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Five minutes later he jerked as if he’d been hit with a stun-prod. Mrrov! Mrrov came this way, no more than a day ago! Wandering cautiously around the outskirts of the buildings, he located first the dorm she slept in, then the factory where she worked.

Lastly, he followed the freshest scent trail to a path that he was sure must lead to the Altar of Promises. Apparently Colony Two was laid out on a nearly identical plan to Colony One.

Without checking farther, the Togorian melted back into the jungle and moved as quickly as he could toward the site of the devotions. For a moment he wondered whether Mrrov might scent his trail, but it was unlikely. He’d been thoroughly soaked in that river, and had deliberately avoided the instinct to rub against anything and leave scent markers. He didn’t want Mrrov to try following him back to Colony One, and possibly becoming lost in the jungle when his trail was interrupted by the river.

The Togorian arrived just in time to automatically resist the mental and physical waves of the Exultation. Narrowing his eyes, Muuurgh scanned the writhing forms in front of him—

—and found Mrrov. She was twitching, but not really writhing … and there was something false about the way she moved that allowed him to pick her out easily.

She is faking, Muuurgh thought. I knew Mrrov was too strong-minded to be fooled by these liars for long!

He strained his eyes to make out every line of her beneath her pilgrim’s robe. But all he could see clearly was her head, orange stripes contrasting vividly with the white. He longed to see her lovely yellow eyes, but he was behind her and to her right. She could not see him.

For a second, Muuurgh nearly threw caution and his vow to Vykk to the winds—it was everything he could do not to race into the crowd of pilgrims, grab his mate-to-be, and carry her off into the jungle.

But he had given Vykk his word of honor. Mrrov must not know he was here.

As the pilgrims staggered to their feet, the Exultation over, Muuurgh’s eyes widened as he saw that Mrrov was wearing a blue sash—as were about fifty of the hundred or so pilgrims at the devotion.

That sash! That’s the sash of the Chosen Ones! Oh, no! He could have hissed aloud in his frustration and fear. Muuurgh had been on Ylesia for many months. He’d seen those sashes before.

Sure enough, as the pilgrims began shuffling into the night, the High Priest stepped up to call out to them in his booming voice. “All pilgrims who were issued blue sashes today, please remain behind! Your High Priest has an announcement to make!”

Obediently, the pilgrims with blue sashes stopped walking toward the path and instead shuffled forward. Mrrov looked as though she was thinking of yanking off her sash and making a run for it, but she didn’t. Muuurgh yowled inwardly. Does she know what those sashes mean?

“Those of you who have received these blue sashes are being honored as Chosen Ones. Your piety and devotion to the One and the All have caused us to select you for a singular honor. Tomorrow night will be your last devotion here at this Altar. At dawn on the following morning, you will be taken by spaceship to meet with our missionaries, and each of you will be selected by one of our missionaries to accompany him out to spread the word of the One and the All.”

Muuurgh heard excited, greedy murmurings from the crowd, and knew the true pilgrims were ecstatic over the implication that they would be able to receive Exultations without sharing it with hundreds of other pilgrims.

Stupid … was the Togorian’s first thought. They are no better than bist or etelo, worthy only of being hunted and eaten. Those spaceships will take them only to the mines of Kessel or the pleasure-houses of the Imperial soldiers. They will receive no more Exultations, they will live in degradation and misery, and most of them will die within a year …

His second thought raised the fur along his neck and spine. Only a day and a half until they ship her out of here! Since the Imperial soldiers want only humanoids in their pleasure-houses,