to stand in front of our long, low table and
look down at us with a smile in his eyes that was very
close to a smirk. It was a really lucky thing that Grid-
denths don't show expressions on their beaked faces.
or those like the journey scout would sometimes end
up as trophies on den walls.

"I see, my lords and ladies, that you've reached a
certain appreciation of this area of the Mists," he said,
the words Just short of being a purr. "I trust there will
be no further need for discussions on legal actions or
swaps?"

His dark eyes touched Lidra and me as he said that,
and Seren chuckled with the satisfaction of a man who
knows he has nothing to worry about. That combined
with his earlier grin really annoyed me, so I decided
it was time to dent some smugness.

"Of course there's no further need for discussion on
those topics," I said, smiling sweetly at the Grid-
denth. "I was promised I could swap if I wanted to,
so there's nothing left to be talked about. After all.
you don't expect a giri to stay with a man who can't
even remember her name, do you?"

The feathers around Velix's face puffed out and his
head went up, but that was nothing in comparison to
Seren's squawk of surprise. He'd had a really good
time calling me Smudge at every opportunity, but he
suddenly seemed to be regretting the fun. When I
transferred my icky smile to the glad, he tried to ex-
plain that he'd only been kidding and hadn't under-
stood that it was really bothering me, but before the
rush of words could reach an end, they were inter-
rupted by Velix.

"Am I to take it. my lady, that you're now insisting
on indulging in the swap?" the Griddenth demanded,
his wings moving in short snaps as he spoke. "I'm
well aware of the fact that the choice was granted you,
but I was under the impression ..."

"Dalisse, you can't be serious," Seren interrupted
in turn, reaching over to take my hand, actual worry
in his gray eyes. "I thought we'd agreed there was

238 Sharon Green

something more going on between us than simple va-
cation fim. Was I wrong?"

"Of course you weren't wrong," I answered,
squeezing the big hand that held mine, my smile now
warm and loving. "You know I feel the same way
about you."

"Then why are you insisting on swapping me for
Chal?" he asked, complete confusion turning his ex-
pression bewildered. "If you're feeling as satisfied as
I am, why do you want to ..."

"Who said I'm insisting on the swap?" I put with
great innocence, taking my own turn at interrupting.
"All / said was there was no need for further discus-
sion on the point, and then I made a personal opinion
observation about men who can't remember the names
of the girls they're with. Since you don't happen to be
one of that sort, whyever would you think the obser-
vation referred to you?"

There was a long ten seconds of silence after my
question, and then Lidra and Chal, who sat to Seren's
left, both started laughing at the same time. A noise
like a strangled growl came from Velix where he stood,
an obvious attempt to smother reluctant amusement,
but there was still one reaction to come. I'd been smil-
ing pleasantly at Seren, and after a moment of staring
at me with narrowed eyes, he produced a faint smile
of his own.

"I'm going to get even for that," he said in a very
warm. pleasant way. reaching over to gently pat my
cheek. "You did it on purpose to scare the hell out of
me, so there's no way you'll be getting away with it.
When it happens, don't say you didn't ask for it."

I laughed and immediately began trying to talk him
out of the threat, while Lidra and Chal tried to get
details on what he intended doing. He smiled and
shook his head quietly at all of us, pretending to be
determined to carry through on dire plans he wasn't
about to divulge, and then Velix was breaking in on
the silliness.

"My lords and ladies, please give me your atten-
tion," he insisted, probably enjoying playing the wet
blanket. "I've come here to tell you that you're now

MISTS OF THE AGES         239

scheduled to move on to the next Mists area on your
tour. There are new costumes you must first change
into, and then I will lead you to your transportation.
The changing rooms are this way, so if you'll please
follow me, we can be on our way."

He fussed at us until we got to our feet, and then
led the way through a quiet back door in the eating
room that opened on a long, deserted corridor filled
with more quiet doors. Each of us was herded into a
separate room, and in mine I found my original lug-
gage, a wide, padded bench, a mirrored wall, and my
new costume hanging on two hooks of a blank wall.
The first hook held a floor-length gown in palest rose
that was completely transparent, and the second a
matching floor-length cloak that closed at the left
shoulder and was completely slit down both sides. I
later discovered that the two layers of light, delicate
material put together made the costume completely
opaque, but even as I began getting out of the svalk
outfit I'd gotten used to so easily, I wondered what
sort of area we were heading for next.

The material of the gown came up to my throat and
down to my toes while leaving my arms bare, but the
mirror wall told me complete nakedness would be con-
sidered by most as being more modest. Despite all the
time we'd spent in the inhibition-relaxing atmosphere
of the palace, I put my hands to the form-fitting gown
where it hugged my waist above my hips, and won-
dered if I had the nerve to wear it. That gown was an
invitation to attack if I'd ever seen one, and being
attacked doesn't happen to be one of my major aims
in life. I added the cloak out of sheer desperation (no
pun intended), and that was when I discovered how
well the two went together. I felt something of relief
at that, but only a small something. There would cer-
tainly come a time when the cloak would have to be
taken off. and if it turned out to be a public occasion
I was definitely not looking forward to it.

I was sitting on the padded bench and staring down
at the toes of the rose svalk slippers that had replaced
my lace-up sandals, when a scraping knock came at
my door. I'd been trying to decide how much trouble

240

Sharon Green

I'd be given if I changed out of the gown and cloak
into one of my bodysuits, but there'd been no way of
knowing. I'd been told I didn't have to wear the cos-
tumes, but just in case Velix decided to come at me
with threats again, it seemed wiser to wait with the
decision to balk until we were a little closer to me
objective we'd come there to reach. We'd also be
closer to the end of the tour by then, which seemed to
be stretching on an awfully long time. ...

"It's time to leave, my lady," Velix's voice came
through the door after the scraping knock. "Are you
ready?"

Instead of answering I sighed, then got up to go to
the door. The Griddenth waited in the corridor Just
outside, and my three traveling companions were al-
ready with him, Lidra in lilac, Chal in black, Seren in
brown. The two men showed hose and tunics through
the slits of their solid cloaks, and my first thought was
about how unfair that was. It would have been a per-
fect point to complain about, except that I suddenly
realized Lidra had been given the same kind of outfit
I had, and she had a good deal more than modesty
areas to hide. I glanced at her to see if she was show-
ing signs of upset, didn't find any, then had to give up
on the effort. Velix was already leading me way up
the corridor away from the door we'd come in by, and
there was nothing to do but follow along with the oth-
ers.

The end of the long corridor held a door, and a ser-
vant opened it for us to allow unimpeded access to the
mists of outdoors. The fog in the streets was a good
deal thicker than that which floated indoors, but not so
thick that we weren't able to see the large coach wait-
ing for us at the curb. Six shadow-shapes of large an-
imals we couldn't quite see were attached at the front
of the coach, and another servant stood by to open the
coach door for us.

"This vehicle will take you to the Mists of Bulm,
and I will be there to greet you," Velix said, nodding
toward the coach and the servant opening the door.
"It would give me greater pleasure to accompany you,
of course, but my body shape unhappily forbids such

MISTS OF THE AGES         241

accompaniment. Please relax and enjoy the trip, and
rest assured that it will be quite brief."

None of us felt the need to comment on that, so
Velix stepped aside to give us access to the coach.
Lidra, standing ahead of me, moved forward first, and
even with the help of Chal and the servant quickly
proved how awkward it was getting into a high vehicle
while wearing a long gown and a long cloak. I wasn't
looking forward to my own time trying, and that may
be why I let myself be distracted by a sound coming
from our left, the sound of another coach arriving. It
pulled up to the curb, a servant hurried over from the
palace door that stood there, and then the people inside
were being helped out. I stared at them with a frown,
wondering where I'd seen them before, wondering why
their arrival at that time seemed totally wrong, and
then it hit me.

Those were the four other people we'd gone through
Customs with, the four who had decided to stay over-
night at the castle.

But we'd already been in the Mists for days. Why
were they only Just arriving? Could they have started
elsewhere? Was there anywhere else to start from? If
there was, why had Velix given us such a hard time
when Lidra and I had protested the setup in that area?
Wouldn't it have been easier simply sending us to the
alternate starting location? I couldn't figure out what
was happening, and then I did something that turned
simple confusion into numbed shock. For the first time
since I'd entered the Mists, I remembered the watch
I'd been given and looked down at it.

To find that according to the timepiece, no more
than half a day had passed. All that time spent ca-
rousing in the palace had taken no more than hours.

"Inky, are you all right?" Seren asked suddenly,
putting an arm around my shoulders. "It's hard to tell
in this fog, but you look like you just went pale."

"By rights I should have gone albino," I muttered
in answer, then raised my eyes to look at Velix. "But
maybe there's a simpler solution to my questions than
the outlandishness that almost knocked me over.

242 Sharon Green

Maybe something has simply gone wrong with my
watch.'*

"My dear lady, how very observant you are," Velix
said with a purr while my companions checked their
own watches and came up with a variety of exclama-
tions. "You've deduced that time moves at a different
rate here in the Mists, and the only accurate measure-      ,
roent of it is the watch on your wnst. That, of course,
is die reason our prearranged plans couldn't be changed
once you'd arrived here. Acclimatization to the con-
dition takes a bit of time, and too much of it would
have passed here if we*d needed to bring in one of our
own. As most of our guests take much longer noticing      !
the anomaly, I really must congratulate you."

"But how could that be?" Chal protested, dividing
his stare between his watch and the journey scout.
^*w never heard of time moving at different rates on
« single planet, and if it's true it couldn't be kept se-
cret- Out of all the thousands of tourists you get, at
least one would have said something to somebody!"

"Not if they didn't remember the phenomenon once      '
they were free of its effects," Velix answered, smooth
amusement now very much with him. "Leaving the
Mists means leaving most of the memory of it as well,      •
which is why the secret has been kept for as long as it
has. One man managed to lake it out with him in an
utteriy ingenious way, and he was the one who con-
vinced others to help him build the Mists of the Ages.
I doubt there are as many as half a dozen who know      ,
the truth, and employees—not to mention guests—are      ';.
certainly not numbered among them. All you'll take      J
out with you will be the sketchily detailed memory of      |
a wonderful time, which is exactly what the rest of us      j'
take. And now, if you please, the coachman is wait-       '--.

ing."                                                 J

With Lidra already inside the coach I was helped in       •,
next, and then the two men of our party joined us.       •
Chal sat next to Lidra and Seren next to me, and none       J
of us said a word until the coach lurched to a start and       f
we pulled away from the palace. At that point Chal       f
stirred in bis seat, then shook his head.                   Is,

"I don't buy it," he stated, knowing we would have      ^

MISTS OF THE AGES         243

no trouble following him; what we'd just learned was
occupying the thoughts of all of us. "I don't claim to
know more about this anomaly than the people who
discovered it, but I can't accept the different time rate
theory. It could be that our biological processes have
been speeded up by something in the fog, but that has
nothing to do with what they're claiming."

"I don't really understand either point," Seren said,
looking at Chal with distraction in his eyes. "The idea
of a different time rate isn't easily swallowed without
the context of alternate dimensions wrapped tightly
around it, but no one has said anything about other
dimensions. The idea of biological changes—isn't that
reaching just as far?"

"Not really," Chal denied, his mind busily chewing
at the question. "We take things all the time that affect
or adjust our metabolisms, and usually think nothing
of it. If these mists slow us down to the point where
we're living days in comparison to hours outside, that's
only an extreme extension of something we're already
well familiar with."

"Slow us down?" I echoed, feeling more confused
than ever. "If we're living days to hours, wouldn't it
be speeding us up? I mean, don't you have to move
raster to cram more into the same amount of time?"

'•'Yes, our bodies would be moving faster, but our
perceptions would have to slow down," Chal said.
Just as though he intended starting a lecture, but then
his expression went peculiar. "I'd like to make that
clearer for you. but I don't think I can do it without
getting really technical. How much biology have you
had.Inky?"

"The level I left it was above the biros and the bees.
but about three miles below what you're talking
about," I said with a wave of my hand, dismissing his
question. "You'd be wasting your time. Chal, and all
I'd get out of it would be a headache. Let's just say
we spent what felt like more than two days living
through half a day of time, and let it go at that."

Chal nodded and Seren agreed with a wordless
sound, but that was hardly the end of it. Lidra hadn't
said anything and really seemed to be lost in her

244 Sharon Green

thoughts, and the two men went back to silent specu-
lation while I did the same. It was a fantastic idea to
kick around, and the air-conditioned interior of the
coach kept us comfoitable while we thought. Part of
me wanted to consider how the new information would
affect the job we had to do for S.I., but the rest of me
refused to consider the matter. Chal and Lidra were
die big brains of our threesome, and I was just along
to find and open things. They could take care of the
problem, while I spent my time thinking about all die
extra hours and days I'd have with Seren.

The silence stretched on for an amount of time dial
was probably laughing at us, and then Seren stirred
and sighed. If I'd had to guess about the sigh, I would
have bet he was giving up on understanding what was
happening, and I considered that very wise of him. I
was fairiy sure it would take even Chal and Lidra more
than a few minutes to figure out which way was fast
forward, so for the rest of us to try was a complete
waste of time. The fighter shifted until he had put his
right arm around me, and then he gestured toward the
window on his left.

"It looks like we were so distracted, we missed
leaving the city," he said. "There's nothing out there
now but fog and shapes shaped like bushes and trees.
I wonder what the new area will be like—and if we'll
enjoy it as much as we enjoyed the last one."

"We'll probably be forced to play kiddy games, and
made to sleep in segregated dormitories," I said, feel-
ing his faint grin all the way down to my slippered
toes. "All the giris will have dragons for chapel-ones,
and all the boys will die of frustration."

"Not this boy." he said with a chuckle, leaning
down to kiss my ear. "Any dragon who gets in my
way will need heavy-duty medical insurance. And ever
since you and Lidra came out of your changing rooms.
I've been curious. What sort of costumes do you have
OB under those cloaks?"

"Oh—nothing terribly special," I said as casually
as I could, suddenly understanding why there had been
four changing rooms instead of two. With two, there
would most likely have been a delay in leaving, and I

MISTS OP THE AGES         245

could just picture Seren's reaction the first time he saw
me in the gown alone, without the cloak. If I was very
lucky we also would be alone; I didn't know how he
felt about it, but public exhibitions didn't fit in well
with my private inhibitions.

"What sort of nothing terribly special?" he pur-
sued, bringing his free hand to my bare left arm. "I
love this color they keep giving you, it goes so well
with the black of your hair. How about one peek under
the cloak?"

I looked up at him quickly, having the feeling I rec-
ognized the tone in his voice, and unfortunately I was
right. There was a definite gleam in the gray eyes
looking down at me, which meant he'd already come
to certain conclusions.

"But I can't give you a peek," I said, keeping my
voice very, very reasonable. "I gave my word not to,
and going back on your word isn't very nice. You
don't want to make a liar out of me, do you?"

"Absolutely not," he agreed very solemnly—with-
out losing anything of the gleam. "I'd never sink so
low as to make a liar out of anyone. I'm not trying to
be a pest about it, but before we left the palace I had
a glimpse of that gown material where it showed
through the side slit of your cloak, and since then I've
been—curious. How about if I take a peek on my
own?"

"Don't you dare!" I hissed as his hand left my arm
to finger the edge of the cloak's front panel, his grin
beginning to widen. "Seren, leave it alone!"

"Why are you blushing like that. Smudge?'* he
asked in a very innocent way, the arm around my
shoulders keeping me from shifting away. "I know
you're not nakedtimder there, and even if you were it
wouldn't matter. Tve already seen you naked, so it
would hardly be anything new. You know how I enjoy
looking at you, so come on—just a little peek."

*You do, and I'll pop you one in the nose," I said
with all the elegant hauteur I was capable of, trying
hard to make him know I meant it. "We're not alone
in this coach, and I'll be damned if I put on a snow
even for people I'm friendly with. I intend waiting

246

Sharon Green

until we get where we're going before I start the fun
games again; if you don't care to wait, you're on your
own."

"I don't think you have much to worry about in the
way of an audience," he answered with a small laugh,
gesturing with his head toward the coach seat opposite
ours. "They've been busy with their own concerns for
a couple of minutes now, so you might as well think
of us as being alone."

I looked over to Chal and Lidra, and was surprised
to find that they were holding each other around and
exchanging light, brief kisses. Staring is an intrusion
in a situation like that, so I almost looked immediately
away again—until I saw the way Lidra's lips were
moving between the kisses. She and Chal were talking
rather than necking, and the fact that I couldn't hear
any of it said she was guarding the conversation with
'090 of her devices. That, of course, meant it was busi-
ness, which also meant it was up to me to distract
Seren away from what they were doing.

"This still doesn't match my definition of being
alone, but I do have to say I'm disappointed," I told
the big man to my left, bringing my eyes back to him
with a small sigh. "Here you sit, bothering me about
peeking, while Chal gets right (town to more interest-
ing topics- Maybe I should have gone for the swap
after all."

"You're a cruel, heartless woman, but this one time
you may be right," he allowed with a thoughtful look,
then abruptly reached his left arm down and slid it
under my knees. With his right arm already around
me, it was no more than seconds before I was seated
on his lap, and then pulled tight against his chest.
"Well?" he demanded in pretend impatience. "What
are you waiting for? You know I'm too weak to stop
you from kissing me half to death."

"Never let it be said I'd pass on a chance to take
advantage of me helpless," I said with a laugh, then
put my arms around his neck and began taking advan-
tage. His lips were so reluctant I was almost over-
whelmed, but since I was kissing him for the sake of
Ac Job, I just had to put up with it. The sacrifices I

MISTS OF THE AGES         247

had to make for S.I. were getting worse and worse,
but I felt sure I was strong enough to stand up under
the pressure.

The sensation of the coach slowing down brought
an end to the time, and in one way it was a very good
thing. Seren's hands had been moving under my cloak
while we kissed, and I discovered I was about five
minutes away from not caring who might be watching
us. There was no possible doubt he felt exactly me
same, and I was certain the only thing holding him
back was the knowledge of my reluctance. The ride
ended before the reluctance did, which, I suppose, can
be considered the good thing; the reverse of the coin
was the way I cursed under my breath, reviling who-
ever was responsible for arranging such damned short
trips.

"Looks like we get tents this time," Seren observed
in a murmur, his big hand still moving over my bot-
tom. "I wonder how fast they'll show us which is
ours."

"It better be immediately, or I'll pick one on my
own," I murmured back, fighting to withdraw at least
part of myself from the mindless demand of my body
that I'd nearly merged with. I wanted Seren so badly
the itch was almost driving me crazy, and I wasn't in
any mood to accept delays.

After a moment of inner struggle I was able to
straighten on his lap, and that's when I saw his choice
of the word "tent" was somewhat inaccurate. What
we'd pulled into the middle of was a collection of pa-
vilions, wide, brightly-colored almost-build ings mat
glowed prettily through the mist. Light spilled out of
the front of most of those pavilions, and people dressed
in our current costumes moved here and there through
the camp.

"Look, there's Velix," Chal said, pointing out the
window toward the front of the coach. He and Lidra
faced the direction in which we'd been going, and
Seren and I faced where we'd come from. Some peo-
ple might have protested having to ride backward in
the second-class seats, but Seren and I had been oc-
cupied with other concerns.

248 Sharon Green

"And Velix isn't alone," Lidra added, leaning to-
ward Chal to get a better view. "He has four men and
two women with him, all dressed the way we are. I
wonder what's going to be happening?"

"It won't be long before we find out," Seren said,
also looking out the window. "We're stopping right
in front of them."

Which was just what we were doing. The coach
came to a complete stop, one of the men stepped for-
ward to open the door, and Velix moved closer to look
up at us with a tail-flourish.

"My lords and ladies, welcome to the Mists of
Bulm," the Griddenth announced, a purr of satisfac-
tion again in his voice. "All the arrangements have
been made, so if you'll join us now we can get you
waled. The ladies first, if you please.**

Since I was closest to the door I got to be the first
one out, and two of the men took my arms to help me
down. Once I was on the ground they urged me out of
the way. and with all those people there I could un-
derstand why they didn't want another immediately
underfoot. The man on my right asked if I was having
a good time, and when I'd assured him I hadn't been
horribly bored, the one on my left asked if there had
been anything about the palace I hadn't liked. I thought
briefly about the question and couldn't come up with
much, and then I suddenly noticed we were still walk-
ing. The pavilions we'd stopped among, the people,
the coach—all had disappeared behind us in the fog,
and when I tried to stop and turn around, the hands on
my arms tightened gently but irresistibly! They'd dis-
tracted me until we were far enough away from the
others, and now they weren't going to let me go!

Chapter 13

Automatically I began to struggle, having no idea
where those men were taking me or why, but the one
on my right seemed to be expecting the reaction.

"No, no, it's perfectly all right, sweet damsel." he
said with a reassuring smile, he and the other still
moving me forward through the mist. "Your compan-
ions will be along shortly so we have to get you settled
first, or you'll all lose half the fun of it. There's no
real danger, of course, especially not with us leading
you along, and it isn't very far.

"Are you sure I'm not being kidnapped?" I asked,
trying to keep the tremor out of my voice. I'd suddenly
remembered the real reason I was in the Mists, and
my. heart was pounding at the thought that someone
had found out.

"But of course you're being kidnapped." the sec-
ond man answered with a laugh, causing the first to
grin. "That's the whole basis of the Mists of Bulm.
The damsels are kidnapped by outlaws and monsters
and ogres, and the men have to find and rescue them.
After that you can reward your hero or not, just as you
like. and can even request a different hero if the first
takes too long finding you. The men also have the
option of getting a different damsel to rescue if they
don't like the reward they're given after the first time.
so you might keep that in mind."

The first man chuckled but didn't add anything, and
I was too relieved to put in anything of my own. Being
kidnapped for the purposes of their ongoing game was
a hell of a lot better than being found out and taken
249

250 Sharon Green

prisoner, no matter how silly the idea would have been
all by itself. Under the gown I still had my palm dag-
ger, but I really had no interest in finding a need to
use it.

We continued on through the fog for a while, and I
wondered how the men knew where they were going
until I spotted the button in the right ear of the one to
my left. After that I noticed the other man touching
his own right ear, which I took to mean he had a but-
ton like the first. They were being guided through the
fog by others who had instruments capable of pene-
trating me fog's obscurity, but realizing that didn't do
much in the way of making me feel better. If there
were instruments around capable of detecting people
moving through the fog, the job my teammates and I
would be doing had just become harder.

True to the word I'd been given, our destination
wasn't very far. A large shape loomed in the mists
ahead of us, and when we moved closer it took on
more of the outlines of a broken-down, gloomy man-
sion. I was led over a small bridge and then up a badly-
kept path of stones, and then we were at a heavy
wooden door that hung open and half off its frame.
Getting through the doorway was a one-at-a-time op-
eration, and once we were inside I didn't consider the
accomplishment worth the effort. Thick cobwebs hung
everywhere with only an occasional candle to light
mem, what furniture mere was stood sheet-covered like
ghosts, and the dust of years was so Chick it could have
been mistaken for carpeting. We had come into a wide,
round entrance hall, and after giving me a chance to
look around at the ghastly mess, my two companions
again urged me forward.

"This place looks like it was cleaned by someone
with my housekeeping abilities," I remarked, not very
pleased at the idea of a more detailed tour. "Are you
sure this is where we're supposed to be?"

"Positive," the man on my left chuckled, enjoying
my uneasiness. "This first time you won't be hidden
too well, so your rescuing hero should have very little
trouble finding you. The second time won't be as easy
as die first and the third won't be as easy as the sec-

MISTS OF THE AGES         251

ond, and so on until he's tearing this place apart. If at
any time he doesn't find you, you get a special prize
and he has to pay a penalty. The women always enjoy
the prize, but the men never feel the same about the
penalty. Right in here, please."

"Here" was a room to the left, off the back of the
entrance hall. Its double doors were still on their
hinges, but there was a protesting scream from those
hinges when the doors were opened by my compan-
ions, to reveal what seemed to be a large, pillared
dining hall. Weak candlelight showed a long table to-
ward the rear of the room, dust-covered, cobwebby
half-eaten food still on it, skeletons occupying the
high-backed chairs around it. Some of the skeletons
still held goblets, as though they were about to raise
them in a toast, and I was so busy watching to make
sure I wouldn't be taken anywhere near them or the
table, I didn't immediately notice it when we stopped.
We were about halfway between the entrance doors
and die grisly feast scene, and two solid-sounding
clicks brought my attention quickly back to my im-
mediate vicinity.

"What are you doing?" I demanded with more hys-
teria than I would have preferred, trying to get my
wrists loose from the cuffs that had been closed around
them. I'd been backed up against one of the pillars
with the doors on my left and that table on my right,
and my wrists had been set into soft plastic cuffs held
by the reunited pillar from the rear. The gentle cuffs
weren't hurting me, but I still couldn't bring my arms
forward or step away from the pillar.

"Don't worry, sweet damsel, we're just chaining
you," the man on my left said, now distracted by the
need to check what he and his friend had done. "If
you aren't chained or locked up somehow, you
wouldn't need to wait for a hero to save you, now
would you? We'll be getting on back now. but first I
want to tell you not to worry when you hear strange
noises. The monster who kidnapped you is prowling
around the mansion, waiting to pounce on anyone who
tries rescuing you. Or, once your hero gets here. the
monster will try to devour you before you can be rcs-

252 Sharon Green

cued. There are three or four different ways it can go,
and we never know which it'll be. Just be patient, and
remember: this is all in fun. No one will be getting
hurt, so you have nothing to worry about."

He and his friend both smiled reassuring smiles at
me, but they weren't as ready to leave as the first one
had said. Instead of turning away he reached to the
clasp on my left shoulder, opened the cloak, then
pulled it away.

"Hot damn," the second one breathed as he stared
at me, ignoring the sound of protest I'd made when
the cloak had been taken. "Sweet damsel, if you de-
cide you don't like the way your first hero operates,
you just tell them you want me instead. I guarantee
you won't end up disappointed."

The first man laughed at what his friend had said,
his expression clearly supporting the opinion, but
rather than adding anything of his own he slapped his
friend's shoulder and the two of them turned away.
The second man turned twice to look back at me be-
fore he and the other went through the door, and then,
with more squealing from the hinges, I was finally
alone. I pulled angrily at the cuffs that held me, em-
barrassed and annoyed at the way the cloak had been
taken, but not all that surprised. A minute of thought
said the "heroes" had to have an immediate reward
for finding the missing damsels, and the costume we'd
been dressed in was it.

Despite the nasty, gloomy atmosphere of the room
I was chained in, I soon found myself more bored than
frightened. There isn't much fun in standing chained
to a pillar, and after having been warned, the creaking,
ominous sounds I heard every once in a while weren't
in any way attention-takers. The only thought occu-
pying me was the question of how long it would take
Seren to find me, how long it would be before I could
give him his reward. The coach ride was still sharp in
my memory, and it wasn't only boredom that shifted
me from foot to foot in front of the pillar.

About fifteen or twenty minutes went by. and then
I heard a sound that was less of a creak and more like
the slow approach of footsteps. I was immediately sure

MISTS OF THE AGES          253

it was Seren and then just as immediately not quite as
sure, especially since the footsteps weren't hurrying.
I waited with faintly pounding heart while the steps
came up to the room's doors, heard them pause, and
then one of the doors wailed at being opened. A large
shape loomed in the open doorway, making me pull at
the cuffs that held me in place, and then the shape was
in the room and walking toward me.

"Yes, I can see now that they were right," Seren's
voice came with amusement in it, while I tried to re-
swallow my heart. "They said I wouldn't be disap-
pointed when I found my damsel in distress, and they
were absolutely right- I'll just have to have some words
with them about waiting so long before putting you in
that costume."

"If you'll reel in your eyeballs, you'll find it easier
opening these cuffs on my wrists," I said, suddenly in
even more of a hurry to be free. Seren had looked at
me more than once in the time we'd been together, but
never with the slow gleam he was showing right then.
I had time to notice his cloak was gone and he'd been
given a play sword that looked like tin, but that was
all I had time to notice.

"Why the rush?" he asked almost laconically, stop-
ping in front of me to grin and inspect. "At first I
didn.t, think much of the way this place was decorated,
but I've suddenly changed my mind. Could that gown
besvalk?"

He reached a big hand out toward me, and although
I tried avoiding it, the cuffs held me in place while his
fingers closed gently around my left breast. When he
began to stroke me I moaned, feeling as though I had
been turned into a sun.

"Seren, please, you're killing me," I begged, hav-
ing no idea why he as doing that to me. "Take the
cuffs off so we can go and find a tent to use. If you
don't do it fast, I'll be nothing but a pile of ashes."

"Oh, I think you look stronger than that," he re-
turned with a chuckle, his hand leaving my breast to
slide down to my waist. "I'd be willing to bet you're
strong enough to last through hours of this—just the
way you were strong enough to pretend you wanted a

254 Sharon Green

swap a little while ago. Do you remember pretending
you wanted a swap?"

"It was just a joke!" I wailed, pulling again at the
cuffs as his hand slid down over my hip to my thigh.
"Please, Seren, it was only a Joke! Don't keep me
like this for hours!"

"Well, it's possible you might be able to make me
change my mind," he allowed, but there was a lot of
deliberate doubt in with the words. "Why don't we
see how well you do with convincing, and then we'll
see if there's reason to think about changes.'*

He leaned down to give me the chance to reach him
with a kiss, but he didn't stop touching me and he
certainly didn't try opening those cuffs. I reached to
his mouth with mine and kissed him with more fervor
than I had at any time before, really trying to get him
to change his mind. I was fairty certain he was only
teasing me about keeping me like that for hours, but
it had suddenly come to me that he could be absolutely
Mfious. I didn't like the way he was getting even for
what I'd done to him, but just then I couldn't find it
in me to argue the point.

"That was very nice," he said as he ended the kiss,
grinning at the way I tried not to let his lips go. "The
next thing we nave to do is . , ."

His words were cut off as both doors to the room
were slammed open, and a heart-stopping roar sud-
denly came. Seren whirled around, his hand immedi-
ately going for his swondbelt, and then. unexpectedly,
he laughed.

"Would you believe I almost forgot company was
coming?" he said, relaxing out of a readiness stance.
"That must be the fellow who's supposed to have kid-
napped you."

He stepped aside to the right to point at the new
arrival, and being reminded that we were still in the
middle of a game didn't make sight of the thing any
easier to take. What had just come in was about eight
feet tall, built like a man and proportionally made,
except for the fact that its arms were too long. It had
dark, greasy hair on its uneven skull and over most of
its body, its eyes were very light and downright crazy-


MISTS OF THE AGES           255

looking, and its mouth hung open to allow the drool
to drip down its chin to the floor. It wore nothing of
clothing and carried no weapons, but its fingers opened
and closed to show sharp, talonlike claws. It stood just
inside the doorway to stare at us stupidly for a minute,
then it grinned and uncovered two rows of yellow,
pointed teeth and began a slow, shuffling advance.

"Seren, are you sure that thing isn't serious?" I
asked nervously, pulling for the thousandth time at the
cuffs that still hadn*t been opened. "I don't like the
way it's looking at me."

"There's nothing wrong with me way it's looking
at you," Seren answered with a laugh, glancing back
to me as he drew and raised his toy kiddy-sword. "It's
exactly the same way / was looking at you. What I
have to do now is touch him with my magic blade,
and he'll instantly fall over dead. After that we can
get back to what we were doing when we were so
^   rudely interrupted."

\       He glanced at me again with a grin, then began
striding toward the horror coming shufflingly at us,
enjoying the game in a way I couldn't seem to match.
^    I didn't like the looks of that monster, I didn't like
"c    being chained to a pillar, and I didn't like the fact that
' rr    Seren would get to do all the defending. I've always
5.    had this thing about needing to make my own efforts
^   toward self-defense, even if the guy next to me is able
to do it better. There's nothing worse than standing
around letting someone else be responsible for your
safety; if they decide they'd be happier doing some-
thing else, you've had it.

"Sorry, friend monster, but that delicious damsel is
mine," Seren said, closing the last few feet between
him and the horror. "I can't blame you for wanting
her, but—"

He reached out to touch the thing with his kiddy-
blade, which should have, according to the rules, made
it fall over dead. Instead of falling, alive or dead, the
thing looked down at Seren, seemed to see him for the
first time, and uttered a snarling growl that caused my
blood to stand still. One giant, filthy hand flashed out
to grab the toy blade that had touched it, the fingers

256 Sharon Green

closed to crumple the blade like foil, and then the other
aim swung light-speed fast to catch Seren hard in a
backhanded roundhouse that sent him flying off to my
far left as though he were a tiny child. At that point 1
considered screaming, discovered that I couldn't, then
saw that the thing had begun shuffling toward me
again, that slobbering grin wider than before.

"If this is a game, I want my marbles back so I can
go home," I muttered, too white-faced scared to know
what I was saying. Alt I did know was that the thing
coining toward me wasn't playing, not die way those
creatures in the passageway leading to the palace had
been. The stink that came forward with it supported
the theory, since the ones playing monster under-
ground hadn't had a like aroma. It wasn't hard to see
we now had serious trouble, especially after what it
had done to Seren. If it had all been part of the fun
time we were supposed to be having, it wouldn't have
hurt a guest like that. And Seren had been hurt, even
though I couldn't bring myself to think about how
badly.

The giant monstrosity shuffled closer and closer
while I tried frantically to get even one wrist free of
those cuffs, and then the problem was solved for me.
The entire time I'd been imagining having those talons
sunk deep into my flesh as soon as the thing was near
enough, but my body wasn't what was first reached
for. The giant stopped about three feet in front of me,
reached out with both knuckle-dragging arms, and
closed its hands on the chains holding me to the pillar.
One grunting pull and the stone of the pillar gave with
a sharp-rumbling crack as though it were made of hard-
packed sand instead, and the chains Chat had been set
so deep were no longer seated where they had been. I
suddenly knew that the monstrosity wanted to wait un-
til it had gotten back to its lair before it started on its
newest meal, and then I was being dragged by the
wrists away from the pillar, toward the doors the thing
had come in by.

Having had a number of unpleasant experiences with
very close calls in my life, I'd almost gotten to the
point of envying the old-fashioned sort of book-

MISTS OF THE AGES         257

heroine, the kind who handled nasty situations by
fainting, thereby leaving it to the broad-chested hero
to get her out of the soup. When the monstrosity began
dragging me out of the room, I would have greatly
enjoyed fainting, but my own broad-chested hero was
down in the shadows somewhere, I still had this need
to do something to protect myself, and my wrists were
finally close enough together for me to reach the cuffis
on them. It took a moment or so of groping before I
located the release points by feel, and then two pushes
later I was finally free.

But only of the chains. The monstrosity didn't seem
to be terribly bright, but the combination of the empty
cuffs hitting the floor and the loss of my resisting
weight at the other end of what it was pulling did man-
age to let it know its snack was trying to do a fade. It
stopped lumbering forward and started to turn back
with a growl, and the idea about fainting began look-
ing better and better. I was already backing away from
the thing, but there was no real place of safety in that
room. I might have found it possible to dart past the
misshapen form to the doors out, but I'd already seen
once how fast it could move—and I wasn't about to
leave Seren there, alone and hurt, to be a substitute

meal.
Wlien the thing turned and saw me free it snarled

even louder, dropped the useless chains, then began
coming back after me. I swallowed hard, but kept
backing away—and then I heard a sound from my left
that was so compelling even the lumbering monster
was attracted by it- It was almost like the sound of soft
singing, but nothing that a human voice had ever pro-
duced. There was Joy in the gentle song, and delight
and eagerness, and when I turned my head to see what
was producing it I found myself very surprised and a

little shocked.

Seren stood just at the edge of the shadows, both
fists wrapped around the hilt of his multi-sword, a
sword that was fully activated to perform as it was
bom to do. What had shocked me was the realization
that I had never seen the sword completely alive be-
fore, not when Seren had been working out on the

258 Sharon Green

liner, and not even when he'd drawn it in the under-
ground passage, against the pretend monsters. Both of
those times the fighter had been playing, butJust then
he was deadly serious. He knew as well as I 'that the
monstrosity was real, and I could see that his efforts
were going to be the same.

The thing snaried with rage when it saw Seren
standing there, but it seemed to be faintly puzzled by
what he held. The sword's blade had a very faint glow
in the dimness, something that would be invisible in
normal lighting, and what could be seen of the Jeweled
hilt around and between Seren's hands was a blaze of
almost-living light. The sword continued to sing its
song of eagerness, and that seemed to help the mon-
strosity make up its mind. It apparently had no idea
what the sword was, but it suddenly decided it wanted
it.

It was strange to see the way the thing began moving
toward Seren, one long arm reaching out in the direc-
tion of his multi-sworn, a distracted snarl for the man
who held the weapon. The monstrosity wanted the
bright, pretty thing the man held, and it was going to
take it. The thing was almost childlike in its behavior,
and that was the phrase that rang a bell of memory for
me. I remembered reading or hearing about a race of
semi-humanoids that had been found inhabiting a
newly discovered planet with high background radia-
tion. The race had been described in long, pedantic
words that translated to misshapenly ugly* of moronic
intelligence, and easily moved to murderous rages. The
only faintly redeeming quality seemed to have been a
childlike curiosity for bright, new things, but that
didn't change how dangerous the race was. They were
meateaters, which turned out to mean any meat in-
cluding vanquished foes of their own race, or careless
researchers working with some of them. . . .

I shuddered as I watched the thing shuffling toward
Seren, finally understanding how I'd known I was go-
ing to be its next meal. My subconscious had identi-
fied the thing before the rest of me had, and I only
hoped the fighter knew what it was racing. How the
thing had gotten into the Mists was something I had

MISTS OF THE AGES          259

no idea about, but if Seren's resolve weakened at the
sight of its fascination with his pretty sword , . .

But it didn't. Just as I was trying to decide what to
say in warning to the fighter, the creature got close
enough to reach a hand out to the sword, at the same
time raising its other arm in the sort ofbackswing blow
it had caught the glad with the first time. Seren ducked
both the grab and the blow and then swung his sword
across the thing's middle, apparently intending to cut
it in half. I fully expected that to be the end of the
fight, but the monstrosity was much faster than its
usual lumbering gait led you to believe. It jumped back
with the speed it had used the first time it had struck
at Seren, and rather than be cut in half it was just
opened from side to side.

The roar the thing sounded was both deafening and
paralyzing, equally as bad as the sight of the blood
pouring out of the wound it had received. Pain and
outrage seemed to madden it, and with another roar it
attacked the smaller being that had dared to hurt it.
clearly intending to catch the offender and tear him
apart. Seren moved even faster than the monstrosity to
get out of its way, swinging at an arm as he went, and
the thing roared out its hatred even as more blood be-
gan flowing from its filthy body.

That was the start of it, but minutes went by and the
end came no closer to being in sight. Due to the very
long arms the monstrosity had, Seren couldn't close
with the thing, not and expect to keep away from hands
that wanted to tear him apart. He tried for those hands
and arms as he kept out of reach, but the thing wasn't
too stupid to understand what he was trying and moved
at its fastest to keep it from happening. It couldn't stop
itself from being wounded over and over, but the loss
of all that blood wasn't slowing it the way it should
have. Seren*s sword sang with delight every time it bit
deep. but it wasn't able to reach anything vital on the
giant creature.

During that time / wasn't able to do anything but
stand and watch, moving now and then to keep well
away from the area of action. The creature seemed to
have forgotten all about me, which would have been

260 Sharon Green

a benefit for our side if I could have come up with a
way of using the edge. Watching the fight hadn't been
fun; it had been terrifying, knowing as I did.that noth-
ing could stop it short of the death of one of the par-
ticipants. In the arena Seren could lose but still live if
he were no more than badly wounded, but even if he
died he wouldn't be eaten afterward. I was also well
aware of the fact that if he lost I would quickly share
his fate, which meant I had to do something to help or
I would have no complaint coming afterward. If all
you do is stand around and watch your side go down,
you deserve whatever happens to you because of it.

Which troth finally made me begin to look around
seriously. If there was nothing obvious for me to do,
I'd have to find something unobvious. The main trou-
ble was the room was so bare and dark, containing
nothing I could use as a weapon, nothing I could han-
dle easily enough to make my presence felt. Even the
chairs the skeletons sat in around the cobwebbed table
were too big and heavy to be swung, otherwise I could
have—

My desperate thoughts stopped still when I looked
up toward the darkened ceiling of the room, to see the
very large, round, wooden chandelier hanging above
the table. None of the dozens of candles ranged around
its outer and inner circles were lit, which was why it
had taken me so long to see the thing. Having found
the one I quickly looked for others, and sure enough,
here and there around the room, unlit candles were
supported by the same kind of wooden circles. The
fight had moved, at various times, under at least three
of them, and right then seemed to be heading in the
general direction of a fourth. If I could Just get up on
the thing—!

I would do what? I stood chewing my lip with one
hand to my hair, racking my brain for an idea, and
then I saw the chains the monstrosity had pulled out
of the pillar, then dropped to the floor. The chains
were light enough for me to use as a weapon, espe-
cially if I attacked from an unexpected direction, and
the distraction might even be enough to allow Seren
to finally close with the creature. It was at the very

MISTS OF THE AGES         261

least worth a try, but even as I hurried over to pick up
the chains, I still didn't know how I was going to reach
the chandelier. It was a good twelve feet or more above
my head, and although my standing high-jump was
better than what most people can accomplish, I hadn*t
learned to fly going up, only when coming down. I
had to reach it, but I didn't know how!

Seren and the creature were still going at it when I
began to look around, and the way they were moving
told me I didn't have much time. If I wasn't already
up in the air before they got in range I would be wast-
ing my time, and possibly even our lives. I needed
something to bring me a few feet higher off the floor.
something that wouldn't be easily noticed when the
fight reached that area of the room. Something, some-
thing—

I was moving around the fringes of the darker area
of the room when I saw it, hidden in shadow and in-
visible from more than a couple of feet away. A sturdy-
looking box that had no business being in a room like
that, but one that was two feet wide, at least three and
a half long, and about eight inches thick. I didn't know
what it was or what it was doing there, but I knew at
once that if it could be counted on to hold my weight
even for a little while, it would be enough to get me
where I wanted to go. Without wasting another minute
I lifted its more-massive-than-weighty weight, and
carried it over to where I needed it.

By the time I put it down, the still-weak but stronger
candlelight had shown me why something that had no
business in that room had been lying around in the
shadowed darkness. The contents of the box was sten-
ciled on each of its sides, and those contents were
"cobweb curtains and strings." The room was un-
doubtedly fixed after each time it was used, and having
the phony cobwebs that handy undoubtedly saved quite
a lot of effort. I gave silent thanks that someone was
too lazy to want to walk back and forth to a storeroom
every time the chamber had to be redecorated, and
then paid attention to standing the box firmly on its
end.

Before I could try climbing up on it I had to take

262 Shown Green

the back of that stupid, see-through gown skirt, pull
the bottom of it through my legs and anchor it in the
front of my belt, then hook the two lengths of chain
together and wrap them a few times around my waist
before awkwardly tying them in place. I was working
frantically to move as fast as possible because of how
close the fight was getting, and also trying very hard
not to look at the combatants. A glance earlier had
shown me four long, ragged lines of red down Seren's
left shirt sleeve, letting me know the creature had got-
ten some of its own back. I didn't want to think about
Seren*s being hurt; I was close to trembling at sharing
the pain he must be feeling, and the last thing I could
afford to do was tremble.

As soon as I was set, I climbed carefully up onto
the box, trying not to let the extra weight of the chain
around my waist over-balance me. I could almost hear
the creaking protest of the box as it gave a little under
my weight, but I didn't listen to that any more than I
listened to the screaming voice inside my head that
kept ranting that I hadn't checked how well-anchored
the chandelier was in the ceiling. I had no way of
checking the chandelier and knew damned well the
box was not about to hold me for longer than mo-
ments, so I had no time to listen to screaming or pro-
tests or even to the sound of nearing battle. All I could
do was stand crouched on the box for the seconds I
needed to set myself, then unfolded upward with the
powerful spring used by cats. I went up in the air and
at the height of my rise stretched out long to make it
go farther yet, and then my fingers were closing on
the outer circle of the chandelier.

I think I held my breath for a few seconds, but al-
though the chandelier began swinging it didn't even
threaten to pull out of the ceiling. I pulled my legs up
fast to hook my knees over the outer circle, and then
I was riding the swing upside down, settled in place
and ready to see if I could do what I'd planned. The
box I'd stood on was back to being flat on the floor
from my launching kick, which meant it ought to be
well enough out of the way as far as being <a telltale
clue went. As I swung and watched the fighters draw-

MISTS OF THE AGES           263

ing nearer, I began unwrapping the chain from around
my waist.

For the most part Seren was leading the monstrosity
toward me, one step forward in attack and three steps
backward in retreat doing the job of leading. Hanging
by my knees from the chandelier put me only two or
three feet above the creature's head, but I noticed with
a good deal of relief that the thing seemed totally un-
aware of anyone but Seren. It was bleeding from so
many places I found it incredible that it still lived and
moved, but the snarling hatred it showed was most
likely what kept it going. The small thing holding the
bright object was what had hurt it, and it seemed de-
termined to end its enemy's life before it let itself die.

I made a loop in the center of the chain and hung as
still as possible while I held it, waiting and trying to
quiet as much as I could of the chandelier's swing. If
the fixture had been anchored at only one place the
swing and tilt of it would have been extreme, but luck
had been with me in that the chandelier was set into
the shadow-lost ceiling at six points instead, three from
the outer circle and three from the inner. From the feel
of it the candleholder was heavy, a piece of good luck
if I'd ever seen one. If it had been flimsy instead, my
hanging on it like that would have surely pulled it out
of the ceiling-

Fd been in a hurry to get up to my ambush point,
but it seemed to take forever before the two fighters
were under me. My heart nearly stopped when Seren's
foot hit the box while he was backing, making me
think he was going to trip and fall, but then he kicked
it out of his way without missing a step and everything
was all right again. He backed and drew the monster
forward, one step, then another, and then the endless
waiting was over. It was directly below me where I
could drop the loop of chain over its head to land
around its neck, and then I drew the ends up and back
with all my strength.

If I'd ever wondered what it would be like to put a
rope on a wild animal, that was when I got my answer.
The creature roared out its fury and tried to pull free,
but it pulled from side to side instead of down, as

264

Sharon Green

though it didn't know from which direction it was be-
ing attacked. I held on through the initial explosion,
not knowing how long I'd be able to do it, and then
the creature finally looked up. When it saw me its
light, mad eyes went absolutely feral, it screamed
again in a greater rage than before, and lifted those
terrifyingly long amis toward me- It would have no
trouble reaching me, neither with its hands nor its tal-
ons, and when it pulled the chain out of my frantic
grip I echoed its scream and closed my eyes as tight
as I could. It was so close I could smell its foulness
like a miasma of doom, and I hung there waiting to
be clawed to me bone or pulled down and eaten.
Through my own scream and its snarling I thought I
heard a song of exultation, and then—

And then there was a sound like an axe into a tree,
a bat against a hanging rug, a cleaver into meat. The
monstrosity's snarls went suddenly choked, as though
the chain I'd put around its neck had finally cut off its
air, and rather than being touched I heard two or three
shuffling steps, as though the thing were leaving rather
than staying to attack. The steps ended in a terrible
clatter, a sound I'd been longing to hear since that
insanity first began, and I opened my eyes to see Seren
standing over a creature that had been nearly cut in
half. The sword in his hand pulsed with victory, but
its glow was diminished by smears of gore, and he
himself diminished by near exhaustion. His chest
heaved as he pulled in acres of air, and then his eyes
raised to me where I hung.

"What in hell are you doing up there?" he asked
with the beginnings of a grin, starting to walk toward
me. "Are you trying to kill yourself?'*

I opened my mouth to join him in the teasing, but
upside down grins aren't as infectious as the regular
sort, and even upside down I could see that his arm
was still bleeding. I put my hands over my mouth to
keep a moaning sob from escaping, and all at once I
couldn*t stand hanging there any longer. I arched up
to grip the chandelier with my hands and unhooked
my knees, but before I could drop to the floor I felt
two arms closing around my legs. I braced against

MISTS OF THE AGES         265

those arms and shifted my hands to me shoulders be-
low me, and then Seren was sliding me to the floor
but not letting me go.

"It's all right, it's all over now," he murmured as
I clung to him, the trembling finally taking over com-
pletely. "Thanks to you it's dead, and now we can get
out of here."

I came out of it enough to notice that his multi-
sword was gone again, and then he was leading me
around the monstrosity's unmoving body toward the
ruined doors of the room. I held him around with both
arms as we walked, but only his right arm curved
around me. The left hung at his side in its torn and
bloody sleeve, and it was all I could do to keep from
babbling out an apology- My mind seemed to have
been waiting for the fight to be over, and once it was
I'd been treated to the clearest thinking I'd managed

yet.

The monstrosity hadn't been part of the game, it had
really meant to kill me. Things like that creature didn't
turn up by accident, so that meant its presence was
deliberate. Seren had been hurt fighting it, which meant
his pain was my fault.

Somehow, some way, I'd made a mistake, and the
Mists people knew what I was there for.

Chapter 14

When we got outside the supposedly old and haunted
mansion, there was a man in costume sitting on the
ground and smoking. He put the puffer out and got to
his feet as soon as he heard us, turned to give us a
hearty greeting, and saw Seren's arm. No one who
worked in the Mists had anything like a tan, but the
man's face still paled enough to be noticeable and he
hurried forward, stuttering out questions about the
"accident." He also seemed to think I was supporting
Seren instead of it being the other way around; when
he offered himself in place of me, Seren waved him
away with a faint smile, saying he'd rather lean on a
woman than a man any day. The Mists worker didn't
find the comment any more amusing than I did, but
still didn't argue. Instead he began leading us into the
fog, obviously anxious to get us back to people and
help as soon as possible.

When we were back among the tents I asked him to
take us to where the rest of our party was, and he
didn't hesitate even a moment. He was determined to
take us wherever we wanted to go and then get the
"accident" reported, and in that he lucked out. We
were approaching a large tent that seemed to be violet
and black in color, when Velix materialized out of
the fog to our right.

"Ah, lord Serendel and lady Dalisse," he purred,
swishing his tail as he came closer. "Back so soon?
Didn't any of the second floor rooms suit you? I hadn't
thought—"

We never did find out what the Griddenth hadn't
266

MISTS OF THE AGES         267

thought. His words ended abruptly as he finally took
a good look at us, and then the man who had led us
there began unburdening himself.

"Sir, there's been an accident of some sort,** he
blurted, just as though Velix hadn't already seen the
blood himself. "If you'll take over here, I'll go and
get one of the doctors."

"Stop wasting time talking, and do it." the Grid-
denth snapped, moving even nearer to study the
wounded arm. "How did this happen, lord Serendel?
What kind of accident could have caused something
like that?"

"No kind of accident," Seren answered flatly,
speaking freely now that the worker had run off into
the fog. "What in hell is going on here, Velix? If I
hadn't been the one with Dalisse, she would probably
be dead now. There was a—thing—in place of the play
monster I was supposed to rescue her from, and it
almost got the two of us. If this is the Mists' idea of
a good time, I'd like to file a dissenting opinion."

"I've never heard of anything like it," the Grid-
denth answered, incapable of looking pale but not of
sounding shaken. "I'll report the incident at once. of
course, and then we'll be able to get to the bottom of
it. Everything will be settled to your complete satis-
faction. and if it turns out to be in any way our fault,
reparations will be full and unstinting. Why don't I
show you to your own pavilion now, and you can lie
down until the doctor gets here."

"We'd rather be with other people," I interrupted
to say, uncertain as to how far Velix could be trusted.
"And since Chal is supposed to know something about
medicine, we're going to let him take care of Seren.
If we need one of your doctors, we'll let you know.
If you don't hear from us, don't send one."

Velix opened his mouth, probably to argue, then his
bright, dark eyes looked at me again. His wings were
moving in agitation and so was his tail, and finally he
shook his head.

"I can understand your suspicion right now, and
don't quite blame you,' * he said, the talons on his right
front leg crunching into the ground. "If I were to come

268 Sharon Green

to the belief I'd been attacked, I would feel the same.
It's up to us to prove no such thing happened, which
we'll do with all possible speed. Until then, I ask only
one thing of you: if lord Chal finds the wounds beyond
his ability to deal with, please send for one of our
doctors at once. Lord Serendel has no need of being
in further jeopardy.''

He waited until I'd nodded to show my agreement
with his condition, and then he turned and trotted away
into the fog. At that point Seren and I were free to
continue on into the tent, and that was when I noticed
I was being leaned on more than I was being helped
along. Moving through the svalk entrance curtains
brought us into a small, empty room of violet svalk,
and me sudden extra weight on my shoulder combined
with me emptiness to bring me close to panic.

"Chal! Lidra!" I called in desperation, looking up
to see how ashen the fighter had grown. "Where are
you? Hurry, I need you fast!"

Seren was trying to force himself to stand straight
again when one of the curtains parted to allow the
arrival of my two co-workers, and Chal took no more
than a single glance before moving past Lidra in a rush
to get over to us.

"What happened?" he demanded even as he took
Seren's weight from me, nothing left of his easygoing
manner. "Never mind, I'll find out about that later.
Right now I've got to see to that arm."

He began helping Seren toward the curtain he'd
come in by, and even before they'd gone, Lidra was
over next to me with an arm around my shoulders.
Once the svalk had fallen closed behind the two men,
the blond woman urged me toward another curtain on
the left. We moved through it to find a room filled
with soft lighting, violet cushions on light brown
plush, and small tables holding various items. Lidra
sat me down on the floor next to one of the tables,
took a decanter of wine from it and filled a goblet,
men handed the goblet to me. She walked away while
I sat there simply holding the thing, and when she
came back she had her copper bowl with its blue flame.

"All right, what happened?" she asked as she set-

MISTS OF THE AGES         269

Ued on the floor near me, her voice as businesslike as
ChaPs had been. "Before you answer, take a good
swallow of that wine. You look like you're in shock."

**I am in shock, and wine won't do anything to
help," I answered, not even up to taking a deep breath.
"They tried to kill me. Lidra, and that means they
know about me. I think I should have gone to my own
tent to keep from involving you and Chal, but Seren
was hurt and I didn't want to give them another chance
at him while he was weak, and—oh, Lidra. he could
have died, and it would have been all my fault!"

I put the goblet aside to bury my face in my hands,
and the next moment Lidra was there, holding me to
her. She spent a minute soothing the tears she knew
were on me inside, and then she patted my shoulder.

"Never mind about involving Chal and me, you
were right to come here," she said, sounding abso-
lutely certain. "If they do know about you we're al-
ready under suspicion, and with these people being
suspicious seems to mean they act. Just relax now, and
tell me exactly what happened."

I let her coax me into telling her all about it, and by
the time I was through I was feeling a little better. I
still hated myself for getting Seren involved, but at
least I was somewhat beyond the breast-beating stage.

"... so the thing couldn't possibly have gotten
there by mistake," I finished up, sipping again at the
wine that I really did need. "I don't know where or
how I could have slipped, but it's fairly obvious I did.
And I don't understand how they could be so open
about it. Did they expect to be able to write our deaths
off as an accident?"

"Maybe they intended writing off two disappear-
ances," she said with a shrug, part of her attention on
the blue flame in the bowl near us. "Now that they
have a dead monster instead, it'll probably turn out
me thing escaped into the Mists from a zoological in-
stitute or something, and Serendel is in line for a re-
ward for stopping it. Why didn't they mention it
sooner? Why, to keep people from panicking, of
course. I wonder what would have happened if Chad

270 Sharon Green

and I had gone out fun-seeking the way you and Ser-
endel did.'*

"They might have had four disappearances to write
off," I said, and then looked at her curiously. "Now
that you mention it, why didn 't you and Chal end up
in that mansion? I was on my way there so fast I didn't
even get to ask to use a ladies* room. From what my
escorts said, I had the impression you were supposed
to be kidnapped at the same time I was."

"That's probably the way they planned it," she said
with a nod, and then she grinned. "Fortunately for our
two-thirds of the team, I planned differently. I really
will have to remember to thank someone for this cos-
tume. If not for that, I'm sure I would have been right
there with you."

I looked at her when she mentioned her costume,
and for the first time noticed that she was still wearing
her cloak. That was when I remembered all that equip-
ment she carried, and I began to understand.

"You've got it," she said, apparently seeing the
answer in my expression. "You may look good enough
to eat in that thing, but anyone trying to take a bite
out of me would probably be electrocuted. I couldn't
afford to wear that gown, not when I knew damned
well they'd be taking the cloak, but I also couldn't
afford to refuse. I compromised by putting a bodysuit
on underneath as a just in case, then arranged to be
horribly ill from that coach ride. I was almost in a faint
even before I left the coach, so naturally we were
shown immediately to our pavilion."

"I knew there was a benefit in being the fainting
kind of heroine," 1 said with a sigh. "It's too bad I
didn't try it myself right from the start. What are we
going to do now?"

"We're going to wait until Chal takes care of Ser-
endel, and then the four of us are going to eat a very
careful dinner," she said. reaching over to pour a gob-
let of wine for herself. "After that we'll put Serendel
to bed, pretend to do the same with ourselves, but in
reality we'll be waiting until everyone thinks we're
asleep. Once that happens we'll sneak out of this tent,
avoid any watchers or guards, and go find that inror-

MISTS OF THE AGES         271

(nation we're after. It so happens we're almost on top
of their headquarters building, which means the wait
is over. As soon as we have what we need, we'll call
down those Empire troops to help us avoid any more
'accidents.' "

"I think I like the sound of that," I said, nodding
at her easy smile. "I'd like it better if we were calling
down the troops before we went in, but I suppose you
can't have everything. And once it's all over. Seren
won*t be in any more danger."

"At least until he goes back to the arena," she said,
sipping at her wine as annoyance flared in her eyes.
"I can't get over the nerve and stupidity of those peo-
ple, dunking a fighter of Serendel's caliber could be
brushed aside while they did anything they pleased to
you. It's a good thing for them he wasn't hurt all that
badly, or they'd have me to deal with once our job
was done. It isn't every man I'd consider sharing a
bed with for more than fooling around, and if they'd
harmed the one I lust after most right now, I would
have made sure they heartily regretted it."

"Lidra, I don't understand you!" I said with all the
exasperation I was feeling, too drained to be at all
diplomatic. "One minute you're panting after Seren,
the next Chal tells me you're in a panic at the thought
of catching him, and now you're saying you want him
again. Aren't you ever going to make up your mind?"

"But Inky. I have made up my mind," she said with
a laugh, apparently in no way reluctant to discuss the
point. "If I could, I'd attack Serendel. knock him
down, then ravage him unmercifully, but it so happens
I can't and not because of his size. There are"more
important considerations, one of which is the word I
used to describe my feelings for him- He's a great
fighter and a really nice person, but all I feel for him
is lust."

"You're under the impression you've explained
something?" I said, still staring at her. "What differ-
ence does the word you're using make? Words have
only a very little to do with how you feel and what
you do."

"That only goes for certain words." she said com-

272

Sharon Green

fortably, sipping again at her wine. " 'Lust* is the
word you use for someone who attracts you physi-
cally, which is what I feel for Serendel. The word to
describe what I feel for Chal, though, is love.'1

This time, words of all son were missing from my
stare, and she laughed in amusement.

"I can see he must have told you his theory about
how reluctant I am to admit to that feeling," she said,
almost smiling to herself. "I've been regretting the
need to continue letting him believe that, but we aren't
on our own time here. Once the job is over we can
talk about anything we like, and the first thing I'll be
talking about is the fact that it isn't men in general
I*ve learned to distrust and not commit myself to-
only the men I work with."

I suppose I must have started getting it then; as she
looked at me she nodded with another smile.

"I see you're remembering the incident I told you
about, the one where my so-called partner ran out on
me," she said. "That wasn't the first time it hap-
pened, and it wasn't the worst story I could have told.
They usually look for specific talents to send along on
these things, paying no attention at all to the person-
alities behind the talent. I kept Chal at arm's length at
first because I didn't know him and wasn't about to
get stuck the way I had in the past. I think I was a
little shocked at how easy it was to get to know him,
but at me same time I was impressed. He's nothing
short of brilliant as well as physically attractive, and
I've been looking around for an acceptable father for
my children for quite some time. At first, that was the
only real interest I had in him."

"From what you just said, it looks like that
changed," I put in. "I'd also like to know why what-
ever happened turned you so on again-off again about
Seren."

"Inky, try to understand that I'm not the one whose
feelings have changed," she said, the words gentle
and patient. "It wasn't until Chal offered to swap him-
self for Serendel that I understood what he was really
doing and feeling, and at first I wasn't sure I liked it.
Chal was giving me a chance to have the man of my

MISTS OF THE AGES         273

hottest dreams—but only if I gave him up for it. I
discovered right then I'd take Serendel under any con-
dition but that particular one, and that Chal was more
important to me than any casual fling. He may not
realize it, but what he was doing was feeling jealous
enough to demand I choose between him and Serendel.
The demand was gentle in accordance with his basic
nature, but it was still there. It bothered me when I
spoke to him in his room in our first lodging in the
Mists, but it didn't take long before I had the matter
resolved. I never expected to find a man to father my
children and someone I could live with both in the
same body, but now that I have I'm not about to let
him get away."

"I think Chal will be very glad to hear that." I said
with a grin of my own, really pleased that things would
work out right between them. "Now all we have to do
is live long enough to get out of this place, preferably
with what we came for. And since Seren won*t be
really safe until it's over, I wish we could leave right
now. This isn't in any way his job; it isn't fair for him
to get hurt because of it."

"You two have really and finally started doing it
right," she said, a bright twinkle in her eyes. "I won-
der if-"

She broke off and immediately reached for her cop-
per bowl, startling me a little, but then I heard what
she probably had, the sound of someone approaching
the hanging into the room, and understood. I suppose
I was expecting Chal or one of the Mists people, but
when the svalk was moved aside, it was Seren I saw
coming in. I had the goblet down and was on my feet
so fast I couldn't remember doing any of it, and then
I was standing in front of Mm.

"Are you all right?" I asked, not very evenly, look-
ing at his bandage-covered arm. "Seren. I'm so
sony ..."

"For what?" he asked with his usual grin, reaching
out to put his arms around me. "Saving both our lives?
I don't know how you got up where you did. but I've
never been so glad to see an upside-down woman in
my life. If you hadn't distracted that thing, I might not

274 Sharon Green

have been able to get past those arms before it cor-
nered me. And I thought / was fast. Was it able to hurt
you before I cut it down?"

"It didn't have the time," I reassured the worry in
his eyes, putting my hands against his chest. "You
look better than you did, but are you sure you're all
right?"

"The only thing bothering me right now is the fact
that I didn't meet Chal years ago," he said, his grin
back and widened. **No more bleeding, no more pain,
no more exhaustion—I'm just afraid he may be into
black magic."

"Where I come from it's called medicine, not
magic." Chal put in with a chuckle, showing he'd
come into the room behind Seren even though I hadn't
seen him. "I know you're feeling better, Serendel, but
you can add 'no more fighting1 to your list, at least
until you've had a chance to rest. You may be in mar-
velous physical condition, but there's no sense in
overdoing it."

"He isn't seriously hurt, then?" Lidra asked from
behind me. while I laughed softly at the terribly-suf-
fering expression Seren had put on where Chal couldn't
see it. Being mothered is worse when it comes from a
fussy doctor; members of the medical tribe don't be-
lieve in taking chances—which is probably a damned
good thing for those of us who can't be bothered with
worrying about it.

"No, despite the way his arm was laid open, and
despite a number of bumps and bruises, he isn't seri-
ously hurt." Chal answered Lidra as he walked over
to her. "But how is Inky? Does she need to be looked
at?"

"Only by the one who's already looking at her."
Lidra said with a chuckle, a rustle accompanying the
words as though she took Chat's arm. "Since you and
I have things to talk about, why don't we shift over to
your part of the pavilion? I seriously doubt that Inky
and Serendel are interested in talking, at least not with
as. Or were you planning on sticking around to watch.
fast, to make sure he doesn't overdo it?"

**I think Inky can be trusted not to be too rough with

MISTS OF THE AGES         275

him," Chal came back with a laugh that was a little
on the embarrassed side. "Let's go get to all those
things we have to talk about."

I heard them moving around us to leave the room,
but I couldn't seem to look away from the gray eyes
gazing down at me. Seren was smiling faintly as his
hand stroked my hair, and once Lidra and Chal were
gone he shook his head a little.

"No doubt about it," he said very softly, his left
arm tightening around me. "I've just had the best win
of my career- You do know the way it's supposed to
go, don't you?"

"The way what's supposed to go?" I asked, begin-
ning to feel confused. "I don't ..."

"The way die rescue business goes," he inter-
rupted, amusement dancing in his eyes. "When a fair
damsel is rescued from a terrible monster, the hero
who rescues her is entitled to her hand. I had the feel-
ing you didn't know that, so I wanted to be very sure
you got it straight. Do you understand now?"

I had no words to answer that with, all I could do
was put my hand up and touch his face. I'd very re-
cently had to admit to myself that I loved him so much
I was willing to be anything he wanted me to be. I
could see right then that he knew that, and had there-
fore been very careful to state just exactly what he did
want. He could have asked for anything, and yet he'd
chosen to ask for—

"Oh, Seren," I whispered, feeling tears of happi-
ness rolling down my cheeks. "Are you sure?"

"Positive," he answered with that wonderful smile,
one finger coming to wipe away the tears. "Now,
about that other reward I was supposed to get for res-
cuing you ..."

I had only a moment to laugh before he leaned down
to kiss me, and after that there was nothing to laugh
at, only marvelous things to enjoy.

Seren's lovemaldng always robbed me of awareness
as far as the passage of time went, so it was something
of a surprise when I heard loud, deliberate, throat-
clearing sounds outside the hanging leading to the rest

276 Sharon Green

of the tent. Seren stopped kissing me, and turned his
head over his shoulder without letting me go-

"She abused me terribly, Chal," he said, appar-
ently having recognized the identity of the throat-
clearer. "She sneered at my honorable, weakening
wounds, then had her will with me. Everything you
did for me is now undone."

"Seren!" I protested with a push against his chest,
feeling my cheeks getting warm. He was grinning at
how awful he'd made me sound, but I was still the one
who was being held down by a beast of a fighter who
didn't want to hear anything about taking it easy. I'd
made the mistake a few minutes eariier of suggesting
he might not be strong enough to go again, and had
gotten taken prisoner for it.

"Oh, you poor thing," Lidra's voice came, her
laughter mixing with Chal's. "We were going to in-
vite you two to join us for a meal, but now it looks
like only Inky will be able to eat it. What do you think
we ought to get for him, Chal? Wouldn't broth be
easier for him to digest than that beautiful roast with
all the trimmings? And we'll have to find someone to
give his portion to. . . ."

"Hold onto that food!" Seren called as I laughed,
finally letting me go. "I just had a sudden unlapse,
which may or may not be the opposite of relapse, but
I'm too hungry to care. My lady and I will be with
you as soon as we can throw some clothes on."

He stood and then reached down to pull me to my
feet, pausing in the middle of his rush to fold me in
his arms and give me a lovely kiss that was a promise
of more to come later. As he turned away to find his
clothes, I couldn't help feeling very strange. "My
lady," he'd said, his lady, he'd meant, something I
never thought I'd love hearing. Being his lady was the
most wonderful thing that had ever happened to me,
and I'd never find fault with the word again.

Seren had more to get into than I did, so I waited
until he was ready and then we went looking for Lidra
and Chal together. I had put that see-through gown
bade on only because Seren liked it—and because it
was sure to make our eventual dessert even sweeter.

MISTS OF THE AGES         277

I'd always been a lover of desserts, but Seren's brand
was my absolute favorite.

"Come on over and dig in, you two," Lidra called
when we entered the predominantly brown room that
was ostensibly ChaTs, she and the third of our team
already seated on the plush carpeting near what looked
like a ^iant picnic spread. "This food is so good, 1*11
need all the help I can get not to eat every crumb
myself."

"And food isn't the only thing we ordered," Chal
said as I sat down next to him on his left, his hand
pointing with none of the carelessness his words held.
"Right over there are your personal things, fetched
from the pavilion that was supposed to be yours. As
soon as we're sure Serendel's wounds won't be devel-
oping complications, you and your luggage can move
back where you belong."

Seren was too busy looking over the food to even
glance at the comer of the room where our things lay,
but Chal seemed very determined that / take a peek. I
turned a little in a hopefully casual way, saw my bag
and Seren's larger amount of possessions—then spot-
ted what Chal had wanted me to see. Lidra's copper
bowl stood very near my luggage, almost hidden by
it, in fact, and the name that wasn't a flame had been
ignited.

The only problem was, the flame was orange rather
than blue.

"You'd better hurry up and start filling a plate,
Inky,'* Lidra said as I turned back away from the de-
vice that said our conversation was being electroni-
cally eavesdropped on. "If you don't get a move on,
Serendel will have it all down his throat before you
even get a look. I'd say taste instead of look, but tast-
ing it will be even more unlikely."

"But I have to regain my strength, don't I?" Seren
protested plaintively without slowing down on piling
up his plate. "And this little giri next to me may not
look it, but she's absolutely insatiable. That's another
reason why I need my six thousand calories."

"Seren!" I said the way I had earlier, the warmth
in my cheeks increasing with Chal's grin, and then I

278 Sharon Green

finally registered what else had been said, "Six thou-
sand calories? You intend eating enough for a week
or more?"

"Six thousand calories is what I eat a day," he an-
swered, glancing up to flash me a grin. "Why do you
think fighters make so much money, but usually end
up with so little left over? Those grocery bills are mur-
der."

We all laughed at that one, then went on to eating
and talking and generally enjoying the time. I forced
myself to forget that we were being listened to and
simply went along with the Joking; after all, when you
stop to think about it. there wasn't much else I could
do.

The meal wound down to a friendly close, and Sercn
and I went back to the room that was Lidra's. The first
thing the fighter did was sweep me into his arms and
kiss roe, and then be looked down at me quizzically.

"Why didn't you tell Chal and Lidra we*rc no longer
just good friends?" he asked, faint disturbance behind
the question. "I waited the entire meal for you to make
the grand announcement, but you never did."

"I've decided I can't afford to keep you," I an-
swered as I leaned against him, not about to explain
how I'd be damned if I said anything that important
with enemies listening. "Six thousand calories a day!
I'd be broke in no time!'*

"It'll be tough, but I think I can come up with
enough to keep us red," he said with a grin, then let
the humor fade. "Arc you sure you haven't changed
your mind?"

"Positive." I said, putting my arms as far around
him as they would go. "And I'm waiting for a really
special time to make the announcement, like when
we're finally out of this fog. Besides, you don't want
to ruin the rest of Lidra's vacation, do you?"

"Certainly not," he agreed, and mis time me grin
stayed with him. "And there's something else to con-
sider. If she finds out now I won't be single much
longer, she might make up her mind to take advantage
of her last chance and attack me. Normally I might not
nund with a woman like Lidra, but somehow I nave

MISTS OF THE AGES         279

the feeling she's stronger than I am. You'll protect me
from her, won't you?"

"Oh, you poor thing, of course I will," I said with
a laugh, wondering how I ever enjoyed life without
him. "Don't you be afraid, Inky's here to take care of
everything."

"That's Smudge, not Inky," he murmured, lower-
ing his head to kiss me. "Never saw a woman before
who couldn't remember her own name."

It took him about five more minutes, and then my
name wasn't the only thing I couldn't remember.

My eyes opened fast when a hand shook me a little,
but it was only Chal gesturing quiet and urging me
silently to follow him. Seren was sound asleep beside
me on the plush carpeting, and I certainly agreed that
we didn't want to wake him. I got to my feet without
making any noise and followed Chal out of the room,
leaving my costume gown where it had been thrown.
For what was ahead I wanted a bodysuit, which was
undoubtedly why Chal and Lidra had had my clothing
brought to their tent.

"Your bag's over there," Lidra whispered as soon
as she saw me, gesturing to a place to her left. "Are
you feeling better after your nap?"

"I'm feeling better, but not because of the nap," I
answered in a matching whisper, giving her a wink as
I moved toward my things. "Are you sure we're
speaking low enough to keep them from picking up
what we're saying?"

"I'm blanking their receiver, so if we wanted to we
could shout," she came back, following me over and
watching as I opened the bag. "The reason we're
whispering is your roommate. It would be the least bit
awkward having him wake up just now. Besides, we're
all supposed to be sound asleep from what they put
into our food. Showing them we're not might ruin their
good mood."

"What do you mean, what they put into our food?"
I demanded in a hiss. holding the suit I'd pulled out
of the bag. "If I was drugged, why don't I feel any-
thing?"

280 Sfiaron Green

"Mainly because you weren't drugged," she said.
gesturing at me to huny up and get dressed. "Chal
tested every dish they sent us, found the drug, and
gave us all neutralizers in our first glasses of wine. We
considered skipping the neutralizer with Serendel. but
we didn't want to leave him helpless, so instead we
whisper. Hurry it up, will you? I have all the watchers
spotted, and a clear path out of here already plotted. I
don't want to have to do it a second time."

She walked away from me to pick up a small oblong
something that looked like a makeup case and opened
it, but somehow I had the feeling it wasn't a makeup
case. Since she and Chal were already dressed in dark
bodysuits, I hurried up and got into mine, then began
assembling my kit from the pieces scattered all over
my bag.

I don't think it took more than ten minutes before I
was ready, and I joined my teammates by a brand-
lew, knife-made door in time to see Chal finish up a
'quick check of his own kit. I didn't know what he had
packed to take along, but I doubted that that was the
first time he'd checked it. Lidra looked at me, nodded
in answer to my own nod, and then—

"Did somebody really throw a party without invit-
ing me?" a voice asked from behind us, one of the
last voices we'd hoped to hear. "Now my feelings are
hurt. and I just may cry."

"I knew we should have skipped his dose of neu-
tralizer," Lidra growled under her breath, then turned
with Chal and me to look at Seren. "Why. look. guys,
he's awake after all, but I'll bet he's still tired. We're
just going out for a short stroll before calling it a night.
Serendel, which means we'll be back in no time at all.
Why don't you see to setting out nightcaps while we're
gone. and by then we'll be here to drink them."

"So all you're doing is going for a short stroll,"
Seren said, folding his arms across a still-bare chest.
All he'd put on was his hose. which also left him bare-
footed. "A late-night stroll through fog so thick that
it doesn't even let you know it is night, and all of you
dressed in dark bodysuits. I don't think there's anyone

MISTS OF THE AGES          281

I know who doesn't stroll at night in the fog in a dark
bodysuit."

"You've had a long, painful day, Serendel," Chal
said, his voice professionally smooth and soothing.
"When we're overtired, we sometimes start imagining
things, and that's the time we're best off going back
to bed and sleeping it off. By the time you wake up,
you'll be ready to laugh at all this."

"I think I'm ready to laugh now," Seren said. those
gray eyes totally uncompromising, and then he
shrugged. "But I do have to remember you're the doc-
tor, don't I? Okay, I'll take your advice and go back
to what I'm using for a bed. Come on. Smudge. I need
you more to help me fall asleep than they need your
company on a stroll."

He put a hand out toward me where I stood between
Lidra and Chal, but all I could do was stare at him.
We didn't have the time for me to coax him back
asleep, not when we didn't know when our enemies
would be by to check on how well their drug had
worked. We had to get what we were after and then
call in the troops, and only at that point would we be
able to put our feet up and relax.

"Seren. please go back to the room," I said at last,
giving up on the wasted effort of trying to fool him.
"There's something we have to do, and then we can
tell you all about it. And once we're through, you can
bet there won't be any more 'accidents-' "

"But no guarantees about it beforehand, especially
for you," he said in a growl, those eyes now on me.
* 'If you think' I'm letting you just walk out of here into
who-knows-what, you're the one who needs lots of
rest. I want to know what you three are up to, and I
want to know now. "

"What's your authority for making that demand?"
Lidra said calmly while Chal and I exchanged glances
over the flat finality in Seren's voice. "Considering
the fact that we're associates of Stellar Intelligence,
your credentials would have to be awfully impressive
to justify asking us anything at all. I think you'd better
just go back to your room and ..."

"Stellar Intelligence!" Seren interrupted with sud-

282 Sharon Green

den excitement. *'I knew there was something going
on in this place! Tell me why you're here."

"You have a very bad case of selective deafness,"
Lidra answered with a frown, nothing left in her man-
ner of the adoring fan. "I've already told you we don't
have to answer ..."

"You don't have to give away the information for
nothing," Seren said, interrupting again but back to
showing calm. "I'll tell you first why I'm here, and
then you can return the favor. Is it a deal?"

"I don't know," Lidra said at once, but now she
was looking interested rather than impatient. "If what
you say is relevant to the reason we're here, it may be
to our benefit to join forces. If not, you go back to
your room and sit there quietly until you're told you
can come out. How does that deal grab you?"

"In the same way and place that thing in the man-
sion tried for," Seren answered dryly, clearly a good
deal less than pleased. "And I'm beginning to under-
stand how Velix felt about you when we first got here.
You're not giving me any choice at all, but I don't
think your backers would appreciate it if I argued. All
right, me first and then maybe you. Why don't we sit
down, just in case you happen to get the urge to add
something once I'm through."

He began folding to the floor without waiting for
agreement, and after a very brief hesitation Lidra fol-
lowed suit. I could see she was probably thinking what
I was, that Seren might need to sit down after all that
blood he'd lost, and it shouldn't hurt anything. Since
we were going to listen anyway, we might as well do
it in comfort. Chal and I chose our own pieces of floor
carpet while I wished I could sit over near Seren in-
stead, and once we were all settled the fighter imme-
diately started in.

"About a month ago, I got a frantic call from my
mother," he began, looking from one to the other of
us but mostly toward Lidra. "She hadn't wanted to
bother me, but something seemed to have happened to
my older brother. Jalry had always been the hard-
working, industrious sort who never bought something
just for the hell of it, and always paid his bills* early.

MISTS OF THE AGES          283

He also kept in touch with the family on a regular
basis, not because he had to but because he was a full,
loving member of it. My mother told me he had gone
on vacation with some friends, and not only had he
been late getting back, weeks had passed without her
hearing a word from him. When she tried calling him
instead, he laughed off her worry but turned down a
weekend invitation to dinner. He was too busy, he told
her, and after that cut the call short."

"Let me guess where he vacationed," Lidra said,
glancing past me to Chal, who was suddenly looking
very attentive.

"Of course it was here," Seren said, in some way
expecting the comment and showing heavy satisfaction
with it. "As soon as I got free I went to visit my
brother, and I could't believe the change in him. He
wasn't working hard anymore; he was hardly working,
and his few quiet, carefully-chosen friends had be-
come an army of loud-mouthed, lazy-looking office
louts. There had to be over a thousand people working
in the building where his office was, and half of them
must have dropped by in the short time I was there-
including the man who owned the company Jalry works
for. When they saw he had a visitor they apologized
for interrupting—all of them including his boss—and
said they'd come back at another time. What really
got me was Jalry's insisting there was nothing wrong
or different about him, and the fact that he was an-
noyed over his visitors' having to leave. Before then
he had always been delighted when I was able to steal
the time for a visit with him. 'My infamous kid
brother' was what he called me, and he usually said it
with all the pride in the universe- When I tried press-
ing for some answers, he turned ugly and told me to
go back to hacking people apart instead of bothering
my elders, and then he asked me to leave."

Seren was looking drawn and hurt, but all I could
do was put my hands over my face to keep from hav-
ing to see it. I'd heard Chal's sigh, showing he un-
derstood what the problem was as well as I did. but
he'd have to be the one to tell Seren. I was faintly
surprised he didn*t already know, but when you live

284 Sharon Green

the clean, straight life yourself, you sometimes miss
the signals whispering from a shadow source.

"So you came here to find out what happened to
change him like that," Lidra summed up» and I
couldn't tell from her neutral tone whether or not she
understood. "Do you think what you've found so far
could account for it?"

"Not in any age this place offers," Seren answered
with a snort, now sounding coldly angry. "My brother
has never been late going to or getting back from any-
thing in his life, at least not until he came here. I know
they did something to change him to what he is now,
and I'm going to find it with or without your help."

"The only thing charging around will get you is
killed." Chal said, weariness creeping through his at-
tempt at soothing. "Your information has forced me
to certain tentative conclusions I don't like at all, but
l*m afraid I won't be given any more choice in the
matter than you were. Lidra, I think we'd better let
him join us, especially now. We may very well end
up needing more protection than we can provide for
ourselves, and if they've linked up Serendel's name
with his brother's, he may have to face their attentions
alone. If he comes with us, we can mutually share the
burden of protection."

"They shouldn't have linked me up with my
brother," Seren put in before Lidra could say any-
thing. "He came here using our family name, Etree,
and glads never use a family name. That's why I was
so surprised over that attack. They shouldn't have
known why I was here, but it sure as hell looked like
they did. But let's discuss those conclusions you've
drawn, Chal. I haven't been able to come up with a
thing."

"They might not have had any trouble at all linking
you up with your brother," Lidra said, taking her turn
at interrupting while I uncovered my eyes to see how
thoughtful she'd grown. "Assuming they did some-
thing to your brother—not a hard assumption to swal-
low—they ought to have him on a list somewhere,
along with the names of others they did somettyng to.
If it were me, I'd run an automatic check on everyone

MISTS OF THE AGES         285

making a reservation here, looking for a tie-in to a
name on my list. / knew what your family name was,
from old publicity releases when you first started win-
ning. How hard would it have been for them to get the
information, most especially if they're as thorough as
they seem to be?"

"About as hard as checking arena stats," Seren an-
swered with a lot of self-disgust and a headshake of
annoyance. "And I never even thought of it. I can see
now how effective a secret agent I make. I float hap-
pily along in blithe ignorance, and almost get Smudge
killed right along with me. If they gave out crowns for
super intelligence, I'd deserve at least five or six."

"We're still not sure whose fault that attack was,"
I said before anyone else could jump in, hating die
way he was blaming only himself. "You may remem-
ber my trying to apologize to you afterwaro, even
though I couldn't tell you why. We're here to check
out a number of reports, ones like the story you just
told us, and others that seem to be connected. It's more
than possible /did something that got them suspicious,
and it was me they were trying to get rid of. That
would mean it wasn't your fault at all, and you were
no more than an innocent bystander."

"Or they could have combined separate suspicions
and decided to take you both out just to be on the safe
side," Lidra said while Seren gave me a look of grat-
itude that made me feel warm inside. "Sitting here
speculating in order to find out where the blame be-
longs is a waste of time we don't have. We've got to
make our next move before they make theirs, so we'd
better get with it. If you're coming with us. Serendel,
you'd better let Chal lend you one of his bodysuits.**

"There's one last thing we have to talk about first/*
Chal said as Seren nodded and began getting to his
feet. "I usually keep my theories to myself until they
become fact, but this time I don't think I can afford to
do that. The extra time spent in the Mists by Seren-
del's brother and the other people we have reports on.
the so-called time anomaly found here, the lack of
complete bodies for those who died here, the radical
character change Serendel described—we're going to

286 Sharon Green

have to be very careful about walking into traps we
may not be able to get out of again."

"You're not talking about any ordinary traps, are
you?" Lidra said while Seren settled back down, her
voice not quite as steady as it had been. * 'What do you
think it is we have to be on the lookout for?"

"Serendel, I'm sorry, but it looks like your broth-
er's been addicted to a controlled substance of some
sort," Chal said with pity in his voice, not ignoring
Lidra but trying to get the bad news out and said as
fast as possible. "I also had the feeling Inky recog-
nized the symptoms as soon as I did.'*

"He's right," I told the stunned, disbelieving look
in Seren's eyes, hurting for his hurt but also trying to
save him the pain that would come from a refusal to
accept the truth. "Seren, Chal is telling you he's
hooked, but you're the one who told us he's also deal-
ing. All those people who came to see him, the ones
who didn't stay while you were there? They were buy-
ers, my love, customers who couldn't conduct busi-
ness in front of witnesses. I'd say your brother's boss
is one of those customers, and is fronting for him by
letting him deal out of his office. That's why he doesn't
have to do any regular work in order to keep from
getting fired."

"It can't be true!" Seren whispered harshly, one
hand closed tight in his hair, his face wearing a look
of agony. "Jalry always hated the idea of drugs? I
could believe him capable of the coldblooded murder
of a child as easily as the thought of him being on
something. And selling? Even if he somehow got
hooked himself, there's no way he would ever take
others down with him! He'd consider it his problem to
solve alone, and would turn himself in for treatment.
See, that's why you have to be wrong! If someone had
forced him into addiction, he would have turned him-
self in to get oflf it!"

His suddenly hopeful, grasping-at-straws expression
was like a knife inside me, and I simply couldn't stay
where I was any longer. I rose and moved over to sit
beside him, but before I could take him around he
grasped me to him, as (hough I were a life-preserver

MISTS OF THE AGES

287

he needed to keep from drowning. I spread my arms
out as far as possible to give what support I could.
knowing he wasn't about to get the agreement he was
looking for.

"From what you said of your brother earlier, I'd
expect him to do nothing but turn himself in." Chal
told him, gently but nevertheless relentlessly. "The
double fact that not only hasn't he done so but is also
selling to others— that's what scares me the most.
Every drug affects a user's personality, but one that
changes the personality so completely and radically—
there's never been anything like it on any planet in the
Empire. Some drugs force their users to change life-
time habits because the drug use just doesn't fit in with
those habits, but that's just a matter of putting the use
ahead of all other considerations. If your brother had
tried to hide his addiction, I could understand and ac-
cept it as a normal reaction. Taking the drug himself
and selling it to others almost openly is nothing like
normal."

"Not to mention the fact that large-scale dealers are
never users themselves," I put in, beginning to be
frightened by what I was hearing. "Seren, if there were
that many people trying to buy from your brother, he
shouldn't be hooked himself. Higher-ups in that busi-
ness know better than to trust twitches in positions of
responsibility, so there has to be something more in-
volved. Since it has to involve what the drug does to
people, I'm afraid to ask what it is."

"I'd say we already know certain facts about the
drug," Chal pointed out, glancing at a Lidra who was
listening intently. "For starters it takes time to estab-
lish a hold in its victim, or there would hardly be so
many people who were late getting back Horn their
vacations. Even with the help of the accelerated me-
tabolisms produced by this fog. those people were still
late. If not for the fog they probably couldn't hook
anyone soon enough to produce significant character
changes, so the drug has to be given time to work. We
also know it either doesn't work with some people, or
quickly kills them. Those partial bodies returned of

288

Sharon Green

those who died—no blood left to test, and only delib-
erately provided uncontaminated tissue samples."

"But none of that tells us how dangerous an initial
dose is," Lidra said, finally putting in her own oar.
"For all we know a single exposure to it sets you up
for wanting more, and that's what you meant by traps.
Instead of setting off alarms or tripping deadfalls, a
mistake on our part could mean immediate exposure
to whatever it is they use. It might be a good idea if
you changed your mind about coming with us, Ser-
endel."

"You think staying here is a guarantee of safety?"
Seren asked with a snort, tightening his hold on me.
"If they sent that thing in to the mansion to tear me
up. what's to stop them from doing the same thing
here? And if Smudge is going to be part of anything
dangerous. I'm going to be right there next to her.
They may have hurt my brother, but I'm not about to
let them do the same to my lady. Where did you say
that bodysuit was?"

"This way," Chal told him, getting to his feet.
"And while you're dressing, I'll tell you what drugs
we have working on our team."

Seren hugged me, then got up to follow Chal, and I
just sat there a minute before moving over to Lidra to
see what she was doing. For someone about to go much
deeper into a very dangerous situation, I felt just like
a woman without a worry in the world.

Chapter 15

Lidra had our observers respotted by the time Seren
was dressed and ready, so we wasted no more time m
leaving the tent. Our electronics expert had us all keep
close together until we were well past the line of those
who were supposed to be watching us, and then we
were able to relax a little, but not too much. We still
had to stay reasonably close to keep from losing each
other in the fog, but aside from that our only chore
was following Lidra. She followed whatever it was
that her non-makeup case told her, which sent us
through the swirling gray mist quickly and surely. It
was eerily silent in the fog, more silent than I'd no-
ticed sooner, a heavy hush that forced us to join with
silence of our own.

We walked for fifteen or twenty minutes, and during
that time I squashed the idea part of me was getting
that we were going nowhere by testing the ring Fd
been given back on Gryphon. I held my arm straight
out ahead then squeezed my hand into a fist, and sure
enough, the central "jewel" on my ring lit up to show
we actually were going in the right direction. It was
an interesting toy I played with for a minute, then for-
got about again; Lidra had the real thing rather than a
toy. and I truthfully didn't begrudge it to her. My only
feeling was that I was happy I hadn't had to find my
way through the fog alone, using nothing but the toy.

After the fifteen or twenty minutes Lidra stopped,
but our eyes were able to give us no reason for her
doing that. We still stood in the middle of nothing but
289

290 Sharon Green

fog, but Seren let my hand go when our guide turned
and gestured me over.

"We're still a couple of hundred feet away from the
building, but the approach to it starts just ahead," she
told me when I reached her, her voice held deliberately
low. "I'll bring us to the edge of the approach, but
after that you'd better take over."

"Let's have a look," I said, keeping my voice as
low as hers. "I have to see something before I can
decide what to do about it."

She nodded and led off again, but more slowly than
she'd moved before. After only a few yards she
stopped again, but this time I didn't have to ask why.
A neat walk of polycrete lay just before us, about five
feet wide and lined on both sides with low, decorative
railings, or at least the railings were supposed to be
taken as decorative. I saw something else in them, and
in the walk as well.

, "Laura, those railings have to be switched off," I
said in an even lower voice, not moving from where
I*d stopped. "At the very least they'll let everyone
know we're here, and I have the feeling they do other
things as well. Can you use that thing to locate a con-
trol box?"

"I can do better than that," she answered in a mut-
ter, tapping tiny keys in the non-case. "I can override
their control box, and turn the thing off. Just give me
a minute."

"Set it on neutral instead of turning it off,'* I said
at once, looking at the railings again. "Some systems
have an independent circuit alarm set to scream if the
system is switched off at the wrong time. Something
tells me this is one of them."

I caught her distracted nod out of the corner of my
eye, so I didn't say anything else- The system setup
reminded me of something, but exactly what that
something was insisted on remaining stuck in the back
of my memory.

It took Udra more than the minute she'd asked for,
but not an unreasonable amount of time more. When
afae looked up to give me a nod that said it was (lone,
I accepted die assurance despite being not very happy

MISTS OF THE AGES         291

about it. Seero had carefully taught me to rely on no
one's efforts but my own, a precaution that had be-
come an ingrained habit- I didn't like having to take
Lidra's word that the security system was neutralized,
but at that time and place there was no other choice.

"All right, I want everyone to listen carefully," I
said to my three companions, still keeping my voice
down. "We'll be moving toward that building we still
can't quite see through the fog in single file. me first
and the rest of you following. You step where I do. as
close as possible to the rail without touching it. Any-
one who sets foot in the middle of that walk will ac-
tivate a pressure alarm, and that's one that usually
can't be turned off from the outside. Let's go. but let*s
be careful."

I got three nods of compliance before I turned away
from them, but Seren's expression had been somewhat
on the puzzled side. He didn't seem to understand what
my part in all that was, which meant I'd have some
explaining to do once we were out of there. I felt the
least bit nervous about that, but then the nervousness
went away. If Chal had been one of those who under-
stood, Seren would certainly be.

Going up the walk beside the railing let me see how
the ground dropped away to the right as it probably
did to the left, beyond the approach the Mists people
wanted everyone to use. I moved forward with every
sense I had stretched to the limit, trying to feel what
was around and ahead of us, but it wasn't until we
were almost to the building that some sense of unease
brought me to a stop. The railing was still turned off
as far as being active goes, but it felt like there was
something. . . .

"Lidra, are you getting any activity readings at all?"
I asked, turning my head to speak softly over my
shoulder. "I'm getting the impression we're about to
walk into something, but I can't tell what."

"Everything's showing inert as far as my board is
concerned," she answered, frowning as she tapped tiny
buttons. "Are you sure it isn't just a case of nerves?"

"When I'm working, the only nerves that operate
are the specialized ones." I came back. really under-

292 Sharon Green

standing for the first time why they'd needed me on
that Job, and not just Lidra and her instruments. "The
rest of you stay right here for now, and pass back the
word that I'd prefer if none of you even shifted in
place. I'll be back as soon as I find out what's been
left in our path."

I turned back away from her but didn't immediately
begin moving, and not because I was waiting for her
to pass on the information and instructions I'd given.
Moving forward at any pace at all was going to be
dangerous, and in situations like that it's best to think
before you creep. I took a moment of thinking time,
decided that creeping actually would be my best bet,
and so went down to all fours. More often than not
that turns out to be the most all-around useful position
to assume, most especially when you can't see as well
as you'd like.

^1 could feel the warm, dry fog swirling all around
me as I slid my hands forward through it, my fingertips
brushing the ground before I committed my weight to
my palms. Behind me everyone was standing abso-
lutely still, withholding the distractions of speech and
movement, their thoughts alone moving with me in
support. At times like that it felt as though every nerve
ending in my body had come alive to sense what lay
around me, and it was almost as though my surround-
ings knew that and responded. The polycrete was
smooth and even, angled strangely but otherwise per-
fectly normal, and I moved forward three uneventful
feet. and then five—

And that's when my fingertips brushed it, the faint
rise in the approach ramp, a bump less than an inch
high but at least ten inches wide. I froze in place while
I studied it, and then I reached beyond to find the line
that was invisible to the eye but not to the touch. There
would be a second line to match the first, of course,
bat not for at least three feet more, and maybe not
even for five or six. I reached into my kit for the tiny
spray can I carried, hoping the location of the second
line would be something we never discovered, and
used the faintly luminous paint inside the can tq mark
born sides of the ten inch rise. Once that was done I

MISTS OF THE AGES         293

got to my feet again, and gestured over Lidra and the
others.

"Whatever you do, don't step between those
splotches of paint,'* I explained in a whisper, seeing
that Chal and Seren were straining to hear from their
places behind Lidra. "There's a pressure bar under
that slight rise in the polycrete, which probably stays
locked closed while the railing is in an activated state.
Deactivating the railing, even into neutral, releases the
lock on the bar and turns its mechanism active. It isn't
electronic so it doesn't register as active, but springs
and balances were used a lot of years before people
knew there even was such a thing as electronics. It's
there to be stepped on, so let's be sure not to oblige."

"What happens if someone does step on it?" Lidra
asked, looking quietly shaken. People who live in die
world of electronics are too often blind when they're
taken out of it.

"Stepping on it will cause the section of the ramp
above it to drop open, probably after a few seconds'
delay so that the victim is directly over the opening,'*
I answered, deciding it was not time to be gentle or
considerate of her feelings. ' "The drop either takes you
down to the ground in a hurry, or into a lower level
of that building already prepared against your arrival.
I hope you're not interested in finding out which."

She shivered and shook her head, giving me a faint
smile to show she was upset but still handling it, and
then gestured me on again. I returned her smile and
gave her my back again, then paused very briefly be-
fore stepping wide over the bump. It shouldn't have
been possible to spring the trap without stepping on
the bar, but people are notorious for tinkering with
things and changing their "possibles" entirely. All I
could do was go ahead like before, hoping hard our
enemy was too lazy or unimaginative to have tampered
with the basic idea; if they hadn't been, I'd be the first
to find out about it.

Fifteen feet beyond the bump I stopped again, this
time to let everyone catch up. The trap area should
have been well behind us at that point, and I didn't
sense anything ahead. Instead what I saw was the front

294 Sharon Green

entrance of the building, sitting quietly less than five
feet away.

"It's code-guarded," Lidra whispered as she
stopped behind me, most of her attention on her non-
case. "I'll have to neutralize that before you can work
on the lock, but it looks like we might be in luck. You
don't code-guard a door when people are going to be
using it, so maybe it is middle of the night right now.**

"If so, there could be security patrols around," I
pointed out, wanting her to forget about that middle-
of-the-night idea. Honest people consider the middle
of the night the best time to do something dishonest,
a time when no one will be around to see them do it.
Once you get that idea in your head you unconsciously
(end to relax, and relaxation is less than half a step
fiom sloppiness. We couldn't afford to be sloppy in
that place, not if we wanted to get out of it again alive.

"Security patrols, right,** Lidra said in a faint voice,
4jRking an instant to glance at me before going back to
• what she was doing. I knew she was shaken again,
and was as glad to see that as the fact of her still being
able to handle it. If she was afraid, she would be that
much more careful, and that was exactly what I
wanted.

While Lidra worked on the code-guard, I spent my
time looking around, so when I got her whispered go-
ahead I opened my kit and went straight for my next
job. I wouldn't have been surprised to find another
drop-trap right in front of the doors, but if they had
one, it was too well concealed for me to pick up on
it. The door lock was to the left of the section of trans-
parent doors, behind a square of hinged stone that
couldn't have been anything but that, and was sick-
eningly easy to open. It was a tenet of my profession
that the easier the lock, the worse there is waiting for
you on the inside, and that was a reminder I didn't
really need. Instead of worrying about it, though, I
listened for the hiss of releasing mag-locks, rec!osed
the square of stone when I heard it, then gestured the
others after me through the nearest door.

Lidra whispered us all to a stop just inside a wide
lobby area, one that was faintly lit all around by night-

MISTS OF THE AGES          295

strips high on the walls. There wasn't much in the way
of mist inside the very modem building, the blowers
at the doors accounting for that. We all stood quietly
while Lidra consulted her silent assistant, and after a
not very short time she looked up.

"I've neutralized every spy-device and blocking-
lock in range of us, and set up an automatic program
to do the same for all external systems as we move
deeper into the building," she told us, her expression
almost grim. "That still leaves not only things like
that bump outside, but also the fact that I can detect
life somewhere in the building. The range is too ex-
treme so I'm not sure where, but they're probably a
security patrol like Inky suggested there might be. I
mink we'd better continue to be very, very careful."

None of us'argued with that conclusion, and once
Lidra showed me the direction we wanted to go in, I
led out again with the others back to following in sin-
gle file. Five corridors radiated out of the entrance
hall, each with a quiet sign on the wall beside it, but
the signs were composed of alphabet soup that didn't
have meaning for anyone who didn't work there. Lidra
was still following that homing device planted by S.I.
efforts, and once we reached it we could decide where
to go from there-

The corridor we took ran straight back away from
the entrance hall, no curves involved but any number
of crossing corridors. The building was only one story
high so there also didn't seem to be any staircases, but
that made things harder rather than easier. What we
wanted were the executive offices, and in buildings
with multiple floors the higher-ups were almost in-
variably higher up. In one-story affairs they could be
in the middle of everything or down at the end. with
no way of telling which without checking. After walk-
ing a few minutes I began looking behind some of the
doors we were passing, all of which opened without
any fuss at all. Unfortunately what I found behind them
wasn't what I was looking for, so all we could do was
continue on.

We had passed another cross-corridor and Lidra told
me we weren't far from the source of the homing sig-

296 •Sharon Green

nal, when I finally began seeing what I'd been looking
for. The doors in that area were beginning to be farther
apart, and opening one of them showed carpeting and
drapes that were part of a decor rather than just stuck
in to fill up empty spaces. It looked like we'd found
the executive area, and when Lidra pointed to a door
on the left as the one containing our signal, I opened
it to find as little as I'd expected to. The doors on the
left were still close together, so only the ones on the
right belonged to executives.

The end of our search came about five minutes later,
with a door that wasn't simply closed. I was working
on the theory that the information we needed would be
kept close among the upper echelon, at the veiy top
or near it, so that's where we had toJook first. If it
turned out to be in another location entirely we would
be out of luck, but the time to worry about something
like that is when the possibility becomes a reality.
Right then I noticed that the only door for some dis-
tance up and back on the right had a separate lock
arrangement, which made me feel a good deal better.
The presence of a lock means there's something
worthwhile sitting behind it, and worthwhile was what
we were after.

With the help of a couple of tools from my kit. the
lock became a past problem. It was a lot more complex
than the one at the entrance to the building, but some-
times more complex is easier, and it certainly did more
to ease my mind. I made the others wait while I looked
around inside by myself, then I gestured them in and
relocked the door behind them. If that wasn't the place
we wanted, we were in the wrong building, and I didn't
think we were in the wrong building-

"Inky, arc you sure there's anything here to find?"
Lidra asked in a low voice, looking around slowly the
way the other two were doing. "It's nothing but a very
expensively furnished office."

Meaning it was also very sparsely furnished, that
being the current style. You didn't put much in. but
what you did put had to be very expensive and in ex-
quisitely good taste. The large room had a wide, empty
desk. four upholstered chairs, a wall bar to the left, a

MISTS OF THE AGES         297

handmade tree in a carved pot to the right, glowing
nightstrips on the walls in a rainfall pattern, and noth-
ing much else.

"Maybe there's a wall safe or something behind one
of those paintings," Chal suggested, eyeing the art-
work that theme-matched the glowing rainfall of the
walls. "If it were me, I think I'd use that storm-cloud
scene. It's big enough to hide three safes."

"If you ever need a safe spot, Chal, please talk to
me about it first," I said, trying not to sound too crit-
ical. "That painting is so obvious, it probably has an
independent circuit-alarm attached to it. I know what
we need is in here, but it isn't in any ordinary wall
safe."

Lidra nodded wryly to show I was right about the
circuit-alarm, but by then I was back to paying more
attention to the room than to my companions. There
was a safe spot hidden in there somewhere, but the
question was where . . .

I had only just begun merging with the pattern of
the windowless room, not yet up to checking the ceil-
ing, when the obvious answer slunk its way in. That
handmade tree in its very expensive pot—it was an
umbrella tree of some sort which supposedly meshed
in with the office theme, but it wasn't in the right place
for a theme-merge. It made the room unbalanced where
it stood, and there was no reason for it to be there,
unless—

I walked quickly over to the thing, but slowed as I
approached so that I could find the proper angle for
looking past. I stopped short when I caught the shim-
mer, eased around to get more of it in view, and when
I had both the near and the far edges turned my atten-
tion to the painting that had taken Chal's eye. The
storm scene hung not far from where the tree stood,
and that had to be where the control area was.

I heard Lidra's breath suck in when I made for the
painting, but at least she didn't try telling me not to
set off the circuit-alarm. I found which way the thing
was set to slide without touching it, then reached for
the opposite side and pulled instead. The painting
swung to the right and revealed the controls 1*4 been

298 Sharon Green

expecting, and no more than a moment's checking of
the circuitry with a meter from my kit showed the cir-
cuit-alarm had to be left activated if the safe spot was
to be reached. Having no argument with that meant I
only had a single toggle to flip, so I flipped it and
turned away from the controls. Lidra gasped again,
and then she was moving closer.

"How did you know to do that?" she asked softly,
obviously impressed by the accomplishment. "The
second signal was so well masked by the circuit-alarm,
my board never even picked it up!"

"When you know it's there, there's a limit to how
long it can hide," I said, inspecting the flat, two-
dimensional picture of a tree on a cupboard-sized door.
That was the safe spot, of course, and it was anchored
into the floor as many of them were. That was why
the tree hadn't been stood elsewhere, which meant the
SsSe spot had been there longer than the room theme.
*'Don't touch anything until I say you can, and make
fflire your board doesn't help me. There don't seem to
be any more locks or traps, but I want to make sure."

Lidra nodded as she tapped keys again, but the cau-
tioning turned out to be unnecessary. The safe spot
opened to show shelves filled with reports and files,
stored information that couldn't be reached by the best
computer break-in expert ever born. The data wasn't
in a computer, which made it safer than it would have
been if it was.

"We'd better see how fast we can find out if that's
what we need," Lidra said as Chal moved forward
toward the cache of possible treasure. "Those life
readings I picked up earlier are closer to us now, and
it won't be many minutes before they're right on top
of us. It might even help to have someone listening at
the door."

I thought I saw Lidra glance at me before she moved
forward to help Chal, but just then I was too busy
staring at something in confusion to know for certain.
On a top shelf of the safe spot, all alone in their stand.
were two large vials of something that looked some-
how familiar. The contents were a bright pink" that
shimmered very faintly in the dimness, and I could

MISTS OF THE AGES         299

have sworn I'd seen something like them somewhere
else, at a different place and time. I was Hying to re-
member where that could be, when Chal's low excla-
mation distracted me.

"This is it!" he said excitedly, using a tiny hand-
beam to make reading easier. ' 'Just give me a few min-
utes. and I'll know what, if anything, we want to take
with us."

Which meant a guard at the door was definitely go-
ing to be necessary. Lidra was ignoring her board in
favor of helping Chal. and just because the door was
locked didn t mean we couldn't be surprised. I gave
up pushing for a memory that would come in its own
time and turned back to the door, and was actually
surprised to see a -targe figure already there. 1 shook
my head as I walked over to Seren, then grinned Up at
him.

"Would you believe I actually forgot you were with
us?" I asked very softly, wishing it wasn't the wrong
place for him to put his arms around me. "It must be
because you're so small and unimpressive-looking, the
Und of man no one ever notices in a crowd."

"Yeah, that must be it," he answered, but the words
were distracted and completely without amusement, as
were his eyes and expression. For an instant I thought
he was insulted over being forgotten, but before I could
apologize seriously he was going on. "Smudge, Lidra
said you three are associated with S.I.," he stumbled.
apparently searching carefully for what he wanted to
ask. "That means you all work for S.I., doesn't it. on
a regular basis as agents of theirs?

"Seren, it means we only work for S.I. some-
times," I answered, wondering why he wanted to
know. "Lidra's done this more than Chal or I have,
and as a matter of fact this is my first assignment from
them. If you were worrying over how often I find my-
self with the bad guys sending horrible things to attack
me, you really have nothing to ..."

"Then where did you learn to do all—that?" he in-
terrupted with a motion of his hand. his gray eyes
strangely cold in the dimness. "The way you opened
all those doors, and led us over that trap instead of

300 Shown Green

into it, and were able to find that safe as though some-
one had told you where it was— You didn't only just
leam all that, it had to come from years of experience
and practice. If you aren't an agent for S.I., then what
are you?"

He asked his question and just waited, assuming
nothing, being as fair about it as I'd known he'd be. I
would have preferred a different place and time for that
particular discussion, but since the point had been
raised I would answer it, and then the matter would
be behind us.

"Seren, my love, what I am is a thief," I said,
finding my voice almost as steady as I wanted it to be.
"I know it sounds terrible when put that baldly, but
that's what I am. Seero raised me and trained me to
do what he did, to get back at all those who think
they're above the law, and that's who I steal from.
I'm very good in my profession, as good as you are
in yours, and that's why S.I. sent me along on this
job. It was . . ."

"You're a thief?" he said, sounding and looking
utterly repelled as he backed a step from the hand I
tried to put to his chest. "You pretended to be some-
one decent, but you're actually a thief?"

"Seren, please," I said as my insides began to twist
with a terrible fear. "I only steal from those who de-
serve it, those who are bigger thieves than I could ever
bel Please don't look at me like that, I'm still the same
person I was! Just because I ..."

"How can you say there's nothing different about
you?" he demanded, those gray eyes burning me down
where I stood. "You steal, don't you, no matter who
it is you steal from? Stealing is stealing, which means
you're nothing but a dirty thief! I wish to hell I'd never
laid eyes on you!"

He began to turn away from me. the disgust on his
face so clear I thought I would be sick just from seeing
&, but I couldn't let it simply end like that.

"Please don't say you really mean that," I begged,
feeling the tears of terror begin to fill my eyes. my
// tttnd reaching quickly for his arm. "Hearing it s6 sud-
'^•^tealy was a shock for you. but once you think about

MISTS OF THE AGES         301

it you'll find it easier to understand. I love you. Seren.
and I . . ."

"Don't call me that!" he snapped, pulling his ami
away from my fingers as his eyes blazed down at me.
"Seren is a name my baby sister gave me, and she
was killed by a thief! I don't ever want to hear you
fouling the name again by speaking it! And above that
don't ever try touching me again, or I won't be re-
sponsible for what happens."

He looked at me one last time before striding away
toward Lidra and Chal, but my sight was too blurred
by tears to know what he'd put in the look. I turned
around to stare at a dim and blurry door, finding it
impossible to believe my world could have died so
quickly and without warning, but I knew beyond donbt
mat it had. In the blink of an eye his love had turned
to hatred, and I simply couldn't bear it. I'd thought be
would understand but he hadn't, and there wasn't any-
thing I could say or do to change that.

I wanted desperately to be somewhere where I could
sob out the unbelievable pain I felt with no one to hear
it, but there wasn't any place tike that around. It sud-
denly came to me that even though I couldn't leave, I
also couldn't stand being in that room any longer. Be-
yond the door was a corridor where I could at least be
alone, and I suddenly had to have that at the very
least. I smeared the tears from my eyes with the back
of one hand as I reached for my kit, and it was only a
moment before the lock was open and I could do the
same with the door. I stepped into the corridor as my
fingers put me picks away in my kit, my mind too full
of other things to pay attention to anything else. and
then—

"Hey, you!" a voice shouted from fifty feet away
up the corridor, bringing my head around with a jerk.
"Stop right where you are and don't twitch a musclel
If you don't have a pass. you're in deep shit!"

Three men in uniforms were beginning to run to-
ward me, men who had to be the security patrol Lidra
had spotted eariier. I stood frozen in place, too shocked
to do anything but obey, and then I heard Lidra call
frantically from inside the room.

302 Sharon Green

"Inky, quick!" she hissed over the sound of run-
ning footsteps. "Get back inside here! I'm going to
use the screen!'*

A glance showed me the way she tapped at her
board, undoubtedly calling up the privacy screen that
turned her invisible. Chal and Seren were already close
beside her, showing the screen would be up in sec-
onds, which meant I couidn 't go back in there and join
them. The guards would know there was no other way
out of the room, and if they couldn't find me they
would start to search. Since it was my fault we'd been
discovered in the first place, there was no sense in
taking the others down with me. Instead of reentering
me room, I turned away from the approaching guards
and ran like hell.

The footsteps behind me faltered very briefly, and
(hen they came on again, all three sets. That told me
Lidra had gotten her screen up in time, so I could
forget about the people I'd almost betrayed and simply
concentrate on running. I didn't expect to get away,
wouldn't have known where to go even if I did, but
the farther away I got, the more of a chance the others
would have. The men behind me shouted and yelled,
threats and orders coming from all three, and then they
must have realized I had no intentions of stopping no
matter what they said. A few seconds of silence went
by and then the air suddenly blurred to my right, a
whining tingle reaching through my bodysuit to flip
every nerve on the right side of my body. I flinched
away to the left, my mouth suddenly dry when I re-
alized they were using stunners, but there was really
no place to go. The offices were dead-ends and the
nearest cross-corridor was too far ahead, and then I
heard another whine—

Chapter 16

I came out of it slowly and painfully, at first not know-
ing where I was or what had happened, and then it all
came back. I'd walked right under the noses of a se-
curity patrol and had been captured, and now the en-
emy had me. It was pitch dark wherever I was, but I
didn't need light to know I was tied down to what I
was lying on, and I didn't hurt so much that I couldnl
tell I'd been stripped naked. The whatever under me
seemed to be made of metal, but the bindings on my
wrists and ankles had more of the feel of leather.

"Am I supposed to care?" I whispered into the
darkness, making no attempt to see if I could free my-
self. My body hurt from what the stunner had done to
me and probably from the fall I'd taken as well, but I
just didn't care. Seren was disgusted by me. hated me
so much he didn't even want me to speak his name,
and almost the first thing my memory had shown me
when I'd awakened was the sight of his face. He'd
been so repelled, so utterly sickened, and he'd wanted
nothing further to do with me or my love.

"And can you really blame him?" I asked myself,
choking the words out into the dark. He came from a
happy, normal family that had been touched by trag-
edy because of someone like me; could I expect him
to put all that out of his mind just for my sake? It
would have been unreasonable to expect that. but-
But I loved him so much! And he'd turned away
from me in hate and never wanted to see me again.
and all / wanted was to die! The tears started again
and this time the sobbing came with them. but even
303

304 Sharon Green

then my miserable life refused to end. It just dragged
on and on while I cried into the dark, a dark I hoped
I would never again be taken out of.

The crying lasted for a long time, and once it
stopped it left behind an even greater lack of caring
than I'd felt when I'd awakened. My life could go on
the way it had been going before I met Seren, but I
just didn't care if it did or ended instead. I lay in the
dark in a numb, unthinking state, more aware of inner
pain man outer, and after an unmeasured length of
time a pinpoint of light began glowing above me. It
brightened slowly, slowly, until it began illuminating
everything around me, bringing to view a rather large
room of stone with no windows and only two doors.
One of the doors was in the wall to my right and one
in the wall beyond my feet, and when I turned my head
away from them in disinterest, I nearly found myself
shocked enough to feel it.

fl" 'On the wall to my left. about ten or fifteen feet away
ton the table I lay on, the chained, unmoving body
of a Griddenth hung. The body's taloned feet had been
smashed, its wings had been torn, blood covered
feathers and fur alike, and the beaked mouth had
been knocked out of alignment. It was a horrible, sick-
making sight that almost reached through to me, most
especially since I was certain the Griddenth was Velix.

"That's what comes from trying to poke your nose
in where it doesn't belong," a voice said from my
right, a voice I seemed to know. "Let it be a lesson
to you when it comes to answering questions as well,
and maybe you won't end up the same way."

By that time I was looking at the man who spoke,
and even though his voice was familiar, I couldn't
place his face. He was somewhere in his thirties with
brown hair and light eyes, and he wore ordinary slacks
and shoes of black and a tight orange shirt.

"You don't recognize me, do you?" he asked with
a grin, moving away from the opened door to allow in
two other men. "Would it help if I said I considered
you very brave, lady Dalisse?"

"Jejin?" I said with a good deal of confusion, fi-
nally able to connect the voice. The face was still the

MISTS OF THE AGES           305

face of a stranger, what with the long white beard
gone.

"Jejin isn't really my name, but you can use it for
the sake of our discussion," he said, stopping beside
the table to look down at me. "I have a few questions
for you, and you'll save yourself a lot of pain and
terror if you answer them quickly and truthfully.
Where are your friends hiding, and what are you all
up to?"

"Why are you bothering to ask?" I said, feeling
more confused than ever. "If I'm not mistaken, there
are any number of drugs that can get you all the an-
swers you want."

"But none that work here in the Mists," he cor-
rected, his light eyes looking put out over that. "It's
the reason we have to resort to other methods when
we find someone we think ought to be questioned. This
is too big and important an operation to take any
chances at all, even if we still thought you were in-
nocent. But you aren't innocent, are you, and wasn*t
it lucky I was there for another reason when you made
your slip."

"What slip are you talking about?" I asked, trying
to ignore the fact that his finger had come to my throat
with his questions, and his eyes were taking on an
unpleasant glint.

"I was playing magician to keep an eye on that mus-
clebound hulk of a glad," he answered, running his
finger across my throat as he spoke. "We knew his
brother was one of our spores, but we weren't entirely
convinced he had come here with the idea of poking
around. If he hadn't chosen me himself, I would have
had to substitute myself for whichever magician he did
choose, but he was very cooperative. The way he was
sniffing after you really set us wondering, and then we
got a present we hadn't been expecting: we discovered
you had a practiced eye when it came to finding hidden
panels. You remember the wine fountain in the palace,
and the need for wash water and a towel afterward?
Guests always have to be shown where those towels
are, but you found them all by yourself."

At that point I certainly did remember the towels,

306 Sharon Green

and the fact that I*d noticed only vaguely how well-
hidden they were. And Jejin had been no more than a
few feet away when I'd committed that stupidity, an-
other fact I'd been too busy to notice.

"And so we arranged for you to be introduced to
our resident ogre," the man above me went on, his
finger still moving back and forth. "We fully expected
you to become a tragic accident victim, of course, and
if the glad happened to end up a corpse by trying to
save you, well, wouldn't that have been just too bad?
We had everything planned and then we put me two
of you right in it—but no one had remembered about
that cursed multi-sword. The two of you got away and
were able to rejoin your other friends, and that*s when
we began having everything go wrong. That Griddenth
^ was useful to us, but when he came here shouting that
' be may have been guilty of starting that passageway




klent, but he had nothing to do with the serious

ick and was damned well going to find out who had,
had to close his mouth. We knew nothing about
scare you had in me passageway and cared even
less, but me ogre attack wasn't quite as easy to explain
away."

He was looking down at me with a glare that made
all his troubles my fault, and I could see where he
wasn't far wrong. I seemed to cause trouble for almost
everyone I met, but hopefully that would not be going
on much longer.

"And then we found you right in our headquarters
building, stunned by a security patrol, but already hav-
ing gotten into almost every secret place we had," he
continued. "We knew then mat we should have made
absolutely certain you died in the mansion set, but it
was far too late for should-have-beens. Some of our
files are missing, and so are your three good friends.
Where arc they, giri, and what made you all try this
break-in? Did you know what you were after, or were
you shooting in the dark?"

"I don't know where the others arc," I told him,
feeling my interest in the conversation drain away. "If
you haven't caught them I couldn't be happier, which
means I'm not about to do anything that would change

MISTS OF THE AGES         307

that state of affairs. Since you don't have any drugs to
use on me, you might as well go and bother someone
else. As far as you're concerned, I'm all out of an-
swers."

"Dear, brave, sweet lady Dalisse,*' the man calling
himself Jejin said, a faint smile twisting the comers of
his mouth. "I'd so hoped you would be intelligent
instead, but obviously that's not meant to be. You will
tell me what I want to know, that and everything else
you can think of, as much as I care to listen to. Do
try to remember that this is no one's fault but your
own."

He took his finger away from my throat and moved
along the table toward my feet, but not because he
intended doing anything. He was simply making room
for the two men who had come into the room with
him, men who stationed themselves to either side of
me. They carried small, heavy-looking leather cases
which they placed on the floor and opened, and after
flipping a few switches inside the cases, they straight-
ened with copper-glinting wires in their hands. The
wires were insulated where the men held them, and
the insulation wound all the way down to connections
in the cases.

"It's too bad I can't give you one more chance,"
Jejin said while I looked back and forth between the
two men, belatedly pulling at the leather holding my
wrists tight to the table above my head. "Once they
turn on their pet devices, my friends have to be al-
lowed to use them. If you've decided you've changed
your mind, tell me what I want to know as fast as you
can before they start. That won't stop them from hurt-
ing you, but if you tell the truth they might not hurt
you quite as long."

I licked my lips while the rest of me trembled, terror
beginning to grow inside me. I had to keep from tell-
ing them what they wanted, or my teammates were as
dead as I would undoubtedly be. Death was something
I would have greeted happily and warmly just then,
but it wasn't death they meant to give me first. It was
pain they would give me, and I had to have the strength
to take it without breaking. Death would come in its

308                 Sharon Green

own good time, and that's the thought I had to cling
to and remember. I tried, I honestly and truly tried.
but only seconds after they started I wasn't able to do
anything but scream.

The smell under my nose made me cough and turn
my head away, and just that quickly and easily the
agony was back. I moaned with the terrible burning
flare of it and almost fainted again, but whatever had
brought me back to consciousness wouldn't let it hap-
pen.

"You poor little giri, you're hurting so very badly,
aren't you?" Jejin's voice came in my right ear, his
': band slicking back my sweat-soaked hair. "You were
J^.tegging for help just a minute ago, but surely you
^^biowSere*s no way help can get to you. Even if you
?,Jhad confederates waiting in a ship just off-planet, and
|Ste if you were able to contact them, they'd never
m^eretand what you were trying to say. You're living
Wa different rate than they are, so transmission from
IJie Mists is impossible. I'm the only one who can help
you, which 1*11 do the minute you answer my ques-
tions. Where arc your friends hiding, and why can't
we find them?"

You can't find them because they're invisible, I
wanted to say, but even swimming in searing pain I
knew better than to say anything at all. One comment
would lead to another and then it would all come out,
which just might happen anyway. My throat was raw
from all the screaming I'd done, screaming caused by
having burning hot wires pushed into my body. I'd
been sick from the pain and I'd fainted from the pain,
but my tormentors simply wiped me off or woke me
up, then continued with what they were doing. The
only thing they didn't bother with was the sweat cov-
ering me everywhere, that and the small trickles of
blood. The sweat mixed with the blood and burned
even more into the wounds, and that was a good thing
as far as they were concerned.

"I have something to make it all stop hurting," Je-
jin said, a friendly coaxing in his voice. "If you tell

MISTS OF THE AGES         309

me what I want to know I'll give it to you, and then
the agony will be gone for good."

Right along with me, I thought, having no strength
left to open my eyes. I could feel the ring on my right
hand, the ring I was supposed to call for help with,
but even pressing the jewels in the prescribed way
would bring nothing but disappointment. My sense of
time was messed up by the mists, which meant I'd
never be able to send the proper signal. I didn't know
if it should be faster or slower, how much faster or
slower, or how much longer I could hold out. I needed
the pain to stop for good, needed it very badly, and if
it didn't stop soon—

"No, please, not again!" I screamed in a cracked
voice, writhing as a name was slid inside my outer
thigh. "I can't stand any more, you have to stop!"

"I'm afraid, dear lady, that stopping isn't on our
schedule," Jejin said, pleased anticipation in his voice.
"As a matter of fact we've left the best places for but,
the places where you'll feel the pain even more than
you have until now. Delicate, soft and tender places
those are, and after we're done you'll never feel plea-
sure in them again."

"No!" I screamed, totally beside myself as his fin-
ger touched between my thighs, one of the places I
hadn't known they were deliberately ignoring. "You
can't do that to me. you can't! I'll die if you hurt me
there! Seren! Don't let them do it! Seren, I'm begging
you!"

I was so terrified I didn't even know what I was
saying, and all I could do was throw the strength of
panic against leather straps that refused to part. I
screamed again and fought to get loose—and then it
finally came through that I wasn't the only one scream-
ing. I forced my eyes open to look wildly around—
and couldn't believe at first that I wasn't hallucinating.

Both doors to the room had been thrown open, and
men in uniform were pouring in—led by Seren with
his multi-sworo in his fists. One of the two men who
had been hurting me made the mistake of running to-
ward Seren in an effort to get away, and he didn't live
long enough to realize the error. His head flew from

310 Sharon Green

his shoulders without Seren even breaking stride, and
then the fighter had reached Jejin where he trembled
against the left wall. The ex-magician was trying to
unwrap something and put it in his mouth, but Seren
knocked that something out of his hands and then
knocked Jejin over the head. The Mists man crumpled
to the floor and lay still, and I knew he would wake
up to regret that he hadn't been killed.

The screaming I'd heard was coming from the third
man who had been captured by some of the uniformed
men, but I paid almost no attention to that. Despite
the soul-eating pain still washing over me I laughed
where I lay, knowing my love had come to save me
again, knowing his own love was soon to be mine
ftgyin, I watched him with shining eyes as he turned
away from the unconscious Jejin—then felt worse ag-
' thaa anything the enemy had given me when his
ft slid past me as he began making his way out of




„ room. He didn't even stop to find out how badly I
,«HS hurt, didn't even want to look at me long enough
t9 see if 1 was going to live. He just kept going and
disappeared through the door, and then Chal was
standing next to the table to my right.

"Dear lord. Inky, look what they've done to you!"
he said in a trembling voice, reaching immediately for
the leather holding my wrists. "We've got to get you
out of this, and into decent medical facilities as soon
as possible! Some of you men give me a hand here!
This woman has to be . . ."

His voice trailed off as the blackness began forming
behind my eyes again, and my last thought was a fer-
vent prayer that I never wake up.

It took a very long while before all the confusion
passed or settled down, and by then I knew that pray-
ers were never answered. I'd awakened the first time
on board a ship that didn't seem to be a liner, but
hadn't been clear enough to recognize the uniforms I
saw. By the time I was awake enough to know I was
in a planetary hospital, I was also awake enougti to
know I was still alive. I ached just about all over and
was bandaged like a first-aid practice dummy, but there

MISTS OF THE AGES          311

I

was no doubt about my being alive. Even if that wasn't
what I'd wanted to be.

"Well, you're looking better than you did," a
cheery voice said, and a female nurse entered my room
carrying a tray. "This breakfast will probably change
that in a hurry, but it really is good for you no matter
what it tastes like. And why don't we get a little light
into this place?"

She put the tray, down near me then went to the
window, and a sweep of her hand later there was bright
sunshine pouring into the room. I squinted against the
brightness, finding it totally out of place, but the nurse
never noticed. She used a button to raise the top half
of my bed, swung the tray in front of me on a lift
field, then left the room.

Once she was gone I pushed the tray back again,
lowered the bed, then spent my time hurting and think-
ing about what I had lost. Velix had said we wouldn't
remember the details of what we did in the Mists, but
in my case he was wrong. I remembered all of it, even
the parts I didn't want to remember, even the fact that
he'd never know he'd been wrong. I was back on a
planet and still alive, and it was clear vacation time
was over. I had my own planet to get back to, and
something important to finish, and it really no longer
mattered to me whether or not I would survive its com-
pletion. As a matter of fact I'd be happier if I didn't;

what I wanted most in the worid—after seeing that
Seero's death was paid for—was to follow after Seero.
to find out if there really was a place we would meet
again. I needed very badly to cry out my hurt against
him, and have him show me how to bear it for the rest
of eternity.

The trouble started when I refused the medication
they tried to give me, after refusing the food they
wanted me to eat. They lectured and threatened, teU-
ing me how much I would hurt and how weak I would
get if I didn't cooperate, but I didn't feel like coop-
erating. When they finally went looking for a doctor
to add his own lecture to theirs, I forced myself out of
bed, ignored the dizziness, then looked for and found
the bodysuit I was hoping would be in the closet. Get-

312 Sharon Green

ting dressed was painful but didn't take very long, and
ditto for finding the floor's exit stairs. I made my way
slowly to the ground floor, having no idea where I was
going besides out of there, and then the question was
answered for me. Two men were waiting in the stair-
well at the bottom, and both of them grinned at me.

"I think Raksall just made some money again," one
of them said, his expression showing how amused he
was. "We're here to help you find your way to her
office, and to make sure you don't get lost on the way.
You weren't supposed to be out of here for quite a
while yet, but since you're going for a stroll, you might
as well stroll with us."

"Hie other one was just as amused and just as alert,
but it didn't make any difference. It seemed I was back
on Gryphon, and that would save me some time and
effort. I shrugged in answer to their unspoken ques-
„ tion» and simply went with them.

r\^ Despite it being eariy afternoon, Raksall really was
- IB her office—with an officious-looking Filster sitting
" fe a chair next to her desk. One of the men who had
brought me there had called ahead, but I hadn't heard
what was said. When I walked through Raksall's door,
I didn't so much hesitate as pause to catch my breath,
but the S.I. woman misinterpreted the halt.

"Now, Inky, don't be upset at Filster's being here,"
she said at once, raising a calming hand. "He's just
finished going through most of the reports that were
filed, and he wanted to tell you what a good job he
thinks you did."

"What an efficient, satisfactory and extremely pro-
ductive job you did," FUster corrected with care, giv-
ing me a narrow smile as I lowered myself into a chair.
"Not only did you perform with all of your ability on
our behalf, you even made it possible for your team-
mates to have the time to summon the assistance you
all needed. That was truly fine work, and you've vin-
dicated the computer's decision to make use of you."

**Ah, Lidra tells me you may not know how she
called die troops down and then found where they were
holding you,*' Raksall said hastily, probably because
of Filster's final, highly flattering comment. "She and

MISTS OF THE AGES         313

Chal explained about the anomaly that ruined your time
sense, but Chal says you should have no trouble re-
membering everything that happened. Is he right?"

I nodded with all the interest I was feeling, not to
mention the pain from the trip up there, and she took
the answer as though it were the height of enthusiasm.

"Then unconsciousness is the key," she said, nod-
ding happily. "Chal theorized that it might be, and
you're the last one we had to check. He tried to ex-
plain how the rapid readaptation of the metabolism in
the conscious individual slurred the memory that was
linked in and active, but I'm afraid I missed most of
what he said. He doesn't try to talk above people's
heads, but in his position it can't come out any other
way."

"One cannot expect the brilliant to lower mem-
selves," Filster put in, narrow and stiff as ever. "The
same, of course, goes for Lidra, who programmed her
board with an equation that solved the anomaly, and
was therefore able to contact the orbiting troop ship."

"But let's not forget it was Inky's discovery of me
anomaly in the first place that let Lidra know she'd
need a conversion formula," Raksall came back at
him, smooth satisfaction in her tone. "They made an
all-around excellent team, and if the troops homing in
on Lidra's signal hadn't had to spend some time adapt-
ing to the mists, they would have reached Inky a good
deal sooner. She did still have her ring on, you know,
so her location under the headquarters building wasn't
difficult to find."

"The delay wasn't all that critical, considering the
prisoners they were able to take at the end of it,"
Filster said, thumbing through some of the papers he
held. "The number of hours hardly matter, when you
consider what we were able to leam. That one calling
himself Jejin, for instance . . .*'

"Filster, what's wrong with you?" Raksall snapped,
her eyes on me in a worried way. When the man had
mentioned the delay he considered so acceptable, what
had gone on during those hours had suddenly come
back to roe all at once. "How can you sit there and
say what they did to Inky doesn't matter? She wasn't

314 Sharon Green

simply locked up during all that time, she was being
tortured! Her being able to hold out was the only thing
that got you those valuable prisoners!"

Filster looked up with a frown, blinked when he saw
my face, then went back to the papers he was holding
to search for one in particular. When he found it he
spent a few moments reading, and when he finally
looked up again he was definitely pale.

"I—somehow missed that the first time through,"
he said, his eyes clinging to my face. "Electronically
heated wires—such barbarism should be punished to
the fullest extent of the law— I had no idea— And after
you allowed yourself to be captured so the others
would find it possible to escape—"

His words broke off and didn't resume, his pain-
filled stare refusing to leave me, but it didn't matter.
Whether his opinion of me had changed or not, it sim-
.yfy didn't matter.

:^**Well, at least it wasn't all for nothing," Raksall
said. leaning back in her chair while she pretended not
to see Filster's reaction. "The problem we found is
considerably more far-reaching and critical than sim-
ple fraud, and we've only begun probing through the
first few layers. Unraveling it all will take everything
we can come up with."

"Yes, well. with all those addicts," Filster said,
finally pulling himself together enough to go back to
his papers. "The ones addicted in the Mists go on to
addict others, but the drug isn't being charged for.
And there's the fact that if there is some sort of counter
or antidote for its influence, it might well be found
right here on this worid. The computer is suggesting
the core group running this thing makes a habit of
establishing a headquarters in ordinarily inaccessible
locations, like the Mists of the Ages on Joelare and
the wilds here on Gryphon. It's a shame we haven't
been able to learn exactly how many headquarters lo-
cations they have."

"Or what they're really up to," Raksall said, then
she leaned forward and put her forearms on the desk.
"Inky, you're still not looking very well, and even
though I knew you'd be out of that hospital before they

MISTS OF THE AGES         315

wanted to let you go, I think you'd be better off going
back now. I know just how badly they hurt you, and
you won't be over it for quite a while. Go back and
let them take care of you."

"You really must, you know," Filster put in, look-
ing at me soberiy. "Anyone going into the wilds must
be in absolutely peak condition Just to survive, not to
mention function efficiently. It won't be long, so . . .*'

"I'm not going into the wilds," I said, the words
forced out of me by the internal shudder I felt. I was
beginning to reel really sick, and the pain was flashing
through my body like an asteroids-warning beacon. I
knew I had to get out of there, so I forced myself to
my feet and started through the doorway, but Raksall
and Filster came right behind me.

"Inky. you*rcjust not up to thinking about it now,"
Raksall said, a mixture of pleading and coaxing in her
voice. "Once you've recovered you'll understand how
badly they*!! need your ability, just the way they did
in the Mists."

"This is of vital importance, young miss," Filster
put in his own oar, his voice now sounding anxious.
"The original Situation had been reclassined as an A
Prime Emergency, something none of us can ignore.
Your sense of duty and honor . . ."

"I have no honor," I interrupted without turning,
stopping for a minute to let the dizziness pass. "I'm
a thief, and thieves have no honor. Just leave me
alone."

"Leave you alone to desert your teammates?" an-
other voice asked, a strong male voice. "You know
you're not the land to do that. Inky. If you were, I
never would have asked you for a date."

It took some effort to turn, but once I did I saw that
big blond field agent I'd met at the beginning of that
mess, standing behind and to my left in front of an
open office. He grinned at me in a way I vaguely re-
membered, but T had nothing to say to him. All I
wanted was to get out of there, but before I could turn
back toward the exit three people came out of me of-
fice behind him. Two of them were Chal and Lidra,
staring at me with hurt in their eyes, and the third, of

316 Sharon Green

course, was Serendel. I realized they'd probably re-
cruited him to be one of their associate workers, but
that was hardly surprising. What was faintly surprising
was the fact that this time he looked straight at me,
and his expression was a careful neutrality. He seemed
to have gotten control of himself, but I couldn't say
the same about me. Instead of returning his gaze I
completed my previous intention to turn away, but the
big blond agent couldn't let it lie.

"We'll have dme for that date before we leave for
the wilds. Inky/' he said, his voice strong and steady
and persuasive. "You'll go back to the hospital and
let them help you, and then we'll ..."

"I won't go into the wilds," I said again, my own
voice weak but no less determined. "I won't have any
more to do with you people at all, and I want you to
leave me atone."

*'We're not 'you people* any more, Inky," the man
persisted, the calm in his voice unchanged. "You're
'one of us now, a full member with privileges earned
like hard way, and you can't expect to simply walk
away. We won't let you walk away."

"There's only one thing I am," I said, wishing I
could sit down right where I was. "Tell the man what
I am, Mr. Filster, just the way you said it to me.'1

"My dear young woman!" Filster protested, his
voice tinged with distress. "What I said then was
before I knew you, before I realized what you were
truly . . ."

"Tell him!" I repeated harshly, aware that everyone
in the office had stopped to watch and listen. "It's the
complete, unglorified truth, so I want you to tell him!
What am I, Mr. Filster?"

"A—a thief," the man whispered, the words torn
out of him bringing pain to his voice. "Your talent is
stealing, young miss, and you're nothing but a thief."

"Thank you, Mr. Filster," I said, looking down
from all the pity and compassion I could see in the
faces of those who listened. That should have been the
end of it. but unfortunately it wasn't.           ,

"If you're nothing but a thief, then we don't have
to spend much time worrying about your feelings,"

MISTS OF THE AGES           317

the blond agent said, his voice having turned hard. "If
you prefer having it put another way, you can join us
on the assignment, or you can be sent to a detention
cell. Does the assignment sound a little more attractive
now?"

"Fieran!" Raksall exclaimed in shock, the only
sound in the entire office. "You can't mean that! Don't
you know . . ."

"I know everything I have to," the man Fieran came
back, his tone still remorseless. "What about it. Inky?
The assignment has started to look a little better now,
hasn't it?"

"No, if hasn't," I answered flatly, a heavy knot of
satisfaction inside me due to the fact that my friends
were long gone and no longer at risk. "I won't go into
the wilds with anybody, most especially not with you
and them. Either arrest me, or let me go."

"Now you're giving me a choice," the blond Fieran
said, his tone suddenly odd. "Are you sure you won't
change your mind?"

"Positive." I answered, the need to leave having
grown absolutely critical. I didn't much care where I
went, as long as it turned out to be some place other
than there. I started moving, vaguely wondering how
far I would get before I passed out, but the question
never came up.

"If that's the way you feel, I really have no choice
at all," the blond man's voice came after me, the tone
filled with more authority than it had previously held.
"As the Agent in Charge of this star sector, I hereby
arrest you for actions damaging to the general public.
You two men take her away."

An uproar began all around, but that's exactly what
the men who had brought me there did.