“You're right, your Grace. Protector Vayal will face outright rebellion. They'll at least ask, 'Did you have to kill him?' ”
“A question I'll be asking myself for as long as I live, a question I may never know the answer to.”
Casper couldn't stop himself. “I saw it, and she had to. He would have killed her if she hadn't killed him.”
She looked down at him through the thick plasma. “My life is neither more important nor less important than any other. If allowing my life to be taken preserves the peace, then I would far prefer to give it than to have another's death cause dissension, malice, and perhaps vendetta. No, Casper, I don't question whether he would've taken my life if I hadn't stopped him. What I question is the wisdom of stopping him. Being unaccustomed to our beliefs, you woul
