Denek turned abrupdy into the gate of the drillground. "And it puts us into a real bind, if Liao tries to retake Stein's Folly. We'll be standing alone now, with all the major systems against us."
Sep digested Denek's words as he checked out the unit and sent the 'Mechs to their DropShips, the warriors to quarters. When Denek was done, she pulled him aside. "We have to talk. Now," she said, and began at the beginning. Denek listened, but his expression grew more and more skeptical as she spoke.
"Sep, Ardan was out of it. The doctors, the Meds, everyone said so."
She stared at him sternly. "So just about the time Ardan would have gotten here, Hanse just happens to change drastically. Not to mention the fact that there's no sign of Ardan and hasn't been, even though he was using the Jump-Ship Hanse Davion assigned to us so that we could get to the Folly and meet him."
She set her hand on his shoulder and shook him gendy. "Ardan got into that installation where he'd been held. He found a holo set up with pictures of Hanse in every sort of situation. Also of Argyle, in detail. When he brought Ref and me back to see it, the booby-traps began to go, and we had to get out or die. But he had put a set of holos in his pocket."
"He what?"
"Just what I said. He had a packet of them in his pocket. When we put them in the viewer, we saw the Palace at Argyle. There were holos of everything, in so much detail that if you studied them, it'd be almost like having lived here most of your life. From the Prince's private can to the bird sanctuary, with the names of all Hanse's favorite birds marked onto the case of the holo. It told ussomething. Doesn't it say anything to you?"
Denek might behave as if he were a foolish young fellow out for a good time, but he was a MechWarrior, and a good one. That meant he was no fool.
"They were training someone to take the Prince's place. And he's done it. If Ardan did show up here unannounced, he was probably either killed or is in hiding or has been ...detained."
He looked steadily into Sep's eyes.
"I have to get the unit offworld right now. You stay here and learn what you can. There's a ship, for emergencies only, stashed in Hangar Twelve at the private port. Old Sarnov lives in the village north of the grounds. He was one of the best pilots ever. When you find something...if you find something...you come to New Avalon. You're due back off leave, anyway. Nobody is going to ask how you got onworld, once you're there.
"I'll put your impending arrival on the incoming chart, as soon as I get in, with the notation that you are allowed recharge time and your exact time of arrival is unknown."
She patted his shoulder. "Good thinking. And put it as 'Candent Septarian and group', will you? We just might be able to slip Ardan in that way. Not to mention Hanse, if he should still be around."
She turned back to the forest, her mind busy. Where would the false Hanse have put his captives? Would he be naive enough to put them in the cells beneath the palace?
Where?
30
Ardan found himself at the outlet of the ventilation slot while the sun was still high. Hanse, behind him, was silent, and Ardan recalled suddenly that the Prince had a tendency toward claustrophobia. He felt a twinge of guilt at bringing him through such a tight place.
Then he chuckled.
"What's so funny?" asked Hanse.
"I was feeling sorry about getting you into such a smothery position, when I remembered that the alternative was the detention cells. Have you ever taken the tour? It's enough to make your gorge rise. I wonder why your what-ever-it-is-great grandfather built them as he did."
Hanse sighed and crouched beside Ardan in the narrow passageway. "Old Lucien was a complex character, I suspect. He had, among other things, a mania for the antique. Not what we call antique, mind you, but the really ancient He was an able administrator, a wonderful organizer, but he had several important screws pretty loose, indeed. He made his detention cells just like the dungeons in the ancient records. Odd thing. We've never used them much for any but important prisoners who were in danger of their lives."
As the sun set, Ardan watched the line of light work its way along the wall. Only a shoulder's width of space marked the slit on the outside wall, he knew. It was decorated around its edges with carved stone and looked like a high-set window.
"Well, I'd rather be here than down in those ghastly deeps," he said. "It'll be dark before too long. Then we can get onto the roof and take off."
The sky darkened gradually. The slit of warm gold was gone, and the sky turned to lilac, then to gray, and then to midnight black. Stars sprinkled the expanse when the two fugitives worked their way from the slit and began climbing the sheer wall.
Lucien had liked stone-carving. His decorations, old as they were, were still firm, and they gave finger and toeholds to his descendant as Hanse and Ardan made their painful way up the wall toward the roof. From time to time, they froze in place, as the thud of giant feet announced the presence of a 'Mech guard on the paved terrace below.
At the top of the wall was an overhang. That posed a problem, for there wasn't firm enough purchase to allow one of the men to swing his foot over the ledge above them.
They clung there for many minutes, trying to think of a way to go upward without falling from the wall. Then Hanse whispered, "You move toward me along this stringcourse. Yes, like that. Now. Set your near foot onto my knee. I have it braced between the stone and the wall. See if you can get high enough to put an elbow over the top."
Ardan moved as directed. Once he had his foot set firmly on Hanse's knee, he found that he could give a spring upward. It took him far enough to catch the lip of the crowning ledge with his right elbow and his left hand. In a moment, he was over onto the roof. Anchoring his body against a chimney, he then reached down.
"Hanse! Can you reach me?" he hissed.
A big hand slapped into his palm. Another hit his other hand. Heaving with all his might, Ardan swung the big man sideways to clear the overhang. Hanse's leg hooked over the lip. Then he was beside Ardan on the roof.
"Whooo!" the Prince said. "I also hate heights, in case anyone wonders. But I have a new liking for my many-times-great Grandpa. If he hadn't decorated his palace like a wedding cake, we'd never have been able to make it."
They crept around the bulk of the chimney stack and started toward the blister that sheltered the air car. The closure opened to Hanse's thumb, and the two pulled the light craft free onto the roof. While Ardan was checking it over, Hanse unlocked the stubby wings and put them into vertical takeoff position.
"Very pretty," a voice behind them said. "We knew you would probably come here."
Cleery stepped from behind another chimney stack, accompanied by six heavily armed guardsmen. "Ekkles was really puzzled by your disappearing trick. You will tell me how you accomplished that, before we are done."
"I prefer to deal with Ekkles than you," said the Prince. He sounded calm, but Ardan felt the undercurrent of frustration in him.
"Impossible, I'm afraid. Ekkles has accompanied Hanse Davion to New Avalon. An unexpected emergency demanded the presence of the Prince. You are now in my hands." The note of gloating in the man's voice startled Ardan.
He had known Cleery for years, ever since the man had become Davion's Maître of the Household on Argyle. Neither of them had suspected that there might be a power-mad sadist lurking beneath that suave and polite exterior. A shiver moved through Ardan's body. What had they gotten into now?