Outside, daylight was waning in a cloud-speckled sky, but there was enough light to see the path down the cliff face. Ruff, Storm's co-husband, insisted on edging past Jindigar and taking the path first, clearing off every bit of gravel Jindigar might slip on.

The Outriders left them at the outer court of the Dushau compound, and Jindigar forged through the inner gate and on down the residential streets to the central plaza. The plaza was defined by the Aliom Temple, the Historians' Temple, the administration building and the medical services center. All about, people paused among the saplings and new grass to gaze after the Oliat with grave concern or total lack of surprise that it was the human who had collapsed.

Jindigar carried Krinata on through the hospital and right into Trinarvil's office where he laid his Outreach on a bench and turned to peer up at Trinarvil, who was standing in the middle of the floor between the bench and her desk.

Trinarvil had always seemed old to Jindigar, but in these past months, she had become worn and haggard as well. Catapulted into premature Renewal, her body was rejecting most of the nutrients of this world, regardless of what native foods she ate, a common result of loss of attunement. Her sleep was fraught with nightmares, her days haunted with a sickness only those who had known exile from Dushaun could guess at.

She was much too ill, yet the Oliat needed her, needed an Outreach they could trust—if only for a very short while. And Trinarvil was an experienced Oliat Officer. If she could only accept this world—even if just as superficially as the rest of them had—they could use her for the brief while it would take to Dissolve.

Kneeling beside Krinata, who simply stared catatonically at the ceiling, Jindigar looked up at Trinarvil, knowing she would understand his plea.

And she did. But she only shook her head, the sadness in the etched lines in her face growing to a bleak hopelessness as she gazed upon Krinata. Then she went to the door, weaving her way through Jindigar's other officers, and called some orders to those outside.

Blankets and hot water were brought for Krinata. Trinarvil let them know implicitly by her movements rather than by attempting speech, that she wanted Llistyien to Emulate Krinata into the Oliat—to evoke within the Oliat the closed mental loop the human was trapped in.

Jindigar's first impulse was to reject that utterly, but then he saw what she was pulling out of a storage cabinet behind her desk. Trundling the heavy battery pack behind it, she deployed the only vibration therapy machine still fully operating. It was a long, silvery box with four tall poles that telescoped out of it in various directions. Two of them were color projectors and two were sound projectors.

Jindigar had no idea how a human might respond to such a standard -health-adjusting procedure. But could it really be harmful? Especially in link with six Dushau? Yet what else could they try? Before long, the committee people would have the army up at that cave, spraying it with fire or smoke to rid it of the insects trying to help them.

Trinarvil's people brought in cots for the other six Oliat Officers and strapped them down so they wouldn't hurt themselves.

Jindigar signaled Zannesu, and they opened the linkages just enough to let Llistyien attune to Krinata and Emulate. It took her three tries to overcome the fear of the darkness possessing Krinata's mind, Jindigar insisting that what was happening to Krinata didn't resemble the Dushau malady of being lost in the episodes of memory. Then Jindigar, with all his Oliat, went down into Krinata's darkness, a depth of stillness where thought locked against thought and paralyzed the mind.

Jindigar never knew what happened. They told him later that it had taken nearly an hour for them to come out of it.

But it seemed to him like the very next thing he knew, the room came swimming into focus, and residual scraps of thought evaporating from the edges of consciousness seemed cast in the piquant human symbolism whereby Oliat linkages became tubes, information came in colors, and almost anything could have phallic import or monetary value.

Strength was pouring into him like a tangible fluid, and he was glad to be strapped down, for everything whirled crazily. He applied himself to balancing the linkages, vanquishing every shred of Krinata's private memories that might have leaked into his memory, and synthesizing the multiawareness into coherent meaning. He'd never noticed how much mental effort it took to do that. But as he grew stronger he rolled his head over and found Krinata's eyes staring into his own.

Krinata's eyes were human, with three concentric circles, the center one being a single pupil contracted to a mere point against the searingly bright Dushauni lumps. The irises were black, shot through with structures that had no relationship to vision. And the whites were newly bloodshot, showing strain and illness that tore at Jindigar's heart.

Bandages spotted her arms, chest, and neck, where the baby Holot had savaged her furless skin. Trinarvil knelt above Krinata's head, palpating her cervical vertebrae and testing for abnormal nerve-current patterns throughout her body. Someone must have mentioned the fall Krinata had taken. The human spine was notoriously delicate.

Eithlarin writhed to consciousness and, gasping, twisted to see that it was Trinarvil handling Krinata. She took a deliberate relaxing breath and schooled herself to patience as she saw Zannesu start awake and groggily fumble at his restraints, needing to get to her to comfort her. Jindigar made a mental note to inform Trinarvil of Eithlarin's escalating break-in sensitivity if his Protector didn't do it herself. But most of his attention was on Krinata. //You're going to be all right now. It's over.//

//Jindigar?// she marveled. //Where—how—//

As she conceived of questions the answers came to her within the Oliat perception but too fast for her stunned mind. He started to rise, to go to her, but fell back under the restraining straps. Trinarvil released him, and he rolled off to kneel beside

Krinata as Trinarvil went to shut down the irradiators. //Just a moment, and we'll adjourn,// he reassured Krinata, //but first, can you speak for us?//

She coughed her throat clear. Ill guess so. Go ahead.// Jindigar worked the restraints away from her chest and helped her sit up as she reported for them, "//Trinarvil, we must inform the committees that the new invaders of the Holot's cave are , only donating an appropriate food for the infants. They mustn't be molested!//"

The medic took that in, then stepped to the door to send a messenger. By then, all the officers were moving. Jindigar felt the unsteadiness in their legs as they helped one another up. Darllanyu sat on the side of her cot, head cradled in her hands, her blue turban coming unwound. She pushed it off, revealing the elegant shape of her skull as she fought the remnants of the hormonal surge that had driven her out of attunement with Phanphihy.

Her awareness of Trinarvil's debilitated health lanced sharply through the Oliat along with her fear that they'd all die that way—in slow agony. The emotion almost shouted the thought, Where will 1 get courage like Trinarvil's?

Raked by the untoward intimacy with Darllanyu, Krinata burst out, //Jindigar, why didn't you tell me the links allowed such obscene access into an officer's feelings!//

//They aren't supposed to,// responded Jindigar, struggling to adjust the balance to give them all privacy, while at the same time reassuring Darllanyu that they would help each other through that adjustment. //It's happening because we're beyond the safety margin. But to become Center one must first hold all the other offices, several times, under different Centers, to learn how to observe another's privacy when the other has no way to defend it.//