They ran along this walkway for what Riane judged to be the better part of a half kilometer. Then, abruptly, she stumbled over another flight of stairs, this one going up, and knew that they were inside the perimeter of the regent's palace.

Ascending farther than they had descended out of Sagiira's corridor, they at length found themselves in a small circular chamber with a ceiling so low they could barely sit up. As Sagiira had said, eight tunnels debouched into this odd place, making it a kind of nexus point.

I cannot guide you farther, for I myself have never been there, nor am I able, the old sauromician had told her. But, mark me well, it is easy to become lost, which is the point of this chamber, to discourage interlopers who are not Ramahan konara.

"Now what?" Thigpen had said when they had had a look around at their options. "We have eight ways to go. Which is the right one?"

Riane had been thinking about this. She was struck by Sagiira telling them that he was unable to go here. Why would that be? Then something occurred to her. One of things she had learned in Za Hara-atwas that the power bourns that crisscrossed all Kundala deep below the surface were inimical to sauromicians. Furthermore, all Ramahan abbeys were built above major bourn nexus points.

With this in mind, she opened her Third Eye and, as Perrnodt had taught her, searched for the bourns.

She could feel them almost immediately. Powerful and networked, they pulsed in her mind like the grid of a glowing spiderweb. With the skein spread out before her like the plan of a metropolis, she turned until she was facing one of the eight tunnel mouths.

"This one," she said.

Such was her conviction that neither Thigpen nor Eleana questioned her decision.

Where the scent of star-rose was strongest, they came upon a bronze-banded hatch of black mortewood. Riane, however, did not use it. They continued on. Gradually, the scent faded, and for some time, there was nothing but the musty smell of the foundation stones. Then, Riane picked up the p.r.i.c.kly odors of datura inoxia, then, more pungently, shanin, Panda.n.u.s, and latua.

Eleana wrinkled up her nose. "What is that smell?"

"Ramahan herbs, roots, and mushrooms," Riane said. "We are near the garden that Giyan planted.

Giyan had me memorize a plan of the palace's interior."

Eleana did not believe her, believing that she had an intimate knowledge of the palace because she was, in fact, Annon. They had reached another mortewood hatch, the next egress point. Riane was pushing it open, was already going through, Thigpen slipping after her. It was now or never. In or out.

Despite Giyan's warning about the danger awaiting her in Middle Palace Eleana was not about to leave Riane. Taking a deep breath, Eleana let it out and followed them into musty darkness.

When Kurgan arose to consciousness and discovered a photon cable inserted into the inside of his left wrist he let out a bellow that could be heard in the adjacent wards of Receiving Spirit. A flush-faced Genomatekk rushed to his side from the holoscreen within the observation chamber from which he had been monitoring his distinguished patient's vital signs.

"What is this?" Kurgan demanded.

"Calm yourself, regent," the Genomatekk said. "I am treating you." He was agitated, hearing by second- and thirdhand means the extent of Kurgan Stogggul's ire. "You were hit point-blank with an ion cannon burst. Luckily, it was a low level, otherwise-"

Kurgan sat up and ripped out the photon cable. He saw a pair of Khagggun stationed just outside the doorway. At the sound of his rage, they had lifted their ion cannons to port arms. He ignored them.

"Who brought me here?"

"Why, I believe it was one of your own Haaar-kyut, regent." The Genomatekk glanced up at one of the holoscreens depending from the ceiling. "Yes, here it is. A First-Captain by the name of Gynnn Kwenn. He is being treated just down the corridor for-"

"Cease your jabbering!" Kurgan swung his fist into the nearest holoscreen, shattering it. He detested this place in the best of circ.u.mstances. He began to dress. "Make yourself useful. Go fetch First-Captain Kwenn for me."

His leggings had been hung next to the second holoscreen. As he pulled them down, he called to the Genomatekk. "Whose file is this?" he said, pointing to the holoscreen.

"Why, it is yours, regent. It is a complete medical history."

Kurgan felt a little chill run through him. The thought that Nith Batox.x.x might have manipulated his genome as he had Terrettt's was always in the back of his mind, though he comforted himself with the fact that he exhibited none of his brother's symptoms.

Still, he could not help but ask; "Do you see any anomalies? Anything at all amiss?"

"No, regent," the terrified Genomatekk stammered.

"Are you certain? Have you examined the file thoroughly?"

"I have, regent. There are no anomalies whatsoever. You are in peak condition. You always have been."Kurgan nodded. "Forget about First-Captain Kwenn," he said. "I wish to speak with Kirlll Qandda."

The Genomatekk was rooted to the spot. "I beg your pardon?"

"Are you deaf as well as slow?" Kurgan thundered.

"No, but I ... Regent, Kirlll Qandda is a Deirus."

"That's right and I want to speak with him this instant."

After the Genomatekk rushed off, Kurgan turned his attention to the whorls and spirals of his medical history. What if something was amiss? he wondered. What if this idiot of a Genomatekk misread the data? He shivered and almost recalled him. Perhaps it was better not to know, to continue living his life as he always had. But no, if Nith Batox.x.x had done something to him, he needed to know.

Kirlll Qandda entered the cubicle and smiled uncertainly. "Yes, regent. How may I be of service?"

Kurgan pointed. "Interpret this medical history for me."

Kirlll Qandda gave him a brief glance before turning to the holo-screen. He brought up other panels Kurgan had not known were there. He scrutinized everything.

"You are in perfect health, regent," he said when he was finished.

"Absolutely?"

"Yes, of course."

Kurgan felt a slight wave of relief pa.s.s through him, followed almost immediately by a spasm of annoyance at allowing himself to sink into a state of spurious speculation. He dismissed Kirlll Qandda with a curt wave of his hand.

Riane felt along the wall, opened another door. A thin wedge of light revealed the inside of a closet.

They were on the ground floor of the palace. Just above them, on the second floor, was the regent's residential wing. It was there that Giyan had once had her quarters. That was where Riane was headed, for as Annon, she had stumbled upon a secret pa.s.sageway to the caverns from the balcony that fronted the chambers of Giyan's suite.

Annon knew perfectly well how to get from the ground floor upstairs without any V'ornn seeing him.

He had sneaked in and around the palace innumerable times in the days before his father had been slaughtered by the Stogggul.

Riane heard the tread and clank of Haaar-kyut guards, and quickly ducked back into the closet. The harsh gutturals of the Khagggun rose, then drifted off, fading into echoes. She peered out again and, gesturing, led them down a short corridor made of sea-green shanstone, and into the shadows of a porphyry spiral staircase. Each tread was incised with an image of Miina's sacred b.u.t.terfly. The trio went up as lightly as a spray of mist and quickly reached the second floor.

Seeing more Haaar-kyut, Riane cautioned her companions back into deepest shadow, where they waited in stillness for the way to clear. Riane then took them through the fourth door on the right.

It was difficult for her, returning to the royal residence where once Annon's father had ruled all Kundala, where, in a different reality, Annon would have succeeded Eleusis Ashera as regent. Instead, both Eleu-sis and Annon were gone, and the usurper Stogggul ruled in their place.

Seeing the familiar surroundings, which had remained essentially unchanged since the days when Giyan had slept there, brought up powerful emotions. At the same time, she was aware of Riane's awe at being in the holy Kundalan temple. She felt the now eerily familiar dichotomy of Riane's serene and thoughtful personality and Annon's fierce and rageful warrior spirit. The past's sadness, loss, and desire for revenge vied with the present's need for calm, focus, and perseverance. It was difficult being at odds with oneself, odder still to fathom the complexities of two personalities in one mind. Mostly, now, they were in accord, seeking integration and resolutions. But there were still moments, as now, when one or the other sought dominance, tearing a rift in the uneasy harmony. The original Riane's concentration was astonishing. For eons, Middle Palace had been a holy place. Now the V'ornn had desecrated it in their cruel and deliberate fashion. Where was her desire for revenge?

It will come. Have patience. Our revenge begins now.The voice, wise and true, emanating from her very core, calmed her, and she felt her focus returning as the V'ornn bloodl.u.s.t burned away like fire in a crucible.

"Riane?"

She started at Eleana's whisper.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes, I ..." Riane blinked and nodded. "I'm fine." She gave Eleana a little smile as she led them through the chambers. The air was close and still, stale as a grave, as if no one had breathed it since the night of bloodletting almost two years before. Heavy curtains had been drawn across the windows, and Riane pulled them aside, found the door out to the terrace, and opened it.

At the far end she picked out in deepest shadow the sliver of metal she knew to be there. By the time Eleana and Thigpen had reached it, Riane had pried the hidden door open, just as Annon had done on the night his father had been murdered.

It was not without trepidation that she stepped into the fetid darkness of the vertical shaft and started down the metal spiral staircase. Almost at once, the stink of bitterroot caught in the back of her throat, bringing back Annon's memories of what? Something dark, sinister, rippling, waiting for him on this very staircase, just below where it branched. It exuded the scent of bitterroot, and now, with the rotting smell in her nostrils, she entertained the irrational notion that it still lay in wait for her, that it knew that Annon still existed inside her.

The farther she descended, the faster her pulse raced. Her eyes tried to pierce farther and farther into the gloom. She was searching for the small triangular landing from which the staircase split into three.

Annon had chosen the right branch and, before long, had been overcome by the sensation of extreme danger and the certain knowledge that the thing waited for him in the darkness below.

Reaching the landing at last, Riane turned back to her companions, and whispered, "We have come to three branches in the staircase. It is imperative that we take the center one. Is that clear?" She could hear their murmurs of a.s.sent. "All right. The landing I am standing on is very small, so we will have to move slowly and carefully because the way is treacherous. Keep in mind that the staircase will give out before you know it and turn into a chute. Just let yourself go, and you'll be fine."

"I will go first. Then Thigpen, then Eleana." She reached up and Thigpen leapt into her arms.

"I do not like this, little dumpling," the Rappa growled. "I do not like this at all."

"Come on." Riane turned around. Just then, she preferred not to think of the bitterroot beast that might be lurking in the right branch, but she did not think it wise to remain there for long. What if it came lunging up from its lair?

"There is the center staircase." She turned to look over her shoulder at the Rappa. "Do you see it?"

"Of course I see it!" Thigpen snapped. "I am wary, not blind."

"I only asked because the branching is complicated here. I will go last so that I can make certain that you and Eleana get safely down the center staircase. Then I will follow. Ready?"

"No. But I very much doubt you will give me a choice."

"You're right about that," Riane said, as she gave the Rappa a nudge. Thigpen leapt, vanishing at once down the center stairwell.

Riane turned back. "All right," she whispered, "your turn now, Eleana."

She reached up and Eleana came into her arms. For a breathless moment, they stood face-to-face.

Heat and musk rose between them, and Riane recalled the electric moment not long ago when the two of them had been alone in Za Hara-at.

When we are apart 1 dream about you, Eleana had said. When I see you I cannot cool my body down.

And Riane had seen it in her eyes. She must know, Riane had thought with a ferocious lift to her heart. She must know that her beloved Annon still lives inside me.

As she swung Eleana toward her, she felt Eleana's eyelashes flutter against her cheek. And then Eleana turned her head slightly, and their lips brushed. Off-balance, Riane shifted her feet. One of them slipped off the landing, Eleana slewed around, and her boot caught on the back of a stair tread.

In the blink of an eye, she was wrenched out of Riane's embrace and, tumbling head over heels, sheshot down the right-hand staircase.

7

Heroes and Villains

Marethyn returned to the Resistance camp a hero. With an abrupt shift in the wind, the sleet had started up again but, almost immediately, had changed to rain. It bounced off the mottled alloy of the Khagggun armor in which her compatriots had dressed her. Predictably, she caused quite a sensation when they returned in triumph, flanked by Majja and Kin, who were laden with the weaponry of the vanquished.

Medda poured them all drinks, and they toasted one another. Kin did not leave Marethyn's side. He kept looking at her, touching the Khagggun armor. He stammered when she spoke to him, astonished to be so attached to a V'ornn. The smell of the wet Marre pines was like silver and almonds.

Ba.s.se, laughing his sardonic laugh, whispered to her, "It seems that you have a new admirer."

Marethyn smiled in return, but the truth was she had a nagging worry. As they were leaving the site of the melee she was sure she had detected a third pair of Khagggun boots, though her search had turned up no other evidence. When she pointed them out to Medda he had had the entire bunch of them fan out to no avail. In any event, they had returned to camp without incident, and having taken all precautions, they were quite certain at least that they had not been followed.

"You did well, young Kin," Medda said. Over the beaming boy's head, he gave Marethyn a brief nod.

"We are so much better off now that Ka.s.stna is dead," Majja said, speaking of the leader of their former Resistance cell.

"Ka.s.stna was a brave and influential leader," Ba.s.se said.

"He was also distrustful and rigid," Marethyn said. "Those traits are not the mark of a good leader."

Majja nodded. "If he had trusted Marethyn enough to listen to her, we would not have suffered such losses in the Khagggun ambush."

"Enough gloomy talk about the past," Medda said, refilling their goblets. "It's time to celebrate!"

Not all joined in the celebration, however. Gerwa's lieutenant, a round-faced Resistance fighter, approached Medda. "Gerwa wishes to see you and the Tuskugggun," he said, adding in Medda's ear.

"Judging by his mood and who is with him, I'd get her out of that V'ornn armor, if I were you."

"Who's with him?" Marethyn asked.

The lieutenant looked at her. "Best not to tarry, Tuskugggun. Waiting will only worsen his majesty's foul mood."

Majja helped Marethyn off with the armor while Medda and Ba.s.se watched.

"Like what you see?" Marethyn asked archly.

Medda cleared his throat. "You are hairless. I find that curious. But not as curious as why you are helping us."

"You mean you are suspicious of my motives."

Medda said, "We need to meet with Gerwa. His patience often wears thin."

"Then he is not fit to lead." Marethyn quickly regretted her words.

Ba.s.se said, "Is that your wish, Marethyn Stogggul? To lead us?"