Shan Kar heard and got up and came toward them. He looked at them with a flash of impatience.
"You still don't believe? In spite of your powerful weapons you outlanders have things to learn."
He spoke to the younger Humanite leader. "Get thought-crowns for them, Diril."
Diril went out of the room and came back with five of the ancient-looking platinum circlets, each one mounted with two quartz disks.
Shan Kar handed them to Nelson and his comrades. "Put them on. Then you can hear."
Nelson hesitated and Li Kin handled his circlet in obvious nervous fright.
"They won't hurt you," said Shan Kar sardonically. "We of L'Lan do not need them for talk like this. Our minds and the beasts' can converse easily.
"But at a distance these thought-crowns our forefathers made let us hear thought more loudly. They should enable your minds to hear."
They put on the platinum crowns, looking oddly like hard-faced saints in haloes.
"Well, can you hear now?" asked Shan Kar.