Captives of the Flame

a pearl snap with which she fastened together the shoulder panels o

es, checked the increment of sub-cosine A plus B over the nth root o

thin woman, about thirty. The littl

air from her neck. The maid caught the ebony wealth with one hand and reached for the end of

maid again. "What a

alen Golga, he was my mathematics professor at the university, disc

a comb, and whipped it through a cascade of hair that fell back on Clea's

said Clea.

me, I'm sorr

th ours. Like the world of imaginary numbers, the square root of minus one. Eventually we may find use for them, perhaps in the same way we use imaginary

a'

e to do anything like that with the sub-tri

e to the left, ma'am,"

a b

" Four and five fingers wove def

t here. It's not going to

"I saw his acceptance note myself. You know

n I will. My brother went to school with the Ki

they friends? Just think of it? Do you

shr

oom? All the hors d'oeuvres are real, imported fish. You can t

en any of Dad's fish in my life, which is sort of t

good fishes. But you must admit, there's something special about the ones that

it?" Clea asked

and nodded wisely. "Oh, I know. I

or less standing (the room was dim, so his head and hands were invisible), more or less alone

my fault. I don't mean that Uske should be blamed. But chance, and all the rest ... well, all I mean is it makes me want out that much more. I want to be free. I nearly got myself killed trying to escape from the mines. And a couple of people

ike this, so I'm not free yet. If that's what I have to do to get free, than I'll do it. But I'm warning you. If I see another crack in the wall, anoth

aterer, was out of sight on the other side. A hand came around the edge of the cabinet, reaching for the handle. The hand was broad, wiry with black hair, and sported a cheap, wide, brass ring set with an irregular shape of blue glass. As the door op

There was a door that opened into the main kitchen. (Once he had snagged a kharba fruit from the cook's table and ran, as behind him a wooden salad bowl crashed to the floor. T

the hall was a red wood table on which sat a free form sculpture of aluminum r

burnished red wood behind the vivid, turquoise blue was a combination that was almost too rich, too sensual. He had broken the vase. He had broken it in surprise, when his sister had come in on him suddenly, the little girl with hair black as his own, only more of it, saying, "What are you doing,

helves and they were filled with his father's collection of chronometers. He looked at the clocks on the shelf level with his eye. The last time he had been in this room, it had been the shelf below. The light from the door made a row of crescents on the curved faces, some the size of his little finger nail, others the diameter

ater, at the royal palace, with that same blade, there had been the same, sudden, clumsy fear at discovery, fear clotting into panic, the panic turning to confusion, and the confusion metastasizing into fear again, only fear all through him, dragging him down, so that when he tried to run down the vaulted hall, h

anger or fear fell about him without focus or apparent source. Disgust, or even love, when he had felt it was vague, liable to metamorphasize from one to the other. (School was great; his history teacher was very good.... Schoo

in a poison ring. It was a wish, a pain, an agony for freedom. The plans for escape had been intricate, yet sharp as the cracks in blue ceramic glaze. The h

he food, and could not communicate his outrage. Then, at the horizon, was the purple glow of something paler than sunrise, deadlier than the sea, a flickering, luminous purple gauze behind the hills. Near him were the skeletons of broken, century-ancient trees, leafless,

rom carbon paper was the silhouette of a city. Tower behind tower ro

Telphar! The word came to his mind as though on a sign attached with springs to his consciousness. The radiation! That was the second thing he thought of. Once more the name of the city shivered in his brain: Telphar! The certain, very certa

st be under way. He looked out into the hall. A fellow in a white apron, holdi

pron said. "Guests aren't supposed

find the-eh-er

rse. Go back into the ballroom and take

ched alcove in which were small white meat, red meat, dark meat of fish ground into patties, cut into

s of various sizes-was making a slow, windy music from the dais. The scatte

unds of crushed ice. Each fountain was rimmed with a little shelf on which was a ring of

, and a moment later a complex of glitter, green silk, blue net, and diamonds at the top

, unornamented blue suit was coming toward the head of the steps which expanded down toward the ballroom

n fruits, with the whisper of alcohol bitter at the back of his tongue

ears ago. He was much heavier. His-father-was at the other side of the room already, checking with the wait

taurine way usually associated with older men. There was a major's insignia on his shoulder. Jon watched him a while, empathizing with his occasional loo

on't you think?" Soldier, with embarrassment: "Yes, sir." Jon: "I guess the war is worrying all of us." Soldier: "The war? Yes." Then he looke

of years, appeared at the top of the six marble steps. As they came down, right and left, people bowed. Jon dropped his head, but not before he realized that the King's escort had giv

was old Koshar. He bowed very low, and the pale blond young man raised hi

ered the Ki

ou since you were

, this time rather wa

or it's her party. Clea-." The old man turned to the

aded across one shoulder, webbed and re-webbed with a chain of silver strung with pearls. Her hands at her sides, she came down

a," said old Kos

arm

t turn of the music, Jon saw the soldier was dancing too. A few couples away, Clea and the King turned round and round, white and white, brunette and blond. The steps came back to Jon like a poem remembered, the turn, the dip, separate, and join again. When a girl does the strange little outward step, and the boy bows, so that for a moment she is out of sight, her gown always swishes just so. Yes, like that! This whole day had been filled

going to get here at all.

earlier," Tomar said. "B

ld have

didn't think we'd get a

it quick. We change partners in a momen

ck to base almost before I did this morning. The

have i

his eye, then rich mahogany flame. He was dancing with the Duchess. She was nearly his height, and watched him with a smile hung in the subtle area between friendship and knowing cynicism. She moved eas

s. It was Clea. He should have been dancing, but he was standing still. When she looked at his face to discover why, she suddenly drew a breath. At first he thought his

d chest. Reach for her. Dance. As his hands went out, the music st

ects. I have been requested by the council to make their declaration of war official by my consent. An emergency meeting over sudden developments has made it imp

hen the cry echoed again. The musicians started the music once more, partners found one another, and the talking and laughi

loor and he could go up and lie down. And by his bed would be the copper night tab

room any longer. And that he certainly couldn't go up to it and lie down. He was standing in front of the door

't have him popping on and off like a cigarette lighter." There was silence. Then: "Well, at least don't you thin

breath and

bright hair, untonsured save by two coral combs, fell behind her shoulders. Her s

Duchess said. They w

"What do they want us to d

o you remember who the enemy is? You've heard his name. There are only three people in Toromon who have, Jon Koshar. Everyone else is ignorant. So we're the only ones who can say we're fully responsible. That responsibility is to Toromon. Have you any idea what state the economy is in? Your own fathe

it, we don't have

around, I'm not sure

d nowhere for five years. All I wanted was out, see. All I wanted

arium. My nine hours a day were spent with a metal spoon about the size of your head scraping the bottoms of the used tank tube of the stuff that even the glass filters were too touchy to take out. Afterwards I was too tired to do much more than read. So I read. Most of it was about Toromon's history. I read a lot about the mainland expedition

all an aristocracy is good for anyway. But I wanted more than a sense, I wanted to know what it was worth. So I went out and looked, and I found out it was worth a whole lot. Somehow Toromon is going to have

ore or less have to do the same thing. All right, I'll go along. But you're goin

w this: they're not from Earth, they're not human, a

bout th

. How, I still don't understand for sure. Alr

ped? B

oment, not to mention the underground groups that are bound to spring up to undermine whatever the government decides to do, once the war gets going. Let is going where he can become a strong man,

get hold of you, anyway? For th

tion wouldn't kill you. That, unfortunately had the unpleasant side effect of booting down your index of refraction a couple of points, which is why you keep fading in dim light. In fact, I got a blow-by-blow description

ything of it. I thought it was just small talk. Then, just after I changed partners for the third time, there I was, staring into a face that I could have sworn was Jon's. And the man wasn't dancing, either. He was just looking at me, very funny, and then he said my name. Tomar, it was the same voice Jon used to use when I'd hurt myself and he wanted to help. Oh,

hassock in the blue-draped sitting room, his han

want to have a picnic. I'm nearly at the solution now, and to have to stop and work on bomb sightings and missile trajectories ... Tomar, there's a beauty in abstract mathematics that shouldn't have to be dulled with that sort of thing. Als

s. Like food, work, and a bed where all four legs touched the ground. So I came to Toron. And I got them. And I got

I guess it was just that he l

re going to draft prisoners into the army; and whether at the end of their service, they'd be freed. Well, I did some checking. They are going to, and I sent

en and to prevent the little snarl of sound that w

thers attempted an escape. Two of their bodies were found. And

e door. Once she shook her head and opened her mouth. Then she closed it again and went on. "Yes. I'm glad you said it. I don't know. Maybe it was a sign ... a sign that he was