"You're fond of Edri, aren't you?"
"He was a good friend to me."
"Yes—and to me." She was silent for a moment and then she turned around. "You might as well know now as later. Edri was arrested a month ago."
Trehearne sprang up. "Arrested?"
"Yes. They sentenced him yesterday. Exile to Thuvis—for the rest of his natural life."
FIFTEEN
For a moment Trehearne stood still like a man stunned. Thuvis—for the rest of his natural life!
He remembered that dark, inexpressibly lonely world of a dying sun that Shairn had shown him in the microfilm viewer, on the way from Earth.
"No," he said. "Not Edri. There must be some mistake."