To Save a World by Marion Zimmer Bradley Read Free Book Online Page B

grandfather's eyes and felt a little shock of dread. The old man looked so tired now, and so frail. He thought: from childhood I leaned on his strength, we all did; now he is failing day by day and I must be the rock on which my people can lean — and I myself stand on quicksand!
    "Is it something new, Grandfather?" He rose, and the old man said, "Not very new; the same old thing; I dealt with it myself, with the help of Kennard and a Comyn Council, twenty years ago. The same old thing—a clamor for Terran mining, manufacturing, investments, you name it. The usual people who see only profit and forget the side effects of an industrialized world. But now there is something new, and I swear by Cassilda that I don't know what to say to them. We can deal with greed. But this—we may have no choice but to ask for help from the Empire, Regis."
    This from his grandfather, who had been the prime mover in the long struggle to keep Darkover clear of the Terran Empire, struck a surge of ice to the young man's heart. But he tried to speak with calm.
    "Let's go down, then, and listen to what they have to say to us."
    As the group made their way toward the door leading into the reception hall, a young girl came to Regis' side. She said, with a quiet self-possession, "Lord Regis, you may not remember me."
    "I don't," he said, and looked down into the lovely face. The girl was young and had the heart-shaped face and dark russet hair of their caste, and she had an air of calm and self-mastery quite at odds with her youth. He said, "That will be remedied when next we meet, damisela. You lend me grace; how may I serve you?"
    "I am Linnea of Arilinn," she said, "born in High Windward, and I have worked in the relays here for seven years, Lord."
    Regis flushed faintly. "Then must I have touched your mind many times unknowing; forgive me, I have lived long among offworlders and I keep my barriers up without realizing it."
    "Nevertheless, I know what is going on in Thendara," she said, "and I know you are looking for telepaths to work in this project with the Terrans."
    Regis' eyes rested with a sort of relief on the sweet young face and he thought, I wish she were going to be with us there. She would understand. Nevertheless, putting temptation aside, he said, "Child, we have too few Keepers to work the few telepath relays and circles we can command now. You are of more worth at your post in Arilinn, working in the matrix screens."
    "I know that, Regis," she said. "I wasn't speaking of myself, and anyway I'm not that good a telepath. I meant—my grandmother was trained as a matrix Keeper when she was a young girl. She gave up her post and married when she was in her early teens, but she would remember the old way they were trained back in the mountains."
    "I don't know your family, forgive me. Who was your grandmother?"
    "She was Desideria Leynier; she married Storn of Storn, and my mother was their third daughter, Rafaela Storn-Lanart."
    Regis shook his head. "She must have been Keeper years and years before I was born," he said. "I seem to have heard the name, but she must be older than—I hadn't believed any of them were still living, that group trained by the Aldarans. Was she—" suddenly his face went white as his hair, "was she one of those who raised Sharra in the hills, seventy years ago? Long before the rebellions, of course—"
    "Our family have always honored the forge-goddess," said Linnea quietly, "and we had nothing to do with the abuse of that power later."
    "I know that, or you would have died when Sharra's matrix was broken," Regis said. Normal color began to flow back into his face. "Then, if your grandmother is not too old to make the journey from the hills—"
    "She is too old, Lord Regis, but she will make it just the same," Linnea said, and her gray eyes glinted with mischief. "You will find her a surprising person, my grandmother."
    Acting on sudden impulse, Regis drew the girl's hand through his arm as they went into