Next door in the office, Leonie restrained her relief and eased her hold on the energon rings.
"We must go now," Callista told her foster-mother gently. "Ellemir and Andrew are watching for us; we dare not stay longer."
Len realised that something had to be said between Leonie, Damon, and Callista, and she gently withdrew Hilda and Copper from the circle-in-the-overworld. Once out, she sent Copper into the Study, and herself turned to monitor Leonie, since Damon was now himself in rapport.
Leonie looked at the familiar thought-forms of Damon and Callista, and held out her hands. "I do not know what to say."
"Then say nothing, Leonie," Damon told her, and Leonie remembered that this man loved her still. "We understand. You do not hate us any longer, do you?"
Leonie's form wavered. "No. I have come to see that you are right in what you have said and done, and we of Arilinn were wrong. I mean it now. When I return to Darkover-"
"Say nothing of that, Leonie," Callista said gently. "That is for the future. It is enough to know that you do more than tolerate the Forbidden Tower now. That means a great deal."
Leonie held out her hands to them in blessing, and stood watching as their astral forms disappeared. Only then did she return to her body to find that only seconds had passed since the circle had broken, and that her cheeks were wet with tears. She turned to her monitor, who looked at her with a compassion that was older than her seventeen years.
"I am glad you had that, Leonie," Len said softly, but that said, Leonie saw that the violet-grey eyes were anxious. "Did the operation work?" she asked now.
"We'll have to find out," Leonie returned. "But I think," she continued as she rose to check the scene in the study, "that we are safe enough."
Her words appeared to be borne out. The Head was seated behind her desk, and her attacker was prostrate on the floor. A closer look revealed that Miss Annersley was trembling. No-one had entirely registered the presence of Inspector Letton, and he deliberately hung back in the shadows, watching.
"What happened?" Miss Annersley asked, very shakily. Copper was standing beside her, looking worried, but she was too inexperienced to know what to do. Even so, the Head's extreme pallor was evident, and Leonie cast that lady a look of concern. Had they been too late- or had that burst of psi power and energy been too much for her, caught unawares as she had been?
At that point Inspector Letton decided to make his presence known. "What's been happening here?"
Ignoring her own fatigue and the astonished man, Leonie went to the cupboard at one end of the study and retrieved a packet of biscuits she found there. She took one herself, and called the girls over. They, too, were white with exhaustion, and Leonie noted with some surprise that Flavia appeared to be in better case than Len.
"Eat!" the Keeper commanded, and Len set an example by doing so.
Hesitantly, Flavia followed, and Leonie took a biscuit and herself almost forced Hilda to eat, knowing that the other woman would not understand the importance of replenishing vital energies quickly.
"What's happened?" Inspector Letton asked again, and, for the first time, everyone appeared to take note of his presence.
"Dad!" shrieked Flavia, and, flinging the rest of her biscuit to one side, she ran straight into his arms.
"I'm here, chiya," he whispered into her hair. "I'm here." He looked up over the top of his step-daughter's red head and met the suddenly knowing eyes of Leonie. Detaching himself from Flavia- who was now ravenous and had gone to rescue her biscuit- he moved forward and bowed.
"Lady Leonie. I did not think I would find you here. You lend us grace, vai domna."
"Leonie!" Len called, from beside her brevet-aunt, "come quickly!"
Warned by Len's voice, Leonie turned and went. Hilda was now almost grey, and her eyes looked dull. Her breathing seemed shallow, and Len was obviously very worried.
"Did she eat anything?" Leonie asked.
Len nodded, trying to control her feelings. "She ate two biscuits."
"Here. Make her take more," Leonie commanded. "Then monitor. Stabilise the heartbeat and breathing- and keep calm yourself, Len. Flavia!"
Flavia turned automatically from her father.
"Use the phone and ring down to the kitchens. The number is there. Ask for hot chocolate as soon as possible, please."
Flavia nodded and obeyed, and the Keeper turned back to Len and her patient.
"Hilda!" Leonie put all her authority behind her physical and mental voice, and they saw with relief that her eyes appeared more alert.
"What's happened?" she asked, very weakly.
Len squeezed her brevet-aunt's hand very gently. "Don't worry about that now, Auntie Hilda," she said softly. "You'll be OK in a minute, I promise. Eat another biscuit. Leonie," she continued, turning towards her, "check that cupboard again. She often keeps a little kettle in there with coffee and sugar. You might be able to get something there."
Relieved, Leonie turned to go to the cupboard, but Inspector Letton had heard and he had already found and plugged in the kettle, whilst measuring out coffee and sugar.
"Plenty of sugar," Leonie cautioned.
He gave her a sidelong smile, his eyes lowered. "I know. Four spoonfuls!" At that point the kettle boiled, and he carefully poured some out. While waiting, he had also taken the precaution of adding some cold water, for there was no milk, and he did not want to give the Head burn injuries on top of everything else.
"What about him-and the matrix?" he asked suddenly, as Len persuaded Hilda to take some of the hot, sweet drink.
"Is he dead?" Flavia asked, sounding only mildly interested.
"Not sure," the Inspector admitted. Cautiously, he crossed the room and knelt down beside the fallen figure of Barr. As he did so, the eyes opened, and Flavia gasped and backed away.
"It's OK," Letton told her. "See? His eyes are quite blank. He's been burnt inside." His voice was almost pitiful, and his daughter looked at him in horror.
"Inside? How horrible!"
"That's the power of this matrix," he explained gently. "If you people hadn't acted when you did, the full force of that power would have been turned on Miss Annersley- and perhaps the school as well."
Flavia looked a little green, and the Inspector turned back. Incredibly, Barr was still breathing, but Letton knew it would not be for long. Life would serve no purpose for him now; his mind had been quite burnt out, and if he survived it would be as a physical being and no more- and that was no life for anyone.
Leonie came and stood beside him.
"He's dying," she said. It was not a question.
"Yes, Lady." He glanced at her, and saw her face was implacable.
As far as the Lady of Arilinn was concerned, justice had been served. To misuse a matrix as Barr had done was the ultimate crime on Darkover, and Letton had a feeling that there was more to this particular matrix than met the eye.
They stood together in silence, and were the only people in the room to hear and see when the dying man ceased to breathe. The destroyed gun-matrix lay beside him, the starstone black and dead. It could never be used again.
Up on the Rosleinalp, residents on the shelf were running to the chalet occupied by Luisa Aldaran and Barr. The explosion which had killed Barr had ripped through the powerful matrix that bound them together, and she too had died, falling against the furnace as she dropped, thus starting an actual fire to mimic the power of the one that had robbed her of her life.
Only the fact that their chalet stood alone, and in a clearing, prevented a more widespread tragedy across the Rosleinalp.
As she died, her own personal matrix flickered and turned black, and, far away at Zurich, Valerie Gardiner continued on her day of sight seeing, quite unaware that the trap she had harboured unawares had harmlessly disabled with the death of its creator.
