"Very little," Mattern said, absorbed once more in the game. "You'd think only a year or two had passed. Surprising how women do it." The shadow sighed. "Surprising," it agreed, its voice relaxing. "But then the female sex is mysterious." * * * * * They played on a while in silence. The kqyres finally spoke. "You will need a lot of money to provide an establishment fitting for so lovely a lady." "I have a lot of money," Mattern said. "More than enough." The kqyres flickered so violently that Mattern's eyes hurt. "Not enough for the things she deserves to have. Jewels, palaces, planets...." "One thing I know would make it a lot more comfortable for her," Mattern suggested. "If only you didn't have to be close to me all the time, kqyres. If only you could stay on the ship even when I'm not there. Not that I don't enjoy your company," he added quickly, "but she seems to be highly strung." "Do you think I like the situation any better than you? But this is the way the mbretersha has ordered it." "I suppose she knows what she's doing," Mattern sighed. In any case, the mbretersha's orders were absolute and could not be contravened--otherwise, at least one universe might be destroyed. There were still so many things he didn't understand and was not likely to learn. "Strange," he went on pensively, "that Lyddy should have seen you, when I hardly can, and I _know_ you're here." He knew, too, that the kqyres was deliberately vibrating out of phase, so that the horror of his appearance in this continuum would be spared not only those he chanced to meet, but also himself. There was always the danger of passing a mirror. Knowing how the kqyres looked in his own universe, knowing how he himself looked in the kqyres' universe, Mattern didn't doubt that any revelation would be a frightful one. However, he couldn't help being curious. "I still think someone must have told her where to stare," the shadow said, "and what for." "Don't be absurd!" Mattern snapped, outraged at the idea that his carefully kept secret might not be a secret at all. "Just try to be careful when she's around. Vibrate harder, or something." "I shall do my poor best." The shadowy one hesitated. "Do you not think that if perhaps you were to tell her the truth--" "Lord, no!" Mattern exclaimed. "She'd take a fit!" "Once you would not have spoken of her that way," the kqyres said reproachfully. "I didn't mean it the way it sounded," Mattern tried to explain. "It's just that--well, by now I hardly remember what the truth is myself." III Did that truth go back fifteen years, to the time he had met the kqyres, twenty years to the time he had first seen Lyddy? Or even further back than that? Did it go back, say, twenty-four years, to the time when he was sixteen and had killed his stepfather? He could still see Karl Brodek lying there with his head crushed, could still feel the terror rising in him at what he had done....