The Apogian War

Chapter 86

violently, "Damn the Councill" Or was that another dream? He knew that once Dyan had come into the room, but Regis had hidden his face in the bedclothes and refused to speak to him, gently though Dyan spoke. Or was that a dream, too? And then, for what seemed like years, he had been on the fire-lines at Armida, when they had lived day and night with terror, during the day the hard manual work kept it at bay, but at night he would wake, sobbing and crying out with fear.... That night, his grandfather told him, his half-conscious cries had grown so terrified, so insistent, that Kennard Alton, himself seriously ill, had come and stayed with him till morning, trying to quiet him with touch and rapport. But he kept crying out for Lew and Kennard couldn't reach him. Regis, ashamed of this childish behavior, had finally agreed to go to Neskaya. The blur of memory and thought-images embarrassed him, and he didn't try to sort out the truth from the drugged fantasies. Just the same, he knew that at least once Lew had been there, holding him in his arms like the frightened child he had been. When he told Ken nard so, Kennard nodded soberly and said, "It's very likely. Perhaps you were astray in time; or perhaps from where he is, Lew sensed that you had need for him, and reached you as a telepath can. I had never known you were so close to him." Regis felt helpless, vulnerable, so when he was well enough to ride, he had meekly agreed to go to Neskaya Tower. It was intolerable to live like this. . . . Gabriel's voice roused him now, saying in dismay, "Look! What's this? Dom Felix-" The old man was riding up the valley toward them, astride Danilo's black horse, the Armida-bred gelding which was the only really good horse at Syrtis. He was coming at what was, for a man his age, a break neck pace. For a few minutes it seemed he would ride full tilt into the party on the path, but just a few paces away he pulled up the black and the animal stood stiff-legged, breathing hard, its sides heaving. Dom Felix glared straight at Regis. "Where is my son? What have you thieving murderers done with him?" The old man's fury and grief were like a blow. Regis said in confu sion, "Your son? Danilo, sir? Why do you ask me?" "What have you vicious, detestable tyrants done with him? How dare you show your faces on my land, after stealing from me my youngest-" Regis tried to interrupt and quell the torrent of words. "Dom Felix, I do not understand. I parted from Danilo some days ago, in your own