king the
door behind him.

Lea's frightened eyes met his when he went into the office. "A
friendly smile here among the cannibals," she called. Her strained
expression gave the lie to the cheeriness of her words. "What has
happened? Since I woke up, the great stone face over there"--she
pointed to Ulv--"has been telling me exactly nothing."

"What's the last thing you can remember?" Brion asked carefully.
He didn't want to tell her too much, lest this bring on the shock
again. Ulv had shown great presence of mind in not talking to her.

"If you must know," Lea said, "I remember quite a lot, Brion Brandd.
I shan't go into details, since this sort of thing is best kept from
the natives. For the record then, I can recall going to sleep after
you left. And nothing since then. It's weird. I went to sleep in
that lumpy hospital bed and woke up on this couch, feeling simply
terrible. With _him_ just sitting there and scowling at me. Won't
you please tell me what is going on?"

A partial truth was best, saving all of the details that he could
for later. "The magter attacked the Foundation building," he said.
"They are getting angry at all offworlders now. You were still
knocked out by a sleeping drug, so Ulv helped bring you here. It's
afternoon now--"

"Of the last day?" She sounded horrified. "While I'm playing
Sleeping Beauty the world is coming to an end! Was anyone hurt
in the attack? Or killed?"

"There were a number of casualties--and plenty of trouble," Brion
said. He had to get her off the subject. Walking over to the corpse,
he threw back the cover from its face. "But this is more important
right now. It's one of the magter. I have a scalpel and some other
things here--will you perform an autopsy?"

Lea huddled back on the couch, her arms around herself, looking
chilled in spite of the heat of the day. "What happened to the
people at the building?" she asked in a thin voice. The injection
had removed her memories of the tragedy, but echoes of the strain
and shock still reverberated in her mind and body. "I feel so ...
exhausted. Please tell me what happened. I have the feeling you're
hiding something."

Brion sat next to her and took her hands in his, not surprised to
find them cold. Looking into her eyes, he tried to give her some of
his strength. "It wasn't very nice," he said. "You were shaken up by
it, I imagine that's why you feel the way you do now. But--Lea,
you'll have to take my word for this. Don