Which nearly convinced him all over again that some- where, someonelikely Motherhad slipped a changeling in on them.

But Deymorin had caught that real fear and insisted oth- erwise, and said they should believe when Mikhyel said the Northern Crescent would shut down at midnight tonight, and prepare accordingly, and to be ready, in case Garetti made a grab at Rhomatum itself.

They'd warned the Southern Crescent days ago about the impending demonstration via carefully worded messages, couriered directly to the node ringmasters. After his contact with his brothers, they'd sent the simple: Midnight tonight via the message encoders on the Tower's communication level.

If only the clocks had been similarly affected. If the clocks of the web hadn't continued to synchronize with Rhomatum's Cardinal ring, this coordinated demonstration wouldn't be possible. They'd be in bed instead of "It's time," Lidye said.

Nikki's heart skipped a beat. He looked from one woman to the next, each exuding calm confidence, and suddenly realized himself for very young and very foolish.

"I can't . . ." he whispered.

"You must," Lidye answered. Coldly.

"You did it before, Nikki," Kiyrstin said and held out an imperative hand. "And this time, Deymorin and Mi- khyel will be there to help. You won't be alone."

He stood up, took her hand, and felt strength and confi- dence flood him.

Lidye said, "Controlling Rhomatum, Nikaenor Rho- mandi dunMheric, means being more stubborn than gran- ite"

"Call on Deymorin for that," Kiyrstin muttered.

Lidye frowned. "And you must be clever"

"That's Mikhyel," he said.

He didn't think she liked that answer any better than Kiyrstin's.

"Then . . ." He blushed, ashamed he should have to ask.

"Then what is my part?"

Kiyrstin chuckled. "Keeping your brothers from murder- ing each other."

He chuckled, too, and felt his gut relax. "They're past that."

"Never."

He laughed aloud, and reached out for Deymorin . . .

But Deymorin wasn't there.

8 8 8.

"Mikhyel, for the love of Darius, it's time! What is it?"

Mikhyel held out the paper, silent inside and out.

Rhomatum's faltered. Pasingarim's lost faith. Shatum to back NC.

Shamrii "Shamrii? Who the hell is Shamrii?"

"Shamrii dunKharec. Shatum. One of the secretaries I dealt with. This was delivered to me at the competition. I couldn't look at it there, and I'd forgotten about it. She's trying to help."

"You trust her?"

"Better than assuming otherwise. If there's even a possi- bility the Southern Crescent intends to back the Northern, we haven't a chance. We're in trouble, Deymorin."

"Nothing to do but see it through, brother."

Deymorin held out his hand.

8 *gt 8 {Nikki!} "He's here!" Nikki cried, and relief flooded him along with his brothers' imperative warning. "Pasingarim's lost faith? What's that mean?"

"Because you lost Shatum," Lidye said coldly.

"Dammit!"

She paced the floor of the ringchamber, fists clenching, then froze.

"Never mind. We'll just have to stop him as well." She held out her hand. "Nikaenor?"

He took her hand.

At first, it seemed almost ridiculously simple. As his at- tention flowed, one point of the compass to the next, the image on the central viewing orb within the spinning rings shifted.

Through Lidye, he saw Shatum, strong and pure, seem- ingly all cooperation. Perhaps Pasingarim had changed his mind.

{Don't count on it,} Mikhyel's voice whispered.

Through Nethaalye, Nikki saw her brother in the Gie- phaetum Tower, second Ringmaster of Giephaetum. He was staring at his clock, waiting for the exact moment.

Through Kiyrstin's touch, he had only a sense of direc- tion, and her own wish for it to be otherwise, could see Mauritum's Ringchamber, but only, he somehow knew, as she visualized it.

From Mirym's Khoratum side, there was nothing.

And as that north-south axis stabilized, Shatum to Gie- phaetum, he felt Lidye reach through him to Kiyrstin, seek- ing Mauritum, trying to force Persitum back on line.

And he felt Kiyrstin's distrust, a solid wall against Lidye.

Lidye screamed, in sheer frustration.

{Kiyrsti?} Deymorin, in his head. And Kiyrstin jumped, would have jerked free but for Nikki's reflexes.

"Deymio?" she breathed.

{Take my hand, Kiyrsti-love. And trust me.} "Asking a lot. Rags." Her voice was shaking.

{Yes. So?) She laughed, and reached through him directly to Dey- morin. He could feel their hands clasping right inside him, and the power that flowed, Deymorin to Kiyrstin. Confi- dence. Arrogance. Trust.

And the Persitum Ring began to rise. Somehow, without disrupting the others, it began to spin.

Lidye laughed.

This time, it was Mauritum's Ringchamber on the view- ing sphere, not Kiyrstin's memory, and Garetti himself, or so Kiyrstin's thought acknowledged the hard-faced, gray- bearded man.

Garetti appeared startled. Unlike the other Towers, he seemed aware of their intrusion. Seemed to look straight at them, though Nikki realized then it was at the rings he stared.

In a hiss audible within the Rhomatum Ringchamber, Garetti said: "Kiyrstine!"

Kiyrstin laughed. "Hi, Gari. Wanna wrestle?"

At once, Garetti reached into the Rhomatum Web. The image turned black, and that oily presence spun outward into Giephaetum and Shatum. An answering reflux. But Lidye was waiting. Anger flared back at Shatum. Anger pure and focused and undeniable, and Shatum's line cleared . . . only to have a second oily wave seep in from Mauritum.

On the Giephaetum line, a battle of a different sort raged. Brother against sister, and a battle against hubris.

Nethaalye attacked her brother with images of his own be- havior, colored with those details of personal inadequacies only siblings could know. And as he wavered, he listened more to her than to Garetti, and the line to Giephaetum, like the line to Shatum ran clear more often than stained.

And still in the West, Kiyrstin and Deymorin fought to block Garetti. Strength against dogged strength, sending wave after wave of oil back at Mauritum.

From Khoratum, there was nothing. And in the end, that lack made the difference. Without the unity of the web, the circuit was incomplete. Without the fourth compass point's assault, the smaller nodes, whose attacks had been mosqui- toes to the Mauritumin, Giephaetumin, and Shatumin hawks, dropped out.

Eventually, Nethaalye's brother and Pasingarim relented, dropping out of contention, and the Giephaetum and Sha- tum rings held steady. Through those rings, Lidye and Rho- matum controlled the nodes.

The attacks from the West ended. The oil cleared, and Garetti appeared again on the viewing sphere.

"So," he said to Kiyrstin. "It's true. You've joined the offspring of the Heretic."

"Better than the alternatives," she replied.

"Are you certain?" Garetti's dark eyes narrowed. An eager look crossed his face, and his hand reached out to them. "Join me, Kiyrstine! Join me now, and we'll have them all."

There was a long, long pause. Nikki felt Lidye battering at his mind, trying to reach Kiyrstin, but he knew, some- how, if he let Lidye in, Kiyrstin would be lost. Whether to Garetti's lure, or simply to anger and distrust.

{Kiyrstin?} Deymorin's voice, in his head, and Garetti didn't react. Perhaps Garetti didn't hear. Nikki strove to keep that part of him private, wanting it for his brother and Kiyrstin alone.

And on a mental breath from Kiyrstin: {Trust me. Rags?} {With my life . . .} A wavering. A mental hand reaching. "Gari . . ."

Triumph flared in Mauritum. Garetti reached. Kiyrstin clasped. And "Now, Lidye!" Kiyrstin shouted, and Nikki opened him- self for Lidye to flow through him and through Kiyrstin to Persitum and beyond.

Garetti was gone. The Persitum Ring held steady . . .

and responded to Lidye's command.

But the Khoratum Ring was nearly at a standstill within the Rhomatum Ringchamber.

"Mirym?" Nikki asked, and her eyes flickered toward him.

"Give us the Tower, girl," Lidye demanded, and Mirym shrugged. "You said you'd been there. Give us the image!"

Lidye hissed, and anger such as he'd never felt surged through him, and Nikki fought it back, forced Lidye under control, refused the second surge of anger she directed toward him.

{Tend to Shatum!} he yelled at Lidye, and she flinched.

Surprise, anger.

He ignored her.

{Mirym?} He sent to her, a plea for reason. But received no response.

An image, then, through Mikhyel, who had seen the Khoratum Tower during a tour, and Lidye's sigh permeated the Tower and the link. The now-familiar bridge formed between Rhomatum and Khoratum, and Lidye's voice de- manded: Now!

A surge of energy, pure and powerful, through the nodes they controlled, burst through to Khoratum Tower itself.

And imaged on the central sphere were two men, combin- ing their efforts to force contact with the other satellites.

One, Nikki recognized as Rhyys dunTarec. The other "Van," Kiyrstin gasped. "Sweet Maurii, Vandoshin's alive!"

The hideously scarred face tipped toward them, and a deep, seductive chuckle resounded through the rings.

"Hello, Kiyrsti-love. So it's your doing. Shut us out, have you? Garetti?"

"Gone," Kiyrstin replied. "For the love of Maurii, Van, give up! It's over."

"Well, we shall see . . ."

The face of the man next to VandoshinRhyys, Mi- khyel's mind supplied, for all Nikki couldn't recognize himcontorted in pain just before a scarred hand swept between them, and the image shattered.

And the ring stopped.

Mirym whimpered; he could only imagine the tremen- dous strain on her. She had somehow kept Khoratum out, and by that effort, consciously or not, enabled their success.

But now "Make the damn thing spin, Nikaenor!" Lidye hissed, and he wondered how he was supposed to do that. "Reach down, fool. The strength is in the ley. Make him spin it!"

Him? And Nikki thought, then, of the creature who had spoken to Mikhyel. He closed his eyes and called, furiously, desperately, but there was no answer. And he called again, thinking himself down into the depths, into the leythium caverns where the creature dwelled. Deeper. Deeper.

{Deymorin?} he called as his strength faltered, and Deymorin was there, steady as the granite Kiyrstin had lik- ened him to, adding his voice to the demand. Still the crea- ture ignored them.

And finally, Mikhyel slid in, though Deymorin objected, saying they could do it, that the creature would suck Mi- khyel down and keep him.

And Mikhyel snarled: {Let him try.) And plunged down Nikki's extended awareness into the depths below the Tower.

~ ~ 8.

The creature awaited him on a leythium throne.

"You heard, didn't you?" Mikhyel demanded.

It smiled.