Garan the Eternal by Andre Norton

came to be there. But I promise you” — I ended through twisted lips — “that I shall not be long in delving to the bottom of this strange matter.”
    Malkus cackled again, his thin screech of indecent mirth echoing through the chamber. “Behold virtue aroused,” he mouthed in glee.
    I rounded upon him swiftly. “You mock me, my Lord?”
    He shrugged but vouched me no other answer. I rose to my feet. With steady hands I unfastened the buckle of my sword belt and drew it from around me.
    “Since, Great One, it seems that I am no longer worthy of your trust, I will give back into your hands this symbol of my office. I was naught but a plain soldier, and a soldier am I content to be. Little do I know of government policies, but in my thoughts it is clear that a scapegoat is desired for some matter of state. If I can serve Yu-Lac best by my personal disgrace, I stand ready for orders. For I know that I have been faithful in all things to the best of my ability.”
    “Now that, my Lords, can be said by few in Yu-Lac today,” a voice sped clear across the room. I turned.
    In the doorway stood a man of my own years, a Learned One by his dress. But even among the Great Ones I have known but three others with his air of powerful self-control. The Lady Thrala had it, and the Emperor, and — Kepta. But the Koomian’s was an alien power unlike the others. Who this newcomer might be I did not know, but thatwhich is the innermost part of me, the indestructible part, recognized and hailed a leader of men.
    “Greetings, Thran,” the Emperor arose.
    “And to you, Sire, be peace. Let all be well with you, my Lords.”
    With easy grace he crossed the room to stand beside me.
    “And now what is this I have chanced upon? Why does the noble captain hand back his sword? With what may any man living reproach Garan of Yu-Lac?”
    “But a short while ago,” I said bitterly, “I too might have asked an answer to that last question of yours, my Lord.”
    His eyes met mine and I felt a certain warmth spread through me.
    “I have watched you, Lord Garan. And speaking freely before this council I say that there is no other man within the bounds of the inner sea in whom I would sooner place my trust. Thran of Gorl says it!”
    The Emperor smiled, a wintery cleft in his mask. “Take up your sword, my Lord. Where proof of wrongdoing is lacking, there can be no arguments for or against a man. But it would be well to get to the heart of this matter, for your own sake. A word spoken into the ear of a wise man is more to be heeded than the whisper of a passing breeze.”
    Thoroughly bewildered by this sudden about-face, I buckled on my belt and dropped to one knee to touch the floor before the council.
    “Have I your leave to depart, Great One?”
    The Emperor nodded. I turned to go but somehow I knew Thran’s eyes were on my back until I stepped from the chamber. Some game, whose stake or purpose I could not fathom, had been played, or perchance the play had just begun. But that I was a piece in the game I had no doubt.
    Still puzzling over that strange meeting in the Hall and the Emperor’s parting words, I turned aside into the gardens instead of returning directly to the landing stage and my flier.
    Clearly I had been ordered to set my house in order and produce the person or persons responsible for the appearance of the Koomian documents among my records. I must, without delay, set in motion my secret machinery of observation and deduction.
    But my thoughts kept wandering back to the idea thatsomeone had attempted to discredit me with the council, tried to so force me out of my position. That could mean only one thing — I was a menace. The Air Ministers, with their ever-growing power, or Kepta of Koom, from whom every drop of blood within me shrank in revulsion — which moved against me now? For the past year I had been burrowing into the secrets of both, striving to uncover the mysterious something which I knew lay there waiting