Jindigar sagged. People who had used pensone usually gave up engendering their own children. And he'd so wanted Darllanyu's children. A barren first mating such as they had shared in their First Renewals often left that nagging, unfulfilled feeling they had both endured for more than five thousand years.

On the other hand, their lives depended on each others' stability. And they would have to deal with the Cassrian reproductive process this time.

The morning sun beaming through the skylight illuminated the far end of the Temple where the Hand of Fire stood—a carving made of Phanphihy wood. It was a Dushau hand, where each of the seven digits began as a bolt of lightning striking out of thin air, converging to form the palm of the hand in which nestled a bowl of water—with a live fish swimming in it. On the table beside it was a small plate of Phanphihy glass with the tiny pensone capsules arrayed on it. Next to that was a stack of empty glass plates, none any bigger than the palm of a hand.

"I think," said Jindigar, "that we should test ourselves for dosage. Anyone who merits a two-capsule dose both by kinesiology and blood test will take it. Reasonable?"

No one objected. Jindigar went first, taking an empty plate and putting one capsule on it. He took it to the worldcircle under the skylight.

The white gravel of the wedding circle had been cleared away, revealing the large wood carving of the Oliat symbol inlaid into the floor, an X balanced on the point of an arrow. When the officers took their places on the symbol, they stood within the worldcircle.

His Oliat's first official function had been the opening of the worldcircle, thus consecrating the Temple. Jindigar remembered how they had arranged themselves on the symbol that day. All Aliom practitioners qualified to help had surrounded the circle. Unsure how Krinata would affect the process, he had focused the Aliom community into one single mind-entity and sealed the world-energy leakage oozing up through the Temple floor in a foglike haze.

Then, with the Temple floor sealed away from the world, Jindigar had made himself a gateway for the world's energy, letting it erupt upward through him and sending it on up through the skylight and up into the life sphere of the planet. Much to his surprise, when they stepped out of the new worldcircle, it continued to spume energies skyward, and the rest of the floor remained clean of any static.

His gaze rested on Krinata now. Either Krinata is Takora, and Dushau do sometimes reincarnate, or a worldcircle does not always dissipate when stepped on by someone not trained in Aliom. He wasn't prepared to choose between these basic tenets right now. Perhaps he should ignite a testing circle to see if other humans could walk on it.

He stepped into his place on the center of the Aliom symbol, feeling the tingle all over his skin nap, like bathing in an electric field. Only it had a deeper, healing effect very disturbing on the threshold of Renewal.

Jindigar held the dish cupped in the palm of his hand, cradled against his waist, and held his other arm straight out in front of him, palm down. "Ready, Zannesu."

Zannesu touched Jindigar's outstretched hand and applied a measured force. Slowly Jindigar's arm sank toward the floor. By sheer willpower he was able to stop it at about a forty-five-degree angle. Adding a second capsule made Jindigar's arm collapse instantly. Two capsules would be a poisonous dose for him right now.

Jindigar tested Zannesu, then Zannesu and Llistyien tested everyone else—except Krinata. Darllanyu's arm was strengthened to rock steadiness by three capsules and collapsed by four—the only one of them to exceed Jindigar's standard.

"Before you take it," said Venlagar, "let's test the Oliat with it."

"But that puts Krinata in it," objected Zannesu. "Of course, it's poison to her. We'll have no strength."

"It'll test our collective balance," said Jindigar, though such principles didn't always transpose neatly to other species.

The Oliat joined in a line, arms circling one another's waists, Dar at one end and Krinata at the other, Jindigar in the middle. Dar put the pensone down while Jindigar coached Krinata to heft a fire shovel, holding it at arm's length.

The shovel barely cleared the floor. "I can't lift it!"

"Good," replied Jindigar, and let up on the adjournment seals as he suggested, "Now, see if you can lift it."

She strained, and the shovel wobbled up waist-high. They were not in good balance. //Dar? You can go ahead.//

She held the pensone to her, and Jindigar signaled Krinata, who raised the shovel again, exclaiming, //My God!// Her arm rose to shoulder height, supporting the shovel easily.;

Zannesu observed, //Maybe we can do this after all.// .;

As Darllanyu took the drug and waited for it to take effect, it Jindigar busied himself with Zannesu and Krinata, setting the foundation linkages. //Now, Krinata, I'm going to set the choke– link to you, so you won't have to carry the brunt of this. You'll be Outreach, completing the Oliat balance and allowing us to function, but you won't be able to speak for us, and you'll hardly feel what we're doing.// If we were a glorified heptad before, now we're a crippled one!'

Earlier Krinata had agreed to the choke-link, a training device that was essentially a demotion for her. Jindigar felt tears stinging behind her eyes. Krinata, Lady Zavaronne, regarded fidelity as Aliom did—another meaning of shaleiliu, the congruence between what one said and what one did, what one alleged and what was fact. But she knew her word wasn't strong enough to bind her actions. //Krinata, I know you won't ever willingly take Center again. But you have the trained reflexes of a Center, and those reflexes will act. It would be the same for me.//

She nodded. //Let's get on with it.//

Momentarily Jindigar wondered why he'd ever considered Krinata their weakest officer. He had to exert himself to keep any pace she set. He turned to watch Darllanyu seated cross-legged in the center of the worldcircle, shivering a little as the drug took effect.

He felt the pressure abating even as he watched, producing in them both a sickening emptiness. It was a measure of how deeply they had linked themselves—even without the wedding. Her eyes met his, and he wasn't sure he could compete in her league, either. But, oh, there was an exhilaration in the idea of showing her how easily he performed the greatest feats. And therein lay a danger, for adolescent bravado could not be permitted in a Center.

Zannesu put a hand on Jindigar's elbow. //Eithlarin says if we get out of this unscathed, she'll offer to bear children for you two.//

Touched to his core, Jindigar had to turn away, bury his face in his hands, and hold his breath against the keening wail of pain that rose in him. He forced it aside and turned back to his zunre. Krinata was right. They should get this over with quickly.

Accompanied by their seven Dushau Outriders plus Storm's whole crew, the Oliat arrived at the pond just before noon. The sun was bright in a clear sky, the breeze softened with the breath of summer. The pond had been dug out deeply, the dirt stacked all around to form a protective embankment. Water from an underground stream fed the pond, then drained into the river beyond. Wooden stairs led to the flat top of the embankment where a crowd had already gathered.

As they climbed the outside stair mating calls of flyers filled the ah-. Young piols chased around in circles, their primary mating game. Parent piols with litters were well established in nesting holes on the inside of the embankment above the pond. There were eight of them now, and two gravid females, all of them fat on the fish appropriated from the Cassrians' pond. Nobody minded, for they cherished the Cassrian eggs more than the Cassrians did.