“Why?”
“Why? You’ve seen their ships. How can we build anything like that?”
“What does Kleinst say, now that he’s seen the library?”
“Humph. He’s so enraptured by all the new scientific laws that he isn’t even thinking about building ships. And he doesn’t know if we can read copies of the records on Samual, even if we can take copies back. He could learn, he says. But in how many years? I think we’ve been chasing a dream, Mary. A noble dream, but nothing more than that.”
She stared at patterns of sunlight on the wall. When she spoke she was very serious. “Dream or not, we have to try,” she said. “Not just for us. For everyone. The Empire is wrong, Nathan. Their policies. Look at what they’re doing to this world. With what little we know we could save them from so much misery.”
“Or destroy them,” MacKinnie said.
“That’s strange, coming from you.”
“Oh, I’ve no love for the Imperials. I just don’t know how to do their job.”
“You don’t have to. All you have to do is your own.”
“But-”
“There really is something wrong, isn’t there?”
He nodded. “Hal won’t be coming back with us.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes. He’s going to stay with Brett. He thinks he has an obligation to these peasant lads he trained. So do I.”
“He’s been with you a long time, hasn’t he?”
“Since I was a junior lieutenant,” Nathan said. “Mary, how can I leave him here? And for what? It’s not my job any longer. It’s all up to Kleinst, and he doesn’t know how to build a spaceship either.”
“Iron MacKinnie gives up,” she said. “The terrible warrior — no, I won’t mock you. I don’t suppose I’ll ever know the kind of friendship you and Hal have. But the mission isn’t finished until we get home, and Nathan, be honest, what are our chances without you?”
“Not as good as if I come.” It was as if the words were wrenched from him, as if they said themselves without his willing it. “But what good are we doing?”
“Nathan, we’ve got the library. When we started even that didn’t look possible. Now we just keep doing what we can.”
“Why is this important to you?” MacKinnie asked.
“They trusted me,” she said. “For you that’s nothing new. But for me — Nathan, I can’t betray that trust.” She moved closer to him. “I hope—”
“What?”
“I’m selfish enough to hope you won’t make me choose, “she said.
There were tears at the corners of her eyes. Nathan knew she was fighting to hold them back, that she wasn’t acting.
Duty and honor and love. He’d sacrifice all three no matter what he did. But when he looked at her, he knew he had no real choice at all.
PART THREE
PRINCE SAMUAL’S HOPE
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
ARINDELL’S CASTLE
Angus Volker, fourteenth Regent of Prince Samual University, looked at the invitation and sighed. It was a simple card written by someone with beautiful handwriting, and the message seemed harmless enough. “David II, by grace of God King of Haven and Grand Duke of Orleans, Mayor of Halmarch, Prince-Magnate of Stanford, requests the honor of your company at an audience to be held at the residence of Lord Arindell at 1664 hours on Wednesday next.”
Certainly the card was formally correct. It was not a command.
But it might as well have been. Academician Volker looked around his richly furnished tower office and sighed again. When the faculty elected him rector it seemed likely that he would preside over the University’s celebration of its two-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of independence. Now it is likely that celebration would never happen. The very titles King David chose to have placed on the invitation were significant: Orleans, Stanford, and Halmarch had all been prominent in the alliance of free states which by treaty guaranteed the independence of Prince Samual University. Now they were merged into Haven, as were several more so thoroughly subjugated that they had not even the shadow of existence in David’s titles.
I could refuse, he told himself. I could send polite regrets …
But the next invitation would not be so polite. It might even be accompanied by Haven guards. The University proctors couldn’t keep armed Haven troops from entering the campus. Some of the students would undoubtedly riot, but the end of that was inevitable. The University’s independence had never depended on anything as weak as its power to defend itself. And now the alliance which had been its real defense was a hollow shell.
No. Better to accept an invitation. So long as David was being formally correct, there was a small chance that the University might retain independence. If the gloves came off there would be no chance at all.
Volker turned the matter endlessly in his mind as his chauffeur drove him toward Lord Arindell’s palace.
Arindell. Was the meeting place significant? Arindell was a prominent socialite, and it was not unreasonable that the king might host a social gathering at his residence — but Arindell was also Minister of Justice. There were stories about him and the Haven Royal Police; of how suspected enemies of King David had vanished without a trace. There had always been such stories, but lately there seemed to be more. Was it merely because no one understood the role of the Imperials, or was there more to it? Volker didn’t know.
But surely they would not so openly arrest the Rector of Prince Samual University! The University was the most important institution on Prince Samual’s World, above petty national politics, older than most nations and subject to none of them. Surely he need not worry. He told himself that again, then carefully folded his pudgy hands in his ample lap and with an effort of will made them stay there as the car drove on through uncrowded cobblestone streets.
Lord Arindell’s palace had once been a fortress. The moat had long ago been filled in, and the cannon on the terraces were obsolete, purely decorative, their mouths stuffed with fresh flowers. Banners and streamers fluttered from high battlements. Yet despite the festive decorations there was an air of foreboding about the place, and Volker was reluctant to leave his steam car. He wanted desperately to tell the chauffeur to take him back to campus where he felt safe. But if he did, how long would the campus be a place of refuge?
“One step at a time,” he told himself. Then, louder, he told the chauffeur, “Go back to the University. Mrs. Volker will have errands for you. And send another driver for me. Have him come here and wait.”
“I don’t mind waiting, Rector. I could send a telegram to have Andrew help Lady Volker.”
“No. Please do it my way.” He hesitated. “I’m not unhappy with you, Felix. I’ve got reasons.”
The chauffeur looked up at the massive stone walls. “I guess you have, sir. If I was going in there, I expect I’d want somebody to know what time I went in. Somebody outside.”
Volker smiled wryly. “I hadn’t known I was that obvious. I’m certain nothing will happen.”
“Be more certain with me back on campus,” Felix said. “I could stop by the provost’s office on my way to help Lady Volker … I’ve got a cousin who’s a proctor.”
“It won’t be necessary,” Volker said. “Thank you.”
He waited until the steam car was out of sight before he went down the rose-lined path to the great gates.
A hundred of Haven’s most glamorous people were gathered in the ancient palace ballroom. Angus was announced by a butler and greeted by Lord Arindell. The gathering seemed purely social, but Volker remained watchful.
“The king’s upstairs,” Arindell told him. “He’ll join the party presently. Enjoy yourself.” He bowed and left Angus to his own devices.
Curious, Volker thought. It seemed a pleasant enough party. But why had he been invited? I’ll find out sooner than I like…
Most of the guests’ conversations were confined to two subjects: the war of unification, which was going well, and the economy, which was booming but which might be hurt by the consequent inflation, and which was also made uncertain because no one knew what the Imperials would do. Imperial trade would make some rich, others poor, and no one knew which. Yet even these subjects were but lightly treated. There was no serious discussion at all. A number of the people present had sons at the University, and Volker knew of most of them; the University might be independent, but it was only prudent to be wary of students from Haven’s great families. He set himself to the task of being charming, telling anecdotes about student pranks, and acting as if he enjoyed the opportunity. It was an easy act; much of the rector’s job was concerned with obtaining donations.