The Twisted Way (Champions of the Crystal Book 3)

Chapter 8.1

The luncheon took longer than planned, since Sabrina was late, and by the time it was over she had no time to seek out Rayland and talk to him about Scotty, as she had planned, before meeting the planetary aid committee from an allied, non-Realm planet called Ssussur. They were huge, reptilian creatures reminding Sabrina of Chinese dragons, with small, flightless wings and a sharp intelligence combined with a sly sense of humor. Their ambassador, Haassaa, treated Sabrina to the traditional greeting of her people, which involved curling around the person to be greeted. Unnerved by the huge, muscular coils around her, Sabrina had to battle her deepest primal fears to stand still; Darice actually shifted from foot to foot in an effort to restrain her instinct to attack. Having passed the test, Sabrina found that Haassaa treated her like an equal, and she enjoyed the conversation after the shakes from her terror had passed.

Her next meeting, with Foreign Affairs Minister Leyahrt and Secretary of Intelligence Thala, did nothing to improve her mood. Thala reported that traffic out of the Wayfarer Homeworld system had increased threefold since Khediva's distress call; many of the departing vessels were headed in the direction of the Realm.

"But Realm space is interdicted to Homeworld," Leyahrt said, frowning.

"Yes, but the interdiction has always been maintained by the Guardian. Who is not here," Thala pointed out. "And it was violated frequently while Shariara was ill. It must have been at that time that Homeworld increased its intelligence-gathering activities here, when we were too busy to notice."

"How are you coming along in rooting out their intelligence network?" Sabrina asked.

"We've found several minor operatives," Thala said. "They were not of sufficient rank to furnish us with any information about Homeworld's plans, and I am certain there are more, better hidden operatives. The ones we have found, we may have been meant to find, to lull us into a sense of security. Commander Rayland is assisting us, since we believe there must be several operatives in strategic positions within our defense forces, but as of yet he has been unsuccessful." She paused. "I'd like to ask your opinion of requesting Lady Imari to begin an internal investigation into the Miahn hierarchy of Councils."

"She'd tell you it was impossible," Minister Leyahrt shrugged. "Miahns pride themselves on spotting non-Miahns among them. And no Wayfarer could fool them."

"The operatives in question are not Wayfarers, but Homeworld citizens," Thala said. "No operative would attempt to pass himself off as Miahn when such a claim would inevitably, and quickly, be disproved. But there are many non-Miahns among the Council structures at this time, serving as administrators and such."

"I cannot believe any of our citizens would agree to act as agents for our enemies," Leyahrt said.

"They may not have," Thala said. "Homeworld has many ways of gathering intelligence, sometimes without the operative's own knowledge. Remember the execution of Tassan IX's bodyguard for passing intelligence to Homeworld? The autopsy revealed that his brain had been chemically partitioned. There were, in effect, two people in his brain, one an operative, the other a loyal bodyguard, totally separate from each other and thus missed in his medical scans. And that was a thousand years ago. There is no telling what Homeworld has produced since then." She steepled her fingers in front of her and looked at Sabrina. "My lady, I have not brought this up before, because I believed—and King Baldaran believed—that even such an inadvertent operative could not live in proximity to the Guardian without discovery, even aboard a Wayship. But you and your brother would have been obvious candidates for forcible conversion to Homeworld's operatives."

Sabrina stiffened. "Could a medical scan set your mind at rest? Do you know what to look for now?"

"You have both been scanned thoroughly since your arrival here; there are no medical indications that we can find," Thala said. "I do not think it likely to be you; your position now is so prominent that you can hardly sigh without a dozen people knowing it. Certainly it would be difficult for you to be transmitting information."