"My lord, it is my duty!" she replied in a firm voice.

"No. No longer." The Coronal smiled for the first time that morning. "All that gesturing and bowing is stuff designed for public show. There's no need of such pomp in here."

To Hissune then he said, "I would not have recognized you, I think, had I not known it was you who was coming here today. We have been apart such a long time that we have become strangers, or so it feels to me."

"Several years, my lord, and not easy years," Hissune replied. "Time always works changes, and years like these work great changes."

"So they do." Leaning forward, Lord Valentine studied Hissune with an intensity that he found disconcerting. At length the Coronal said, "Once I thought that I knew you well. But the Hissune I knew was a boy who hid shyness behind slyness. The one who stands here today has become a man—a prince, even—and there is a little shyness left in him, but not much, and the slyness, I think, has turned into something deeper—craftiness, perhaps. Or even statesmanship, if the reports I have of you are true, and I would believe that they are. I think I still can see the boy I once knew, somewhere within you. But recognizing him is far from easy."

"And it is hard for me, my lord, to see in you the man who hired me once to be his guide through the Labyrinth."

"Am I changed that much, then, Hissune?"

"You are, my lord. I fear for you."

"Fear for Majipoor, if you must fear. Waste none on me."

"I do fear for Majipoor, and greatly. But how can you ask me not to fear for you? You are my benefactor, my lord. All I am I owe to you. And when I see you grown so bleak, so wintry—"

"These are wintry times, Hissune. The weather of the world is reflected on my face. But perhaps there is a springtime ahead for us all. Tell me: what is the news from Castle Mount? I know the lords and princes have been hatching great plans there."

"Indeed, my lord."

"Speak, then!"

"You understand, my lord, that these schemes are put forth subject to your ratification, that the Council of Regency would not presume to undertake—"

"So I assume. Tell me what the Council proposes."

Hissune drew his breath in deeply. "First," he said, "we would situate an army encircling all borders of Piurifayne, so that we may prevent the Metamorphs from exporting any further plagues and other horrors."

"To encircle Piurifayne, did you say, or to invade it?" asked Lord Valentine.

"Primarily to encircle it, my lord."

"Primarily?"

"Once we have established control of the borders, the plan is to enter the province in search of the rebel Faraataa and his followers."

"Ah. To capture Faraataa and his followers! And what will be done to them if they are captured, which I very much doubt they will be, considering my own experiences when I wandered in that jungle?"