“You’ve only got two choices, Jay. You go home with her. Or you go home without her,” Mark said.

Jay took a seat at a table near the door. That way if it went bad, he wouldn’t have far to get booted. It was very early, and he was the only customer in the restaurant. Hastet hurried out from the kitchen and checked as she saw him.

Jay looked up from the menu. “You don’t have any crow today, do you?”

“What’s crow?”

“It’s a dish you eat when you’ve been stupid.”

“You must be a connoisseur of it.”

“There, now you’ve done it again. I just don’t know how I can go back to Earth and never get another love pat from the rough side of your tongue.” She didn’t respond. Just folded her arms across her chest and waited. “Think you could stand to leave this paradise of a planet?”

“I can stand quite a lot.”

“How about me?”

“I could get used to that too.”

“Doctor?”

“Yes, Kelly love.”

Her gray eyes widened at the sight of the enameled and inlaid sleigh, the two fidgeting l’lails. “What are you doing?”

“Taking Illyana and myself out for a breath of air. The taste of politics is coating my tongue.”

“In a sleigh?” the girl breathed.

“It’s a logical way to cross snow, and far more pleasant than a snowmobile. Would you like to come?”

“Oh, God, yes.”

They settled into a nest of furs. Tis handed the baby back to Kelly. “Here, you may as well get in practice.” He hesitated, arranged the reins between his gloved fingers. “Unless you choose to terminate.”

“He is all that’s left of Zabb,” Kelly said slowly.

“Which should place you under no obligation. You didn’t know my cousin.”

,’I know you loved him enough to be tempted to stay female.”

Tis arched an eyebrow at her. “I obviously taught you too well.”

She looked down at the little girl sleeping in her arms. “Doctor, do I have to go back to Earth?”

“I thought you would wish to.”

“Where would I fit? What would I be? How do I go back to Atoka and tell them I spent a year being a man, and I’ve lived on another planet, and I married and bedded a woman -”

“And now you’re an unwed teenage mother who can read minds,” Tis concluded softly.

She sighed. “Make a great sitcom. It’d be lousy in real life.”

“I totally agree.” Tis shook the reins, clucked to the l’lails, and the sleigh shot forward with a hiss of blades. “Of course you may stay. Taj will act as your protector -”

“Bat’tam’s already offered.” She hit him on the shoulder. “Stop chortling. He says he still hasn’t given up on you.”

“Oh, Ideal!”

“What is all this shit?” Jay looked over the cases and trunks that littered the docking bay at the Ilkazam ship farm.

“I had your clothes packed,” Tis said.

“Oh, goody, now I’ve got the next seventy-five Halloweens covered.”

Mark came wandering out from behind the gigantic ship. In places the rough surface blossomed into fantastic many-faceted crystals extruding like jeweled flowers from the body of the ship. Mark reached up and gently touched one long finger of crystal. It broke off with a high chiming sound, and Mark’s cheeks burned red with embarrassment. Tis shifted Illyana onto a hip, hurried to his friend’s side, and embraced him.

“It’s a gift. Don’t worry, Sundiver read your admiration and wanted to give you a memento.”

Smiling with delight, Mark bowed awkwardly to the ship. “Thanks… uh, well, thanks.”

“And while we’re on the subject of mementos.” Tis gestured to a servant, who offered a strongbox identical to the one that had paid off Jay.

The ace shook his head. “I don’t need pay, man. Some things you do for love.”

“Nonetheless, take it. For Sprout if nothing else.”

Tis crossed to Jay and Hastet. He gestured again, and the servant appeared with a carrying case. Tisianne offered it to Hastet. “I had troops search for several days, but they never located Haupi. Here’s a substitute, if you’re willing to accept her.”

Hastet opened the case, and a wanei stuck its head up, hissed at Jay, and retreated.

“You’re not taking that assortment of feathers and teeth masquerading as a pet, are you?” Jay yelped.

“Oh course,” Hastet said, and accepting the case, she crooned softly to the angry wanei.

“It’s illegal to import animals.”

“It’s illegal to import aliens too,” Tis said with a smile. “It is time, dear ones.”

Jay and Hastet walked up the ramp and into the ship. The bickering never stopped; they also never stopped holding hands. Tis shook his head and smiled up at Mark. The humans’ eyes were filling with tears.

“You always understand.”

Mark blinked rapidly, coughed, looked away. “I know you’re not coming. I don’t understand why.”

Tis had steeled himself for pain. It hadn’t been enough. Mark’s expression tore at his heart. “I’m tired, Mark, and confused, and I want to have my hand regrown, and I can’t run out on them again -”

“But you are coming back sometime. Aren’t you, man?”

“I don’t know.”

Mark looked down into Tis’s face for a long, long time. Finally he said softly. “I don’t know who you are anymore.”

Tisianne walked to the viewport, looked out at the cold and distant stars. Looked back and held out his good hand to Mark. The ace gripped it hard.

“I don’t know either.”

Mark crossed the bay and entered the ship and never looked back. Tis loved him for it. He and Illyana retreated beyond the bay doors, watched as the great ship slid from its berth. Watched long after the final ghost signature had faded.

He looked down and met the very serious aquamarine eyes of his only child. She stretched out an arm and laid a fist against his mouth.

“Come, daughter, let’s go home.”

Glossary

agma – a large, intelligent predatory animal. The challenge to the hunter is that an agma hunts back.

Ajayiz – the ruling council of a Takisian House.

Ajayiz’et – a member of the ruling council.

Amlas – the diplomatic language used only between Houses for negotiations.

ankatai’li – shape-changing insect that appears crystalline when at rest.

bitshuf’di – a neutered psi lord, male or female.

calnite – a bioengineered substance to speed bone reconstruction.

cinara wood – a pungent wood whose smell is reminiscent of sandalwood and honey.

Fel’k – the larger moon of Takis.

Ideal – the quintessential description of the Takisian psyche. It is more than mere physical or mental prowess. It is the perfection with which a Takisian comports himself in all areas of his or her life. Virtu – achieving it, the quest for it – helps to dramatize the Ideal. Success does not necessarily define whether you’ve achieved virtu or the Ideal. A spectacular failure can count more than being merely adequate.

ikadah – a warm, sweet drink of Takis. Chocolate is the Earth equivalent.

Ilkazal – the public language of House Ilkazam; uses telepathy and the spoken word.

Intaye – a lady of the Most Bred.

Ishab’kaukab – the living ships of Takis.

jebali – a small nocturnal grazing animal.

ka’et – a stringed instrument whereby sound is formed by striking the strings with hammers that also carry a tone. The player uses a double keyboard.

Kib’r – a relative of past seven degrees.

kuket – darling, sweetheart, but it is a diminutive usually applied to children.

La’b – a sexual toy.

lawmerates – male or female Takisians who have been surgically altered to the opposite sex.

Lilistizkar – a visiting day in the women’s quarters.

l’lail – a riding animal.

merrida – darling, used between lovers.

MIS – Mentatic Intelligence Service.

pful – Takisian vegetable.