“I have heard your answers already,” rasped Jhal Arn. “Vice-Commander Giron told me when he reported your coming that you were accusing Corbulo of treachery to cover up your own black crimes.”
“I can prove that if you'll just give me a chance!” Gordon declared.
“What proof can you advance?” retorted the other. “What proof, that will outweigh the damning evidence of your flight, of Corbulo's testimony, of Shorr Kan's secret messages to you?”
Gordon knew that he had come to the crux of the situation, the crisis upon which he would stand or fall.
He talked hoarsely, telling of Corbulo's treacherous assistance in helping Lianna and him escape, of how that escape had been timed exactly with the assassination of Arn Abbas.
“It was to make it look as though I'd committed the murder and fled!” Gordon emphasized. “Corbulo himself struck down our father and then said he'd seen me do it, knowing I wasn't there to deny the charge.”
He narrated swiftly how the Sirian traitor captain had taken him and Lianna to the Cloud, and briefly summarized the way in which he had induced Shorr Kan, by pretending to join him, to allow him to go to Earth. He did not, could not, tell how, his ruse had hinged on the fact that he was really not Zarth Arn at all. He couldn't tell that.
Gordon, finished his swift story, and saw that the black cloud of bitter disbelief still rested on Jhal Arn's face.
“The story is too fantastic. And it s nothing to prove it but your word and the word of this woman who's in love with you. You said you could prove your tale.”
“I can prove it, if I'm given a chance,” Gordon said earnestly.
He continued swiftly. “Jhal, Corbulo was not the only traitor in high position in the Empire. Shorr Kan himself told me there were a score of such traitors, though he didn't name them.
“But one traitor I know to be such is Thern Eldred, the Sirian naval captain who took us to the Cloud. He can prove it all, if I can make him talk.”
Jhal Arn frowned at Gordon for a moment. Then he touched a stud and spoke into a panel on the desk.
“Naval Headquarters? The Emperor speaking. There is a captain in our forces named Thern Eldred, a Sirian. Find out if he's on Throon. If he is, send him here immediately under guard.”
Gordon grew tense as they waited. If the Sirian were away in space, if he had somehow heard of events and had fled – Then a sharp voice finally came from the panel. “Thern Eldred has been found here. His cruiser has just returned from patrol. He is being sent to you now.”
A half-hour later the door opened and Thern Eldred stepped inside. The Sirian had a wondering look on his hard-bitten greenish face. Then his eyes fell on Gordon and Lianna.
“Zarth Am!” he exclaimed, startled, recoiling. His hand went to his belt, but he had been disarmed.
“Surprised to see us?” Gordon rasped. “You thought we were still in the Cloud where you left us, didn't you?”
Thern Eldred had instantly recovered his self-possession. He looked at Gordon with assumed perplexity.
“I don't understand what you mean, about the Cloud.”
Jhal Arn spoke curtly. “Zarth claims that you took him and Lianna by force to Thallarna. He accuses you of being a traitor to the Empire, of plotting with Shorr Kan.”
The Sirian's face stiffened in admirably assumed anger.
“It's a lie. Why, I haven't seen Prince Zarth Arn and the princess since the Feast of Moons.”
Jhal Arn looked harshly at Gordon.
“You said you could prove your claim, Zarth. So far, it's only your word against his.”
Lianna broke in passionately. “Is my word nothing, then? Is a Princess of Fomalhaut to be believed a liar?”
Again, Jhal Arn looked at her somberly. “Lianna, I know you would lie for Zarth Am, if for nothing else in the universe.”
Gordon had expected the Sirian's denial. And he was counting on his estimate of this man's character, to get the truth out of him.
He stepped forward to confront the man. He kept his passionate anger restrained, and spoke deliberately.
“Thern Eldred, the game is up. Corbulo, is dead, the whole plot with Shorr Kan is about to be exposed. You haven't a chance to keep your guilt hidden, and when it's exposed it'll mean execution for you.”
As the Sirian started to protest, Gordon continued swiftly, “I know what you're thinking. You think that if you stick to your denials you can face me down, that that's your only chance now to save your skin. But it won't work, Thern Eldred.
“The reason it won't work is because your cruiser, the Markab, had a full crew in it when it took us to the Cloud. I know those officers and men had been bribed to support you, that they'll deny ever going to the Cloud. They'll deny it, at first. But when pressure is put on them, there's bound to be at least one weak one among them who'll confess to save himself.”
Now, for the first time, Gordon saw doubt creep into the Sirian's eyes. Yet Thern Eldred angrily shook his head.
“You're still talking nonsense, Prince Zarth. If you want to question my men in the Markab, go ahead. Their testimony will show that you're not telling the truth.”
Gordon pressed his attack, his voice ringing now. “Thern Eldred, you can't bluff it out. You know one of them will talk. And when he does, it's execution for you.
“There's only one way you can save yourself. That's to turn evidence against the other officials and officers in this plot with you, the others who have been working for Shorr Kan. Give us their names, and you'll be allowed to go scot-free out of the Empire.”
Jhal Arn sternly interrupted. “I'll sanction no such terms. If this man is a traitor, he'll suffer the penalty.”
Gordon turned passionately to him. “Jhal, listen. He deserves death for his treachery. But which is most important-that he be punished, or that the Empire be saved from disaster?”
The argument swayed Jhal Arn. He frowned silently for a moment, and then spoke slowly.
“Very well, I'll agree to let him go free if he does make any such confession and names his confederates.”
Gordon swung back to the Sirian. “Your last chance, Thern Eldred. You can save yourself now, or never.”
He saw the indecision in Thern Eldred's eyes. He was staking everything on the fact that this Sirian was a ruthless realist, ambitious, selfish, with no real loyalty to anyone but himself.
And Gordon's gamble won. Confronted by the imminence of discovery, presented with a loophole by which he might save his own skin, Thern Eldred's defiant denials broke down.
He spoke huskily. “I have the Emperor's word that I am to go scot-free, remember?”
“Then you were in a plot?” raged Jhal Arn. “But I'll keep my word. You'll go free if you name your confederates, as soon as we have seized them and verified what you tell.”
Thern Eldred was ghastly pale but tried to smile. “I know when I'm in a trap, and I'm cursed if I'll get myself killed just for loyalty to Shorr Kan. He wouldn't do it for me.”
He went on, to Jhal Arn. “Prince Zarth has told the truth. Chan Corbulo was leader of the little clique of officials who planned to betray the Empire to the Cloud. Corbulo killed Arn Abbas, and had me carry off Zarth Arn and Lianna so they'd be blamed. Everything the prince has said is true.”
Gordon felt his eyes blur, his shoulders sag, as those words brought shaky relief from his intolerable strain of many days.
He felt Lianna's warm arms around him, heard her eager voice as big Hull Burrel and Val Marlann excitedly slapped his back.
“Zarth, I knew you'd clear yourself.”
Jhal Arn, face pale as death, came toward Gordon. His voice was hoarse when he spoke.
“Zarth, can you ever pardon me? My God, how was I to know? I'll never forgive myself.”