Captives of the Flame

been put away in her desk for exactly fifty-four seconds when she made the first discovery that gave her a permanent place in the history of Toromon's wars as its first

d-haired face came in on the visiphone,

har was destroyed. Tomar, I didn't even have to feed them to the computer. I just looked at them. That radiation was artificially created. Its increment is com

said. "What do yo

artificially maintained. And there are not more tha

erate radiation

said. "But somebody

ur genius, but how come n

taking the second derivative, or bothered to look at them before they fed them

is is the first piece of information of import that we've gotten from this whole battery of slide-rule

otten. She reached into her desk and got out a small pocket tool kit and was about to attack the housing of the frequency-filterer when the crackling increased and she heard a voice. She put the screw driver

her notebook and took up her pencil when the picture flashed onto the screen again. This time it was clear

aid. "Hello,

this?" s

this

in a forest, a prince had felt the same things disengage). Clea succeeded. "Y

. "Clea-I have

a five-sec

n, how a

any more. I've been out a long time, and I've d

. "Tell me how? What

aid. "What I've been doing? I'm in Tel

Telp

t line than I gave him credit for. I've overheard some closed circuit conference calls, and I'm talking to you by the same method. I know you've got the ear of Major Tomar and I know he's one of the few trustworthy people in that whole military hodge-podge. Clea, there is something hostile to Toromon behind that radiation barrier, but a war is not the answer. The thing that's making the war

know?" C

t is, it's people with something wrong among

orcise it?"

but let's say what's troubling them is a lot

s it like in Telphar? You know I'l

the Palace of the Stars right now. It was a magnificent building." The face looked right and left. "It still is. They had amazing laboratories, lots of equipment, great silvered meeting halls under an immense ceiling that reproduced the stars on the ceiling. The electric plants still work

tion ..."

bother us. It's too complicated

elf: whatever is behind the barrier caused the radiation rise that destroyed Telphar. Some place near Telphar is a projector that caused the rise, and it's still functioning. This hasn't

of sixty-year-old corpses on the floor. On the roads you can find a wreck every hundred feet or so. There're almost ten thousand corpses in the Stadium of the Stars. It

hold back in

o ask Dad for a huge sum of money to finance the first aggressive drive in this war effort. Try and convince him that it'll do more harm than good. Look, Clea, you've got a mathematical mind. Show him how this whole thing works. He doesn't mean to be, but he's almost as much responsible for this thing as any one in

a message to the Duchess of Petra. Tell her to get to Telphar in the next forty-eight hours by way of the transit ribbon. Tell her

oes the transit ribbon

om prison," Jon said. "I don't se

said. "That means

And I was at

hen laughed, "I'm so glad, Jon.

. Here in Telphar I don't feel much closer. Right now I'm walking around in my birthday suit. On our way here we got into a sh

oves, and we're to be married as soon as the war's over. I'm working on a great project, to find the inverse sub-trigonometric functions. Those are a

"That's about the

lothes?" She grinned into the

to spend some time in Toron, which is where I met him. Apparently he managed to accumulate an amazing store of information, about all sorts of things-

de me wonder how Dad could use tetron when h

t it was like," Jon said. "But not until. When you're tryi

y," she sai

leaves it was pretty dark. Arkor could get through because he was a forest man and nobody wou

understand. Are you s

so happy to see you again, to be able to talk to you. Sis, I've wanted to be free for so

ne overflowed and ran down the left side of her nose. "You see what you're doing

said. "Thanks, and so l

rk and she sat there wondering if perhaps the tension wasn