CHAPTER II A CRIME COMMITTED Casteltheyne's ample library had the opulence of a museum of knowledge: shelves of bound volumes from one corner to the other and from ceiling to floor and tracing back histories of Radix Epochs long. It also had in the centre circle a row of computer monitors networked to information and entertainment channels. The library was the one place in the whole of the castle that Eirini frequently visited. Her favourite choice had always been the printed literature and she would pluck one from the shelf, nestling herself in the fluffy laps of the broad Sit 'N Fit armchairs to dwindle away hours and hours in blissful isolation. This day her choice was a computer through which she accessed the family tree archives containing information of noble families, past and present, and above all the archive recording the illustrious line of Ermiz that ended with the name of Julyan Ermiz. With palpitating heart, and cursing herself for this weakness, Eirini scrolled to another archive, one that would tell her about the woes and joys of an even more magnificent house: the Trevarthens. But here she drew a complete blank; this family was even more shrouded in enigma. Reclining in her chair, Eirini lapsed in reflections. Vistas of dark-haired, broad-shouldered and stern Lars in custom-made suits, furry greatcoats and expensive shoes projected across her mind and she wondered whether the present Lar of Ermizgarth would excel Lar Huigo in command and severity of mien. Her happy flow of meditations was rudely shattered by an invasion of angry words. "Are you out of your mind barging in here like that? I told you explicitly not to show your face in the castle." Vitor's furious, irascible voice. "Because my dear Lar's Kindred, my patience is running out. I've given you cextra of time and loaded Insta-Fund slips. You wanted still more time and still nothing!" The voice of a lady, calm but rumbling with undertones of frustration. "Doria, please, you must have patience. This place is guarded like a Command fortress. There is nothing in the computers. Nothing in the library. Absolutely nothing!" "What about the shed?" "No! You are insane!" There was high-pitched exasperation In Vitor's voice, "Nobody goes there. Be reasonable, wait a little longer. I'll think of something." "You'd better think of something quick," his tormentor said, speaking in low, threatening tones, "I shall wait, but not for long. I will give you two days, then it is I who will think of something and I shall want my funds back!" The doors of the library parted and fused with a hiss and an awkward silence settled in the room. Eirini remained perfectly still when Vitor reached the window opposite her chair with long, wrathful strides, he squinted for a second down into the garden and turned on his heels. "Demons of light and fury!" he bristled, "little eavesdropper!" Eirini raised her eyebrows scornfully. "I am not going to take that personally. You've brought it upon yourself. You should be more careful before making scenes with unwelcome guests in the library!" Viktor clenched and unclenched his fists, his face white with rage. Then he suddenly ran out of steam, his arms hanging at his sides like broken wings. "Vitor, sit down," Eirini coaxed, "I see you are in trouble. I won't ask questions. Is there something I can do for you?" "Look who is talking like a charitable mother tutor." Vitor plunged into the nearest chair with a harsh grin. "My cousin has clearly put you in a position comfortable enough to be able to turn the tables on me." Eirini shot up in her chair. "Do you know what you are? You are arrogant, self-centred, inconsiderate, wallowing in self-pity, that is what you are!" "Well!" Vitor sparred darkly, "I know I am a heel but I can't be all that bad!" "I don't want to talk to you. I am sick of everyone here." Eirini shot to her feet and swung towards the door. Vitor jumped up from his seat and scrambling over the floor grabbed her arm. "I am vile, my blood is debased. I have the brand of the ancient demons upon me, what more do you want, but don't leave me like this, please Eirini dear. Let us be friends, no more, no less. Lar, I need a friend right now, but I don't want to discuss this sordid little incident." He grinned and added. "You look even more devastatingly lovely when you are angry." Eirini glared at him and sighed the next moment. "Vitor, are you sure what you are doing? Hadn't you better discuss your problem with your cousin Huigo, openly and frankly. I believe that deep down he is generous and kind. " "Generous Cousin Huigo," Vitor scoffed, his face darkening once more, "generous to the point that it is humbling because without Cousin Huigo no one would be alive." "Vitor," Eirini said somewhat indignantly, "you are painting him with the colours of a tyrant. He may be somewhat strict but a despot is he not. In a kind of way he is unhappy too." Vitor glanced at her with astonishment. "Huigo unhappy? Now Eirini, do I detect a change of attitude, are you getting soft on the Lar and Master of the House? My dear, you and I make a good pair, so don't make it an awful threesome with Huigo thrown in between us!" He shook her in sudden excitement. "I have a grand idea! Why don't we go for a float and settle down at some place to have a bite or two. And I promise you, I will be well-behaved and well-mannered. No romancing, no questions, just fun and laughter and plain, good food. How does it strike you? "Coming from you," Eirini said, "it strikes me as a brilliant idea." * * * Secretively Eirini nursed the intention to carry out more research in the Information Exchange of the neighbouring town of Larkae but at the present moment, with Vitor as her escort, she was equally determined to enjoy the pleasure trip and relish the mid-morning meal they took at a brasserie. Vitor turned into a witty and quite pleasing companion throughout the rest of the morning. He had stood by his promise not to prod into the tangles of her life. She, on the other hand, had subtly worm out more facts and matters about the family she had never known before she had. Huigo Moritz was the eldest son of Dama Megryane, the governing matriarch, and he had never wedded. There was a vague notion of some unsuccessful courting in the past but nothing specific on which Vitor could dwell upon with mischievous glee. Huigo had two siblings, Wyllan and Deycine. Vitor's own mother, Ysote, was Dama Megryane's youngest sister, who wedded a Praecel Petrar Olyn. Vitor lost his parents in a spaceliner accident when he had just passed his first maturity and his Uncle Marth took him under his wing. Marth Olyn was at heart a kindly Praecel but an inherent weakness of character pushed him little by little to the delights of stronger mindopeners than just crystalcrest wine. A rather ugly aero accident which left Marth Olyn permanently blind in one eye brought their situation to the attention of Lar Huigo who promptly took them both in, a good deed, Vitor implied, which made him forever feel like a bad loser. Finally, there was one member of the Moritz House never seen in public, but who still lived, nevertheless, at an advanced age like an exile in the far south end of the castle, Huigo's grandmother, Dama Edina. Huigo, it was said, loved her dearly. "Tell me," Eirini said, "what is behind the brick wall? Why is nobody allowed in there?" "Oh ho! You'd better not venture in there! According to hearsay, the shed behind that wall had once improvised as a laboratory. My cousin Wyllan was a professor, a computer expert, and a physicist to boot. A malfunction in an experiment killed him. Since that incident the building is locked and barred to everyone in the household." "Does anybody live there?" "Not a soul. Who would like to live in such horrid surroundings! Cestor Wakren is now using the shed as a warehouse." Eirini did not breathe a word about the spectral encounter she had had in the woods of the castle the previous night. It no longer seemed important and Casteltheyne's dark secrets were too numerous to be taken too seriously. When the late hours of the afternoon drew near Vitor deposited her on the steps of the Town Council's Information Exchange while he continued on his way. In a monitor cubicle staring at the moving screen Eirini lost herself again in thoughts. Why had Eugene told her so little about the present Lar Protector of Ermizgarth? Considering the bond between the two families he and the Lar Ermiz must somehow be kindred. Eugene, if things were to go smoothly his way, could well be Lar Protector himself one day: it was a thought fraught with dread and misgivings. The last Lar Protector of Ermizgarth died in the catastrophic Myaron storm, and his cousin, who was the grandson of his aunt, Roslinne Ermiz, succeeded him. Here Eirini got warmer in her hunt. Eugene, being Lar Irwain Trevarthen's youngest son and the present Lar Ermiz being Lord Irwain's great-grandson, their mutual bond, however distant and peculiar, was nevertheless forged in the blue blood of the great Trevarthen nobles. And then the trail went cold. Eugene, as one prominent member of the Council of Mining, easily stole the limelight from the other, and nothing more significant was reported about Lar Ermiz or his goings-on. The daily news journals however reported one item of immediate interest: Eugene, on his many business wanderings, was last seen on his recent destination to Evening Star. The One-Face HeliĆ had gone down when she stepped out of the Information Exchange and the air on the deserted streets of Larkae nipped at her skin. She hurried to the Excursion Office to rent a charter aero in order to arrive at Casteltheyne before darkness. Feeble daylight still shivered in grey arches through the pall of clouds when she came home. A huge travel aero stood parked before the steps of the castle and was blocking the main pathway. Eirini had to deposit her tiny Charter outside the gates. She eyed the limousine with more than casual curiosity. The voluminous interiors of the aero suggested that the traveller was going on a long journey by Float, or going on a very important fact-finding tour with colleagues, or that he was simply going on an extended vacation with lots of excess baggage. "Someone is so lucky to get away," she murmured and she went into the hall to find out and maybe congratulate the lucky one. In the hall the traveller's heap of voyage necessities littered the floor. Deycine walked out from the living room in a stylish leather outfit and Eirini felt little desire to greet her cousin with enthusiastic congratulations. "Are you going on a trip?" she asked casually and Deycine glanced at her out of the corner of her slanting deepbrown eyes for a fraction of a minute, and then concentrated on putting on her silk black gloves. "Yes," Deycine answered in a silky voice, "I am going to the Sailing Beach Cottages in Calitre. It's much too cold out here." "That is nice," Eirini said. "Lar Eugene will be there too. It is going to be a marvelous holiday!" Eirini kept herself very much composed. 'You little liar,' was the thought she did not voice. "Will he be there? I've heard that he is in fact in Evening Star." Deycine put her hand on her hip and looked at Eirini through half-closed eyes. "So, our little cousin here is keeping tabs on his Larship too. For your information, dear, yes, it is true he is presently on business in Evening Star but as soon as that is finished he will be spacing to the resort to join me there for a well-deserved long vacation that his mother thinks he needs. And don't tell me I am a liar, and let me tell you one thing: Huigo has given you luxury but without Dama Trevarthen nobody would have guessed you even existed. Don't look so shocked, it is the hard bitter truth. Without her speaking up, my mother would have forgotten you completely. You have a lot to thank Dama Anjelie for!" "That is enough, Deycine!" A stern, hard voice cut through Deycine's torrent of spite. She blinked at her approaching older brother apprehensively, biting her lower lip, and Huigo scrutinized her, his mouth a forbidden thin line. "You had better get into the limousine at once," he ordered, "You might miss your space cruiser otherwise." Deycine disappeared through the wide-open front doors with clattering heels and her baggage was subsequently carted out of the hallway. In the settling quietness Huigo turned to Eirini: "I am truly sorry--" Eirini cut him short. "Is it true that we are here through the good mediation of Dama Anjelie?" "Eirini," Huigo said, "I cannot deny that Dama Anjelie has had a certain hand in bringing your circumstances to the attention of my mother. But it is not true to claim that we were not aware of you at all, we were and we were going to do something about it. Your Aunt Megryane had often been hard and unreasonable and it had to take our combined efforts to make her see reason but we, your family, have invited you here with hospitality from the heart and you have accepted." "You shouldn't have," Eirini said, "I don't want to be here." "Eirini," Huigo argued sadly, "please believe me. I have always had the best for you in mind. Can't you at least trust me?" Eirini half-turned and flung back over her shoulder. "I am trying, I am trying very hard!" "Before you go," Huigo said softly, thrusting a folded note into her hand, "this was left for you. I was in fact on the way to your lodgings to hand it to you." He turned back to the inner halls without a further word and Eirini, feeling miserable and mad at herself, found her way back to the Guesthouse. The note was from her father. Marth had invited him for a day exploring Frairimont and he would stay for the night there and be back tomorrow morning. For a long time she stood gazing at the note. There was something in her father's scribbling that told her that her father was having the time of his life and wouldn't want things to change, not ever. Was it only for her father's sake that she had accepted the offer to move into Casteltheyne? Wasn't there at least one notion in the back of her mind that this presented a means of elevating herself into nobility so that she could stand on a par with Eugene? Surrounded by affluence her father appeared to have very little need of her nowadays and she could leave at any time, if she so wished, but why had she stayed on? "Eugene," she whispered, "I--" Could she say it aloud while he had never said it to her? The door to the garden parted with a sigh as she walked towards it. The night outside had deepened and the sky was faintly luminous with a smattering of stars. The Season of One Shadow filled the garden and the woods with an uncertain tang of new snow, old leaves and the fragrance of perigreens. Despite the cold the night breathed enchantment. It was on a night like this, so the old tales told, with the glow of frost upon the sky and the breath of ice and withering flowers upon the lands, at a time when the HeliĆ Equation was an erratic phenomenon and nights were in some seasons as bright as days, that the ancient Iucars, Wingknights, swooped down from their mountaintops and conquered the Soil Demons by planting trees and building nests, and forsook the skies forever to build kingdoms on oceans and on continents. Walking like in a dream Eirini ventured deeper into the park and came upon the part of the castle grounds where thickets of bushes proliferated at the foot of the walls. She instinctively slowed down. This was where the saw the mysterious figure disappear, the southern end of Casteltheyne. Bending low she trailed along the foot of the high walls. She had no torch but the night lamps on the walls provided adequate illumination to trace hidden niches or apertures. She could not find even a rodent hole. The elegant picture windows along the front had dwindled to shorter and broader casements along this south end of the castle. Eirini moved backwards to take a better look at the rows of windows above, which all appeared to be shut except for one on her far left. The open window was positioned at such an angle that beams of a wall lamp fell directly upon it and as she stepped still further back to observe it, a face appeared in the opening and gazed down upon her. First she thought she was seeing another spectre, then she gasped: "Eugene!" She hastened forward with one arm stretched out. The face had disappeared in a second. She felt she was losing her presence of mind. In another second the window was closed again, blending in with the others in a gallery of blank picture frames, and she could not even tell which one it was or whether that brief apparition had been real. She turned quickly and threw herself into the woods, walking rapidly with her breath catching in her throat. She stumbled and had to hold on to the twigs of a saffronflush when her foot caught on an obstacle. She looked down to see what the obstacle was and her eyes widened in astonishment as her fingers closed on a white leather boot lying in the grass. One boot, abandoned in the wood during the night, without its pair, as if it had fallen from the sky. The dark night had suddenly grown terribly cold. She did not want to look but a dreadful sense of foreboding forced her to lift her eyes upwards towards the prickly crowns of the perigreens. Eirini dropped the boot and clasped her mouth with both her hands to stifle the scream, which was welling up in her throat. Then she walked on slowly, like a somnambulist, out of the woods, to the gravel path, up the marble steps to the front door and pressed her hand, daubed with orange fluff, on the visitor's panel. It stayed there until the whole household of Casteltheyne, scandalized at the persistent calling of this visitor at such a late hour, had scurried to the door. * * * "Eirini," Huigo said, "please get away from that window. Take this and sit down." He held out a glass of wine to her and she took it with a strangely steady hand. Patrol aeros of the Surety were lined up on the gravel path and in the garden, a small army of videts flitted to and fro, busily at work. Eirini turned from the window and faced the investigator in charge once more. Superpre Deyron, rather heavily faced and richly lipfleeced, with shrewd eyes peering under heavy eyebrows, had kept his interview mercifully short and had not dwelt endlessly upon details of why she had found it necessary to stroll in the garden at night and alone, what had she been doing, what had she seen and how it came about that it was she who discovered that girl hanging from a tree. Superpre Deyron spoke to Huigo: "I think that is all for tonight, my Lar. I will return to the Surety to file my report but some officers of the squad will be hanging around looking for clues in the garden and in the woods, and for the other boot, if you don't mind." "That is all right with me, Superpre," Huigo said, "What is your next step?" "My next step," the Superpre said with painstaking civility, "is to try to identify the body. My Lar, since everyone we have questioned here denies ever having come across this lady at Casteltheyne, we will try our luck in Larkae tomorrow. We will keep you posted." The Superpre left then with a nod and an uneasy hush followed his departure. "I think I go back to bed," Ronen Wakren said hoarsely, running a hand through his tousled hair and shuffled out of the door. The others who were present, followed his example, and one by one they filed out of the room. Eirini and Huigo were left alone in the living-room. Huigo glanced at her and shook his head, and Eirini understood his dismay. The normal reaction would be to indulge in hysterics, throw a merciful fit but here she stood stiff, grim, unbending, all bottled up inside, a dangerous way of going to pieces. He touched her shoulder lightly and said, "This dreadful business has made me realize the isolation of your dwellings, Eirini. It is completely cut off from the rest of the castle, and in case of emergency it can only be reached through the woods. Henceforth, you are staying with us in the castle. I've already ask my chamberlain to prepare the guestroom for you tonight." "Huigo," Eirini choked in her words. She coughed a little to let that lump out of her throat and went on: "You are too kind but I can't really accept." "Nonsense!" Huigo insisted. "You must, it is the most sensible thing! Tomorrow you and your father will move into the castle." Huigo laid his hands on her shoulders and looked into her face, speaking with a soft voice: "I have given you a completely independent suite in order that you can continue to live as you used to and give you time to adapt but now the time has come for you to integrate into the family. I would very much prefer that you blend yourself with us than live apart." For Eirini, Huigo's words, even so softly and persuasively spoken, came more like a command. She did not protest any further. In the warm guestroom, its size twice as large as her bedroom in the Guesthouse, she lay entwined in the folds of the self-heating, embracing sheets of the huge bed, tossing and turning, torturing herself with the thought whether Eugene's pale, frozen face in the frame of an open window was just a hallucination. The white bloated face of the dead girl staring down from a branch of a tree was real enough, and with an annoyed flick of her finger she turned off the sensual massaging of the bed. It was sleep she needed, not the pleasures of the flesh, but the terrible crime in the woods pursued her in her dreams throughout the night. * * * "Shine and health to you all," Superpre Deyron said, "a very good health." "And good health to you, Superpre," Huigo said, "any progress in your investigation of this crime?" The investigator thoughtfully twirled his lipfleece, stuck his chin up and sniffed at the air. "Now why," he enquired, "would you conclude that a crime has been committed. It could well have been an accident, or a suicide?" He observed through slits of quasi-languid eyes the little group clustering around the breakfast table with lacklustre faces, and Huigo said with undisguised scorn: "Superpre Deyron, we are hardly jumping to conclusions. No person in his right mind would go to the woods at night and either by accident or with design of self-destruction put a noose around his own neck and hauled himself up a tree. Can you cite a precedent, in your experience as a security officer, that such a bizarre case has ever occurred?" "I would concur with you that it is a bizarre case," Deyron said amiably. "Although in the annals of past history there have been cases of suicide reported in times of catastrophe and disease, there are none now. As an officer of planetary security I have to explore all possible angles of this case but since the deceased was young and healthy, we can safely rule out suicide. Accident? My Lar, ladies and cestors, she was dead before she was strung up. By a blow to the head and as such makes it slaughter, clear and simple." A moment of uneasy silence followed and Eirini said irritably: "Now that you have stated your case, can we go on?" Deyron eyed her speculatively. "I admire your strength, youngslady Vrillenar. Few would have come out from such an incident with their nerves in place and you are absolutely right: I shouldn't waste so much time in surmises; it is time for action." He pulled out his microcom from the deep inner pocket of his coat and keyed it with nimble fingers. He then proceeded to flash under their noses the image, which appeared on the mini-screen. "Her name was Cidora Amee. She was not a local resident but she arrived two days ago in Larkae. She took quarters in the main travel house and had stayed there until her unfortunate demise. The general word floating around is that she had been more than tourist-curious about the goings-on of the occupants of Casteltheyne and was last seen heading in this direction during the late afternoon of yesterday. Have you seen her, or better still, do you know her?" "I have never seen her before in my life," Huigo said evenly and looked hard at the other members of his surrounding family. Marth Olyn, who had arrived in the morning from Frairimont just in time to be briefed before the Superpre's arrival, broke in with easy laughter while studying the picture, "Come, come, she might just have been an ordinary thrillseeker who has been done in by the passion of another thrillseeker. Rather pretty but not my type. What about you, Vitor?" Vitor took a very quick glance and answered with a vacant air: "Nor mine." "Well then," the Superpre said, "that more or less settles it. None of you at Casteltheyne seems to know her, which poses the next big questions: What was she doing here? Why was so she so interested in Casteltheyne? Whom was she meeting? Where is her other boot?" He looked at them with a wide grin, displaying his row of strong teeth and concluded: "But these are problems for the Surety to tackle, I gather. At least we have a definite identification of the victim. For the time being I will not spoil the rest of your day with my presence. I must be going but I will keep you posted." The forlorn group of people broke up as soon as the Superpre had departed. His visit had not brought relief or a glimmer of hope that this new dark mystery would swiftly draw to an end. The atmosphere in the halls and corridors was rife with speculation and suspicion. A deepening sense of distrust infiltrated the walls of Casteltheyne, towards one and another, and in Eirini's case, towards the House, which had taken her in. She was convinced seeing Eugene had been no delusion. Her belief led to yet another alarming conclusion. He was being kept here against his will, and somehow his confinement in the castle could have not been achieved without the knowledge of Lar Moritz. As Eirini busied herself with the arrangements of their transfer to the premises of the castle, she felt with each drag of the hour how the walls were slowly starting to close in upon her and her father. Tonight, when darkness fell, she and her father would become the new prisoners of the castle. This new awareness affected her like a tranquillizer; she remained calm, in perfect control of her senses while she prepared and listened to Huigo, who was often at her side supervising the move and lecturing on the benefits of full family participation. Conflicting feelings stung her again and again during the course of this difficult day that he was being sincere, he behaved with true kindness, he genuinely liked her. "But there is treachery behind kindness," she told herself with bitterness and she breathed with relief when Ronen Wakren finally called him away on some matter of the estate. Cestor Vrillenar was ecstatic about his new spacious rooms, the rich furs on the floor and the luxury of having a Simu-Fire fountain spouting flames in the hearth and a Holo-bathroom. Leaving him thus rapturous and content, Eirini went in search of Vitor. She sensed Vitor was the only individual amongst the residents of Casteltheyne whom she could trust. He knew the layout of the castle and could assist her in pinpointing the location where Eugene was being kept. The thought of Eugene being so near quickened the pace of her heart. What will be his reaction when she appears before him as his Rescuer? Take her into his arms undoubtedly, finally, and then leave Casteltheyne together, in union? It was like wanting to capture water between one's fingers but it drove her on nonetheless searching for Vitor, enquiring here and there about his whereabouts. The night fell and it was only at dinner time that she managed to come upon him. Dinner was a listless gathering of morose and sombre faces. Huigo did not join them and without him presiding at the head of the table, dispatch of the meal was carried on in a quick and disorganized manner. People straggled in and slipped away as soon as they had satisfied this nightly ritual and when Cestor Vrillenar retired from the dining room in the company of Marth Olyn, Eirini was finally left alone with Vitor. "Vitor," she said, "would you care to chaperone me on a prying exercise?" "The lady has turned into a Pre! It no longer surprises me. Where would you like to start?" "The southern wing." Vitor whistled and Eirini inclined her head to steal a quick glance at him. His dark eyes were burning with an inscrutable mystery of their own. "You don't ask simple favours." "Well then, don't shuffle about and come along." Impatience had sharpened Eirini's voice and quickened her temper. She had a sudden urge to get things done and finished with speed and without further trouble. Vitor shrugged his shoulders and followed her to the door. Huigo entered and stood before them, his face drawn with weariness and his eyes blanked out of any expression, as if shielding some private pain. "Vitor, would you come with me to the study?" Eirini glanced at Vitor with puzzlement but the look he gave her made her step aside quickly, and he passed her without comment, following his cousin into the corridor, out of her sight. Eirini shuddered. The ill wind, which had been steadily blowing throughout Castletheyne during the day, was gathering into a storm in the night. But she had made up her mind, she would pursue her goal, come what may. 'Come what may'. It was a slogan of a hardy soul, or a desperate one, and her actions were akin to a person driven to absolute despair as she went out into the garden, into a starless night, creeping her way through the dark woods. Without a guide familiar to the castle's layout--she had hoped that Vitor could be that guide--she had no chance of reaching the southern end through the labyrinth of passages and staircases. Hidden exits along the southern walls would offer her more easy access but also indescribable danger but at least there was a chance of finding the secret doorway, through which she had seen the spectre in the woods disappear. Eirini had come prepared with a torch, which shook in her unsteady hand as she crept close to the clematis thicket winding along the foot of the castle, examining every piece of stone and the cracks in the mortar. She went over the walls yard by yard and square by square, sweeping away the snarling vines and manoeuvering the torch with fingers getting stiffer and clammier by each whiff of the wind. There was a fearful sense of premonition; nothing would be the same again after this night turned to dawn in the new day. She glanced fearfully over her shoulder. The perigreens were creaking softly. By the breeze or something else? "Eugene," she gritted through her teeth, "if you only knew what I'm going through for you." Her stiffening fingers suddenly touched wood and her breath caught in her throat with a sob. The yellow stream of the torchlight cast on a squatty doorway, hidden in a niche. It was not locked. Eirini tasted blood on her lips. It felt good, it immediately cleared her mind and with one short push she was inside. She had entered a low and narrow hall and the only light came from her torch. The air had a musty smell. The ceiling and walls were patched with spots of dampness but the area was otherwise surprisingly clean of dust and cobwebs. The hall led to a wide passage faintly lit by two wall lamps. At the end a door and beside the door a staircase marked the end of the corridor. A layer of worn-out rugs covered the greyish floor-panels and muffled her footsteps. She could hear her heart pounding in her chest and fearfully she clasped a hand over it lest some inquisitive ears could hear its beating. The door was made of wood and did not fission. She pushed against it but it was not moving. "Eugene," she whispered, "Eugene, are you there?" A sound filtering through the wood was her only answer, a sound of water lapping over the sides of an overflowing tank. She pushed against the door with more force, and she heard behind her the creaking of the stairs. She flung round and hurled herself against the wall, gagging her mouth with her knuckles. On the top of the staircase stood a lady, very advanced in maturity, with a face wise and infinitely sad and eyes from which the light and colour had gone out forever. The lady settled her pupilless eyes on her with unmistakable precision. "Eirini Vrillenar?" It came like a half statement and a half question, and the voice was startlingly clear and strong. Eirini faltered: "Do you know me?" The lady smiled and for a moment it seemed as if a door had opened from within to let a light go through which softened and illuminated that ancient face. "I just know. I suppose that you know me too." Boldly Eirini ventured: "You must be Huigo's grandmother, Dama Edina." The lady nodded. She leant on her walking stick, clasping it with young and slender hands. "You cannot save him on your own." Eirini gasped: "What do you mean?" "My dear, you know very well what I mean. I know because I have been given the power and you must find the person who has that power too." "What do you mean?" Eirini repeated flabbergasted. "You will understand in time. But now you must leave this place, as quickly as possible. Find Lar Ermiz and bring him here. He must come here. The destiny of this house is resting upon his and your shoulders. Go, my girl, go!" Dama Edina's voice increased in urgency and purpose with each word and Eirini felt that sense of premonition paralyzing her mind and body. A sudden sting of fear energized her frozen limbs and with one savage leap she broke into a headlong run, through the passage, the narrow hall and the wooden door. The door fell shut behind her back with a heavy thud. Fleeing through the woods she glimpsed through the rows of perigreens the blazing lights of the halls of Casteltheyne. Never before had she thought how blessed and enchanting that sight could be: the brilliant array of the crystal chandeliers, gushing golden waves of light onto the marble staircase and into the garden. A surety squad aero glided upwards through the shadows of the night and instantly broke the magic. In the front hallway she came upon Huigo and was at once struck by the disconsolate look of his face. "Is something wrong, Huigo?" The question had sprung from her lips before she could stop it. "One disaster coming after the other," Huigo muttered distractedly as if speaking more to himself, "I am forced to approve the Warrant of Restriction which the Surety has issued for Vitor. He has to report to the Remand Centre within an hour." "That cannot be!" Eirini cried out. "I can't believe Vitor has had anything to do with the death of that girl!" Huigo speared her with his hard eyes. "That girl, Cidora Amee," his bloodless lips cracked out the name like a malediction, "he knew her and they were seen together in Larkae on many occasions, but he has first denied ever knowing her. What has come to this house?" He left her with hunched shoulders, like one defeated. Eirini stood under the glowing chandeliers for a long time and only when the chamberlain passed by to program the light controls for the next day did her brain and body start to refunction. She ascended to the sleeping wings and back in her room she wrote a note to her father. She waited until all of Casteltheyne was shrouded in darkness. Then she stole down the escalators, out of the front door and into her Charter aero, which she had not been able--oh, thank the stars! -- to remote-control back to its base because of the hectic day, and sped out to Larkae to catch the Trans-Satellite Express to Ermizgarth.