The following afternoon everyone involved in the momentous events of the previous afternoon- apart from Damon and Callista- foregathered in Miss Annersley's private salon.
They had all recovered to a greater or lesser degree, thanks in the main to the watchfulness of both Leonie and Inspector Letton.
Leonie, aware that Flavia and Hilda in particular could suffer from threshold sickness after their baptism of fire in laran work, insisted that neither of them should be left alone that night. Inspector Letton stayed with his step-daughter, and Leonie and Len had between them kept an eye on Hilda Annersley, especially after the latter's collapse once the crisis had past.
Leonie had also known that there was a chance- slight, but there- of Len also suffering from threshold sickness, but she believed, correctly as it turned out, that the thorough training the girl had received would be her greatest safeguard. Threshold sickness normally came about when, for whatever reason, a person with laran lost control of their laran. Len, monitor-trained and qualified, had hers well under control.
"What happened to that man?" Flavia asked her father into one of those silences that can occur in conversation. The others had all attempted to speak of normal things, but now the subject was broached, they all without exception looked relieved.
Inspector Letton looked puzzled. "He died from his injuries, but you know that, Copper!"
-I know, but after that? he heard his step-daughter's mental voice say impatiently. Glancing quickly around the room, he saw that everyone else had heard it too.
"He was taken away," Inspector Letton said abruptly. He turned to Leonie. "Lady, did you know that there was a fire up on the Rosleinalp yesterday afternoon?"
"The Rosleinalp?" Len repeated.
"Luisa Aldaran," Leonie said quietly. "That's where she was staying, wasn't it?"
"Yes. It appears that she died when Barr did, when you folk destroyed the gun-matrix. In addition," the Inspector added, with a quick look at Miss Annersley, "her own personal matrix died."
"So Valerie will be freed from the trap matrix set on her by Luisa's matrix," Len said softly. "Good. That was all I was worrying over."
Leonie nodded. "It worried me too. I am glad that Valerie is safe- as indeed, she must be. I'm sure Miss Annersley would have heard if that was not so!"
The Head smiled. "Yes. I would have known very quickly, so I think you may reassure yourselves that there is nothing wrong with that young woman!"
"Unless she's still recovering from your tongue-lashing last week, Auntie," Len interjected with a saucy grin.
Miss Annersley laughed. "Well, that's all to the good!" she retorted. "A subdued Valerie means a trouble-free Valerie, and a relatively peaceful weekend for everyone else on her trip! And now," she added, looking keenly from her brevet-niece to Leonie and Inspector Letton, "I think it's time you explained a few things!"
Leonie and Inspector Letton exchanged glances. Where would they start?
Miss Annersley watched them with a flicker of amusement in her eyes. "First," she said quietly, "I must ask this. Leonie Hastur: who and what are you?"
Inspector Letton hid a grin as he watched Leonie. He had never imagined that the Lady of Arilinn could look so discomfited, but she evidently was now. He decided to take a hand.
He rose and bowed, deeply, to Miss Annersley. "Vai domna," he began, using the Darkovan honorific deliberately, "permit me to introduce you to Lady Leonie Hastur of Hastur; Keeper of Arilinn and Lady of Darkover."
Miss Annersley managed to keep her face impassive, and Leonie looked at her.
"You could be a Keeper yourself, Hilda! You are wondering where these places are, are you not?"
Hilda looked straight at her; the glimmer of amusement had gone. "I must confess that I am. I see that it is no use trying to keep these thoughts secret!"
Leonie shook her head and her face was grave. "No, Hilda," she said gently. "I know what you are thinking only because we have been linked in rapport; I would never deliberately intrude. All the same, I permitted a member of my circle to draw you into the link, and therefore, by the oath I took, I am your Keeper too."
This time, the Head permitted her confusion to show. "You must forgive me; I don't understand your allusions."
"Let's start at the beginning, Leonie," Inspector Letton suggested firmly. "Miss Annersley, prepare yourself for a shock. Leonie is not Terran. That is," he continued, "she is not of earth. Neither is she of your time zone."
"A-ha!" said Len, as several things clicked into place.
The Head ignored her. "I don't understand," she said again, bewildered.
Len, with her longer and more intimate acquaintance with both Leonie and Hilda, intervened. "I think I do, though," she said thoughtfully. "Is it a little like time zones-like-like, the difference between here and Canada?"
Inspector Letton nodded. "Exactly like that, Miss Maynard. Only on a larger scale, naturally. As you know, Leonie is a telepath, and the planet from which she comes has a large number of telepathically gifted individuals- only, on Darkover, this is known as laran."
Len nodded; she understood this. "And the telepathic gifts are really just a variety of psi gifts," she prompted, and Leonie smiled at her.
"Yes. Those gifts are often linked to the Domain families- Alton, Aldaran, Hastur, Elhalyn, Aillard, Ridenow, and Ardais. They are the Comyn- Darkovan aristocracy, in fact. At least," she went on, her face darkening a little, "we used to believe that psi gifts were limited to the families of the Domains, and only to Darkover. Now- I am no longer certain."
Len nodded again, but she could not barricade the question that was in her mind. If Leonie believed that there was no laran outside Darkover and Comyn, why had she even attempted to train Len herself? Let alone Copper?
"Very well," said the Head in a resigned tone. "Let us leave that aside. I must admit that it does not come as a total surprise, Leonie. There have been times when I have- seen- pictures in your mind, and I knew that they weren't of our time."
Leonie nodded, but Hilda continued.
"Given that, given the fact that you've obviously managed to cross time and half a galaxy, I must ask: why did you? Did you choose deliberately to come here and now- did you know about the Chalet School before you came?"
Leonie bowed her head and acknowledged Hilda's right to ask this. "I did know," she said softly. "In Darkover, we take telepathic training very seriously, and this is done in towers- of which Arilinn is the most important."
She paused for a moment and then went on. This was painful, still, but in all fairness it must be told. "Of late years, the number of telepaths in Comyn have dropped. Fewer and fewer of our young and gifted telepaths choose to work in the Towers. It is a hard life, and much must be sacrificed.I cannot blame them for that."
Leonie rose suddenly, and crossed the room in a swirl of crimson draperies. The sun streaming in through the window glinted on the curling copper bracelets on her wrists and set her hair on fire. The onlookers found it easy to believe that she came from another planet and galaxy. At that moment she looked- unearthly.
"As you have been told, I am Keeper of Arilinn. I am," Leonie continued, with a hint of her old pride, "the most powerful, most revered, most feared woman on Darkover. I am Keeper, leronis, priestess, sorceress- or that is how the common people see me and my work."
"Goodness!" Copper interjected, obviously awed. "And to think that here you've just been the junior mistress when you're actually more important than the Head herself!"
"Not that that's saying much, Flavia!" Miss Annersley told her blandly, but with a trace of irony that made Flavia flush and subside. Len flashed a sympathetic grin at her, but she was too interested in what Leonie had to say to do more.
Leonie had laughed at Flavia's words, but now she grew serious again.
"You must understand," she said, almost anxiously. "I am all this because of old ideas, old superstitions. They are not true. It is not necessary for a Keeper to live as I have done, alone, separated from emotion and humanity by a formidable wall of conditioning and training."
Leonie smiled, a little sadly, as she remembered the rigour of that training, and all its attendant sufferings. It would never happen again, she vowed. Her successor would be trained with the old care, but new understanding. Never again would the Lady of Arilinn be expected to become something more, and, at the same time, something less than human.
"And I know this now by two things. One of those is the time I have spent here, and especially the time I have spent with Len." The Keeper smiled at Len, and the girl blinked. "Len, you are an empath. One of the most powerful empaths I have ever trained. Because of that, you are an unusually gifted monitor, and if we were on Darkover, I would be proud to ask you to join my own circle at Arilinn. But we are not. Which brings me to my other- epiphany."
Leonie stopped again, and took a deep breath. Her voice was light and emotionless as she continued.
"Ten years ago, I was unwell, and I knew I was growing old. A Keeper's work is tremendously demanding, but I have sworn never to lay down my place until I have trained my successor. And so I tried- many, many times. Time after time I lost my chosen successor, either to her own ill health, or to other Towers who did not have even one fully functioning circle.
'At last, after many years, I finally succeeded, and Callista Lanart-Alton, as she then was, became Keeper with me in Arilinn. This year I have spent here would have been my last at Arilinn; then I would have laid down my place and Callista would become Lady after me. Only Callista was kidnapped, and rescued by a Terranan, an earthman, and they fell in love."
Leonie made a helpless gesture with her hands. "Am I saying too much?"
"No. Please continue," Miss Annersley continued, her eyes soft. Like Len, she was an empath, and she realised how difficult telling this tale was for Leonie.
"Thank you. Tradition says that a Keeper- any Keeper, not just the Keeper of Arilinn- must remain chaste and unmarried. There are reasons for that, but they can be overcome- we know that now. But tradition became a superstition and a law, and Callista had to leave. She was very ill, and her brother in law, Damon, had to search to discover a way to help her. He succeeded, and, in so doing, founded what has become known as the Forbidden Tower."
Leonie swallowed. "Because he and Callista were both trained at Arilinn, and because they broke the laws of Arilinn, they had to be challenged. They had to prove that they could keep their Tower in the face of the strongest opposition Darkover could provide. So we fought a telepathic battle, with Damon and his circle on one side, and me and mine on the other. We lost. But- I reconciled with Damon and Callista, after a fashion, but I did not mean it I felt that I had been betrayed."
"What next?" Len prompted gently.
Leonie shrugged. "I was weak, I admit it. I became depressed, useless. I did no work in the circles, leaving everything to Janine, who has been Keeper trained. Only- she is not powerful, and she has a narrow-minded approach that I believe could cause great trouble in the future. And all this time we still needed more telepaths to train. So my brother, Lorill, who is Regent of Darkover, suggested that I come here to seek them."
Len's eyes were wide.
"But- that's what you attacked Luisa Aldaran for doing!" she cried.
"Not quite," Leonie told her softly. "Luisa, I believe, had planned to hand telepaths- both here, and on Darkover-over to the Empire authorities, to be tested and exploited. Others she would have trained herself, and used to effect a coup d'etat. So much was evident when Inspector Letton went to clear the rubble from the fires."
"What did you want to do?" Len asked, with a strange intensity.
"When I came here, I was bitter and sad. I wanted to find telepaths who were young and malleable and could be trained using the old methods- to find someone who could possibly take over from me, someone who could keep the Towers alive, and thus allow the old sciences of Darkover to survive. You must understand. Without our matrix sciences, Darkover is primitive, and we would lose our independence. But now I would not take one of you. I have told you, Len, that I would have you for Arilinn if you so desired- but, I cannot."
"Why not?" Len demanded. "If I wanted to go-" Her tone was so nearly belligerent that Miss Annersley looked up.
"That's enough, Helena," she said quietly. "Let Leonie finish, please."
"Partly because it would be wrong. You would have had to handle all the normal deprivations of further matrix training, whilst at the same time being several galaxies away from home. No, Len. There are some who would not believe this, but not even I could be that ruthless- or cruel. Not even for Arilinn."
"I don't believe that you are cruel," Hilda Annersley said gently. "Or as inflexible as you appear, Leonie Hastur."
"Thank you," Leonie said again. "I can NOT take you, Len. It is possible for me to travel backwards in time, for that has passed, but not for you to travel into the future. Do you understand? The attempt could, and possibly would, kill you. I will not take that risk."
Leonie swung away from them again, and she appeared remote- not the passionate woman she was revealing herself to be. Only now they all recognised that remoteness for what it was: conditioned armour and a training that had gone cell-deep and was now automatic. It had relaxed somewhat, but Leonie had been Keeper since the age of sixteen, and for her it was too late.
She could never have what Callista now had, or what her future successor would have. But at least she had managed to salvage her relationship with Damon and Callista- until now, the only two she had ever loved, apart from Lorill- and that was something.
"I am sorry," Miss Annersley said softly. "You have given us a great deal, Leonie, and it seems that we can give nothing back."
"We can," said Copper boldly. "I'll come, if you'll have me, Leonie."
"You can't," Len argued. "Didn't you hear what she just said, Copper?"
"I heard," said Copper, her chin determined. "And I can." She turned to her stepfather. "Go on, Dad! Tell them what you told me."
