"Yes. That's the way it was. But how could I tell Daddy, as he lay
dying?"
"You couldn't, Lyla. But if your father could be here today and know
what you know about Narf, do you think he would want you to marry him?"
"No ... I guess not. But Lord Narf loves me in his own way, I think--and
that's more than anyone else does."
Then her tone changed and she said, "I'm so glad that you're here today,
Dale--I'm glad that there is someone who cares at least a little about
what happens to me."
On her face was a poignant longing for someone to love and comfort her.
It seemed to him, now beyond any doubt, that there could never be
anything for him in his career but loneliness. How different the warm
love of Lyla would be from the cold austerity of the military and its
endless succession of weapons and killing--
* * * * *
He moved, to sit beside her and put his arm around her shoulders.
"Lyla," he said, "I want to tell you--"
"_Dale...._" The word was a despairing sob as her composure broke and
she held tightly to him, crying, her voice coming muffled as she pressed
her face against his chest. "Help me, Dale! How can I marry that
sadistic beast when it's someone else I can't live without--and he
doesn't even know I love him!"
"But he does!" He hugged her closer, "He does know, and he loves you
even more than you love him."
"Are you sure?" She raised a tear-stained face, hope like sunshine
through clouds on it. "Are you really sure Val loves me, after all?"
"_Val?_"
The revelation was like the stunning concussion shock of a blaster beam
passing two inches overhead. His vision blurred and there was a hideous
roaring in his ears. She was still holding to him for comfort and it
seemed to him that was wrong--he should be clinging to her for
support....
"_Dale_ ... what's the matter?"
"But I thought--" He swallowed with difficulty. "I thought you meant
that I was the--"
Something struck the top of his head; this time, for certain, the
concussion shock of a blaster beam passing close above it. There was a
vicious crack as the beam split the tree beyond, then a crash and
explosion of wood fragments as a second beam followed the first.
He rolled from the log; taking Lyla with him. The arrow bushes shielded
them briefly, long enough for them to reach the temporary safety of a
small swale.
"Dale!" Her dark eyes were wide with puzzled surprise and one small foot
was bare from the loss of a sandal. "Someone shot at us!"
He thought, _So Narf got his pictures, after all_.
"Rootenant!" Alonzo came running. "They are _that_ way--awr spread out
to be sure to kirr you."
Alonzo motioned with his nose, a movement that seemed to cover all the
high ground beyond them. At least, the enemy was not between them and
camp. Not yet.
A distant shout came, an order from Narf to his men:
"_All of you--down that ridge! Get between Hunter and camp!_"
"_It's him!_" Her fingers gripped his arm. "He wants them to kill you!"
They had fired from a distance too great for his own blaster. He could
not defy them from where he now stood.
"I'll have to try to get within range of them," he said. "I'll go
back--"
"_No!_" Her grip on his arm tightened. "Don't leave me, Dale--don't let
him find me here."
He looked down the length of the swale. At its lower end the ghost tree
forest began, dense and concealing--but all down the length of the swale
the snarevines lay in thick, viciously barbed entanglements, overlying a
bed of sharp rocks and boulders. She could never get to the safety of
the ghost trees in time.
Narf had his pictures, now. What would he do to her in the insanity of
his hatred and triumph when he reached her?
"All right, Lyla," he said. "I'll see that you get to the trees--"
* * * * *
* * * *
There was a crashing of explosions and debris leaped skyward behind them
and along both sides of the swale. The firing continued, scattered but
very effectively consistent, and he said as he drew his blaster, "I
guess they don't want us to go away."
He set the regulator of the blaster at lowest intensity so that the beam
would not clip dangerous flying fragments from the boulders. The green,
tough vines disintegrated reluctantly while the precious minutes sped
by; while the unhindered assassins would be hurrying to the point where
the entire swale would be visible to them and under their fire.
Alonzo was following along near the top of the swale's side, ignoring
the danger as he watched the progress of the enemy and reported it to
Hunter: "Now they are halfway, Rootenant, hurrying faster--"
They reached the lower end of the swale. The last of the vines
disintegrated and the ghost tree forest lay before them.
He touched her cheek in farewell. "Get on to camp, as fast as you can
run."
The firing abruptly ceased as he spoke. There was an ominous silence.
Alonzo came running, his tone almost a yelp in its urgency:
"They are awrmost where they can see us! We got to get her out of here,
Rootenant--awrfur quick!"
* * * * *
"_Lyla!_"
It was the voice of Val, sharp with concern for her. He came running out
of the ghost trees, all his cold impassiveness gone. "Are you hurt,
Honey--are you hurt?"
"_You came for me!_" She whispered the words, her face radiant. Then she
ran to meet him, her arms outstretched, crying, "_Val ... oh, Val...._"
Their arms went around each other.
Then the woods erupted as ten blasters laid down a barrage to block any
escape to camp.
"I'll try to give you a chance to get through," Hunter said quickly.
"Be ready for it when it comes."
He ran toward the firing line, taking advantage of the concealment
afforded by the first fringe of ghost trees. They should be almost
within range of his own weapon, now--
Again, the firing abruptly ceased, as though by some signal. There came
the furious raving of Narf:
"_It's that Boran she wants! Kill him, too!_"
Sonig cursed with bitter rage. "_Jardeen is lost to Verdam if any
witness escapes--and we'll all hang, besides._"
There was a second of silence, and then Narf's command:
"_Kill the woman, too!_"
There was a roar like thunder as the firing began. The ground trembled
and debris filled the air with flying fragments. Hunter, still running
toward the enemy under cover of the trees, saw Val trying to get Lyla to
safety and saw them both hurled to the ground as a tree exploded in
front of them. They would never live to rise and run again--
* * * * *
He saw Rockford's plan, at last, and what his own duty would now have to
be. He knew why Rockford had said of this day, "_If you can live through
it, you will have it made._"
And he had a cold feeling inside him that he was not going to have it
made.
He took a deep breath and ran toward the enemy, out of the concealment
of the ghost trees and in the open where they could not fail to see him,
his blaster firing a continuous beam that fell only a little short of
the enemy, that showed them he would be close enough to kill them within
seconds if he was not stopped.
The fire concentrated upon him, giving Lyla and Val their chance for
escape. He ran through an inferno of crashing explosions, twisting and
dodging on ground that trembled and heaved under his feet, while
razor-sharp rock shrapnel filled the air with shrill, deadly screaming
sounds.
Something ripped through his shoulder, to spin him around and send him
rolling. He scrambled up, firing as he did so, and ran drunkenly on.
Something struck the side of his head and he went down again. He tried
to rise and fell back, a blackness sweeping over him that he could not
hold away despite his efforts to do so.
It seemed to him that the firing had suddenly stopped, that in its place
was the hoarse buzz of a police stun-beam. It seemed he saw helicopters
overhead, bearing the bright blue insignia of the Royal Guard and then
there was nothing but the blackness.
* * * * *
There was a brief, dreamlike return to consciousness. He was in a Royal
Guard helicopter and Alonzo was beside him, grinning, and saying, "You
be O.K.--I grad! And my Princess Ryra--rook at her now, Rootenant!"
He saw Lyla, her hand in Val's, and her face was glowing and beautiful
in its new-found happiness. Then she was bending down, kissing him, and
saying, "Dale ... Dale ... how can we ever thank you for what you did?"
* * * * *
When the blackness lifted the second time he was lying, bandaged, on a
cot in the meeting hall and the voice of Rockford was saying, "... Ready
to go in just a minute."
The hall was filled with members of the royal court who had come for the
wedding. He saw the white robes of Church of Vesta dignitaries who had
come to officiate at the wedding. Then he saw the seven grim old men
seated at the far end of the table.
The Royal Council--with the judicial power to give even death sentences
in crimes committed against royalty.
Sonig, his face white and staring, was being half led, half carried,
away from them.
Narf, in the grip of another Guardsman, was standing before the Council
and saying in a tone both incredulous and sneering:
"Is that my sentence?"
"There is a qualification to it," one of the Council said. "It seems
only just, in view of your crime, that you be tortured until death--"
The rest of the words were lost as the blackness swept back. But before
unconsciousness was complete, when all else in the hall was gone from
him, he heard Narf's cry; an animal-like bawl of protest, raw and hoarse
with anguish....
* * * * *
"Ah ... you're coming out of it, my boy."
Rockford was standing over him. "They gave you a Restoration shot on
Vesta forty-eight hours ago. It will be wearing off in a minute and your
head will clear."
He sat up, and the dizziness faded swiftly away. He saw that he was in
the compartment of an interstellar ship and he knew that it was
Earthbound.
And that Vesta, and brown-eyed Lyla, were now part of the past....
"Don't look so sad, my boy," Rockford said. "You'll get due credit and
promotion for the invaluable part you played in my plan."
"But--"
"I know. But she was never yours. You'll find life is full of
heartbreaks like that, son.
"And we accomplished our mission. Narf's crime neatly invalidated the
proxy marriage. Then Lyla set a new precedent by marrying Val that very
day. Earth has never had two such loyal and grateful friends as Val and
Lyla."
"You knew all about them, didn't you?" he asked.
"Strategic Service has to know everything. And I knew they were still
in love even though each was too proud to admit it. That's why I had to
insist on Val coming to Vesta. After that, it was only a matter of using
you to awaken Val to the fact that she did _not_ love Narf. And of
taking care of various little details, such as faking an official
request for the helicopters to come out two hours ahead of time, getting
Val off to find her at the proper time, and so on."
Rockford smiled at him, "And you learned that an old man's mind can be
mightier than the space fleets of the Verdam empire--and that the line
of duty that produces the best results can sometimes be very devious."
He thought of the white-faced Sonig, and the anguished bawl he had heard
from Narf.
"I suppose they were going to hang Narf and Sonig at once."
"The Council would have, no doubt. But Lyla was so happy that she begged
the Council to give them very light sentences--or just let them go free.
So I suggested a compromise. The Royal Council regarded it as very
fitting."
"What was it?"
"For Sonig, no punishment. The murder attempt, being news of public
interest, will be broadcast upon Vesta and other worlds, including a
factual, unbiased account of Sonig's participation in it. Shortly
afterward, Sonig will be taken to Verdam and turned over to his own
benevolent government. Vesta will file no charges."
"But Sonig lost Jardeen for his government. They'll execute him for
that!"
"Yes. I'm afraid so. Shall we call it poetic justice?"
"What about Narf?"
"His sentence was life-long exile on his Sea Island estate. He will be
provided with all the luxuries to which he has been accustomed,
including a full staff of servants. He will continue to enjoy all his
possessions there, including his gallery of nude paintings, his risque
films, his pornographic library, and so on. In fact, since he is so
fascinated by pornography and such a collector thereof, any pornographic
material which might become available on Vesta in the future will be
sent to him."
"That's not right ... I mean, they were going to torture him to death."
"Not 'to death'. It was 'until death'. There's a difference."
"But that bawling noise he made--"
"Ah ... that was due to the one restrictive qualification to the benign
terms of his exile. Every woman on his estate was to be removed before
he reached there, leaving men servants only. Patrol boats will see to it
that for so long as he lives no woman shall ever set foot on the Sea
Islands."
Rockford smiled again. "Lord Narf succeeded beyond his wildest dreams in
keeping his boyhood vow of being always a man among men."