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.Long after the last Vryhh succumbedto the crushing weight of the ages, kephaloi in empty domes would be talkingPage 150 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlto each other and forming a society that could last as long as the worlditself.She thought about that awhile, speculating on the nature of thatsociety, until her meanderings became so absurd she laughed at herself andwent looking for a book to read among the many shelved in Synkatta s library.About an hour after midnight she closed the book, a novel by a writer exiledfrom Shiburr.The Vrya were a darkly threatening thread through the narration,though they were seldom mentioned directly.The native Shiburri went abouttheir lives in the shadow of the domes, always conscious of the undying, aconsciousness that seemed to intensify all emotions, all struggles, allrelationships.The characters in the novel could not escape from thatawareness, though some tried to deny it; others shriveled into futility; a fewretreated so far they denied the world as well as the Vrya; some lacedthemselves to the Vrya, letting the undying use them in return for power overtheir own kind; the strongest concentrated resolutely on getting the most outof their day-to-day lives, treating the Vyra like a storm or earthquake or anyother force of nature they couldn t control but had to cope with.The maincharacter was one of these last.It was a depressing novel, a catalogue of thedisasters a good man could suffer, and it ended without hope, Shiburrunchanged and without possibility of changing.She pushed the book off the bedand turned on her back, lay staring into the darkness.After some minutes ofchaotic thinking that led only to knots in her stomach, she began the calmingexercises Vajd had taught her an eternity ago, cleared her mind and bludgeonedherself into a heavy sleep.Aleytys.leytys.eytys.tys.tys.Aleytys.tys.tys.tys.She woke with Ikanom s slender hand shaking her, its voice echoinghollowly in her head.The nightmare-ridden sleep still clogging her thoughts,she pushed its hand away and sat up, scrubbed at her eyes, then emptied thecup of cha it handed her. What time is it? Ikanom took the cup and refilled it. Almost the ninth hour of the day,Archira.Five hours till noon. Aleytys sipped at the cha, feeling some of the haziness warming out of herhead. Ninth hour? Why d you wake me before the time I set? Shareem anassa waits outside the dome, Archira. What? Let her.no.ahh. She rubbed at her temple. No, let me talk toher first.Take this. She handed him the cup and tossed the covers aside,threw on one of the houserobes and padded across the room to the comscreen. Reem? Shareem s face filled the screen.She looked weary and strained; her eyes hadgone dull. Loguisse came through, she said.Her voice was as lifeless as hereyes. Lee, don t leave me out here. You look tired. I haven t slept. Just a minute. She blanked the screen. Ikanom, is there anyone in the flierwith her? No other brain patterns register, Archira. Good enough.Let her through and fix us some breakfast, you decide what.We ll eat in the bookroom, um, yes, a fire, please, and get a bath ready forher. She touched the image back on. Come on in, breakfast s waiting, a bath andbed. Shareem said nothing, just nodded and cut the contact.Aleytys shook her head, pulled the robe tighter about her and tied the belt.What miserable luck.Why couldn t she stay with Loguisse one more day? She randown the flow-way and into the hall.Good thing she s so tired, she ll besleeping when we go, I suppose it won t matter leaving her alone, Kell will betoo busy.ay, Madar, I wanted her with Loguisse just in case.hah,better not think of that, I just have to win, that s all.She pulled the dooropen and stepped out.The flier was quiet on the landing disk.Shareem hadn tPage 151 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlcome out yet.Aleytys ran a few steps, then walked more slowly, frowning.Thelock iris began folding open.*Harskari,* she said, *I think I ve donesomething really stupid this time.*Harskari s eyes open, the diadem begins singing.Shareem appears in the lock, a massive dark shape behind her; she moves likean automaton.Aleytys remembers what her mother said an eternity ago: If hegets close to me, I ll do just about anything he tells me no matter how I hateit. And I sent you out to him, she thinks, I was being so clever.Thethoughts pass across her mind in a blinding instant, then she is screaming andrunning at the flier in a nightmare of slow motion, Shareem has come awake,suddenly, terribly, as the dark form s arm lifts she folds herself around it,fire explodes through her.No.No.No.The words scream in Aleytys s head, hermouth is open but no sound comes out, she runs and runs through the eerieoutphase world as the fire burning through her mother s body passes throughher without touching her.She runs up the flame as if it were a rope anddrives her arms into that massive black form.It is like trying to feel aboutin cold bottom-of-the-barrel molasses, he has protected himself against hergift, the batteries are welded into their slots, if her tractor fields wouldwork in this outphase world, she still would not have the strength to breakthe welds, the connecting wires are etched into the substance of the armor,paint on high-density metal like that used for the outer walls of starships,her hands scrabble about in him, there is nothing she can get hold of, shestarts to panic, remembers the shattered body of her mother, cannot let himwin, cannot, never, no, she finds the tiny drivers that power the joints,Harskari half-phases her hands, she snatches anything she can, breaks it,pulls it out, destroys those drivers, shoulders, elbows, wrists, down, hips,knees, ankles, oh Kell oh Kell oh cousin, I can do this to you because youforced me to learn it, up again, destroy the weapons, pull their packs, youweren t so careful here.Harskari there beside her, white hair whipping abouther dark worried face, Lee, she calls, Lee, enough, tend Shareem, Lee, getaway from him, I m taking you back, Lee do you hear me.Harskari s voicefinally is more than a mosquito whine in her ears, she finally comprehendswhat those words mean, she backs away, out the lock onto the landing disk andfalls on her knees when the world moves at normal time about her.Shareem s body completes its fall, splatting down beside her.The weight ofher flesh is back on her bones, so heavy she almost cannot bear it
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