As he fired, he saw a wisp of gas come sliding around the edge of the inverted table. There was silence outside, and for an instant, he was tempted to abandon his post and go to the bathroom, back of the bedroom, for wet towels to improvise a mask. Then, when he tried to crawl backward, he could not. There was an impression of distant shouting which turned to a roaring sound in his head. He tried to lift his pistol, but it slipped from his fingers.
When consciousness returned, he was lying on his back, and something cold and rubbery was pressing into his face. He raised his arms to fight off whatever it was, and opened his eyes, to find that he was staring directly at the red oval and winged bullet of the Society of Assassins. A hand caught his wrist as he reached for the small pistol under his arm. The pressure on his face eased.
“It’s all right, Lord Virzal,” a voice came to him. “Assassins’ Truce!”
He nodded stupidly and repeated the words. “Assassins’ Truce; I won’t shoot. What happened?”
Then he sat up and looked around. Prince Jirzyn’s bedchamber was full of Assassins. Dalla, recovering from her touch of sleep-gas, was sitting groggily in a chair, while five or six of them fussed around her, getting in each others’ way, handing her drinks, chaffing her wrists, holding damp cloths on her brow. That was standard procedure, when any group of males thought Dalla needed any help. Another Assassin, beside the bed, was putting away an oxygen-mask outfit, and the Assassin who had prevented Verkan Vall from drawing his pistol was his own follower, Marnik. And Klarnood, the Assassin-President, was sitting on the foot of the bed, smoking one of Prince Jirzyn’s monogrammed and crested cigarettes critically.
Verkan Vall looked at Marnik, and then at Klarnood, and back to Marnik.
“You got through,” he said. “Good work, Marnik; I thought they’d downed you.”
“They did; I had to crash-land in the woods. I went about a mile on foot, and then I found a man and woman and two children, hiding in one of these little log rain shelters. They had an airboat, a good one. It seemed that rioting had broken out in the city unit where they lived, and they’d taken to the woods till things quieted down again. I offered them Assassins’ protection if they’d take me to Assassins’ Hall, and they did.”
“By luck, I was in when Marnik arrived,” Klarnood took over. “We brought three boatloads of men, and came here at once. Just as we got here, two boatloads of Starpha dependents arrived; they tried to give us an argument, and we discarnated the lot of them. Then we came down here, crying Assassins’ Truce. One of the Starpha Assassins, Kirzol, was still carnate; he told us what had been going on.” The President-General’s face-became grim. “You know, I take a rather poor view of Prince Jirzyn’s procedure in this matter, not to mention that of his underlings. I’ll have to speak to him about this. Now, how about you and the Lady Dallona? What do you intend doing?”