He sighed heavily. Now he knew that he was safe. The Steiner dynasty had become a staunch supporter of the Federated Suns...and Hanse. He smiled secretively. In a few years, Hanse would marry Melissa, daughter of the Archon, Katrina Steiner. After all, fifteen was still a bit young to take on marriage with a man so much her senior.
He had known her well, and her mother, too. The last time Hanse had visited Tharkad, Ardan had commanded the Guard unit assigned to the Prince. He had loved that assignment more than most
The world was a bracing one, not too lush and easy, as so many of the most populous ones tended to be. Tharkad held challenge for its inhabitants, and danger. As Hanse had wanted him to see the countryside and get to know the people, Ardan had spent much time mountain climbing, especially with men and women of the Lyran guard.
It had been during that visit that Hanse had arranged with Katrina for her daughter's hand, a clause that was worked into the intricate treaty they were negotiating and that was later signed at Sol.
Ardan stirred. For the first time in what seemed an eternity, he felt able to sit He pushed with his right arm, trying to raise himself.
"None of that!" It was the Archon herself, bustling in through the curtained space serving as a door. "Be still, Ardan, and get well. I have particular instructions from Hanse to take special care of you."
Ardan found himself smiling. She was a woman after his own heart, strong and determined. Now she stood in the narrow space between his bed and the screen dividing it from the next cubicle. Her hair was coiled about her finely shaped head, and her color was ruddy from the brisk weather.
"Ardan, how are you?" she asked, perching on the edge of his bed and taking his hand in both of hers. "I have had word from the Prince, and he is most concerned about you. We are taking you with us, back to the palace. Melissa is going to learn nursing, tending you."
The young man tried to sit but the woman pushed him back gendy. "I am so happy to see you," he said. "My duty on Tharkad was the most pleasant of all my service, I think. But do take care, ma'am. I have had some very odd infections and viruses. Don't risk infecting yourself or the Archon-Designate."
She laughed. "I have had a full report from your doctors. Don't trouble yourself about anything. We are going to bring you back to health so quickly it will astonish you. Now sleep a bit more. We will move you when the snowstorm ends—or tomorrow, whichever comes first."
He closed his eyes, only to open them again at the sound of a quiet voice at his side. Melissa stood there, wrapped in a long fur robe with a round fur hat on her smooth hair. She regarded him intently with her gray eyes.
"How do you feel?" she asked softiy. "Don't worry about us. The doctors say they have eliminated the bugs from your system. It's quite safe to be around you now."
She was still the tall, slender girl he remembered. At fifteen, she was not yet the stunning woman she looked to become, but her understated loveliness was unmistakable. He thought that Hanse could have done much worse in the choice of a wife, even without the political considerations.
"Then I'm ready to go! I remember the palace well. Is it as comfortable in the winter as it is in the spring?"
"Not quite," she said, wrinkling her patrician nose. "You have to wear long underwear, unless you want to freeze stiff. But it will be some time before you are allowed up. We will read together, and you shall tell me stories about...about your Prince. If you don't mind?"
He understood her curiosity. She had last seen her intended husband several years before. She had been a child then, unaware of many things that must now have her wondering.
He nodded briskly. "Indeed, I will. I can remember Hanse from the time he must have been about fifteen, and I was only five or so. We were neighbors, and good friends were rearing him. Though he was almost a man, he was very patient with me, even as a tiny child. I loved him like the brother I never had. We have been close, even when we were great distances apart"
Even as he spoke, Ardan realized how true were his words. Why had he stopped trusting Hanse? Why had he questioned the ethics of the man he knew better than anyone else? A surge of sorrow went through him.
"What is it? What is the matter?" Melissa asked, bending over him to place her small, chilly hand on his forehead. "Are you worse?"
Ardan managed a sick smile. "No. Not physically. I have just realized that I've been a fool, and that is never a pleasant experience. For some silly reason, I began to think that I knew more about running a system of worlds than those who have been trained for it. Somehow, I thought that my personal standards must, of necessity, be those that everyone must practice. Ridiculous, eh?"
"Well, you look worse than you did when mother left. I think I'd better call for a doctor." Her tone was decisive. In that moment, Ardan saw the ruler in the making. Melissa would be just such another as her mother. Perhaps not a warrior—she had, after all, not been trained for that—but as a statesman, a manager of human beings, she was going to be something to watch.
She left in a swirl of flowery scent, with an after-tang of pine. In a moment, a Med came in to administer a shot. Ardan drifted away on a wave of drug, yet a part of his mind was still alert, inquisitive, ready to rejoin the world. And so it was that he heard the quiet voices outside in the corridor.
"He is still delusional?" That was Katrina's tone.
"Only in certain matters. He has put the injured child into perspective. Our psychs have delved into the roots of that fixation. A nasty experience, too...one that would give anyone a bad time. This illness and injury just brought that out into the open. Probably, in the long run, it will be a good thing for him."
That voice belonged to another woman. Her tones were higher, less cultured than those of the Duchess of Tharkad.
"No, it's the other thing that still has a hold upon his mind. The double of Hanse Davion. We are a bit worried about this. He should have been able to get a grip on that, the way he did the other problem."
"I have read, in tapes of old books, about such things," said Melissa. "There was a book called The Prisoner of Zenda,about a man who was the double of the ruler. He went through the coronation ceremony in the missing man's place, foiling a plot of some sort. And then they took their own places again. There are several books about such a substitution of a double for a controversial person of importance."
Katrina pushed aside the curtain and glanced at Ardan. He had his eyes closed, remained totally relaxed, breathing deeply. His body was asleep; it was his mind that was still alert.
"When you study military history, you come up with many strange matters. Once, a very long while ago, there was a war on Old Earth. The Commander of one side—I believe his name was Montgomery or something similar—reviewed troops and traveled about the battle areas, misleading the enemy totally. That man was a double. The real Field Marshal was helping to plan a major attack, which succeeded partially because of that ploy. Such things have happened more than once," she said.
"Well, this cannot be such an instance," said the doctor. "The time for such play-acting is surely in the distant past, not in our civilized present."
Another voice chimed in, deeper, assured. Doctor Karns. "He is deeply troubled by that vision. But it's hard to tell whether he really ever left his bed at all. It is quite possible the entire sequence of events was an hallucination. Yet he repeats it with utter consistency. That is unusual with a true hallucination. It is a troublesome problem."