CHAPTER IV


ARRIVAL IN NOWHERE




	Trajan flicked on his stylet torch.  Even so the stars were bright enough to see that he and 
his travelling companions had all arrived in one piece in the dead of night.  "Here we are!  And 
that wasn't too terrible, was it?"  He gave them a broad grin with a great sense of relief and a 
sense of triumph.  He had leapt across another hurdle in his chosen path, the hurdle he had 
dreaded most, the transit out of Iucari-Tres.  "We can kick some fun and go the royal flush!"

      "Fun!" Deyron spluttered and muttering he examined first his fingers, arms, legs and then 
the rest of his body: "Amazing, I am all right, still whole, still me!  That is the first and most 
important thing.  And secondly, the air in this hostile place is breathable.  Thirdly, it looks kind 
of nice, lots of trees, just like Phylee-Patre.  Fourthly, where in the name of the HeliĆ are we?"

	"Can't you see? We are on a ridge of a mountain, a very high mountain, so it seems." 

	"Look!" Leoynar shouted excitedly and pointed..  "This world has an orbit station too, 
like the one Calitre has but not as bright!  I feel at home already."

	"Let's see," Trajan said, sitting on his backpack, "what my microcom can tell me."  

	They gathered around him in suspenseful curiosity and Trajan, happily satisfied that the 
configurations of his equipment were working perfectly in this Sphere as at home, commenced 
with touching in the codes.  

	"Just as I thought, that so-called station is an asteroid, a natural satellite!  It is their moon.  
Some things may look familiar here but we have still much to learn, mates!"  

	He then consulted his multilyzer.. "The atmosphere is more or less made up of the same 
components as Phylee-Patre's, but this Sphere is approximately of the same size as Calitre.  In 
fact temperature readings are perfectly Calidan.  It may be a bit on the warm side for us, Phylee-
Patreans but no problem for you there, Superpre, unless of course during your service with the 
Surety of Castelmoer you have adapted yourself to colder climates of Phylee-Patre. 
SUPERPRE?"  

	Trajan looked round incensed.  The Superpre reappeared from the bushes with Leoynar's 
stingthruster in his hand.  

	"This is not the time for wandering off on little explorations on your own, Deyron," 
Trajan grumbled, frowning darkly, "put that thing away."  

	"I was just looking where my perpetrator has gone to," Deyron countered aggressively.  
"Even if I am out of my jurisdiction on an unknown world, I know where my duty lies.  And I 
hope so do you, Captain."  

	Trajan stepped in front of Deyron and faced him grimly:  "You are right about one thing, 
Deyron.  You have absolutely no jurisdiction and neither have I, but I am sent here by the 
Command on a special mission.  That puts ME in absolute charge.  Program that into your brain!  
While we are here, no one is a perpetrator or a suspect in a crime.  We are just explorers, banded 
together if you want to put it that way.  But you are correct again in one other aspect.  Where is 
the fourth member of our little club?"  

	Leoynar returned to them from a short exploration around the ridge and said with a 
gleeful grin, "Your charge nearly fell into a ravine when he went wandering off on his own.  I've 
pulled him back in the nick of time.  Now he sits there sulking."

	Trajan shrugged.  "Let him sulk.  We have other things to think of.  Let's walk away 
from the edge of the cliff.  It's getting darker."

	Leoynar suggested with a yawn: "Other things like finding a place to pitch our tent and 
rest our weary bones?'

	"A novel idea there, my Lar Leoynar," Deyron chimed in. "Say, Captain, how long do 
you think did our journey last?  It seemed like an instant and yet, I feel as if I have climbed up 
the shiny slopes of Mount Argento without a skipod."

	"Yes, Superpre," Trajan answered quasi patiently, "it took us merely an instant, a few 
minutes at the most to come here, but in that time we must have crossed light-epochs through 
space from Home to here, which is practically Nowhere for us Iucarians.  But now we are here, 
all hale and hearty fortunately, and feeling the strain of the transit, do as you please, go to sleep 
and leave me be until the new day, whenever that will be.  I want to corroborate my data."

	"I am also feeling hungry," Deyron complained.  

	"Come with me, my worthy Superpre," Leoynar said with a broad sweep of his arm. "Let 
me show you what I have for you in my food bag, huh?"

	Sighing in relief, Trajan sat down on the edge of the ridge, and let his legs dangle over 
the side as he started to intergraph the multilyzer with his palmtop micro, and extended the 
parameters of his surveillance of the area.  Behind him, not very far from where they were, 
loomed the snow-tipped peaks of the mountains, which rolled from one craggy shoulder to the 
other further to the east.  Very far beneath, through the haze of moonlight, a wide valley 
sprawled and a river threaded through its heart, collecting tributaries as it wound further to the 
south.  And to the west a whole hemisphere was smothered by perpetual fog.  

	--"I cannot tell you where you will land but Starglory will attempt to deposit you in places 
far from inhabited areas."--

	They were deposited on a barren ridge, but there were sporadic indications of life 
amongst the hidden ravines and hollows of the mountains.  His Seventh Sense was not 
translating any sounds of immediate danger but something deep inside told him that there was 
great danger farther down, and that danger was steadily approaching them as the night drew on.  

	Starglory filled him with sensations he could not immediately understand.  Elation 
mingled with bitterness, like someone who has returned from a long exile and sees his world in 
ruins with overpowering emotions of anger and sorrow.  Grief, outrage and vengeance directed at 
the world lying beneath his feet, threatening to swell and burst like a punishing storm. He 
tempered it with his indomitable will.  I know a great wrong has been done but I have come here 
to right it and not to do harm.  As long as we are together you must listen to my command!  

      As he gathered his equipment and left the side of the ridge Trajan once more heaved a 
sigh.  He too was feeling the aftereffects of the transit weighing him down physically and he 
needed sleep before he could go on.  He looked up to the pale circle in the sky.  'What happened 
here?  Am I to right a wrong?'  Yes, most probably, but he was here also on a mission of 
infiltration and of destruction, if that proved necessary.  And he was here to seek and trace out 
his origins.  He was here to search and rescue one still close to his heart.  

	On the other side the ridge descended into a shallow dell and here he found that his 
travelling companions had not even bothered to inflate the tent but fallen asleep cocooned in 
their sleep bubbles right under the naked sky.  He observed them; all three in a neat row like the 
scanning rods of a Phosphri, Nagus a little apart.  They were the living tokens of a faraway 
beautiful world called Iucari-Tres. 

	Starglory had quelled its turbulence and bowed to his will.  It was time to rest.  He pulled 
the sleep bubble roll from his backpack, shook it open and nestling in its self-heating folds he 
quickly fell asleep on his side with his arm pillowing his head.  

* * *

	They woke up with the warm rays of a new day tingling on their faces.  The previous 
night had passed without incident and it was a fine morning to start a new adventure.  

	"What are we going to do now?" Leoynar asked Trajan.  

	Trajan was standing on the ridge with his back to the rising sun, his hair tousled by the 
strengthening wind and his eyes regarding the Far Western wall of fog.  All his yearnings, his 
thoughts flowed that way.  

	Deyron, seeing the strange, intense glow on his face protested vehemently, "We are not 
going there, into dark mist!  No, turn your face to the shine!  We should go where the trees are."

	Trajan turned his head and relented:  "We go down into the valley.  There is fresh water 
down there and perhaps fresh food."  

	After a quick breakfast they briskly followed Trajan's lead, turning their backs to the 
summits and working their way down the slopes.  He was anxious to reach the valley before 
nightfall but the longer they marched the more that prospect seemed to dwindle.  The forest had 
the appearance of being relatively near at the foot of the cliff, but the path did not slope directly 
downwards.  It twisted and turned along high and low shoulders of the range, skirting broad 
ravines opening in sunshine with ferns and thistle bushes, and narrow chasms delving deep into 
places shunned by daylight and where only dark shadows prowled.  

	"Scruts!" Deyron cursed, throwing his jacket off his shoulders.  "This HeliĆ is an insect 
compared to ours and yet it is as warm here as in Calitre!"  

	Trajan said over his shoulder:  "Because this is only a single HeliĆ and this planet is 
orbiting its primary a fractionally closer than Calitre.  By the way, they call it their --sun--."

	Deyron said dryly, "You have come well prepared, Captain.  Is it too much to ask to 
share with us some of your precious knowledge?"

	"In time, Superpre.  I don't know everything, you know.  Force-feeding you with all sorts 
of information at this time would do you no good at all."  

	Wiping his brow, Leoynar interrupted peering closely at his chronodisc:  "Astonishing!  
By the standards of Evening Star it should be evening but here it is brilliant morning."

	"That is another thing," Trajan said, "we have to synchronize our discs as soon as the sun 
has reached its apex, which is very soon."

	While he spoke, he stole a glance at Nagus who had not uttered one word or acted 
disgustingly but followed them at the end of the file with exemplary obedience.  He was quietly 
astonished at the change that had subtlety taken place in Nagus's physical appearance.  The 
maddening fire in his eyes was quenched, leaving only a dullish, pale glow.  More blood seemed 
to flow under the creaminess of his skin, almost giving him the look of health and normality.  
Not even once had he flashed his sharp teeth at them since their arrival.  

	During the trek down the mountains Trajan thought it proper to equip both Nagus and 
Deyron with metaphrasers that would teach them the speech patterns of this Sphere which had 
been downloaded from the young outworlders to whom Iucari-Tres had given sanctuary, but 
prudence prevented him from intimating to Deyron that he and Leoynar carried rephars under 
their jackets. 

	During most of the day his multilyzer which he kept strapped to his hand recorded 
intermittent signs of life forms in the forest, still appearing so far out of reach.  As afternoon 
steadily approached, the blue-green surface of a wide lake glinted faintly at the lip of the valley.  
He brought this to the attention of the others and instructed them to be on the alert and heed 
every suspicious sound.  

	They were coming closer to the danger that lay at the foot of the mountains.  Everything 
in this place reeked of hostility, the dark columns of smoke they had seen billowing up in the sky 
when they had stood on a vantage point overlooking distant yellowish plains, the stench of rot 
drifting through the air, great fear lurking in the forest.  

	The prospect of encountering the indigenous inhabitants, who were probably far from 
being hospitable and friendly, made them extremely wary.  They rest and ate awhile and little 
was said while they constantly watched for any movement and listened to any sound.  The 
mountains themselves were shrouded in silence as if sudden death had befallen them and its 
crevasses and ravines had become graveyards.  No one had crossed their path when the sun was 
sinking towards the west and the dim hours of twilight approached.  They continued walking 
even when darkness had fallen and the moon shone upon them.  At long last in the dead of their 
second night in this Sphere they reached the rim of the forest and stood on the wide beach of the 
lake.  

	Trajan threw down his gear on the white sand and swung round to make sure whether all 
of his companions had dutifully followed him.  "Now where is our little friend Nagus?"

	Leoynar chuckled and pointed:  "There he goes, into the water to take a swim, Trajan.  So 
far this is the most sensible thing that he's done so far and I think I am going to follow his 
example.  Care to join me, Superpre?" Leoynar gestured to Deyron and they headed together 
towards the lake.. 

	While the others stripped off their clothes and disturbed the tranquil surface of the lake 
with their frolicking Trajan quietly consulted his multilyzer.  If people had earlier roamed on the 
shores, presently every sign checked out zero.  The unseen menace had disappeared and they 
were completely alone.  In order not to exhaust the energy cells of their rephars too quickly he 
gathered some dry wood, lit a natural fire and heated up some of their food packets.  He was in 
the course of inflating the tent when his companions returned from the lake.

	"We'll stay here for the night," he said, his eyes gazing absentmindedly at the moon.  

	He longed to peel off all his clothes and roved around in nature's garb for the warmth 
was beginning to stifle him and while Leoynar and Deyron stretched out on the sand, preferring 
the cool open sky than the tent, he set off alone to the shore.  Not far away from him, he 
observed that Nagus had done the same, isolating himself to a corner of the clearing where the 
roots of the forest touched the lake.  

	Nagus had become withdrawn and so, he reflected moodily, had he.  Was there 
something they had both lost during the transit?  'Am I going to be plagued by conflicting 
emotions?  I feel great danger surrounding us and, yet, everything seems so peaceful and even 
beautiful.  Where are the inhabitants?  Where have they gone to?  What is there beyond the walls 
of the mountains?'

	Trajan pulled off his boots and closed his eyes in exhaustion.  

* * *

	He began dreaming again, seeing the world beneath as though he was sitting far up on a 
bed of clouds.  Black fumes from the north were riding the sky towards a southern region of 
splintered states.  Cheerless plains of immense size stretched out beyond, nearly to the East 
where a wide sea rolled to continents unknown.  The massive range of mountains served as a 
barrier, a great divide, that separated lands of sunshine from lands of Smaze.  

	A sensation of wonderful lightness surged through him as if he was made up of nothing 
but air, wind and the scents of dayshine on dewed grass.  And float he would wherever he wished 
to be, wherever his sentience was pulling him, to the Great Fog, to lands where phantoms 
reigned.  

	Cold water was tickling at his toes and Trajan opened his eyes and saw the sun climbing 
towards noon hour.  He had been lying near the edge of the lake with his feet nearly in the water.  
Gazing at his reflection in the water he understood finally that it had not been a dream, none of 
the previous dissociations he had experienced had been dream visions but glimpses of reality, but 
how he was able to achieve it, he still could not understand.  

	He leapt to his feet and glanced at his companions, who were still lying in deep sleep near 
the tent, three tranquil heaps curled on the sand.  Without further hesitation he peeled off his 
clothes and plunged into the lake.  

	He refound his energy in the tingling waters, diving deep almost to the bottom and 
emerging totally refreshed.  The water, although too muddy for his taste, almost had the same 
sweet tang of the cold inner seas of his home.  With moisture dripping from his skin and holding 
his clothes over his arm, he prodded the others awake with his cold, wet foot.

	"Get up, lazybones, it is almost midday.  Prepare a meal, will you, while I go for a stroll 
in the woods."  

	Cursing at this brutal rousing, the three of them got slowly to their feet.  Nagus, raking 
his fingers through his hair, tentatively followed Trajan with his eyes and started to go after him.  
He was stopped by Leoynar who took him roughly by the arm. 

	"No, you don't, you've had your breather last night.  Now you help us work."  

	Nagus twisted his lips and produced a wry grin instead of a malevolent leer.  It seemed 
somehow that his ability to leer effectively was lost somewhere during the transit.  Surprisingly 
to Leoynar he did not protest but Leoynar's relief was short lived as soon afterwards Nagus 
started to grumble and whine in a high petulant voice and did not seem to know how to stop.  

	"Scruts!" Deyron gritted through his teeth, "I am beginning to wonder whether I have 
made a mistake.  Could this be the perpetrator I am after, a whimpering overgrown adolescent? 
Phee!"  

	"We told you so," Leoynar said bitingly, "but you wouldn't believe us.  Oh no, not the 
Superpre of Castelmoer!  But here you are with us on a world that surprisingly resembles ours.  
Let's only hope that its indigenes are as civilized like ours.  Otherwise, I don't think we'd be able 
to venture far if we only carried stingthrusters."

	"And I note," Deyron said with a sly grin, "that you are also sporting a commander's 
rephar.  Congratulations, Lar Leoynar, for winning the ultimate trust of the Command and be 
equipped with their weaponry.  Not even videts of planetary sureties could wish themselves such 
luck!"  

	"O Superpre Deyron," Leoynar gasped, "I think you are jealous!"  

	"I am not doing this!" Nagus shrieked, plonking himself down on the ground and 
crossing his arms. "I am not doing anymore of this forced labour!"

	"I know what you are going to do," Leoynar grunted and approached with a menacing 
stomp, "I have the perfect remedy for your complaints."  

	Before Nagus could as much as whisper another lamentation, Leoynar yanked him 
roughly on his feet, bundled him towards the lake, and with one mighty sweep of his arms he 
threw Nagus into the water.  "There!" Leoynar called out loudly. "I have always wanted to do 
that, ever since our ordeal in the Terahydra Forest!"

	"Hoho!"  Deyron bent almost double with mirth, "That was very funny indeed.  A capital 
performance, hoho!"  

	Leoynar clapped him on the shoulder and laughed.  "Keep it up, Deyron.  A good humour 
is better than being eaten up with envy which will do you, or us, no good at all.  You should've 
seen your own face when you said 'Congratulations, Lar Leoynar'. As if someone has splashed 
you with vinegar, that was very funny too.  Haha!" 

	Nagus crept on to the shore, looking like some chattervole out of the water.  Squatting on 
his heels he waved his arms.  "Mates," he called in a feeble voice, "mates."  The other two 
hardly noticed him, being so wrapped up in their merrymaking, and it was only after prolonged 
minutes that his frantic waving attracted their attention.  The alarm in his wide pale eyes 
immediately stifled their laughter.  

	"Look," Nagus pointed with his wet finger, "look, there is a cadaver." 

	"What!" Deyron squealed and he spun round.  His mouth hung open in horror.  About 
thirty steps from where they stood a body had drifted to the shore like a bleached piece of wood.  
It was barely clothed and on the pale skin raw, dark splotches glistened in the sunlight.

	"By the Lars," Leoynar wheezed and hurried to the spot. 

	"Be careful!" Deyron yelled. "Take out your rephar!"

	Toting the stingthruster he slowly circled around the body while Leoynar crouched down 
and with a cautious hand turned it on its back. "Dead?"

	"No, alive."

	"What are we going to do with--,"  Deyron tugged at the rags clinging around the hips, 
"with him?"  His voice held an edge of disgust.  

	Leoynar raised his eyebrows.  "I don't think it would be very sociable of us just to leave 
him here, do you?  We'll carry him back to our camp.  Come on now, Deyron, this is a good 
chance for getting to know the indigenes better.  Nagus!  Give us a hand, will you?"

	Wrinkling his nose Nagus ambled nearer.  "He stinks like rotten fish.  I don't want to soil 
my hands with dead meat."

	"You are going to soil yourself pretty soon with your own dead meat if you don't do what 
I tell you," Leoynar told him friendly-like, "Take his leg and you, Deyron, take the other one.  
I'll bear his shoulders.  Careful now, we don't want him to die on our hands."

	"Uh, look at his wounds!  How did he manage to get those on himself?"

	"More accurately, Superpre," Leoynar said tartly, "what has he done that others hate him 
so much.  Those injuries were inflicted by his kind and they may still be in the vicinity.."

	They spread out a blanket on the sand near the tent and laid down the lake's castaway.  
Deyron's face crinkled with uneasiness.  "If what you said just there is true, Leoynar Trevarthen, 
we have to be on our guard.  If those people who did this to him are still around, they may not be 
the type we are hoping them to be."

	"I am anxious to save this one," Leoynar said, "His heartbeat is very weak and his body 
temperature is dropping.  Scruts, why has Trajan not yet returned from his morning walk?  What 
is taking him so long?

	"Nagus!" he bellowed the next moment, "don't sit there doing nothing.  Collect some 
wood.  You know how to make a fire, don't you?  And don't go too far."

	With a worried look Leoynar said to Deyron:  "You'd better go with Nagus.  If 
emergencies arise you are better trained in that respect.  I will try to hail Trajan on my 
communicator."

	The optic strip emitted a string of furious buzzes when he fingered it but otherwise 
stubbornly refused to blink across its arteries.  He stared down at the inert form at his feet and at 
a loss of anything better to do, he knelt down and with his fingers raked away the sodden rags 
and strands of rope from the body who appeared to be still a boy.  He took out the medic kit from 
his sack and started to clean the wounds which had already stopped bleeding.  The boy was not 
responding and his life signs were slowly waning.  

	Leoynar gazed around, desperately needing the return of his comrades and blew out a 
sigh of relief when he saw Trajan materializing from the woods.  Astonishment quickly followed 
as going in front of Trajan was a frightened youth who limped on a crutch and stared at Leoynar 
as if he was a monstrosity.

	"I see you caught one too," Leoynar remarked, "is he dangerous?"

	"Speak in their tongue from now on," Trajan said and turned to the youth with a grin.  
"Are you dangerous?  Hardly, a youngster who has lost his way by his own account, and what 
have you managed to drag in with your nets?"

	"Jeremy!" his captive interrupted with a shriek, catching sight of the body on the blanket.

	Trajan grabbed his arm roughly.  "You know him?  Who is he?"

	The youth stammered: "A Cougar, one who belongs with the mountain tribes.  Is he 
dead?"

	Noticing the youth's fearful trembling Leoynar said wryly:  "Is he thinking that we did 
this to his mate?  Not very complimentary.  Why is he so afraid?  Does he understand us?"  

	Trajan shot a glance at the youth and said:  "I think you understand us perfectly well.  If 
you don't, My Lord Leoynar here will drum into your head that we are harmless."  

	Perceiving that the youth was not convinced, he shrugged and bent down to examine the 
other boy on the blanket whose nakedness was spattered with weals and raw wounds.  A deep 
frown creased his brow. 

	"It's not looking good.  He has lost a lot of blood and is suffering from severe shock.  
What he badly needs is the professional help of our rescuers, and the care of our sanatoria, not 
just amateur medics like us!"

	Leoynar said softly near his shoulder:  "I have a feeling that it is important to save this 
one from the jaws of death.  It is a chance in a hundred for establishing a link with the indigenes 
of this planet."

	"I understand your sentiments, Leoynar, but we are hardly capable of performing 
miracles.  Where are Nagus and Deyron?"

	"I have sent them out to collect some firewood.  And there they're coming, safe and 
sound!"  

	"Listen Leoynar," Trajan said in a low voice, "here is what we will do, you and me.  We 
will take the boy into the tent and then boil water to clean him up.  Then--,"  Trajan took a deep 
breath, "then I will try what is necessary but I need you to be with me if something goes wrong."

	With curious eyes Nagus and Deyron observed the boy leaning on his crutch and likewise 
the boy gazed at them.  He looked worried but no longer afraid.  

	"Let me help," he said in a faltering voice. 

	"What is your name?" Leoynar asked gently.

	"Ralph.  Ralph Balwin."  

	"Right, Ralph. There is little you can do at the moment, but you can assist Nagus and 
Deyron with the fire.  We need hot water to treat the injuries of your friend."

	"Will he live?" Ralph asked anxiously.

	"We will do what we can," Leoynar said quietly and walked to the shore of the lake to fill 
a container with water.  He felt that precious minutes were slipping away and without hesitation 
he ignited the heap of firewood with his rephar before the amazed eyes of the crippled boy.  
When the water was breathing bubbles Leoynar carried the container into the tent..

	"Give the boy some food," he instructed Deyron over his shoulder and after entering the 
tent sealed the flap. 

	Deyron fried some meat sausages in a pan and adding two maize cakes on top he thrust 
the pan into the boy's hands. "Go on, gorge on it," he said gruffly, "you look as if you've been 
starving for days.  There is fresh water in that jug."

	Mumbling words of gratitude Ralph sat down on the sand and attacked the generous 
amount of food.  As he ate, nothing more was exchanged between him and the other two, the 
muscular one with the massive moustache and mass of tawny hair and the pale, slender one 
sitting a little apart and watching the closed tent with his brooding catlike eyes.  An 
extraordinary variety of intruders, helpful and kind, like a race apart.

	Finally after what seemed to Ralph long and slow hours of anxious vigilance the young 
intruder who captured him emerged from the tent and his grey-darkpurple eyes--or was it 
darkgrey-purple?--immediately singled him out.  The slightly older one with the kind smile and 
similarly amazing brightblue-lightblue eyes hovered in the background.  

	"Your friend is all right," Trajan said, "you can see him. He can drink some water but 
give him no solid food for the time being."

	"We will prepare some broth for him later in the evening," Leoynar said with a quick 
smile.  He let the eager boy enter the tent and with a hand on Trajan's arm drew him quietly 
away to the lake.  

	"Is it true what I have seen?" he spoke in a low and intense voice, reversing to their 
speech, "are you able to pluck someone back from death by using that what is now inside you."  

	"No, Leoynar," Trajan said determinedly, "if the body cells of the wounded have already 
crossed the threshold of death, I can do nothing more.  I can only try to inject the cells with new 
energy to stimulate them to live on.  I cannot bring the dead back to life."  

	"But," Leoynar persisted, "you were able to reverse the state of his injuries.  You treated 
him and you cured him, Trajan!"  

	Trajan looked into Leoynar's eyes.  "The boy must never know the truth, Leoynar.  I 
saved him because I thought, like you, that to let him die would be contrary to our interest.  But 
trust me if I tell you that the exercise is a perilous one and not to be repeated haphazardly.  What 
if I had lost control, what if the thing inside me decided to break loose?  That's why I needed you 
near me, to stun me with your rephar if that should happen.  Starglory has little love for the 
indigenes of this planet."

	Trajan remained by the shore while Leoynar turned back to their camp.  A scene in 
another world, not so long ago, rippled through his mind, a half-darkened room, Eugene 
Trevarthen writhing in fever and he, and his brother Adilar, doing and accomplishing the same 
thing which he did for the dying boy in the tent.  Though there was a difference.  At that time he 
was a half-bleeding wreck himself and now he was strong and in control.  But Starglory had 
grown stronger too in this Sphere, and it needed the mightiest of all willpowers to constrain it.  
He did not consider himself to be so mighty. 

	Adilar, brother still, brother always.  Thinking of Adilar filled him with longing and 
despondency as he walked back to the centre of the beach where his travelling companions were 
eating, bantering and relaxing.