It was lavishly furnished, gold and jewels and velvet and the lovely ancient works. The far side was a great sheet of plastic opening on the raw splendor of landscape and an Earth at the full, its eerie blue radiance streaming in to blend with the soft glow of fluorotubes. Rikard had little time for esthetics; his gaze roved in search of enemies. No soldiers in this room, and the Engineer who guided him was closing the massive door on the sentries--praise the gods, it gave him a chance to kill the Chief and burst out and surprise those men! About a dozen Engineers stood around the Throne of Wisdom--high-ranking to judge from their robes, most of them young and burly, not a one of them bearing sword or dagger. Rikard knelt before the Throne until a voice that was almost a whisper said: "Rise, my son, and say your message." "Thank you, your Wisdom." The rebel got up and moved closer to the old man who sat before him. A very old man, he saw, thin and stooped and frail, with a halo of white hair about the gaunt face and the luminous eyes and the wonderful dome of a forehead. For an instant, Rikard despised himself. But Leda, Leda of the fair tresses and the low sweet laughter and the undaunted gallantry, Leda was hostage to Rayth. "You brought word of ores of power found on the far side of Luna," said the Chief Engineer. He pursed his lips and tapped his knee with the jeweled slide rule of his office. "But how would the heathen there know what to look for?" "They weren't looking for anything, your Wisdom," replied Rikard. He stood some five feet away--one easy jump. "It was a certain Engineer-educated trader from this city, Borsu by name, who several years ago was captured by Moonburg men attacking a caravan of his. I had him for slave, but he was so bold and wise a man that soon we were more friends than master and servant, and it was he who organized an expedition to the heathen lands. He thought their ores, which we on Earthside have little exploited, could be obtained for our manufactured goods at a fine profit and sold here in Coper City. It was he who saw those deposits and had them mined. On our return, we found that Moonburg had been brought under your city's rule, but nevertheless--" They were relaxing their wariness, intent on his account. "--we thought that we could still do business, especially with the Temple. As Borsu was ill, I left him in Moonburg and came myself to--" * * * * * He hit the Chief Engineer with a smack of bodies and his hands closed around the thin neck. Thunder and stars exploded in his skull. He reeled aside, falling to the ground, and the Engineer rushed on him with the club he had pulled from his long sleeve. Rikard kicked out, and the Coper flew backward, grunting. The barbarian snarled and lurched to his feet. Swords and daggers gleamed as the others yanked them from concealment. Trapped. They weren't stupid, these Engineers, and now he was trapped!