Everyone turned to look at Inspector Letton, who gave them a smile that was almost sheepish. "She's right, Lady Leonie," he admitted. "She's like you."
"Darkovan?" Leonie asked cautiously, with another glance at the girl's bright head.
Inspector Letton nodded. "And Comyn," he amended. "She's Comynara, Leonie, and your own kinswoman. You see, on Darkover, her name is Flavia Hastur-Ansell."
"Letton!" corrected Flavia herself, and her stepfather smiled at her.
"Letton, if you will. It hardly matters after all. To the Comyn, all that will matter is that you are Hastur." His voice was rather bitter as he ended, but they took no notice of that.
"Who was her mother?" Leonie asked, her encyclopaedic knowledge of Comyn genealogy kicking in.
"A distant cousin of yours. Flavia Hastur-Lanart."
Leonie smiled. "Lanart? A connection to Callista too, then!" She paused. "Flavia Hastur-Lanart. I do not believe she ever came to Arilinn."
"She didn't," Inspector Letton confirmed. "Her brother, Flavian, did though."
"I see," Leonie murmured. She eyed Flavia speculatively as an incongruity from the matrix work they had just done returned to her.
"Right," said Len firmly, ignoring these undertones. "Let me get this straight. You're saying"- she jabbed her finger at Inspector Letton- "that she"- the finger indicated Flavia- "is actually Darkovan. So who are you, Inspector Letton? And why," she continued, her eyes beginning to flash, "did you spin that tale to the Head about kidnapping?"
"It wasn't a tale!" Letton defended. "Flavia was in danger of kidnapping. I just couldn't tell Miss Annersley the real truth, but it was close enough. As you know, Luisa Aldaran and Barr operated under the names of Louella and Sam Manley, so all I actually er- invented- was the grudge against me. I could hardly expect Miss Annersley to believe a story of intergalactic politics and feuds!"
"H'mm," was all Len would vouchsafe. "Well, if Flavia is Darkovan, what are you?"
Letton smiled. "I'm Terran- from earth. I was born in Berkshire, if you really want to know, and entered the Terran spaceforce when I was twenty. I did become a security agent there, so my title of 'Inspector' is not a complete lie."
"Were you really married to Flavia's mother?" Miss Annersley asked, speaking for the first time in a while.
Letton smiled sadly. "Yes. That wasn't a lie. Leonie," he said, turning to her, "do you remember that spate of kidnappings some years ago? Several Hastur girls vanished- including, I believe, Elorie Hastur?"
Leonie looked sorrowful. "That is so. Elorie was horribly abused, as I have reason to know. She has renounced her blood and rides with the Renunciates as 'Camilla'. Indeed, I believe she has blocked out both her laran and her former life. It was a great pity, for she showed great talent, and could have become Keeper- even at Arilinn. But she had no desire for that training. But what of it?"
"Flavia's mother was one of the other kidnapped girls. She was found, and rescued, by Tom Ansell in an operation not unlike that used to rescue Callista from the cat-men- only in her case, it was the Aldarans and a Terran, rather than the people at Armida," Letton finished thoughtfully.
"I am surprised a daughter of Hastur would have anything to do with Aldaran!" Leonie retorted with all the pride of her house and caste. "She must have been terrified!"
"She was only fifteen, so yes, she was afraid," the Inspector told her. "But you are wrong about the Aldarans, Leonie. They are not all bad.They did all they could for Flavia, and she was grateful to them. All the same," he added with a small smile, "she was enough of a Hastur to be glad to escape them!" and Leonie smiled unwillingly.
"My mother was only fifteen!" Copper put in at this point. Her father had omitted this piece of information the night before, and now he frowned to himself. He had tried, as far as he could, to limit the story he told Copper according to her Terran age and experience, but in the interest of speaking with Leonie, had had forgotten that.
"Yes."
"So how old was she when I was born?" Copper demanded, her grey eyes wide.
"Sixteen, Copper. That's not as young in Darkover as it is here," her step-father told her.
"Darkover sounds awfully medieval!" Len interjected at this point, disapproval edging her tones.
"Don't be rude, Len." Miss Annersley reproved gently. "It's a different culture. In fact," she continued firmly, "let me remind you that several of the girls with whom your mother was at school were married and had children when they were very little older than you are now! I imagine," she went on, looking inquiringly at Leonie, "that marriage and motherhood comes later for women in the Towers?"
Leonie gave her a rather bleak smile. "For a Keeper, usually never. For other women- it depends on their families. Not all Domain families think it an honour for a girl to waste her most fertile years in the confines of a Tower. I have shocked you a little, I think," she added.
"No- not shocked," Miss Annersley told her. "But surprised, perhaps. Is child-bearing so very important to women in Darkover?"
"To the Domains, it is all-important," Leonie said bitterly. "Only occassionally are girls permitted to put aside all thoughts of marriage for Tower work. I was permitted because I was Hastur, and had already refused to be Queen. Who else could offer for me? And Callista, she was permitted because the Lanarts are an old house, but they are not one of the great families. In any case, it is an honour to be chosen to work for Arilinn."
"Like getting into one of the really great universities," Len suggested. She was starting to recover her temper a little and to think more carefully about what she was hearing.
Leonie saw the picture in Len's mind of the spires of Oxford and nodded. "I suppose it is. You see," she went on, responding to the Head's question, "We have always believed that laran is in the blood- that it is genetic. And that all the gifts are genetic too. Without laran and our matrix sciences, Darkover would be what the Empire think us- primitive. So the survival of these sciences is paramount! Thus the Towers, and the emphasis on child-bearing for all women of the Domains, particularly those whose talents are very strong."
"Does that mean any children I have will inherit laran?" Len asked, her cheeks flushing a little. This was not normally a topic she discussed with anyone.
"They could do," Leonie said slowly. "As you have inherited it from your mother. Mrs Maynard, I believe, is also a very powerful telepath and empath, but she has learned control from somewhere."
"We've always said Jo had an uncanny ability to get into the skins of others," Miss Annersley admitted, "so I can easily believe that."
"But what about the rest of them?" Copper demanded. "There's eleven of them!" The only child said this with considerable shock, and Len giggled whilst the adults smiled.
"They could have laran," Leonie admitted. She turned to Len. "As monitor, it will be your responsibility to watch out for it, especially for anything resembling threshold sickness when you are oath-bound to act. This is serious. Will you swear it to me, Helena?"
Startled by the sudden solemnity and the use of her full name, Len nodded.
"I will swear it," and Leonie nodded, satisfied.
There was a pause, then Flavia turned back to Letton.
"You still haven't told me," she said. "How did my mother die?"
There was a long pause before Inspector Letton met his step-daughter's eyes.
"I didn't lie to you, Copper," he told her. "She really did die when you were little. It was nearly a year after we were married, and HQ wanted to send me back to Terra. No," he admitted, "that's not true. They thought I could be useful to them in Darkover, married to a daughter of the Domains. I decided I didn't want to spend my days as a spy, however, and Flavia felt torn between me, her fear of the Aldarans, and a suspicion that the Hasturs would not receive her if she tried to return to them."
Deliberately, he refrained from glancing at Leonie, but Leonie, knowing what he meant, flushed a little. Letton did not see it and carried on.
"So we boarded a space ship bound for here. Only, Flavia had not realised that she was pregnant until we had left Darkover. Star travel is dangerous for young children and unborn babies, and well-" He paused and shrugged.
"Did the child have laran?" Leonie asked gently.
"Yes." The reply was very soft, but Leonie understood the implications of that, and, after a moment, so did Copper. She had remained in light rapport with her father, and had seen the mental images he had not verbally described, and now she looked horrified.
"The baby killed my mother, didn't it?" she whispered.
Inspector Letton nodded silently, and it was Leonie who explained more fully.
"Occasionally it happens that an unborn child has such powerful laran that childbirth- or miscarriage- can be very dangerous. That is why we take childbirth so seriously on Darkover, and if necessary, a Tower-trained midwife will stay throughout the delivery, and her task will be to reassure the baby as well as care for the mother. That is especially important when there is a possibility that the child has inherited the Alton Gift."
"I thought you said the Alton Gift was forced rapport?" Len protested.
"So it is. Because of that, anger in an Alton is dangerous. On Darkover, we say that the anger of an Alton can kill."
"But my mother was Hastur-Lanart!" Copper put in.
"The Lanarts are a cadet branch of the Alton line," Leonie said softly. "Your grandmother was Lanart-Alton, as Callista was."
"I still don't understand!"
Strangely enough, it was Miss Annersley who responded. "I think I do. Flavia, most people are afraid of death. But do you not think that birth must also be frightening, and that is why we don't remember it?"
Copper, her eyes wide at this new thought, nodded, and the Head continued.
"Fear can be irrational, and it can lead, sometimes, to the frightened person lashing out. It is not always possible to communicate through that fear. Therefore, a child with the psi powers Leonie describes could well kill- by striking out with all its force. Do you understand?"
The question was unnecessary. Copper's white face made it clear that she did understand.
Leonie watched her closely for a moment before saying, "I think you are beginning to understand something of your heritage, Flavia. Do you still wish to come with me to Arilinn?"
Flavia chewed her lip for a moment. She looked very young, and Miss Annersley moved to protest. Leonie, seeing her gesture and knowing what was in her mind, shook her head.
"No, Hilda. She herself volunteered. She is the right age to begin training- and she is Hastur, although she does not yet understand what that means. She must choose."
Flavia stopped chewing and faced her kinswoman. "I know I need to learn how-how to control myself," she said, her voice shaking a little. "I think that I would like to come to Arilinn with you- and-and I want to see my mother's world and the place where I was born, but-"
"Not yet?" her step-father intervened, and Flavia nodded gratefully. He turned to the Keeper. "What about it, Leonie? Copper's barely fourteen. I know you like to train your girls young, but is that so necessary now? You yourself have declared that the old Way must be thrown down- and it was only under the old Way of Arilinn that girls must begin their training so very young- isn't that so?"
Leonie nodded slowly. Letton looked at her and continued swiftly.
"Leave Copper here- till she is sixteen, anyhow, and see what she wants then. Len can do some early work- can't she?"
Leonie smiled. "Yes. She qualified to teach Copper the basics, at least, and a little control. Before I leave, Len, I will show you several new techniques that will help you there."
"You mean I can stay?" Copper asked breathlessly.
"You may indeed. Your father is right. You have the opportunity to enjoy what is left of your childhood and girlhood. I did not have that, and I think that you should."
"Oh thank you! But I'll come. Really, I'll come." Flavia hesitated for a moment and then continued, rather shyly, "On the word of a Hastur, I'll come."
Leonie's brows went up at the sound of this Darkovan watchword, but she smiled. "Very well. And Flavia, if you change your mind, you must tell me."
There was an awkward pause before Len spoke.
"What happens now?"
Leonie turned towards her. "I will present Hilda and Copper with their own matrices. Letton, I believe you already have one?"
Letton's jaw dropped. "How did you know?"
"They are all recorded on the screens at Arilinn, of course," she retorted. Then she looked at the Head with a glint of uncharacteristic humour. "I have not finished with you yet, Hilda. You need training badly. I cannot give it- except to present you with your matrix and key you into it. I'll do the same for Flavia. Subsequent training," she continued, with a rare twinkle, "will be given by my monitor and your brevet- niece, Len."
The expressions on the faces of both Miss Annersley and Len were so startled that Copper snorted, and Leonie had to bite her lip.
"I can't do that!" Len protested, rather wildly.
"Of course you can!" Leonie told her firmly. "You must. You are sworn to!"
Len subsided with a mumble that made Leonie and the Head exchange a glance of amusement.
"Don't look so worried, Len," her brevet-aunt told her, "it won't be that bad. Just think of it as good practice for the future!" Whereat Len forgot where she was and grimaced horribly, prompting a laugh which eased the atmosphere considerably.
Leonie glanced around at her companions, aware of the sudden feeling of warmth.
Then, in another moment, she dropped into rapport with Len, who held her hand out to the Head. Miss Annersley, as a novice at this, needed the physical contact to precipitate the mental, but she dropped so smoothly into the developing circle that Leonie sent waves of approval towards her. Copper and Inspector Letton followed, and for several moments they maintained the circle, each drawing sustenance and warmth from the combined intimacy the circle provided.
It was, in fact, the best way of providing closure for the events of the afternoon, although Leonie had not altogether acted consciously. She held the circle together gently, using the opportunity to evaluate the gifts of each. When she came to Flavia, she was relieved.
The girl was a good telepath, with what appeared to be an unusual combination of gifts- the strength of an emerging Alton Gift, and, more importantly, the possible power of the Hastur Gift of the living matrix. Leonie felt well pleased with her choice, and, acting gently, shared the holding the rings of the circle with her prospective successor. Then, still gently, the Keeper of Arilinn dropped out of the contact, leaving the circle, for a long moment, in the hands of Flavia Hastur-Letton.
The other members of the circle felt the change, but remained secure. Only when Flavia faltered a little did Leonie quickly and expertly reassume the position of Keeper- but only for a short time. All the same, when she moved to dissolve the circle, they all knew that this was the real goodbye. They would not all be in the same room again, regardless of what might happen in the overworld.
