"Come now, Achilles," said Ender. "Surely by the age of sixteen you've recognized that your surrogate mother is insane."

"She's my mother!" cried Achilles. And then, only as an afterthought, and weakly, he said, "And she's not insane."

This is not going right. What is he saying? What kind of game is this?

"You look exactly like them. More like your father than like your mother. When I see you, I see my dear friend Bean."

"Julian Delphiki is not my father!" Achilles could hardly see for rage. His heart was pounding. This was exactly how it was supposed to go.

Except for one thing. His feet were rooted to the ground. He wasn't attacking Ender Wiggin. He was just standing there and taking it.

It was in that moment that Valentine Wiggin jogged into the clearing behind the compost bins. "What are you doing? Are you insane?"

"There's a lot of that going around," said Ender.

"Get away from here," she said. "He's not worth it."

"Valentine," he said, "you don't know what you're doing. If you interfere in any way, you'll destroy me. Do you understand me? Have I ever lied to you?"

"Constantly."

"Neglecting to tell you things is not lying," said Ender.

"I'm not going to let this happen. I know what you're planning."

"With all due respect, Val, you don't know anything."

"I know you, Ender, better than you know yourself."

"But you don't know this boy who calls himself by the name of a monster because he thinks the madman was his father."

For a few moments Achilles' anger had dissipated, but now it was coming back. "My father was a genius."

"Not incompatible concepts," said Valentine dismissively. To Ender, she said, "It won't bring them back."

"Right now," said Ender, "if you love me, you'll stop talking."

His voice was like a lash — not loud, but sharp and with true aim. She recoiled as if he had struck her. Yet she opened her mouth to answer.

"If you love me," he said.

"I think what your brother is trying to tell you," said Achilles, "is that he has a plan."

"My plan," said Ender, "is to tell you who you are. Julian Delphiki and Petra Arkanian lived in hiding because Achilles Flandres had agents seeking them, wanting to kill them — especially because he had once desired Petra, after his sick fashion."

The rage was rising in Achilles again. And he welcomed it. Valentine's coming had almost ruined everything.

"They had nine fertilized eggs that they entrusted to a doctor who promised he could purge them of the genetic condition that you have — the giantism. But he was a fraud — as your present condition indicates. He was really working for Achilles, and he stole the embryos. Your mother gave birth to one; we found seven others that were implanted in surrogate mothers. But Hyrum Graff always suspected that they found those seven because Achilles meant them to be found, so that the searchers would think their methods were working. Knowing Achilles, Graff was sure the ninth baby would not be found by the same methods. Then your mother spat on Hyrum Graff and he began to look into her past and found out that her name wasn't Nichelle Firth, it was Randi. And when he looked at the DNA records, he found that you had no genes in common with your supposed mother. You were not in any way her genetic child."

"That's a lie," said Achilles. "You're saying it only to provoke me."

"I'm saying it because it's true, in the hope that it will liberate you. The other children were found and returned to their parents. Five of them didn't have your genetic disorder, your giantism, and all five of them are still alive on Earth. Bella, Andrew — named for me, I must point out — Julian the Third, Petra, and Ramon. Three of your siblings were giants, and of course they're gone now — Ender, Cincinnatus, Carlotta. You're the extra one, the missing one that they gave up looking for. The one they never got to name. But your last name is Delphiki. I knew your parents and I loved them dearly. You are not the child of a monster, you're the child of two of the best people who ever lived."

"Julian Delphiki is the monster!" cried Achilles, and he lunged at Ender.

To his surprise, Ender made no evasive maneuver. Achilles' blow landed squarely and sent Ender sprawling onto the ground.

"No!" cried Valentine.

Ender picked himself up calmly and rose to face him again. "You know that I'm telling you the truth," said Ender. "That's why you're so angry."

"I'm angry because you say I'm the son of the killer of my father!"

"Achilles Flandres murdered everyone who showed him kindness. A nun who arranged for his crippled leg to be restored. The surgeon who fixed the leg. A girl who took him in when he was the least successful street bully in Rotterdam — he pretended to love her, but then he strangled her and threw her body in the Rhine. He blew up the house where your father was living, in the effort to kill him and his whole family. He kidnapped Petra and tried to seduce her but she despised him. It was Julian Delphiki that she loved. You are their child, born of their love and hope."

Achilles rushed at him again — but deliberately made it a clumsy move, so that Ender would have plenty of time to block him, to strike at him.

But again Ender made no move to step away. He took the blow, this time a deep punch in the stomach, and fell to the ground, gasping, retching.

And then rose up again. "I know you better than you know yourself," said Ender.

"You're the father of lies," said Achilles.

"Never call yourself by that vile name again. You're not Achilles. Your father is the hero who rid the world of that monster."

Again Achilles struck at him — this time walking up slowly and bringing his fist hugely into Ender's nose, breaking it. Blood spurted from his nostrils and covered the front of his shirt almost instantly.

Valentine cried out as Ender staggered and then fell to his knees.

"Fight me," hissed Achilles.

"Don't you get it?" said Ender. "I will never raise my hand against the son of my friends."

Achilles kicked him in the jaw so hard it flung him over backward. This was no staged fight like in the silly vids, where the hero and the villain delivered killing blows, yet their opponent got up to fight again. The damage to Ender's body was deep and real. It made him clumsy and unbalanced. An easy target.

He's not going to kill me, thought Achilles.

It came to him as such a relief that he laughed aloud.

And then he thought: It's Mother's plan after all. Why did I ever imagine I should let him kill me? I'm the son of Achilles Flandres. His true son. I can kill the ones who need killing. I can end this pernicious life, once and for all, avenging my father and the hive queens and those two boys that Ender killed.

Achilles kicked Ender in the ribs as he lay on his back in the grass. The ribs broke so loudly that even Valentine could hear them; she screamed.

"Hush," said Ender. "This is how it goes."

Then Ender rolled over — wincing, then crying out softly with the pain. Yet he managed, somehow, to rise to his feet.

Whereupon he put his hands in his pockets.

"You can destroy the vids you're recording," said Ender. "No one will know that you murdered me. They won't believe Valentine. So you can claim self-defense. Everyone will believe it — you've made them hate me and fear me. Of course you had to kill me to save your own life."

Ender wanted to die? Now? At Achilles' hand? "What's your game?" Achilles asked.

"Your supposed mother raised you to take vengeance for her fantasy lover, your fraudulent father. Do it — do what she raised you to do, be who she planned you to be. But I will not raise my hand against the son of my friends, no matter how deluded you are."

"Then you're the fool," said Achilles. "Because I will do it. For my father's sake, and my mother's, for that poor boy Stilson, and Bonzo Madrid, and the formics, and the whole human race."