What is the source?

The Others. . . .

The Others? Giyan leaned closer. Who are the Others?

Abbey.

Giyan frowned. Abbey? Yes, you are back in Floating White.

No, no, no. ...

Perrnodt's mind was fading, slipping back into unconsciousness in order to better try to heal the psychic and physical trauma to which it had been subjected.

Perrnodt. Perrnodt1. What do you mean? Where are our strayed Ra-mahan?

No, no no wo. ... Perrnodt's voice grew fainter, then ceased altogether.

5

Down in the Farm

You should not have exposed him to me," Gul Aluf said. Nith Na.s.sam was startled. "You mean you knew?" She turned from one of her biovats from which ten thousand thermionic filaments, circuits of elemental particles suspended in water, emanated like hair from a giant's scalp. In the center of the vat hung an adolescent V'ornn to which the filaments were attached. "What did you think you were up to?

Kurgan Stogggul caught a glimpse of me, of everything." "But he saw nothing, he understood nothing."

All around them the deep hum of Gyrgon ion engines. They were in her fiery lab-orb in the Temple of Mnemonics, the official one, the one known to every member of the Comradeship. The Crown of Creation, where the chosen V'ornn were genetically manipulated, bioengineered into Gyrgon.

Nith Na.s.sam laughed. "It was a joke."

"A joke you say." Gul Aluf's expression told him that she was not amused.

"Of course it was a joke, and if you had a sense of humor, you would see it." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Kurgan Stogggul could have been one of us. He very well might have been, along with Annon Ash-era, save for Nith Batox.x.x." He c.o.c.ked his head. "If memory serves, you would have been the a.s.signed Breeder."

"I am not a.s.signed to individuals," Gul Aluf said hotly. "I choose my children."

"Is that what you Breeders call us?"

She turned her back on him, continuing with her work. "You should not even be here."

"And yet I am." He waited a beat. "I want your help."

"A foolish desire."

He spread his hands. "Why? You helped Nith Sahor."

"Do not mention his name to me."

"That's right. I remember now. It did not end well."

She adjusted a cl.u.s.ter of biowires, dipped twenty more into a steaming vat of enhanced engineered electrolytes. "It never does."

"I need help extracting and deciphering data from Nith Batox.x.x's lab-orb."

She added the twenty to the others, inserting them one by one at key points. It was work that required a great deal of concentration.

"He was your child." Nith Na.s.sam took a step toward her. "You knew him better than any of us-his quirks, his secrets, his methodology."

"Do you really think he confided in me?" She turned around, put her hands on her hips. "From the first he was an anomaly. His brain kept trans.m.u.ting. I almost terminated his birth."

"Why didn't you?"

She looked at him for a moment, then turned away without answering. "Eventually, he found out. He never forgave me for it."

"Still, he was your child. Help save him. Only you can do it. If you help me, you can rehabilitate his reputation."

She stopped what she was doing. "Why are you so interested in what he was working on?"

He came around in front of her, the steaming bio vat between them. "Doesn't it concern you even a little that a Kundalan archdaemon could take possession of him? Next time it might be you or me. In a way, they collaborated-they must have-before Pyphoros took him over completely. If we can extract his files, if we can unravel the thread of his experiments, perhaps we will find a way to protect ourselves."

Though he had a valid point, Gul Aluf was not fooled. He had another agenda, hidden and, therefore, far more important. But what was it? She knew there was only one way to find out, but for the momentat least she was reluctant to act on it.

"I will take it under advis.e.m.e.nt," she said coolly.

"Thank you."

"And next time, Nith Na.s.sam, kindly ask permission before you enter my Breeding Field."

See those squinty little eyes glowing in the dark?" Thigpen had halted them as they had turned a corner. The darkened corridor, dank, littered with sour smells and refuse, stretched away from them without a soul to be seen. The sounds from Cthonne had faded away sometime ago. "There is a creature dead ahead."

"What is it?" Riane peered into the gloom.

"I don't know." Thigpen's teeth were bared, and her ears were flat against her head. "All I can tell you is that it has a very nasty disposition."

Eleana gave a low whistle of five or six notes and a guttural growl ricocheted off the heavily stained and chipped walls.

"You see?" Thigpen rose up on her four hind legs, her claws unsheathed.

"Calm yourself." Eleana rubbed the place between the Rappa's ears.

"Not now," Thigpen snapped.

Eleana laughed, and called out, "Come here, Muzli, my little dar-ling."

They heard the skittering of claws and, again, that low, guttural growl, closer this time. Thigpen bared her teeth, snapping her jaws closed with an audible clash.

Eleana crouched down, her arm around Thigpen. "It's all right. I know him. There is no danger."

Out of the gloom, they saw a sestapod appear. Its short, stubby legs ended in large curved claws and its long, flat head with a matching elongated muzzle was distinctly reptilian. Its back, ridged with a triple row of wicked-looking spikes, snaked back and forth. Its waddling kind of walk seemed almost comical until, all at once, it shot toward them with astonishing speed.

It rushed right into Eleana's chest, ducking its snout under her left arm while she rubbed its skull with her knuckles.

"It's a claiwen!" Thigpen cried in alarm.

"Ah, Muzli, ah," she said, laughing. "It's been such a long time I wondered whether you would remember me."

The claiwen rolled its reddish eyes in apparent ecstasy and wiggled its powerful-looking tail so that the spikes on it trembled in a blur. Then it gave a hoa.r.s.e bark and, slithering around, commenced to lead them down the noisome corridor. They soon discovered an entire encampment, a warren of one-chamber hovels, filthy, crammed with hollow-faced, sunken-eyed Kundalan, who stared at them dully from their positions crouched in their open doorways.

"What is this place?" Riane said.

"It is known as the Black Farm." Eleana methodically followed the claiwen's tail. "It is home to those beaten and broken by V'ornn torture. They can no longer work or be productive in any way, so they are of no use to the V'ornn. Decades ago, they were swept out of the streets of Axis Tyr. The V'ornn have lost track of them, but we have not."

"I never knew of the Black Farm's existence."

"Few do, outside the Resistance and a handful of family members. Every week, a different cadre of Resistance members delivers food and supplies to these folk."

Riane was struck by this. It reminded her of one of her ch.o.r.es when she had been an acolyte at the Abbey of Floating White. Each month, food and supplies were delivered to the Ice Caves, almost directly above the Rappa's deep cavern homestead. They helped feed and clothe the castoffs, undesirables, and petty criminals excised from Kundalan society, who lived high in the icebound reaches of the Djenn Marre under crushing physical conditions. Among the Ramahan, it was considered an onerous task-almost a punishment-but if she had not been a.s.signed to it she never would have met Thigpen, and so many aspects of her life would have been different.

It wasn't long before Muzli directed them into a side corridor that reeked of stale cooking, stale bodies, fear, and exhaustion. The beast took up a position outside the doorway to a chamber close to thefar end.

"This way," Eleana said, leading them through the doorway.

The chamber was neat and clean, though as spare as a prison cell. A pale square of streetlight lit the place through a small window high up in a heavily stained wall. A warm glow and a complex scent of fragrant oils emanated from a Kundalan lamp of rubbed bronze. Beneath their feet was a carpet, stained and threadbare, of Korrush design. On the carpet stood a stoop-shouldered figure, thin as a nail.

"Sagiira!" Eleana cried, and immediately threw herself into his opened arms.

"My child, my child!" His leathery face cracked open, and a wide smile tumbled out. "I had lost track of you, as had all your friends." He kissed her on both cheeks. "They feared the worst, but I had faith."

"Faith, my eye." Eleana laughed as she held him at arm's length. "I would be very surprised if you haven't been following my progress every step of the way."

"My dear, you know me too well." He shook his head. "In my line of work that can be dangerous, you know."

"Just what is your line of work?" Thigpen asked.

"By Miina's robes," Sagiira exclaimed, "what is your name, Rappa?"

Eleana introduced Riane and Thigpen.

Sagiira nodded. "As to my line of work ..." He held up his right hand. The sixth finger was black as soil.

"A sauromician!" Riane exclaimed.

Thigpen jumped back, her teeth bared. "We are in a sauromician's lair. Eleana, why have you done this?"

Sagiira spread his hands wide. "Listen to me, Thigpen. If the regent became aware of my existence, he would surely seek to incarcerate me. There, you hold my fate in your hands. He and his minions, however, are the lesser of my concerns. If ever the Dark League should discover my whereabouts, it would be the end for me."

Thigpen, ears still flat to her head, was hardly mollified. "Once a sauromician ..."

Riane leaned down, ruffled her luxuriant coat, whispered, "Have you so soon forgotten Minnum?"

"The Rappa can be forgiven their little paranoias," Sagiira said. "They have been the victims of terrible persecution."

Thigpen eyed him darkly. "Trying to suck up, are you?"

Sagiira smiled indulgently. When they were all seated on the carpet, he poured them a fruit-based concoction from an earthenware jug. "Lately, the Dark League's focus has turned to one purpose."

Handing chipped goblets around. "Banestones."

"Why?" Riane asked.

Sagiira watched them over the lip of his goblet. His head, narrow as a ruler, was dominated by almond-shaped eyes, suspended in liquid.

"Whatever his answer," Thigpen growled, "it cannot be good."

"The Rappa is correct. Somehow the Dark League has found the lost banestones-eight of them. The ninth they are still searching for- desperately."

"Miina save us all." Thigpen's whiskers were twitching violently. "I told Giyan. I warned her. But when it comes to you, little dumpling, she is as overprotective as a mother. Where's the sense of sparing you the horrors of the world, I say. Better by far to be prepared."

Sagiira broke into a dry, brittle laugh. "My word, you are such a pessimistic species."

"Pessimism saves lives," Thigpen muttered. "My father used to say that, and he was right on the mark."

"What do they mean to do with the nine banestones?" Riane was concentrating harder.

"Clearly, they mean to harness the energy of the ninth in order to increase their power. Difficult to speculate just how."

"But if we can stop them from acquiring the ninth banestone?"

"The harnessing cannot take place. Separately each banestone is dangerous, but their energy makes their effect unstable, impossible to predict. Putting the nine together focuses their energy, stabilizes it.""Like the weapon at Za Hara-at."

Sagiira watching them over the lip of his goblet. "I never said it was a weapon."

"You didn't have to."

"Do you know where the ninth banestone is?" Eleana asked.

Sagiira looked shriveled, worn, like the nub of an ancient writing implement. "I know where it was.

Buried in Za Hara-at and good riddance to it, caused all manner of troubles. But now it's vanished. The Dark League knows this much, as do I. I do not know who took it from Za Hara-at or where it is now.

Neither do they." Looked from one of his visitors to the other. "To business, then. One does not need a sauromician's skills to know that you have come for help. What is it that you require?"

"A way into the cavern beneath the regent's palace," Riane began. But before she could continue, Muzli's deep-throated growl brought her to silence.