"There is so much smoke we can't see twenty yards. They tell us if we wantclean air we're going to have to take the top of the hill. But the stubborndamned veydeen won't stop fighting. We just fought off a band of old men andboys armed with tools and kitchen knives. What is the matter with the veydeen?

Do we have to massacre every man, woman, and child?"

No, the Witch thought. You have to slay one man, Nakar, my husband, and allthe killing will stop. The smoke will dear and the rains fall and the firesdie and the death and devastation prove to be less widespread than everyoneimagined. But it will be terrible enough to leave everyone's thirst for murderslaked. She nudged the memory of the Dartar Shadid. "The Herodians have begunto move. This part looks like it might get to be house-to-house. We aredrawing random missile fire from the rooftops. It's more a nuisance than adanger. The snipers can't find their targets in the smoke. There is a smell ofburnt flesh in it strong, now. Now ... Now ..."

The Witch did not press. This stutter was a warning that the end was near. Thesoul remembered and did not want to get any closer to the pain. She askedquestions to fix the place and time.

She had no reason to believe that information might be useful, yet sherecorded it all in hopes of charting a pattern.

Mostly, she found cause for ever-increasing fear.

A lot of people had died that day. Far more than there had been babies born.

So far it looked like only the strongest souls had attached to new fleshimmediately. But suppose that was an illusion? Suppose luck and proximity wereequally crucial? In this instance the Dartar had died on the doorstep of awoman in labor.

She seldom knew enough, or unearthed enough, to see the transition so clearly.

Cautiously, she put Shadid to sleep and reawakened Histabel, restored him tohis proper age, then told him to rest.

This had been an easy regression. Very little resistance. A pity all of themdid not go as smoothly. A greater pity none of them ever turned up anyone moreimportant than this.

If she could not unearth Nakar, her husband, then she wanted to find hismurderer, Ala-eh-din Beyh.

"Torgo," she called weakly. "I'm done."

The eunuch appeared immediately. He had been outside the tent recordingeverything, in case her fragile, drug-sodden memory played pranks on her. "ADartar," he said, disgusted.

"Yes."

"I suppose we can say we are a step closer to our goal, my lady. We knew itwouldn't be easy when we started."

For the first time she felt a spark of real resentment of the eunuch's ritualreassurances. "Get me out of here before I go mad. I got too much of the smokeagain."

"Perhaps you should space the regressions more widely, my lady. So muchconcentrated exposure to the fumes cannot be healthy."

"I want him back, Torgo. I don't want to waste a minute I don't have towaste."

"And if a minute not taken now means having to pay with an hour or a day lateron?"

His solicitude touched something deep. She flew into an instantaneousunreasoning fury. "You stop your fussing and nagging and do your damned job, Torgo! Let me worry about me. Get me to my bed. Bring me food and drink. Now!"

Inside the facade there was a very frightened woman.

The facade was starting to crack.

She ate and she drank and then she retreated into that place of warm sleep andpleasant dreams she found only after exposure to the drugged fumes. A stillsmall but blossoming part of her fear was that she had begun to look forwardto those hours of surcease.

"You sure favor that balcony these days," Meryel said.

Bel-Sidek turned, smiled. "It's a good place for thinking."

"For brooding, you mean. What is it tonight? The new civil governor?"

"Nothing so obvious and mundane. This morning I learned that there might be atraitor of relatively high station among the Living."

Meryel gasped.

"You're not at risk. We seem to have identified him. He's not in myorganization. He's in the old man's."

"You're sure?"

"Not entirely. It's under examination, you might say. We've set it up so theman will betray himself if he's guilty. The ironic thing is, we found out onthe very day he was to have been promoted to a level where he would knowenough to pull the whole movement down. And we learned that he was suspectonly because of a personal calamity that's befallen him already." Bel-Sidekdecided not to go into that. "I almost feel sorry for the guy. Till yesterdayeverything was going perfectly for him. By tomorrow, probably, his whole worldwill have collapsed around him."

"You have to leave again?"

"Yes. I may have that to attend to, and the old man has a policy meeting set.

I could come back afterward. If you want me to."

"So coy. So shy. So ingenuous. Of course. Now, I've had a feast laid onespecially for you. Why don't we see if we can't do that justice before wefuss ourselves about lesser things?"

Bel-Sidek seldom ate well, unless at Meryel's. "Let's have at it, then."

Aaron slid away, just leaving a hand lying upon Laella's breast. Their mingledsweat began to dry. He shivered with a sudden chill.

It had not been very good. They were both too distracted. And having Stafawaken in the middle of it and jump on his back and yell, "Giddap, Dad!" wasnot something to ignite uncontrollable passion. Neither was having the yellalert the rest of the household to what was going on.

Mish was particularly intrigued by what happened between men and women in thedark. Her interest disconcerted him, and at times touched him with thoughtsand temptations that left him aghast at what could happen inside a man's mind.

That left him so ashamed he could not face Laella for hours after he caughthimself thinking them.

If she just wouldn't try to spy!

Laella got Stafa back to sleep. She moved in next to him, whispered, "I thinkI should tell Reyha."

"No. That would be too much of a burden for her. She'd end up calling him onit. Then how long would it take for him to find out where she got the idea?"

After a while, she said, "That could be dangerous, couldn't it?"

"Scared men are desperate and desperate men are dangerous. And unpredictable.

He might get the idea he could cover up."

"Then why don't you tell bel-Sidek? Everybody says he has something to do withthe Living."

"If he really does, then Reyha would be alone in the world."

"Maybe they wouldn't ..."

They'd kill him, Laella. They're hard men. They kill people every day forcrimes less than Naszifs. For him it might be a very prolonged and unpleasantdeath."

"Then there's no way out, is there?"

"Not without choosing who gets hurt. And I don't want that on my conscience."

The old man watched bel-Sidek slip into the house, barely in time to get the stage set for the meeting. "Did you have an enjoyable dinner with our lady ofthe ships, Khadifa?"

"Yes sir. She was highly amused by what she called today's preposterouscircumstances. Meaning her sense of irony got fat because the Living completedits biggest weapons-smuggling operation ever virtually without risk because ofHerodian arrogance. If the new governor and his escorts hadn't bulled throughthe traffic waiting to enter the straits her ships would have come in firstand we would have had to dodge and trick customs men all morning."

"Perhaps one of those very weapons will cut the pig's throat."

"You know him, sir?"

"I remember his father. They say this Sullo is identical to the beast thatsired him. Your man is being watched. If the letter he received doesn't sendhim running to Bruda he's innocent."

"Yes sir. Did you eat, sir?"

"It can wait."

"You have to develop some regular eating habits, sir."

"I'm sure. Your mothering can wait, too. Answer the door."