"Be reasonable, man. You've failed your mission; Rayth will have no further use for you, and only here is there protection. I daresay you've no love for Rayth, and he is our greatest enemy as well." Rikard was silent. "Now what reason did you have to do his foul work for him? I cannot quite imagine Rikard of Nyrac turning assassin for hire." "They say a woman was captured with him, your Wisdom," said one of the Engineers thoughtfully. "Ah, so. And Rayth holds her. Hm." The Chief Engineer paced back and forth, the robes swirling around his thin stooped form. Suddenly he said: "Bring this man a bowl of wine." It was a fire coursing in his veins, the leaden haze lifted from his mind and he looked at his captors with cleared eyes. The Chief Engineer said to him: "Rikard, this is the situation in Coper City. The old bold dynasty of the Mayors has faded till the last of them sits bibbing in his apartments with little interest in anything save a new wench. Meanwhile the struggle for the real power over this growing empire lies between the great nobles, of whom Rayth is chief, and the Temple, which recruits from all ranks and is thus closer to the people and more alive to their wants. The world has come down far since the Fall. What was a wise and glorious and adventurous civilization has been destroyed, and this, its successor, is stagnant and cruel and ignorant; it has done little which was new or decent in a thousand years. I do not say that the Temple is blameless; the early Chief Engineers found it convenient to monopolize what true knowledge was left and to ally themselves with the nobles in crushing the commons. But in the past generation we have tried to make some amends, we have spoken against human slavery and unjust laws, and we would like to teach all men enough to make them more than walking bellies. Temple and nobles agree that man must be united--" Rikard snarled at him. "--but it is rather for us to learn freedom from the barbarians, in exchange for our order and culture, than for them to be enslaved by us; and there is a sharp split between the parties. Furthermore, we have tried to regain the ancient knowledge by the methods with which it was won in the first place--that is, by trying our ideas to see if they work, rather than by blind acceptance of ancient authority. You must have noticed our laboratories as you entered. But this leads to heretical questioning of everything, and the nobles do not like it.