ned to her in the shambles of the wrecked room. The
quaver in her voice indicated that she couldn't take much more. He
took her arm and led her down the corridor to the laboratory. "We're
going to fight back, Astrid, and we're going to win. Right now there's
not much we can do for your father. But don't worry about him. He's
safe. He's much too valuable to be mistreated by the Darzent Empire.
But they will get everything they need from him with their
interrogatory drugs."

In the laboratory nothing had been touched. Once the Darzent force had
Reine they must have left at once. Astrid's shoulders were shaking as
Thane led her to a chair. "We've got a lot to plan and a lot to do. It
won't be easy and we'll be fighting all the way. But we'll win if
we're steady."

Thane could see the effort Astrid was making. "I'm ... I'm ready,
Roger. Where do we start?"

"We'll start with what we have, the underground. And Astrid, the
really important jobs may be up to you because I'm going to be out of
circulation for a while." Astrid looked up with a question on her lips
but he went on before she could voice it. "Pyuf mentioned that we have
some support among the Onzarian priestesshood. Just what do we have?"

"There's been general dissatisfaction with Candar all through the
religion," she said. Her voice was low, carefully controlled, with an
undercurrent of stress. "The whole priestesshood feels that Candar is
their enemy. They feel that Candar's eventual aim is to destroy every
organization not under his direct control. Of course, the church also
has a long tradition of remaining aloof from the temporal government.
And outwardly, Candar has so far usually respected the church."

She looked up at Thane. "That's the general picture. Actual proved
sympathizers with the underground are scarce, but we do have some
important ones. Probably the most important is the Priestess of
Keltar, Selan. As she's the head of the church in Keltar, the capitol
city, she's at least nominally the head of the whole organization,
though it does have a good deal of autonomy. But her word carries
enormous weight."

"What's she like?"

"She's old. Very old and very determined. She's always been on the
liberal wing of the church. Willing to recognize the changes that have
taken place, and to modify the church so that it will maintain its
place in the system. She recognizes Candar for what he is but is
willing to try to get along with him till someone