Shairn shook her head. "I wish there were but there isn't. Edri is an Orthist, caught, confessed and convicted. He was unable even to offer a defense."
She turned away from him. "I don't like it either. But Edri knew what he was doing. He brought this on himself."
Trehearne asked, "What happened?"
"You remember that night in the wine garden when Kerrel spoke of a man named Arrin who had been arrested?"
"Yes. He was a friend of Edri's."
"Well, they couldn't find Arrin's papers. They wanted them very badly. It seemed that Arrin had found some clue to the course of Orthis' ship, on that last voyage when it was lost, and had been making calculations."
She paused, then added grimly, "Kerrel got the idea that Edri had those papers."
Trehearne's yellow eyes took on a peculiarly evil glint. "Then Kerrel was at the bottom of this?"
"Yes. It was his duty as agent of the Council to investigate, and he did, and very cleverly. Well, Edri had the papers all right, and more of his own."
Trehearne groaned. "The idealistic fool! Why wasn't he satisfied to be a Vardda himself, without worrying about the rest of the galaxy!"