The guard said, "Back up." Trehearne backed. He looked at Shairn. "I should have clipped you again to make sure." "You should. I got my feet loose quite easily. This silk is pretty flimsy stuff." She walked past him toward Joris. The guard came in and closed the door, setting his back against it. Joris demanded, "What's all this about?" "I found her out by the gate," the guard said. "She was gagged and her hands were tied." "Trehearne," said Shairn to Joris. "He's an Orthist. He came here to help Edri escape." "Did he!" said Joris. "Did he now!" He looked at Trehearne. "You stand where you are. Don't try anything." He reached into a drawer of the table and covered him with the lens of another tube. "An Orthist, eh?" he said softly. He began to laugh. SIXTEEN Shairn sat down on the edge of Joris' table. She smiled at Trehearne and in this moment he hated her. He looked from Joris to the guard and back again and did nothing. There was nothing then that he could do. "Would you have believed it of him, Joris?" said Shairn. "Would you have thought that he could turn on us after all we did for him?" Joris leaned back in his chair. "Shairn," he said, "I'm sorry it had to be this way." "Yes," she answered, and then added bitterly, "Kerrel was right about him, after all." Joris said, "That isn't what I mean." Something in his tone made Shairn turn and look at him. He went on. "I'm sorry you got yourself into this. You're only doing what you believe to be right. But so is Trehearne. _So am I._" He dropped his bombshell so quietly that for a moment neither Shairn nor Trehearne could quite believe that they had understood him. Shairn got up off the edge of the table. She backed away, her eyes fixed on Joris in horrified incredulity. "You, Joris! You an Orthist!" Her tone made the words a denial. But Joris nodded and said, "Yes." Abruptly, Trehearne laughed. Shairn swung around. "You heard?" she said to the guard. "Arrest Joris!" The guard shook his head and smiled. "Hardly. I'm Joris' man." It was Shairn's turn now to stand like a trapped thing, searching for escape and not finding it. Trehearne said, "May I move now?" His voice was a bit shaky with relief. Joris grinned. "I didn't want you throwing yourself around. Somebody might have got hurt. Yes, you can move." Shairn burst out. "I can't understand this, Joris! You, of all people--it's insane!" "Perhaps. But I think Trehearne would understand." He scowled at his own hands, brooding, and then he said, "It doesn't matter who knows now. I did the forbidden thing. I married a woman of another world, a non-Vardda. I had a son. He wanted to fly the stars. He used to beg me to take him aboard my ship. After all, he was my son, half-Vardda. He thought he could do it. He hid himself away in my cabin and--the Vardda blood had not bred true in him." He glanced briefly at Trehearne. "He was not quite eighteen. I never flew another voyage after that."