'Are you well?' Kestren asked.

'I do not understand the question,' Marcellus replied, sipping the fruit drink and finding it delicious.

'You appear to have been badly wounded, my young friend.'

'I have been engaged in the matter of some minor skirmish, my lord.'

Kestren's lips pursed to effect an intake of breath that betokened a degree of disapproval which was not lost on the young warrior.

'I have heard, Marcellus, that you interceded on behalf of the Warikeewa and the Hunyapi in Pekeesh.'

'You heard correctly, my lord Kestren.'

Kestren shook his head and frowned.

'I do not know how matters will go for you in the senate, my friend. A hearing has been fixed for tomorrow. You do not think it would be more prudent for you to leave Horta tonight?'

'I have but recently arrived in Horta, my lord.'

'I am aware of that, Marcellus,' Kestren said, raising an impatient hand and waving it. 'But if what I have heard from your own lips is true, it would be better if you were not around at the time of the hearing.'

'You are counselling me to evade a hearing which is to determine my own fate?' the young man asked incredulously.

'I am,' Kestren said bluntly.

'You do not wish to hear my story?'

'I knew you had returned to Horta the moment you passed through the gates. I had your story from the young girl you took to your bed last night!'

'I fell asleep. I was drunk.'

'Not too tired or too drunk to tell her your story. I did not like what I heard. And you may be sure that if I heard it, other members of the senate, who do not profess to call you friend, as I do, will also have it in their knowledge. It is no longer safe for you to remain here.'

'I have things to tell the senate, my lord.'

'Not tomorrow, friend. Tomorrow you need to be hundreds of miles from here.'

It was Marcellus's turn to shake his head in disapproval.

'The nature of the matter I have to report to the senate will not wait, lord.'

'It will have to, Marcellus. It will have to, if you value your life. And if you do not, well, then, I do. The future of Horta and the entire province of Barbessel rest on your young square shoulders. One day you may be senator supreme. But today your life is in danger, and tomorrow you may be dead.'

'The word is out on me already?'

'As surely as I am sitting before you now, yes.'

'I must speak to the senate, Lord Kestren. It cannot and will not wait. The lives of every citizen of Barbessel are in danger!'

'I still advise you to withdraw for the time being. Barbessel is well protected. Horta is impregnable. You assisted in the preparation of its defences yourself. Horta will not fall. There will be time to tell your story to the senate.'

Marcellus bit into the tuber he had picked from the fruit bowl, and the juice ran down his chin and onto his neck.

'Of what precisely am I accused?' he asked.

'I do not know precisely.'

'You said you had my story.'

'Parts of it were unintelligible.'

'And the parts that were intelligible?'

'I understand that you assisted the bronzeskins of the great plains of Pekeesh in beating off the invading force from Hor-Lak.'

'You understand correctly, lord.'

'Then it is clear. You are accused of treason. You should not be here, Marcellus! It is no longer safe for you to talk even to me!'

'Surely I do not also put your life in danger?'

Kestren frowned and again shook his head.

'You misunderstand me, my young friend. They will be searching the city for you even as we sit here. You should make good your escape before it is too late.'

'This is the last place they will think of to look for me.'

'Not so. They know you to be my protégé. This is the first place they will look for you.'

'But you are not really here.'

'Not officially, no.'

'Well then, they will surely look for me first at your lodgings.'

'And then here.'

'Well then, hear what I have to say and if you still think it unwise for me to remain in Horta, I will go.'

'You have but a few minutes, my young friend. Be brief, I beg you.'

Marcellus nodded and poured himself another cup of the juice, drained it in one swallow.

'It is some time since I was last in Horta. I left here over a year ago to bring some - cargo - from Prakussara for Lady Claudia of Horta, whom I believe is well known to you. We were stranded crashed on the western sub-continent near the great inland lake of Sharmak. During my time on the sub-continent I learned of a plan to take over the cities and provinces there by a man purporting to be one of the Controllers and whom I later discovered was known as Vitellius. I assisted in the defence of Shar-Mak and Horta and followed him north to the province of Eskishehir where he was engaged in a program to breed large fighting birds to further his plans to take over the provinces. I was imprisoned in Eskishehir and sentenced to death but escaped and traversed the northern permafrost to Pekeesh where I was captured by Warikeewa warriors. Whilst in their company I learned that Vitellius had brought forces to the mainland and had persuaded Hor-Laki forces to join him in his push northwards into Pekeesh. Again I became involved in the conflict and was able to assist in the repulsion of Vitellius' forces from Pekeesh and the subsequent death of Vitellius. I have returned to Horta to warn the senate that followers of Vitellius will even now be regathering their forces in readiness for renewed conflict.'

Kestren nodded solemnly, his lips pursed.

'I suspected as much.'

'Then the militia have already been mobilised?'

'No, no, no. That is not what I meant at all, Marcellus. I meant that I suspected that this was your reason for returning to Horta.'

'Then you will recommend to the senate that the militia be mobilised?'

Kestren shook his head. Marcellus gazed at the older man.

'Then I do not understand.'

'I do not know how to tell you this, Marcellus. You are accused, in your absence, of consorting with the enemy, thereby committing an act of treason.....'

'What enemy?'

'.....please let me finish.....'

'What enemy?' Marcellus punctuated the syllables of his words by thumping his fist down hard on the table.

'.....and although by your own words you have condemned yourself in my ears, I wish to give you, by virtue of our friendship and the fact that you are my protégé, the opportunity of leaving Horta tonight before you are arrested. There are many routes out of the city without using the gates, as you well know.....'

'What enemy?' Marcellus said through clenched teeth. His huge hands were shaped into fists, and the scar which ran down his face was beginning to suffuse with blood as his ire increased.

'You know as well as I do that Barbessel has long been an ally of Hor-Lak.....'

'The Hor-Lakis dissolved any alliance they may have had with Barbessel when they aligned with Vitellius!'

'Not so, my friend. The alliance stands. By assisting the bronzeskins you have become a traitor to the alliance. It is what I have been attempting to impart to you all this while.....'

'The alliance cannot stand!' Marcellus cried. 'There is no way the alliance can stand now that you know the way of things!'

'The alignment with Vitellius.....'

'You knew of it?'

'.....the alignment with Vitellius was sealed many months ago, Marcellus.'

'No!' Marcellus leaped to his feet, crashing the table against the wall. Although there were no others in the antechamber both men were aware that the noise would undoubtedly have been heard elsewhere in the building.

'Calm yourself, Marcellus,' Kestren said, half rising from his seat. 'There are security guards in the building.....'

'Looking for me, no doubt!'

'It is a precaution, that is all. There are agents abroad. We cannot be too careful. Sit down. Be patient. I will explain the way of things to you. Sit down. Sit down, please.'

Marcellus sat, but his eyes were alight with the fire of anger and fear of the unknown, the knowledge that he would hear what he did not wish to hear, that he was futile against the powers of the state.

'The alignment with Vitellius was sealed many months ago. The senate voted unanimously in favour of an alliance with the general. Barbesselian troops were despatched to aid the war effort in Hor-Lak.....please do not interrupt me, Marcellus, we do not have much time. A battalion of crack troops has been mustering in the mountain region to the north east, at the border with Pekeesh. There have been incidents. Men were killed.'

'The bronzeskins were to blame, of course,' Marcellus interjected with a note of heavy sarcasm.

'The bronzeskins were to blame, absolutely. They have wasted their opportunities, failed to cultivate the land properly, allowed indiscriminate slaughtering of livestock, they were looking for new lands to occupy, and forced a path through the mountains.'

'That is not true.'

'They actually occupied a tract of land at the base of the mountains. If I had the time and you were not under threat of arrest, I would take you to show it to you, the place where they were living in breach of the treaty between our two provinces many hundreds of years ago.'

'It is not true.'

'Thirty-three men were killed.'

'Engineered deaths by Vitellius. A cover up.'

'An emergency session of the senate ruled that the bronzeskins had declared war on us. We agreed to send troops to join Vitellius in his attempt to push the bronzeskins back into Pekeesh.'

'They never left Pekeesh. They did not waste their homelands. They did not allow indiscriminate slaughter of their livestock. They were attacked within their own province, their crops destroyed, their livestock slaughtered. You should never have believed this, Kestren. You have been deceived.'

'No, no, no, no, no! Marcellus, listen, we were all agreed, Vitellius presented us with a unique opportunity to rid the world of these savages.....'

'I do not like what I am hearing, Kestren.....'

'.....They are not like us, they are ignorant, repressed, savages, barbarians.....'

Marcellus stood up slowly, brushing himself down. He looked into the senator's eyes with a piercing penetration that made Kestren shift uneasily in his seat.

'I thought you were my friend. I looked up to you always, since I met you. You taught me much. Thankfully you did not teach me your racial hatred. I see you now for what you are, or for what you have become, Kestren. You are a bigoted, extremist fool. You are no longer fit to hold office!'

Marcellus turned his broad back on the senator and began to walk away.

'You will not get far,' Kestren called after him. 'There is a warrant out for your arrest. If you would care to reconsider your position, recant your treason, join us in our struggle.....'

Marcellus's huge hand was around Kestren's throat in less than an instant, squeezing the breath out of the smaller man's body.

'Do not speak to me of my position, Kestren. Any friendship we ever had, you have destroyed with your abuse of your privilege and your demonstration of race hatred. I have work to do, things to do that will undo what you have done! Otherwise I would willingly draw your last breath from you and face the consequences here and now!'

With a disgusted sneer he thrust the senator from him, causing him to overbalance in the plush red chair. For the second time he turned his back on the man he had previously called friend and freely acknowledged as his tutor, and walked out of the antechamber. At once an armed guard slipped quietly from behind a marble pillar to attend to Kestren.

'You saw what he tried to do to me!' Kestren whispered through a bruised and sore throat. The guard nodded and drew his sword.

'You know what to do!' Again the guard nodded. His eyes travelled to the doorway through which Marcellus had just passed, then up and down the length of the antechamber, as though to satisfy himself that there was no one else in the vicinity. Then he brought the blade down hard through Kestren's heart. Kestren's eyes went round and wide. Blood spurted from the wound and from his mouth, splashing noiselessly onto the granite floor and spreading out in a small crimson puddle. He reached tremulously towards the guard, who was even now retrieving his sword, slowly, agonisingly slowly, and then the last breath issued from his mouth and he sank lifeless to the floor. The guard left the antechamber by another entrance, knowing that Kestren's body would be discovered in a short while, and that the warrant for Marcellus's arrest would become the more urgent on account of his having recently murdered a revered member of the senate.