How could he say it? What words could he find?
He blurted: "They said on Vesta that your father had ... surrendered."
For an instant her shoulders stayed tight and straining. Then, incredibly, the tension left them.
"Yes, Jarl." Her voice was the barest murmur. "They told it true. He sent a secret message to rey Gundre...."
A numbness crept through Jarl Corvett. He could hear his own heart pounding in the stillness. "But why, Sais? Why? How could he do it—?"
And her whisper came back: "You mean—you thought he had betrayed you?"
The hurt in her voice twisted at Jarl Corvett. But he threw it off; forced himself to press her further: "You ask—when for his own gain he left you here, to die with the rest of us on Ceres?"
He felt her body quiver, and it was like a knife-stab in his belly.
But when she spoke, scorn edged her words: "You'd believe that, after Horla?"