Herndon lowered himself in a courtly bow. "I would consider it the greatest of honors, good Lady." They danced. She was easy to hold; he sensed her warmness near him, and he saw something in her eyes--a distant pinched look of pain, perhaps--that told him all was not well between Lord and Lady. She said, "I don't recognize you. What's your name?" "Barr Herndon, milady. Of Zonnigog." "Zonnigog, indeed! And why have you crossed ten thousand miles of ocean to our city?" Herndon smiled and gracefully dipped her through a whirling series of pirouettes. "To seek fame and fortune, milady. Zonnigog is well and good to live in, but the place to become known is the City of Borlaam. For this reason I petitioned the Heitman Oversk to have me added to the retinue of the Lord Moaris." "You know Oversk, then? Well?" "Not at all well. I served him a while; then I asked to move on." "And so you go, climbing up and over your former masters, until you scramble up the shoulders of the Lord Moaris to the feet of the Seigneur. Is that the plan?" She smiled disarmingly, drawing any possible malice from the words she had uttered. Herndon nodded, saying in all sincerity, "I confess this is my aim. Forgive me, though, for saying that there are reasons that might cause me to remain in the service of the Lord Moaris longer than I had originally intended." A flush crossed her face. She understood. In a half-whisper she said. "You are impertinent. I suppose it comes with good looks and a strong body." "Thank you, milady." "I wasn't complimenting you," she said as the dance came to an end and the musicians subsided. "I was criticizing. But what does it matter? Thank you for the dance." "May I have the pleasure of milady's company once again soon?" Herndon asked. "You may--but not too soon." She chuckled. "The Lord Moaris is highly possessive. He resents it when I dance twice the same evening with one member of the court." Sadness darkened Herndon's face a moment. "Very well, then. But I will go to Viewplate A and stare at the stars a while. If the Lady seeks a companion, she will find one there." She stared at him and flurried away without replying. But Herndon felt a glow of inner satisfaction. The pieces were dropping into place. The ladder was being constructed. Soon it would bring him to the throneroom of the Seigneur Krellig. Beyond that he would need no plans. * * * * * Viewplate A, on the uppermost deck of the vast liner, was reserved for the first-class passengers and the members of their retinues. It was an enormous room, shrouded at all times in darkness, at one end of which a viewscreen opened out onto the glory of the heavens. In nullspace, a hyperbolic section of space was visible at all times, the stars in weird out-of-focus colors forming a breathtaking display. Geometry went awry. A blazing panorama illuminated the room.