nd it was up to him to correct Chear's
error. His calm voice did not betray his feelings when he returned the
salute of the gray-kilted Sanctioner standing at the foot of the
boarding ramp.

"Greetings, Master Thark," the Sanctioner said.

"Greetings, Underofficer Jamar. What is Prowler's status?"

"Senior Adepts Valla and Kainor are already on board, as is the rest of
my squad. The ship is ready for takeoff."

"Excellent," Thark said. "Then we leave immediately. We have no time
to waste." He hurried up the ramp into the ship.

Jamar followed, stopping to raise the ramp and close the lock. Thark
went on to the cockpit and secured himself in the pilot's seat,
scanning his instrumentation. He was an accomplished pilot, and rather
to his surprise he found that the pre-liftoff routine did ease his
mood, even under such unpleasant circumstances.

His ears went forward in satisfaction. Jamar had surpassed himself;
the only thing left was to alert his crew and passengers for immediate
takeoff. He did so, then fed full power to the null-gravs. There was
no need to wait for clearance; this was a private field, one of his
prerogatives as High Adept, and the Prowler, as his ship, had an
automatic clearance superseding any other in this system save an
Imperial Navy ship.

As soon as they were a safe ten diameters out from Irschcha he
activated the hyperdrive, then unstrapped himself and rose. Prowler's
course to Rendavi, the Crusade leaders' rendezvous, had been fed into
the navigation computer several days ago and been updated automatically
every hour since.

He started to leave the cockpit. Once the transition into hyperspace
had been made, there was no need for a pilot until it was time to
out-transition and land.

Still--at the moment, he really didn't feel like talking to his
lieutenants. He returned to the controls and sat down, staring into
the blank viewscreen and visualizing the morning's unexpected, perhaps
disastrous, developments. Perhaps if he had handled things
differently . . .

* * * * *

He had spent most of the week arranging things so he would be free all
day today, knowing such things would not be possible for much longer.
The weather had cooperated almost as if it were intelligent and sensed
the importance of this meeting. Although it was still early spring,
the day was a brilliant one, the temperature a comfortable fifteen
degrees. He had taken advantage