Part 86 (2/2)
”If you can get control of yourself,” came Betsy's acerbic interruption, ”you might care to take a goggle at this, Your Majesty. I've scanned the entire river from the Gulf of Armorica to its confluence with the Nonol just below Nionel. The only remotely anomalous object I can pick up on this barbarian peepscope is here-a little over one hundred kilometres inland.”
The King frowned at the display. ”Jack up the magnification.
No, that only makes it fuzzier. And look how the d.a.m.n thing keeps hopping about, skipping up and down the river like a willo'-the-wisp.”
”I told you it was anomalous,” Betsy said. ”It could be some obscure gravomagnetic effect, or a glitch in the imaging circuitry.
After all, the poor scope's at least a thousand years old. On the other hand-”
”You don't get this gremlin in any other part of the river?”
”No. We could descend to a lower alt.i.tude, of course, or probe it with a detector beam or your fa.r.s.ense.”
”I don't think we'll risk that,” said the King. ”If it is Kyllikki, they might feel the tickle.”
”The better part of valour is discretion,” Dougal quoted.
”And I have a High Table meeting at Castle Gateway in an hour,” Aiken added. ”If Marc wants to play coy, I'll let him.
For now.”
There were other travellers abroad in the land besides those headed for the tournament Field of Gold, and Mary-Dedra, chatelaine of Black Crag Lodge, came to tell Elizabeth of the latest batch.
”Six more got in just after lunch. On foot, without supplies, and they'd sent back their escorts before setting out on the last leg of the climb today. That's twenty-two all told. Nine humans, the rest Tanu.”
”But there's nothing we can do,” Elizabeth exclaimed.
”Didn't you tell them that?”
”They're not taking no for an answer.”
”Oh, dear. I suppose I'll have to deal with them myself.”
Elizabeth pressed fingers against her aching temples, trying to call up a self-redactive impulse. But she'd been at the fa.r.s.ensing too long, hoping to discover where Marc and the schooner might be concealed, and the fatigue and some perverse mental block frustrated healing. She sent out a plea to Creyn on the intimate mode, then said to Dedra: ”You'd better bring them all up herewithout the children-I'll try to explain things as kindly as possible.”
The human fa.r.s.ensor nodded and left the suite. Elizabeth sat in a chair by one of the large windows, which stood open to the breeze coming out of the north. The heath had begun its second bloom, brightening the dusty green slope with patches of carmine and delicate pink. Brother Anatoly pottered in the kitchen garden below, and cerulean doves cooed in the rafters of the rambling chalet.
Creyn closed the door softly behind him. She sent him a wordless appeal and he strode to her chair and spread his hands over her head. The throbbing ceased.
”Thank you.” She let her eyes close. The hands descended to rest lightly on her hair as he stood behind her.
”Have you found anything?” he asked.
”Not a trace. Marc must be using some kind of artificial screen. Not a sigma-that would stick out like a beacon-but something absorptive that swallows my mental beam instead of reflecting it. I never had much to do with such mechanisms back in the Milieu so I don't have counterprogramming. Most of my fa.r.s.ensing was communication, bespeaking other teachers and exchanging information among the worlds of the Human Polity.
Hunter-searcher fa.r.s.ensors operated in an entirely different sphere.” Aware that she was babbling, she fell silent. After a few moments had pa.s.sed, she said, ”Perhaps Marc's done the unexpected after all. Gone away to another planet and taken the others with him.”
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