"It must be so. I could make no contact with you at all, whereas I could penetrate and control easily with the others. It is only now, while we are jointly tenanting this weaker mind, that I can converse with you through its brain—I still cannot do so directly. It is very puzzling ..." and Hanlon felt the withdrawal of that mind.
Irad's body, now that the mind which had been keeping it not-dead, or semi-alive, had slumped to the floor in full death.
[CHAPTER 20]
Captain George Hanlon jumped from the big tricycle and ran into the residence. None of the guards or servants tried to stop him, so dumb-founded were they by all that had been happening. Knowing the way from his controlling of the bird that had found Amir's rooms, Hanlon was soon there. He did not stop to see what was happening to the others, but ran across the bedroom to that far door, and rapped on it to attract the attention of the Ruler, hiding behind it.
"Everything is safe now, k'nyer," he called through the badly charred panels. "The assassin is dead. You can come out now."
"Is this some new trick?" a voice came thinly.
"No, sire, it is no trick, but the truth. You are safe now."
"Who are you?"
"I'm ..." Hanlon started to give his name, then remembered that the Ruler did not know anything about him. He quickly changed it to, "I'm Ergo Lona, the groom with whom you talked on the ride the other morning."