"Captain D'Accorso," he said formally. "I am surprised to see you returned so quickly. I understand there is an urgent matter you wish to discuss."
"It was because of this urgent matter that I came back," she said. "I would like to speak with Lord Miklos."
"I'm afraid that isn't possible at the moment." He picked up a stylus and tapped it on the desk. "You may tell me, and I will inform Lord Miklos when he is available."
Cynara clenched her teeth and held on to her patience. "In that case, I must speak to Ronan."
He smiled briefly, freezing her blood. "That is also not possible. You see, Ronan is in custody for the attempted murder of the Archon."
"What?"
If he took satisfaction in her stunned disbelief, he had enough courtesy to hide it. "It's quite true, Captain." He dropped the stylus. "Is the Pegasus in orbit?"
She swallowed. "I sent the ship back to Dharma without me."
"Then your news must be urgent indeed. What is it?"
She'd been wrong before in thinking she hated Ronan more than anything or anyone else. "I think I'll wait for Lord Miklos, Janek," she said, "even if I have to sleep in your office."
"I trust you don't hope to win Ronan's freedom," Janek remarked. "Now that he has proven himself a traitor and assassin—"
"It hasn't been proven to me," she said, contradicting her own furious doubts. "Or, I presume, to a court of law."
"We shall see. Oh, and to spare you any future embarrassment, I should inform you that my name is not Phineas Janek."
Her heart was too heavy for surprise. "I didn't really expect Janek to have an office like this," she said. "Who are you?"
"Damon Challinor." He tucked his hands behind his back. "Head of Security for the Pegasus Project."
Challinor. Cynara found that her capacity for shock had not quite reached its limit. "Damon Challinor," she repeated. "I should have realized. You're a member of the royal family."
"Nephew of the Archon," he said casually. "But I consider that less important than my rank in Royal Intelligence. I assure you that I take my duties most seriously."
"As do I." Miklos Challinor walked into the room and stopped halfway between Cynara and Damon. He nodded to Cynara. "I heard you'd already returned. Have I missed your report?"
"Not at all, Lord Miklos," Cynara said with a hard glance at Damon. "I've just been informed that Ronan has been arrested. May I know the evidence against him?"
Miklos sat in one of the guest chairs and stretched his legs. "As yet we have only one witness."
"He was seen trying to kill the Archon?"
"No," Damon admitted, jerking up his chin. "Not in the usual way."
"Then why did you—"
Miklos held up his hand. "Patience, children. First, Captain, I'd like to know why you've come back to us so quickly."
"I prefer to speak to you alone, Lord Miklos—"
"Does this matter in any way involve Ronan or the Pegasus!"
She hesitated, deliberately looking away from Damon. "It does."
"Then my nephew is entitled to hear it."
Nothing could be worse, in light of what Damon had told her of Ronan's arrest. "While we were en route to Dharma," she said slowly, "my chief engineer reported that there had been some unauthorized access to the engine room computers, specifically the schematic files for the slingshot drive."
"Ronan," Damon said.
"As best we can determine, he acquired a passcard, managed to get past the marine at the door, and evaded the notice of the crew. There is no evidence that he actually stole any information."
"I knew it," Damon said, his voice oddly devoid of triumph. "I saw it."
"And you didn't report it until now?" Miklos demanded.
"I wasn't sure until now."
Miklos rose and tapped the intercom. "Send Mes Carter VelShaan to Lord Damon's office at once."
"I don't understand," Cynara said. "Lord Miklos—"
'The Archon wished to see Ronan," Miklos said. "I took him to the Archon's private sitting room and introduced them. Shortly after that, my nephew entered the room and claimed that Ronan was about to kill my brother."
"I had reason," Damon said. "I saw what he was about to do."
"You saw?" Cynara repeated.
"That's why I've asked Mes Carter VelShaan to join us," Miklos said. "There is as yet some confusion as to what exactly my nephew did see, and how."
"Captain D'Accorso's report will be vindicated by other evidence once Ronan is questioned," Damon said, "He will face just retribution as a traitor to his own kind."
Miklos drew up straight and glared at his nephew. "Don't be so hasty to condemn him," he said. "He is, after all, your brother."
* * *
Chapter 20
« ^ »
Under other circumstances, Cynara might have been delighted to see Damon so startled. She took no pleasure from it now, for she shared his shock.
"My brother?" Damon echoed, and began to laugh. Miklos's expression didn't change. Damon's laughter dwindled and stopped.
"Your brother," Miklos repeated grimly. "Evidently that was one small fact you failed to 'see' because of your own prejudices. I began to suspect almost as soon as Captain D'Accorso brought him to meet me. I had never met anyone who so closely resembled both my sister Kori and her husband, Jonas Kane VelArhan." He glanced with sympathy at Cynara. "I had tests run this morning, after Ronan left his room. They confirmed my suspicion."
No one spoke. Damon sat down heavily. Cynara locked her knees and remained on her feet.
A Challinor. Ronan was a Challinor, like Damon. She also had the hysterical urge to laugh.
"Of course," Damon whispered. "Now it makes even more sense. He didn't die with my parents—the shaauri took him. They knew we would want to trust him as our long-lost relative. The perfect weapon." He slammed his fist on the desk. "When he first came aboard the Pegasus, he claimed to remember nothing of his past. I knew something was wrong with his assertion. It was all a deception, a trick."
Cynara felt ill, half afraid that the room's walls would close in and crush her. The door opened, and a black-haired woman entered the office. She stopped, nodded to Damon and Miklos, and turned toward Cynara.
"Lord Miklos," she said. "Lord Damon."
"Mes Brit Carter VelShaan, I present to you Captain Cynara D'Accorso of the Pegasus. Captain D'Accorso, Mes Carter VelShaan."
The Kinswoman offered her hand, and Cynara took it without reciting the usual empty words of greeting. Carter VelShaan seemed to understand.
"You wished to see me, Lord Miklos," she said.
"You spoke to Ronan?" he asked.
"I did."
"Were you able to glean anything at all from his thoughts?"
"Yes." She hesitated, and Miklos offered her a seat. One by one each of them took the nearest chair, though the tension was palpable.
"He has very powerful shields, as we already realized," she said, "and it would be impossible, short of a true deep-probe, to discern everything he may be hiding. He is, without doubt, loyal to his adopted shaauri kin. But I was able to detect some vivid images which I am sure he did not intend to share."
Damon looked ready to interrupt, but Miklos silenced him. "And what were these images, Mes Carter VelShaan?"
"Faces," she said. "Faces all around him, voices giving commands—Kinsmen, in fact, in the process of doing something to his mind. They were definitely not our people. I suspect that his mind was manipulated, and the effect was devastating for Ronan."
"Scylla's teeth," Cynara swore.
"Manipulated," Miklos said. "As in given hidden compulsions? Fraudulent memories?"
"It's very possible. The Kinsmen who went over to the shaauri included many who were not so eager to follow the rules we set for ourselves long ago. They might force their wills on a vulnerable mind."
"Ronan said at the beginning that his telepathy had been suppressed," Cynara said.
"Perhaps it was. Unraveling
what really occurred may take a great deal of time and patience."
'Time we don't have," Damon said. "You said he was loyal to the shaauri. Even if his mind was manipulated, there is no evidence that he didn't agree to it."
"None thus far. But I sensed that he resisted the compulsion to kill the Archon, and his feelings about the "Kinsmen are unequivocally negative. However he came to be a shaauri agent, I'm certain he didn't expect to suffer what was done to him. He's no hardened assassin."
"Just how strong is Ronan's mind?" Miklos asked.
"I can say with certainty that its power is considerable. This means that whoever tampered with him had to be a very strong telepath as well, and ruthless enough to cut through Ronan's natural defenses. He doesn't grasp the range of his own abilities."
"This could be yet another ploy—" Damon began.
"Unlikely. Emotion is not so easily feigned as thought. Ronan is far too disturbed to have anticipated recent events. Even a disciplined mind cannot control everything."
"He was sent by our enemies to act against the Concordat and humanity."
"But his willing, conscious participation in those actions remains to be determined."
"It will be."
"Only if I and my people consent to do a deep-probe, Lord Damon, and that is by no means assured."
"Does he know who he really is?" Miklos asked.
"No. His captors must have known, but they kept it from him." She looked directly at Cynara. "I would swear on my name that Ronan has been suffering from artificially imposed amnesia and is not wholly responsible for his actions. He is lost, Lord Miklos."
"He's dangerous," Damon said. 'Too dangerous to leave alone."
"Perhaps he is not the primary danger," VelShaan said. "I told you that I'd seen certain faces among those who manipulated Ronan's mind. One of them was very clear, and I recognized it instantly. Artur Constano VelRauthi."
The name sounded familiar to Cynara, and she could see the others knew it as well. Damon paced across the room, and Miklos ran his hand through his white hair.
"Constano," Miklos said. "We'd heard he was dead—"
"We also heard that about my parents and brother," Damon said. Unexpectedly, he turned to Cynara. "Constano was the leader behind the first Kinsman conspiracy, which my parents helped to put down. He and his coconspirators were taken prisoner, but some later escaped, and that proved a devastating event for the Concordat. We've believed for some time that he had a large part in the troubles that led to the defection of two-thirds of our Kinsmen to the shaauri, and the subsequent conflict, war, and blockade. But we had been told he was killed in a skirmish near the border some years ago."
"Constano was hungry for power," Carter VelShaan said grimly. "He wasn't satisfied with the privileges given Kinsmen by the Concordat and the shaauri. He believed that Kinsmen should rule human space, and he was confident that he and his followers, with antihuman shaauri assistance, had the means to bring it about. If anyone in the universe had reason to want the Archon dead, it would be Constano and his kind."
"Why Constano?" Damon asked. "Why not the shaauri? You speak as if they are working independently, when they're close allies."
"As close, perhaps, as humans and aliens can be," she said. "But there are many shaauri who will never fully accept any human. We still don't know why Ronan survived and was raised by Kalevi—his original story of being taken on a raid doesn't match the facts."
"This could have been planned from the beginning," Damon said. "Kinsmen and shaauri could have ambushed my parents' ship to prevent them from brokering a lasting peace. They kidnapped Ronan knowing exactly who he was."
"Shaauri might have held him for ransom—such things are done among them—but they didn't. They kept him alive well into adulthood, and accepted him after a fashion." She pursed her lips. "It's also my understanding that they leave any actual espionage to Kinsmen. I think it likely that Constano has never abandoned his plans for ruling human space. The shaauri might have been convinced to give Ronan over to Kinsmen for training as an agent."
"Shaauri don't have telepaths of their own," Miklos said.
"Precisely. Once it was discovered that Ronan had his parents' gifts, the shaauri would not have been sure what to do with him. If Constano had schemes within schemes, they would be hard pressed to learn of it."
"Are you suggesting Constano used Ronan to further his personal ambitions?" Damon asked.
"It's certainly possible. Given what I know of Constano, even probable. And Ronan may have had very little to say about any of it."
"Why wouldn't the shaauri want the Archon dead?" Cynara asked.
"Because shaauri would not think in terms of killing one leader and disabling an entire system or alliance. Their society rarely has a single powerful leader over many Lines or Clans, except in time of war—their A'Aho-Kei'hon-vekki, the War-Leader. Even Constano must realize that the Archon's death would not destroy the Concordat, but it might disrupt its function long enough for a carefully orchestrated assault to have a greater effect."
"All of which changes nothing about the danger Ronan poses," Damon said.
"Which you somehow sensed without any overt telepathic skills," Miklos said. "You have always denied inheriting any ability from your parents."
Damon laughed with a touch of bitterness. "I was the only son who didn't carry on the gift. But when Ronan came aboard the Pegasus, I began to catch glimpses of events before they occurred. At first I thought these visions arose from my legitimate concern for the Project. But when we returned to Persephone and I saw him—I saw him kill the Archon…"
"Precognition," Carter VelShaan said. "It's not common even among Kinsmen. Your gift may actually have been awakened by your brother's proximity. You see the future possibilities—what might happen, not necessarily what will."
Damon clenched his fists. "Could I risk believing I was wrong?"
"No," Miklos said. "You did what you felt necessary. But now it's time to decide what to do about Ronan."
"The only way to learn the truth is to probe him. Even you must concede as much, Uncle."
"Why do you hate him so much, Lord Damon?" Cynara asked. "He's your brother, and he's suffered more than you can imagine. What has he done to you?"
Damon paled. "Mes Carter VelShaan," he said, ignoring Cynara, "if you refuse to carry out the probe as requested, I'll find someone who will." Without another word, he strode from the office.
Miklos let out a long breath. "I must apologize for my nephew," he said. "You asked a legitimate question, Captain D'Accorso. Damon does appear to hold an irrational grudge against Ronan that goes beyond any danger he may present. I'm afraid it stems from the circumstances of his parents' deaths—or presumed deaths. They chose to take Ronan—he was Achilles, then—with them into shaauri space, leaving his brothers on Persephone."
"Ambros and Damon," VelShaan said.
"Indeed. Damon is only a year younger than Ronan, but he recognized that he was being left behind. He knew that Achilles was the only son gifted with telepathic abilities."
"He resented Ronan," Cynara said.
"Ronan was considered quite a prodigy, and his parents wanted him exposed to shaauri culture at an early age. But Damon didn't understand. When the reports came in of Kori's and Jonas's probable deaths—"
"Misplaced guilt?" VelShaan surmised.
"I'm no specialist, but I believe that Damon, in his childish mind, thought he could have stopped the tragedy if he'd gone in Achilles' place."
"A five-year-old boy?" Cynara shook her head. "Can he still believe it after so many years?"
"Ronan's experiences are proof of the mind's complexity and contradictions," VelShaan said. "Damon may have decided that Ronan's apparent treason is evidence, however unlikely, that he bore some responsibility for the loss of their parents."
"He has no right," Cynara snapped.
"It's hardly just," Miklos said, "but if we refrain from judging Ronan, how can we do less for Dam
on?"
"Ronan didn't know what he was intended to do until the moment came to do it," Cynara said.
'That is my theory," VelShaan said. "He was given a mental 'false front,' so to speak, to make his original story appear authentic to any casual telepathic reading. He was quite literally 'programmed' to remember just as much as was required for a given purpose, triggered by specific circumstances or events."
Cynara averted her face so that the others couldn't see her profound relief. Ronan hadn't been a deliberate traitor from the beginning. Depending on these "triggers" VelShaan postulated, he could have remembered his objective any time after his rescue—when she'd first entered his mind, later on Bifrost, when they made love.
At least some of his amnesia must be real. Risking his life to save her and Kord couldn't be beneficial to his mission, even to win their trust. His "programming" was flawed.
He deceived me, but he swore not to enter my mind uninvited. If he'd broken that promise on the Pegasus, he wouldn't have needed to use Charis and steal the drive schematics. Is that the act of a cold-blooded killer?
"Whatever Damon believes," she said, "Ronan can't be condemned in the absence of all the facts. He didn't kill the Archon. I shared Ronan's thoughts and memories more than once while we traveled on the Pegasus. I can't be sure how much was real, but some of it had to be."
Miklos stared at her. "You neglected to mention this before, Captain."
"I take full responsibility for my mistakes, Lord Miklos. But I can assure you that if I had sensed in Ronan the intention to harm the Archon or anyone else, I would have informed you immediately. Until we discovered the infiltration of engineering, I had no reason to suspect him of anything but an understandable disorientation."
"Damon was sure that something had happened on Dharma to bring you closer to Ronan, and at the same time arouse your suspicions."
"I'll gladly tell you—or Mes Carter VelShaan—all I experienced, if it will help Ronan and the Concordat."
Kinsman's Oath Page 26
