"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." 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!" Shairn seemed relieved. Then, "That's what _I_ said! But knowing your friendship for Edri, I was afraid you'd lose your head when you heard." She went on quickly. "I know you'll have a reckoning with Kerrel over this and your own score. But you'll have to be careful since he's a Council agent. I can help you--" But Shairn's voice faded out of Trehearne's hearing except for that one phrase. "--_knowing your friendship for Edri_--" Yes, Edri had been his friend. He was sorry for Edri. But should he let friendship be a chain to drag him back down from all that he had dreamed and desired and finally achieved? No! He would not let himself be trapped by friendship and by pity! He had been merely indulging in emotionalism, to sympathize as he had with the non-Vardda peoples' hunger for star-freedom, to remember as he had the hopeless longing in their eyes, to brood as he had over the dying of Torin. A sick fatal foreboding grew in Trehearne as he realized the decision shaping in his mind. He knew that it was shaped by emotion, not by reason, and he felt a savage contempt for his own weakness. He spoke, interrupting Shairn. "I'm sorry, Shairn, I was thinking. And I think I've got to try to help Edri." She stopped, looking at him with wide steady eyes. Then, rapidly, "Michael! Don't be a fool!"