Ghost Hunter

Prologue

HARMONY

Two Hundred Years after the Closing of the Curtain…

"PLEASE, WAIT, MISS ST. CLAIR." THE SMALL, NEAT MAN behind the reception desk leaped to his feet. "You simply cannot burst in on Mr. Boone like this."

"Watch me, Melvin." Elly kept moving.

She crossed the vast expanse of the reception area with quick strides, her tailored pumps making no sound on the thick carpet. Her goal was the massive, elaborately inlaid spectrum-wood door that guarded the inner sanctum of the executive offices of the Aurora Springs Guild.

Melvin flapped his manicured hands.

"Mr. Boone is in a meeting," he gasped. He bustled around the desk and hurried toward her. "He gave strict orders that he was not to be disturbed."

"Don't worry, Melvin, Mr. Boone will see me."

Elly reached the imposing door three steps ahead of Melvin. She grasped the oversized steel-and-amber knob with both hands.

"Mr. Boone is involved in Guild business, Miss St. Clair," Melvin yelped.

"Mr. Boone is always involved in Guild business, Melvin." She gave him an icy smile and shoved the heavy door inward. "But luckily for both of us, I have just discovered that, as far as he is concerned, I am Guild business. So you see, there's really no problem here, is there?"

"Miss St. Clair, please-"

She nipped smartly into the inner office, whirled, and slammed the door shut in Melvin's appalled face. There was a sharp snick when she rezzed the lock.

She swung around to face the two people who occupied the executive suite of the Aurora Springs Guild.

The man behind the massive green quartz desk regarded her calmly through a pair of black wire-and-amber-framed glasses. The serious, studious looking spectacles did nothing to veil the impact of his eerily compelling blue eyes. They also failed utterly to soften the implacable, unyielding lines of his fiercely etched features. His hand-tailored black silk dress shirt, trousers, and black amber-trimmed bolo tie underscored the invisible aura of power that he wore like a cloak.

Just in case anyone missed the point, he wore the traditional emblem of his office, a heavy black ring set with a large amber stone engraved with the Guild's seal.

Cooper Boone was the best argument against the quaint, old-fashioned, badly retrograde tradition of arranged Covenant Marriages that she had ever met, Elly thought. And to think she had been on the brink of becoming his wife. A shiver whispered down her spine.

In fairness, there were a couple of valid reasons why she had allowed herself to become engaged to him, she reflected sadly. Reason number one was that she had fallen head over heels in love with Cooper.

Reason number two, the one that had proved to be her biggest mistake, was that she thought he had fallen in love with her.

She knew the truth now.

"Good afternoon, Elly," Cooper said quietly. "I wasn't expecting you."

Translated, that probably meant, What the hell do you think you're doing barging into my office? But Cooper was far too controlled to allow his irritation to show.

With the aid of twenty-twenty hindsight she could see that Cooper's seemingly unlimited powers of self-control had been a major warning sign. But in the few weeks that they had actively dated, she had told herself that it was an admirable characteristic.

"I happened to be in the neighborhood," she said, giving him what she hoped was a smile as dazzling as sunlight on snow and just as chilly. "Thought I'd drop in."

He raised his dark brows a quarter of an inch and very gently narrowed his mesmerizing eyes.

Okay, she thought, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, he now knows I'm furious. And he's a little surprised. Wow. Fancy that.

She ought to be experiencing a little glow of vengeful satisfaction, she thought. It wasn't easy to catch Cooper Boone off guard. He was a master strategist, always one step ahead of everyone else around him.

He had certainly been one step ahead of her for the past couple of months.

She had actually convinced herself that his formal, traditional courtship had been a sign of respect for her and her family. Here in Aurora Springs a lot of things in the Guild were still done the old-fashioned way, including high-ranking Guild Covenant Marriages.

Cooper was watching her intently now. She could almost hear him mentally calculating, assessing and strategizing, deciding on the best way to deal with her and control the situation. Because that's what he does, she reflected. He deals with people and takes charge of situations.

The reason he could do that so well was because he had complete mastery of his own emotions. That's his real talent, she thought, and it has nothing to do with his impressive parapsych profile.

The second man in the room frowned in paternal disapproval. "Cooper and I are a little busy at the moment, my dear. Did I forget a lunch date?"

"No, Dad, you didn't forget anything," she said quietly. "Don't worry, this won't take long."

Her father was several years older than Cooper and a couple of inches shorter. He wore his mane of silver hair in the traditional Guild style, tied back at the nape of his neck with a black leather cord. Her three brothers wore their hair in the same manner.

One of the things that she had liked about Cooper Boone right from the start was that he cut his hair in a short, decidedly non-Guild style.

Every male in her family also wore a lot of khaki and leather, another Guild tradition. Today her father was dressed in a khaki shirt and multipocketed khaki pants tucked into chroma-snakeskin boots. A leather belt set with a large amber buckle wrapped a waistline that had softened only a little in recent years.

John St. Clair was one of the most powerful men in the Aurora Springs Guild, second only to Cooper. He had, in fact, helped engineer the selection of Cooper as the new head of the organization. That transition had occurred after the former Guild boss, Douglas Haggerty, had been found dead of a heart attack in the catacombs.

No one had been more stunned by the Council's choice of Cooper Boone than Elly. As the daughter of a high-ranking Guild family whose forebears included a couple of the founders of the Aurora Springs Guild, she was well aware that it wasn't the strength of a ghost hunter's psi power alone that propelled him onto the Council or into the executive offices of the Guild. Savvy intelligence and a will as indestructible as green quartz were the primary characteristics of all of the men who had held that position since the founding of the organization.

The paranormal ability to resonate psychically with amber and use it to focus the brain's natural energy waves had begun to appear among the human colonists on Harmony shortly after they came through the Curtain to settle the new world. At first the talent had seemed to be little more than a curiosity. But gradually the true potential of the phenomenon became apparent.

Today, two hundred years after the discovery of Harmonic amber, the stuff was routinely used as a power source for everything from automobiles to dishwashers. Any kindergartner could generate enough psychic energy to switch on a rez-screen to watch cartoons.

Some people, however, working with specially tuned amber, could generate more than the usual amount of psi power and use it in some highly specific ways. Ghost hunters, technically known as dissonance-energy para-resonators, comprised one of those groups of high-powered para-resonators.

The term ghost hunter described quite accurately what most of them did for a living. Their psychic abilities, while certainly impressive, were not what anyone would call multifunctional or flexible skill sets. Career options were limited.

As far as anyone knew, the only practical application of a hunter's talent was in controlling and destroying the highly volatile, potentially lethal balls of fiery, acid-green psi energy formally known as UDEMs. The acronym stood for unstable dissonance energy manifestation. They were known as ghosts because they drifted like so many lost specters through the endless network of underground tunnels that honeycombed the planet. No one knew why the long-vanished aliens had built the catacombs in the first place. The UDEMs were just as much of a mystery.

Most of the experts assumed the ghostly green phantoms had been meant to function, along with the dangerous psychic illusion traps that also infested the tunnels, as some sort of high-tech security system. But, as was the case with all of the ruins, artifacts, and relics left by the vanished race of beings that had first colonized Harmony, the real purpose of the ghosts was a matter of sheer speculation.

One thing was indisputably true, however. The energy ghosts made exploration and excavation of the vast network of underground passages extremely hazardous. And, since exploration and excavation of the catacombs was not only big business but also a major focus of several private and government-funded labs and many academic institutions, the ability to destroy ghosts guaranteed a certain degree of job stability.

The Guilds contracted the services of their members to various academic, corporate, and privately financed excavation teams that explored the catacombs for study and considerable profit. Over the years the hunter Guilds, led by a series of shrewd, ambitious men, had become powerful, secretive operations bound by mysterious traditions and Guild Law. There was an old Guild saying-actually there were a lot of old Guild sayings-but the one quoted most often was, "Once a Guild man, always a Guild man."

Occasionally an article appeared in one of the women's magazines touting the fact that there were some female ghost hunters. But statistically speaking, the vast majority of hunters were male-something to do with their particular psi talents being linked to certain male hormones, according to the experts. That meant that men ran the Guilds. And men in groups, as Elly's mother frequently pointed out, were strongly inclined to develop a pack mentality, complete with an alpha male at the top.

No doubt about it, the Guild Hall dripped testosterone, Elly thought. And the stuff was even thicker up here in the ornate, richly decorated offices of the Aurora Springs Guild executive suite.

"All right, Elly," Cooper said quietly. "It's obvious you're upset. Why don't you sit down and tell us what's wrong."

"Gosh, I'm afraid I don't have time to go into all of the details." She kept her voice very even, very cool. It wasn't easy, because you needed to breathe properly in order to control your voice, and breathing was getting hard. She felt a little feverish. "It would take much too long, and I know you're a very busy man. I certainly don't want to interrupt important Guild business."

Her father gave Cooper a quick, uneasy look and then took a step toward Elly. "Uh, honey, maybe we should go downstairs to the cafeteria, have a cup of coffee, and talk about whatever it is that seems to be bothering you."

"Forget the coffee, Dad." She did not take her eyes off Cooper. "I came here to ask the boss of the Aurora Springs Guild a couple of questions, and I'm not leaving until I get the truth."

Cooper's jaw tightened fractionally. "I've never lied to you."

Careful, she thought. You do not know this man. You only thought you did.

"Technically, that is probably a true statement," she agreed. "But you haven't always bothered to fill me in on all of the facts, have you?"

Cooper walked around the slab of rectangular green stone that formed the surface of his imposing desk. He lounged back against the edge of the massive chunk of quartz and folded his arms.

"What are your questions?" he asked calmly.

She swallowed hard and steeled herself. She was about to piss off the most dangerous man in Aurora Springs. Maybe she should have given herself twenty-four hours to cool down after she heard the gossip this morning.

Then again, an extra day of brooding would have changed nothing. Might as well get it over with and get on with your life, she told herself.

"There is talk going around the campus that a couple of months ago, shortly after you and I met, just before you were offered the position as head of the Guild, you challenged Palmer Frazier to a ghost-hunter duel down in the catacombs." She took a deep breath. "Is that true?"

Out of the corner of her eye she saw her father stiffen. His reaction told her everything she needed to know. The rumor was true. Her heart sank. For the first time she acknowledged to herself that she had been hoping against hope that Cooper would deny the story.

Cooper's expression, unlike John's, never altered. "Who told you that tale?"

"Oh, no you don't," she said swiftly. "I'm not about to give you the name of the person who repeated the story to me. Who knows what you might decide to do in retaliation."

"I'm only interested in plugging a possible security leak," Cooper said mildly.

"Got news for you, you're way too late to plug any leaks in this case. It took a while for the word to get out, but it is definitely in the public domain now. My informant was only relaying gossip that everyone on campus has already heard." She swept her arms out wide. "In fact, I think I'm probably the last one in town to find out about it. Talk about adding insult to injury."

John scowled. "What do you mean by that?"

"Let's just say this incident isn't one of the Guild's better kept secrets, Dad. I'm amazed you managed to hush it up this long." She turned back to Cooper. "But now that everybody's talking, I wouldn't be surprised if the story hits the tabloids this afternoon or tomorrow. Better warn that nice little man in that broom closet downstairs that you like to call your public relations department to brace himself. He's going to be a little overwhelmed when the local media starts calling."

"What, exactly, did you hear?" Cooper asked. His voice didn't sharpen, but his eyes did.

I definitely have his attention, Elly thought. But it didn't take parapsych senses to figure out that this was probably one of those be-careful-what-you-wish-for situations.

She was committed now, though. There was no turning back.

"Everyone is saying that the reason Palmer Frazier disappeared for several days a while back was because he needed time to recover from the psychic injuries he received in a duel with another hunter. They're also saying that's why he resigned from the Guild Council to- How did your PR department put it? Oh, yes, to pursue other interests in Frequency City."

"I see." Cooper looked thoughtful.

She wanted to scream, but she clamped her back teeth together, instead. She would not lose it here in front of this overcontrolled man. She had her pride.

"They say that you were his opponent, Cooper, and that you won."

Cooper continued to look meditative.

"This is most unfortunate," John murmured.

"Certainly struck me that way, Dad," she said. "According to the gossip that's going around, the only witnesses allowed were the other members of the Guild Council. That means you were there."

John winced uneasily. "Now, see here, my dear-"

She switched her attention back to Cooper. "Guess what, Cooper. Gossip flows through the Guild Hall as quickly as it goes across the campus. In fact, the news is all over town. And this is a small town, in case you've forgotten. Do you know what that means? It means I can't even go grocery shopping without people talking about me behind my back."

"This will all blow over in a month or two," John announced in forceful tones. "Frazier is fine. It was his decision to leave town and move to Frequency City."

"He would hardly want to hang around Aurora Springs after he'd been humiliated by losing a duel and being forced off the Council," she shot back.

Cooper studied her with a considering expression. She knew that he was trying to decide just how much of the truth to reveal.

"I regret that there has been gossip and that it got back to you," he said slowly.

"For heaven's sake, you could have been seriously injured or even been killed."

Cooper's brows drew together above the rims of his glasses in a slightly baffled expression. "There was no danger of anyone getting killed."

"A sanctioned ghost-hunter duel is a formal ritual," John said quickly. "It's used only as a last resort to deal with challenges to the existing power structure of the organization. The strongest hunter wins. The members of the Council witness the results, and that's the end of the matter."

"You make it sound so simple," she retorted, thoroughly exasperated. "But everyone knows ghosts are terribly, terribly dangerous. Sure, hunters have some immunity, but one miscalculation, and we're talking a major disaster. When you're dealing with high-energy ghosts, there's always the possibility of serious psychic trauma."

"Nothing went wrong," Cooper said quietly. "The issue that had arisen was formally settled according to Guild Law. There should have been no gossip."

"Well, there is gossip, Mr. Guild Boss."

"It doesn't involve you," he said quietly.

"I have another news bulletin for you. Everyone is saying that I was the reason the duel was fought."

He frowned. "Who said that?"

"Everyone. Aren't you listening? My colleagues in the Department of Botany stared and whispered when I walked through the faculty lounge. You should have heard the giggling when I went into the women's restroom."

There was a short, heavily weighted silence at that news. The discussion was going downhill fast, and her heart was breaking into smaller and smaller pieces. She only had one last, frail hope to cling to.

"Elly," John said, placating. "You're the daughter of a Guild family. You know how important our traditions are."

"For heaven's sake, Dad, I've got nothing against a few institutional traditions. But we're talking about a fullblown duel." She flicked a glance at Cooper. "In case neither one of you has heard, that sort of thing is considered archaic, primitive, uncivilized, and way over the top by modern, educated, sophisticated people such as my colleagues."

"Your father's right; the gossip will die down," Cooper promised.

"That remark only goes to show how out of touch you both are with mainstream society." She started to pace. "It's all very well for you not to worry, but let me tell you a few facts of academic life. This may come as a stunning shock, but it turns out that figuring at the center of a stupid, mega-macho duel between a couple of hunters-one of whom happens to be a Guild boss-is not the kind of thing that will help me get promoted to assistant professor."

"Calm down," Cooper said, his voice gentling.

"Calm down?" She stopped and swung around to face him again. "If you don't care about the risk you took with your own life or your parapsych profile, how about considering the damage that you did to my career?"

Cooper's mouth thinned. "What occurred was Guild business. It will not affect your career. I give you my word on that."

She resumed pacing. The only other alternative was to pick up a few of the smaller alien artifacts that decorated the chamber and start hurling them around the room. That would be undignified.

"Guild business," she repeated coldly. "You know, somehow I just knew you were going to say that."

"The incident will not affect your career at the college."

"Pay attention, Mr. Guild Boss. Members of the faculty have been dismissed from Aurora Springs College for less than this."

John's snowy brows bunched. "No one is going to fire you because of this."

"Don't bet on it, Dad." She stalked past the full-length portrait of her several times great-grandfather, John Sander St. Clair, the first chief of the Aurora Springs Guild. "The Academic Council has a very strict Code of Conduct. Article One, Section a, Paragraph la, forbids every member of the staff from, and I quote, 'engaging in any type of behavior that might embarrass the college or reflect badly upon this institution. Such behavior shall be grounds for a formal reprimand, or, in the most serious cases, dismissal. "

For the first time, Cooper showed an expression other than cool patience. It wasn't much of a show of emotion, to be sure, only a slight increase in the intensity of his unusual blue eyes, but she had been around him enough in the past two months to sense that he was starting to get irritated.

"Your father is right," he said very evenly. "There's no way the Academic Council can blame you for an incident that involved only the Guild Council."

She came to a halt in front of another large portrait of a former Aurora Springs Guild boss. Albert Roy St. Clair was a great-uncle on her mother's side.

"You're missing the big picture here," she said. "I don't have to be guilty of anything. All I have to do is embarrass the college. In academic politics, perception is everything. Good grief. When I think of how hard I've worked to convince my colleagues that the Guild has changed over the years, that it isn't really an organization that is only half a step above a criminal mob, I could just spit. Talk about a complete waste of time and energy."

"You won't lose your position at the college," Cooper said without inflection. "Don't worry about it."

It was her turn to raise her brows. "Why? Because you'll make a few phone calls and intimidate the Academic Council?

"If there's a problem, I'll take care of it," he said.

"Don't even think about trying to do any such thing, Cooper Boone. I will not tolerate you using your position to interfere in my career."

"I think you're overreacting here," Cooper said quietly.

"I'm furious. If you want to label that an overreaction, you're welcome to your point of view. Forget my little problem with the Academic Council. I'll handle my professional life my way. Let's get back to a more important issue."

His brows came together in a small frown of surprise. "There's a more important issue?"

"Yes." She braced herself. "You've as much as admitted that there was a duel. Let's move on to my second question. People are saying that I was the cause of that ghost-fight between you and Palmer Frazier. Is that true?"

Cooper exchanged a look with her father. She knew that he was making his decision, deciding how much of the truth to tell her. Did he realize that their entire future together hinged on what he said next? Probably not. He was a Guild boss. It wouldn't occur to him that this situation had escaped his control.

Cooper unfolded his hands. He took off his glasses with a deliberate air and set them down on the desk.

Slowly he walked across the room to stand at one of the tall windows. For a moment or two he studied the view of the ruins of the ancient alien town site that had been deserted thousands of years before humans had arrived on the planet.

"Frazier is a very ambitious man, Elly," he said quietly. "He was attempting to use you."

"We dated for a while," she said icily. "We had some fun together. He did not use me."

"He intended to marry you. He was going on the assumption that once you were his wife, he would be able to forge a natural alliance with your father. That would have given him a critical edge on the Council."

She felt the floor start to dissolve under her feet. So much for the one frail thread of hope that she had been clinging to so tightly for the past few hours.

"I see," she managed in a voice that was no more than a whisper. "This was all about the Guild."

John inclined his head in a sage manner. "It's true, Elly. Frazier was determined to marry you. I warned him off privately, but he ignored me. If he had succeeded in convincing you to contract a formal Covenant Marriage with him, I would have been placed in an untenable situation, forced to choose between supporting my son-in-law for the sake of my daughter and her future offspring, or voting against him and risking an irreparable rift in our clan. It is very likely that, in the end, I would have had to step down from the Council to avoid being caught in the middle."

"Which," Cooper said, turning back to face her, "would have tipped the balance of power on the Council in such a way that it is entirely possible Frazier would have become the new Guild boss. He certainly has the para-rez talent, the ambition, and the connections it takes to get the job. I can promise you, his leadership would not have been good for the future of this organization."

"Right," she said quietly. "Got it. You fought the duel to protect the balance of power on the Council."

"That's what we've been trying to explain, dear." John crossed the room to pat her on the shoulder. "How could you know about the political stakes involved in this affair? As Cooper just told you, it was Guild business."

She shook her head, smiling sadly at her own illusions. "Did it ever occur to either one of you to talk to me about the situation before you got involved in something as stupid as a duel?"

Both men looked taken aback by the question. Neither attempted an answer.

"I'm not a complete fool," she said wearily. "Nor am I the naive, sheltered little academic that everyone seems to think I am. Palmer Frazier isn't the first man who ever tried to get close to me in order to gain access to you, Dad. Let's get serious here. If I turned down dates from every man who was attracted to me at least in part because of my Guild connections, I'd have no social life at all. This is a small town. Everyone knows who you are and that I'm your daughter."

"I understand, dear, but Frazier is different," John said carefully. "He's very good at political maneuvering, and he's got excellent connections because he is descended from one of the founding members of the Frequency Guild. An alliance with our clan would have given him a great deal of power. When the two of you were dating it was obvious that he was trying to charm you. And you seemed to be getting rather serious about him."

"Maybe that was because he treated me as an equal," she said stonily. "He didn't put me into a little box that he could open or close whenever it was convenient for him. Sure, he was a charmer. But you know what? Palmer and I laughed at a lot of the same things. We liked to dance together. And here's a real stunner, he always showed up on time for every date. What a concept, hmm?"

Cooper's eyes tightened a little at the corners. "Where are you going with this, Elly?"

"When Palmer and I were dating, I never had to listen to a lot of excuses about how he had to cancel because of some last-minute Guild business," she said. "He was never late because of a meeting that ran too long. He never disappeared for an entire weekend with no explanation other than 'Something came up. "

John was starting to look vaguely alarmed. "Now, see here, Elly-"

"I understood from the outset that Palmer's interest in me stemmed from the fact that he thought the two of us made a good match politically, financially, and socially." She shrugged. "He was right. As we all know, marriages have been arranged between Guild families since the founding of the organization for precisely those reasons."

John cleared his throat. "Marriages at the highest levels of the Guild involve a great deal more than just the two people who take the vows. Fortunes and the futures of entire families, not to mention the Guild, itself, are at stake. You know that, Elly."

"I sure do," she said. "But in this particular instance, it is all beside the point, because I never intended to marry Palmer Frazier." She paused a beat. "And if either of you two hardheaded hunters had bothered to ask me, I would have gladly told you that."

The office filled with a heavy silence.

"Mind if I ask why you're so certain that Frazier couldn't have convinced you to marry him?" Cooper finally asked in an eerily neutral tone. "Given that he was never late for a date and all?"

Because I had just met you, and after that there was no one else, she thought. But damned if she would say those words aloud now that she knew the truth about the duel.

"Certainly." She rezzed her brightest smile. "I'll be happy to tell you why I never wanted to marry Palmer Frazier. The reason is that I did not love him. What's more, I was pretty sure I would never be able to learn to love him. And you know what, guys? This may come as something of a surprise, but I wouldn't think of marrying a man who was only interested in using me to achieve his objectives in Guild politics."

Wariness flickered in Cooper's eyes.

John stared at her, astonished. "Now, hold on here, what is that supposed to mean?"

"I think we all know what it means, Dad." She gave her full attention to Cooper. "Talk about life's little ironies. I was never at risk of marrying Palmer Frazier, so that duel you two fought was all for nothing. But upon reflection, I realize that I owe you my sincere gratitude for getting involved in that challenge."

"Why?" he asked.

"Because if the duel had not taken place, and if I had not found out about it today, I probably would have continued to allow myself to be convinced that everything that was wrong between us would have been magically fixed after we got married. Talk about naive."

Cooper did not move. "What was wrong between us?"

"You're serious, aren't you? You really don't know how I've made excuses for you every time you were late for a date because of Guild business. You want to talk denial? I even went so far as to let Mom convince me that the fact that you've never shown any interest in doing anything more than kiss me good night very politely at the door was just your quaint way of demonstrating respect for my clan and the old courtship traditions. But that's not true, is it?"

"What are you implying?" Cooper asked without inflection.

"I'm not implying anything. I'm saying that your reasons for wanting to marry me are the same as Palmer Frazier's. You think I would make an excellent Mrs. Guild Boss. And, by golly, you're right. Not only can I bring you top-of-the-line family connections within the Guild, but I've got one foot in the mainstream world as well because of my academic career."

"Elly," John snapped. "That's enough."

"You liked the fact that I was involved in the world outside the Guild, didn't you, Cooper?" she said. "Because the status of the Guilds has been slipping for years, and that's a real problem."

"Elly," John repeated, sounding a little desperate this time.

"More and more people are coming to the conclusion that the Guilds are relics of another era," she continued tightly. "That they no longer serve any real purpose aside from supplying guys who can fry ghosts. Folks are asking themselves if that rather limited job description really warrants the kind of power and influence that the Guilds have acquired through the years. It's safe to say that if the organizations don't find a way to become a part of mainstream society soon, they are going to become anachronisms."

"The city-states will never forget that it was the ghost hunters who saved the colonies during the Era of Discord," John declared in ringing accents.

"Old news, Dad. Sure, there's still some macho glamour left, but let's face it, most educated, well-informed people view hunters as so much hired muscle. More and more young hunters are leaving the Guilds early. They join up just long enough to make some good money, and then they move on to more respectable professions in mainstream society. If the Guilds don't remake themselves and learn to operate like modern business corporations instead of closed, secretive societies, they're going to get left in the dust of history."

She broke off, exasperated.

Neither Cooper nor Elly's father said a word. They just looked at her as if she was one of the long-gone aliens who had returned unexpectedly to demand the return of the Guild boss's big quartz desk.

"Believe it or not, I didn't come here to debate the future of the Guilds," she said quietly.

"You wanted answers to your questions about the duel," Cooper said. "You got them. Now what?"

She started tugging on the spectacular amber and gold ring that she wore on her left hand. "Now that I know the real reason you fought that duel, I have no choice but to end our engagement."

"Elly," John was clearly stunned. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Giving Cooper back his ring."

She walked across the vast chamber and put the ring down on the quartz desk. It made a small, final-sounding little clink as it settled on the hard stone.

Cooper watched her, saying nothing.

"Keep your Guild secrets and your Guild traditions." She went toward the door. "And keep the ring until you find the right woman to be your wife."

"We'll talk later when you've had a chance to calm down," Cooper said.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible," she said. "I'm going to be very busy for the next couple of days, cleaning out my office and packing up my things."

John bristled. "The Academic Council has asked you to leave already? You said the rumors had just begun to circulate around the campus. There hasn't been time for anyone to call a meeting. They have to give you a chance to defend yourself."

"Relax, I haven't been fired, Dad. I'm going to turn in my resignation to the head of the Department of Botany as soon as I get back to the campus. After that I will be making plans to leave town. I'm moving on with my life."

"This is crazy." John rounded on Cooper. "You're the Guild boss, damn it, do something."

Cooper did not do anything. He looked at the ring on his desk and then he looked at Elly as though he was suddenly seeing her in a strange, new light.

"There is nothing Cooper or anyone else can do, Dad," Elly said from the door.

"I'll have your mother talk to you," John vowed, falling back on the threat of last resort.

"Mom will understand." Elly put her hand on the massive doorknob.

"I have one question," Cooper said softly.

She chilled. It took every ounce of will she possessed not to yank open the door and flee the room. Instead she made herself look back over her shoulder.

"What is it?" she asked.

"What did you mean a moment ago when you said that now that you knew the real reason behind the duel, you had no choice but to end the engagement? I got the impression that I gave the wrong answer."

"You did."

"I'm a student of history. I like to learn from it when I can. Was there a right answer?"

"To be honest, no." She tightened her grip on the knob. "Settling matters with a duel is a particularly appalling example of the worst and most benighted traditions of the Guild. But I grew up in a Guild family. I understand how tenacious tradition can be. I would not have ended our engagement solely because you engaged in a duel."

"Why are you ending our engagement, then?"

"Because of the reason you fought it."

"I don't understand."

"I know," she said.

She opened the door and walked out of the historic chamber. She would not collapse in a puddle of tears, she vowed. Not yet, at any rate.

She had a new life to plan. One thing was clear; she had to put some distance between herself and Cooper Boone. This town wasn't big enough for both of them.