in

to her, merging instantly. Aphri twitched ever so slightly as she reabsorbed her twin. Then she turned on her heel and streaked to the door. Tanalvah drew back as she passed, appalled at what she’d just seen. Serrah made to give chase.

‘Let her go!’ Caldason called out, re-sheathing his blade. ‘Chances are she already looks like somebody else.’

‘What happened?’ Tanalvah said.

‘And what the hell

was

that?’ Serrah wanted to know.

Caldason ignored them. ‘Kutch?’ he yelled.

‘Kutch?’

‘Here!’ a muffled voice responded.

It came from the foot of the staircase, which remained standing, just. They set to clearing the debris, and found him curled up under the protective wooden slats. Reeth and Serrah took an arm each and pulled him out.

‘Are you all right?’ Tanalvah inquired anxiously.

‘Yes, I think so.’ He seemed more excited than upset as he dusted himself off. ‘I got a peek, from back there. It was a

meld

, Reeth! I’ve never seen one before. They’re really rare.’

‘And the woman was wearing a masking glamour, pretending to be old,’ Caldason said.

‘Neither sounds cheap,’ Serrah ventured.

‘Far from it.’

‘And they…she was after you?’ Tanalvah asked.

‘Yes.’

‘Looks like you have a complicating factor in your life, Reeth,’ Serrah announced.

‘Just what I needed.’

She saw blood on his sleeve. ‘You’re hurt.’

He hadn’t noticed, and hardly gave it a glance. ‘It doesn’t matter. You know how quickly I heal.’

‘Does that make it less painful?’ Serrah took hold of the fabric and ripped it apart. He had an ugly gash running along the outside of his arm. Tearing off a portion of her own,

much cleaner, shirt sleeve, she proceeded to bind the wound. There was something almost tender about the way she did it.

‘I hate to break this up,’ Tanalvah said, ‘but-’

‘Yes,’ Caldason agreed, finishing the last knot himself, ‘we have to get out of here.’ He caught Serrah’s eyes and added softly, ‘Thanks.’

They headed for the door. Kutch hung back, surveying the mess.

‘Come

on

!’ Serrah chided.

‘But I didn’t even get a book,’ he grumbled, slinking after her.

‘A

symbiote

?’

‘

Ssshhh!

I wouldn’t want the children to hear any of this, Kinsel. They’ll have nightmares.’

‘Sorry,’ Rukanis replied in a softer voice, glancing at the half-open bedroom door across the hall. ‘It’s one of the drawbacks of being a singer. I’m always projecting to an audience.’

She smiled. ‘Fool.’

‘Anyway, I think Teg and Lirrin are more resilient than you believe, Tan.’

‘Perhaps. But after what they’ve been through they deserve a break from the world’s harshness.’

‘Absolutely. But we were talking about what

you

went through today.’

‘Oh, I wasn’t that involved, not really. We arrived after it was all over. Except for seeing that…’

‘I think they’re commonly called melds.’

‘Yes. But they’re not common, fortunately.’

‘I always thought they were a myth.’

‘The one we saw was real enough.’

Kinsel sipped his wine. ‘Poor Reeth. He seems to attract trouble wherever he goes.’

In the glow of the glamour orbs, Tanalvah’s face took on a harder set. ‘His sort always does.’

‘His sort? Aren’t

you

…his sort?’

‘No. I’m not talking about the race we share.’

‘Oh.’

‘Don’t look at me that way, Kinsel.’

‘It’s just not like you. You normally show such generosity of spirit to everyone. It’s one of the things I love you for.’ He squeezed her hand. ‘But you seem to have this blind spot when it comes to Reeth.’

‘I’d call it the opposite: I can see all too clearly what he’s capable of.’ She noticed his expression and sighed. ‘All right, maybe I am being unfair. But I’ve never got over feeling uneasy about him, and a bit frightened, if I’m being honest.’

‘I think you misjudge him. Surely you of all people can understand where his combative tendencies come from? It’s your mutual birthright, isn’t it?’

‘I may be of the Qaloch, but I wasn’t brought up the way he was.’

‘Only because circumstances prevented it.’

‘You think blood will out, is that it?’

‘I’m saying that Qalochians have been renowned as warriors for centuries. That kind of legacy goes deep.’

‘I wouldn’t have thought it was one that appealed to a pacifist, dear.’

‘It’s just an observation. I’m not saying it’s good or bad.’

‘It isn’t about Reeth’s heritage,

our

heritage, it’s…A man like that, a maverick, can ruin things for other people.’ She grew more intense. ‘I wouldn’t allow that to happen to us, Kin. Never. Whatever I had to do to prevent it.’

‘He isn’t going to ruin anything for us,’ he told her.

‘Perhaps I do have a bit of Qaloch belligerence in my blood,’ she conceded, grinning.

‘We’re going to be all right. Teg, Lirrin; all of us.’

‘You always speak with such passion when you refer to the children, my love.’

‘Do I?’

‘Yes, you do. And don’t be shy about it. I’m pleased that you take their welfare so seriously.’ She paused, trying to read his face, then decided to gently probe. ‘It’s because of your own childhood, isn’t it?’

He nodded.

‘You never talk about it. You know everything about me and my background-’

‘I know how terrible it was.’

‘I’m at peace with it. It’s gone now, like it was somebody else’s story.’

‘It’s not that I want to keep you out.’

‘I understand that. But remember that your past is

in

the past, like mine. And you don’t have to tell me about it if you don’t want to.’

‘But I

do

. We shouldn’t have secrets.’

She decided to try drawing him out a little. ‘You’ve said your upbringing was poor…’

‘Yes. Or rather, that’s what it became.’

‘How?’

For a moment, she thought he might not reply. But, falteringly at first, he did. ‘Back in Gath Tampoor, my father was a public servant, a bureaucrat. A lowly one, admittedly, but he fought all his life to better himself, educate himself, for us, his family. So our life wasn’t too bad, certainly compared with many others.’

‘But something happened to change it?’

He nodded and took another drink. ‘When I was seven or eight years old, my father got a promotion. It was quite a modest advance; he moved one small rung up a very high ladder. But he was so proud. Shortly after, he was approached by somebody who told him a story. The details aren’t

important, but it was convincing enough to persuade my father to show this man certain documents in his charge. He did this because he thought he was helping someone who’d suffered an injustice, you understand.’

‘And it was a lie.’

‘Yes. It turned out that the petitioner was more sinner than sinned against. He was a CIS agent. They said my father took a bribe. He didn’t. The worst he was guilty of was being naive.’

Tanalvah had never heard him speak so freely of his background, and she saw the pain in his eyes. ‘What did they do to your father?’ she coaxed tenderly.

‘They made an example of him. He was put to work on the land at first. Slave labour, basically. Then one of their wars came along and he was inducted into the army. We never saw him again. That was when my pacifism was seeded.’

‘My poor Kinsel.’

‘It killed my mother. Well, she was half dead already from overwork, trying to keep us both. Not to mention the effect of the stigma.’

‘What became of you?’

‘I was made a ward of the state. Which is a fancy way of saying I ended up an orphan in a poorhouse. That was…grim. They kicked me out of there when I was fourteen. Onto the streets, literally. If it hadn’t been for my singing, and a few kind people who held out a charitable hand…Well, I don’t know where I’d be now.’