Eight yeas had passed since bloody Kaidor. The child of twelve weld be a woman now. And, thought Kieron anxiously, a hreat to the ascendant power of the Consort Ivane. .
The tall bronze doors swung open suddenly, and Kieron turned. But I was not the Emperor who stood there framed in the archway, nor even the Consort. It was the gem-bedeckedfigure of Landor, the First Lord of Space.
Kieron snored derisively. First Lord! The shades of the mighty fighter: who had carried that title through a thousand of Imperal Earth's battles must have been sickened by young Toran's. . or Ivane's. . choice of the mincing courtier who now stood before him.
The more cnical courtiers said that Landor had won his honors in Vane's bed, and Kieron could well believe it. Out in the vast emptinesses of the Edge men lived by different standards. Out there a woman was a woman — a thing to be Ioved or beaten, cherished or enjoyed and cast off — but not a touchstone to wealth and power. Kieron had loathed Lndor on sight, and there was no reason enough to believe that the First Lord reciprocated most completely. It vas not wise for anyone, even a Warlord, to openly scon the Consort's favorites — but restraint was not one of the lord of Valkyr's virtues, though even Nevitta warned him to take care, Assassination was a fine art in the Imperial City, and one amply subsidized by the First Lord o Space.
"Well, Landor?" Kieron demanded, disdaining to use Landor's title.
Landor's smothly — handsome features showed no expression. The pae eyes veiled like a serpent's.
"I regret," the First Lord of Space said easily, "that His Imperial Majesty had retired for the night, Valkyr. Under the circunstances. ." He spread his slender hands in a gesture of helplessness.
The lie was obvious. Through the open doorway of the royal chambers came the murmuring sound of laughterand the reedy melody of a minstrel's pipes in the age-old ballad of Lady Greensleeves. Kieron could hear Toran's uncertain voice singing:
Greensleeves was all my joy,
Greensleeves was all my joy,