The wheat also ripened and dropped seed. But the Imakulata eggs hatched first. A few of them produced gnats, which began attacking each other savagely until only one was left. Most of the seeds, however, produced an incredible array of strange plants, many of them wheatlike, many of them gnatlike, and most of them hopelessly maladaptive. Only a few grew more than a few centimeters in height before they died. Those that thrived, while they were generally somewhat wheatlike, were still easily distinguishable from the Earth species.

By the time the next generation of Earth wheat germinated and grew, they had already gone to seed, and showed every sign of being new and vigorous species.

We immediately began several other experiments to see if the results were identical."

On to the next drawing. "In the meantime, the sole surviving second-generation gnat mated, not with the new Imakulata species, but with the second generation Earth wheat. This time, most of the gnat's offspring were similar to what we call wheat today-completely indistinguishable from Earth wheat, except for the presence of a single immense genetic molecule which contains all the genetic information from the original Earth wheat. We repeated these results at will. When the second-generation gnat was allowed to reproduce with second-generation-or even tenth- or twentieth-generation Earth wheat-the result was always outwardly identical Imakulata wheat, which reproduced faster and grew more vigorously than either the Earth wheat or the new Imakulata plant species.

In fact, the Imakulata wheat seemed particularly inimical to the new Imakulata nonwheat species. They were destroyed as if by poison within two generations.

The Earth wheat sometimes lingered as long as six generations before being utterly replaced. However, when the second-generation gnat was not allowed to reproduce with later Earth wheat, the Imakulata wheat never appeared.

Instead, the new Imakulata species and the Earth wheat continued to breed true to form, with no further cross-breeding between species. This process of complete replacement within two generations may have repeated itself many times with every Earth species brought with the colonists except, of course, humankind itself, which has shown no changes in its chromosomal patterns."

And that was all.

"You never got to the geblings," said Ruin triumphantly.

"We asked you about geblings, but you never got to them."

Heffiji stalked off with the lantern. Of course they followed. But she did not lead them down the stairs.

Instead, she found another few papers and laid them out.

There were four drawings, each drawn and labeled by the same hand. One was labeled "Human Genetic Molecules."

The other three were labeled "humanlike sections" of gebling, dwelt, and gaunt genetic molecules.

In each case, the human genetic patterns were all imbedded within a single long molecule, just as the Earth wheat patterns had been incorporated in the single genetic molecule of all the Imakulata plants.

Heffiji could hardly contain her delight. "They didn't know it! I was the one who put it together, I was the one who knew that both of these were the answers to the same question! And when I saw humans and geblings together, I knew that you were the ones who needed to have this answer." She grinned. "That's why I cheated and gave hints."

"It isn't true!" shouted Ruin. "We are not just failed copies of humans!"

He flung out his hand as if to throw Heffiji's brass lantern to the floor. Both Reck and Patience caught his arm before he could do it.

"Are you trying to burn down this house?" demanded Reck.

"We are the original inhabitants of this world, and they are the interlopers! We are not descended from humans! They have usurped our world from us!"

Patience spoke to him quietly. "Ruin, you're right.

Even if half your heritage is human, the other half is not.

The other half is native. To imitate us was part of your nature. Whatever your ancestors were before humans came to Imakulata, it was their nature to absorb and adapt. What you are today is the fulfillment of what your ancestors had to become, if they were to be true to themselves."

"And what were we before?" asked Reck. The question was rhetorical. But again Heffiji ran off with the lantern, this time clattering down the ladder. They had no choice but to follow as she ran through the house, shouting, "I know I know! I know I know!"

They found her in the great room, where Will once again stood by the door, while Angel sat in the seat by the fire. Heffiji was holding a large paper, which contained four versions of the same drawing. She kept reciting the words written at the top of the page: "Most likely reconstruction of large segmented animals found at Rameling and Wissick sites."

It was a large wormlike animal with vestigial wings that fanned out just like geblings' fingers, with a head as proportionately tiny as the head of a dwelf, and with a body as long and lithe as a gaunt. Its belly looked loose and open, as if loose sections of bowel were protruding.

When Heffiji at last quieted down, Angel spoke softly from his place by the fire. "Wyrms," he said. "The earliest colonists called them that, and killed them all, even though there was evidence that they lived communally and buried their dead. They were too frightening, they awakened too many human fears. And now they're extinct."

"Except one," said Patience. "That's what Unwyrm is, isn't he? The last of the wyrms."

"Not quite," said Ruin, who looked exhausted and defeated. "We geblings named him, didn't we? Unwyrm.

Not-wyrm. Not our father; our brother. We didn't remember that he looked like this, didn't remember what a wyrm was. But now it's clear enough. Just like the second-generation gnat that killed off the other gnats and waited to mate again with the Earth wheat. That's what Unwyrm is doing. Waiting to mate again with a human being."

"The seventh seventh seventh daughter," murmured Angel. "I told you not to come."

"A new human species to replace the old," said Reck. "And to destroy the others-gaunt, dwelf, and gebling."

"Why did he wait so long?" asked Patience. "The gnat finished the process in the very next generation.

Why did Unwyrm wait 343 generations for me?"

Heffiji was crestfallen. "I don't have the answer to everything, you know."

Chapter 12. THE SCEPTER

RUIN CAREFULLY SHAVED PATIENCE'S HAIR FROM BEHIND the ear almost to the middle of the back of her head.

"You'll have to wear your wig now," said Angel.

"This new hairstyle might attract some attention."

Ruin chewed a leaf, then licked the shaved area with his rough tongue. He jabbed her skin many times with a dry needle. Patience did not feel it except as a tiny pressure-the nerves of pain had already gone numb.

"I won't care how my hair looks," she said. "I'll be lucky if I come out of this remembering I'm a girl." She was trying to show her confidence by joking, but she surprised herself by sounding frightened instead. "Or even a human."

Reck touched her hand. Patience vaguely remembered that only a month ago, if a gebling had touched her it would have taken concentration to avoid showing revulsion.

Now the touch came as a comfort to her. Beware of liking her too much, she told herself. Beware of affection, the great deceiver.

"Patience," whispered Reck, "it isn't good if you aren't sure who you are. You'll have the memories of hundreds of men and women in your mind when this is done. Some of them are very strong-especially the geblings. The gebling kings have always been very, very strong."

"I know who I am," Patience whispered. But it was a lie. If she knew who she was it was a secret even from herself. A secret she would at last discover, she hoped.