ed forward. "You said my brother went
through this big estate. Anyone see him come out?"

Dar Girdek smiled. "Oh, sure. The Master of the Estates, Kio Barra,
himself. He saw him to the border and watched him go on his way."

Naran looked doubtful. "And what kind of a character is this Barra?"

"Oh, him!" Dar Girdek waved a hand. "Nothing there. In the first place,
he holds one of the biggest estates in the mountain area. So what would
he want to rob a freight caravan for?" He laughed.

"In the second place, the guy's practically harmless. Oh, sure, he's got
a title. He's Lord of the Mountain Lake. And he wears a lot of psionic
crystalware. But he's got about enough punch to knock over some
varmint--if it's not too tough. Dar Makun might be your weak brother,
but he'd have eaten that guy for breakfast if he'd tried to be rough."

"Psionic weakling, you mean? But how does he manage to be a master
Protector of an Estate?"

Dar Girdek smiled wryly. "Father died. Brother sneaked off somewhere.
That left him. Title's too clear for anyone to try any funny business."

"I see." Naran leaned back. "Now, what about this null?"

"Well, of course you know about the time the pseudomen from the Fifth
managed to sneak in and lay a mess of their destructors on Carnol?"

"I might. I was one of the guys that saw to it they didn't get back to
celebrate." Naran closed his eyes for an instant.

"Yeah. Way I heard it, you were the guy that wrapped 'em up. Too bad
they didn't get you on the job sooner. Maybe we wouldn't have this mess
on our hands now." Dar Girdek shrugged.

"Anyway, they vaporized the city and a lot of area around it. That was
bad, but the aftereffect is worse. We've got scholars beating their
brains cells together, but all they can tell us is that there's a big
area up there just as psionically dead as an experimental chamber." He
grinned.

"I could tell 'em that much myself. It's a sort of cloud. Goes
turbulent, shoots out arms, then folds in again.

"We'd by-pass the whole thing, but it's right on the main trade route.
Only way around it is plenty of days out of the path, clear down around
the middle sea and into the lake region. Then you have to go all the way
back anyway, if you plan to do any mid-continent trading. And you still
take a chance of getting caught in a swirl arm."

Naran tilted his head. "So? Suppose you do get into a swirl? All you
need to do is wait." He smiled.

"You know. Just sort of i