Ice and Shadow by Andre Norton

her now, or issue a challenge to prove she was as she said? She was a little afraid, for she did not doubt he meant what he said—evidence that he was prudent, for the wise thing for him was to keep her close. That she had not foreseen this simple end to the action puzzled her. It was all a part of that muzzy thinking which she had done ever since she met Ludorica. Almost as if she were conditioned—
    Conditioned! What if the Service techs had been wrong and their off-world guards did not hold? Or at least not entirely, so that subtly she had been taken over by the force which existed to make Clio a closed world? A new spark of fear was born in her. She was she, Roane Hume, who could perfectly remember a life beyond the stars. She was not a subject of a ruler on this forgotten, living museum of a world! And that thought she must hold to.
    “You are set on this plan then, Your Highness—to go to Leichstan for aid?” The Colonel, having delivered his order, seemed to have forgotten Roane again.
    “There is the Crown. I do not think that, even if Reddick knows where it lies, he quite dares to reach for it while I live. But with my death, he believes—or I would in his place—that the Crown will acknowledge him. For unrecorded though his descent may be, there is a trace of the Blood in him. He may have taken me only to make sure I was under his control when the word he expects comes. But that he ever meant I live on past that hour—” She pointed to the chain and collar. “That is good evidence he did not. And Leichstan can prove a refuge until we are sure of what we do face now.”
    She seemed to accept very calmly the fact that she was the target of her cousin’s intrigues. But perhaps such intrigues were so common on Clio that they were a part of daily experience. Maybe one held one’s position here through a series of struggles in a deadly game.
    “Reddick must still be at Hitherhow. We can take him there!” The Colonel’s brown hand twitched as if the fingers wished to hold some weapon.
    “Not knowing how far his plans extend or what support he can summon? That would be folly. But if I go to Leichstan I can claim aid, and I have put myself beyond Reddick’s reach, given us time to find the Crown and learn the true state of the King.”
    “Leichstan is ambitious,” the Colonel returned slowly.
    “So is Vordain to the north. If we must ally ourselves—which? I wish this no more than you do, kinsman. But if one must choose between alliance and alliance, Leichstan through friendship is better than Vordain by force.”
    The Colonel looked down at the cup he held as he turned it around and around. He might be reading some message in its depths.
    “There is a price for such alliances,” he observed in a very level voice.
    “That I know also,” the Princess returned. “But to everything on this earth there is a price, kinsman. And to me Reveny comes first, its safety and future. I am what I am by reason of birth, of much training. Were there another of my House to carry sword in battle, perhaps I could turn my thoughts from what must be done. But there is not. And I believe that this lack is also of Reddick’s doing. Before the Crown falls into his grasping hands I will do much. And the way lies through Leichstan—though I must go there without any of the trumpeting of a royal progress. You have wandered the border long enough to know its secrets. Nelis, there must be some hidden way across, and not far from here—”
    “Smugglers’ ways are rough going.”
    The Princess laughed. “None can be worse than that I have lately used. Though this”—she looked down at the coverall—“is very durable clothing for such work, I think it would be better if I entered Leichstan wearing something less noticeable. I know that I cannot expect an army post to produce clothing for a lady, but can such be obtained for us both?”
    Nelis Imfry smiled, as if the Princess’s request had a somewhat lighter