Alard didn't ask what Mattern wanted him to do. He knew already.
Mattern put it into words: "I want you to take her with you."
"Take her," Alard repeated numbly. "Where?"
"Anywhere she wants to go—to Earth or back to Erytheia, or any one of the planets she chooses."
"Will she go with me?" Alard challenged. "You have to ask her; she has the right—"
"Oh, I'll go with you, Alard," Lyddy interrupted joyfully. "I'd go with anybody right now, but especially you."
"Even if you know I love you only as a sister?"
"That's better than nothing," Lyddy said. "Besides, you could change your mind. I think you and me have a lot more in common than him and me."
"I want to make sure there will always be someone to take care of her, to watch over her," Mattern told his brother. "Funny, I wouldn't have done what I did except for the sake of winning her, and now that I've won her, I can't hold her because of what I did to get her. But she was my dream and I want her to be cherished."