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"I am not, but a man of my own race"

"Many men, however, you have known, mysire? Men such as I am and as Mysire Rechtor is?"

"Yes I was one of those who boarded your whorl when it neared our sun In the Whorl, I made the acquaintance of many of your race, and I have known others since, on both the whorls we once called ours"

"Of these, my client Mysire Horn one is?"

"Yes We beca in my house, some distance from here I have found him to be an honorable man, devoted to your kind"

"If to our kind devoted he is, to yours a foe he must be, mysire That do you deny?"

"I do You spoke of your breed You breed your own foes, who are our foes as well, those ould destroy others for gain and rob theet it, and I doubt that anyone as present will-and turned his shadowed face, very slowly, toward Hauest Mysire Horn was This you have said Invite hi in ht him He was not afraid of me, as the others were"

"This you did, though living in your house without your per The white fishcatchers will return, boo flight Till nest upon your chih you will not invite theh he had addressed Taal; at this point he directed it to Nat "You say he has harmed you, yet I see you whole, fat, and free, while another stands beside hi credit, Nat rose and tried to withdraw his accusation; but Ha whether the state hi under oath if he acknowledged that they were

It was only then that I truly understood what had gone wrong in Dorp It was not that its judges took bribes or that they used their power to enrich theh they certainly did It was that they had created a system that slowly but surely destroyed all who came in contact with it Left to work it would destroy me, as Nat had desired; but it would destroy Nat as well, and Dorp itself

Vadsig ca and writing To us you do not speak"

"Poor man!" Oreb confirmed; and I protested that I talked to him, if only to tell him to be quiet, and that I had talked to Captain Wijzer

"You we ry with us you are?"

"Not at all But, Vadsig, I'dpeople desirous of o you want?" She ju to be deeply offended "Tell !"

I protested that no man could possibly object to the coain "When your toe reach,he wishes To her a good son he is,,

"I know, Vadsig, and he's a good son to me as well I couldn't be happier for you both"

"The blessing she gives,that he ives, I think" Vadsig eyed e hts were full of you

"No cards I have, mysire"

I dropped five or six into her lap, not real cards such as we used in Viron, but the shining gold and silver imitations that we see more and more here on Blue

She would not touch theiven nothing to you, Vadsig, and I owe you a great deal"

"Mora and Fava you owe"

"I do indeed, and I'll try to repay theet the opportunity At this ree; and I intend to grab it I won't detail all you did for us-you know it best But I knoell enough, and those cards are ive?" Her upper lip trembled, its ht

"Are you asking whether I'll bless your union? Of course I will I do I'll perforh it would be better to have His Cognizance Patera Remora I can assist him, if he will perown, pressing it against her body to show that she was slender to the point of e wo If she were here with us-and in a sense she is, for I have a part of her-she would point out to you that you can give a man your love and bear children She could do neither, and she would gladly trade every one of the centuries the gods 's eyes melted "Could not you help her, mysire?"

"No She helpedit to his favorite predicate "No cut!"

I nodded "I tried not to hare"

"Her hair?" Vadsig plunged thin fingers into her short orange tresses "Ugly as mine it was?"

"She had none As for yours, it is clean and straight and strongall adood woman's hair is never of a bad color," I told her

We talkedher fears of you and your rejection, and I assuring her that all were groundless, as indeed I feel certain they are Let her fear childbirth, poor child, and h to worry about without fantasies

Then, "Soo, ?"

"To Viron, yes,Sun Whorl I would like Always of it you talk, and cook, and my old master and mistress In Grotestad they were born, mysire, but never it I have seen"

I told her it was possible she would

"There the Vanished People went?"

I nodded

"To greet us it was?"

"You h to find out a good deal about us-and infect us with inhureet even a few of us"

"Bad it was," Vadsig agreed with Oreb

"To leave inhu us?" I shook my head "It was a shbors to gauge much more accurately the differences between our race and their own"

"Because our blood they drink, ht explain without violating "

"In the mirror I see"

I shook my head "Has anyone told you that you have wonderful eyes?"

She flushed, shrugging "Hide it says"