He took the linkages and brought them into balance, tuning now for the shaleiliu hum, strongly perceptible under the static of Eithlarin's nebulous link. And even amid the static, that ineffable tone appeared. His Oliat strained to expand awareness, but this operation required compressed awareness, so he let them encompass only the area right about the settlement, carefully keeping to the macro-scale.

On the plain above the cliff the Holot had made a good start at creating a pond, though darkness had now stopped the work. Near the cliff edge, at the head of the rope and winch lift, the Holot had left their digging tools as a sign to the Gifters that they would return. The lift platform rested at the bottom of the cliff, the ropes slack and beaded with moisture from the fog off the river. The Gifters were asleep now, too, but it was clear to the Oliat that the Gifter hive was accepting the Holot gift.

The cornfields were dotted with barrels of Lehiroh oil, and some of the rows had already been treated. A crew of exhausted Lehiroh, humans, and Cassrians worked by torchlight to treat the rest of the field as well as the Cassrians' pond. Otherwise things were very quiet, the night's stillness broken only by an occasional nocturnal hunter's cry. If nothing else happened, the colony would survive very well indeed.

Jindigar felt that he should run a full check on the entire colony, searching for the seeds of the next disaster, but there was no time and no strength for that. As beautifully as his Oliat was functioning now, there was no way to guarantee that they could keep it up for long. And they might cause more harm than they could prevent by lingering. So he brought them back, focusing in closer and closer.

Across the square that separated the Aliom Temple from the Historians', Jindigar sensed Threntisn sitting on the Historians' porch, watching the Aliom Temple by the meager light of the moon, knowing what they were trying.

In the worldcircle before them Trinarvil administered one last drug to Eithlarin, then gathered her things and stepped out of the marked area. She didn't go far, however, but stood to watch from the shadows as the Oliat drifted into the world-circle, forming up with Eithlarin in the Protector's position.

Jindigar scanned his officers. Krinata was relaxed enough to accept the bizarre mixture of images from the Oliat's multi-awareness. Llistyien and Venlagar were the most stable, and this time, when Jindigar set the linkages and turned them over to Venlagar, the Inreach didn't fumble.

But Darllanyu was a nexus of foment. Zannesu, in the Office of Receptor, was already fighting his response to Bar's desire, unwilling to stir up the needs that had twice sent him after Eithlarin. //Zannesu, in this operation you must permit yourself to respond. I know how hard it is, but for Eithlarin you must. Dar is going to Formulate Renewal, and Llistyien will Emulate it for us. You will Receive that force, making it part of the Oliat.//

//If we let that loose among us, we'll never stop it, Jindigar,// warned Venlagar, glancing at Llistyien.

//We're not going to stop it. Eithlarin will have to Protect us. She will return for that—to Protect for Zannesu. The very force of Renewal itself will draw her. And it will be no trick. The force of Renewal will disrupt the linkages and destroy the, Oliat—through Dissolution, I hope.//

//We've discussed all this, and we agreed to try it,// Darllanyu reminded them impatiently. //We must risk it.//

Habitually fighting the symptoms of onset, Jindigar curbed an impulse to promise, / will keep you safe. And then, though he did not utter the words, he let the feeling possess him, savoring it as he let her presence suffuse his awareness. Her eyes sought him. Rapture engulfed her.

Happiness shook Jindigar. He yielded, his neck throbbing with a sweet ache at once familiar and strange, urgent and fearsome.

The Oliat braced for the grating shock of dysattunement. Jindigar groped for the world attunement and found that the circle still resonated with the fading overtone of Dushaun he had evoked. Familiar, comforting, it let them take life from this alien world and hope for a home.

A wondering moan of relief and hope escaped Darllanyu's lips, and Jindigar returned his attention to his Formulator. //We want to hold at this level—the very urge to go on is the power we need to summon Eithlarin. Zannesu?//

//I've never Received anything from within the Oliat before.//

Zannesu had been thrust into an Office beyond his training, hut he was already resonating to Dar's Renewal, straining after Eithlarin, who, frustratingly, was not responding.

//May 1 show him the inner Reception?// asked Llistyien,

and, at Jindigar's assent, Emulated a Receptor focused inward at the Oliat while at the same time Receiving externally as Zannesu was Receiving Eithlarin.

Barely breathing, Zannesu aligned with Llistyien, and suddenly the Oliat lost all external awareness except for the narrow thread of Krinata's human senses. Llistyien shifted to Emulating Renewal—which was hardly necessary considering her own condition. Krinata gasped. Jindigar's glands pulsed. Venlagar groaned. Zannesu emitted an uninhibited mating cry that somehow harmonized between the shaleiliu hum and the Eithlarin link static.

It built faster than Jindigar ever dreamed possible. He never knew how he found the fortitude to focus them outward to Eithlarin. //Protector! Danger!//

And she responded.

Eithlarin, biological instincts a mere memory to her disembodied psyche, nevertheless strained toward her mate, fending off Llistyien and Darllanyu as if they were rivals.

The linkages shuddered with forces wholly unsuited to the* Oliat channels, building until the linkages wobbled and quivered, like out-of-tune whule strings interfering instead of making music.

Eithlarin stirred, eyes fluttering open. Zannesu checked his automatic step toward her, and hovered, Receiving her totally. She turned toward him, her linkages into the Oliat strengthening as the Oliat pattern itself blurred with the vast energies surging through them. Zannesu tore at his shirt collar, his glands engorged.

Darllanyu took two steps toward Jindigar, reaching for his neck with fingers that offered tender relief. The energy built, destabilizing the Oliat instead of Dissolving it, wiping away the shaleiliu hum. But there was no way he could stop it. Whatever happened now, happened.

Suddenly the linkages prickled with human surprise. Jindigar flicked a glance at Krinata, and his gaze locked with hers. His breath caught in his throat as he saw himself through her perception, tall shadow within shadow against searing whiteness, vast, commanding, powerful, mysterious, and forbidden. Wanted but forbidden.

She closed her eyes and thrust a question along the linkages together with a faint sound that grew rapidly. //What's that?//

"Natives!" It was Trinarvil's voice, carrying to them from outside where she stood on the Temple porch, and she yelled the warning. "We're under attack!" An alarm bell began to toll.

And then they all heard it. It was a howling, chattering babble, stretching from their very porch into the far distance. Trinarvil ran back through the portal and turned as if to fend off an attack. Six shadowy forms boiled from the entry way. Hardly pausing, they knocked Trinarvil over. A mob of shadows erupted out of the doorway. They headed straight for the worldcircle as if they could sense it.

With every step one of the outsiders took the circle dimmed. Their footsteps took on a vague luminescence. Then, as the vanguard reached the circle, it shimmered and smeared out until the whole floor was permeated with Phanphihy's energy, just like the rest of the world.

The subtle hint of Dushaun that had held them in attunement with Phanphihy vanished.