Amelia Gallant

By Joyce and Jim Lavene

Published by Awe-Struck E-Books

ISBN: 1-58749-386-1

Electronic rights reserved by Awe-Struck E-Books, all other rights reserved by author. The reproduction or other use of any part of this publication without the prior written consent of the rights holder is an infringement of the copyright law.

Chapter One

There was only one way up the mountain. I saw the tortuous path once, in the light, from the village five hundred meters below.

Not daring to risk a torch as I scrambled along the narrow cut in the rock, I felt my way. Hands along the coarse scrub plants that dared to grow in the acrid soil, knees scraping the sharp edges even through the heavy fabric of my trousers.

It was black, impossible to see anything in front or behind me. A quality of darkness not only seen but felt, like a wall enclosing me. I could only hope the area I was looking for was in front of me. My ears strained in hope that nothing was following, but I knew better.

Just as I kept close to the trail as it clung and dipped close to the edge of the mountain, the Hayyim were behind me on the same route. And they would be angry.

The incline sharpened suddenly, throwing me off balance. I teetered precariously over the mountain, one leg catching on a wizened shrub, a rock slicing into my wrist. I dragged my arm along the ledge, reaching out searchingly for something solid to hold on to, finding only gravel and dirt that fell back into my face.

Dangling over the village so far below that it looked unreal, I tried to pull myself back up to the path. I spat the dirt out of my mouth and shook my head to clear my eyes. "Damn!"

The tiny torches were just beginning their ascent up the dark mountain. They'd have the advantage of light as well as familiarity. The Hayyim walked that path for centuries. I was scaling it for the first, and I hoped, only time.

I'd seen it, running like a pale ribbon along the mountain in the sunlight. The Hayyim leader pointed it out with a stern admonishment to avert my eyes in the future. It was the holiest of places. No strangers allowed. To be there was punishable by death.

With a savage surge of energy, I pushed myself back up on the track. The wind picked up off the mountain face, threatening to pummel me back down to the ground. I found handholds in the rocky ledge and levered myself further up the path. Ice was forming on the rock. I felt my fingers slide, but I kept going.

As I climbed higher, it became impossible to stay up on my feet. I dropped down and crawled, cold stone sliding across my stomach as I kept my mind on moving my hands, one over another. Slide, pull. Slide, pull. I pushed with my booted feet when I encountered a tenacious root sticking up from the rock.

Time became indistinct. The strength of the wind seemed to point to the fact that I was near the top. I looked up, straining just to lift my head, but there was no sign of the opening. Just the deep blackness, the hard, cold stone and the harsh wind.

"Keep pushin', Amelia," I grated through clenched teeth as I realized that my hands were becoming increasingly numb. A shard of rock scratched my face but it only hurt until the wind burned it away with cold. I wiggled my toes as I pulled my legs up another notch, experimenting with what feeling remained in the rest of my body. Urging my blood to flow through my frozen limbs.

"You have to be close to the top," I said, just to hear the sound of my own voice. "And you sure as hell don't want to go back the way you just came. Hayyim or not."

There was no one to argue with me, no one to hear my words. I reached out a hand to pull myself forward one more time. My fingers encountered damp, warm ground and a thick grass covering. I pushed eagerly forward.

It was a plateau unlike any I'd ever encountered. When I managed to shove my whole body up to the top, I found that the wind was gone. The cold that froze the mountain face was replaced by almost tropical warmth. Plants grew extravagantly, a lush scent clinging to the humid air. And there was light.

It was a pale luminescence that shadowed rather than starkly outlined the thickly twisted foliage. I walked through the ghosts of heavy vines and tall stalks, huge flowers layered across the spongy ground. There was a pungent, spicy aroma that filled the air as I approached the narrow crevice where the light emerged.

It was barely one half meter wide and only slightly longer. I began to understand why the Hayyim wise men were always so thin.

As it was, I wasn't certain I could make it through the aperture. Definitely not in my jacket. Quickly, I stripped it off and flung it down, not wanting to take a chance on getting caught on the sharp edge. I studied the opening, trying to see into the depth.

The light glowed as far down as I could see into the mountain below. There was nothing else visible below the surface. I dropped a rock down the breach and waited but there was no sound below me, no hint of where the pebble had fallen. Or for that matter, I reasoned, any way to know that it wasn't still falling.

The Hayyim's excited shouts began to echo in the distance. I knew enough of their language to know that they were calling for my death to be of the Seven Tortures. Not a pleasant way to die. I hoped they hadn't hurt my assistant, Clywd, in their rush to get at me. Then the first torch topped the plateau and I knew there was only time to look after myself.

That the Hayyim neophytes made the pilgrimage up the mountain and down the crevice to discover their spiritual selves was a matter of record. That they did so at the death of every Haynur, their wandering wise man, was validated as well some twenty years before.

What no one understood was why ten or more young people would travel the mountain path and only one or two return the following day from the caves below. Return alive and with their minds intact, I quickly corrected, looking down into the hole in the mountain again.

But there were two things I was certain of. The Hayyim hopefuls did not return the same way they went up the mountain. Which meant that there was another way down. And the tribe was closing in fast on my location. Which meant I could jump and risk death or just die.

Without another thought, I leaped into the crevice, feeling the rock stroke my shoulder as I cleared the opening. The light surrounded, engulfed me as I passed through it, falling hard and fast. I tried to keep my legs going down first, head up, curving my spine and trying to loosen my taut muscles for impact.

But just as the pebble I'd flung down, there didn't seem to be an end to it. I continued to fall through the pale light, a mist like shroud enfolding me. If there were sides to the opening, a top or a bottom, I wasn't certain. It felt like I was falling forever.

My downward motion finally slowed slightly. A warm blast of air puffed up from somewhere beneath me and I slowed even more. I switched on the recorder at my wrist, knowing this would be the only chance I'd have to find out what went on inside the mountain.

My descent finally slowed completely, leaving me suspended in mid air. Then I gently dropped. I landed on my feet, crouching down low while I scanned the empty chamber.

The walls were sharp faced blue rock with a pearlescent sheen. The same blue rock was underfoot but in a darker shade suggesting years of feet treading the passage.

"At least they didn't die from the fall," I said aloud, my words echoing softly around me. The air had cleared. But where was I?

There was a darker walled tunnel that ran off from the chamber I stood in. Since none of the other neophytes seemed to be there with me, I decided to follow it. There was no point in gaining the Hayyim's enmity only to miss finding the truth.

The tunnel was dark, the walls midnight blue. The natural lighting from the first chamber didn't reach its deeper middle. It coiled like a snake, undulating through the mountain's depths. I followed carefully, using my hands along the dry rock wall to guide myself.

A beginning bloom of light began to seep along the floor, making my passage easier. It grew in strength, the luminous quality of the pale blue glow softening the tunnel's contours.

The tunnel finally opened into a magnificent chamber, possibly as high as the mountain's five hundred meters. Gleaming stalagmites hung from its cathedral-like ceiling. The crystal walls were cool to my touch. Reflecting light, refracting the colors back in kaleidoscope complexity, I gazed at my reflection in their smooth surface.

"You should not be here," a voice whispered from beside me. The sound was like the rustle of dead leaves.

I looked down at the Hayyim called Regheyr. It seemed I'd found the neophytes.

"I had to come." I stopped abruptly as I realized why the man spoke so quietly. My words came back to me, shocking in their intensity. "I had to come," I began again, this time in a careful whisper. "The triese lea."

The triese lea was believed to be a method of psychic induction. The tones were said to stimulate parts of the brain. To the fortunate who survived went a gift of prophecy. For some, the induction meant madness. For others, death. No one understood exactly what it was or how it changed its listeners.

Regheyr was aghast. "You cannot mean to be here. It is sacrilege. The triese lea is only for the Haynur, those who survive to become the wisest."

"The future gift," I murmured. "Or death. Aren't you afraid of which it will be for you?"

"I am not afraid," he assured me. "It is you, Amelia Gallant, who should fear. You will never survive. The triese lea cannot be yours. Only death. Or madness."

"I am here, Regheyr. One way or another."

He turned away. "It will begin soon. Good bye, Amelia Gallant."

I wandered the chamber, not recognizing any other of the Hayyim there with me. The Hayyim recognized me as a stranger and turned away, knowing as Regheyr did that I didn't belong in their shrine. Their eyes were full of hatred and fear. Then the song began and there was only fear.

It began slowly. A sound that was almost indiscernible yet impinged on everything else. It grew in intensity, finally prohibiting everything else except for the sound. There was no breath. No thought. No life. Only the sound that crept on me, shrouding me outside and filling me.

I turned away from some of the early drawings I'd found scrawled on the walls. In amazement, as the sound consumed me, I watched some of the others fall to the floor. Some tried to blot the sound, pushing their hands to their ears. Some cried. Others screamed in wonder or horror. I looked into their eyes and saw madness.

To me, the sound was like a thousand-thousand crystal bells making the most delicate music, chiming through my soul in such a way that I never wanted it to stop. A growing wonder filled me until I found that I couldn't move, couldn't think of anything else but the enchanting sound. There were tears on my cheeks but I was powerless to stop my weeping.

The music, which began so sweetly, continued to strengthen. It turned inside of me until it reached a painful intensity. I lost control of my body, falling to the stone floor while the sound still poured over me. A scream welled up inside of me and I felt my mouth open but there was no sound, no sensation of anything. Only the triese lea.

I stared up at the high crystal ceiling, knowing that I was shrieking though I couldn't hear it, writhing painfully on the cold blue floor. My last coherent thought was sadness that I wasn't able to accept the future gift. But better death than madness...

* * *

"Amelia!" A man's voice, deep and rugged, slightly accented, called to me.

I opened my eyes and looked around myself. I wasn't dead after all. I wasn't in the cavern anymore. But where was I?

"How did you get here?" he demanded.

"I don't know," I replied quickly, glancing at the dark face close beside my own. "I was in the cavern, then...who are you?"

The man's lean, swarthy face moved back from me. His thick black hair was unruly, his dark eyes intelligent and intent on my face.

"Who are you?" I asked again, sure that his strong features would be imprinted on my mind for the rest of my life. I reached out a tentative hand to the rugged contour of his face and he vanished.

* * *

"Amelia! Please! You have to wake up! They'll be here soon!"

Now that voice I knew. My assistant, Clywd. I opened my eyes and saw his anxious, pasty colored face against the deep green-blue of the jungle. "Where did he go?" I sat up quickly but there was no sign of the dark man.

"Who?" Clywd glanced around us. "I was lucky to find you before the Hayyim. They threatened me with terrible things when they found that you were gone. I think they mean to do us personal physical damage."

"What?" I got to my feet, still disoriented. I was out of the cavern, but the man I'd first seen was gone. Who was he?

"They mean to hurt us, Amelia!" Clywd almost shouted at me.

"Hurt us?" I finally focused on what he was saying. The other man would have to wait. For the moment, I was alive, hopefully not hallucinating, and I needed to get the hell out of the area. "They mean to kill us, Clywd. At least me anyway. Maybe they'll ignore that we're together."

I pushed the dot on my wrist recorder, hoping it got everything I recalled from the mountain. Triese lea. The future gift. My mind almost wandered off again.

"Kill?" Clywd coughed and jerked up to his feet. "No, I don't think they'd do that, do you? You've been their honored guest. They might ask you to leave, perhaps. Or-or tell you never to come back."

"Think what you want. I'm getting out of here before we find out. They can always tell me I was wrong later."

"What about the gear in the village?" Clywd asked as he followed me through the thick underbrush.

"We'll have them send it to us if they aren't angry enough to kill us." I used the river to get my coordinates. There was a launch daily from the river site near the ancient cliff dwellings. If we could make it there, maybe we could beg a ride off Quella. At least away from the Hayyim village.

"But that's the story, Amelia," Clywd protested, huffing with exertion. "Without that we came for nothing!"

He wasn't an active man and took the position as my assistant because of the money my publisher always paid up front. That, and the book he hoped to publish by association.

"They won't hurt me." Clywd stopped short as we raced down the jungle path. "It's you they want. I'm going back for the material."

"Don't be a fool." I stopped a few paces ahead of him. "They'll kill you as well as me. I violated their shrine. I stole the triese lea."

"I know what you've done. I don't understand, Amelia! Couldn't Regheyr have told you about his experience for the book?"

"Did he come out alive?"

"He was the only one besides you and a woman who seemed to be insensible."

"Then he'll be the next Haynur for the tribe." I stored away the knowledge for the future.

"Yes, he'll be the new leader. He's a sensible man. He won't-"

"He will! He'll kill us both if we go back."

"Not if I go alone," he informed me stubbornly. "He was quite kind to me. In fact--"

"Don't delude yourself," I cut him short. "The papers aren't worth it. You'll get your book."

"That's not what Max told me, and my contract specifically calls for me to get the material you want to leave behind!"

"Does it call for your death, Clywd? If not, we have to go."

"I'm going back," he told me calmly. "Besides, all this running is making me queasy. I'll meet you at the transport station in Sieur."

I thought briefly of tackling him, physically forcing him along with me. He wasn't a strong man. None of the people from the desert region on Delta 7 are imposing in their size or strength. Max Stein hired him for his brain and because he agreed to come to the far reaches of Quella.

"I don't think I have the strength to force you to do anything else." I ran my hand over my gritty face. I knew my body was barely holding me up. I didn't have the strength to fight him. "Just don't take any chances. Get in and out and don't think they won't hurt you."

"Don't worry about me." He waved as he turned back towards the village. "I'll see you there in Sieur."

"All right. Fine." I started back in the opposite direction. The man was an idiot. I'd done what I could for him.

The thick growth made the path to the cliff almost impenetrable, even in the bright sun. Sharp edged nera plants cut at what remained of my dirty black pants. I ran until I thought my lungs would burst, listening intently for any sound of pursuit. The rugged, dirty brown cliffs began to loom up before me, stark even through the thick tree limbs and hanging vines.

"Oh God!" I groaned, breathlessly pushing back my hair from my perspiring face. I couldn't leave him there. I wanted to. God knew I wanted to! I wanted to get over that cliff and take the transport away from the Hayyim and their anger. But I couldn't. I just couldn't leave the idiot there and let him face his fate.

I went back down the path, cursing fluently in a mixture of backstreet slang accumulated from nearly all the planets in the known Alliance. I tripped once and forced myself to my feet, ignoring a bloody cut in my leg.

What made me take an assistant along on my expeditions anyway? I always had a problem with them. Either they backed out before I reached my destination or they managed to get lost. Once or twice, they even died.

But not Clywd, I vowed through clenched teeth as I pushed my abused body beyond its limits of endurance. I was leaving Quella with him in one piece, those damned papers in his hand, even if I had to carry him.

I turned, running purposely through the underbrush that had thinned as I reached the village. The smaller path ran along behind the row of huts that faced the river. The waste dump was at the end of it, fronting the mountain where it shadowed the village like a colossus. The Haynur lived at the bottom of the mountain's wide mantle. The small hut they allowed us was beside it.

The village was strangely empty. The few hundred Hayyim that usually occupied it seemed to have vanished. Probably looking for me. I skirted the main meeting area along the rocky water's edge and followed the path the Hayyim used to reach the area allotted for bathing and cleaning their clothing. The water ran faster there, ending in a small but fierce fall that kept the water supply clean and free of debris. Larger trash was consumed by the tribe's Packer, a large gray-green reptile that lived peacefully with the village, existing on its scraps of waste. The area was ecologically perfect.

My plan was to enter their hut from the back trail, hopefully finding Clywd there looking for his notes on the Hayyim. I misled him in our reason for being there, always meaning to go through the triese lea while he painstakingly researched the village's history.

As I walked the path close to the woven grass huts, my shoulders hunched, senses alert, I thought again about the future gift. It was supposed to be a prophecy or an image of the future. If one came to me, I couldn't decipher it. My head hurt like hell and I felt drained of energy and strength. That was trivial compared to the deaths of the other eighteen neophytes who entered the mountain.

There was shouting from near the river. From the angry words, I knew the Hayyim had spotted Clywd.

"No, wait!" He emerged from the front of the hut, all his possessions clutched in his arms. "You don't understand. Regheyr let me talk to you."

I stayed where I was, crouched down low between two huts, watching the angry Hayyim confront Clywd. Hoping that he was right and that they'd just let him leave.

"Where is she?" Regheyr demanded.

"I don't know, really. She was heading for the cliffs and the transport."

I groaned inwardly, wishing he'd been a little more inventive. Now the villagers would be expecting our run to the cliffs.

He started moving away from the hut. The Hayyim pushed closer. Clywd held his Mager bag and arms full of papers in front of him as though they'd keep him alive.

"She would not leave you here with her research," Regheyr concluded. The villagers surrounding him, nodding at his wisdom. "Where are you hiding her?"

"I am not hiding her." Clywd nearly fell over a branch lying on the ground as he backed away from them. "She's probably already on the transport."

"No!" Regheyr screamed, his anger echoing around the village. "She must not be allowed to leave Quella. I have seen it. The triese lea has shown me. She must never leave."

Clywd blanched even through his pale yellow skin. He backed further away. "Regheyr, I don't really know where she is right now. I'm just getting the research together. Please."

I watched as he backed a few steps more and then I sighed. I was going to have to go in and try to negotiate. I hated to negotiate. I wasn't good at it. Another reason not to ever take another assistant with me.

"I will take that research." Regheyr stalked Clywd again. His brown face was wrinkled from exposure to the sun. His eyes that had always seemed at least tolerant, took on the intent sheen of hatred.

"I can't give this to you." Clywd was aghast, moving away faster, barely glancing behind himself as he moved.

He'd backed himself into a corner. I saw his foot hit the edge of the waste dump and started forward. It had gone on long enough. I'd been in tougher scrapes. Besides, watching this was like torturing a small animal.

"Regheyr!" I called out to get the Haynur's attention.

"Amelia!" Clywd acknowledged me with a grateful smile. "There, you see! She's still here! You two can talk this over. I'm sure you can find a reasonable solution." He juggled his possessions as his feet foundered in the debris.

"You!" Regheyr pointed at me. "You thought you could avoid punishment. You mock us!"

A woman's scream rent the tableau, echoing off the side of the gray mountain's shade. "Look! It comes!"

I dared to take my eyes from Regheyr's starkly hostile face and look where the others were already staring in fear. It was the Packer. It wasn't time for it to feed. Perhaps it was the extraordinary commotion and upheaval in the village that had disturbed its daylight slumber in the deeper parts of the river. "Move away from the dump," I yelled at Clywd as the creature began to lumber from the river towards its usual feeding place.

The look of terror that passed over Clywd's face would've been a little humorous if the situation wasn't so desperate. He dropped everything he held on the ground, then, incredibly, stooped to retrieve it, turning his back to the beast.

"No, Clywd," I appealed to him. "Leave all of it there and come away! None of it matters!"

Two of the villagers picked up long poles and timidly tried to direct the Packer away from his dinner. The creature wasn't in a playful mood. He was hungry, and though it was earlier than it liked, it was going to feast before returning to the river.

I ran to Clywd's side and helped him gather up the material. "Come on," I urged him, keeping a careful eye on the Packer.

Leaving him with only the lightweight Mager bag to bring with him, I took one look at the gaping maw of the beast as it began to descend to the dump, and I threw myself out of the way, rolling across a pile of brush before I found my feet and began to run in earnest.

There was one last paper on the side of the hill of waste. Clywd turned back, the carry case in his hand as he reached for it. He glanced up as the first row of flat teeth neatly grabbed him up with a mouthful of garbage and swallowed him whole. The beast went on to munch the rest of his lunch in contentment, never noticing the slight difference in meal planning.

I waited a heartbeat longer. Then, while the Hayyim stood transfixed by the horror, I threw down the excess baggage and disappeared into the jungle.

Chapter Two

In a desperate attempt to save my own life, I put Clywd's sudden death from me. I could mourn him and swear never to take on another assistant later, after I was safely on the transport and heading for Sieur.

There was no doubt in my mind that there was murder in Regheyr's eyes. If they caught me, I would die in that jungle.

I'd lived with that remote tribe for nearly three months and learned their ways, especially their paths through the treacherous jungle. I knew them possibly as well as the Hayyim did since I knew I'd have to leave quickly. I knew from the beginning that it would come to this in the end. There was no way the tribe would let me break one of their sacred taboos and simply leave.

The sun was hot, the heavy plant life oppressive. I followed a path not widely used by the tribe so that it was slightly overgrown making my movements awkward at times. My feet slipped perilously on the thick foliage beneath them. The cliffs were in the distance above the tree line but visible to me only in places where the tribe had foraged some of the natural growth for their huts or other necessities.

The giant leaves of the tarn tree were a great deal like spun cloth, but stronger than any fiber I'd ever seen. They were versatile enough to be woven into clothing, fishing nets, the huts themselves. They had a pleasant smell that I thought I'd always remember when I was gone from the place.

If I can get away. I was beginning to tire as I thrashed at the plants that blocked the old path. A tiny voice of doubt rapped at my already throbbing brain.

I wished fervently for a big knife to clear the overpowering growth that sprang up before me. It resisted my attempts to push through stubbornly as though it was trying to help the natives that lived within the jungle's perimeter.

"That's great," I panted, "start personifying the plant life as the enemy."

I squinted up into the sun then followed a line to the east where the cliffs and freedom would be. I'd have to strike out away from the overgrown path and hope to find the main track to the transport. If I was lucky, they'd already found that I wasn't on the frequently traveled way and would be looking for me on one of the myriad other routes.

I didn't feel terribly lucky. Although I supposed that if I wasn't, the Packer would've eaten me as well. Or the Hayyim would've recovered from the shock of seeing Clywd eaten alive before I had the opportunity to pick up and run. That I'd made it out of the village at all could be considered luck. But at that time, luck was only a shuttle out of the jungle.

It was hard going through the underbrush between paths. The plant life had never been cut and every step was an effort. Nera vines caught and sliced at my feet and legs. When I finally reached the clearly cut and trampled route, I was breathless, ready to kiss the ground.

The cliffs were immediately before me as dusk was beginning to fall. Silent purple haze began to tinge the landscape, shadowing the trees and the horizon. Exhausted, I kept my eyes on the lights that began to come on around the transport landing area.

It wasn't possible to tell if a transport was in, but they ran from the city on a regular schedule. If I had to, I could hide until the next one arrived from Sieur. If I was really fortunate, there'd be Alliance troops, an Endo enviro group, or someone else waiting for the transport. The Hayyim were not a violent people normally and it wouldn't take much to reason with them. Outside interference was what I needed at that moment.

Not the Hayyim woman that leaped up from the path in front of me.

I didn't go back along the path to what would surely be a trap. Instead, I swerved to the side, running through the darkening brush.

They'd found me. I kept my gaze on the lights in the distance. They were so close, so very close. The landing pad was dark, the small outbuildings starkly white against the purple sky. The cliffs rose up amethyst just beyond. I could make out a small group waiting for the transport. They looked like tourists, not in uniform, large bags holding their belongings.

The transport time had to be very near. Renewed hope of escape swelled in me. Once I was on the transport, it was only a short hop to Sieur. I'd be on the first shuttle off the planet after that. The Hayyim would never venture that far from home.

There were a few kilometers cleared around the landing pad. The spot was part of the cliffs, a rocky slab devoid of life in the middle of the endless jungle. I felt my foot hit the stone about a hundred meters from the group of tourists and my muscles galvanized, pushing new air into my burning lungs and strength into my cramped legs.

From the darkening sky above me came the whirr of the transport as it approached to land. The huge craft was capable of bringing supplies to the scientists that lived further inland as well as ferrying passengers. Frequently, it dropped off smaller shuttles to enviro techs on the borders tracking the ever present profit mongers that sought to exploit the rich but heavily protected planet of Quella.

It didn't move fast and usually, I was impatient with the halting hulk, but at that moment, nothing had ever looked so good. I began to wave my arms and yell. A figure detached itself from the group, the red uniform identifying the man as an Endo officer.

Yes! my frantic mind raced on ahead of my body. An armed enviro tech was just what I needed. I saw the tourists pointing at me, several moving towards me, following the Endo officer. But two Hayyim men I recognized as Regheyr's sons tackled me before I could take another step.

I rolled over and over in the loose topsoil and rocks while they deftly wrapped a thickly woven fishing net around me. When I was able to see again, I could see the Endo officer and his companions running towards us but they were still at a distance.

"Wait!" I heard the Endo officer yell at the Hayyim men.

I wanted to yell and tell them who I was, but my mouth and most of my face were covered, allowing me sight out of only one eye.

"I know that woman," the same voice protested.

The villagers were deaf to the words, listening only to the orders their new Haynur gave them. I was caught and now I'd be returned to the village.

By the time the Endo officer and the three men from the transport authority reached the site where I'd been snagged, the Hayyim had already picked me up, cocooned in the woven tarn, and begun the long trek back to the village.

"Those were the Hayyim all right," I heard one of the transport chiefs tell the Endo officer.

"And that was Amelia Gallant," the Endo tech returned.

"The author?"

"I rode out here with her about three months ago."

"What the hell do you think was going on?"

"I don't know but I think I better find out."

Those were the last voices I heard until I was dumped unceremoniously in a hut when we reached the village. I looked up from my place on the dirt floor where they released me from the cocoon even as they placed a noose around my neck, attaching me to the ceiling pole.

Regheyr stood in the open doorway, his eyes burning with the flames of madness. Or vision. I didn't feel like debating which at that moment. "You cannot leave with the triese lea inside you." His voice was raspy from shouting out unaccustomed commands to his unwarrior people.

"I saw nothing," I retorted. "What about you, Regheyr? What did you see?"

His eyes rolled back in their sockets and his face became slack. "I know that you have somehow taken the triese lea with you and I know that you had a vision. You cannot hide either of these things from me."

I thought of the recording I'd made in the shrine and the man's face I'd seen as I awakened. Then I began to pray that the Endo officer at the transport base brought help quickly. Regheyr wouldn't understand the technology that allowed me to have the recording device implanted beneath my skin. But that wouldn't help me if I was dead.

"You see, Amelia Gallant? I am the Haynur. You cannot deceive me. I will have these things if I must take your mind and your life to do so."

I sat back on the hard floor as comfortably as I could in the circumstance. I looked him in the eyes as his normal vision returned and he approached me. "I suppose nothing I could say would make any difference. But better, saner men than you have tried, Regheyr."

The evil leer became a mask on his dark face as he drew close to me and when his hands descended to cover my head, I felt the first explosion of pain. The villagers sat calmly on the edge of the river as my screams rent the night. Morning was a long way off.

* * *

It was only two weeks in Alliance time. But inside the dark Hayyim hut, I was certain a lifetime had passed.

It only took the Endo officer a day to find the village and demand my release. Regheyr emphatically refused. I was to be questioned then killed. With the proper ritual, of course.

I had heard them arguing outside the hut, though being bound and gagged myself, it was all I could do. The enviro tech promised to return with reinforcements. The Haynur stood firm.

Within a week, my fate was known system wide. Endo and Echo enviro techs, representatives from the Alliance, and Quellan government officials descended on the small village. They were followed closely by the press who stationed themselves around the village hoping for a glimpse of the prisoner.

The Hayyim held a council, relayed by the press into over a thousand languages and retro-fed throughout the Alliance.

Everyone understood the Haynur's anger, his sense of betrayal. But the outsiders had made their lives impossible. The Quellan government threatened to take away their land. The noise scared off the Packer. Several of the young tribal women were being corrupted by the Endo techs and the abominable press.

Their council's decision was unanimous. They would have to release me. But they decided to wait another full day so that their Haynur's pride could be salvaged.

Regheyr was hardly satisfied with the verdict but he couldn't go against the entire tribe. Besides, he'd become convinced that I didn't have a vision after all. No one had ever stood up to a Haynur's mind trials without telling the truth. His ego wouldn't allow him to think it could happen with me.

The day I was released, he entered the hut and stared at me, as though trying to solve a difficult puzzle. I was naked and alone, sitting cross legged on the dirt floor. I stared back at him defiantly. He knew that if I'd found a way to take the triese lea with me, there was nothing else he could do.

He threw me a rough tarn blanket dyed bright blue with berries that grew there in the spring. It was winter by then and the cooler air had brought dormancy to many of the plants they routinely harvested.

"Are we finished now?" I was making a concerted effort to keep my teeth from chattering. Any sign of weakness, I knew, would be exploited by the Haynur.

He nodded to the smaller man at his side and the man came forward to cut the ropes that bound me.

"There is more between us, Amelia Gallant." Regheyr nodded slowly. "But we shall have to begin again when we reach Ahryd."

I stood slowly, not entirely certain of my feet and legs. "If we do meet in Heaven," I told him, wrapping the blanket around me, "I'll be the one with the weapon pointed at your head."

He nodded and bowed low. "I await your pleasure."

Freezing, starving, two weeks worth of dirt on me, I met the public. Frantic press reps rushed to my side as I emerged from the hut with several of the Hayyim around me.

"Were you tortured?" one sharp faced woman asked as the Endo techs began to move in.

"What did they do to you, Amelia?"

"Will this be a new book, Amelia?"

"We'll be going right to the transport from here," a tall, red uniformed woman told me as she gestured to her companions trying to clear a path. "We have medical personnel standing by."

A blue uniformed Echo agent, pale hair haloed by the sun approached us. "We'll remain behind to assess the damage done to the tribe."

"Damage?" the woman demanded, her dark eyes flashing at him. "We should've come in here and taken her out last week instead of sitting around waiting for them to let her go."

The blond man frowned at her then looked at me carefully. "She appears to be intact, Lieutenant. And no doubt has found a way to bring out their triese lea with her."

I was tired of being referred to as a nonexistent entity. I grabbed my blanket and my dignity and faced the Echo tech angrily. "Shall I send you an autographed copy, Agent...?"

"Astri, Kalatri Astri." His beautiful eyes searched mine. "If I thought for one instant that you-"

"Come along." The Endo tech brought me past him, addressing him as we left. "We'll be back for you next week. Try not to get eaten by that worm."

"Must be Rian," I mumbled as we boarded the small transport. "Too damned good looking."

"And not too particular about whose thoughts he senses if he thinks it's necessary," the Endo lieutenant warned me. "Take a seat and let's get out of this hole."

"That's unusual, even for a Rian, isn't it, Lieutenant...?"

"Gael Klarke," the woman answered, going to the transport controls. "And yes, he's a damned nuisance sometimes."

"And?" I prompted, holding my blanket around myself.

Gael Klarke looked me in the eye. "I've had a recorder wired into me since I was twelve. If we'd stayed any longer, he would've noticed too."

I looked at the tiny flesh colored dot on my wrist. I'd been careful to get it dirty with the rest of my arm the first day. Regheyr never knew what he was looking for. Nothing he said or did to me could make me give up my prize.

"Thanks," I acknowledged what the Lieutenant had helped me do.

"Looks to me like you've earned it." Gael shrugged, bringing the transport up and around the cliffs with an easy hand. "What about the future gift?"

"I don't know," I admitted, feeling a shiver run up my spine. The man's image I'd seen in the jungle formed again in my mind. I'd had a great deal of time to think about him.

He wasn't someone I knew or someone I'd met. Was seeing him the gift? If so, it was hard to believe he could be worth the pain I'd been through to bring him out of that cavern.

Chapter Three

I took the transport to Sieur as I'd planned on doing before Regheyr brought me back to the village. During the trip, I was examined by medical personnel who pronounced me a little undernourished and there was frostbite in the toes of my left foot. They treated them with electrical stimulus and gave me vitamin shots. Complete rest and a balanced diet were prescribed.

"You've got a call coming in," Lieutenant Klarke told me, pointing to the comm panel.

I took the chair before it, still holding my blanket while one of the med techs looked for something else for me to wear. I could already imagine the pictures of me in a blanket, looking like a refugee, splattered across papers from Lunden to Land's End.

"Amy! You look great! Where's Clywd?" I stared at the aquiline profile of my publisher, Max Stein. "It's a long story." I sighed, thinking of my former assistant.

"Great! Let's talk about it. I'll meet you at Telfa. You should be there in about three days. Rest up. Start Clywd in on those notes."

The screen went blank. I sighed again, feeling my stomach begin to churn. Max always had that effect on me.

"Clywd?" Gael asked briefly.

"My assistant," I replied slowly. "He was..."

"...eaten by the worm?" she guessed. "So that's what gave the thing a taste for meat."

"It hadn't eaten a humanoid in over three hundred years."

"It's eaten a few more since we left the village," Gael told me. "Agent Astri is very concerned it could eat the whole tribe."

I wasn't happy about my part in that fiasco. If I had it to do over, I wouldn't have taken Clwyd with me. I certainly didn't mean to cause an enviro incident while I was there. "The Hayyim are good people, if a trifle narrow in their beliefs." I glanced at Gael and smiled. "Maybe it could just eat Regheyr."

The trip passed quickly. When we parted in Sieur, I thanked my rescuer, glad of her support, physical and mental. I saw Sieur in a haze of exhaustion and wouldn't have found the transport area without her help.

It's a strange, uncomfortable feeling to rely on someone else. Maybe I'm alone too often. Maybe it's just the way I'm made. I can't imagine living that way for long. I wouldn't be a brave blind woman or a happy paraplegic unless I lived in a cave by myself and refused all assistance.

The shuttle Max thoughtfully sent for me was luxuriously appointed with anything I could want. I had to wade through the press reps Max also thoughtfully sent for me. It was worth it. I knew the press was necessary for book sales. I even managed to stay awake to answer their questions.

But just off planet, I climbed out of a hot bath and into a clean, warm bed where I spent the next three days. My body was weak but my brain was numb. Keeping Regheyr out of my mind took almost more stamina than I possessed. If I hadn't spent time on Ria a few years before and learned a few of their mind tricks, I wouldn't have been able to resist him.

Even so, the price was shaky hands and easily rattled nerves. It would be a long time before I forgot the experience and the Haynur's eyes of fire weren't in my dreams.

I woke up reluctantly when the shuttle docked at Telfa Base. The shuttle pilot discreetly gave me a wake up call, switching on lights and music complete with an unshuttered port window that faced a magnificent sunrise over Farga.

I groaned as I swung my legs off the bed, looking at the sunrise with a jaundiced eye. I was stiff and sore in every muscle. My head still ached, but my mind felt rested. The pressure of defending myself was gone. I was ready to move on.

Max included clothes for almost any occasion in the shuttle. In my favorite colors, naturally. I looked through the clothes directory, trying to decide what to wear. Max was nothing if not considerate and thorough. Sometimes I felt like a pet that he'd decided to take care of. Except that my books made money for him. I understood his motivation clearly even though I didn't understand Max himself. I pushed a button on the console, choosing a pale blue- green shift of Rian blush, a material much like Terran silk.

There were bruises on my arms that were left bare by the scarf like neck and shoulders, a cut on my leg where the skirt slit to my thigh. I refused to cover a bruise on my cheekbone with make up. I'd earned that bruise.

Clean, my hair was a red shade of cinnamon and shoulder length, a vanity I don't give too much consideration. My eyes were never the same shade, always picking up the color of the garment I wear, something between blue and green. I was tall and thin, almost to the point of being gaunt after my imprisonment.

A red light on the comm panel blinked as I was trying to find shoes that would fit my dress. "Yes?"

"When you're ready, your escort is here," the pilot announced briskly.

"Thanks." I released the response button. I found shoes, finally, and left my quarters.

The press hounds had been left on Quella after the long rounds of questions and answers. I knew what Max wanted from me, a build up for my next book. I smiled and was witty until my voice was hoarse. But it paid off.

The young man who waited for me near the shuttle door was carrying a green Alda lily and a copy of the Telfa paper. I was on the front page, a shiny holograph of me, bedraggled and wrapped in a blue blanket. The caption was: OUR HERO

"Max is waiting breakfast for you," he told me with a sweet smile.

"Thanks." I took the flower and the paper.

"You look really good. Lean and mean." He appraised me quickly. "Max is anxious to see you."

I didn't reply, scanning the paper instead as the walkway moved beneath us, taking us to Max's hotel. The article was well written, actually quite flattering but I frowned as I read it. It was worded to appear that I'd gone through the triese lea for public attention to sell my books. There was even a hint that the tribe had gone along with me on it.

"Is something wrong?" my escort asked.

I folded the paper and looked away, not wanting to vent my anger on him. I looked at my surroundings instead.

Telfa Base was a one of a kind recreational facility. Located just off the dark planet Farga, it was home to only a very few. Instead Telfa's mainstay were travelers, long-term freighter captains and their crews looking for a short time of pleasure before going out again. Entire pleasure cruisers were worked on night and day by Telfa's mechanics. Business meetings between worlds, legal and illegal, took place here, their participants spending freely on Telfa's many forms of pleasure. Everything was available. There was nothing that money or prestige could not buy.

Max Stein was staying at the best hotel having both money and reputation. My escort left me at the door of the largest suite with a smile and a business card, telling me to call for him when I was ready to leave. The invitation was there in his eyes. I hoped the refusal was clear in mine.

"Amy!" Max called from inside the suite. "Come on in, honey! Where's Clywd?"

I swallowed hard and pushed myself forward.

The suite of rooms was made to circle the pool where Max was floating on his back in the lush green water. There were plants everywhere, vines hanging from the ceiling. Air cushions floating just above the cool blue floor approached me as sensors picked up my presence.

"No thanks." I waved them away, preferring to stand when I told Max about Clywd. "He's dead, Max," I told him bluntly before I pulled out the paper I'd brought in with me. "What about this story? They've made it sound like I planned the whole thing."

Max Stein was the youngest publisher in the Alliance. He'd inherited money from a long line of family fortunes then bought out his competitors and somehow managed to put them all together into a working unit. The wealthiest working unit in the Alliance. He bought out my contract from a private publisher when he turned twelve Earth years because he liked my work. I hated him for his arrogance at the time.

A year and a half later, I was the most successful author in the Alliance. He began to grow on me.

"Amy, slow down a minute. Clywd is dead? How? When?" He searched my face as he left the pool, a tall, sloe eyed Paddan woman draping a warm robe around his shoulders.

"About two weeks ago when this whole thing started. He was eaten by the tribe's waste devourer, the Packer."

"The Packer?" Max shivered thinking about it, his handsome young face mirroring the distaste he felt at the news of the gruesome death.

If possible, I could feel my face pale as I watched him. My eyes felt like sharp, green glass, and the bones in my face felt suddenly rigid.

"Easy, Amy," Max came closer, perhaps sensing my distress, calling for breakfast to be brought in. "You need a hot cup of tea."

"I'm fine," I assured him calmly. "It was terrible. Never mind the tea, Max, how about some rum. I know you have some."

"Of course." He nodded to the woman who went to find the illegal substance. "Clywd was a good man. It'll be hard to replace him."

"Replace him?" I was angry instantly. "None of this would've happened if you weren't always so damned insistent that I take someone with me!"

Max was patient and calm. "I wouldn't insist if you'd keep decent notes, draw pictures. Do anything that remotely passed for writing a book."

"I get them done." I was even more infuriated by his matter of fact attitude. "You make your money."

He looked at me, his keen blue eyes sparkling. "You look like hell, Amy. Let's eat and talk about it after."

I can't recall when I've been so hungry or when Fargan rum tasted so good. The rum was never supposed to leave the planet below us but it had been smuggled off world ever since its conception. And it was a contraband that wasn't likely to run short.

"So tell me," Max said finally, acutely aware of my slightly rum and food softened attitude, "the triese lea."

I looked at him as I finished what I had designated as my last glass of rum. He was so damned young. I could only make out the first faint tracings of pale fuzz on his face. It irritated me even as I admired him. Even found him attractive.

"The future gift." I allowed myself to be fed into submission. "I recorded the whole thing. Would you like to hear it?"

"I don't think so," he admitted. "Did you see anything? What happened?"

I smiled. "You'll have to read the book, Max. I'm going to put it all in the book. What about the article in the paper?"

"What about it?" He laughed. "I couldn't have asked for better. You're a heroine. Again. Everyone will be waiting breathlessly for the book."

"But they think I went through the last two weeks for publicity! Even Clywd's death will be something for the press to turn into a farce."

"That's fine, Amy. It makes Clywd's death better than an accident and it makes your ordeal into something we can profit from, not just a terrible memory. What's wrong with that?"

I stared at him angrily, knowing I would never win that argument. For Max Stein, anything that made a profit was acceptable. Truth was only important as a means to an end.

"All right." I stood up from the table. "Clywd is gone, I can't change that. I don't really care what anyone else thinks. I'm going home to write the book."

"Lunden." He knew I always retreated to my home world when I was licking my wounds and deciding where to go next.

"Don't call me, Max. I'll let you know when its finished."

"You got it," he agreed. "How long?"

"I don't know. Maybe a month, maybe more."

"I've already sold the first printing," he told me. "But there's no rush."

"Thanks. I appreciate you not putting any pressure on me."

"Sorry, Amy," he apologized with a smile. "You know how it is. Get better...then work. I need that book."

"You'll have it as soon as I can do it."

"I know, honey. Give my best to your family."

I winced at his words. That was the only problem in knowing someone as well as Max knew me. He knew where to turn the screw. But I managed to smile as I left him there. I didn't call for an escort back to the shuttle.

I didn't have the energy to stop at any of the tiny shops I passed on my return. Telfa was a shopper's heaven, generating enough capital to encourage individuals from all over the Alliance to try their goods on its tiny streets.

Vendors hawked their wares along the constantly moving walkways between hotels and transport docks. Their goods littered the streets and their voices peppered the twilight always present in the city. Buyers, engorged with their booty, tried to get the best prices. But on Telfa, they paid what the market demanded and were happy to do it for the rarities they offered.

As I neared my shuttle docking area, lost in my thoughts, a weight settled on my shoulder. When I turned my head, a tiny head nuzzled my face.

"Come away there," a man's harsh voice demanded, "what'll you give for it?"

I looked at the creature that accosted me as I stepped from the walkway. It was a tiny blue lizard. His scales ranged from pale, misty blue to deep sapphire. It was only the size of my palm and turned its head as I did, silver eyes gazing soulfully into mine.

"What is it?"

"Andorean tree lizard," the man told me gruffly. "Only a few left. 500 Alliance credits. 300 cash, any world."

I watched as the delicate creature preened itself in my hand, its tiny wings beating so quickly that it was difficult to see their movement.

"It's very pretty." I took my eyes from the creature reluctantly. "But I don't have time for a pet. Thanks anyway."

I handed the lizard back to the small, hunched man, trying not to care that he squeezed the dainty animal a little too hard. I returned to the walkway, not looking back, but had gone only a short way when the tree lizard flew to my shoulder again. It perched there, eyeing me mournfully as though it couldn't quite believe I would leave it.

"Hey!" the lizard's odious owner yelled at me, "that's mine! Either you want it or you don't!"

I took the lizard from my shoulder and looked at it in the face. "I can't have you. Stay or whatever. You can't come with me."

I could have sworn its tiny face sank dismally at my words. I chided myself for thinking it could understand me. Surely they didn't teach Alliance to Andorean tree lizards! Resolutely, I took the creature back to its owner. The man swore sharply, told me that I was crazy, then put a leash on the lizard's neck.

The tiny silver eyes pleaded with me and I felt myself soften. Then I shored up my defenses. With the places I traveled and the things I did, I couldn't own a pair of shoes for more than a few days! A pet needed someone more stable. Resolutely, I turned my back on the creature.

Without further attacks, I reached the shuttle quickly. Lunden was almost two days away, days I could use to get my thoughts together, do some sort of preparation for the book. The door to my suite slid open at my touch.

A young woman jumped up from her place on the bright green chair, then started to reassemble the various paraphernalia she dropped. "Uh-Amelia Gallant?"

"Yes?"

"I'm your new assistant. Max Stein sent me over. I'm supposed to help with your new book."

I couldn't believe my eyes! How had he done it so quickly? "He must have people waiting in line," I muttered moving past her.

"Excuse me? Was that something I should record?" The girl tried to find her recorder and dropped everything on the floor again.

"No, that's fine. I'm just rambling." I took pity on the girl and helped her get her things off the floor.

"Thanks." She offered me her hand. "I'm Jean from Nuador on Parsis."

"I'm Amelia Gallant." I took the girl's hand. "You'll have the cabin down there if you want to go ahead and get settled. We can talk later."

"Thanks." Jean smiled. "I've read your books. I enjoyed your freighter trip to Selim-3. Where are we headed?"

"Lunden."

"Your home world," Jean acknowledged. "I'm looking forward to working with you."

"Thanks. We'll be leaving in a few minutes." The silence stretched awkwardly. I wasn't very good at small talk.

"I'll just go and find my cabin." Jean left me in the entryway.

"Max!" I wasted no time in opening a comm line between myself and the hotel.

The Paddan woman smiled serenely and shook her head. "He is gone. He wishes you well and safe journey."

I grimaced. "Tell him...never mind. I'll tell him myself when I see him again. Thanks."

"Ready to go when you are," the pilot's disembodied voice hailed me.

"Let's do it," I agreed, taking a seat at the desk in my cabin. I wasn't happy about taking on another assistant but I was determined to at least keep this one alive.

Chapter Four

The shuttle pulled up from the docking area smoothly. I was torn from my book preparation to the port window, glancing up as the artificial satellite receded from sight. Farga, tinged by a green mist that clung to the planet, was on the far horizon.

I stood and watched as we approached the outer edges of the system before we entered deep space. In a movement too fast for the eye, the shuttle jumped to the speed necessary for interplanetary travel. The darkness closed in around us. I closed the curtain and returned to my desk. Hundreds of electronic notes waited for my attention vying with letters and voice mail from fans and salespeople.

There was a brief note from my mother telling me that my sister was getting married. A month earlier. I wiped that clean.

There was a noise, slight but unusual, that drew my attention. I glanced quickly around myself but the room was empty. I turned back to my desk again and the Andorean tree lizard chirruped pleasantly at me. "What are you doing here?" I asked the animal. "How did you get on board?"

The creature whirred its wings and preened its tiny neck, silver eyes rolling joyously at me.

"I knew it." I shook my head, stroking the little lizard's neck with a delicate touch. "I guess I owe someone some money for you."

The lizard hopped up on my wrist and fluttered its wings. I removed the leash, chewed through at one end. The lizard flew up to my shoulder and rubbed its head against mine.

"I don't know what to do with you," I mused. "What do Andorean tree lizards eat? Do I keep you warm or cool?"

The lizard jumped from my shoulder to my wrist and back again, chirruping happily.

"I'm going to call you Selph, if that's all right with you?" I asked, then continued, "it's Tragorean. It means supple or agile. Describing you properly. Maybe you've heard of it."

Tragorea was the long dead world that the moon Andorea orbited. Slowly, its own life was dying as well, despite attempts to save it. It was a beautiful, surreal spot, made melancholy by its fate.

Ten years before, I spent time there as a shiny, new Echo enviro recruit. We worked to preserve a maze of dwellings for a group of creatures unique to that moon. Tiny shards of rainbows, they swam on the air currents around me as I worked, glistening black eyes watching curiously.

It didn't matter, I learned later. The creatures died out a short time later. I never actually made it into the corps either. But I had never forgotten the experience.

"Did you know them?" I asked Selph.

The only reply was the lizard's sweet chirruping near my ear.

"Well, let's see if we can access some information about Andorean tree lizards, shall we? I have a friend with Echo that might know about you."

Selph looked at me lovingly then flitted away to explore the shuttle. I heard a screech from somewhere at the other end of the vessel. It was only the beginning of an irritating two days. Work was almost impossible during the long junket. I was glad to see the gray-green of my home on the view screen.

"Approaching space dock," the pilot announced briefly.

I sighed gratefully, my hands full of Selph and Jean's pretty blond hair. For some reason, the little lizard decided the young woman's hair was a playground waiting to be explored. Once in the yellow maze, it was difficult to find his way out and he panicked, getting tangled more deeply.

"Maybe it would help if I got my hair cut," Jean volunteered helpfully.

I started wearing my own hair up off my neck the first day. But I shook my head at her request. "I don't expect you to do that because of him."

Jean seemed relieved and watched quietly as I loaded the lizard into a small bag with air holes for easier transport to the planet. The amiable, red-haired pilot made the contraption after Selph's first trip into the shuttle control area. Unfortunately, we couldn't keep him in it all the time.

The pilot was from Earth and had worked for Max for only a few months. He asked for my autograph as we disembarked, smiling at Jean as she tried to stay away from Selph's bag. "Where are you off to now?" he asked me as I handed him back his signed course chart.

"Home for now," I answered. "After that, I'm not sure."

"I'm looking forward to the next book. But I'd take a copy of the last one too." He nodded towards my crowded pack.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I don't have one with me. But if you'll give me your name and a place to send it, I'll have Jean ship one out to you."

I took his name and a drop off point Max and I used frequently. Since he was Max Stein's private pilot, that meant no certain home base or even a specified travel plan. Max moved on business whims.

I juggled Selph's bag and my pack, searching the crowd hopefully. I sent word on ahead that I'd be arriving at the crowded Lunden spaceport but there were no familiar faces. "I guess we find a rental unit."

"But don't you have family here?" Jean was confused.

"Yes. Please, don't ask." I crossed the stream of travelers to reach the rental desk and made the arrangements.

The smiling woman behind the desk pushed her remote button to bring the unit forward. "Will you be returning today?" Her voice was distinctly northern.

"No, I'll call when I'm ready." I hated rental transportation. It was too cramped, there were no windows, and I was always afraid I wouldn't reach my destination. I learned the hard way that the encoded placement wasn't always correct. And once the unit was activated and given instructions, no power could persuade it not to leave you wherever you found yourself.

We struggled into the unit, bright yellow and blinking company logo in sixty languages. The top pulled down over the tiny base that barely held us and our sparse luggage and we were off. It was unnerving to ride without seeing where we were headed, zigzagging through traffic in the streets like an insect. A canned voice abstractly promoted different products that helped defray the cost of public transportation.

"How long has it been since you've seen your family?" Jean asked me.

Never long enough. "About a year," I answered as my stomach slowly tangled into knots.

"Do you come from a big family?"

I smiled to keep from clenching my teeth and asking her not to talk. Wasn't it enough that I had to endure being there? I tried never to stop and make sense of that anomaly. "Large," was my stiff-lipped reply. A hopeful end to the conversation.

The light went off and an alarm sounded, the tin voice wishing us a nice afternoon. The domed roof flew up and I opened my eyes, praying silently that we were in the right place.

The transport was just outside my family's white stone house fronting the quiet walkway to town. The tiny stores and other houses hung sleepily in the distance, low hills rolling beyond. It was like a painting, serene and intractable. A great deal like my childhood.

"Is this it?" Jean asked brightly, climbing out of the shell. The dome returned to its placement, neatly clipping the end of her long, tunic style top.

"Be glad it wasn't your arm," I advised grimly. I took Selph and my pack and trudged up the three stairs to the front door.

Jean laughed. "My mother would die if I rang the front bell! Aren't they expecting you?"

"They never really do. But even if I'd called just a minute before, it would be required to announce my arrival."

"Really?" Her eyes grew wide.

No doubt wondering what she'd got herself into. But she'd never really know. You had to be raised there in Pitton or anywhere on Lunden to know the whole truth.

"Yes?" A woman's frozen face responded through the door viewer without opening the entry.

"It's me, Mother," I told her shortly. "Did you get my message?"

If her face lightened or changed one fraction, I couldn't discern it. I always marveled how much we were alike, except for that animation. The same features and dark auburn hair...

"Oh. It's you, Amelia. Come in then." The door finally opened and she stepped away from the threshold.

"Hello, Mother," I addressed the tall, drably dressed likeness of myself.

She didn't respond and turned to go back down the hall.

"You don't touch when you greet each other?" Jean whispered as my mother left us there.

I could tell by her face that she was horrified. "We're not an overtly affectionate people." I attempted to allay her fears.

She looked at me again, a stark look of disapproval marring her pretty features. Being from Parsis where people hugged and kissed because the sun rose and set, I could understand her feelings.

The house was large, dimly lit, bland colors melting into one another in their pallid lifelessness. Bright colors were considered rude on Lunden.

Two children sat on a wall structure near the far end of the room. They never looked up from the books in their laps. They knew better than to question a new face. They were well trained. Obviously, my staid brother's offspring.

"Amelia's come," Maureen Gallant told my father sedately.

"Oh yes." He looked up from the plate of food he was consuming, his pale blue eyes taking us in as one. Stern features made their disapproval felt vividly when he looked at me. "I see you're still running through the Alliance like a madwoman!"

"Exactly," I murmured with a crooked smile. "You heard about the trouble on Quella?"

"Bah!" He turned back to his food. "Not a fit thing for a woman to do."

I could see the devastation in Jean's eyes. Her face crumpled, tears close to spilling. If she'd hoped for some measure of respect or admiration on Lunden because she was with me, she was going to be devastated.

"Is Betti here?" I asked, ignoring my father's remark.

"I won't have you twisting her brain with your pretty words, Amelia," my mother told me gruffly.

"Betti will go her own way, Mother," I answered sharply. "Nothing you or I can do will change that."

"Amelia!" a high pitched girl's voice cried out from the other room.

I dropped my things to the floor and ran to embrace her, our two heads matching exactly as we hugged.

"When did you get here? How long can you stay?" Betti demanded at once.

"Your manners, Bettina," our mother reproached.

"I just got here. How are you? You've grown so tall!" My baby sister was growing up.

"Almost as tall as you now!" Betti measured herself against me. She looked at Jean and giggled. "Did you lose another one?"

"Never mind." I laughed. "This is Jean. She's from Parsis."

"I'm Betti." She caught my assistant's hand. "From Lunden. Unfortunately. I'll bet Parsis is much better."

"That's quite enough," our father added.

"Well you know it's true." Betti pouted. "There's probably no place as dull as it is here."

"There are many places duller," I assured her, though I wasn't really sure it was the truth.

"But not Quella?" Betti laughed out loud.

I saw my father's frown and threw my sister a cautionary glance. The last time I'd been home, they separated us after the first day. "Why don't you go upstairs and I'll be up soon. Jean will show you Selph."

Jean grimaced but accompanied Betti upstairs.

"I'd like to stay for a few days," I approached my parents about the idea when we were alone.

"And the other one?" my mother asked dourly.

"She'd stay as well. We'd be no trouble."

"Bettina?" my father demanded. "Every time you come, she gets worse."

"You never give, do you Father?"

"You know what I want from you, young woman."

"All right. I won't try to take her with me. I won't tell her things she shouldn't know about other worlds. Can I stay?"

"I suppose a few days won't hurt," Maureen relented finally.

"Thank you." I left the room as quickly as possible. It was only the beginning but I'd made it through the first ordeal.

We spent a pleasant afternoon walking the sunlit fields that surrounded the town of Pitton, population 100. It was large compared to many on Lunden. Most towns were about forty or fifty, rarely fluctuating in size.

Each town and its people kept to themselves, mostly governed by a group of residents, each sending one or two delegates to a larger convention where planetary laws were created.

The people of Lunden were notoriously strait-laced, rigid in their beliefs and customs. Women had children and took care of their homes. Men worked their jobs and took care of the rest of their lives. Anything out of the ordinary was both unwelcome and slightly untidy. So it was avoided.

Selph flew between us as we walked, his wings blurred by speed as he darted from flowers and trees to shoulders and hair. Jean fended him off with rapidly waving hands while Betti and I talked.

I kept to my pledge easily since Betti wanted to hear about Quella. The facts were gruesome enough without elaboration. There was nothing romantic in my mind about the tiny village or the Packer. But I hadn't reckoned with the adventuresome mind of a twelve-year-old girl like myself.

"What I wouldn't give to have been there with you!" she breathed as though the air itself was rare where I stood.

"It was horrible!" I told her. "They were going to kill me, Betti!"

"Were you terrified?"

"There were times when I wasn't sure what was going to happen," I admitted. "And watching the Packer eat Clywd wasn't an adventure."

"But the triese lea...what did you see?"

"I don't know if I saw anything." I shook my head ruefully. "And I don't know if it was worth it."

Betti looked into my face intently. "I know the bad parts were bad, Amelia, but really, you're the only off-worlder to have experienced the future gift. The only one to see inside the mountain and tell about it. Would you give up that jump into the cavern?"

"No." I hugged Betti close to me, the sun warm on my face. "No, I wouldn't."

When we returned to the house, Betti waited impatiently for the gift she knew I brought for her. It was a Hayyim charm bracelet made from tarn and colored stones that was given to me by a young boy who fancied himself in love with me.

Betti tied the tarn around her wrist then pulled her dark brown sleeve over the top of it. If our parents knew of my gift, that would be the end of it. And so the pattern of home began.

Jean and I closeted ourselves in the large attic room we were allotted. It was too warm during the day, too cold at night but within only a few days, the book began to take form.

Betti visited before she went to school each day and again at night, keeping Selph busy when he became bored. All three of us began to wear our hair tightly braided against our heads. But Betti taught him other little games, always carrying his favorite apple seeds in her pocket.

After two weeks, I leaned back in my dusty green chair and refocused my eyes. It was the middle of the afternoon and the room was stuffy. I'd sent Jean out with Selph and Betti to explore the last of the afternoon sunshine, knowing I was close to completing the manuscript.

It was a rough copy but my agreement with Max included his responsibility for the final polishing of the piece. I looked at the tiny disc that held my recording of the triese lea, no more than a transparent dot. I wondered if I should include it with the manuscript. It seemed to be the end of my story. Yet I struggled to understand what had happened to me because of it.

I pushed the disc back into the tiny recorder I still wore under my skin. There was no one that would want to take a chance on listening to the disc anyway. Who could be certain if the recorder picked up the resonance of the triese lea? If it did, it could kill someone or render them insane.

I smiled when I thought of Max taking a chance on death or insanity because of curiosity. Not in my lifetime!

But there was still the matter of the future gift. The man's face still lay engraved in my mind. I could feel the pull of something that felt like it was calling me. Perhaps it was nothing more than Regheyr's revenge.

I called out a quick answer to a knock on the door as I put my manuscript and notes into a gray Mager bag. It expanded slowly to accommodate everything I fed into it.

"Amelia," my mother announced dutifully, "your brothers and sisters wanted to come by for dinner while you're here. I thought tonight would be as good a time as any."

"That's fine," I replied with a careful smile.

"Unless there's something more important for you to do," my mother continued, glancing coldly at my work.

"No, not at all. I look forward to it."

Maureen nodded then left me. I lay back in my chair and counted the dust motes on the ceiling as I had as a child. Pretending that each spot of light was a new world waiting for me to explore.

Chapter Five

"I'll be back," I promised.

"When?" Betti asked.

"Soon."

"A year." Betti looked at me sullenly as I prepared to leave. "Or whenever you finish looking for the Khun artifact."

I opened my mouth to answer then thought better of it. I hated to make promises I couldn't keep. "Yes. Take care of yourself, Betti. I'll be back for your birthday."

"Summer then." She nodded, knowing I wouldn't give my word without being certain. "I can wait that long."

We were so alike, so different from our family. We hugged each other briefly. Then the transport was there and Jean and I, with Selph in his new cage, stepped inside and were gone.

"You did very well," I complimented my companion.

"Your family." Jean shivered in horror. "They're like birds of prey waiting for the right minute to tear you apart."

"It's a game we play." I shrugged. "Look for a weakness then go for the kill."

"They're jealous of you," she concluded.

"Not at all." I laughed, trying to maneuver Selph's cage into a more comfortable place. "We were always very different people. I don't fit into their concepts of what I should be. On the other hand, I knew when I was very young that I'd rather be dead than live like they do."

"My family has always been very nurturing." There was pity in her shining eyes.

I returned her gaze blandly. "My family made me who I am. They have trouble with it but it doesn't bother me. Someday Betti won't be trapped here either."

"Any other family in the Alliance would be proud to have you as a daughter."

"But they wouldn't be mine. If I felt too welcome, I wouldn't ever want to leave. We'd never find the box of Khun like that."

The transport stopped and the top opened while the voice thanked us for traveling public transportation. I lifted Selph's cage in one hand and my pack holding the manuscript and a change of clothes in the other.

I looked at the misty green hills in the distance, ignoring the hustle of the spaceport around me. There was a light rain on my face and the smell of flowers in the air. I always savored that last look at my world before I left it, storing some of its beauty within me to take along. Not ever really sure I'd be back to appreciate it again.

Despite everything, I loved my home. I always supposed that someday, when I was too old to knock around the Alliance, I'd retire there. Dress properly. Act respectfully. Even help my mother preserve berries and make bread. Because I loved her, too.

That I didn't fit in was more a penance for being able to live the life I always dreamed. When it was over and I could return to be Maureen and Daniel Gallant's daughter, I would be there measuring the height of my bushes with the rest of them. But not yet. Not while there was another world to explore. Or the mysterious box of Khun waiting to be discovered.

"There's the pilot." Jean started forward.

I held her back. "No, not that again. That's no way to travel. We're going to see what's available to Delta 7."

Jean sighed, no doubt for the comfort of Max Stein's luxurious craft, but followed me through the crowds. Simple to find me in the crowded port. Look for the only tall, red haired female, not wearing a smile or a blowsy dress.

The attendant at the desk searched through her ship's logs and found two seats on a freighter bound for Delta 7. I paid for the transport in Lunden coinage even after the young man explained that the freighter was 'rough'.

"The pilot is still waiting," Jean assured me in case I wanted to change my mind about traveling on the more comfortable craft.

"So he is." I smiled and took my single garment from the Mager bag then whistled for a messenger.

"Give this to that man over there," I told the young girl in the bright orange uniform. I wrote my instructions on the front of the bag. 'Triese lea manuscript. Hand deliver to Max Stein.'

I put a few coins into the girl's hand then took Selph's cage and my clothes and started for the freighter area. That was that. Jean sighed, following. We were going 'rough'.

Rough, of course was a relative term. I'd been in rough freighters running from mining outposts that were nothing more than an engine and several metal fabrications that resembled rafts. They ran with spit and a lot of luck, more heart than tech.

The freighter we booked was old and had seen its share of action. The gray sides were scored, one outer fin hanging loosely from the cargo hold. But the hull was sturdy and appeared sound. Crates were being loaded by robotic arm from the docking area to the interior of the craft.

"Is this it?" Jean's lack of enthusiasm was palpable.

I nodded. "It looks pretty good."

"Wonderful," my assistant breathed.

We started towards the passenger's entrance but at the door, a large man stepped out, blocking the way.

"Excuse me." I attempted to gain entrance, repeating myself in three different languages while the man stared impassively down at me. I felt dwarfed by him and stood up slightly straighter.

"I don't know if he understands," Jean suggested quietly, not taking her eyes off the man.

I looked into the burning black eyes in the lean, dark face.

"I think he understands," I replied, then addressed the man. "Is there a problem?"

"I'll need to see your ID," he said at last. "And your seat assignments."

"Of course," I responded, glancing carefully around ourselves as I searched for my ID.

Something was wrong. Tight security on an old freighter? Who or what were they protecting?

While the man scanned Jean's ID, I surreptitiously scanned him. He wore no uniform, yet my instinct told me that he was a professional. He was big, sure of himself and his authority. Confident.

He handed Jean her ID card and looked towards me.

"Oh! Me next, huh?" My hand hit the side of Selph's cage and the seat assignment voucher fell through the thin bars into the cage. "Oh! Oh no!"

The man made a noise in the back of his throat too deep to be a mumble. Surely a growl would be more adequate. "You'll have to get it out."

"Of course." I flashed him a brilliant smile and opened the cage with the door facing the freighter. It was easy to predict what Selph would do.

Before my hand could reach into the cage, the tiny lizard had scooted out and was headed into the freighter.

I almost laughed out loud, ignoring the man's scowl. "Oh! Selph!" I ran along behind the lizard into the craft.

I heard the big man swear in three languages besides Alliance before I turned the corner. He followed rapidly but we had a lead. I hoped Jean would wait. If there was any trouble, there was no point in her being involved. No way to explain to her either. She probably wondered if I'd lost my mind.

The freighter was dimly lit, stocked to the edges with cargo. The smell of long overdue air filter change hung heavily in the corridors. If they were hiding something important, they couldn't have picked a more unlikely craft.

Twice as I chased Selph, he slowed and stopped, coming to perch on my shoulder, preening prettily. "Go on!" I shooed him away. "We need to go further." He flew off again, ready to play the new game, chirruping for me to follow as he darted in and out of secret corners and dark holes.

I looked in several side cabins and one long corridor that ran off from the main but there was only more cargo. Even the dark holes were filled wherever possible. It seemed to me that I'd know when I arrived at what I was looking for. Where there was one security agent, there was bound to be a few more.

Selph flew across my shoulder just as I spotted a likely area of the vessel. Several armed guards stood in a loosely knit group at the end of one corridor. There was a single cabin just behind them and their stance was confrontational. No one was going through that door.

As plans to change that raced through my brain, a large hand descended to my shoulder, effectively stopping me cold. It almost lifted me from the rusted floor. I flexed my neck as I turned to face him, wondering if it would be permanently at a different angle to my head.

Without releasing me, dark eyes intent on my face, the security man went through my pockets until he came up with my ID. I hung on his hand like a wet kitten. "Tell me it's a new disease. Uncontrollable curiosity?"

Selph battered himself against the man's side, a thin cord tied around his neck and to his weapon holster. "Amelia Gallant," he spoke aloud as he read my ID passing through the scanner. "Author."

I wanted to move, demand to be released but found myself unable to accomplish that small feat. His grasp was unequivocal. It allowed for nothing more than breathing and a small shake of my head.

"Is there a problem, sir?" one of the guards asked, closing in on us, weapon drawn.

"Nothing that should have drawn you from your station," the man replied without a shift in his position.

"Of course. I just thought with all the others there, you might need-"

"If I need your assistance, I'll ask for it! Get back to your post!" His tone brooked no further questions and the man slunk back to the end of the corridor. None of the others spoke. They resumed their intent scrutiny.

So the giant was in charge, I considered surprisingly. He didn't seem that capable, being taken in by such an obvious ploy at the door.

"If I could have your attention before you begin fabricating this into one of your stories," he addressed me in a low tone only slightly different from the one he had used on his officer.

"If you'll let me take Selph back to his cage, I'll give you my undivided attention." My voice was surprisingly high and thin to my ears.

"Listen to me, Amelia Gallant, Author. I won't say this again. I'm here to make certain that this freighter is secure. I don't want any difficulties between here and Delta 7. The reason doesn't concern you."

I felt myself try to nod then gave up and stared at him dutifully. "Of course."

"You'll get in your seat and not move again until we reach Delta. If I think you're going to have a difficult time with this, I'll put you into an escape pod now."

"I think you're out of line," I accused. "I merely went to rescue my pet."

I looked piteously at Selph who had exhausted himself and was lying limp against the man's leg.

"Good." He released me finally. "Then we understand one another."

"Understand this!" I moved quickly, getting in just under his guard and coming up hard in his solar plexus. The blow didn't stagger him as it should have but I had the gratification of hearing the air woof out of his lungs.

"I knew you were going to be a pain the minute I saw that red hair!"

"Lucky we don't all judge people by the way they look," I quipped, "or I would've taken you for a block of wood."

Selph was free of his restraint in an instant and flying back down the corridor with me.

I could feel his eyes on me but he didn't follow. Not because I'd impressed him with my toughness. It was more that he wasn't really worried about me. He had more important things to do.

I found my seat. It was ragged and bolted loosely to the floor of the craft. Sitting beside Jean, putting Selph back into his cage, I watched a few more travelers begin to trickle into their places.

"What happened? He looked very angry," Jean observed in a whisper.

"He was obviously born looking very angry," I replied, picking up a tattered newspaper from the floor under my feet. I glanced up as the security chief walked into the passenger assignment area then returned my gaze to the paper.

What could be so important? Hundreds of ideas crossed my mind. Why would something that required armed guards be on an old freighter instead of a state of the art tech security vessel? That was the interesting question.

Once we were on our way, I'd find the answer. The security chief couldn't be everywhere and it was even possible that he wouldn't accompany the craft. There seemed to be plenty of guards without him.

A delegation of merchants from Telfa entered the area, taking their seats. Their arms were crammed with new products they'd sell on their outpost. A little bit of everything from every planet in the Alliance was represented there, even my own world. One merchant carried a white grapevine. Lunden grapes were famous for their sweetness and clarity in making wine.

I looked at it, thinking of my own fondness for the fruit, especially in the frosted candy glaze the way it was made in my hometown. I hadn't had them in years, not ever seeming to come back at the right time for the harvest.

"Aren't you Amelia Gallant?" one merchant asked, seeing my eyes on the fruit. "The author from Quella?"

I nodded, taking my eyes from the grapes with some difficulty. "Yes, but I'm from Lunden. I was just on Quella for some research."

"Research?" Another merchant scoffed, his three chins jiggling. "Stirring up trouble. Those people won't ever be the same again. You should mind your own business."

"She does," the first merchant retorted. "She writes about the cultures she visits. I've read all your books. I loved when you followed the straits to where Randor killed himself for Osiree, even if it is only a myth."

"Thanks, I--"

"What about the future gift?" still another merchant wondered. "How is such a thing possible? And if it is, how did you survive?"

"There is no such thing as a cave where you can lose your mind listening to music," the fat merchant interrupted again. "It was all just a hoax to sell her books."

I wanted to play the disc for the man and said as much.

"You have it? There really is such a disc?" another passenger asked eagerly. "I would listen to it."

They began to debate among themselves as to whether any person should have hold of such a thing, if it were possible for it to exist. The cabin grew loud with their dissent until the lift-off light came on announcing our departure.

"Could I have you sign this for my wife?" one man asked. His slurred speech and yellowed skin showed his Selim heritage. He handed me a blank sheet of gray paper material and smiled, showing his rotted teeth.

I smiled in return and signed my name, thanking him.

The merchants from Telfa were a loud, buoyant group. They were headed for Chrysalis, the new world that had just been reopened after the ore mining was stopped there. They wanted a sample of the tapestries that were woven there to sell on the base. And, of course, everyone wanted to see a live Chrysaline.

"Have you been there?" the friendly merchant with the grapes asked me.

I nodded. "But I haven't been able to write about it. They threatened to confiscate my book since I was down there illegally with an Echo group right after the planet was discovered to have life."

Everyone was ready for that story. I told it with relish.

"And do they really have wings?" the Selim man wondered.

"Actually, only the older Chrysalines have wings. There are only a few of them now but since they've stopped mining, there should be more in the future."

There was some serious haggling over Selph. The triple chinned merchant offered me double what I paid for the little lizard who slumbered unknowingly in his cage.

"He's a pet. I wouldn't sell him for anything," I replied after some discussion of price was raised.

"You would make an excellent merchant," the man replied, raising his offer. "But we must all learn when to barter and when to accept what is on the table."

I stopped smiling. "I do not want to sell the lizard. I'm not bartering for more."

"Did you get him on Andorea?" the man from Selim asked, changing the subject. "I recall reading that you'd been there before."

"No. I was there, but I actually purchased him on Telfa Base recently."

"Were there more? Those creatures are rare and quite valuable. How much did you pay?" the fat merchant asked quickly, eyes greedily assessing Selph.

"If you'll excuse me." I stood quickly, picking Selph up from his cage in case the merchant had any ideas. I followed the short corridor that led to the ill-kept refreshment area where the service room was located. It was lucky for me that all freighters, no matter where they were constructed, were fashioned almost identically.

Selph didn't exactly obey. But he had learned to meld with the mood around him. He sat perched on my shoulder, watching carefully.

I picked the lock with a high-frequency laser scanner, relieved when no alarms went off in the area. Sometimes they were secured and I certainly expected that one to be. Apparently, the security chief wasn't really worried about a threat to his precious cargo from inside the freighter. That left an almost nonexistent threat from outside, something that rarely happened. Patrols followed this sector like honeyflies on tiger flowers.

Whatever the chief imagined would happen, must be hysteria on his part. He didn't seem someone prone to imagination but I had traveled the Alliance for twenty years and had never seen a hijacking or an outside attack.

And maybe what I was doing would help the man, I reasoned, slipping into the service room. After all, his threat could be there with the passengers or someone who managed to sneak aboard. Perhaps while he was chasing my shadow.

Setting off the interior alert would do two things simultaneously. It would bring the freighter to an immediate standstill until it was answered or silenced by the crew. And it was guaranteed to disrupt whatever organized activity was happening on the craft. The immediate stop was unnerving but the fact that the warning could mean hull breach or air poisoning in the ventilation system made everyone sit up and take notice.

I braced myself and said a silent apology to everyone except the big security guard on the ship. Then I pulled the warning switch manually. The engines locked tight and the freighter came to a dead stop.

Chapter Six

Equipment and personnel shifted forward then slid back. Doors began to open and close while the warning siren wailed and the computer called for everyone to find their escape capsules without panic or hesitation.

The crew would quickly contact both Delta 7 and Lunden to relay their position in case rescue was needed. Then the long search through the computer guides for any sign of problem. After that there would be only malfunction to blame and they'd try the service room. In the meantime, the chaos would buy me a few valuable moments.

It was harmless in the long run. Not much more than a prank. I probably had less than ten minutes before the anomaly was recognized and no problem was found. Ten minutes would net me the answer to the freighter's mystery.

Several men ran past me in the corridor, delighting Selph with their random movements. I quieted him abstractedly. He sat still, content to watch the activity.

"Amelia!" Jean hailed me when I got back to my seat. Her pretty face was fearful. "What do you think happened?"

"I'm not sure," I lied. "The escape module should be through there. Will you take Selph for me and I'll be there in a second. I want to see what the captain says."

I handed her the little lizard who twisted in her grasp, staring at me mournfully.

"I'll come and get you as soon as I'm done." I rubbed his head.

"Hurry!" Jean urged as she ran to the safety marked area.

I went the opposite way down the long, dimly lit corridor I'd followed as we first entered the freighter. It was abandoned while crew and passengers waited for the computer all-clear or the modules launched themselves for pick up.

The sirens continued to wail through the craft, telling me that they hadn't gone through all computer functions as yet. I lost some time giving Selph to Jean but it was for the best. The little lizard was too high spirited for covert activity.

I turned left, past the long rows of crates and boxes, Mager bags that bulged and large flat packs that were covered with strange silk prints. The door waited at the end of the short corridor where the security chief had caught me on. Like all the others at that end of the vessel, it was empty. It seemed the security guards weren't willing to give their lives for their service.

Quickly, I ran down to the door, taking my laser out again to open the lock. The tiny light made a pinpoint hole in the mechanism. I expected something more complex, but the door swung open without an alarm. Again, I wondered at the man's inexperience. Had he seriously expected an attack from outside the ship?

I switched on the light panels, walking carefully through the lines of dusty crates. There were no markings, nothing to distinguish what was in the crates. The boxes looked old as though they'd been in storage for some time. There were rodent marks on some of the sides, a few oil stains from where they'd been moved.

I looked up, listening carefully. The sirens were no longer sounding. That meant the computer had identified that there wasn't a problem. It would only take a few moments to find the service room had been tampered with and return the ship to normal function.

With one hand resting on the top of the crate, I pried up the end, separating it from the sides. Gray packing fell to the floor, swirling around my feet, billowing in the air. But the crate was empty. I put my hand through the packing, carefully examining the interior but there was nothing inside the box. Biting my lip in anguish, knowing I didn't have time to look through all of them, I chose another.

The box separated easily. The wood was fragile, perhaps a hundred years old or more. The smell of age and rot filled my nostrils. I reached my hand into the crate, pushing through the gray material that filled it.

"I knew I'd find you here."

I jumped, moving my hand out of the box but not before I found that it was empty too. I looked up at him framed in the doorway by the flickering light from the corridor. The words were ready on my lips to accuse him of fraud.

But they were never spoken. A flash of light hit me. A sound rang through my head until I thought my head would burst. And I realized that this was the man from the triese lea. I didn't know why. Why would this be my future gift?

"Who are you?" I demanded, still feeling as though flies buzzed through my brain.

His eyes were black and hard on my face, like obsidian, striking angrily against me. "I don't think so, Amelia Gallant, Author. Amnesia won't get you out of this."

Then the sirens began again and there was a hard bump against the outer hull. The security chief swore in a language I couldn't place but that sounded oddly familiar. Then the high pitched whine of a laser drill from the wall just behind me pushed me through the wall of crates.

"It must be nice to know you were right," I said, standing beside him. Both our eyes were fastened on the outer hull beyond the crates.

"Get out of here!"

"Where to? When they leave, they breach the outer hull and we're all dead."

"Find an escape module. They aren't all full," he replied roughly. "Just get out of here!"

"Let me help." I thought fast. "Your team is gone. We can take them." He glanced at me. Was that surprise in those dark eyes? Even astonishment?

"Get out of here while you can. I don't want to watch them and my back."

I couldn't believe that he didn't trust me! People trusted me instinctively! I wanted to demand an explanation but there wasn't time. The freighter jumped violently and the flare of the laser boring into its hull began to show in the cargo room.

After the sudden lurch, I found myself with one hand on his arm, the other holding the doorway to maintain my position. "Look, they obviously know what they're doing and they're going to get whatever it is you're trying to hide. But if we push these out of here and seal the lock outside the door with my pick, maybe we can buy some time."

I expected him to argue, maybe react violently towards me. Instead, he agreed. In the next instant, he was pushing crates from the room. I followed suit, keeping a close eye on the hole in the wall getting slowly but steadily bigger. Older laser equipment. New drills would have been through already. Lucky for us.

I ran through once more after the last of the larger crates were clear and the room was empty. The hole in the hull was about half the size of a man, showing movement on the other side.

The security chief slammed the door shut in the corridor. He pushed me to one side as I started to apply my laser pick to the door lock. When he drew his weapon, I stood away from the site.

The thin beam melted and fused the lock. It would take at least an equal force on the other side to free it. Even with a 42 Walker, the most powerful H. E. pistol in the Alliance, it would take a few minutes to reverse the damage since they'd have to destroy the entire lock case.

"If we fuse each door lock from the corridor," I said breathlessly as he damaged the lock, leaving it smoking, "they'll have to free each unit until they found the right one. That will cost them some time."

He took my arm. "I'll do it. You go find a module with your name on it."

I grabbed the smaller weapon that was still in his belt. "It wouldn't do much good now. Besides, you don't have enough time to do them all. I'll take the right side up to the adjoining corridor."

He glanced at me for another millisecond but there was no doubting my resolution. "All right."

"Do you actually have something here that they want? Or is it a hoax?" I had to know, wanting to have some idea what I might die for.

He seemed to understand the concept though I didn't voice it. "There's something here. And if they manage to get it away from us, thousands of people could die." He lifted a crate in his hands, hefting it to his shoulder as though it were no great weight. "Ready?"

I nodded, satisfied only because I'd seen his face after the triese lea. "I'll make my way up to the control center."

There was another shudder in the freighter that signaled the entrance of the crew from the other vessel. We ran in separate directions, not saying another word.

I wondered as I worked on the second door lock who he was and what it meant that I knew his face.

Could it mean that he was the last person I'd see before I died on that old freighter? Was Regheyr's final joke going to be that the future gift was the final gift for me?

I was on the fourth door, leaving the other two smoldering, when I heard an explosion that rocked the freighter, throwing me violently to the floor. Another sound followed that was easy to identify. The computer had begun to expel the escape modules.

On my feet quickly, I raced to the intersection of the corridors. The escape modules from that area had already been jettisoned. At least Jean was able to get away. And Selph was safe. Safer than he would've been with me. It wouldn't take long for help to come. Floating helplessly in an escape module was unnerving but not dangerous.

It beat the hell out of being eaten by the Packer or a few other ends my assistants had met. It was always a wonder to me that Max could find someone naive enough to apply for the job! Surely I already had a reputation for losing help.

The security chief was just outside the control center when I turned the corner. "I was wondering if you'd make it here."

"They're right behind us. Those doors will slow them a little but I'm out of tricks."

He laughed. For once, the coal black eyes were filled with light. One dark brow lifted ironically. "I doubt that, Amelia Gallant. But I have an idea that might serve while you think of something else."

The door to the control room was jammed shut but the 42 Walker opened it, the lock melting from the door. With a quick hand and a sure knowledge, he programmed the computer, beginning the destruct sequence. When he was finished, he destroyed the control panel with a wide sweep of the weapon.

"What do we do now?" I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry at his actions.

"There's one escape module left," he informed me. "When they reach this area, we'll be gone and the ship will destruct before they can return to their own vessel, taking them with it."

"Great." I followed him as he began to race back down the corridor.

He veered off on the short exit that led away from the passenger assignment. I was right on his heels. He carried the crate on his shoulder and never looked back to see if I was following or if the explosions that rocked the freighter from time-to-time had thrown me down. It was a matter of survival.

He was right. There was one escape module left. I had visions of reaching the platform only to find that it was gone. I pushed the door release, glad to be opening a door instead of sealing one.

I could see his lips counting down the minutes. It would take time for the escape pod to be far enough away from the freighter not to be affected by the dual blast from both ships. I understood with a sort of fatalistic awareness that it was a calculated risk but it was the only option left.

He started to speak. I watched his eyes widen then narrow. I knew they'd found us.

"Go!" He put the crate in my hands then pushed me into the module. I didn't realize until that moment that it was more than a service to him. He was willing to die to keep the crate in my hands from whoever boarded the ship.

I fell into the craft. He hit the eject switch. The door started to close on me, separating us. There was a glaring flash of light and I heard him cry out even as he rushed forward away from the module. Separation had begun. The seal closed between the freighter and the module with a sucking sound.

Then something tried to pry open the door and an explosion that shook the small craft. The escape module fought its way clear, falling away from the larger vessel. In the last few seconds, I saw them, the fallen security chief at their feet.

Would I be far enough away to survive the explosion? It was possible the man's sacrifice was for nothing. Or had he opted for destroying whatever it was rather than it falling into their hands?

I had to know. I regretted that I didn't learn his name. But I wanted to see the thing he was willing to die for.

I punched open the crate, pushing the gray foam roughly aside. It was there in the heart of it, a small piece of antiquity. It was only slightly bigger than my hand, brass colored. A cog inside a wheel, like a clock or some other ancient timepiece. Perhaps something used to track the sun. There were intricate writings and drawings upon the face, elaborately scrolled. The metal was finely wrought and delicate in texture. Clearly, it was only part of a greater whole.

My mind raced. He'd died for this? He'd been willing to sacrifice me as well. Was it an artifact from some ancient race? I turned it all ways, studying it carefully. That it could cost the lives of innocent people seemed beyond my comprehension.

The module shook violently. I looked outside into the endless black space beyond it. The freighter was still intact and the other vessel, a strange ship I couldn't readily identify, was closing on me fast. There was nothing I could do. No where I could run. I was helpless before them when they turned their tractor beam on the escape pod, pulling it unresistingly into the maw of the bigger vessel.

I was ready for them when they breached the door after securing the module within their craft. They'd probably kill me but I'd take a few of them with me. Whatever the brass artifact was, I hoped it was worth the price.

The door opened in a flash of light and heat that seared me. Then the blast encompassed the module, throwing me against the back of the small craft. It scattered the crate and the artifact. I slid to the floor in a heap, never seeing my attackers.

Chapter Seven

The steady drip of water on my face finally brought me around. I shivered and turned my head away, blinking my eyes until I could see. "I must be alive." I was startled to hear an echo of my words. It hurt to move into a half sitting position. For that matter, it hurt to think. I wasn't dead. But where was I?

There were crude bars, heavy and effective. I was in a cell of some kind. Surprisingly, they left my lock-pick. I adjusted it up to its highest setting and applied the tiny laser to a black bar. It was no use. I burned the laser out on the lock, dropping it to the ground at my feet as it smoldered. Damn.

The cell was roughly made, as though an afterthought from its original purpose. The floor was sandy dark rock, the bars drilled into the floor and ceiling. Around me were low rock walls reaching out beyond my sight. There was probably a corridor beyond but I couldn't see it.

My guess was a cave. There were boxes, crates, some bags on the floor around the bars and inside the cell. Maybe a storage area inside a cave. It was cold. I rubbed my arms with my hands to bring back the circulation. There was good ventilation, no hint of mustiness in the air. But it could be a cave anywhere and whoever put me there could be back at any time to finish the job. I had to find something to give me an edge.

Carefully, I opened one of the bags, looking at the material it was made from, not sure I'd seen it before. It wasn't standard Alliance fare but an ordinary cloth of some kind, woven perhaps. Inside was a grain product that I sniffed then tasted. It had a rich, nutty flavor that I could imagine being made into bread. It was probably stored there in the cold cave to keep the bugs out. Frustrated, I checked all the bags I had access to but they all contained the same thing.

I heard footsteps in the distance, echoing around me, but steadily coming closer. I took a small, sharp piece of wood from one of the large crates and hid it in my hand. Then I lay down beside the bags and feigned unconsciousness.

The barred door was unlocked with an electronic key and pushed open, something heavy dropped just inside. "Shall we take the woman?" a man's voice asked.

"Not yet," another answered shortly.

I couldn't believe my ears and had to dare a look from beneath my lashes at my captors. That was when I remembered seeing the security chief and his attackers before the escape module separated.

They were the same small, thin men, a slightly bluish cast to their skin. They had no hair on their heads and their clothing was rough-hewn cloth. Azueleans! I thought I recognized their language. But they were the most peaceful of people. It wasn't possible that they did this. But the two men exiting the cell were Azueleans.

I debated briefly trying to gain their attention by speaking their language, asking what their purpose was in stealing the artifact. Then I noticed the man on the floor. It was the security chief from the freighter.

I waited only until their footsteps died away down the rocky path, then dropped to my knees beside him. His dark face was crossed with weals that didn't come from a weapon but had to have been inflicted by hand. His shirt was torn and bloody but his pulse was strong.

He grabbed my hand roughly when I touched him, rage in his black eyes. "You!"

"You!" I repeated, snatching back my hand from his hold and his throat. "I thought you were dead!"

He laid his head back on the gritty rock and closed his eyes. "I think I might be."

"Do you know where we are?" I sat back on the grain-filled bags.

He opened his eyes briefly, scanning the area. "Some sort of rock prison?"

"I think we're on Azuel, the third moon of Padda. Those men who brought you here--"

"I know," he interrupted my recital, closing his eyes again, "Azueleans."

"Did they do this to you?"

"Not by themselves."

"I can't believe it! I've spent time with them here. All violence is abhorrent to them," I declared vehemently.

"Not all violence," he assured me dryly. With a slow movement that was obviously painful, he sat up, carefully pushing himself against a crate for support.

"Something's wrong." I busied myself exploring the cell while I thought about it. What could possibly induce these people to act so violently?

"They have the artifact," he said with a heavy sigh. "We have to find it and get it out of here."

"Is anything broken?" I asked as he stretched his arms then his legs before him. "Can you walk?"

"I believe the ordeal was meant to unnerve, not to maim. They don't want me dead. Yet."

"What do they want?" I put in quickly. "They have the artifact from the freighter. Why keep us alive at all?"

"Forgive me if I hope they don't share your way of thinking."

"That's not what I meant. But it would have been easier, less complicated, to let us explode with the freighter. Unless there's something else they want from us," I theorized, nibbling on some of the grain from the sacks.

He stood up slowly, his face carefully blank. "How long have you been here?"

There was something else. I wanted to demand to know what he wasn't telling me. His shuttered face was remote, unapproachable. I didn't know him well enough to understand him. He could be dangerous. "Too long." I rubbed my arms again and watched as he shook the bars. "I tried my pick on them but the laser wasn't strong enough."

I watched as he worked on the bars near the floor, finding a soft spot in the rock around one of them. I handed him the sliver of wood I'd been hiding, then turned back to search through the rest of the boxes in the cell.

"Thanks."

"All the bags are all full of grain," I explained without waiting for him to ask. "I think this was a storage place. I remember they used the caves when I was here, but not for prisons."

"As you said," he reminded me bluntly, "they've changed considerably."

I cracked open a crate with my booted foot. Coils of rope spilled out on the floor. Another was filled with a chalk-like substance I couldn't identify.

"Fertilizer," he told me over his shoulder. I looked up in surprise and he explained, "The scent is unmistakable."

The three other crates were empty but I stripped the thin wire from them, putting everything I found together in a pile. "Well, there it is." I sat down on one of the crates I'd pillaged. "I'd trade it all for something hot to drink."

"Not your standard adventure?"

If he hoped to anger me, he'd picked the wrong topic. I laughed. "This seems to be your adventure. I'm just caught up in it. Is it your usual fare?"

He stopped working with the bars and sat back on the floor, his back against the cell door as he sifted through the contraband. "I heard about your exploits on Quella. You're legendary, you know. I've heard people say that you don't really exist. That the stories are made up. That no one could do the things you claim to have done."

"They're mistaken," I replied calmly. "I'm very much real. So you know who I am. But I don't know who you are. And why these people want you alive when they should want you dead."

He flexed the wire through his fingers. "My name is Denali. I'm the head of a private security group. Not the stuff of dreams, but a comfortable existence. As to why the Azueleans want me alive, your guess is as good as mine."

"Denali." I rolled the name across my tongue. "Unusual. Fargan?"

He glanced up at me, black eyes glittering. "No."

"What is the artifact you were transporting?"

"I was escorting an ancient timepiece from the Wilson Museum on Lunden to the Alliance Frontier Museum on Delta 7." He shrugged. "There was trouble expected from the beginning. That's why they hired me to protect it."

"That's not what you said on the freighter," I reminded him with a half smile. "You said the artifact could endanger lives. You were willing to sacrifice your life and mine to keep the artifact from the Azueleans."

His gaze was intent on my face. "I meant that lives could be lost if the Alliance had to go after the artifact."

I laughed, my blue eyes daring him to argue with me. "Does Denali mean incredible liar?"

He nodded, hiding what I swore was a hint of a smile by lowering his gaze to look at the wire again. "If Amelia means foolishly daring."

I slid down across from him on the floor and studied the pile of items. "Any ideas?"

"The wire has possibilities." He lifted it again in his large hand. He picked the lock pick up from the floor. "There might be enough of a charge left to use with it."

I picked up the pencil-sized canister but there was no spark. "If we can't use it to cut the lock, what good is it?"

"You rely too heavily on artificial power." He pulled a length of wire taut between his hands. "This is good wire, triple wrapped." He stood and wrapped the wire around a bar, beginning a sawing motion with his hands.

"That will take all day," I complained but a thin line of smoke was already beginning to rise.

"Patience is a virtue worth cultivating," he observed as he continued to work.

I chewed a few more pieces of grain from the bag but while the flavor was pleasant, they were inedible. I heard the sound of footsteps again from the long corridor and spit it out. "We have company."

He moved instantly to hide the wire, going to the opposite side of the cell from the bar he'd been working on.

Our captors, all four Azueleans, came to stand just outside the door, opening it easily with the code key. "You will come." The male with the key said the words in his language and used hand gestures to indicate what he wanted.

"What do you want with me?" I surprised them by using their language. It wasn't a widely spoken language.

"You know our words." The taller male nodded and stepped back from the door.

"I've spent time here on Azuel," I told them. "My name is Amelia Gallant. Is Tandor here with you?"

They stared at each other, then started speaking excitedly, uncertain how to proceed.

The tall one calmed the other. "Tandor is dead," he told me flatly. "You must come with us."

I glanced at Denali. The look on his face mirrored my thoughts. I didn't have much choice, no matter what they wanted from me. They carried weapons. Denali needed time to work on the bar.

"I'll come with you." I got to my feet carefully and approached the door. My movement, my tone was one of agreeing to their demand as though I had a choice in the matter. Almost as though I was doing them a personal favor.

"Watch for the draw, Amelia." Denali nodded approval, using gambling slang from Land's End station to give me a message he was certain the naive, un-traveled Azueleans wouldn't know.

I knew the term. It was from a dangerous game using long knives that I'd never played but had watched many times. It meant strictly: don't be surprised no matter what happens. But it was used between partners in the game, not near adversaries.

I smiled as I heard the door close behind me, walking between the gaunt Azueleans. It was a clever gesture. I'd be ready for anything.

The Azueleans' faces were blank, disinterested in their captive's conversation. Although they'd raided the freighter, I knew the men were basically innocent of the Alliance. They were a deeply religious people whose recent ancestors fled the planet Padda because they believed their souls were being smothered in luxury. On the closest moon, Azuel, they lived simply, raising their own food, living in rough stone shelters.

The blue mineral deposits in the moon's water separated the Azueleans from their counterparts on Padda. It took me a few months away after I visited there to lose the slight blue tinge to my skin. After years of the constant process, the blue was permanently ingrained in them.

They wove raw cloth they wore with nothing between it and their bodies to remind them of their need for discomfort. Their homes were cleft from the rugged stone of their terrain with no luxuries to soften their often cruel lives.

When I had stayed there with Tandor and his sons a few years before, no Azuelean ever left the moon. They were totally devoted to non-aggressive behavior and would've died rather than commit violence. But as Denali pointed out so graphically, that had changed.

I looked at my guard as we progressed up the dimly lit corridor. Perhaps I could find some answers about the artifact that Denali seemed loathe to provide. I hoped to avoid returning in his battered condition. Though I was recovered from my time on Quella, I didn't relish a repeat so soon.

They led me to a small room, brightly lit compared to the rest of the area. There was only a single chair in the center. I had sudden visions of the old interrogation spectacle I'd seen so often on video.

"Sit." The key holder pointed to the chair.

"I'd prefer to stand," I told them haughtily, my demeanor that of a queen. I remembered how carefully I had to speak to the Azueleans when I stayed there before. They were very susceptible to impression since they were so isolated from the rest of the system. Sarcasm or even unpleasantness made a lasting impression on them.

They looked at one another again in agitation, not certain how to proceed.

"You will sit," the other one said, trying to intimidate me with a scowl, but his fiercest look reminded me of a stricken puppy.

"I will not! Not until you tell me why you've brought me here!"

They cowered under my abrasive anger. The keyholder argued with the tall one who'd told me that Tandor was dead. They weren't sure what to do if I refused to sit.

"You confuse them," a man said from the doorway.

I swiveled to look at him. He was big, broad shouldered, with huge arms. He looked to be part Azuelean. He had their skin tone, but there the resemblance ended. His face was tough, his eyes cruel.

"We have asked her to sit," the keyholder told him.

"And she refused." The man smiled calmly, advancing into the room. He looked like the type who'd enjoy what surely came next. Before I could react, he shoved me roughly into the chair and was standing over me laughing. "You see?" He spoke to the other men. "Now she's sitting in the chair!"

They agreed, though their faces mirrored their concern and discomfort. Together, they moved away from the confrontation, closer to the wall.

The Azueleans hadn't changed that much. Even as the larger half breed lowered his face down to mine. I could see the faint yellow tinge in his eyes, smell the rum on his breath. "Now, you'll tell me about the emerid."

"I don't know what an emerid is," I retorted.

Without another word, he moved his hand, swiftly dealing me a sharp, open hand slap that made my ears ring.

"Now," he began again, cold eyes boring into me.

I didn't wait for any other abuse. I struck hard and fast at his knee with my foot. "I said I don't know what you're talking about."

He fell forward groaning, then pulled his weapon from his side holster and cursed me in Paddan. I kicked the weapon from his hand and pushed his face into the floor. One of the Azueleans scurried to retrieve the weapon. "Give it to me!" I demanded, stalking him.

"That's quite enough, Jewel." A disembodied voice, cultured with Alliance-speak, entered the room through a crudely made comm-vid system.

The voice surprised me and Jewel swept my legs out from under me. He wasted no time pinning me to the floor with his weight.

"Let me kill her!" Jewel stared at me with dark hatred in his pale eyes. He stuck a wicked, serrated knife under my chin.

"Escort her back to the cell. I'll send for her shortly," the voice commanded.

Jewel rammed his fist through an old table near the door as he left the room. He was angry but the voice of authority overrode his passion.

Chapter Eight

I stood without the Azuelean's help, touching my jaw gingerly. There was nothing major wrong with it. But I worked it slowly, pretending to be massaging the injury as they led me back to the cell. I counted the rooms we passed, watching for monitors or sensors.

One thing that struck me about the entire operation was that just like the laser they used on the freighter, everything was old, worn. Bare wires suggested that the caves were only recently, and crudely, set up for power. Whoever was behind the theft, and the transformation of the Azueleans, didn't have much funding. Their tech was only one step above what the Azueleans had, not as modern as Padda.

There wasn't enough time for Denali to cut through the bar. On the other hand, I didn't expect him to be asleep on the floor. I curbed my temper and hoped that it was his way of leading the Azueleans astray from his real purpose.

The door closed behind me and my captors were quick to leave me there. I listened carefully to their conversation. They were uncomfortable with my knowledge of their language and uncertain how to treat me. The others had been strangers, barbarians. That I spent time with Tandor almost made me one of them.

I waited until their footsteps faded then stood over Denali. "They're gone," I informed him, giving him the benefit of the doubt.

He didn't move.

I bent down close to him and touched his arm. It was only his shirt wrapped around a bag of grain. Denali was gone. The bags were cleverly arranged to give the appearance of him lying there between them. When I looked again, I could see it was a ruse. People see what they want to, I reminded myself, not wasting any more time on the ploy.

I shook the bar he'd been trying to cut through. There was a spot on the cold metal rod that was bent forward. He'd gone through the small space where the bars separated. It seemed impossible. I wasn't sure I could fit.

I pushed the bar as far as I was able, creating a space about a half meter wide. I held my breath and pushed myself through. Carefully, I pushed the bar back in place, not adding to Denali's ruse with one of my own. I'd have to rely on the Azueleans not returning until I found a way out of the caverns.

As for Denali, he wasn't exaggerating when he'd told me to expect anything. Where had he gone?

There was only one answer that made any sense. He'd gone to find the artifact. I hadn't known him long but I knew he wasn't the sort of man to leave in concern for his own safety. Whatever the artifact was, it was worth more to him than his life.

The cavern that ran away from the smaller cave that held the cell was empty. No rooms veered from the side carved into solid rock as they did down the other corridor where they'd taken me earlier. There were lights, some cheap chip implanted into a magnifier that illuminated the total blackness. The floor was clear, if not the walls and ceiling. It was impossible to tell if I was headed in the right direction.

I pressed myself flat against the side of the wall in the darkness, grinding the light chip under my heel. A small group of Azueleans ran past me, their weapons drawn. It was only dumb luck that I heard them in time to save myself. There was barely enough room to avoid them.

Damn! They already found out our escape. A signal was loosed through the caves. It emitted a low but continuous pulse that was irritating but not debilitating.

They didn't see me in the blackness but I heard them coming down from the corridor past the cage. Fortunately, the rocky stronghold they'd chosen was huge. It would be impossible to search all of it. Even if all the Azueleans were corrupted, there were scarcely two hundred living there. Not enough to form the hands-on inspection teams they'd need.

In the meantime, if I could find my way out, it might be possible to find Denali and escape the moon. If there were any Azueleans I could recall as friends from my time there, it would be easier. If not, I'd have to do the best I could.

It was all I could do to curb my curiosity and not demand an explanation. The Azueleans were a kind and trusting, open-hearted people. How was it possible that anyone could change them so drastically?

I went on carefully, keeping my senses tuned to the quiet of the caves. The Azueleans didn't realize in their naivety that I could hear them from a long distance. They'd never hunted or tracked another species. Never had to worry about cornering their prey or escaping. And they didn't notice that sound carried forever in the narrow, rocky tunnels.

Slipping through the shadows, I rounded a corner carefully, not able to see on the other side. A force, like walking into a wall, hit me hard. Stunned, I staggered back.

"I knew I'd find you." Jewel laughed. His voice was raucous in the silence.

He crushed me back against him until I thought my ribs would cave in from the pressure. I couldn't breathe. Frantically, I kicked back at him but my legs flailed helplessly. My senses were rapidly failing, darkness encroaching from the perimeter of my mind.

There was a shrill whistle that filled the air around us. Inexplicably, he set me free. He twisted his head in rage. "Show yourself, coward!"

I used the sudden rush of air into my lungs to launch my own attack. Delivering a hard blow to the man's midsection, I followed with a quick turn, punching hard at his face and throat. I was fast and well trained but the man was a mountain, shrugging off my most powerful blows and coming back at me with stunning intensity.

He caught me with a harsh slap to my face and I retaliated with a short kick that he fielded deftly.

I saw the twisted muscles in his face. His eyes gleamed wildly as he came at me, his huge fists ready to deliver their final blows.

I backed away from him, gathering strength for my own defense, coming up against the cold rock wall. Deliberately, I felt along the floor for a loose stone, a piece of wood. Anything that would help me fight the giant.

His laughter was low and demonic as he continued his pursuit of me. I readied myself to ward off the blow as best I could and hoped to find some weakness in my attacker. One instant he was looming over me. The next, he was crumpled on the floor at my feet.

"You should have waited," Denali said, stepping over him to grasp my forearm roughly, pulling me after him.

I jerked my arm free and knelt to pick up Jewel's weapons.

"Are you all right?" Denali paused as he glanced around us.

"Yes." My head ached and I my eye was swelling where Jewel struck me. But I was alive. "You didn't leave me anything except that cryptic gambling message! I was surprised by what you accomplished. But that still left me alone and in that cell!"

"I would've come back for you after I found the artifact." He started to walk back into the caves.

"Where are you going? You're heading in the wrong direction. Out has to be the way I was going."

"It is," he agreed. "I've been out of the caves. Not much out there."

"But our chances for escape are better out there. I know there are bound to be some Azueleans left that haven't been corrupted. They'll help us."

"I haven't found the artifact." He said it as though that settled the conflict.

"You mean the emerid." I wished I could see his face when he heard the name but he'd turned away from me. "They asked me about it."

He nodded curtly. "I won't leave here without it. You should go."

"Wouldn't it be better to alert the authorities and let them take over?" I put my hand on his arm to stop him.

He looked down at my grip and raised a dark brow. "The authorities won't be here in time. This is something I have to do. I don't expect you to understand." Denali turned away again and walked back into the shadows.

I waited until he disappeared, then I followed him. I couldn't let him go alone, even if he was stupid and stubborn to try to take care of it by himself. The emerid was important enough to make someone enslave the Azueleans. This man was willing to give his life to get it away from Jewel and his master. It was something I couldn't walk away from despite my best intentions.

"You should go," he told me again as we approached the first cavern.

"I know." I continued to walk beside him.

"You'd better have this then." He handed me another weapon.

"Thanks." I saw that he already had three. "Do you have any idea where this emerid thing is?"

"I saw a small opening above the cave entrance outside. There must be a way to reach it. It's the highest spot. I think the artifact must be there. They need a vantage point to use it."

We stopped when a group of Azueleans rushed by us, one of them close enough to touch if I stretched my hand out. Denali and I were pressed close to the rock wall, barely breathing.

"What is this thing...the emerid?" I whispered when they'd passed and we started towards the center of the complex again. The term, like the man beside me in the shadows, was a mystery. I knew many different languages and many more dialects but didn't recognize the word.

"What we have here is not really the emerid," he informed me. "It is only a piece of the whole."

"There's more than one? Do they know?"

"They know," he assured me. "We're near where I stopped searching. The entrance to the upper area must be close by."

In other words, I deciphered, he wouldn't reveal any of his or the emerid's secrets. Very well. I'd learn about them from another source.

We entered several rooms, caves actually, carved out of the rock. They were small, dimly lit but clearly empty. There was no sign of any way to reach another level.

"The next room up is where they questioned me," I told him as we returned to the corridor.

"We'll search there as well."

Two Azueleans were still in the room when we entered. Before they could move or speak, Denali had his 42 Walker trained on them. He ordered them both to the floor. They complied, trembling as they faced his weapon.

I found some rough sack material and ripped it to create strips to tie their hands and feet. They didn't move or speak. Terror, and something more, acceptance, was mirrored in their flat, pale eyes.

I asked one of them in their own language why they were there, who they served. They served the priest of their God, he told me, then looked away.

"I found it," Denali said from the far side of the room. He lit a crude torch with a quick shot from his weapon. A rough staircase was carved from the dark rock. It scaled the side of the wall. Before I could finish tying up the Azueleans, Denali had already disappeared.

The stairs were shallow. I had to rub my hand against the wall to feel the indentation before I moved my foot. It was no wonder I didn't see it when they brought me there before. The clever Azueleans had done the work. They were intimate with stone. It was a deep, mystic part of their lives.

I followed Denali up the stairs, trying to find any rough handholds in the otherwise smooth wall. I finally distinguished a pattern of stones that must have been there for that reason. After that, I followed quickly. He climbed like a Derkan mountain beast, not using his hands for balance, rapidly scaling the stairs directly above me.

He didn't look as though he'd be an agile man because of his size but that appearance was deceptive. He moved quickly and with a peculiar grace that was as much a part of him as the wall of stolid anonymity that he'd erected around himself. I'd never known a man from any world who didn't want to talk about himself. It was infuriating trying to ferret information from the tiny clues he dropped. I hated guessing.

Denali turned and offered me his hand when he reached the top of the rocky climb. I glanced at him, wondering what made him think of it when he so patently ignored me up until then. But those dark eyes were giving nothing away.

I accepted his offer, putting my hand in his. After all, I was determined to know what the man was hiding. The sooner he became accustomed to that imperative the better.

He had an easy, enviable strength that lifted me from the final few stairs. Then he turned abruptly away to begin searching for the emerid, holding the torch high.

It was really nothing more than a rocky ledge, a strip that overlooked a sheer drop to darkness far below. The opening he'd seen from outside the caves was at least a hundred meters from the ledge across the yawning gap. Through the opening, the sky of Azuel was visible. Padda was in the distance. It was just turning evening, a burnished blue twilight that I remembered spreading calmly across the small moon.

Night would follow rapidly as the twilight was short-lived. There was very little time to search the area for the artifact. With no artificial lights on the ledge, only the light from the opening made the rocks visible. In the dark crevices, everything was black and the threat of walking too close to the edge increased as the light faded.

"It'll be dark soon," I told my companion though I wasn't sure he wanted to know the worst.

He didn't reply as he scoured the ledge with his hands, determined to find what was taken from him.

I followed his lead, hoping the light that was left would lend some glint to the brass-like quality of the artifact. I was filled with so many questions. My mind seethed. What was the emerid? Who'd stolen it? Why was Denali so secretive about what was happening?

I watched him, knowing there was no way he could see what he was doing. He hunted like a man possessed, seemingly unaware that I was there with him. He turned over rocks, felt along the wall. Dust flew into the already thick air as he tried to find the artifact.

There wasn't much time before the Azueleans and their masters knew where we were and what we were doing. It was also clear to me that there was nothing there on that ledge. But we were trapped. Nothing to bargain with when they came up those stairs. No where to go.

The light was no more than a shadow falling from the opening across the chasm, only an instant until total blackness. I sat down wearily, wiping my filthy hands on my trousers. Careful of the edge, I marked the extremity of the ledge with the toe of my boot and that's where I found it.

Just over the lip of rock that hung down from the main ledge, they'd fastened it to the stone with a long metal arm. I swung it back towards me, feeling the curiously warm metal with my fingertips. It felt larger than the artifact I'd seen but the loops and engravings seemed the same. "Denali!"

He came to me at once, lifting the artifact free from the holder while I held the arm close to the edge.

"It's larger, isn't it?" I asked as he put it on the ledge beside me.

"It has more than one part. These are two parts of the four that make up the whole." He felt it analytically, like a blind man, turning it over in his grasp.

"What is it?" I hoped this time I'd get a straight forward answer. Surely I deserved one.

"It's half of the emerid," he whispered as the sun sank down and the darkness completely enshrouded us. "Possibly the most powerful weapon in the Alliance."

"You've got to be joking." It didn't look that powerful to me. I couldn't believe I hadn't heard about it if it was that powerful.

"I wish I was."

"How could someone, anyone have such a thing?" I demanded. "The Alliance-"

"-has no idea," he retorted. "Its bounds are too wide with too many varied peoples for one government to know everything."

"How do you know so much about it?"

There was a sound far below us and we both moved. "You'll have all the answers soon enough if they find us here."

I swore quietly in Fargan and I heard his laughter from somewhere in the darkness.

Chapter Nine

There were sounds, muffled at first, but growing steadily louder in the room below us.

"We've got to make a move." I hated to go without hearing the story of the emerid. But if we didn't escape, I could be the last person to hear it. "Can we move it?"

"No, it would be too bulky," he answered. "Wait."

I couldn't see his movements but I could hear the metallic clink of parts loosened and hastily pushed into his jacket. It made sense that whatever the emerid was, it couldn't work in pieces.

"Let's swing it back out over the ledge," I added quickly. "They don't need to know what you've done right away."

Together, blind in the blackness, we reattached the emerid to the metal arm and pushed it back away from us. The sounds of pursuit were coming closer quickly.

"When they find us here, they'll know," he reminded me.

But I was already working on that problem. "Suppose they don't find us?"

"I suppose we could fly."

"I have an idea," I explained quickly. "We could hang over the edge, like the emerid. Over to the side where they couldn't see us."

"That's ludicrous!"

But voices hailed others as they started up the stairs and suddenly, there was only the choice of my suggestion or capture.

"We can do it." I found the edge of the rock shelf with my feet and slowly lowered myself across it.

"Or die trying," he observed, but he followed my lead, pushing himself backwards from the ledge.

In the inky blackness there was no way to see anything even though we were only a few centimeters from each other. I could feel his nearness, hear his breathing.

"Remind me not to pay attention to any of your ideas in the future," he groaned, adding quickly, "if there is a future."

From above us, a sudden brilliant light illuminated the darkness. Angry shouting filled the silence.

It was Jewel. He was ordering the Azueleans to search for any sign of us while he checked the emerid.

From their vantage, we were invisible. Loose rocks and the nature of the ledge shadowed where we hung. My fingers were numb and my arms felt like they were being pulled from their sockets. I wanted to look at Denali but didn't dare move or make any sound.

If I fell, I promised myself sternly, I wouldn't scream and give away our position. It was the least I could do. I clung fiercely and closed my eyes, hugging the rock against my chest. I bit my lip to keep the scream that was forming in my throat from escaping.

Denali was right. In the future, I'd let them capture me. It couldn't have hurt any more than this.

Just when I thought they'd never leave, Jewel ordered his men from the ledge. "They're not here," he told his people in their own tongue. "We must continue to search until we find them."

The light they brought with them faded slowly with their leaving and the sound of their footsteps disappeared.

Painfully, centimeter by centimeter, I pulled myself up from the edge. Denali was beside me. I could hear his gasps and feel his strain in the blackness. The rock scraped my arms and legs but I was finally on the ledge. I laid my cheek on the cool stone and closed my eyes.

"My arms are a few meters longer," he whispered, "but I'm alive. It wasn't such a bad plan."

"Thanks." I felt the strange urge to reach out and touch him. I held my hands close against me though and the moment passed. It was the relief of finding out that I wasn't dead after all. Nothing to do with the triese lea, though with my eyes closed, I could still see his face. In the darkness, all things were equal.

"Can you move?" he asked. "We've got to get out of here and find a way off this moon."

I sat up, shaking off the part of me that wanted to lay there and not get up until I knew Max's luxury cruiser was waiting for me. "I'm ready. Let's go."

Carefully, we retraced our steps back down the rock etched stairs. My foot slipped on the damp stone but Denali caught my ankle, holding it in his large hand.

"That would have been an adventure," he said, releasing my foot.

"No more than meeting you," I returned quickly. "Tell me about the emerid."

"It would make a good story. But it's not mine or yours to tell."

"Then who's?" I followed him down.

"The people who own the emerid. It's their history."

"Not if it's really the most powerful weapon in the Alliance. Once someone uses it--"

On the cave floor, he turned back to me, all laughter gone from his eyes. "That won't happen."

I looked past him into the room. "Maybe you're right." The cave was empty and dimly lit. There were no sounds in the corridor beyond. "They must think we already left the caves."

Denali didn't reply and walked on ahead of me.

The corridors were empty, the shadows echoing in the stillness as we raced along the dark walls. There was no one to challenge us. We passed from cavern to cavern rapidly.

"Something's wrong." Denali shook his dark head.

"There aren't many Azueleans," I conjectured. "They can only be in a few places at once."

"How did you manage Quella?"

"Better than you managed to hold on to your part of the emerid."

* * *

The night was absolute when we reached the mouth of the caverns. The sweet smell of fresh air and freedom were heady droughts.

"We made it." I put my weapons into the side pockets of my pants.

"We have to find some transport." Denali looked out into the night.

I allowed my eyes to follow the long, low hills that stretched across the horizon, recalling the beautiful blue mist that swathed them in the mornings. They were black at that moment, against the midnight sky and the twinkle of a light that was Padda. I spent only a short time on Azuel but I'd taken away something from that place and those people that lingered with me. Something that wouldn't allow me to leave them there to their fate. I had to know, had to help, if I could.

"I can't leave," I told him. "I have to find out if all the Azueleans are involved in this."

"What difference does it make?" Impatience rang in his deep voice.

"They were...are a good people. I might be able to help."

"You take a lot on yourself. These people made their decisions without your interference. Everyone has to do what's right for them."

I stood my ground. "People can be coerced into doing what someone else wants them to do. Against their will. The Azueleans would no more hurt you than fly."

"There's not much point in arguing about it. I have to get these parts out of here. I guess you'll have to do what you can here."

I couldn't see his face in the darkness but there was no doubting the resolution in his tone. We were strangers, after all, thrown together in a bizarre circumstance.

"I guess this is where we say goodbye then," I said. "I wish you luck."

From the blackness around me, arms clamped down on me. Something foul smelling wrapped across my mouth and nose. I heard Denali's struggle beyond the sounds of my own and kicked out at my attackers.

"Fight, Amelia!" Denali urged, his voice squelched.

"I'm trying!" I couldn't say more as they managed to put a gag over my mouth again. They pushed me down to the ground and I knew that the struggle was over. There were too many of them.

"Amelia," Denali gasped, "are these your good Azueleans," a loud crack followed a low thump, "or your bad Azueleans?"

There was no way for me to answer.

They carried me through the night, rough hands dragging parts of me that were only half-healed from Quella. Why didn't I take Max's shuttle? I hoped Selph was spared any other danger. I could have been somewhere, anywhere. But there I was, trussed up like a game bird ready for the spit.

That entire concept made me slightly sick and I think I may have blacked out for a while. When I awoke, I was on a hard floor, probably stone again. I was still tied and gagged. Where was Denali?

The room around me was close, with dark walls and a low ceiling. A crude torch lit the area a little. While I searched for some clue as to where I was, something warm and hard pushed against my back. Fingers worked at the bindings on my wrists until they were free.

I sat up and ripped off the dirty cloth that was tied around my mouth and hair.

Denali cleared his throat. When I looked at him, he tapped impatiently at his own bonds.

"Sorry," I murmured, loosing him as well.

"Is this one of their huts?" He glanced around the crudely made stone dwelling. He wiped his hand roughly across his mouth. Our captors hadn't given me the only horrific gag.

"You mean the Azueleans?" I followed his gaze after he removed his gag and untied his feet.

"That's about who I had in mind, Amelia," he retorted. "You said you'd been here, didn't you?"

"It's been a while," I admitted, walking around the room. "I've been in a lot of places like this."

He sighed. "So you don't know?"

"I didn't say--"

We were interrupted by a man dressed in rough cloth, his long face lined with care and seasons long past.

"Tandor!"

"Amelia Gallant?" His pale eyes searched my face, scrutinizing every detail as though he were afraid of trickery.

"It's me, Tandor." I walked away from Denali towards the older man. "Do you remember?"

"I remember." He nodded. "I remember one morning when we planted a garden. Do you?"

"I sure as hell hope so," Denali added in a whisper.

"I remember," I replied, knowing he was trying to find some way to judge if it was really me. "We planted rougeocks and summer peas. You told me that I'd be back to eat them."

"And so you are." He smiled but his eyes remained grave.

"What's happened, Tandor? What happened to your people?"

"You must be tired and hungry," Tandor replied quietly. He looked at Denali. "You've brought a friend."

"Friend?" Denali passed me. "I am Denali," he said to Tandor, in rough but understandable Azuelean. "I am here to stop Jerritt."

Tandor's head shot up as though someone slapped him. "You know the Evil One's name? You know Him?"

Denali nodded solemnly. "I know him."

Tandor stared at him, a slight tremble in his chin. He drew a ragged breath and turned suddenly away. "You must be hungry. Tired. We will talk as we eat. Then you can rest."

"What did you say to him?" I asked Denali as I passed him to follow Tandor from the stone hut.

"What he didn't want to hear," he answered finally.

"Who is Jerritt?" I whispered, barely daring to ask after the effect it caused in Tandor.

"The devil," he responded calmly. "Jewel's master."

Crude torches lit the dark night, outlining the path that ran through the village. Too many huts were black and quiet as we passed. There was no sound of laughter or the smell of cooking on the night air. It was as unlike the place I remembered as its people were, running through free space pirating artifacts.

In the over-spill of light from the torches, I could barely make out ruined, overgrown gardens and untilled land. Water systems, the most important part of life on dry Azuel, were cracked and dry. There was no light, no laughing music made by the sweet, cool water.

The meeting place, like the rest of the village, was crudely made, built of stone. It was rectangular and had been reinforced since I was there. The windows were sealed closed. Only a thin trail of light reached out from under the doorway.

I recalled being there, a huge fire burning in the pit while dozens of villagers sat and talked. I'd fallen asleep listening to them several times while they talked of the harvest and the weather. The elders told stories of the first Azueleans coming from Padda and young couples hid in the corners to kiss.

They led simple lives but there was pleasure in their patience and quiet strength that had revived me. Eight years before, when I had spent time there, I was recovering from being hurt in a shuttle that had gone down in a Derkan fire storm.

Exhausted from working in the gardens all day, I ate and spent the evening by the stone fire pit with my adopted Azuelean family. Time, and their kindness, healed me after a while and I went on. But a part of their warmth was always with me.

That night, the meeting place was empty and the fire burned low. The young man Tandor introduced as Marder dipped stew on our plates. It was hot and fragrant with herbs. The four of us ate and drank the village's prized honey wine in silence.

I thought about Denali sitting beside me on a stone bench, brooding over his stew. What had he and Jerritt brought to these people?

A young woman entered and poured herself a large drought of golden wine. "They're searching the caves and the transport area for someone." Her pale eyes glittered on us. "It must be you."

"This one is Amelia Gallant," Tandor said softly. "You've heard me speak of her."

"I am Dart," the woman told me while her eyes lingered on Denali's dark face. "You've done them serious harm, I think."

"Possibly," my accomplice acknowledged with a curt nod. "I'm Denali."

"They're missing something valuable." Dart smiled. Her mouth became a thin razor line. "This is your work as well?"

"Denali knows the Evil One," Tandor added. "He has come to fight him."

"Not to fight," Denali corrected bluntly. "Jerritt took something that belongs to me. I took something of his. As soon as I can, I have to get away."

There was deep silence in the room. All eyes turned to him.

"Jerritt enslaved my people." Tandor spoke the words like the smoke that clung to the glowing coals in the pit. "They believe that he's the Evil One and that they'll be punished if they don't obey."

I glanced at Denali then focused my eyes on Tandor and Marder. "Why do they believe Jerritt is the Evil One?" I could remember just the barest essence of the Azuelean's Evil One. The myth was a strong one backed by centuries of retelling of the tale. But it seemed as though I recalled huge, world-shaking epics, not individual threats.

"Jerritt came here as a friend," Marder related to us. "He told us that he would bring us timanor. But he has brought us only pain and death."

Dart swallowed her wine in a gulp and jumped to her feet. "Timanor! Peace! We are fools! And now there is only one thing to do. We must kill Jerritt."

"We do not kill!" Tandor reminded her sternly.

"He's killed our people! We must fight back," Dart demanded.

Denali didn't look up as they argued. He stared into the wine in his cup.

"It's enough that we try to save a few." Tandor gestured to Denali and me. "We've brought a few back to us. They see the ways of the Evil One and return."

"Not as many as Jerritt has killed!" Dart answered angrily. "We sneak here and there in the darkness, bringing our own back and trying to convince them to stay. If Jerritt was dead, then we would all be free."

"And we would be dead as well," Tandor nearly shouted, half-coming out of his seat. "We are Azuelean. To kill, to destroy, is to end our culture."

Dart glared at him then at me before she stormed from the meeting hut. Marder excused himself to follow her. Tandor sat back in his carved stone seat.

The floors were hard and dusty beneath us while the fire waned. I smoked the native plant mixture with Tandor as we talked. Denali abstained.

"He came." Tandor breathed out smoke, fragrant in the close air. "We weren't prepared. What could we do?"

"What could you expect?" My head buzzed slightly with the smoke and the heady mixture in the tobacco. "You live here in peace. Your whole existence is based on non-violence. How could you fight him?"

"He blackened the sky and made the land shake beneath us when we refused to help him," Tandor told me, staring intently into the fire. "Some tried to run and the ground swallowed them."

I looked at Denali steadily as Tandor spoke, wondering what he was thinking. There was so much I didn't know about the emerid and about Denali himself. What was his relationship to Jerritt? Where did he get his information? "No one can do that, Tandor. He just knew when it was going to happen and used it against you."

Denali, I noticed, shifted slightly but said nothing.

"Jerritt can do these things." Tandor fixed his eyes on the smoke that circled his head and rose to the ceiling. "He is evil."

There was silence between us then that hung heavily, uncomfortable as the stone floor and the cold that ached through my bones. I finished my pipe silently while Tandor's frail head nodded and his eyes closed. Denali took the pipe from his limp fingers and rested it on the stone bench carved from the wall.

"It isn't possible, is it?" I watched him through narrowed eyes. "Answer me, damn you!"

"What?"

"The Evil One making the ground shake and the skies turn black." I favored him with an explanation. "You know what I mean."

"Every race of people has their own myths."

"That's not an answer," I reminded him severely. "Who is Jerritt? What is the emerid?"

"Jerritt is not a demon, if that's what you mean," he answered bleakly. "He's cruel and wouldn't hesitate to use these people to get what he wants."

"Which is?"

"The emerid. He had two parts. He needs four."

"And then?" The conversation had become distinctly difficult. Trying to get information from the man was harder than getting away from the Hayyim.

"Then..." He sighed and ran a rough hand through his dark hair. "I don't know. I mean to get the part I took back and the part he still has off this moon so that he can't use the emerid. I don't want to know what he plans. I don't care."

"But you know him?"

"I know him." He turned his face away from me and closed his eyes, his head pillowed on the hard stone wall behind him.

I waited, not speaking. I realized from his even breathing that he was asleep. Frustrated, I finished smoking my pipe then closed my eyes and shivered on the cold stone.

Chapter Ten

We were awakened early the next morning by a series of small quakes that rumbled like thunder through the village. Sleep dazed, the remainder of the Azueleans with Tandor ran from their huts to stand in the misty morning light, shivering and terrified.

"Damn!" Denali uttered, stripping the cogs he'd taken from the emerid the night before from his fingers. They fell to the ground that rocked beneath our feet.

"Quite a game," I returned, watching the metal wheels roll away. "Make us think we could find the emerid then let us take it, or part of it, and escape."

He looked at me as though he'd never seen me before. There was a deep anger in his dark eyes, a fury that seemed out of character for him. Hatred beyond reason. "Just to show me what he could do." He nodded toward the mountain that stood over the village.

"If I could have him for only a short time," Dart said, approaching us, "I would tear his heart out."

The sky above us turned black and a sleeting rain fell to the ground, slashing at everything, destroying what remained of the Azueleans' calm defiance. They ran for the meeting hut, the only safe place they knew.

"There has to be something we can do," I said to Denali as we started towards the big stone hut.

"What do you suggest?" He faced me, water dripping down his angry face.

"I don't know. I don't know what's going on, do I? You know everything. Jerritt. The emerid. Everything. All I know is that these people are suffering while you and your friend up there in the mountain play games!"

There was a noticeable silence among the Azueleans who watched us with wide, frightened eyes. Most couldn't understand what we were saying but a few, Tandor, Dart, Marder, waited for Denali's reply.

Fire flashed in Denali's black eyes. His mouth was set in a grim line. He grabbed my arm and kept marching towards the hut, out of the cold rain that poured down on the rock strewn landscape.

"What are you doing?" I shouted at him to be heard above the downpour while I snatched my arm from him. I stopped in the doorway, refusing to go further until he answered.

"This won't help them." He glanced towards the villagers. "Come inside. I'll explain what I can."

I followed, head down, freezing, miserable. The ground still trembled beneath my feet. And I could feel Jerritt's laughter from the mountain as though it came from my own soul.

Inside the hut, I sat down on one of the crudely made stone seats coming from the wall. Denali worked at the fire pit, coaxing life from the banked down coals. I felt as though I would never be warm again.

"Jerritt is not a demon," he spoke at last, staring into the fire he'd raised. "He's a man with a cause."

"What cause. What could he have against these people? They're harmless."

"These people are only his pawns," he interrupted curtly. "He's been able to get their help because of their myths. The people he wants to hurt are at the other end of the Alliance. My people."

I looked up at him then, his face illuminated by the fire. The dark skin was stretched taut along his high, narrow cheekbones. His black eyes glittered. There was strength about him and an anger held in check, the cost of which was written on his narrow mouth and the shuttered depth of his gaze.

"How do you know him?"

"You imagined I was from Farga." His eyes swept over my face with a weary speculation. "I'm from Kittimatt, Amelia. The end of the universe. I escaped with Commander Streng when she charted the sector. She helped me learn the Alliance language, gave me an identity, sent me to live with her brother on Earth where I began my business."

"Kittimatt," I breathed in awe. Who hadn't heard of it? The accounts of the world were scarce. They'd begun trickling out about ten years before. A world of great beauty...and greater fear.

"Commander Streng gave me my name and my life. On Kittimatt, I was a slave. Without a name, without hope. My people have been enslaved by Rissan for countless generations. We are the servants of Jerritt's race."

"Rissan. The drug that destroys psi." Even as we spoke, I knew the Alliance was arguing about expelling the world of Kittimatt unless they agreed to create an environment without the Rissan slaves.

"There are a few of Jerritt's people that left Kittimatt. They told the Alliance of the horror there. They've tried to bring it to an end."

"But not Jerritt?"

"Not Jerritt," he agreed. "I'm not sure what he has in mind, but he believes in the system my world is based on."

"And the emerid?"

He looked at me and smiled. "I've never told another living soul who I was and where I was from, Amelia. I didn't want to see pity or embarrassment in their faces. Why is it that I see only the quest in yours?"

I shrugged. Short of words for once, I stumbled forward, "If you ever met my family, you'd know why I don't pity you. As far as embarrassment, no one can help what they were, only what they are."

"And the quest?"

"My life!" I smiled back at him. "The emerid, if you please."

He laughed. "You are one of a kind, Amelia Gallant!"

"I should hope so," I retorted, becoming impatient. "Are you stalling for a reason, Denali?"

"The emerid." He stirred the fire again while the rain turned to ice outside, hitting the hut with frenzy. "The emerid is part of the antiquity of my people. They've always believed a myth that a gifted psi would come to save us from the First ones, Jerritt's people. The psi would come to Kittimatt and would reassemble the emerid to use against our enemies."

"So it's a psi weapon."

"In a matter of speaking. When all four parts are together, the emerid can produce a planetary transmuter that can bring life."

"Or equally," I added, "death from too much life?"

He nodded. "Separately, the parts of the emerid produce individual change."

"Black skies, earthquakes--"

"Ice rains. Volcanoes. Any elemental process can be affected," he explained, "or duplicated."

"Does anyone know which part brings which change?"

"Not really. That's why he's experimenting here. The emerid has been lost to us for hundreds of years. It was sold off, stolen. Eventually it landed in different parts of the universe. Before I left Kittimatt, I thought it was only a legend."

"Jerritt didn't." The cold from the storm outside was becoming pervasive even with the fire. I shivered in my wet clothes. "When did you learn that the emerid was real?"

"When Jerritt took the first piece. I read about it in the paper." He glanced up at me with a quick grin, disguising his own shaking with another prod at the fire. "It was the same day I read about you being taken prisoner on Quella."

"An unfortunate turn of events," I acknowledged briefly.

"I intend to hear it all, you know." He fixed his dark eyes on me.

"The emerid," I prompted, looking away, for once not wanting to tell the tale of my own exploits.

"Jerritt took the first piece from a museum on Jappa. They'd mistaken it for one of their own artifacts, but it's clearly marked in the language of my people. He would have known it at once as any of us would have."

"What made you suspicious?"

"His form of escape. On a clear day, on a world that has never known quakes, the skies darkened and the land shook."

We were quiet for a moment and I noticed that the rain ceased. The terrible cold lingered and I wondered how Tandor's people would survive. As Jappa had never known quakes, Azuel had never known such bone-biting cold.

"What does he mean to do?" I voiced my thoughts aloud. "Surely he hasn't gone through all this trouble to scare a group of native people? And your people are already enslaved by his."

"There is only one thing left," he agreed. "Jerritt means to force the Alliance's hand in negotiating the trade agreements. He doesn't want Kittimatt to change."

"And he'd be willing to use the emerid to accomplish his goals?"

Denali poked at the fire again. Sparks flew up into the sky. The glow from the fire was warmer than the actual flame. "Jerritt is desperate. He'll do whatever it takes. He's capable of anything."

"Why didn't you tell someone? Echo, Endo, some Alliance outpost Captain?"

"The emerid doesn't exist," he reminded me. "It isn't a weapon. It's a myth. I don't even know how it works. Does what I'm telling you sound like something the Alliance would follow up on?"

I knew he was right. "We need the emerid. Techs could find out what it does and stop Jerritt in his tracks."

"I'm sure he'd love for us to try and take it away from him again."

Tandor came closer to us, taking a place near the fire. Carefully, he put tobacco into his small pipe then lit it with a spark. "Now," he began in his own language, "what can we do to stop the Evil One?"

The hard frozen rain started again. The wind roared across the rough stone hut and the ground trembled. It was as though his words had reached Jerritt's ears. Tandor looked at each of us in turn then back at the fire.

Denali looked at me and we both sighed. There seemed to be only one way of getting back into the mountain.

* * *

Just before sunset, with the long night shadows falling across the deep blue landscape, Marder and Dart marched their prisoners into the caves. They were the last young people to join Jerritt's force. Only the old and the sick remained in the village. And they didn't matter to Jerritt and his growing force.

A group of Azueleans met us at the entrance. They watched us walk up the path in the fading light, suspicion deeply etched on their faces.

"Marder," the first man acknowledged him.

"Dove. I've brought the two Jerritt sought." Marder's voice was cool but proud.

Dove looked us over doubtfully, his pale eyes enlarging when they fell on Denali. It was clear that he wasn't one of the group of Azueleans that left the moon. He'd never seen a stranger except Jerritt.

Denali stood like a dark tower between them, making at least two of the Azueleans. They kept a careful distance, watching his every move.

Dove seemed to be less anxious about me. He shifted his posture away from Denali, glared angrily and pointed at me. "Jerritt has said that we must take this one to him at once." No one dared to disagree.

"What of this one?" Dart asked, pushing Denali slightly. From the look on their faces, it was difficult to tell if the surrounding Azueleans thought her courageous or foolhardy.

"He should be taken below," Dove replied, still not looking at Denali.

Several more of the Azueleans moved in closer to Denali at his signal, creating a circle around him. Their weapons were trained on him intently. Dart managed to push her way into the group.

"What of Tandor?" another man asked, coming up beside Dove. "Where is he?"

"The old man stayed behind. He'll never come willingly to Jerritt," Marder answered.

"Then he will die," Dove said simply.

"Not that we have need of him." The other man shook his head. "He's old and filled with the old ways. Jerritt leads us now."

Denali, hands bound with rough cloth, spared me an impatient glance beneath lowering brows as they led him away. It was plainly written on his face that he found the plan to be less than rational. What sounded possible in Tandor's stone hut seemed far fetched in the dimly lit cave with Jerritt's Azueleans around us.

Marder and Dart accompanied Denali down the long corridor we escaped from the day before. As they turned a corner and disappeared from my sight, I hoped the plan would work. If it didn't, our escape wouldn't be as easy as it was when Jerritt wanted us to leave the mountain.

"This way." Dove's pale eyes made no secret of the fact that he despised me.

I walked past him as though he didn't exist.

But association with Jerritt and the half breed, Jewel, had changed his peaceful Azuelean nature. There was no humility to him. The basic shy good humor that marked the tribe was gone. Just as the experience hardened Dart, the other villagers would never be the same. Even if they managed to survive the ordeal.

"Wait here," Dove commanded, oblivious to my imperious manner that had impressed his comrades earlier.

He couldn't quite bring himself to touch me. He stopped short of enforcing his commands by physical means. No matter their devotion to Jerritt, nothing could change those basic instincts quite so quickly. I hid my pleased smile and stopped to look around me.

We'd walked into a circular room. It was shadowed and had a low ceiling. The roof was clear, showing the sky beyond. I reached to touch it.

"I wouldn't do that." The voice of Jewel's master stopped me. He walked into the room, his movements elegant and specific as he raised a cane to the skylight. Sparks struck from the cane where it met the roof then burned the tip to a cinder. "Crude but effective." He dusted his hands as he dropped the cane. "Just a little toy."

"A little overwhelming for Azuel," I added without being asked.

"And who should know better?" he asked, coming closer to me. "I read your account of being here. It was one of the things that brought me. Lights!"

A rainbow shower of soft lights defined the room. The opulence of it took my breath away. I'd have to deal with his implication that I helped him destroy the Azueleans later. From our brief meeting, I knew I'd need all my wits about me to deal with Jerritt.

"Are you still here?" he asked Dove.

"I thought you might want me to take her down--"

"I want you to go away." Jerritt used his long fingers to shoo the man.

I made a pretense of looking over the furnishings around me, in reality studying Jerritt as he spoke quietly with Dove. He was tall, dark as Denali, but subtly different. Where Denali was broad shouldered and strongly featured, Jerritt was slight and unbelievably pleasing to the eye.

That was a humanoid opinion, I realized, since there were many species I'd known that wouldn't have spared him a second glance. Personally, I'd seen few that were his equal. He was beautiful, almost ravishing to my senses.

I concentrated instead on the likeness between the two men. They were like two sides of the same coin. Denali emitted strength around him, confidence that bordered on the verge of calm. Jerritt was smooth, studied, a veneer of culture that was highly glossed.

In short, Denali was a man I immediately trusted and Jerritt, I immediately feared.

"Excuse me." He smiled, his dark eyes glittering brightly, taking in all of my appearance at once.

"Every God must have his problems."

I returned his smile, holding my head high. There was something more to the man than just a surface charm. Like tendrils, it reached out to me, trying to ensnare my senses. This is how his people enslaved Denali's. "I didn't know you were a God."

"Only recently." He shrugged his thin shoulders under the spun gold cloth that fluttered around him like many birds. "It's a wearisome duty at times."

"Why undertake it then?" I touched a corner of a rare Jappan table. Just being near the singing wood from that place made me feel less overwhelmed.

"The answer is obvious, Amelia. The quest. Your motto, I believe."

I felt his eyes on me, assessing what he could tell me, possibly what he should do with me. When he looked at me I felt breathless and lightheaded. It was all I could do to think coherently. I'd heard of races that could mesmerize with just their physical attributes but I'd never met one before.

"My quest is simpler than yours," I fenced, trying to keep my wits. "I never wanted to rule the universe."

He laughed, not a pleasant sound. "I've never aspired to that position. What an opinion he must have given you of me."

"He?" I wanted him to talk about Denali. His hand gracefully caressed my cheek. I bit my lip to keep from crying out in pleasure.

"It. I don't care what he calls himself. He is what he is. Just as I am."

"And what is that?"

"Stay with me," he coaxed. "Write my story as part of this adventure."

"I write about everything that happens to me," I answered, hating the little voice in my brain that was begging me to do whatever he asked. "You must know that."

"Let us begin! You need something to eat and a change of clothes. After all, I want to read about myself and think that I did what any good host would do."

He showed me into a small room adjacent to the larger circle chamber and closed the door. I heard him calling for dinner and knew that my time was limited. If I stayed with him much longer, I'd lose my ability to reason. I ground my teeth in frustration, but it was true. His charm flowed through me, quieting any part of my mind that wanted to protest. All I wanted to do was fall to the floor with him and enjoy whatever he gave me.

I focused on looking around the room to keep him out of my emotions. There were clothes everywhere. Closets overflowed with rich brocades, stunning silks and heavily jeweled organdies. It was like standing in a treasure chest, reminding me of pictures I'd seen of pirates' booty as a child.

"You're very lovely, Amelia." He stroked my arms and face. "Take off those filthy rags and dress like the queen you are!"

I didn't want to obey him but the direct command was impossible to ignore. I stripped off my clothes and stood before him naked, thrilled that he was looking at me with such longing in his eyes.

He took his time studying me before he handed me a pair of green silk trousers and a matching jacket that barely covered my breasts. "I'm sure you'll be stunning in these."

"Thank you," I spat out, trying to force myself to think. Damn Denali! He could've warned me about Jerritt's psi assault. I poured intensity into those feelings of anger until I almost felt normal again.

"I've been many places since I left my home world. But you impress me."

"And what about the females on your home world?" I hoped he wouldn't notice the strain I was under. My hands shook and a fine layer of sweat beaded on my brow. If I could keep him occupied with his ego, I stood a chance of getting away from him. If not...

"They're incomparable. But lifeless. We've trained them to be so. Still sad to be so bored with anyone. Will you eat with me?"

He traced small circles on my arm while he spoke and all of my efforts were for nothing. I swayed towards him and he put his arm around me. Feeling like the first course in the dinner, I walked beside him. Curse you, Denali! If I ever see you again, I'll kick you where it hurts!

Chapter Eleven

We sat at a small but richly appointed table. A small Azuelean brought us food then disappeared into the darkness around us.

"Have you been to Padda?" I asked as we began our first course. I made a large show of cutting the leafy vegetable into centimeter pieces, knowing food wouldn't pass down my throat. I was desperate for anything to take my mind off of his charismatic hold on me.

"No, I bypassed it when I came here." He waved his eating utensil like a sword. "The Azueleans were what I wanted. They've proved to be most helpful."

"You've ruined their culture," I said slowly. "They'll never be able to go back."

"They weren't happy as they were," he conjectured, "or they wouldn't have followed so easily."

"A God that can turn skies black and shake the world is a strong incentive." I didn't mention that it would be difficult for me to say no to him and I was much more sophisticated than the villagers.

"An apt impression. But they were necessary."

"To your quest?"

"Indeed." He lifted his glass of pale pink wine to me. "As I need you, Amelia."

I played with the wine in my glass, swirling it around the edge as I watched it in the light. The food looked appetizing but I knew that I couldn't trust it to be safe. "What do you want from me, Jerritt?" I put down my glass and dared to look him straight in the eye.

"Want?" He drank a bit of his wine. "I want you to be my chronicler. You're so vivid in your descriptions of your travels. I want to give you a story that your readers will never forget."

"And the story?"

"My own humble one," he explained. "I'm on a quest to free my people."

"The First of Kittimatt? I thought they were already free."

"That is a misperception," he replied smoothly. "My people are being held hostage by the Alliance and a group of mewling cretins. Once I have the emerid together, I intend to remedy that situation."

"And you want me to write about it?" I hid my sense of nausea by putting my glass to my lips. He was obviously putting a lot of thought into what he was saying. Or he was playing with me by letting me drift away from his psi control.

"Exactly. You already know so much of the adventure. Although I apologize for the way you were brought here, it's turned out well for both of us. You can accompany me on the last part of my quest."

"Finding the rest of the emerid and freeing your people?" While I had the ability to ask, I thought I might as well know the truth. Later, it might not be possible.

"I don't need to find the missing two pieces of the emerid. I know where they're located. Once I have it together, then you'll watch the final annihilation of my enemies." He got up from his chair and crossed behind me, putting his hands on my shoulders, his head bent close to mine. "Imagine! Finally something worthy of your talents, Amelia! With the emerid in my possession, the Alliance will be begging me to tell them my terms."

I could feel my control drifting away in the resonance of his voice and his nearness to me. It terrified me. I had to fight back. With my last ounce of self awareness, I tried another tactic. "For a few ice showers and a quake or two?" I managed to sound slightly scornful even though my whole being was flowing towards him. "It'll take more than that to impress the Alliance."

"Could it be that you don't realize the full power of the emerid?" he asked in a commanding tone as he lifted me to my feet by my shoulders.

He was tall. I had to look up into his face. He was so close I could make out the individual lines near his thin mouth as he laughed. His beautiful mouth that I yearned to kiss. I struggled to move away from him even as my arms were reaching out to hold him close. "I know very little about the emerid. How powerful is it?"

"Powerful enough." He drained his wine glass and picked me up like I was a child. "Enough talk. There are more important matters between us, I think. There are so many things I could teach you. So many ways you could please me."

His voice was like a pleasurable buzzing in my ear. I had never wanted anyone so much in my life. I wanted to weep for the desire that coursed through me. There was only one small chance to free myself. I had to make him angry. I had to assault the only thing greater than his encompassing charm...his ego. "The emerid belongs to the Unnamed Ones."

"The emerid belongs to me! I'm the only one who knows what it is and how to use it. As for those others, their plight has been over-exaggerated. They were born to serve and they will serve me, despite what the Alliance believes."

"The Alliance won't tolerate their slavery any longer. You and your kind are anachronisms."

"Then the Alliance will fall." He dropped me on a large gold pillow. His black eyes blazed down at me. "But I give you a choice I don't give others, Amelia. You can choose to write about my exploits or you can fall with them." He threw down the glass he held. It shattered on the rock floor beneath the jeweled thread carpet as he walked out of the room.

The bump from the fall went a long way towards clearing my hazy brain. Another moment and I wouldn't have been able to stop myself. His psi was powerful. No wonder the villagers served him with absolute obedience. When I was close to him, I only wanted to be closer still. He was all I desired. He was everything I could imagine a god to be.

But I knew he wasn't a god. The frail Azuelean cleaned up the glass from the carpet as I tried to untangle my thoughts. The ultimatum lay on the table before me like the cold remains of the dinner Jerritt graciously offered.

There was also a short, jewel-handled knife that gleamed in the light. I reached for it quickly and hid it in the sleeve of my jacket. Jerritt probably never worried about anyone using a weapon that required contact with him. I wasn't sure if I could use it if the moment came, but I wasn't willing to leave it behind.

The Azuelean on the floor didn't look up from her task. Without another wasted moment, I slipped from the room by its singular door and fled into the corridor beyond.

Dove faced me as I turned the corner. Surprise registered on his thin face as I used my momentum to advantage and careened directly into him. While he was dazed, I lashed out, knocking him into the rock wall. He slid slowly down to the floor and I jumped over him, running lightly down the long corridor.

It was not the Azueleans that I was worried about but Jewel. The small knife I'd taken wouldn't help me if I encountered the giant again. I had to find Denali and the pieces of the emerid. But with the twisted corridors, the task seemed hopeless. Dove said something about taking Denali down somewhere. But all the passageways I entered appeared to be on the same level.

I hid against the dark wall while a group of Azueleans passed, wondering if the alarm had already been sounded. I actually prayed that Jerritt wouldn't find me again in case he changed his mind and decided to take away my choice. The fear of death paled compared to the fear of waking up in twenty years to find him my master.

I passed a side exit into another cavern and stopped short. The huge cavern had been converted into another cell like the one Denali and I had been detained in. I stayed in the shadows looking for guards or monitors. Precious minutes passed but there was only the quiet speech of the inmates.

Stepping forward, I ran to the cell and a voice called my name. "It's me, Savrron! Have you forgotten me so soon?" The Azueleans in the cell gathered around the barred door.

The young boy that I recalled having that name had changed considerably. The eyes retained the same eager enthusiasm but they were in a man's face. Gone was the short, thin body. Savrron was tall for his race and leanly muscled.

"How can that be you?" I asked him as he pushed his way to the door. "Savrron was a little boy when I left here."

"And you've been gone a long time!" He smiled down at me. "What are you doing here?"

"I suppose the same thing you are."

"Jerritt!" He ground out the name and the Azueleans around him groaned and put their hands to their heads. "The God of Fear and Pain!"

"Quiet!" an old man counseled. "If he hears you, he'll kill you!"

"Not while I'm young and strong and can serve him!" Savrron remarked angrily.

Anger welled in me at the abuse Jerritt had heaped on these people. How many would remain after he'd gone? The young men like Savrron that he'd forced into labor and violation would never accept their lives with the same peace. How many Azueleans would return to Padda, to the lives their ancestors had given up so long before in hope of better ones? "Why aren't you with the others, Dove and Jewel?"

Savrron showed even, white teeth in a slow, cruel smile. "Jerritt is a god but his smile doesn't work on us. He knows we'll never serve him willingly. So he takes us in chains, beats us and starves us until we die."

"Jerritt is not a god," I told them all firmly. "Just a man."

There was a noise from the corridor. I shook my head at the Azueleans who'd gained in cunning as well. They all fell to the floor or sat where they were while I ran to the side of the cavern to hide in the shadows.

In the cover of darkness, I shivered in my thin silk outfit and wondered where they could be holding Denali. The plan wasn't working as we'd envisioned it. I had no weapon except the knife and no idea where the emerid was being kept. Denali and I were separated and I was wandering through the mountain looking for him. Jerritt was free to do whatever he desired, including killing Denali and escaping with the emerid.

Could we find a way to cut our losses and get the hell out of there? Emerid or not, Jerritt was sure to kill Denali after having his fun with him. And my life would be useless as well. We needed to go for help, to bring the Alliance back to Azuel and stop whatever Jerritt had in mind.

"Savrron!" Dart called in an urgent whisper.

Marder stood at the doorway, watching the corridor. I watched Dart pull an electronic key from her side pocket as the Azueleans crowded around the bars again.

"Dart! Marder!" I ran to them. "Have you seen where they're holding Denali?"

"The next cell up." Dart began to pull weapons and other paraphernalia from her jacket pockets.

"If he's still alive," Marder remarked quickly. "They were working him over when we left him there a while ago. There were too many guards for us to free him."

I saw Dart hug Savrron even as they were plotting where they might strike to hurt Jerritt the most. I grabbed a weapon from Marder and ran for the next cavern. The Azueleans had enough of their own problems.

But somehow during their self-imposed exile from Padda, despite their abject humility and ingrown fear, the Azueleans had become courageous. Their will was not to be thwarted. Some may have bowed to Jerritt's unbelievable charm but the others had held their own. I wished I knew how they did it. But if Jerritt had his way, they'd be fighting their own brothers and sisters to take back their world!

I crept to the edge of the darkened doorway. The light was so dim as to be almost nonexistent. There was no sound. I didn't dare move further into the cave yet there was no safety in remaining where I was in the passage. Was Denali still in the cavern where Marder and Dart saw him? There was only one way to find out. Not the way I would've liked but the only way that seemed possible.

Keeping to the darkness along the edge of the rocky wall, I clung to the side, wrapping myself in the blackness. My feet were frozen in their thin sandals but they were noiseless as well. There was no cell there as there was in the previous cavern. The empty space was intimidating. The blackness became more complete as I moved further into the abyss.

My eyes gradually became adjusted to the lack of light. I could keep from stumbling over the random rock jutting up from the floor only by moving with great care. Twice I followed dead end paths and had to retrace my way back. I went further until I began to believe Marder and Dart were wrong. There was no way Denali could be in all that darkness. If he was, he was lost somewhere in the mountain. I had to get help. I couldn't fight Jerritt and all of his people alone.

I started to turn back, carefully feeling my way along the wall. Then I heard it. Laughter. From somewhere in the deepest blackness, Jerritt was laughing.

"And so you thought you could stop me? That's incredible," I heard him say, following the abrupt sound of his laughter.

If there was a reply, it was too low for me to hear. Jerritt had to be with Denali. I put the weapon on stand-by and edged in closer, using the sound as a guide.

"He's not going anywhere," I heard Jewel advise Jerritt.

I froze, reluctant to take the chance that I could go in and find myself suddenly facing them. My two greatest threats made my legs feel like jelly. I was terrified.

"I'm going back to my lovely guest now," Jerritt said. I could almost hear the smile in his voice. "And you're going to die."

Jewel laughed. For an instant, I heard Denali's voice, a low snarl, in a language that I didn't understand. There was no base within its context that could indicate what race it belonged to, certainly no clear Alliance words. Yet it held an unmistakable familiarity that intrigued me.

Jerritt replied, his words less guttural but no less intense. Tension threaded their words despite Jerritt's calm denial of Denali's existence as a person.

In the blackness, a mere whisper of sound alerted me. An instant later, Jerritt passed by me. If I'd breathed or turned my head, he would've known I was there beside him. A trace of his gold robe brushed my arm and I felt a shiver race my spine but didn't move.

"You think you're tough," Jewel was saying. "You think you can take me."

"We'll never know," Denali replied calmly, "as long as I'm chained to this wall."

"I could kill you even if I was chained to the wall." Jewel laughed again. "You're as weak as Tandor."

"And you talk too much." Denali laughed back at him. "You might be able to talk me to death."

There was a sickening thud of something slamming into a body. One of the two men made a gurgling noise, a sound like choking. Without another thought, I rushed into the dimly lit area.

There was only a small light source. It showed the two men wrapped around each other. From my angle of approach, it was hard to tell who had who, although Denali's wrists were chained to the wall behind him. It was also clear where Jewel stood, his head exposed and vulnerable.

I hit hard with my weapon, watching as he dropped slowly to the floor.

"It's about time," Denali remarked.

"It wasn't easy to get away." I got the lock device from Jewel's clothes to free Denali.

His eyes swept my silk pants and jacket with a thinly veiled contempt. "So I can see."

"It was a bad plan." I shrugged, releasing him. "Why didn't you tell me about Jerritt's psi abilities?"

"For some of us," he stretched his limbs and touched his lacerated face, "his power means nothing. I wasn't sure how or if it would affect you. Did you find the emerid?"

"Not exactly." I handed him Jewel's weapon from the floor. "He wanted me to write his life story. He was very persuasive. It was all I could do to get out of there. I came to find you."

He took the weapon, dark eyes glittering on my face. "I'm glad you were able to get away. If his influence affected you, I know it was difficult."

"It felt like my brain was being squeezed out of my head. Next time, tell me that something like that is possible. That way, I can be prepared."

Unexpectedly, he swept me into his arms and kissed me until my toes started wiggling. "Next time," his eyes swept from my head to my feet, "we trade jobs." He started through the blackness ahead of me.

"That's fine with me," I told him, pretending that the kiss didn't affect me either. What was it with the men from Kittimatt? "I'd rather be chained to a wall and beaten than cozying up to Jerritt."

"You look better in green than I would," he said as we crossed quickly into the corridor.

"But I probably look better chained to a wall too," I went him one better. "Where are we going?"

"To find the emerid."

The Azueleans were fighting each other in the corridors. It was a pathetic form of fighting in most cases. The larger ones faced off against the smaller ones and the smaller ones lay down and begged for mercy. There were a few truly angry contestants that actually struck one another but it was mainly chaotic. They shouted at one another and jabbed sticks threateningly. But their hearts weren't in it without Jerritt's commanding presence.

"Where was Jerritt?" Denali turned his head to look at me.

"Down there." I pointed to the passage that led to the circular room.

We ran down the corridor, passing the small Azuelean that had cleaned up after Jerritt. But he was gone. The chamber was empty. Marder and Dart, followed by Savrron and a large united group of Azueleans, were just behind us.

"He's cheated us!" Dart kicked aside a small glass pyramid near the center of the room.

"He's gone to the ship," Savrron told her, already turning on his heel to run. The Azueleans followed him, brandishing their sticks as if they were swords.

Denali shrugged then followed the wild pack heading for Jerritt's ship.

I stayed behind in Jerritt's chamber, hoping to search through his things and find something useful. What did he say? The Alliance had to be stopped? I looked through piles of papers, books, vid documents.

Jerritt's quarrel with the Alliance seemed to be centered on the trade agreement the government was trying to place on Kittimatt. It would mean the end of the Rissan slaves and quite possibly, the end of life as the privileged few had known it.

It was unusual for the Alliance to interfere in the normal processes of a world's inner workings. But the cry had been so loud and continuous from some of the larger delegations that the Alliance finally yielded. It helped that the Rians pushed hard. They were joined by Echo in their protests.

The psi-deadly Rissan seeped into the mainstream of all worlds in the Alliance but with no greater accuracy than on Ria, the world of telepaths. The Alliance trade policy demanded that Rissan not be used to destroy the psi abilities of the Unnamed Ones. It assured the Rians that no more Rissan would be created as well as freeing half a world.

Jerritt wasn't the only one of the First of Kittimatt that argued with that policy. But was he the only one willing to go so far to protect his way of life? Or was he being aided by other rebels?

In a roughly torn piece of newspaper, I found a picture of myself. The hologram from the Telfa paper. It was worn and dirty but there was no mistaking it. Beside it was another piece of newsprint that I smoothed into place.

"He's gone," Denali said flatly as he joined me in the chamber. "He and Jewel. And the emerid."

"I think I found something." I tried to restore the paper.

"He's a fan of yours, Amelia." He picked up three of my books with tattered edges and worn bindings.

"I told you. He wanted me to write a book for him. And I think I know what the story would've been."

"What's that?"

"I think it's Jerritt's master plan. There's an Alliance trade meeting three days from now on Ria. A delegation from Kittimatt will be there, as well as high ranking Echo and Alliance officials."

"They plan to sign the agreement to stop production of Rissan?"

"That's what it looks like to me."

"Unless Jerritt gets there first."

"Unless Jerritt gets there first with the emerid," I concluded.

"He couldn't find it in time," he answered confidently. "It took me weeks to locate the second piece."

"He told me that he already knows where the pieces are," I told him, putting the paper down on the cluttered table.

"I don't believe it! If he knew, he would've already had them together."

"We can't take that chance." I shook my head. "We have to get to Padda and inform someone."

"There's a shuttle in the transport area. I know someone who might listen."

* * *

Tandor and Savrron, his arm around Dart who held a weapon in one hand, waited in the transport dock.

"You were expecting us," I guessed.

Tandor nodded. "I knew that you would have to go. You must do what you can to stop him."

"That's true. Though I'd rather stay here and help you plant a new garden, my friend."

"You'll come back for the harvest," he predicted. "I always knew it would be so."

"Good luck to you, Tandor. You have many hard days before you, I fear."

"Perhaps." He smiled in his sad way, his pale eyes lightly touching my face. "But change is inevitable, Amelia Gallant. And what follows, though not what we expected, is always for the best."

He turned to Denali. "And you, my friend. I thank you for your service."

Denali glanced at me then back at Tandor. "There wasn't much I could do."

"You showed my people that Jerritt wasn't a god after all. I thank you for that."

"My pleasure." He smiled. "I, too, would like to return to see the flowers of the seeds that have been planted."

"You're always welcome. Good fortune to you, my friend."

Denali and I quickly boarded the shuttle and I noticed that it was the only transport. Would Tandor be able to keep all his people on Azuel after all they'd heard and seen? There was no clambering for a ride to Padda. But would those that favored Jerritt and done his dirty work be content digging in their gardens and carving their stone? Only time would tell.

The shuttle was old and held together with wire and ancient transistors. It was a slow ride down to Padda. I tried the com but there was no response.

Denali piloted the craft's temperamental controls as carefully as a Zyrobian sand snake handler. "See if you can raise permission to dock. Going in like this makes me nervous."

"If this were Lunden, we'd already be surrounded by enforcement," I replied. "Padda must be very liberal."

"Probably not that liberal."

I tried the com again but there was only static. In the vain hope that someone could hear us anyway, I gave our coordinates and the ship number, asking permission to dock. "Nothing." I sighed and sat back from the panel. We were already within sight of the docking area.

"I guess we're going in," he said, starting the landing process.

"They haven't shot us down yet." I shrugged. "I feel lucky. How about you?"

"I feel like I need a shower, clean clothes and a decent dinner." He laughed. "I'd settle for Jerritt's neck in my hands after that."

"You have a long way to go before you can match his style," I retorted. "He wanted to have you for dinner."

"Only after you were the hors d'oeuvres," he assured me.

The landing gear engaged and he looked back at me, shock and anger in his lean face. "What is it?" I wondered if something happened to him that I couldn't see.

"Amelia, dinner may be a while after all. "

"I was only joking, Denali! I-"

"Stand by," an exaggerated voice boomed as it became painfully audible through the shuttle's door. "You will surrender yourselves to the Imperial Government of Padda."

"I can show them that the com doesn't work," I assured him. "They'll get over it."

Denali turned his head as the door was demolished from the outside. A host of troopers, faces shielded and weapons at ready, stood in the doorway. "I don't think they want to hear it." He slowly raised his hands into the air.

"Now just wait a minute!" I started to stand up from my chair. "We haven't done anything--" A short, fast raze of the floor near my feet convinced me that Denali was right. I sat back down and raised my hands.

"Clean clothes, dinner and a shower," he mused as they placed electric cuffs around his wrists. "I think that about sums it up."

"And paid for by Padda," I answered as they cuffed me as well. For the life of me, I couldn't recall the com number for Max's lawyer.

Chapter Twelve

We were arrested for terrorism and crimes against the Alliance. The shuttle was registered to the freighter that was destroyed by Jerritt. When the Paddan transport authorities heard us on the com approaching their world, they brought in their crack troops to bring us to justice.

We were separated and confined in small cells. I received my shower and clean clothes. I hoped Denali did too. My white uniform was loose and tasteless, matching the dinner that followed, a plate full of protein substitute and a gray-green drink to wash it down.

The cell I was allotted was big enough to stand up or lie down, not really enough room to move freely. I looked at the bed rolled up on the floor, at the low ceiling with its monitored lighting system. Then I sat back and let the wings of justice fly down their long transport dock.

The first few hours weren't so bad. I was exhausted and even the thin, scrupulously clean mattress was a haven. There were no quakes, no frozen rain or the possibility of a weapon being drawn on me. I slept through the next meal time, thankfully, then through to the next day.

After that, the time began to drag. How long could it take to identify Denali and me? We were both known by the Alliance and not easily confused with terrorists. I would've paced but there was no room. At least no one was beating me or trying to play mind games with me. I was clean and comfortable. Bored, but safe.

Another meal came. Protein sub with gray-green liquid. I tried to talk with the guard but was thoroughly snubbed. He was either well-trained or hard of hearing. To make the time go by faster, I used my wrist recorder to recall a few notes about Jerritt and my time on Azuel.

When it came to my description of Denali, I paused. So many impressions crowded into my mind. He'd made an impact on my life in a very short time. My mind kept wandering back to that quick kiss. Why did he do it? Even more interesting, why, afterwards, did he act like it didn't happen?

I really knew very little about him despite our time together. That puzzled me. Usually, I knew everything there was to know about a person in the first few minutes after we met. Denali was different. It was as though he let me know what he wanted me to know and nothing more. I considered what he'd told me and realized that there was much more that he'd left out.

It appeared to me that there was more between Jerritt and Denali than just being from opposite backgrounds, slave and master. There was something more personal that I could sense but not verify. And the emerid was another piece of the mystery that didn't fit into place. That the weapon existed was hard to believe. That it existed and no one else knew about it but a select group of inhabitants from a single world was even harder to swallow. Denali was right. It would be difficult to convince anyone of the danger.

I pushed at the recorder to turn it off and leaned my head back against the wall, sitting on my mat. At least a day had passed. There was very little time left to warn the Alliance of the possible threat waiting for them on Ria. How much longer could it take to process our identities?

Just after I finished another meal of protein substitute and declined to drink the gray-green liquid, a small group of Paddans descended on me. There was the official apology, offered and accepted. The door was opened and a young Paddan representative, talking constantly, led me to a street rover.

Her name, she told me, was Athina. She was the quintessential Paddan beauty. Small, very white face, large pale eyes, silky dark hair. She was charming, of course, helpful to the point of fawning on me. I listened to her prattle and nodded silently, wondering how it was possible the Azueleans could be related to the Paddans.

It had been more than a hundred years since the two groups separated. No one still living could remember when the group of Paddans left their world for the small moon with its blue water and soil. Their separation worked well for them through the years. Kittimatt had something to learn from the other members of the Alliance.

We drove to a shiny new hotel, elegant beyond what most worlds could offer. After all, this was Padda. Elegance and luxury were the touchstones of their lives.

"We want you to feel at home here. Eat what you want. Buy some new clothes. We'll take care of anything you desire. Companionship is available, if you wish it," my hostess told me sweetly.

The hotel lobby was ultra modern. Living metallic plants from Tiera waved their fanlike leaves, shining in the artificial sunlight. Hundreds of people from everywhere in the Alliance moved back and forth through the lobby around us. Most were well dressed, carefully groomed. No expense was spared on their scents or their hair. Unlike the bazaar-like atmosphere of Telfa Base, the mood of Padda was sophisticated and aloof.

We took the elevator to the 130th floor. Vivid hotel amenities were screened around us as we traveled. Perfume wafted up to us and light warm mist touched my face.

"I'm looking for a man--"

"Of course," she replied smoothly.

"No." I smiled. She wanted me to be happy so badly. "I'm looking for a certain man. He was arrested with me on the shuttle."

"Oh." She blushed to the roots of her black hair. "Denali!"

"Yes," I mimicked. "Denali. Do you know where he is? Has he been released as well?"

"He was released last night. He's here in the hotel."

Last night? The elevator came to a slow stop and a soft voice welcomed us to the 130th floor. "He was released last night?" I was getting angry. "Why wasn't I released last night?"

"It took longer to verify your identity." She smiled and waved her hand, indicating that I should go out into the hall.

The ceiling was a moving mural that depicted some of the Paddan mythology. Thunderbolts and magic rainbows chased each other across the ceiling.

"Where is he?" I tried to keep the conversation polite. Why didn't Denali verify my identity when he was released?

"You'll be able to contact him via the inner room com unit in your suite, if you wish." She passed her hand in front of a door and it opened into a green and black forest decor.

Compared to the metallic motif of the hotel common areas, it was vibrant. In comparison to my mood at that moment, it was dreadful.

"Do you wish to contact Denali?" Athina asked as she made certain that the sunflowers were in place and the sweet berries were in a cute basket on the table.

"No, that's all right." I smiled, hating myself for what I was thinking but not knowing how to stop. "You did say you could get me anything I desired?" I prowled the brilliant room restlessly.

"That's right," she responded, happy that she could be of service.

"Chocolate," I replied, grinning as her smile faded. "I'd like a piece of real chocolate."

"Oh, well, uh--"

"Isn't that possible?"

"Of course," she answered a little more securely. "We can get that for you. I'll just find someone who can help."

"Thanks. I think I'll take a long bath and change clothes now."

"Good!" she enthused. "I'll check on you later. Anything you need--"

"Just chocolate."

Her smile wavered. "Of course."

There was no way, of course. Earth kept strict control of their most valuable export. It was often copied but never really duplicated. Padda was nearly as far from Earth as it was possible to be. The farthest I'd been and sampled real Terran chocolate was Land's End. Even Telfa couldn't get more than a sample or two in a year.

But there was the bath. I didn't really need chocolate. That had been just to annoy my sweet hostess. But the long, deep tub, green as spring, warmed by the artificial sunlight, that was heaven.

I instructed the suite computer about the temperature of the water. "A little light rain, Alda lily scent. Maybe a misty rainbow." My requests were carried out at once. The room became dimly shadowed with the sound of light rain. A rainbow, just barely visible in the mist, stretched from across the ceiling.

I threw the white prison clothes to the floor and slipped into the water. Small sonic jets pulsed through the water, easing some of the hurt from me. I laid back and closed my eyes, all but my face covered by the green scented water. Alda lilies replicated around me on the tub side and a small puff of breeze completed the fantasy.

I had been angry. I became ambivalent. At that moment, I didn't care if the entire Alliance fell.

"You look comfortable," he said, sitting on the edge of the tub, his leg very near my head. "I'd join you, but I hate lilies."

"Good. Go away." I didn't open my eyes but my pulse doubled.

"You might be interested to know that the Alliance meets tomorrow on Ria to discuss the coming trade agreements with Kittimatt and the rest of the Streng sector."

I opened my eyes. "Did you warn them?"

He moved quickly, his face very near my own. "You have the most fascinating eyes."

"What?"

"Your eyes. They aren't really green or blue but something between. And they dance with light."

I admit I was disconcerted. Only momentarily. "You left me in that cell over night."

"Not me." He broke the eye contact between us. "Your publisher. He was trying to get some press from it."

"What?" Was I becoming repetitive?

"He arranged to have some press cover the whole thing. I would've had you out last night as soon as I was free."

Max! It wasn't the first time. "What about the warning?" I decided to go on. I'd deal with Max Stein later.

"I tried. They weren't buying. There's no such weapon. The delegation from Kittimatt denies that anything of that sort ever came from their world."

"We have to go to Ria!" I sat up in the tub. The rainbow, mist and lilies vanished with my words. I sank back down as I realized where Denali's eyes were focused.

"The only thing leaving Padda in the next three hours is a mining scout ship."

"How long?"

"Twenty minutes."

"I can be there."

He smiled as the door opened at his approach. "Meet you there."

"Call coming through on the com for you," an electronic, honeyed voice alerted me.

"Amy! It's good to see you! How are you?"

Max! Damn! "Mad." I stepped from the tub and tiny air vents began to blow me dry.

"I know. But I got you some great coverage. Say just a few words to them as you leave. I've sent my shuttle for you."

"No!"

"Don't be stubborn, Amy," Max hided. He regarded me slyly. "Tell me, is the box of Khun somewhere on Azuel? Or Padda?"

"Something's come up, Max," I told him. "I'm not looking for the box anymore. At least not right now."

"Where's Jean?"

"Haven't you found her yet? She escaped from the freighter before I did."

"We picked her up a few days ago," Max informed me tersely. "I was just wondering if you had any idea what I've gone through."

"And Selph?" I questioned quickly.

"It's on its way to your sister. And your new assistant is on her way out to you on my shuttle. Amy, you need someone to take notes. Where are you going on this story?"

"Max, I have this in hand." I was impatient with him taking over the conversation and my life, as usual. And I wasn't sure if Denali would wait for me.

He straightened his pristine white shirt, his eyes piercing even through the distance. "Wait with the shuttle. You look like hell. Your book is almost ready and I need you on Quella to launch the promo. I'll talk to you later."

The com went dead. I stood and looked at it for a moment while the air jets slowly died away. By my own count, there was less than ten minutes until the mining scouter left the transport area.

Max was never wrong about reporters. If I left the hotel, they'd never let me go until well after that ten minutes. Denali would be gone with or without me. Why he'd waited that long was another mystery I intended to unravel. But first I had to find a way out of the hotel.

It took me two minutes to find a pair of black, loose fitting fibrous pants and a matching blouse. The pants were tight at the wrists and ankles and the blouse's neck became a head scarf that wound around covering all but my face. It was Paddan exercise wrap. There would be hundreds of other guests wearing them as they worked out in the hotel. I pulled on a huge flowered sun hat that covered most of my face with heavy, exotic blossoms and pushed black running shoes on my feet.

I had five minutes to get out of the hotel and reach the transport dock. I took the express elevator, even though I hated the ride. The hotel lobby had been altered while I bathed and dressed. The metallic bonding fabrics in their multi-hued tones were shifted to the fresh greens of my suite.

Underfoot as I ran, the floor moved subtly in fascinating cloud shapes. Blue became iridescent green, glittered fragments of light zigzagging like lightning across the floor.

Max was right. On the hotel motor path, a few groups of reporters with holo-cams and recorders waited impatiently for my appearance. With a smile, I ran right by them. Max was good at his job, I had to give him that. If he just let me do mine, we'd be happy together.

The motor path was too slow for my purpose. I ran across the traffic lines, the covered shuttles whistling by me. The hotel was on the line for the transport dock, providing immediate access to travelers. But they were travelers with more time than I had to catch a flight out of Padda's queen city.

It occurred to me that I might not make it. Even as I reached the transport dock, there were several shuttles leaving, several more arriving. It was almost impossible to see or hear in the chaos. The front of the dock was devoted to tourist travel, the rear the more seedy commercial travel. Highly polished, well maintained metal was replaced by darker, older freighters and mining ships. Pilots scurried to find missing parts, yelling over the noise and smoke.

I stopped dead when I reached the commercial area. How could I possibly know where to find the mining scouter? There was no order, no supervised access except in the Paddan control area that wasn't located in the dock area at all. With less than a minute to go, a hand reached out. Instinctively, I grabbed for the wrist and stepped back.

"Ready?" Denali asked, looking down at me as I held his wrist just above my head.

I released my hold. "Are you sure a mining scow is the best we can do?"

"I admit you're overdressed." He flicked a finger at the flowered hat. "And you've been through a lot. If you don't think you can make it--"

"Do you think we can get access to a com link?" I ignored him impatiently. There might still be a chance to warn the delegation before we reached Ria.

"Maybe for a few minutes just after we leave the planet," he answered positively. "I already spoke to the captain."

"Then let's go." I tossed the hat into a trash receptacle. "What's keeping you?"

"Right this way." He smiled. "Your scow awaits."

Chapter Thirteen

Even for a mining scow, it was badly maintained. It was barely able to make liftoff and smelled like long-dead rodents. Something green floated on the top of the water the captain gave us as we climbed aboard. I'd seen better ships that were waiting to be hauled to the scrap heap.

The first mate, clearly under the influence of some drug, smiled and brokenly told me that I was clear to use the com link. He had a designer eye that was gold-flecked with green gemstones. A useful body part, if the need arose. It could be used to take the place of a damaged eye or traded for merchandise at some point. I knew on some worlds, it was all the rage to sell a healthy eye and replace it with a designer replica. Not for me. But I thought Denali looked as though he might be interested.

I called Echo first to see if there was any useful information I could glean from my sources there. Nothing was out of the ordinary as far as they were concerned. Their delegation had arrived on Ria the day before and was ready for the trade meetings. There was no mention of the emerid or any warning of danger.

On a hunch, I called the delegation at Ria. They were meeting in the capital city of Turia. The face that was slightly fuzzy on the screen before me was instantly and painfully familiar.

"Amelia Gallant." Agent Kalatri Astri identified me as well. His expression was less than pleased. "What can I do for you?"

"You're the head of the Echo delegation?" I hoped that I was referred to the wrong person.

"Indeed. Is there a problem?" His eyes were intent and probing even at the distance that separated us.

"Is Lt. Klarke there with you by any chance?"

"She is." He nodded. "What-"

"If you could get her so I could speak to both of you," I requested. The signal broke up for an instant then settled. "And please hurry."

For a moment, I didn't think he'd comply; then he glanced over his shoulder and Gael Klarke joined him at the com. "Amelia Gallant! I was just reading about you this morning! Are you still on Padda?"

"I'm leaving now," I told her with a smile. "I have something to tell you that may seem incredible but it's true and I think it could be important."

She glanced at her Echo counterpart. "We're listening."

I told them the story straight and short, not embellishing or prolonging. I knew my time was limited. Already the mate was giving me sour looks through the dirty glass wall.

"Are you saying the delegation from Kittimatt is carrying this weapon...the emerid?" Agent Astri demanded.

"No. I'm saying that an inhabitant from Kittimatt, a renegade, is planning on destroying whatever he can of Ria and all the delegates. He doesn't want the trade agreements to pass. He likes things the way they are. He may represent a group of diehards. I don't know. But when he reaches Ria, he'll have the emerid."

"What does the emerid look like?" Lt. Klarke asked.

"It looks like an artifact from some ancient religion. I've seen a partial face in a gold-like base. There are works in it rather like a clock, wheels and cogs of some sort. It comes in four pieces."

"And the man?" Agent Astri required.

"Tall, thin, very elegant. Dark skinned, black hair and eyes. He may be traveling with a taller than average Azuelean."

"We'll send this around." Lt. Klarke nodded. "Where are you headed?"

"To Ria." I could tell they were surprised. I couldn't tell them about Denali and settled for a muttered explanation of wanting to see the whole thing through. They seemed satisfied with my reasoning, although Agent Astri seemed skeptical. "That's all the time I have."

"You got that right," the mate advised me, taking control again of his com link.

"Thanks." I was careful not to touch him. How could anyone get that dirty?

"Did you reach them?" Denali asked when I returned to our designated space.

It was a small storage room, about the size of a closet, with two rough seats bolted to the outer hull. If the ship began to come apart, we'd be the first to go.

"Yes. But I'm not sure they believed me. It sounds a little far fetched. Even to me."

I took my seat, noting that Denali had made a rough table out of a few crates. He was shuffling a deck of worn playing cards while something that looked uncomfortably like food rested beside him.

"What is that?" I pushed at it and thankfully it didn't push back.

"Dinner." He turned his head to glance at me. "Courtesy of our hosts. I suggest you eat up. It may have to last you a while."

"I've eaten about all the crap I'm going to for now." I pushed it away with a shudder. It wasn't even a color or a form I recognized.

"You should've waited for your publisher to send his shuttle." He shuffled the cards through his long, lean fingers. "He probably has a chef on board that could cater to your every need."

I unwound the tight black scarf from my head and neck and let the material hang down my back. I pushed at my hair so that it wouldn't be flat from the scarf and wished I had a mirror. Basically, I ignored him.

"Is that your normal hair color?"

I looked up to find him staring at me in that strangely compelling way again. Self consciously, I ran my hand through my unruly red hair. "It's not unusual for the people on Lunden," I told him, defensively. "We were colonized by Terrans."

He nodded. "I've seen a few Terrans with hair like that. Although the place where Ruth Streng came from, everyone looks like me."

"Is everyone dark on Kittimatt?" I sat forward as he dealt me a few cards.

"Yes. And before you ask any further, yes. The First are all like Jerritt. Tall, finely boned. And we are all the same. Bred for working hard and long our whole lives. The women to bear many children who'll work for them when their parents are dead."

"Why didn't you stay?" I picked up my cards without looking at him.

"Poker." He related with a nod. "Land's End rules. One of the finest of all Earth's traditions. Why didn't I stay?"

"Beyond the obvious. There aren't many of your people away from Kittimatt."

"You've noticed."

I looked at my five cards. Nothing matched.

"Because I couldn't wait any longer for the savior. Because I saw a chance to be free of everything and I took it." His tone was light but there was a brilliant intensity to his eyes as he spoke.

"Savior?"

"My people have a belief that one day a man will come to our world and free the Unnamed Ones. He'll know our name from generations past and he'll use the emerid against our enemies. Is that all you've got?"

"Did you learn to deal on Land's End?" I grimaced, folding my hand. "What are we playing for?"

"What've you got?" He looked at me, his black eyes amusing themselves on my face.

I took off my bracelet, or what was left of it, from the last game of poker I played on Quella.

"Clever!" he enthused when he saw the five remaining coins. "Baskaan coin currency."

"Since the Alliance made it illegal to gamble with their tender." I shrugged. "What about you?"

He pulled off his belt and I saw that it was studded with silver rods from Koren. "Will that do?"

"Too much time in transit," I noted with a wry smile.

"Way too much," he agreed. "Let's call that last hand a prelim."

"The savior?" I reminded him as he began to shuffle.

"Oh yes. Relethune." He said the name in his own language. "He's the most powerful psi in the universe and he's descended from us. That's how he knows the name of our people and the use of the emerid."

"So the Unnamed Ones have a name?"

"Yes. But it's never spoken. The First designated it that way. Speaking it is punishable by death. We have no homes but what they give us, no names but what they allow. No religion, no purpose but to serve them."

"But your people remember a time when it wasn't like that." I looked at my cards rather than the enigmatic man across from me. He'd dealt me nothing again.

"Only from stories. We've been enslaved too long for anyone to recall it personally. The process of using Rissan to destroy psi in my people began at least 500 years ago. Cards?"

I took two, not wanting to seem greedy or desperate. Neither was much help. Denali had the perfect poker face, those dark eyes giving nothing away.

"So the First have psi and that remarkable gift of charm." I folded, much to my chagrin, because Denali had less than me. He took my gold coin with a slight smile. "What about your people?"

"We aren't gifted with the ability to turn a mind, as they call it. We may have once been that way. Some of us still possess some psi talents even after the centuries of Rissan. We could use the emerid if we could get our hands on it."

"So the savior would come and destroy the First with the emerid and free your people." I noticed that he used the words some of us. Evidently, he still had some psi talent. I picked up my cards again. Three kings. Hmm. "But you weren't willing to wait."

"I don't believe in saviors or pretty stories that make children feel better about their lives. When Commander Streng came to Kittimatt, I took advantage of it and left my world. I have no intention of ever going back."

"But couldn't you help now? I mean, lead a revolution or something," I looked at him over the cards.

"I am no man's slave." His eyes met mine with a look that said he'd be dead before he'd return.

"Three kings." I laid them down. "I'll take my coin back."

"Three aces." He smiled. "Somehow, I thought you'd be better."

"I think you cheat," I told him, handing him another coin.

"You could be right," he agreed. "Maybe you should learn."

I thought I already knew how. I was wondering if Denali was using his latent psi against me when a crewman showed up at our door and asked if he could join the game. I was down to my last coin and glad to see him. He brought a small flask of Fargan rum as his stake and we shared it equally.

Then as Denali continued to beat me, I beat the crewman. I bought two of my coins back from Denali with the crewman's currency. That was enough punishment for the man. He reported back to his duties.

"What about you?" Denali asked when we were alone again. He sipped at his cup of rum but I could feel his eyes on my face as I shuffled the cards. "You've heard my tale. What's your story?"

"I am what you see," I said, perhaps too brightly.

"Not exactly," he retorted. "If you were, you'd be on Quella right now at a press conference with your new book."

"My book will do just as well with or without me." I dealt the cards. "I'm working on a new book."

"I've given you plenty to write about. Will you use me in your story, Amelia?"

"I told you I wouldn't mention your identity and I won't. People just like to read about where I've been and what I've seen. The particulars aren't always important. Cards?"

"One." He flipped one down on the crate. "So you aren't really an author who travels to write but a traveler who writes to live."

"That's one way to put it," I agreed. Two queens regarded me serenely and I took another card. It was a king.

"And Max Stein wants you to be the other way around?"

"Desperately."

"He seems a little young for that line of work."

"He was a millionaire at twelve." I called his bet, sure that he was bluffing.

"And he fell in love with you during his puberty?" he asked, laying down three kings.

"What?"

"Max Stein," he reiterated, taking another one of my gold coins. "I talked to him while you were still in jail. The young man is hopelessly infatuated with you. But you seem to have that affect on men."

"He was just showing off." I was taken aback by his revelation. And his winning streak.

"He warned me to back off in no uncertain terms. Even threatened me with financial ruin if I didn't leave you alone."

I stared across the crates at him, not shuffling the cards in my hand. He couldn't be right. Max Stein didn't care about anyone but himself. All that mattered was the money my books made for him. I was just another investment.

"I can see you're distracted." He sat back from the crates. "I'll take pity on you and call the game for now."

"Of course. You're winning," I reflected, handing him his cards.

"That's coincidental." He finished his rum. He settled back in his chair and closed his eyes. "I'm going to get some sleep."

"Denali?"

"Hmm?" he responded without opening his eyes.

"What can the emerid really do? When it's all together, I mean."

"In my language, emerid means hope. Rissan, despair. The emerid was created to bring life to my people. It consists of four parts signifying the four elements. When it's put together, it destroys anything alive in favor of its own creation."

"It would destroy everything, everyone on Ria?"

"Yes."

"Has it ever been used?"

"Only once, long ago, according to our myths." He opened his eyes and looked at me. "We destroyed the world and the people that were there before Kittimatt. We did it to live on that world ourselves."

"But you don't know that for sure."

He shrugged and closed his eyes again. "The proof seems to be that the device exists. I never believed it until Jerritt started to piece it together."

"But even Jerritt believes in the old myths," I reminded him.

"Ice and quakes, Amelia. In places where they don't belong. The two missing pieces are fire and air. Volcanoes, maybe. Windstorms. The total annihilation of the planet Ria and her people. The emerid must be destroyed."

"What about your people?"

"They need to grow out of their myths and fears. It's time to stand up and fight the First with their minds and bodies. Destroy the Rissan and the emerid and get on with their lives."

"The trade agreement could help."

"No," he disagreed. "We need the Alliance to fight for us. We're strong. We can fight the First and win."

"They need people like you, Denali, who've seen another part of life," I said carefully. "I know you don't want to go back but--"

"We'll be at Ria soon," he cut me short. "Let it be, Amelia. You don't know."

So I let him sleep even though my long hours in jail kept me from doing the same. I had a strong feeling that the time would come when he'd have no choice but to return to Kittimatt. The impression of him being there, on a world I'd never seen, made me shiver.

And in my mind, I heard Regheyr laughing, as he had on Quella. For once it made me wish that I was home.

Chapter Fourteen

I was more than ready to see the back of the mining scouter when we finally reached Ria's largest space dock.

Denali had been totally uncommunicative for hours. There was a dark, brooding look to his face that didn't invite conversation. He opened his eyes when the mate announced that we'd entered Rian space but he didn't move.

I was at the port window near the door, anxious to be off the vessel. Anxious to see the entire episode brought to a close. I knew from past experience that no vessel approached the planet directly. Huge, artificial platforms were set in place around Ria. Freighters and passenger ships docked and were cleared there.

A plague nearly destroyed Ria some years before. It taught them a costly lesson. Afterwards, all vessels, cargo and passengers were cleared long before they reached the planet's surface. Then everything and everyone was transported to the planet in bright, clean shuttles.

"It's almost impossible to get down there without receiving clearance," I said as Denali and I stood in the space dock looking down on the green face of Ria.

"But Jerritt is here and he's not registered," Denali reminded me. "He found a way."

I grimaced, knowing he was right. I saw two men in a darker corner of the station. They looked out of place in the shining silver surroundings with the soft music and the white lights.

"There might be a way." I moved towards the pair. "Follow my lead."

"I'm with you."

I glanced nervously around the crowded station. Uniforms of every color and style from all over the Alliance flooded the area. It was a nightmare for someone with no papers but possibly a gold mine for anyone who knew how to get around the problem.

"What are we going to do?" I whispered loudly enough for the men behind us to hear.

I don't know what I expected Denali to say. Probably nothing since that was what my companions would normally have done.

Instead, he slipped an arm around my waist and hugged me close. "Don't worry, honey. We'll get down there. Maybe we could use a fake name and they won't know who we are."

I looked at him in astonishment. The black eyes glittered down at me. I faltered, not knowing what to say.

"It'll be all right. They won't find out," he assured me. "All we need is a way down."

"Excuse me," a thin, high voice interrupted. "I am sorry if I intrude."

Denali smiled briefly then released me. I was still too stunned to speak. I felt as though I'd been bested at one of my favorite games.

"Yes?" I managed, sounding convincingly uncertain.

"I am Corbal. I may be able to offer you assistance." The little man smiled, showing even white teeth. "For a reasonable fee, of course."

"What can you do?" Denali asked, wide eyed. He was, it seemed, very adept at subterfuge.

"I have a craft, my brother and I." He glanced towards the other man. "We know a way to elude the authorization clearance. We can get you to Ria."

"But," Denali played it beautifully. I was awe inspired, "what would it cost us? We don't have much."

Corbal waved his hand. "It will not be more than what you possess, my friend. Now, if you want to go down, we had best go before we garner any attention."

We agreed and quickly followed Corbal out a door, past the well-lit loading areas. Obviously the price wasn't named because it would cost whatever we had to make safe passage. If we could make it safely to the planet. Not only were the brothers illegally transporting people, it was a good bet they were stealing whatever they could from their victims.

Their shuttle was small and dirty. It was hidden from sight at the back of the station. Not surprisingly, there were several more like it. The meticulous Rians would be surprised by their trade. Preventing access to the planet without authorization was their prime directive. I couldn't imagine what the penalty would be for the crime but it would be awesome. It was astonishing to me that any activity of that sort could succeed. But where there was money to be made in the Alliance, there was always a way.

We followed the two brothers into the shuttle. Corbal shut the door behind us with a resonant clang.

"Take your seats. We will be underway in a short time."

"Still have that Walker on you?" Denali asked, as we strapped into the worn seats.

"Always. How about you?"

"I'm ready for it," he told me in flawless Rian.

When Corbal returned, the shuttle was just starting its circular route down to the planet. He smiled reassuringly at us. "We shall be on Ria in a very short time."

"What will we owe you?" Denali asked again, a little more firmly this time.

Corbal, still smiling, took a small weapon from inside his jacket. "Let me see what you have, my friends." He held the weapon on us. "No one will be harmed if you cooperate. And you will reach Ria."

"Gladly," Denali replied.

The man was much smaller, not Rian, but perhaps another race that didn't grow to the size of the Unnamed Ones on Kittimatt. Denali barely touched him and the weapon was on the floor. Corbal was grunting and swearing. Denali's arm was against his throat.

"Now," he apprised the smaller man, "we're looking for...my brother. Tall, much thinner."

"Very good to look at," I added.

Denali smiled at me unpleasantly. I returned his look with honeyed grace.

"Your brother!" Corbal screeched in Denali's hold. "Why is this happening to me? I am merely trying to make a living."

"Is that yes or no?" Denali asked again, tightening his choke hold.

"Yes! Yes! I saw him. He tried to rob me. It must run in the family."

"I don't want your currency, Corbal," Denali assured him. "I want to know where you took my brother."

"To whatever your name is for the afterlife. We killed him and his blue skinned friend and shoved their bodies out the garbage tube."

Was it true? Had Corbal taken care of the problem for everyone? If so, where was the emerid?

I could see Denali asking the same thing in his own mind. He was about to ask the smuggler when the little man shouted with laughter. His bigger brother jumped on Denali, kicking and biting. "It's where you'll be going next." Corbal shouted and did a little dance across the floor.

"Not right now," I admonished him when he bent to pick up his weapon. "Call him off."

Corbal looked at me as if he was trying to decide if I'd really use the weapon I had trained on him.

"Now." I narrowed my eyes and held the Walker steady.

Denali slammed the other brother on the floor after removing him from his back by bouncing him against the wall.

Corbal said something in guttural street talk that was something of a Rian patois. His brother heaved himself at me but Denali caught him as he would've pounced. Corbal took advantage of the moment and kicked the weapon from my hand, crying out as he fell on me. He was as vicious as his brother, digging his long fingernails into my throat and slamming himself down on me. He was small but his weight was an impact that took my breath away.

He threw himself on me again but I was ready for him, catching him neatly in the throat with my booted foot. He fell to the floor, gasping, but still trying to reach one of the fallen weapons. Denali threw the brother from him one last time, reaching for Corbal even as I put my hand on the Walker.

There was a hard bump against the craft. Before anything else could happen, dozens of white uniformed security officers rushed in through the forced hatchway. "That's enough," the officer in charge shouted, firing a well-trained shot across all our heads. The fire razed the wall beyond and sizzled warningly.

"Thank God you're here." I stood up and started towards him.

The lead officer pointed his weapon directly at my head. "You will give yourself up to be taken into custody and tried for smuggling. Your vessel will be impounded and will not be released to you until you have been cleared of these charges."

"But Officer," Corbal cried, "my brother and I are honest merchants. We got off course when these people set on us and demanded we take them to Ria without clearance."

"You will have your opportunity to tell your tale," the man informed him curtly in polished Alliance speech. "In the meantime, I will take your ship's logs and whatever other ID you have."

"If you could call the Rian delegation to the trade meetings." I smiled up at the Rian officer. "Kalatri Astri would vouch for us." I knew he wouldn't but it was likely Gael Klarke would hear of it and I knew she would.

"You'll have your chance as well." His handsome face never wavered. "You'll leave with the security vessel."

I looked at Denali who was still holding Corbal's brother against the wall.

"Now," the Rian officer declared.

Denali let the unconscious man slide to the floor and shrugged, giving himself up. "Is this how you get cut rate travel?" he asked me. "Free room and board for a few days on each world?"

"I can clear all of this up with a simple call." I followed him off the smuggler's craft and into the Rian vessel. At least, I hoped I could.

* * *

I knew I was spending too much time in holding cells when we reached Ria and I began to compare their cells to Padda's. Not that I hadn't seen a holding cell or two before I met Denali but it was starting to become a habit.

"I need to make a call," I told the guard who brought me there. He closed the door with a quiet swoosh behind me. The cell was transparent mesh alloy that nothing could penetrate. Even sound was obliterated once the door was closed.

I saw Denali in the cell beside mine, sitting in the chair that emerged on command from the wall. He was facing me, his back to the guards at the entrance to the cell area. He was doing something with his hands.

I realized after a moment or two that it was Terran hand speech, a system by which ancient hearing impaired people had communicated on that world. I remembered some of the gestures, possibly enough to get by. I didn't recall how to tell him to slow down, an important gesture as Denali raced through the fluent signals. He looked at me impatiently then slowly began again.

Escape! He used the gesture again. I couldn't have interpreted it correctly. Surely he didn't think we could escape from those cells! But he used it again and again until I finally gestured that I understood. I could only think of one possible response. I used the gesture for insanity.

He used a series of gestures that were meaningless to me. One was clear. Wait. Then, move quickly.

Security guards approached our cells, two at each door. Just as they the doors were opened simultaneously by the guard at the entrance, Denali started screaming and threw himself on the floor. The guards at my door ran to join their comrades at the other one, leaving me alone with the door open.

By the time the guards from my cell realized what happened, Denali was already on his feet and had taken one of them out. I came up from the rear and handily helped him finish the task while the guard at the entrance ran for help.

"For cover," Denali explained as he released the locks on all the doors in the area. An alarm began to sound and a bevy of other miscreants pushed past us and through the door that led to the Rian streets.

"The only problem with Rians," Denali told me as we ran behind them, "they never expect a problem."

"They're very sure of their ability to know what you're going to do before you do it." We turned a corner and slowed to a walk. No point drawing attention to ourselves. The Rians were arrogant, not stupid.

"I know why they couldn't read my thoughts," Denali said to me as we strolled leisurely through the city away from the port area. "But why not yours?"

I shrugged. "I know a trick or two."

"They must be damned good ones."

"They are." I held my face up for the warm Rian sun. I was bruised and battered and it seemed like years since I left Lunden.

"Too much artificial light." Denali commented on the sallow tone of my skin.

"Not enough time vacationing," I retorted. "I always promise myself a year on some beautiful beach after each book is finished."

"But you never go." He smiled down at me.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you're using that latent psi on me."

"Just an astute student of people." He looked away but his voice was light. "I have to be in my business."

Did it bother him that he'd been forced to swallow Rissan as a child, destroying the strong psi that was inherent in his people? I didn't feel I knew him well enough to ask. "Now what?" I changed the subject. "How will we ever find Jerritt until he makes his move?"

"One way to find a missing person," Denali began to educate me in the art of detective work. He walked to a billboard on the side of the street. "Look for anything out of the ordinary."

"Like what?" I watched the numbers and ads scroll across the surface of the board.

"You have to think like your quarry. What would be the first thing you'd need if you were Jerritt?"

"A place to stay." I counted the necessities. "A good power source."

"On Ria, Amelia," he urged quietly while his eyes scanned the board.

"Someone willing to shield him from telepaths. They might not pick up on him for a day or two but eventually--"

"Exactly." He patted the top of my head, not looking away from the board. "These things are very useful since they display personal ads as well as commercial ones. I've used them...wait...did you see that?"

I punched in the programming to freeze the last ad and stared at it. It wasn't what we'd been searching for but it was another piece of the emerid.

"Get more info," he said quickly.

I pushed in the request and another ad came up with the picture of the piece staying in smaller format. "It's an ad for a museum. They think it came from Skulglast."

"We have to assume Jerritt saw this as well, maybe that he knew about it before he came here," Denali concluded as I took down the address of the museum.

"Let's go." I moved, pushing a call button for public transport.

Chapter Fifteen

Ria's capital city, Turia, was beautiful. All white towers gleaming in the sun. There were ribbons of white streets that looped lovingly through the old and new sections. It was always kept immaculately clean and traffic was carefully restrained. It had to be the trade meetings that brought in so many visitors at once. I had never seen it so crowded. The smooth-flowing Rians had to be in a state of panic.

"No wonder he could sneak in undetected," Denali observed as we traveled through the streets.

Rians walked everywhere, so transport was reserved for visitors. But in the maze of multicolored uniforms and delegations, white-robed Rians were getting in and out of their own transport system. It was unheard of.

The streets were littered with debris and groups of delegates. Service people and venders moved in a daze of ecstasy, no doubt thinking about the money they were going to make from the conferences. There was a circus element to the usually staid, quiet city that was a radical development no Rian planner had foreseen.

It was late afternoon when we reached the museum, tucked away in a quiet section of the old town. Parts of Turia had been razed after the plague struck there a century before but a small community had been saved and restored.

Tiny stones were flattened to form the walkways and streets that led to the old buildings. All the windows were sealed over with colored glass because they believed the plague was air born. Brilliant hues and sharp images defied the deadly virus. But many Rians had died.

We had no local currency and couldn't risk using our Alliance credits to get inside. If there was time to discover our ID's in the holding cells, they'd know exactly where we were. So we talked to the tiny, old woman who ran the museum for the city. She let us in with no charge. It was a slow day with all the people wanting to see the delegates instead of history. And we were, after all, a nice young Rian couple without much money.

"She must've been blind to think you were Rian," I said as we entered the museum. The woman waved and smiled at us.

"Very few worlds keep their blood lines totally clear," Denali answered.

I looked at his strong, dark features, broad shoulders and wide chest. There was no way. Whatever her reason was for letting us in, that wasn't part of it.

"Never mind," he interrupted as I started to speak, "let's look for the ancient piece of pottery from the Skulglast ruins."

I took a quick turn down a narrow passageway lined with dusty bowls and plates from several different planets. A display case that contained jewelry hadn't been cleaned in so long that it was difficult to tell what was in it. The Rians didn't value their history much, I thought, wandering the museum. They were clean, neat, and organized by nature. It was no wonder they seldom chanced the dim interior of the museum.

"Over here."

I followed his voice. Most of the lights were off in the back section of the building. Several display cases were dismantled, their contents spread out on the floor.

"I can't believe we found it before Jerritt," Denali whispered as I came to stand beside him.

"But what do we do now?" The security wasn't elaborate but it was doubtful the smiling woman at the door would let us out with the artifact.

"We wait outside until the museum closes." He stood up straight after his perusal of the display. "Then we take it before Jerritt does."

We passed the Rian woman who waved us out of the building, inviting us to come back. I was starving after refusing to eat the food on the scout ship. We had the money problem again but Denali solved that by stealing some fruit bread and fresh field cheese.

I did my part by taking a bottle of fruit juice. There was nothing alcoholic on Ria. I had never seen so much as a drop of Fargan rum there. How they had kept it off planet was a mystery.

Then we waited in a back alleyway, just off from the front entrance to the museum. We waited while the traffic increased and the city's lights came on in the twilight. Then we waited longer while the smiling woman in the museum waited for her appointed hour to close. No one else came in or out of the place. One minute, I was staring up at Ria's smaller moon, the next Denali was shaking me awake.

"She's finally gone," he said, a dim light from the building shining down around us.

I started to sit up, only to realize that I was lying half across him, his coat around us both as the night air cooled. "You should've woken me."

"Why? Nothing happened. The old woman just left."

"I meant when I fell over on you," I told him pointedly. He knew what I meant.

"Why?"

"I didn't mean to...well...you know." I sounded even more ridiculous than I felt. Why was I apologizing? I wouldn't be with anyone else. I just felt awkward with him.

"You were cold and I was cold." He smiled at me. "We kept each other warm."

"Oh." I hadn't thought of that.

"Amelia," his deep voice had a deep edge, "you spend too much time alone."

"I'm not usually alone," I countered, babbling, and not able to stop. I felt his arms tighten around me. "I'm usually with my assistant or..."

"One of those pathetic creatures that gets lost or killed when they're around you?" He smoothed the hair back from my face.

I lost track of what I was about to say. "You've read about me."

"I've already admitted to a certain...curiosity...about you." He leaned his head closer to mine.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to kiss you for luck before we go in there."

"It would be polite to ask," I reprimanded even though my eyes were closing to get ready for the event. "I was wondering why you kissed me before. Is this a ritual from Kittimatt?"

He muttered something in his own language then kissed me. It wasn't like before. Not fast and haphazard. This was slow and deep. I felt it linger inside of me, touching a part of me that I didn't know existed. It made me want to cry out in loneliness. I never even knew until that moment how empty and alone I felt sometimes.

"That should bring me luck for a very long time."

I couldn't see his smile but I could feel it and hear it in his voice. "It was very nice." Would he think I sounded cool and unimpressed? I hoped so. Anything else might've made me break down and cry. I wanted to urge him to leave and beg him to keep me in his arms forever. It was so useless, so terrifying. Did he really think Jerritt had all the personal psi?

"Nice?" His whisper rumbled in his chest. "I think we can do better than nice."

"Shouldn't we go inside and get what we came for?" I pushed him aside and scrambled to my feet. "We can't be out here all night kissing."

He got up beside me. "You're a coward, Amelia Gallant. I wouldn't have guessed it. Is that part of your quest? Keep your heart safe? Don't let anyone in?"

I didn't answer. I couldn't. I'd been alone most of my life. I wasn't ready to give up my independence for a pair of warm arms and a few deep kisses. I'd been kissed before. I'd made love to shamans and telepaths. None of them had affected me the way this one kiss had. There was something wrong with me. Maybe I was coming down with some dread disease. Maybe it was some residual psi that Denali didn't realize he had.

Carefully, I crept to the back entrance of the museum. The door was locked securely but the lock was simple. I could've picked it in my sleep. I glanced back to see if he'd followed. He was right behind me. His face was impassive.

Denali checked for alarm systems before I opened the lock. Not surprisingly, there was nothing to keep anyone out of the museum. The Rians didn't see anything valuable about the exhibits inside. Why bother with security?

I snapped off a light stick when the door was closed behind us. It provided an eerie glow to the derelict rooms we passed through. Death masks from the old Mars colony watched as we passed them in their grimy case. They were from a time when they still buried their dead.

"You should feel right at home here," Denali said. "You must spend most of your time in places like this. It suits your disposition."

"There aren't any other places like this," I corrected him irritably. "And I don't have a disposition. Just because I don't want to kiss you..."

"I didn't mention that," he growled. "You did. And you're lying about not wanting to kiss me. You liked it. You just didn't expect to like it as much as you did."

I turned on him. "You're a telepath, aren't you? I think you could've admitted it. That's even worse than Jerritt!"

He put his finger to my lips. "I'm not telepathic. I swallowed too much Rissan as a child for that. I understand you, Amelia. I don't need telepathy. I feel the same way."

"You do?"

He kissed me again and nodded. "But now's not the time or the place. We should get what we came for and get out of here."

I felt dazed and a little lightheaded. He was right about how I felt. I did like to kiss him. But he was right about getting out of there too. I didn't know what it was about the place but I had a bad feeling about it. I'd certainly been in worse situations. Probably in one of the underground burial chambers where they took the death masks from in the first place. There was a grim humor in the idea.

Denali took my hand. "At least we got here before Jerritt."

"I know. I just have a bad feeling-"

"Is the air on Ria enhancing your psi?"

"No. Let's just get the damned piece of pottery."

The case that held part of the emerid was large and mounted to the wall. It only had a small hand lock on the door. Even that wasn't locked. Without realizing it, I exhaled a tense breath. "Well, that was nothing." I smiled and opened the glass door. A thin whistle pierced the air.

"Damn!"

"Damn?" I shouted at him. "It was rigged! Some security man!"

The system moved sluggishly but it was moving none the less. Doors were sealing, window covers crashing down.

"We have to move!" Denali yelled.

I reached in and grabbed the piece of the emerid from the case. Without thinking, I pushed it into my belt, under my shirt. I ran to where Denali was holding open the door we'd come through.

"Hurry!" he urged. "Those are neuron nets coming from the alarm."

I nodded, knowing no one could last more than a few conscious moments once those nets hit. I rolled under the door then waited while Denali did the same. The door seal came down hard just after he moved his hand from beneath it.

"That way." He pointed down the alley.

"I think--"

"Wait there! Do not attempt escape!" a loud but polite voice interrupted our discussion.

Denali looked at me and we both ran down the alley. It looked pretty good to me with the Rian security people coming from the other side. I felt the energy dart hit my side just as we turned a corner. My legs crumpled under me and the feeling was leaving my hands and arms.

"Amelia!" Denali came back for me.

"I can't walk," I slurred, losing sensation in my facial muscles. "Energy dart. Go. If they take us both...who'll find Jerritt?"

"No!" He drew a ragged breath. "I won't leave you!"

There were sounds from behind us. "Go," I managed around a tongue that had become a lump of pudding in my mouth.

He caught my face between his hands and kissed me hard on the lips. "I'll find a way to get you out."

I tried to call him back, to give him the piece of the emerid but no sounds came out of my mouth. I saw a flash of light and a group of faces that peered down at me. Then I closed my eyes and let the dark swallow me.

* * *

"It's about time."

Those were the next words I heard. My brain was scrambled and I couldn't tell what language it was but I knew the words.

"Is she awake?" another voice asked.

"I don't think she wants to be," the first voice drawled sardonically, "but the monitor readout is positive."

"How do you feel, Sadah Gallant?" the second, more solicitous voice asked me sweetly.

"Like a bomb went off in my head," I groaned and tried to find the courage to open my eyes in the brightly lit room.

"Turn down those lights," the sardonic voice said quickly. "They're like knives after being stunned."

I was surprised. The tone of the voice hadn't prepared me for any consideration. I peered out through a painful gaze.

"Kalamiri, Sadah." Kalatri Astri half smiled down at me.

"Kalamiri, Sadoh," I returned, closing my eyes again.

"You must face me at some point," he told me in a somewhat kinder tone.

"I suppose it might as well be now." I opened my eyes and struggled to push myself into an upright position. "I suppose Gael Klarke isn't with you?"

"No." He shook his head, helping me up. "You'll have to explain all of this to me, Sadah."

"All right." I felt at my waist for the piece of the emerid.

"Is this what you're looking for?" he asked, holding up the piece of metal.

"That's it. It's one quarter of something called the emerid."

"The device you briefed us on before your arrival."

"A weapon, Sadoh. An ancient weapon, but no less deadly for its age."

"From Kittimatt?" He examined the piece in his hands.

"And the other three pieces are in the hands of a man from Kittimatt who intends to use it to destroy Ria if the trade meetings don't go his way."

"What is his way?" Kalatri demanded, looking at me.

His mind probe hit me with stunning force. There was nothing friendly or querying about it. He wanted information. All of it. Right then.

"You won't get it that way, Sadah," I told him pleasantly, smiling at him despite the slight discomfort that came with the probe.

He refocused at once and the force was gone. "You're well trained, Amelia Gallant."

"I have no talent, Sadoh, but I spent some very productive time learning to protect myself."

"Where? Who could've taught someone that shield?"

"Alara Cary," I replied. "I stayed with her here for a year."

He smiled and looked at me for once with something more than irritation. Perhaps not approval but not totally disapproving either. "What do you want here, Sadah?"

"I want you to get both sets of charges dropped against me first." I held up my hand for silence when he started to speak. "I know none of it makes sense right now but it will once I have a chance to explain it to you, Sadoh. You'll have to trust me."

He looked at me intently though he didn't attempt to use his mind against me again. "The first charge against you is very serious here."

"I know," I answered solemnly. "But you have to believe that everything I've done has been to prevent a tragedy."

"You ask a great deal, Sadah." He studied the quarter of the artifact in his hand. "And give nothing in return."

I regarded him levelly. "I ask for some time to prove that the threat to your people is real, my freedom, and a place to work. In return, you might be able to avert a disaster. Or in the words of your philosopher, Dalira..."

He crooked a pale brow at me.

"...risk everything to find the truth, especially slay fear and seek knowledge," I finished the quote in his language.

"You are very convincing, Sadah. And I know and respect Alara Cary. She wouldn't teach someone who wasn't worthy of trust."

"We need to hurry, Sadoh. Even now, Jerritt plans to make an example of Ria."

It took very little time for him to negotiate my release, although I could tell from the strained expression on his handsome face that it wasn't easy. My crime of entering a city on Ria without clearance was one of the few punishable by time in a prison group.

"Your emerid had better be more deadly than the plague," he told me as we left the holding area. There was a small private transport vehicle waiting for us at the street level.

"I only know what I experienced." We started down the white street. "Here, those tremors would take thousands of lives."

"Yes." He looked up at the towers that projected straight into the deep blue sky. "I know a place in the old section. You're familiar with that area, of course."

"Yes."

"A friend of mine has access to many things."

"In other words, he can circumvent the regular authority," I surmised quickly.

He smiled. "In other words, yes."

We drove to a small red stone building in the old town. Its windows were covered with elaborate plague pictures of sunsets and glorious forests of trees. There was barely enough room for the transport to get through but Kalatri pushed its nose in close to the wall and left it in the middle of the street.

Lieutenant Klarke emerged from the brightly painted door as we climbed out of the vehicle. "Amelia Gallant!" she called out, her Endo red uniform contrasting starkly with the yellow and blue behind her. Her dark head brushed the door frame as she walked out. "I hope it wasn't too bad."

I looked at Kalatri, his own blue uniform gilded by the sun. "You know the people of Ria," I told her in Fargan, "a little more bottle and a little less brain."

She laughed at the old tavern saying. "I've told him much the same thing."

"I do speak Fargan, you know," he told me huffily.

Gael laughed again and ran a slender hand down his long braid. "Mignon is waiting impatiently."

The red stone building was very old and smelled of books and fires that had burned in the old hearth. Mignon was a historian with leanings toward ancient peoples and artifacts. He took the piece of the emerid in his gnarled hands and looked at it carefully. A fluffy mane of white hair frizzed around his aged face. Tiny spectacles perched on the end of his nose.

"Yes! This is very interesting." He ushered us into his house. "Gael, get the com set up. Kalatri, get me that book up there. No, not that one! The big black one over there. Please," he pushed some books and disks to the floor, "have a seat."

I sat carefully on the broken chair and he put a book in my lap.

"Does it look like this when it's whole?" he asked, pointing to a blurred picture.

"I haven't seen it all together."

"But this piece goes with three others?"

"So I've been told." I ignored Kalatri's frown. There was no reason for him to know about Denali. I didn't plan to turn him over to the Rians unless I had to.

"No doubt for the four elements." Mignon nodded. "Land, air, water and fire."

"I was told each piece related to each element, affecting each as it came together."

"Start again." Kalatri handed Mignon the book he'd asked for. "Start from the beginning."

So I told the tale again, including the part about Jerritt wanting me to write his story.

"You know, that name sounds very familiar," Gael said when I'd finished. She typed it into the com and requested an access for information.

We waited silently, watching the vid screen. It took only a moment. Jerritt's picture came up on the screen, his bio beneath it. "He's one of the delegates from Kittimatt," I breathed in disbelief.

"Are you sure this is the man?" Kalatri asked, frowning down at it.

"There's no mistake." I thought about the other information that Kalatri had given me. "Check the dates on the quake they had earlier this year on Jappa."

"I remember that," Mignon added. "It was one for the history books. They never had quakes or ice there until this year."

Gale checked the dates, then at my request, checked Jerritt Koren's traveling profile. As a political personality, he had no reason to hide his activities. If he'd traveled with Alliance credit--

"There it is!" Gael found the information.

"You'll also find that the museum was robbed there at the same time," I told them. "They didn't know it but they held a piece of the emerid as well."

From his traveling record, we found that Jerritt had also gone to Lunden, obviously missing the artifact until Denali transported it off the planet. He'd gone to Padda after he left Azuel, taking a first class passage to Parsis.

"Check Parsis for any mention of a museum theft," Kalatri said to Gael.

There was a theft two days before Denali and I arrived on Ria. Jerritt hadn't lied. I recalled his words and Denali's disbelief. He'd known exactly where to go to find the other piece of the emerid.

"I suppose he thought he could just pick up the last piece when he got here," I theorized aloud. "But we got there first."

"We?" Kalatri demanded.

"Did I say we?" I laughed it off. "I'm so used to traveling with an assistant."

"How did you know?" Mignon wondered excitedly.

I glanced at Kalatri's tight face. "I knew what I was looking for."

"Yes, yes," Mignon acknowledged.

"The evidence warrants some move to find out what's going on," Gael said to Kalatri. "It's your planet."

"Thanks. I have a feeling that this won't be pleasant news for anyone."

"Not pleasant, but surely worth reporting," Gael persisted.

"Have I said that I won't report it?" he demanded of her.

"No. But you have that look on your face, Kat," she told him with the sureness of someone who knows.

"Gael, the man is a delegate from Kittimatt. The negotiations are delicate at best."

"I could take it to Endo--"

"I'll do what I can," he said carefully. "Let me at the com."

Chapter Sixteen

"You may not move against him," the Rian high councilman told Agent Astri again. "Is that clear?"

Kalatri rested his head on the com screen for a moment and closed his eyes. No matter what he said, the Rian council was adamant.

I watched and listened. Kalatri wasn't going to get anywhere through that bureaucracy. Perhaps Denali had known and had acted accordingly. Being an outsider, he could bypass the rules and accomplish what Kalatri was prevented from doing.

"Is that clear?" the councilman asked again.

"Yes," Kalatri answered, moving back from the com.

The councilman looked harassed. "This is too important for us all. It's the only way to rid ourselves of the Rissan threat. We don't want to start the meeting with Kittimatt's delegation leaving Ria."

"Of course not," Kalatri agreed.

"As head of our own delegation, Agent Astri, I expect your cooperation."

"Of course."

The two men stared at one another across the com link. The battle of words had become a battle of thoughts. That Kalatri was stronger was obvious to me, but in this matter it wasn't strength that mattered. Years of protocol governed these matters. Long days of negotiating had resulted in the meeting that could end the use of Rissan within the Alliance. Ria, a planet of telepaths, couldn't afford to lose this opportunity for an event that might or might not happen.

When the link was severed, abruptly and without the usual courtesies, Kalatri turned to me. "Within these boundaries, there's nothing more that can be done. Perhaps Endo might act."

Gael looked dubious. "It might be best if I steer clear of that trap, Kat. That way, if I do need to take an initiative, my hands won't be tied."

"It'll take the act to convince them." I smiled. "We tried anyway."

"I'm sorry for doubting you." Kalatri apologized.

"That's all right. I would've doubted me too. What about those charges?" I asked, tired and dispirited.

"I'll arrange everything. You'll stay for the trade meeting?"

"If I can find a hotel."

"I can get you in where the Echo delegation is staying," he replied confidently.

"That would be great."

"I'd like to have a chance to examine this," Mignon said, still looking at the artifact.

Kalatri and Gael both nodded their approval. I didn't see why not. "It's not really mine to lend, but I suppose so. If we can keep it from going back to the museum for right now."

"Do you believe in the emerid's ability for destruction?" Kalatri chose to ignore the fact that the piece of the emerid we held was stolen.

"I've witnessed the quakes on Azuel and the freezing rains. I don't know about the rest. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens. If the talks don't work out, Jerritt won't have any reason to use it."

"Not a comforting thought," he suggested. "But one we'll have to live with for now."

"A room with a bed and a bath." I yawned. "Echo or Endo. I don't care."

Gael laughed. "You must be the only one! Let's go."

* * *

The hotel room was small and the halls were noisy with trade delegation and party goers. During the days of the meetings, there was also every kind of social function. Those who weren't there for the meetings themselves were there for the free food and drink.

I lay in my narrow bed after a bio shower and a light meal. I was tired but my thoughts were too busy with everything that had happened to sleep easily. Besides, I was on the 64th floor of the largest hotel in Turia. The thought of quakes or any other natural disaster didn't make for pleasant dreams.

Where was Denali? I wondered as my eyes closed for the night. But my nightmares were full of Jerritt's face.

I awoke to find an invitation to the meetings that would be held that day as well as an invitation for the Council trade ball being held that night. I looked at the pager on the wall that was full of messages. Max had found me again. I marveled at his resources.

It occurred to me that I was ready to leave Ria. There seemed to be nothing more I could do. The quest seemed to have come to an abrupt halt. I didn't want to wait to see if Jerritt could be stopped. The idea of his smug, knowing face, victorious in the ruins of Turia, was more than even my imagination could handle.

But I never left a situation unfinished, no matter how it ended. There was always more to be written. I was terrified, but I wanted to be there until it was over. Grim curiosity or mere illogical perversity, as my mother would call it. I wanted to be there when the emerid was found. Or used.

The one call I expected wasn't on the com panel. If Mignon discovered anything about the artifact, he kept it to himself. I tried to call Kalatri but only got his electronic answering code. He'd already left for the meetings. I couldn't locate Gael either.

Max could wait, I decided, swinging my legs out of bed. I wanted to see Kalatri as soon as possible. I wanted to know everything about the piece of the emerid that Jerritt had failed to acquire. I felt certain that Denali knew that another piece of the emerid was on Ria. Somehow his accidental finding of the piece seemed too easily accomplished. Had he used me as a cover for his actions?

Why didn't he trust me with the information? Why didn't he take the piece when he left me in the alley? None of the answers were to my liking as I dressed hastily. It was possible that he left the emerid fragment with me to keep it out of Jerritt's hands. He knew about my contacts with Echo and Endo. Was the whole theft at the museum staged for my benefit?

I pulled the smooth white Rian linen on and covered it with a blue blush cloth so fine to the touch that it was like mist. I looked at myself in the mirror and touched a cut near the side of my mouth. My bones ached from the fight the day before and my hand was swollen where Corbal had kicked the weapon from my fingers.

I'd consider it worth everything if I could see the emerid together. I wanted to see Jerritt beaten as well, but the emerid was the prize here.

Had Jerritt succeeded in finding all but the last piece? That would mean the device couldn't remake the planet but the devastation from the three forms of destruction it could accomplish seemed adequate to make his point.

I stepped into shoes and combed my hair. Just as the relationship between Jerritt and Denali wasn't clear, the pieces of the puzzle weren't all together yet either. My greatest weakness was always a need to see it all. It was a failing of mine. I didn't like to put down a book until it was finished.

The hotel was still swarming with delegates as I left my room. Endo red clashed with Echo blue uniforms. Both appeared to outnumber the white-garbed trade delegates from Ria and the green from Jappa. Every world had a stake in the outcome. It was no small wonder that the high council of Ria refused to antagonize the delegates from Kittimatt.

I didn't see any hint of the delegation from Kittimatt until I arrived at the massive triangular trade center where the meetings were being held. There the bright yellow of their uniforms were brilliant amidst the crowd. They set off their dark skins and black hair as well, as clinging to thin, lithe bodies.

They reminded me of cats with their feline movements and strange, secretive ways. I watched a group of them pass me. How many of them wanted their world to change? There were probably many more that would fight any challenge to their way of life. And since the Unnamed Ones weren't represented at the meetings, what would the chances be that the First would agree to Ria's demand for an end to the production of Rissan?

But would any world or people be any different? I knew the people of Lunden would fight bitterly against any change. Even with the whole of the Alliance against them, nothing would convince them that they were wrong. Could anyone expect less from Kittimatt?

Kalatri Astri thoughtfully included my name on the roster of his delegation to enter the meetings. Security was strictly enforced at the door. Without his word, I would've been in the street.

Within the wide, domed room where the seating ran around the raised speaking dais, all colors, all races within the Alliance were represented. Tension was palpable in the air. What was decided there in those few days would affect every person in that room, on every world.

The Rian delegation was speaking, declaring itself to be on the side of commerce as well as fair play. The woman carefully pointed out to her contemporaries that prosperity was everyone's wish but prosperity at the cost of the rights of any people was intolerable. "That is why Ria supports a trade embargo against Kittimatt or any other world that enslaves and degrades a group of their people by the use of force, drugs, or social condemnation. We of Ria hope to find a solution to the plight of the Unnamed of Kittimatt, or any other group in the Alliance like them, through peaceful negotiation."

There was a smattering of applause as she left the platform. She nodded her dignified, white-maned head at Kalatri as she passed him to retake her seat. He returned with the Rian gesture of respect. I could only guess what passed unspoken between them. I sat behind them, waiting until they were finished discussing the woman's speech and the next speaker had taken his place.

"Kalamiri, Sadah," Kalatri acknowledged me with a brief, tight smile.

"Kalamiri, Sadoh," I replied quietly as the speaker from Padda introduced himself. "Have you spoken with Lt. Klarke?"

"She is at Mignon's with the piece of the emerid you took from the museum. Echo has refused to intervene without the entire artifact to prove that it can do what you've claimed."

"I leave you then to your..." My eyes scanned the crowd of Kittimatt delegates, coming to rest suddenly on Jerritt's handsome profile. As if he felt my gaze, he turned to face me. His lips formed a knowing smile. I could feel the strength of his psi from across the room.

"What is it?" Kalatri followed my gaze. "Ah."

"The man has nerves of titanium." I turned away from Jerritt with difficulty.

"Your portrait of him was very clear," Kalatri assessed generously. "I shouldn't have informed my government. I might've used...other means. But they aren't available to me now."

"I understand. "

"Amelia." He looked at me steadily. "I know you've deliberately left something out. I've respected your wishes in this but--"

"What I've left out has no bearing on Jerritt or the emerid," I assured him.

"There may still come a time when it's necessary for me to know the whole truth."

"Then I'll gladly tell you," I promised, although I wasn't certain my vow of silence could be released by anyone except Denali.

I spent the remainder of the day away from the trade meetings, going over any information Mignon could provide about the emerid. There were vague stories relating to it in literature we found from Kittimatt.

Gael sat back in her chair with a groan as she looked up just after sundown. The blue tinted windows of Mignon's house were bright with light for a few moments then there was sudden darkness. "I hate paperwork."

I agreed. "And what do we know about the device that we didn't know before we started?"

"We understand the symbolism," Mignon chimed in. "That might be some help."

"I knew of the legend of the savior going to aid the Unnamed Ones with the emerid. It isn't unreasonable to put his likeness on the front with the sunburst behind it to add to his power. After all, he's supposed to be the greatest psi in the universe."

"Does it look like anyone we know?" Gael asked with a smile.

I studied the face etched in the metal on the computer screen. The piece on Mignon's desk was the bottom, we speculated. We had only a small part of the sunburst and none of the face. "It doesn't look like a native of Kittimatt to me at all. The features seem too fine."

"Oh great." She closed the book she was gazing at earlier. "I guess we'll know now what the device can do."

"What?"

The door burst open and Kalatri stood in the threshold. "The meetings were called off. Perhaps forever. Every planet in the Alliance has called for Kittimatt to release the Unnamed Ones."

"What was their response?" I asked, startled. An Endo officer communicating telepathically with an Echo officer?

"The people of Kittimatt have agreed to begin phasing out the use of Rissan. They've allowed other concessions as well."

"If I recall, a major point was education for the Unnamed Ones and allowing them the freedom to leave the planet," Gael added.

"This and more." Kalatri nodded grimly.

"Not if Jerritt uses the emerid," I reminded them. "If it has the power I believe it does, the Alliance and Kittimatt itself will have no choice but to do what Jerritt wants them to do."

"We can't act until they make the first move," Kalatri answered. "I must attend the Council's event tonight. If anything is going to happen, it will be then."

I looked at the quarter of the emerid that we had in our possession and wondered if we had fire or air. I thought about the damage Jerritt could do to Ria even without it. I could only hope Denali had managed to catch up with him.

"I intend to make further study of this interesting piece of the puzzle," Mignon said, turning the piece admiringly.

"I think if we could find its power source," Gael conjectured, "we could find a way to track it if it's used."

"We could find Jerritt easily enough," Kalatri informed us. "I'd know his personal power source anywhere."

"Well, we might as well go to the Trade Ball then," Gael concluded, standing. "If we can't arrest him outright, maybe he'll be there and we can annoy him into making a mistake."

"That's fine for the two of you," I informed them with a smile. "You can just pop on your dress uniforms and waltz right into the ball. I have nothing to wear. And there's probably nothing left to buy or steal on this planet."

Kalatri laughed and wrapped an arm around Gael. "I think there might be something we can find for you to wear, eh Lieutenant?"

"It was a gift from an admirer that I haven't ever worn," Gael explained.

"Or will ever wear," Kalatri added, his light head close to her dark one.

"I'll have it sent over to you." She smiled. "Don't worry. It's nothing hideous. Just something I wouldn't wear that I know you would."

Gael was definitely telepathic. Or she had very good instincts, because that was exactly what I was thinking. But I wanted to go to the Trade Ball and I was willing to look at the garment. I took public transport back to my hotel, not wanting to continue to intrude on my companions' time together. I didn't have to be telepathic to see that they wanted to be alone. Besides, I was hoping Denali was waiting for a time when I was alone to talk to me. Unfortunately, I got back to the hotel with no sign of him. I began wondering if Jerritt had found him first.

The dress was already there when I reached my room. I wondered what Gael meant when she said she wouldn't wear the garment but I would. I assumed she was referring to pictures she'd seen of me in the press. Max always dressed me very carefully for press events. The rest of the time, my wardrobe consisted of whatever I could scrounge together.

In this case, I'd done very well for myself. Gael's discarded garment was beautiful and one of a kind. Since I'd spent some time on Chrysalis, I recognized the Chrysaline's handiwork in the woven white gown.

It was made to fit her exact measurements, but since we were very close in size, I had no trouble getting into it. Off the shoulders, with a wide collar that floated around me, it dropped down to hug my body like a second skin.

I didn't know Gael well, but I could see the dress was much too flamboyant for her taste. She'd never be the sort of person to draw attention to herself. At least not in that way.

I sighed, calling Max as I brushed my hair and steamed it into some semblance of order. It was very red against the white and would certainly garner attention. I might as well use it to my advantage.

"Amy! Where have you been? I've been frantic!" Max did an almost comical double take. "And where did you get that dress?"

"I've been on Ria, Max. The dress is a loaner from a friend. I'm going to attend the Council Ball tonight with the trade delegations in Turia."

"That's great! I can have the press pick up on it, no problem. Are you there for some particular reason? How did you get in with the trade delegation?"

"I'm working on something. Friends of mine are part of the delegation." I slid my feet into slippers that matched the dress. They were a little tight, like the dress, but I thought I could manage.

"Well you look great, Amy. I wish I could be there to escort you but it's just not possible. Is that guy still there with you...what's his name? Something Terran, I think."

"No. We parted ways," I answered easily. "Thanks for the compliments, Max. I'll call you later."

As I closed the link between us, I remembered what Denali said about him. I never thought of Max in that way. But his eyes had taken on a light that was very flattering when he looked at me. I knew I could never feel anything but a business attachment for Max. Even if my lifestyle lent itself to personal attachments of that sort, Max and I wouldn't suit each other well.

The hotel was empty by the time I descended. The party goers wouldn't miss the biggest party of the trade meetings. Transportation was the problem. Every available public transport was engaged in taking people to the ball. Private transport was rare in Turia since the streets were never modernized enough to allow for many personal vehicles.

I walked the short distance between my hotel and the trade center, encountering large groups of delegates doing the same. The night air was warm with that smell that was peculiar to Turia. A spicy, sweet scent. I learned years before that it was from the growing of some spice in the wide fields that surrounded the city. It was a pleasant aroma. When I smelled it, no matter where, it always invoked memories of my time there.

The trade center was packed and security was tight. There was nothing chaotic or rushed in the discovery of identities allowed into the affair. Endo red uniforms were prevalent but Rian security was a wide presence as well.

I was ushered in with a quick scan done on my identity card. The room was gorgeous, golden drops of light falling from the domed ceiling for effect. Lances of light shot shards of colors through the crowd that surged through the rooms.

Multicolored uniforms vied with formal garb from every planet in the Alliance. A thousand people danced and mingled through those rooms. In every corner there was an automated supply of food and drink that was replenished every few seconds. Every delicacy imaginable was available, thanks to the newest replicating devices installed before the trade meetings.

I wished that it was possible to get an overview of the crowd. It was a little like being swallowed by a huge beast and then passed through its digestion system. All I could do was filter through the group, nodding when I saw someone I recognized, hoping I would eventually find Gael and Kalatri.

"Dance?" an easily recognizable voice asked. Music rushed over the room, barely distinguishable from the murmuring of the crowd.

I looked into Jerritt's blazing black eyes and felt the cool end of a 42 Walker in my back.

Chapter Seventeen

"Since you insist." I caught a glimpse of Gael in her Endo dress uniform. I never wished to be telepathic any more than I did at that moment.

We moved within the confines of the crowd, swaying to the music. Jerritt held me closely in his arms. The weapon against me made it look as though we were more intimate than was true. "You are the most beautiful woman here, Amelia Gallant."

I looked at him in amazement. He smiled down at me. If it weren't for the weapon at my back, I would've thought he wanted to make love to me. Why was he using the weapon instead of his charmed psi? "Thank you. What do you want, Jerritt?"

"I've already discussed that with you. I want you to write the saga of my life."

"I'm not a biographer."

"But you'll make a special exception in my case." He made a graceful turn despite the throng.

"With your weapon at my back, I can hardly say no."

But if I hoped to embarrass him into chivalry, I was mistaken. "That's very true. Shall we go?" He took my arm in a paralyzing grip that made me catch my breath and we walked through the crowd.

I considered my possibilities. I could try to break away but there was no place I could run to get away from the weapon he was certain to fire. While he thought I was beautiful and he wanted my writing skills, I knew the man was a twisted personality that would turn on me in a flat second.

I couldn't fight him for the weapon while there was barely room to breathe. My only recourse seemed to be waiting until we reached the door. With a certain amount of leverage, I could possibly overcome his superior strength. If I didn't get the weapon, I could at least attract enough attention that the tight security net would pick up on the disturbance.

"You're very quiet," he whispered near my ear. "Hatching some escape plot, no doubt."

"You've read my books," I replied quite calmly. "You know how they always end."

"But this time is different, Amelia. I want you to stay with me. Once this unpleasantness is finished and order is restored, I'll return to Kittimatt. I want you to come with me."

That was a perverse thought. "But once the book is written, you won't need me. I'm sure there are many other women--"

"None like you." His voice was hoarse and intense even as he smiled at the crowd around us. "I decided long ago that you and I would deal well together."

Not while I'm alive! was my first response, but I smothered it down. There was no point in antagonizing him until I could kick the insolence out of him. It would give me untold pleasure. "Why are you bothering to tell me? And why the weapon? We both know you can get what you want from me without it?"

"I was hoping you'd come willingly once we had a chance to talk. The Walker was simply to give us that chance."

"But once you destroy my resistance, you'd never know if you won me over or not?" I guessed, amazed at the man's ego. He not only wanted me, he wanted me to come on my own to him.

"Exactly. Your keen perception fascinates me." His voice held a hint of seduction that was like fine perfume, invading my senses. "But you'll come with me, one way or another. You and I were meant to be together."

Security agents at the exit weren't so interested in who passed out of the trade center. We were herded away from the building without so much as a second glance. Every group was just one less problem for the harried security force.

It was then or never. If I didn't get away from him, he'd simply use his psi to erase my thoughts until they were what he wanted them to be. The time was right for me to strike when my call to Max bore its fruit. A large group of press swarmed around us with equipment ready to take in our every word.

"Amelia, can you tell us what really happened on Padda?" one young man asked, his green Jappan eyes flashing in the lights.

"Amelia, what about the recording you said that you made of the triese lea?" a woman with a strident voice and angry face wanted to know.

"Get rid of them," Jerritt demanded, pushing closer to me.

"I've tried for years," I retorted sharply. "My publisher always knows just where to send them."

"Just a few words for your fans," a Rian journalist urged.

"When will you be returning to Lunden?"

"I said, get rid of them." He abandoned the pretense of the weapon and forced his will on me.

"Jerritt--" I tried to keep my sanity.

"Jerritt!" The name seemed to be an echo of my own voice in the crowd. Denali stood in front of us, big and tough. His face was a mask of cold anger that was frightening. "Let her go! You've lost! Go home and lick your wounds."

He said something more to him in their language but I wasn't able to translate. I could already feel my mind drifting away from me. My body leaned close to Jerritt's side. Helplessly, I obeyed his command to put my arms around his neck. He started to lift me in his arms like I was a feather.

With one last chance to escape, I hit him hard in the jaw. The blow made a loud, sucking noise that whipped his head back, causing his thoughts to release me. He screamed his rage and fired the weapon into the crowd, releasing me as he swung to one side. I fell to the street, unable to move.

"Lost?" Jerritt laughed as screams of panic and pain filled the night around him. "You and your kind are lost!"

He fired again. I stayed on the ground, the street wet against my cheek. I hoped he'd missed Denali at the same time that I prayed he'd forget about me. I wasn't sure if I could fight him again and win. If he chose to pick me up and fly away with me at that moment, I knew there was nothing I could do. It was a sickening feeling that left me with the taste of nausea in my throat.

"I'm going to show all of you fear like you've never seen," Jerritt informed the crowd. The blaring of security sirens nearly drowned him out. He bent down to take me with him.

I cringed but looked up in time to see Denali throw himself against Jerritt, bearing him down to the street away from me. Jewel appeared from nowhere, lifting Denali bodily and throwing him away from his master.

Using strength of will I didn't know I had, I forced myself to my feet and ran to where they fought. Taking Jewel off balance, I sent him flying to the ground with a series of short kicks. He was so strong, I could only hope to finesse him with my abilities. I continued to attack with a flurry of blows to his face and neck, keeping him pinned to the ground.

"Amelia!" Denali shouted as he sent a Walker my way.

I caught the weapon and held it steadily on Jewel. Jerritt made his escape in the din. Denali scoured the crowd that was beginning to pick itself up but there was no sign of him. Security finally began to form around us with medical personnel coming to the aide of the injured.

"Nice to see you again." Denali came to stand beside me. "Do you always manage to come out on top?"

"Always." I threw myself against his chest and kissed him. "It's good to see you too."

It was then that I felt the thready beginning of the tremor. It rolled through the crowded city like a wave, growing in force and size. It lifted the street beneath our feet and dashed it against the Rian soil.

The screams were terrible. The sounds of ten million people in panic and turmoil as Turia was ripped apart. A huge fissure appeared in the ground, dividing the city, swallowing whole buildings and hundreds of people.

Security was helpless to do anything but fear for their lives. Medical personnel ran with the crowd through what remained of the streets. Power flickered then died. The blackness was terrifying around us.

Fires began to spring up, illuminating the devastation even as the buildings were still crumbling. A second wave followed the first upheaval. I could hear explosions in the distance. There were hands clawing at me as the ground shifted and buckled.

Finally, a hand clasped mine and I held it tightly. I hugged Denali with what strength I had left. He didn't let me go again.

I've never experienced terror like that. A total feeling of powerlessness that I would always associate with Jerritt, mentally and physically. It was as though the city was a giant and the giant shrugged and threw us from his back. It wasn't worse than knowing he could take my mind.

Just as suddenly, it was over. The silence was as frightening as the fury had been moments before. I realized that I was lying on my side in a crater made by the gyrations of the once stable world.

"Amelia?" Denali coughed and held me closer. "Are you all right?"

"I don't know," I responded. "Are you?"

"I don't know. Can you move?"

"Do you think it's over?" I whispered, shamelessly burying my head in his shoulder.

"It appears so." He held me closer yet. His hands were shaking as they touched me.

"We have to stop him, Denali." Anger rapidly followed fear.

"I know."

We managed to stand up and climb out of the crater. Fires were everywhere. Other people began to move around us.

Coughing, crying, the remaining inhabitants of Turia began to search for their loved ones. Security and fire alarms began to sound in the far distance. In the heart of the city, there was nothing but the sound of people crying in shock and disbelief.

We walked, crawling in some places where the streets had made mountains, trying to find someplace where the damage wasn't so severe. The tall, modern buildings that had been Turia's pride were blackened ruins in the night. The red of the skyline was a ring of fires that sent pillars of smoke and flame hundreds of meters into the sky.

Hastily thrown together security stations began to take in the injured and the lost as the city began to try to reclaim itself. Low flying shuttles pierced the darkness with white light as loudspeakers tried to help survivors reach safety.

Dazed, I watched as a med tech treated my ankle, broken in two places. Denali had three broken ribs and a deep cut to the forehead. Children, no longer crying, sat around me, staring into the night. There was no way of knowing if their parents were alive or dead.

"Amelia Gallant!" Kalatri Astri hailed me as he entered the station. His dress blue Echo uniform was dirty and torn.

"Gael?" I wondered, not seeing her red uniform.

"She's unharmed. We were fortunate to find shelter as the quake passed us. Are you all right?"

The med tech nodded and packed up his gear. "Go easy on that ankle for a day or two. It'll be fine."

I rotated it slowly. It was whole but a little stiff. The pain was gone and I smiled at the weary tech. "Thanks."

"I wish everything was as simple." He shook his head and moved into the main body of the station that had been a small office only an hour before.

Kalatri sat beside me on the flat bench. "I think it might be time to hear the rest of the story."

"It is not mine to tell," I replied simply. "And I don't see what it would change."

"This device is real." A haunted expression crossed his aquiline face. "Though the Rian council refuses to acknowledge it, we must act. Whatever information you have must be utilized to catch this madman."

"It won't change anything," Denali said, "but I don't have anything against the truth."

Kalatri glanced at me then stood and extended his hand to Denali. "I'm Agent Kalatri Astri."

"I am Denali Caishe, now from Earth, but formerly of Kittimatt." He took Kalatri's hand in the accepted Alliance greeting. "I'm Jerritt's half-brother."

For the first time, I saw the likeness, wondering how I'd missed it before. I finally understood what there was between the two men that had eluded me.

"Jerritt's father raped my mother. Although on Kittimatt, there is no such word. Especially for the Unnamed Ones. She was his property...just as I became his property when I was born."

Kalatri's eyes narrowed on Denali's dark face. "You're one of the Unnamed?"

"You're Rian," Denali challenged. "Touch my mind and feel the Rissan scars."

Kalatri was visibly taken aback. "My apologies, Sadoh. I was only surprised to find any of your people off-planet. I understood--"

"You're right, Agent Astri. I don't know if there are any others. I escaped when I was very young and was adopted by a family on Earth."

Gael burst into the station, her face smudged, her hand in bandages. "I found a shuttle that can take us to Mignon's. Kat, I--" She stopped short, her hand going to the weapon at her side. "Isn't he--?"

"This is Denali," Kalatri introduced them. "He's is going to help us find Jerritt, his half brother."

"We need all the help we can get." She took Denali's hand with her good one.

"You should have that looked at," Kalatri told her.

"It can wait," she replied, starting back. "The shuttle can't wait forever. We have to go."

"Always." Kalatri smiled grimly, following her rapidly moving form.

"Thanks," Denali said as I walked carefully to the shuttle with him.

"For what?"

"Giving me the chance to tell the tale myself. I know it was hard for you. Is your ankle all right?"

"It's fine," I told him. "Just a little stiff. Your ribs?"

"The same. You travel in impressive company. Astri and Klarke are tops in their fields."

"They're good people," I answered, starting to climb aboard the shuttle.

"With good resources."

It was a small shuttle, older, and probably not used often. They'd brought it out of storage to haul supplies and transport dead bodies out of the city.

"It was the best I could do." Gael shrugged when she looked at Kalatri. The shuttle lifted off and slowly made its way across the city's fire-lit skies. Its cargo was us and three hastily covered bodies.

"They've decided to let the fires burn," Kalatri said in a low, angry voice. "Most of the buildings were made of a special metal that won't spread the blaze."

"This is only the beginning," Denali told us. "Jerritt only wanted to protect his way of life. Seeing this, he'll want more."

"The southern continent was swept by tidal waves just after the quakes hit Turia," Gael said flatly. "It seems he's already become greedy."

"Will it change how the Alliance feels about the trade negotiations?" I questioned.

"Not unless Jerritt can convince someone that he caused the disasters." Kalatri shook his head. "Ria's council will find it hard to believe."

The shuttle pilot put us down on the tiny side street that once neatly held Mignon's house. The street was split, some of the houses leaning almost into the gap. A few of the buildings had collapsed but there were no fires.

Mignon's doorway was slightly askew but the little Rian opened the door and laughed at our worried faces. "It's just what we expected." He ushered us into his house. The books and vids had flown everywhere. The floor was littered with them. Furniture was lying on its side. Denali and Gael moved to right a few chairs for everyone to sit down.

"You have a crystal amplifier." Kalatri laughed. "Mignon, you're amazing."

"Not as amazing as what I've found," he told him. He turned to Denali. "Do I know you?"

"This is Jerritt's half-brother, Denali. Also from Kittimatt. He's here to help us," Kalatri replied quickly. "What have you found?"

"It was the writing on the inside of the quarter piece that caught my attention. Lt. Klarke, see what you make of this."

Gael glanced at him then looked at the back of the piece of the emerid.

Denali was grim-faced as he glanced at me. "You managed to hold on to it."

"We brought it here after I was arrested."

"Thank all our Gods that Jerritt didn't know," Denali responded.

"It's strange," Gael said as Kalatri sat beside her on the wall bench. "It's almost Fargan but the words are jumbled."

"Does it make any sense?" Kalatri asked.

"Not really. At least not from what I can make of it."

"I think it might be a Fargan-based language," Mignon told us excitedly.

"How is that possible?" I asked.

"It's only possible if the colonizing force was Fargan," he told me. "And there were no Fargan colonizing groups that we know of."

"My people tell the myth of the emerid being the cause of our downfall," Denali spoke. "We came from another world with the device. When we found what you call Kittimatt, we took its people and recreated the world to be our own. But time took the emerid from us. Rissan was created to destroy our psi ability that controlled the world."

Everyone looked at Denali and I recalled how I'd mistaken him for a Fargan when we first met. There were strong differences between the races, but there were similarities as well. The dark skin and black eyes. A certain imperiousness that Gael shared with Denali and Jerritt.

"Of course, this won't help us against Jerritt." Mignon shrugged. "But it's worth some study. Especially if the travel restrictions are lifted from Kittimatt."

"That's true," Gael agreed. "But for now, Mignon, what about tracking the energy source that powered that thing? It had to leave an impression."

"Of possibly greater importance," Kalatri told us. "There is a strong telepath shielding Jerritt and his device."

"Rian?" Gael gasped at the concept.

"It has to be," he agreed. "There's nothing unusual, nothing out of place. Which is what the council of Ria will find if we tell them about Jerritt and the emerid."

"How do you know it's a shield?" I asked plainly.

"Because there's nothing, Amelia. A blank wall where there should be something, some strong emotion. Elation, victory, plans of escape. But it's like a smooth, clear surface."

"A Rian shielding a man who wants to destroy his own people." Gael shook her head. "How will we ever find Jerritt or the rest of the emerid?"

"I have an idea," Kalatri said. "We can attempt to find him while we trace the power source."

"He may have to use the weapon again before we can find it." Mignon shook his gray, grizzled head.

"But Amelia might be able to find him now. Before he can use it again" Kalatri turned to me.

"How?" I asked, appalled at the turn of the conversation. "I'm not a telepath."

"He seemed very interested in you at the ball." Gael nodded, catching the idea.

"More than interested," Denali joined. "But what you plan is too dangerous. Jerritt is unstable. As easily as he finds himself in love with Amelia, he could slit her throat."

"Or I could convince him that I'm willing to write his story," I heard myself volunteer. What was I saying?

"It might be the only way," Gael agreed. "Unless he's already left the planet."

"I don't think so." Kalatri's blue eyes were intent on my face. "But we'll need some way to track you."

"How, with a Rian shielding Jerritt and his group?" I swallowed hard on the sudden lump of fear tightening my throat. I didn't want to see Jerritt again, let alone pretend to like him. Yet, if I did pretend to want to be with him, he might keep his damn psi away from me until they could find him.

"There's a way," Kalatri told me. "If you're willing to let down your guard so that I can plant a psi tracker in your mind. Jerritt can shield himself and what he knows, but he can't keep me from finding a piece of myself in you."

I sighed heavily, glancing at Denali's dark face. It was possibly the only way to catch Jerritt before he could use the emerid again. But why did it have to be me?

Chapter Eighteen

It took Jerritt less time than any of us imagined to make his move.

I left Mignon's house, alone. Kalatri implanted his psi marker in my brain. There was no pain but the feeling of vulnerability made me uneasy. I'd been independent for a very long time and incidents like those on Quella made me wary. I worked long and hard for the protection Alara Cary's training brought me. Letting Kalatri past those guards was worse than finding myself naked in a Lunden spaceport. But not worse than my fate at Jerritt's hands.

Denali's eyes were intent on my face as I left Mignon's house but we didn't speak. I was glad. If he'd voiced any of the fears that I had, I might've fallen on the floor howling.

I followed our plan. There were no shuttles leaving or arriving on Ria legally while the planet fought to bring itself to some sense of restoration. In the meantime, countless persons trapped on the planet did what they could to help. I joined them, serving food in a long, low building that survived the quake. It was dark and dirty but the food was hot and the need was great.

People wandered in all day and far into the night. Some were dressed in evening clothes, wearing jewels and a blank look in their eyes. Some came in their night clothes, their only possessions. They'd all lost something or someone dear to them. They cried as they ate. Some silently, seemingly not noticing. Some wailing in their misery.

I put food on their plates, metal pans that were salvaged from a long-ago military installation. I listened to their stories and wiped away their tears. Sometimes I recorded what I heard. The clink of the plates, the hoarse throats and low voices. I knew the smell of the food and the pervasive acrid scent of smoke would stay with me for the rest of my life.

We took turns sleeping. The ambassador from Land's End took my place at the food line while I took hers in one of the long line of narrow cots. I didn't move when I finally lay down and I didn't think about the psi marker in my head. Or, for once, the next adventure.

But when I woke up, groggy and sore, I wasn't in the cot anymore or in the rough soup kitchen.

"Good morning," Jerritt said with a brilliant smile. "It's unfortunate, but it's too soon for you to be here with me. Go back to sleep, Amelia. I'll wake you when you're needed."

And to my surprise, I complied. Even as I fought to stay awake, I could feel consciousness slipping away from me. For just an instant, I thought about Kalatri. Then I could only hope his plan worked. My eyes closed and I faded into the darkness.

For the next few days, I drifted between consciousness and a shadowy world that had neither form nor substance. I opened my eyes and tried to fix on something that identified where I was at that time. Once there were golden curtains around me, once there were restraints on my arms and legs.

Nothing made sense. There was only one answer that came to me slowly. I was drugged. Images came and went, most unreal. Had we left Ria? Were Denali and the others looking for me?

Slowly, I began to understand and I began to fight back. It took long hours of concentration, finding a deep space within myself and slowly beginning to reclaim what Jerritt had taken away. I expanded my consciousness with every breath, pushing each heartbeat into thunder that echoed through my brain.

Finally, when my erstwhile jailer came to feed me the heavily drugged food paste, I was able to knock it from his hands. The effort proved to be more than I thought as I sank to my knees in the next instant.

"That's all right, Seir. Amelia and I want to be alone." Jerritt dismissed the other man who nodded and shuffled away.

"Leave...me...alone." I pushed each word past my thick tongue.

"In time, you won't feel that way," he told me with a smile. He looked a little like a fallen angel. Beautiful and evil.

"Where are we?"

"We're nearing Kittimatt." He sighed, his eyes caressing my face. "I apologize for keeping you in this state for so long, but it was necessary."

"I thought you wanted to destroy Ria."

"Ria, yes. Really just a test. I've decided to consolidate my forces here, however. Once I have my planet under my direct control, then I can work from a secure base. The Alliance won't dare challenge me."

I looked at him, trying to clear my vision. "What do you want from me?"

"You and I have a lifetime to discuss that. Try to be patient. We'll be docking at Kittimatt within the hour."

He left me and I sank back against the wall, staring at my prison. At least Ria was safe. I forced myself to think about something besides sleep. I tapped my recorder for the time and realized that a week had passed since I'd gone to sleep in that dark soup kitchen.

I recited Shakespeare in Fargan, worked excruciating mathematical problems in English, the Terran language. I got to my feet slowly and did some stretching exercises, working quickly to more difficult levels, pushing myself until I was sweating and my body ached.

Someone replaced my torn white gown with a clean black bodysuit. I didn't want to think about being unconscious when that happened. What I didn't know, in that case, was probably better for me. I found a comb and roughly pulled it through my tangled mass of hair. Patiently, singing an Azuelean love song to myself, I untangled it. And my brain.

I barely noticed the docking procedure, looking up only as Jewel came for me. His pale eyes glinted as they slid down my body. "You're to come with me."

"All right." I knew I had to play along until my time came.

The Azuelean's hand came to rest with disgusting familiarity on my shoulder. I ignored it and walked beside him off the ship. It was a large cruiser that they'd commandeered. We followed long passageways until the open door beckoned into watery sunlight.

"It's a new world," Jewel told me. "And it's all ours."

"You mean Jerritt's," I corrected him, wanting to know how much his Azuelean nature had changed. Did it include greed and desire for power?

"Jerritt's," he mused. "Yes. But what's Jerritt's is mine."

"Jerritt doesn't seem so willing to share. I think he knows you're his slave."

I felt his hand tighten on my arm. His mouth became an angry, thin line. But he didn't say a word. He marched me from the cruiser and told me to wait.

I looked out at the landscape, lush and green. Deep forest land sloped gently from the terraced farms on the gray hillsides. The scent of flowers and life abounded. There was no sign of any civilization around the spaceport. No cities or even large buildings rose near the crude docks.

Several people waited. Well dressed and followed by heavily burdened servants, they passed me without a second look. They were all dark and thin like Jerritt, their gestures elegant. Their sweetly-scented robes fluttered in the faint breeze.

Denali had been right about the women of the Unnamed. Tall, like the men, heavy set with strong features, they bore burdens that equaled the men they accompanied. Their garb was meager, especially in comparison with their masters.

But what most lingered with me were their eyes. Black, like Denali's, but empty. They stared at the ground, looking up only if their master called them. Not once did I see one of them look away or follow the beautiful line of dark hills in the distance.

Jewel returned, accompanied by a Rian who held what appeared to be the emerid in her hands. I could feel the force of her mind probe long before I could make out her features. She was beautiful, of course. Long blond hair and stunning face. Bluer eyes than a Terran summer sky.

I shielded myself quickly. Intense distrust marred her furrowed brow as she walked slowly up to me. The sharpness of her probe and the clumsy method she used would've been enough to send an untrained mind screaming into retreat. I returned her deliberate stare openly, never allowing my gaze to leave her acrid blue eyes.

"I could take you apart." She snapped her fingers in my face. "Your shields mean nothing to me. Be glad that Jerritt has decided otherwise."

It was patently a lie. The truth was in her eyes. If she could've destroyed me, she would've made her apologies to Jerritt later. She was strong, but there was something deceptive about that strength. Her skills needed refining badly. In comparison with Kalatri, her approach was like a thunderclap to a pin drop.

In time, however, there was every possibility that she could wear me down. I hoped that she wouldn't have that time. It was equally easy to speculate that she hadn't been able to detect Kalatri's psi beacon. This woman wouldn't have allowed it to continue unchallenged. Her face lit up as Jerritt came down the ramp still wearing his golden yellow robe from the trade meeting.

Another one of the delegation was with him, an older man who frowned heavily when he saw me.

"What do you want with that one?"

I seemed to be off the list of popular people for that day. Smiling sweetly at Jerritt as he reached me, I waited for his answer.

"What I do or don't do with this woman is none of your concern," he told the man, looking at me. "Look to your own part and don't question me again."

The older man uttered a few words in their language. One of them reminded me of the Fargan word for "son" and I recalled what Mignon said about the similarities between the two worlds. Could the man with Jerritt be the man who'd raped Denali's mother? Jerritt's father obviously condoned what his son had done.

"My father doesn't understand our relationship." Jerritt came up to me, passing the angry Rian woman without a glance. "He thinks little of anything but his own comforts these days."

"And you? What are you thinking as you kill innocent people to achieve your goals?"

"I am thinking of the future, Amelia. Of history that I'm going to make and you're going to record."

"Why me, Jerritt?" I looked into his eyes, trying to fathom some grain of truth from him. "Why not someone who sympathizes with your cause? I'm sure there are some excellent writers here on your world."

"But they're not as well known throughout the Alliance, as you are, Amelia! And they don't have such beautiful red hair and eyes the color of precious gems. You and I have much more between us than just the writing of my story." He gazed down intently into my eyes as we walked then stopped abruptly. "Deny, if you can, that you find me attractive. That you don't wish to lie with me even without the use of psi."

Our audience was as interested in my response as Jerritt himself, with varying reasons.

"Well-" I began to formulate my response.

"You see," he crowed. "You can't! History, Amelia Gallant, will paint us together."

There was no relief for any of us in his answer, just a tightening of the spiral of tension. The sun shone on us, warm and clear. The green land was laid out before us like a tapestry. Tiny white dwellings dotted the verdant vista surrounding the much larger estates that loomed over them.

The crude space docks were located on a mountaintop that appeared to have only one access. A poorly made, friction run vehicle dragged down the mountainside along a cable. It was returned by a slow, difficult process of pulling the cable taut.

A pathetic old man was chained to the vehicle, guiding it down the mountain for us. He never looked up at any of us, never spoke. I watched as he began the long process to return to the top of the mountain.

"You must learn not to pity them," Jerritt told me, seeing the direction of my gaze.

I looked away without a response. I knew I'd stop breathing first.

"Where are they?" Jerritt's father asked impatiently. "They should've been here waiting."

"I don't know." Jerritt turned abruptly away from me. "Alinore?" He addressed the Rian woman.

She concentrated briefly. "They're coming. There was some trouble...I don't know."

"What?" he demanded harshly. "I don't have you here to guess!"

"I see them," Jewel announced. "Here they come!"

The land rover came slowly down the long, trailing dirt road. Its engine was loud and smoky in the clear air, sputtering to a stop just ahead of where we waited. I marveled at its antique appearance and the combustion engine that powered it. Where did they appropriate such a thing? It seemed to me that Kittimatt needed to be brought into our century in more than just customs.

"What are they thinking?" Jerritt's father demanded imperiously, not moving from his stance.

Before anyone else could speak or move, a man and woman jumped from the land rover. They pulled out hand weapons and began firing randomly at us.

Instinctively, I hit the ground, glad that their weapons were not state of the art. The older weapons hit their targets and bounced off into the air. The 42 Walker H. E. P. would've burned through their marks and hit whoever stood behind. In this case, me.

Jewel pulled out his weapon and began to return their fire. I could see Jerritt was down. Alinore was cowering behind some rocks and scrub brush, her face white with fear.

It was over as quickly as it began. The man from the land rover was down within seconds of Jewel's return fire.

Jerritt, to my surprise, gave a loud cry and rushed at the woman, ignoring her fire until he threw himself on her. His weight and the surprise of his attack pushed the woman to the ground. He dug his heel into her hand until with a sharp sound of anguish, she released the weapon. "Who are you?"

"Let me kill her," Jewel screamed. "Let me kill her!"

"I need to know," Jerritt yelled back at him before he turned back to the woman. "Who are you?"

"Your enemy for as long as I live!" she answered in a cultured voice taut with pain and fear.

"That's all I need to know." Jerritt fired the weapon point blank into her head. Her features melted into a pool of charred flesh.

"Who was she?" Jewel asked frantically.

"Her exact identity doesn't matter." Jerritt got up from the woman's dead body. "It's enough to know that she was of my own people. She was of the First! One of those who wish the change. But how did she know where to find me?" He went to where Alinore knelt. "And why didn't I know what they had in mind?" He jerked her to her feet roughly by her hair. She trembled before him.

"I...something was interfering," she stammered then glanced at me. "Or someone."

Jerritt hit her hard across the face and threw her down to the ground where she wept bitterly.

"You're worse than them," he told her violently.

"Your father is dead." Jewel leaned over the yellow-cloaked form on the ground.

"It might have been me." Jerritt dusted off his robe. "The two of you had better be more alert." He offered me his hand. "You aren't hurt?"

"No." I brushed dark wet dirt from my bodysuit. "I'm fine."

He held my hand as we walked to the land rover. "You see why you shouldn't sympathize with anyone? Because there's no one who wouldn't kill for their cause. Even the most meek, the most mild."

"Your people don't remind me of meek or mild, Jerritt," I replied, sickened. I wished it was over.

He laughed. "No? What about your Azuelean friends then? Could they have been more humble? More temperate? Yet, see how they changed for their cause. How they killed."

It was an argument I couldn't win. An argument with a madman. I looked into his black, glittering eyes as we sat in the rover and knew that I'd been wrong. Jerritt wasn't evil. He was insane. And I'd volunteered to try and stop him.

Had Kalatri been able to trace his signal? Or was I lost on that desolate world with a madman?

Chapter Nineteen

I spent the long drive from the space docks to Jerritt's estate calming myself. If Kalatri didn't show up with reinforcements within the next day, I'd do whatever was necessary to get away by myself. The people of Ria were safe. The Unnamed of Kittimatt were at Jerritt's mercy. But so was I.

I'd been in tight positions before in my travels. There was always a way out if you were patient and watched for it. The trick was not to make any fatal mistakes before that time. In Jerritt's case, that was a monumental task.

His estate was huge, thousands of kilometers, surrounded by hundreds of white houses. They were the domain of the Unnamed, I learned quickly. They kept the land for their masters and in return were given small portions of the harvest to feed themselves. They weren't educated, could never be more than slaves to their owner's demands. Their master could choose to name or number them, but weren't required to do so. Their bodies belonged to their master.

Rissan had been introduced to keep the Unnamed Ones, who were strongly telepathic, in check. It was assumed that the First were never gifted so they developed the substance to gain control. At its best, Rissan only destroyed telepathy. At its worst, it caused retardation and death. Once it was smuggled from the planet by some enterprising pirate, Rissan caused a panic throughout the Alliance.

For just a few credits, anyone could buy the substance and use it against any known telepath. For Rians, it was a nightmare. Telepaths couldn't detect the presence of the substance until it was too late.

If Denali's myths were correct, the Unnamed Ones were once the cruel masters of that world. If so, perhaps they deserved their fate. But I couldn't look at the faces of their children and equalize their misery so easily.

I stood in the big house that looked down on its slaves. Crystal was used generously in the décor. Gold filament outlined its walls, doorways and windows. Natural springs had been tapped to bring water into the house in fountains and cisterns. Flowers were everywhere. A beaming household staff greeted us at the door. They weren't permitted to speak until their master spoke. Jerritt refused them that privilege as he stalked by them, pulling me with him.

"Food," Jewel tried to imitate eating as he tried to tell the staff what he required.

Jerritt snapped out a terse command in his own tongue even as we raced up a circular flight of stairs.

The staff came alive, drawing Alinore and Jewel into the house.

"I must have some time to prepare," Jerritt told me. "I need you to be there beside me. You must see everything from now on."

He pulled me into a sumptuous room hung with gold cloth, the floor crystal studded black onyx. The furniture was ornately carved from dark glossy wood I didn't recognize, probably something exclusive to the planet. "I must get you a recorder or something to relate the events as they happen."

"What are you going to do, Jerritt?" I asked as though I was giving consideration to his project.

"I plan a small demonstration of the emerid among my peers. Once the government has seen and felt my power, then it will be time for me to take my place at the head of it. And believe me, there are plenty who will follow me. Unlike those pathetic creatures that killed my father."

I had no doubt. It was amazing to me that any of the First wanted the change to come. Their lives were idyllic. "Your world seems to be so sparsely populated."

"Yes." He smiled. "That's true. A demonstration of the magnitude of the one on Ria would be difficult. But we have a place. Government meets there. It will suffice."

"What will you use this time," I queried, running my hand along the silky gold material of the drapes that clung to the wall. "Water? Wind? Quakes?"

He laughed. "I knew you'd begin to see. We're alike, you know. I could sense it from your books."

He put his hands on my shoulders and pulled me close against him. I knew from previous experience the strength in those hands, the unpredictability of his mood. I stood very still in his grasp. He controlled the psi very well, only allowing a shimmer of it to contact me.

"I must wait until tomorrow to use the emerid against them," he whispered, kissing my neck. "Until then, there's much to do. Wait here, Amelia. I'll come back for you."

I went to stand at the window that overlooked the green valley far below. I could imagine that my family would expect me to throw myself from it at that time. Instead, I began to plot how I could push Jerritt from it. It seemed to me that if I had a good plan, Jerritt's death would accomplish the same thing as Endo or Echo catching him.

But it would have to be fast and sure. A mistake could cost me my life and the lives of many others. Kalatri explained that my death would also sever the psi bond between us. If he was tracking me, he might never find Jerritt.

There was a timid knock at the door and when I called to enter, a servant came in bearing a tray of food. The sight of his ragged clothing and submissive attitude made the thought of food curdle in my stomach. "I'm really not hungry," I told him in Fargan, hoping a part of the meaning might seep through.

"You may not be," he replied in Alliance. "But I'm starving." Denali grinned at me from beneath his bedraggled black hair. His eyes were alight in an otherwise dirty face and his clothes barely covered his healthy frame. But he was a welcome sight.

We fell on our knees and kissed until we couldn't breathe. I didn't care how dirty he was. It was wonderful to have him beside me. "What are you doing here? I thought you'd--"

"I had to come for you." He kissed me again and held me so tight that I was afraid he'd hurt his ribs again. "Nothing mattered besides that."

I was suitably impressed by that answer. I'm sure I had a stupid grin on my face but I didn't care.

"Besides, did you expect Agent Astri with that mane of blond hair and cheekbones carved from ivory?" He shrugged. "In order to keep the psi link between you, he has to sit in a chair and keep himself attached to the bond. Gael and I came down to the planet a day ago as soon as we realized where you were headed. She looks enough like my people and we worked on the language problem. I think she'll pass."

"Where is she?"

"Out in the fields. They only needed one of us at the house."

"Denali--" I wanted to tell him what was in my heart. It had come fast and hard for me but I was in love with him.

"I know." He returned my gaze keenly. "Are you all right?"

I nodded, not trusting my voice.

"Good. I had a feeling Jerritt would be headed here. He plans to use the emerid here, doesn't he?"

"Yes. As soon as your government convenes. He plans to teach them as he taught Ria."

"That gives us a day then to get a few reinforcements here." He looked down at his hands then back at my face. "There's no way to take you out of this now without giving everything away. You know that, don't you?"

I nodded. I'd known it from the start.

"I have to leave you, Amelia." He took me in his arms again and searched my eyes. "But I'll be close by. If you have to, take him out. Don't worry about finding the emerid or anything else. Just take him out."

I nodded and he seemed relieved. "I'll be fine. Don't worry about me."

He uttered something dark and angry then kissed me hard on the mouth until my senses were drawn from me as surely as Jerritt's psi could do it. "I love you. Don't forget that. I'll always love you."

As sentiments go, it was terrifying. It sounded like one or both of us were going to die. Before I could tell him that I felt the same, he left me there with his eyes downcast and his gait shuffling. I knew I'd never really understand what it took to bring a freed slave back to his former life. I only knew how much it meant that he'd come for me. A loner for all of my life, for once I was glad not to be alone.

Jerritt returned shortly, not with a recorder but with an old fashioned device that I could use to write the account of his victory. I took it from him with a smile, not bothering to tell him that the only thing I'd ever record would be his defeat.

Alinore returned with him, her so blue eyes following me balefully. She crossed the room like a slinky cat and seated herself carefully near the wide window.

"I must get in contact with the rest of my followers." Jerritt laughed gleefully, pacing the room in his yellow robe. "I must send messages at once!" The light of madness in his eyes, he strode out and left us alone.

"Well, you've managed to deceive him this far. How long do you think you can keep it up? What does he want with you?" she demanded in a growl, striding restlessly to the window. "Why does he have you here?"

"He wants me to write his story." I shrugged. "He seems to be obsessed with the idea."

"I could do as well."

"Do you think I want to be here?" I demanded angrily. "I'm here willingly so he doesn't consume my mind. That's the only reason."

"Do you think he'd let you go now and live?" She laughed. "There's too much to lose. He's too close to his goal."

I watched her patiently. "Just so I get the story right. Why did you join forces with him? Most Rians hate Rissan and the planet it came from."

"He promised me credits and position. Something I couldn't attain on my world. Something you wouldn't understand."

"You're right," I agreed pleasantly. "You're beautiful and clever. You are obviously a strong telepath."

"No," she corrected angrily. "I'm not strong. My abilities are limited. I could only be offered the most menial position on Ria."

I thought about what Kalatri said but didn't dare question her about the shield. Perhaps all her energy was focused into it and she was incapable of more. On Ria, a protective shield wouldn't be considered much of a talent since all Rians protected themselves.

Jerritt and Jewel returned at that moment and kept me from having to sympathize with her. She sat sulkily by the window while Jewel set the emerid on a small table near the door. I touched it, examined it, compared it to the single piece we'd found of it.

The entire face of the man was visible, the aura bold about his head and shoulders. The writing we'd found on the single piece would've been completed by the rest of the device. All together it was no bigger than a com link, and lightweight at that.

"How does it work?" I wondered, hoping Jerritt would see it as showing interest.

Instead, he pushed me roughly away from the table. "That isn't important! You're here to write about me, not the device! It's what I do with the emerid that's important, not the emerid itself. In itself, it is a blasphemy."

I gritted my teeth and sat down obediently. I really wasn't very good at diplomacy. It would've been far easier to simply kill Jerritt and destroy the emerid. I concentrated on what he was saying because I didn't have a weapon and would probably end up getting myself killed if I tried anything else.

It was important that I was there, I repeated frequently. Kalatri could trace the weapon when Jerritt made his move. If I killed Jerritt and the weapon fell into other hands in the First, it could still be used to destroy Kittimatt. I just had to sit still and endure Jerritt's boring biography until they made their move.

"Are you getting everything?" He whipped his lean form around to demand of me.

"Of course," I replied blandly, getting an idea. "How important do you want me to make Jewel's part in this?"

"Jewel?" He laughed darkly. "He has no part in this but that of my servant."

I saw Jewel's pale blue face twist in silent rage but he said nothing. It wouldn't take much to push the Azuelean against Jerritt. He saw himself as being an important part of the scheme. Jerritt saw him as just another of the countless Unnamed.

I sat and wrote as Jerritt paced and rambled on about his life and his plans. My hand went numb and daylight waned from the window. I could barely make out the scribbling marks I was making on the paper, hoping to fob him off if he asked to see it.

A daring servant called out that a large number of Jerritt's sympathizers had arrived at the estate. I noticed the creature didn't enter the chamber and fled quickly after the pronouncement.

"Let's go down at once." Jerritt grabbed my hand and made for the door. "Jewel, stay here with the emerid. And you, worthless one," he addressed Alinore, "keep watch in your own way. If there's another repeat of the incident that killed my father, I'll have your life in exchange."

Alinore looked away. Jewel nodded his assent but didn't speak.

"It's happening, Amelia," Jerritt told me as we ran down the stairs. "After all this time, it's coming together. I'll be everything I've ever dreamed."

I didn't want to feel the bump of fear that nudged my heart but it was there anyway. Looking into his eyes was uncomfortable, knowing my position could unravel at any moment. The wrong word, the unwary facial expression and it could mean my life.

Jerritt was right when he said that he had many followers among the First. The huge entryway was filled with them. The crowd spilled into the high vaulted dining room beyond. They cheered at our approach. Servants scurried with refreshments between the guests, frequently receiving a slap or rough push for their efforts.

I saw Gael and hastily averted my eyes for fear of giving her away. She was taller than the average servant of the Unnamed but her strength was equal and her face blended well with theirs. Truly, they resembled Fargans. It was easy to see how Mignon could be right about their ancestry.

I kept my eyes carefully on the group immediately surrounding Jerritt only to find Denali come into my field of vision. He was serving wine right under Jerritt's nose! While the Unnamed Ones were very similar in appearance, surely he knew Jerritt would pick him out of any crowd. That he was foolishly risking everything just to thumb his nose at his half-brother was unbelievable.

He offered me wine soundlessly from his tray, glancing at me over the top of the glasses. I took a glass and looked away, hoping Jerritt wouldn't see him.

But Denali was right in his assessment of his enemy. Jerritt was too immersed in his success to notice someone as trivial as a servant. Flushed with power, it would've taken a slap in the face to see his half-brother directly in front of him. It was all I could do to stand beside Jerritt as I watched Denali make his rounds of the room. I felt as though I was walking the fine edge of a knife.

We walked slowly through the crowd, Jerritt regal in his splendor. Standing beside him, my resolve nearly faded. He was a hero to those people. A deity of sorts. In the midst of them, I felt suffocated and angry.

Halfway through the crowd, Jerritt appeared to forget my presence. I felt his hold on my hand grow slack, then he released me. I waited where I was for a few minutes, watching him as he continued on his victory tour. More of the First poured into the hall, eager to press Jerritt's hand and to hear the assurances that everything would remain as it was on their world. Beside them, their slaves moved silently and unseen. An enormous crawling machine, well-oiled and cruelly honed.

I listened to the masters, fighting a hopeless battle against change. They were pitiful in their fear of what the future would bring for them. What if the next generation of the Unnamed were born without the benefit of Rissan? A generation of telepaths could destroy the fragile balance of their lives. Who would work their soil and harvest their crops? How would their children survive?

"Now that I have shown the Alliance what we can do," Jerritt calmed their fears, "they'll leave us alone, trade with us on our own terms. You'll see!"

His words were greeted with laughter and gratitude. I had to admit, Jerritt was an impressive figure in his yellow robe, his black eyes burning with vengeance and belief in his way of life. The First had heard the news from Ria. Hundreds dead, damage beyond calculation. A bewildered people trying to understand what happened to them. They rejoiced in their victory over the Alliance.

Quietly, I began to ease back from Jerritt, letting the wild crowd separate us. I slipped slowly towards the stairway, becoming lost in the press. Jerritt was too excited, too full of his promises to notice that I was gone. I didn't know what I was going to do as I felt the bottom step under my foot. I searched for any sign of Gael or Denali but didn't see either of them. An idea formed slowly in my mind. But I had to work fast.

I walked slowly, trying to keep my presence at a minimum, willing myself to invisibility to those around me. There was something I could do without anyone's help. It would only take a moment to push the emerid from the high window. And only a very good lie to get Jewel out of the room.

Chapter Twenty

With any luck, I could destroy the device and go back downstairs before anyone noticed. With the emerid gone, there'd be no danger in taking on Jerritt and the others. A few weapons in the hands of Alliance troops and the revolution would be over.

The upper floors were deserted. I ran the distance between the stairs and the room that held the emerid. I put my hand to the door, then stopped as I heard voices.

"You've watched him," Alinore said encouragingly. "You know how to make it work."

"Yes but--"

"If we have control of the device, we have the power. Jerritt can't make fun of you anymore. We can control any world we want to go to."

There was a long silence and heavy breathing. Something seemed to be developing between Jewel and Alinore. Something that would make it harder to get rid of the emerid.

"What do you want me to do?" Jewel asked breathlessly.

"Show me how to use the device. Maybe there's some way to use it against them."

"Then we could get away with the thing?" Jewel began to catch on to the Rian's strategy.

"What are you doing?" Denali asked me softly, making me jump as he sneaked up behind me.

"There's a problem." I nodded at the door. "Jewel and Alinore."

"The Rian shield?"

"The same. They want their part of the emerid."

"It's in there?"

"It was when I left. I don't think we'll be able to get it away from them."

"Let's see." He pulled a single shot weapon from a cleverly concealed place in his rags and stepped to the side of the door. "Open it. I'll stand guard out here."

I pushed open the door. The emerid was still in its place on the small table. Jewel stood to one side of it. Alinore to the other. They both looked up when I entered.

"Jewel, Jerritt wants you downstairs right away," I lied, "with the emerid."

Alinore stayed his immediate movement. "She's lying. She wants the emerid for herself."

I laughed. "I haven't wanted to destroy any worlds lately. But Jerritt will have both your heads if Jewel doesn't come downstairs to show off the emerid." I could see Jewel wavering, wanting to please his new mistress as well as his old master, not sophisticated enough to see that he was being used by them both.

There was a sudden commotion in the hall outside. I hoped that Denali was handling the problem. But I didn't dare take my eyes off the emerid.

Alinore looked up, about to speak. Her words caught in her throat.

Jerritt came into the room, throwing Denali's inert body before him to the floor. He attached a chain that protruded from the wall to his ankle. "Did you think this would stop me, Amelia? This creature could never be a match for me." He looked at us individually. "All of you working against me. Like everyone else."

"Jerritt, no--" Jewel tried to reach out to him.

Jerritt glanced at him briefly then fired the weapon he'd taken from Denali directly into the Azuelean's chest. Jewel crumpled with a look of wonder on his face, his hand still reaching for Jerritt.

"It won't do any good to kill us." Denali sat up slowly, shaking his head. A large, dark weal covered the side of his face. "There are Echo and Endo troops already on the planet. Give up the emerid. Or die. Either pleases me."

Jerritt laughed. "Death means nothing to me, brother. This world means less to me if it's going to be destroyed by people like you."

"There's no power source here to use with the emerid like you did on Ria," Denali told him bluntly. "You won't leave this room and live. Give me the weapon. We'll take the emerid."

Jerritt's eyes were full of fire as he said something in a low threatening tone.

"You wouldn't dare," Denali whispered. "Not even you-"

"Yes! Call off your troops, brother. Or we'll all die with this world," Jerritt promised.

Denali pushed himself up with the aid of the wall and stood carefully back against it. His ankle was still chained to the wall. "I can't call off anyone, Jerritt! They aren't my troops to command. You destroyed half a planet. They want you to stand trial for your crime."

"Only half a planet?" Jerritt asked demonically. "I can do so much better here, brother."

I watched in horror as he began to roughly attach the hand weapon to the emerid.

Alinore, sensing rather than understanding what she was witnessing, rushed Jerritt, trying to push him away from the device. He slapped at her as though she were nothing more than an insect and she fell, crying to the floor.

Knowing a better time wouldn't come, I added to her attack, kicking the weapon from his hand to the floor. He rounded on me with a snarl and I dodged his heavy-handed blow.

"Amelia," he yelled. "You can't stop me!"

I ran for the weapon as Jerritt did. We reached it at the same time, laying our hands on it. With a move that was as savage as it was deft, he brought down a metal cuff on my hand. I could hear the bones snap before the raging pain blurred my vision.

Continuing with his grim task, Jerritt returned to tying the weapon with its potent power source to the emerid. "Power sources aren't unique to a high-tech world like Ria, brother. This weapon will be the catalyst that will prevent change here on our world for some time to come, I think. Even though you outwitted me by finding the last piece of the emerid, the three I have will be enough force."

"You're insane," Denali told him.

"It doesn't matter anymore." Jerritt finally got the weapon attached to the emerid. "We'll all be martyrs to our causes. Goodbye, Amelia. I'll miss your sweet face."

I couldn't think of anything but the pain for a moment after he'd broken my hand. It was long enough for Jerritt to reach a critical stage in his preparations. When the weapon overloaded, the planet would be destroyed.

There was only one way left to us, only one thing I could think of that could stop him. I activated the recorder on my arm, replaying the tones of the triese lea. It was all I had, a last desperate act that might work.

"Don't resist," I yelled at Denali as the chimes began. "Whatever you do, don't resist!"

I could see by the look on his dark face that he barely understood.

Jerritt laughed. "What is that, Amelia? I expected more! I...I...what--?"

Alinore screamed as the tones became louder, more powerful.

I relied on the fact that I'd heard the tones before and survived. I wasn't sure if they could be duplicated on the recorder. But as I watched, Jerritt fell to the floor, his reach still extended to the weapon. It would only take a touch to set the weapon on destruct and create a new, more powerful force that would decimate Kittimatt.

I tried to see if Denali had been able to keep himself from fighting the sounds but the chimes overpowered me as well. Even though I'd been exposed to the sounds, the strength and power of the triese lea wasn't to be borne lightly. In my last moments of clarity, I saw Jerritt's hand fall to the floor beside his body and remain still.

It wasn't long. I sat up unsteadily, trying to adjust my eyes to the room around me. Denali. His face flashed through my mind. But I couldn't focus my vision to find him. Colors, lights, blurred.

A steady high pitched whine became an explosion. For an instant, I thought I'd failed to stop Jerritt. The heavy door was blown free of its hinges, flying across the room. The large glass window smashed into fragments. I covered my head with my arms and protected my face.

"Over there," Gael's voice directed.

"Check Jerritt." Kalatri sent a heavily armed agent across the room.

I watched the commotion with teary eyes, finally able to see despite the flow of water down my face.

"Are you all right?" Gael asked, talking to me as though I were a small child.

"I'm fine," I replied. "Except for a headache. Denali?"

"He's all right." Gael clearly enunciated every word for me.

Kalatri frowned at me. "What happened in here?"

"I was trying to stop Jerritt."

"You did. He must have been trying to create a catalyst with a 42 Walker and the emerid. But before he could push the destruct mechanism, he died."

"He's dead?"

Gael nodded. "The girl, the Rian, is alive but she's incapable of speech."

"Or any other mental function," Kalatri finished. "And Jerritt is dead. But how--?"

"But Denali's all right?" I asked again, trying to think but clearly failing.

"Yes. He's all right," Denali's familiar voice replied. "Blind and tone deaf, possibly crippled, but alive."

"What did you do here, Amelia?" Kalatri demanded but didn't reinforce it with his mind. "What happened?"

"I'm not really sure," I replied carefully. "It was all so fast."

"You used the recording you made of the triese lea," he answered for me. "Tell me that I'm wrong."

"You're wrong," I lied quietly. I hoped, sincerely. "Look. Here's my recorder. Listen."

There were blurred sounds of the soup kitchen on Ria, the crying of the people, the sound of the metal plates hitting the tables. Nothing else.

"I don't know how you did it." Kalatri shook his head.

"But it worked," Gael intervened. "The emerid has been confiscated until Kittimatt has been stabilized. Jerritt is dead. What else remains?"

"The method," Kalatri continued. "What killed that man and destroyed the Rian's mind if not the triese lea?"

"What did you hear, Denali?" Gael asked him. I held my breath.

"I didn't hear anything," he responded. "It was more like an inner explosion. I thought it was a psi force."

"I guess that's it then." Gael smiled at Kalatri. "What else is there to say?"

* * *

Nothing. Everything was accounted for and classified neatly in the Echo and Endo reports on the matter. Officially, Jerritt's death was by Cause or Causes unknown. The Alliance officials that descended on the planet decided the survivors would have to be examined completely before they left Kittimatt.

Denali and I were quarantined separately, carefully questioned during our mental and physical exams. He gave me a quick lead to what he planned to say when he answered Gael's question. I shamelessly used the same ruse. I spent three long days in a small, scrupulously clean room before they decided that there was no reason to keep me there. By that time, quiet Kittimatt was in an uproar.

The government was angry. Hundreds of Alliance, Echo and Endo groups staked out the planet. Using the disaster on Ria as a political maneuver, they were systematically restructuring Kittimatt while its people watched helplessly.

I looked for Denali as soon as I was able to leave. He was out on the planet with his people and a few of the First that volunteered to help him. They were trying to find a way to get the people organized to combat total integration by the Alliance. While the two groups were in chaos and battling each other, there was no hope.

I wanted to see him, but his negotiations were critical to the survival of his world. And while I would've loved to explore the unknown regions of Kittimatt, I was summarily dismissed on the next Echo cruiser headed back to Ria.

From there, I traveled to Farga where I lost myself in the crooked streets and the dark taverns. I drank too much rum and spent too many nights on the street waiting for the sunrise. I woke one morning in the dim sunlight, my head aching and my pockets empty. My companion was a stranger whose smell was only worse than the sewer we slept beside.

It was just a phase, I told myself, pushing my snoring friend off of me. And it was time to end it. I was broke, dirty and sick. I refused to call Max. I wasn't ready to be found and respectable.

So I did what anyone who didn't want to be found did with no money. I signed on to work my passage on a freighter taking med supplies to Parsis-3. The hours were long and hard, cleaning the ship and counting the stock. Mostly I moved crates of supplies by hand from one room to another. Then back again.

The food was good. Freighters always hired real chefs and used the best supplies. I slept in a room with a hundred beds but they were clean and safe.

The rest of the crew took me as I came, a woman looking for a way to travel cheaply. There was no news from the outside but long hours after work to listen to music from everywhere in the Alliance. We played poker with electrical parts and spun lies for our companions.

When we reached Parsis-3, I checked into a hotel, using my credits, knowing Max would find me with the usage. But it would be morning before the network would catch up with me. I had one last night to myself. My anonymity would elude me once the circus began again. I called home and was greeted by Selph's chirrups as he flew about Betti's head, getting entangled in her hair.

"I heard all about it, Amelia," she said proudly. "I can't wait to read the new book. When are you coming home?"

"As soon as I can," I told her with a smile. "Take care of Selph for me."

"You got it. You know, a whole bunch of chocolate, real Terran chocolate, came here for you. But Mom--"

"Eat it." I laughed, thinking of the earnest hotel employee on Padda that earned her wages for the year. "Enjoy it! Save some for me. I'll be there soon."

"Thanks. See you later!"

I ended the com link and knew that I should contact Max but didn't have the heart for it. "The morning's soon enough," I told myself, reaching for the purple blush cloth suit the hotel sent on my request. I'd been in dark and dirty places, working until I thought my back would break. I wanted a little fun and excitement. Parsis had a good nightlife. I wanted to taste it before going back to quiet Lunden to write my book about Jerritt and the emerid.

The host acknowledged me with a nod of his head, his eyes resting appreciatively on my face and form. It was pleasant after being anonymous for so long.

I paid for a table on a balcony that overlooked a river made of crystal stars. They twinkled in the darkness while the real stars burned overhead. The floor was clear, allowing complete vision of the lights. Glass flowers that were grown only on Parsis decorated the table. The soft swoosh of artificial clouds surrounded the terrace.

Too much Fargan rum had left a bitter taste in my mouth so I declined a drink before dinner. I ordered my food and waited, listening to the low murmurs of people around me, the sounds of the river below.

"May I join you?" he asked politely, his white suit stiff and correct, his black eyes glinting in the starlight.

"How did you find me?" I asked in disbelief, almost coming out of my seat.

"You haven't answered my question, Amelia."

"All right." I nodded. "If you answer my question. How did you find me?"

Denali took the chair opposite me and a waiter came at once to take his order.

"So?" I asked again when we were alone.

"It's my job to find people who don't want to be found. Your publisher, Max Stein, was quite impressed that I knew you'd be here tonight. He was happy to give me the job."

"What job?" I wondered in amazement.

"Your security needs are going to be served by my company from now on. We'll provide your assistants when you travel, handle security at your press conferences, etc."

"Assistants? Denali, you can't have heard my reputation for losing my assistants. Max is too stubborn--"

"That won't be happening anymore. I think I've found the right person to accompany you on your travels from now on."

"Your people--" I faltered, desperately wanting him to be there. It was amazing just looking at his handsome face. I wanted to sit there forever.

"My people will have to find their own way with the help of diplomats and social workers. There's more than a lifetime of work to be done there. Amelia, I have to ask you. The triese lea--"

"It's gone." I picked up my napkin. "I couldn't save the recording when I used it. That's why Kalatri couldn't find it on my recorder. I'd have to go back and get it again."

"It saved our lives," he acknowledged. "I can't fault you for having it."

"Echo could and would. But it's gone, Denali."

"So, now you're going to find the box of Khun," he said easily. "After a short time on Lunden to write your book."

"I'm not really sure. I'll write the book, yes. But I don't know about the box. It's a myth, you know. No one has seen it for centuries."

"And then it killed the ones who found it."

"Yes. You're very well versed," I complimented. "For an immigrant from Kittimatt."

"And I think you'll be more than ready to search for the golden box of Khun after you've had a vacation. Maybe a nice beach. Hot sun and cool nights."

I had to smile. "You're probably right."

"You look like your time on Farga was less a cure than a time to forget with too much rum."

I stared at him in the starlight. "You are good! I can accept that you traced me here somehow, but Farga...that's too hard to believe. Psi tracer, Denali?"

He smiled at me serenely and shook his dark head. "We all have our secrets, Amelia Gallant. I intend to spend the rest of my life learning yours."

And it was then that I began to remember what Regheyr had said about the triese lea. I looked at Denali again as our food was brought to us, but a change like the one I suspected wouldn't be visible. Still, the Rissan had been in his system for years. There was only one way to find out. I love you, Denali.

"Eat, Amelia," he said quietly. "There are many adventures left ahead, my love."

It might take me a lifetime but he had to know that I'd have the answer, sooner or later.

~The End~

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