Perrund looked down at the board. "In a ripe old age,

as you say," she agreed before looking up at him again. "And do you still feel you're missing something which might prevent such a natural end?"

DeWar looked awkward. He picked up the Protector piece again and, as though addressing it, in a low voice said, "His life is in more danger than anybody here seems to think. Certainly it is in more danger than he appears to believe." He looked up at the lady Perrund, a small, hesitant smile on his face. "Or am I being too obsessive again?"

"I don't know," Perrund said, sitting closer and dropping her voice too, "why you seem so sure that people want him dead."

"Of course people want him dead," DeWar said. "He had the courage to commit regicide, the temerity to create a new way of governing. The Kings and Dukes who opposed the Protector from the start found him a more skilled politician and far better field commander than they'd expected. With great skill and a little luck he prevailed, and the acclamation of the newly enfranchised in Tassasen has made it difficult for anybody else in the old Kingdom or indeed anywhere in the old Empire to oppose him directly."

"There must be a 'but' or a 'however' about to make its appearance here," Perrund said. "I can tell it."

"Indeed. But there are those who have greeted UrLeyn's coming to power with every possible expression of enthusiasm and who have gone out of their way to support him in most public ways, yet who secretly know that their own existence — or at the very least their own supremacy is threatened by his continued rule. They are the ones I'm worried about, and they must have made their plans for our Protector. The first few attempts at assassination failed, but not by much. And only your bravery stopped the most determined.of them, lady," DeWar said.