She tried to change the subject. “You know, it’ll be our season in less than two weeks,” she pointed out. “Have you cleared everything for it? I’m already starting to feel the urges.”

Trelig nodded absently. “We’ve got twenty brats now. The worst curse of the war—this extreme fertility the Well imposed to replace the dead.” But he continued to look out into the night, even though New Pompeii was now obscured by the western mountains. “Mavra Chang,” she heard him mutter under his breath.

Burodir hissed in disgust. “Damn it! If she bothers you so much, why not do something about her? You’re supposed to be a big plotter and dirty thinker. What would you do if some slip of a cripple was a threat to your power here?”

His great reptilian head cocked slightly as he considered her challenge. “But killing her wouldn’t be enough,” he responded. “No, I have to know what sort of things that computer put into her, and how much of it she’s revealed to anyone else.” His mind raced now. “A kidnapping, though. She’s helpless to resist, given the situation she is in, and she’s even isolated from Ortega’s meddling. A kidnapping and a thorough hypno job in’some high-tech hex that could be bought or blackmailed. Of course!”

“It took you all these years to figure that out?” his wife responded sarcastically.

He didn’t recognize the tone. “Nine years to get a position here, almost the same to get the diplomatic mess straight, to repair and rebuild,” he replied seriously. “Plus all the work on the Northern problem. Priorities. But—why not?”

“Want me to arrange it?” Burodir asked, thankful that, perhaps, this obsession could finally be cleared up. “Makiem will have to be well out of the affair on the surface, or we undo the diplomatic ties and bring Ortega and the rest down on us. But, it can be done.” Trelig nodded idly. “Mavra Chang!” he breathed.