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Now his mother had become fury incarnate. Jess saw in her face and in the almost tangible aura around her the same terrible and uncontrolled lust for destruction that the wentals had shown him in the memory images of the Ildiran septar and the Klikiss breedex, both of whom had succumbed to tainted wentals. He felt the living water entities tug inside him, a sense of revulsion. His heart sank like a stone, and Jess knew exactly what had happened to his mother . . . though he didn't know how.

Karla's skin was white, as if her face and arms were carved out of milky ice, but corrupted lightning lived behind her eyes. Tainted. When she saw him, her ivory face was blank and implacable. Then her expression registered clear recognition.

With power crackling all around her, Karla's inhuman voice boomed out, without even a hint of warmth. "Welcome home, Jess."

62

NIRA

It was an unsettling thing for Nira to look upon her own grave. Udru'h had announced her "death," and everyone had believed him. No Ildiran would doubt the word of a Designate, and the humans had not thought to question it.

The traditional marker was a geometrically cut stone with a tiny solar power source that generated a hologram of her face. Nira looked at the blurry image of her taken from the breeding records. She had started to look old and battered from the moment she was brought to Dobro.

With Osira'h silent beside her, Nira knelt on the hillside, feeling the dry grasses prickle her bare green knees. She touched her fingers to the ground as if searching for her own lost life beneath the soil.

"I first met my father on this hillside," the girl said solemnly. "The Mage-Imperator came to see your grave marker--I think that is why Designate Udru'h bothered to erect it in the first place. Most humans don't receive anything so elaborate."

Nira's throat was dry as she tried to imagine the scene and what Jora'h must have been thinking. "You saw him here?"

The girl's expression remained strangely distant. "Even though you gave me all your memories, I still could not talk to him. I could not be sure which side he was on. I knew what had happened to you, what he had allowed to happen."

Nira glanced sharply at her daughter. Jora'h had been here, so close, but he too had believed Udru'h's lie about her death. "He knew nothing about it! He couldn't have. You of all people know how much your father loved me."

The girl's stare was unwavering and unusually harsh. "I know how much you loved him. But, as you have seen with Designate Udru'h, Ildirans are masters of deception."

Nira averted her eyes. "Jora'h loved me. I'm certain he still does. I'll know it as soon as I see him." If Designate Udru'h did not arrange for an "accident" before she could return to Jora'h. What did Udru'h have to gain by letting her free now? She would have to be extremely cautious.

She looked at Osira'h, feeling new guilt for dumping all of her terrible memories and hateful experiences into such a fresh and impressionable mind.

"Why are you looking at me that way, Mother?"

Nira forced a bittersweet smile. "I see only a little girl, but when you talk, I am amazed by your words. You're extremely wise for a child."

"I have never been just a child. It wasn't allowed." Nira felt an immense sadness, even though the girl smiled warmly. "But I did have a childhood, Mother. I had yours. I remember living with your mother and father, your brothers and sisters in a crowded dwelling. You were the only one in your family who was interested in stories. I remember us climbing to the high canopy for the first time, right after you were accepted as a green priest acolyte. Ah, the view! The fronds were like an ocean, extending as far as we could see! A big emerald condorfly buzzed right past."

Nira was lost in the recollection herself. "I was so startled I fell back, almost dropped off the branches--"

"But a green priest was there to catch us. Beneto, wasn't it?"

"And we just stared for