She found herself flinching and scurrying by with shoulders bent and eyes on the floor. Perhaps fear gave her the correct manner of a slave, for they were not stopped.

Suddenly Seventy- Three turned into one of the side pas- sages. Allowing herself a quick furtive look Ruth saw that now their way was stopped by a Lord, a pudgy young man, bald and sallow-faced. 'The Lords aren't so bad, most of them.' Wasn't that what Seventy-Three had said?

He barred their way and there was nothing to do but stop. “Thank you, Seventy-Three. You may go. You there. Bring the box.

You've kept me waiting long enough.”

His voice was loud and contemptuous and Ruth felt her cheeks grow hot. She swallowed her anger and muttered, “Yes, Lord” in as submissive a voice as she could manage. She slipped into the room he indicated, noticing, out of the corner of her eye, an alert figure in red standing a few metres further along the passage.

The door slid shut and a hand, surprisingly hard in such a flabby body, was pressed over her mouth. “Say nothing” a voice whispered.

She nodded, her mind in a whirl. Was this fat pale stoop- shouldered Lord the famous Tomi? The man whom Rowan preferred to the handsome Arbor? She stared at him open- mouthed as he pulled from the nape of his neck a stack of information wafers. She had a glimpse of a plastic socket imbedded in the flesh, before the fold of his toga hid it again. She shuddered. How could they have done this to their bodies?

“All right.” He laid the infopaks carefully on the shelf. “Now it's safe to talk. Oh, put that box down anywhere. It's not important. Who are you? You're not a slave and you're not from the village. I thought . . . from your note, that Rowan ... “

He stopped and swallowed and she saw the pain in his eyes and the loneliness. She looked past the pudginess and the stoop and the baldness to the young man beneath, the one whom Rowan loved.

“I'm sorry. I had to make sure you'd pay attention. I didn't know…” She stopped in confusion and began again. “Rowan is very well, and the others, too. Don't worry.”

“Is she married yet?” The voice was very casual.

Ruth smiled. “To Arbor? No, I got the impression that the marriage was off.” Her voice was equally casual.

“Oh? Oh, really?” She could feel the happiness radiating from him. It was almost embarrassing to be so close to a person's feelings. Close? She, Ruth, the worst Esper in Ark Three? How odd. Then she remembered: of course this Lord Tomi was no stranger. He was more even than a friend. Something like a twin. Even though they were meeting for the first time she knew his deepest hopes and fears. Here in the flesh was her dream half, her companion for the last year.