'There there. Cressida reached over and patted Araminta's hand. 'By now he'll have had half a dozen more girls in his bed, and won't even remember your name. It never meant as much to him as it does to you.

'And you're telling me this to cheer me up?

'That was his deal wasn't it? You would be the second Friday of months with an R in them?

'Yeah I know. Hell, I'm a big girl, I knew what I was doing.

'With hindsight, yes, the view is always clear.

Araminta brought her head up and grinned. 'Thank you for not judging.

'You're still a work in progress. And I think you're improving under my tuition. This was a much smaller mistake than Laril.

'When you want to cheer someone up, you really go for it, don't you?

Cressida pushed her glass across the table, and chinked it to the rim of Araminta's. 'You're starting to understand life. That's good. So what are you going to do about Mr Bovey?

Araminta grimaced. 'Mr Bovey's proposal, actually'

'What! He didn't?

'He did. Marriage with me once I've gone multiple.

'And you think I'm pushy! Wait a minute, did he ask you this before you had your little visit to Likan?

'Umm. Yes.

'You go my girl. So what was the Likan thing all about?

'Trying out options while I consider what to do.

'Wow.

'Have you ever considered going multiple? Likan said it was purely a lifestyle choice, not a business one. I'm not so sure. Ten pairs of extra hands would be very useful in my line of work.

'I haven't considered it, no. It's still only one mind, which is all a lawyer needs. But if you're serious about property development then I can see the practical advantages.

'It's self limiting, though, isn't it? It's saying I'll always be somebody stuck doing some kind of manual job.

'Your pride seems to be a very fluid thing.

'I just want— She didn't know how to finish that sentence, not at all. 'I don't know. I was just shaken up by what happened at the weekend. And I had this really awful dream, too. I was like this really big creature flying over a planet when someone tried to smother me. Been having a few of those lately. Do you suppose it's stress?

Cressida gave her a puzzled look. 'Darling, everyone had that dream. It was the Second Dreamer's dream of the Skylord over Querencia. And that wasn't someone trying to smother you, that was Ethan trying to talk to the Skylord direct. They say he's still in a coma in hospital with his minions trying to repair his burned out brain.

'I couldn't have dreamed that. 'Why not?

'I don't have gaiamotes. It always seemed a bit silly to me, like a weak version of the Unisphere.

Cressida became very still; she pushed her glass aside and took Araminta's hand. 'Are you being serious? 'Serious about what? 'Didn't your mother tell you?

'Tell me what? Araminta felt panicky. She wanted another drink, but Cressida's grasp was surprisingly strong. 'About our great-great-great-grandmother. 'What about her? 'It was Mellanie Rescorai.

After all that work up, Araminta felt badly disappointed. She'd at least been expecting some Dynasty heir — maybe old Earth royalty. Not someone she'd never heard of. 'Oh. Who is she?

'A friend of the Silfen. She was named their friend. You know what that means?

'Not really, no. Araminta's knowledge of the Silfen was a little vague. A weird humanoid race that everyone called elves. They sang gibberish and had a bizarre wormhole network that stretched across half the galaxy allowing them to literally walk between worlds. An ability which a depressing number of humans found incredibly romantic and so they tried to follow them down their twisting interstellar paths. Few returned, but those that did told fanciful tales of adventure on new worlds and the exotic creatures they found there.

'Okay, Cressida said. 'It goes like this. The Silfen named Ozzie their friend too. They gave him a magic pendant which allowed him to understand their paths, and even join their communal mind, their Motherholme.

'Ozzie? You mean our Ozzie? The one we—

'Yes. Now Ozzie being Ozzie, he broke open the pendant and figured out how the magic worked. That it wasn't magic but quantum entanglement. So humans then started to produce gaiamotes. Our gaiafield is basically a poor copy of the Silfen communal mind.

'Right. So where does our ancestor come in to this?

'Mellanie was also a Silfen friend. Which is actually a little more than just being given the pendant. Their Motherholme accepts your mind and shares its wisdom with you. The pendant only initiates that the contact. After a while, the ability becomes natural — well, relatively speaking. And like all magic it's believed to be inherited. Cressida let go of Araminta's hands and smiled softly.

'You just said it wasn't magic'

'Of course not. But consider this. Mellanie and her husband, Orion, came back. They had a little girl, Sophie, while they were out there walking across the galaxy. One of very few humans ever born on the paths, and certainly the first of two Silfen friends. She was attuned to the Motherholme right from the start, and passed the magic on to her children. Thanks to her, most of our family can feel the gaiafield, though it's weaker now with our generation. But on a good night, you can sometimes sense the Motherholme itself. I even ventured down one of the Silfen paths myself when I was younger; it's just outside Colwyn City in Francola Wood. I was thirteen, I wanted adventure. Stupid, but…

'There's a Silfen path on Viotia?

'Yes. They don't use it much. They don't enjoy planets with civilizations like ours on them.

'Where does it lead? Araminta asked breathlessly.

'They don't lead to any one place, they join up and twist. Time is different along them as well. That's why humans who aren't Silfen friends are always lost along them. I was lucky, I managed to get back after a couple of days. Mother was furious with me.

'So… my dreams. They're not actually mine?

'That Skylord one the other night wasn't, no.

'It felt so real.

'Didn't it just. She glanced pointedly round the bar packed with its Living Dream followers. 'Now you see why they're so devout. If you're offered that kind of temptation every time you go to sleep, well who would want to wake up? That's what the Void is to them. Their dreams, forever.

Nearly eighty probationary constables sat together in a block of seats on the ultra-black floor of the Malfit Hall, while the vast arching ceiling above played images of wispy clouds traversing the beautiful gold and pink dawn sky. Edeard had one of the seats on the second row, his head tipped back so he could watch the giant ceiling in astonishment. He was sure it must be the marvel of the world. His fellow squadmates were all amused by his reaction. Not that they'd actually been in the Orchard Palace before — except for Dinlay. But at least they'd known about the moving imagery. And they hadn't thought to warn him.

Edeard gasped as Nikran rose up into the replica sky. The ruddy-brown planet here was a lot larger than it every appeared in Querencia's skies. He could see tiny features etched on the world's eternal deserts. For some reason it made him think of it as an actual place rather than an element of the celestial panorama.

'Does anyone live there? he whispered to Kanseen, who was in the chair next to him.

She looked at him, frowning, then glanced up at the image of Nikran, and giggled.

'What? Macsen hissed.

'Edeard wants to know if anyone lives on Nikran, Kanseen announced solemnly.

The whole squad snickered; surrounding squads joined in.

Edeard felt his face heating up. 'Why not? he protested. 'Rah's ship fell on to this world, why not another ship to Nikran?