Verkan Vall entered, followed by Dirzed and Olirzon. The big room was
fitted with reclining chairs and couches and low tables; its walls
were hung with the heads of deer and boar and wolves, and with racks
holding rifles and hunting pistols and fowling pieces. It was filled
with the soft glow of indirect cold light. At the far side of the
room, a young woman was seated at a desk, speaking softly into a sound
transcriber. As they entered, she snapped it off and rose.

Hadron Dalla wore the same costume Verkan Vall had seen on the
visiplate: he recognized her instantly. It took her a second or two to
perceive Verkan Vall under the brown skin and black hair of the Lord
Virzal of Verkan. Then her face lighted with a happy smile.

"Why, Va-a-a-ll!" she whooped, running across the room and tossing
herself into his not particularly reluctant arms. After all, it had
been twenty years--"I didn't know you, at first!"

"You mean, in these clothes?" he asked, seeing that she had forgotten,
for the moment, the presence of the two Assassins. She had even
called him by his First Level name, but that was unimportant--the
Akor-Neb affectionate diminutive was formed by omitting the -_irz_- or
-_arn_-. "Well, they're not exactly what I generally wear on the
plantation." He kissed her again, then turned to his companions. "Your
pardon, Gentlemen-Assassins; it's been something over a year since
we've seen each other."

Olirzon was smiling at the affectionate reunion; Dirzed wore a look of
amused resignation, as though he might have expected something like
this to happen. Verkan Vall and Dalla sat down on a couch near the