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Her pale blue brows drew together and she was about to retort, but Ezbai interrupted her. "You are not thinking clearly, Chakotay. You must be experiencing the after-effects of our stunner. Let us make

haste to leave the forbidden parameter and get you to a proper place of rest and nourishment, hmmm?"

Chakotay nodded and gave loni a last, angry glance. He would let the matter drop. It was becoming clear to him that each group held strong, negative prejudices about the other, and an argument with a single individual out here in the steamy rain forest was not going to change anyone's mind.

He fell in step beside Ezbai. A thought occurred to him. "You didn't hurt anyone in the village, did you?"

Ezbai looked offended. "Of course not. What do you think we are, primitives like the Culilann? It's they who abandon their children. If it weren't for us, they'd have dozens of infant deaths on their hands."

"What do you mean?"

"Who do you think takes the children?"

A strange relief washed through Chakotay. "The babies aren't killed by predators?"

"Of course not," Ezbai said again. "We have a spy planted in every village. This person notifies us whenever a baby is left to die. We come in and take it. Most of the so-called deformities are nothing our doctors can't fix in a trice."

"Thank goodness," said Chakotay. Paris had been right after all. They walked in silence for a while. Chakotay frowned as something stirred in his memory. He turned to look at the sharp profile of the expedition's nominal leader.

"Remilkansuur," he said slowly. "Is that a title or a family name?"

"Family name," Ezbai replied. "My title is Shamraa."

"Do you have a relative named Khala?"

Ezbai stopped dead in his tracks. "What do you know about Khala?"

"It's a long story, but briefly, she somehow got transported to a planet surface without knowing how it happened. A short while later, Ensign Paris and I were transported in the same manner. The process brought us here."

"She's alive? She's all right?" Ezbai reached to clutch at Chakotay's robes.

Chakotay smiled. "She was in very good hands when I last saw her. I imagine she's aboard my ship right now."

"Where is your ship? Oh, this is wonderful, wonderful! She vanished right before my eyes. It almost killed our parents. Come on, we've got to get back and hail your ship right away!" He broke into a trot, and his team followed suit.

"That's not going to be easy," said Chakotay. "I have no idea where this planet is in relationship to my vessel."

"We'll find out," said Ezbai gaily. "We'll find out."

Paris glanced at the grief-stricken faces turned toward him. "What happened? How did he die?"

Trima pushed her way through the small crowd that had begun to gather around Paris. Her face was flushed blue and stained with tears, but he had never seen her stand straighter. He realized all at once that with Matroci's death, Trima had become Sumar-ka's spiritual leader, and she was clearly ready to accept that responsibility.

"It appears to have been a chosen death."

"A suicide?" Paris was horrified. What had driven poor Matroci to kill himself?

"The windows were closed tightly. The room was filled with smoke from the Sacred Plant This was how our previous Culil died, embracing the smoke as a way to reach the Grafters. I had not thought Matroci so ardent in his faith. I am pleased that I was wrong."

"Pleased? A man has just killed himself and you're pleased?" Paris couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Trima stiffened, and her sapphire-blue eyes flashed. "You insult us, Stranger. But I will forgive you. You have not been long among our people, you do not yet understand. I grieve for the loss of Matroci. But I am glad that he has gone straight to the Grafters."

Paris didn't like what he was hearing. He didn't like it at all. "What about Chakotay? You said he was missing, Soliss."

Soliss nodded. "It is very strange that he would disappear