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.If he had still beenunder the influence of the drugs, I suppose he wouldn t have resisted then, either. How was his judgment in battle? Good.But since I could only occasionally catch his thoughts, I can only judgeby results.He outfought and outmaneuvered the Regent as if the Regent had beenasleep.But the Regent had already been shot through both arms and legs, so hecouldn t have been in good shape.Still  What s your overall conclusion, Roberts? I think Prince Harold William is exactly what he claims to be, and what hewanted to be.He hasn t been proclaimed King but by his own actions, I think hehas won the right to the title of  Warlord of Festhold. And on a planet that reveresfighting ability, that should count for a lot. Yes, but what about this sense of guilt? The colonel frowned in thought. Ofcourse, he may, having fought, and having been badly wounded Roberts nodded.The colonel said,  This brings us back to where we started.What the deuce is the situation there now? You mean, legally? Practically.Let s see now.The Prince, who is heir to the throne, but not yet ofage  Supposedly heir to the throne. Yes, said the colonel,  there s that.Well, the Prince, supposedly heir to thethrone, discovers the Regent, who stands in the place of the King, dishonorablyoccupied with the Prince s sister  Who, said Roberts,  was the Regent s ward. M m.Yes.And the Prince shoots the Regent Roberts said,  In self-defense as much as anger.The Regent was reaching for hisown weapon, at the time. I see.Then the Prince takes the Regent prisoner  Not exactly.He took him to his own aid station for treatment.He gave no ordersthat the Regent was to be held prisoner. Roberts, said the colonel exasperatedly,  I admit, you were there, you saw it,so this is how it actually happened.But consider how it is going to look.The Prince,backed by a small army, forces an entrance to the Regent s apartment, catches theRegent with the Princess, shoots him, drags him out, and that night the Regentescapes.The Regent comes back with troops, a battle erupts, the Prince beats theRegent in battle, and the Regent, who stands in the place of the king surrendersto the Prince.What is that? Has the government changed hands? Is the Prince guiltyof rebellion? What is the situation?Roberts shook his head. I don t know. Well, said the colonel drily,  all I have to say, Roberts, is that this is anextremely inconvenient time for you to lose contact with the situation. Sorry, sir, said Roberts,  but as I think of the Prince in that  restitutionbath  it strikes me that this is a pretty good time to be here.And just incidentally,there is something we have yet to clear up. What s that? Erena. Roberts, said the colonel exasperatedly,  for all you know, the girl doesn tcare for you.After all, you appeared as her rescuer, at an appropriatetime naturally, she The colonel paused, frowning.He leaned forward. Let s hear that again,Roberts.How did you know she needed help? She was on the downslide, sir, going into the casino.I was on the upslide. And? Sir? What happened?Roberts frowned. I don t know.I looked at her.There was a it was as if shemade an appeal. Did she say anything? No, sir. This all passed in a look? Yes, sir.It was obvious. And suppose I say you are to keep away from this princess, and forget theincident ?Roberts looked at the colonel, and smiled very slightly.The colonel grinned. The question was rhetorical, Roberts.No need to slice myhead off. The colonel thought intently, then smiled. Roberts, if the Warlord ofFesthold wins his crown, and if Festhold remains firmly allied to the Federation, thenit strikes me that if your name appears before the Warlord, in a request forpermission to see the Princess, then you having influence at court, might be able tomove the Warlord to say  Yes.  After that, you re on your own.XV.The Baths of the Damned« ^ »Roberts put in a day of increasingly strenuous exercise, and ended up feeling almostlike himself.He slept soundly, to wake up with a helmet on his head, and on thescreen within the helmet, before his eyes, two faint dots that merged into one, andthe one expanded, faded, formed a tiny distant scene, as of an underwater viewwhich began to expand, and grow definite, then fade again, and then again toexpand.The scene was suddenly in focus, clear, wavering before and around him,and he was conscious of one inescapable sensation.Cold.Around him was a fluid, tinged very faintly pink, in which tiny crystalsmoved.Above him, a brilliant light shone down, its heat lost in the cold fluid thatbathed him.The cold did not end at his skin, but moved slowly through hisveins an icy chill that seemed to reach the core of his being, to immerse himcompletely, inside and out, in bone-chilling cold.To his left, something moved, and now he could see the monstrous half-men shead, shoulders, and arms alone appearing at his left side, their eyes intent behindthe lenses that formed the eyes of their grotesque white-plastic heads.Carefully, theyexamined Roberts left side and it slowly came to him that this must be the restitution baths the doctor had spoken of earlier.The Prince, surely, must be unconscious.But the Prince s eyes were partly open,and Roberts was treated to the sight of the surgeons working in this hydraulic wombto correct the damage done in battle.Roberts tried to disconnect himself from the Prince and couldn t do it.Timecrept past.Despite the chill, Roberts could faintly feel the surgeons at work.Thetone of the Prince s body or rather the lack of it began to impress itself on him.Gradually, he became aware of the burn somehow muted by the chill thatcovered the left side of his body.It occurred to Roberts that he was, for practicalpurposes, in a form of purgatory.Why had they had to send him back now?Then he recognized the symptoms of gathering hysteria, knew from experiencethere was no relief in that direction, and settled down grimly to endure what wasinescapable.It seemed to go on for a long, long time.Somewhere, in the distance, birds were singing.A quiet male voice said,  He is inhere, Your Excellencies, but he regains consciousness only at long intervals.A voice replied with a note like a mosquito,  The just reward of sin.The first voice said,  The process of recovery is still in some doubt.Physically,most of the gross damage has been overcome.But there is a severe psychic drainwith such wounds as these. We want to see how the prisoner has been marked [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]