His lips were soft, and full. Kati's arms went around his waist, pulling him to her. She felt his tongue exploring her lips, but kept her teeth clenched at first. His hands moved over her back, and she opened her mouth to him, their tongues caressing wetly. But when a hand pa.s.sed lightly over a breast, the nipple there was suddenly hard as a stone, and Kati caught her breath. She pulled back, breathing hard, and held his face with her hands. "Wait," she said. "Wait."

She kissed him lightly on the mouth, and turned her back to him.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I had no right."

She looked at him and smiled. "I've wanted that kiss since I was ten years old. I've been waiting for it." She held out her hand when she saw his eyes brighten. "What took you so long?"

She sat down in the long gra.s.s, pulling him down beside her. He said in a troubled voice: "You are a n.o.ble, and I'm the son of a soldier. Mengmoshu would skin me alive if he knew I even touched you."

Kati twisted him around, wrestled him down so his head was in her lap. "He is not my father, though there are times he acts like it. You needn't fear him, but me. I'm more fierce." She pulled his ears, and growled.

Lui-Pang reached up to trace her jaw with his finger. "Who are you?" he whispered. "Mengnu? The graceful, mannered lady of the palace? Or Kati, the rider of newly broken horses and one of Master Yung's better students? Your lessons aren't so private, you know. I have spies."

"I am both," said Kati, snapping at his finger as it pa.s.sed her mouth. "I am all of it. And I am more than you know," she teased.

"Maybe you are. Your eyes-in the morning light-they're amber. You're beautiful, Kati."

She leaned over, kissed him softly, and long. They lay down in the gra.s.s awhile, cuddling. But there was little time for them; they had to go back to the city, however reluctantly. And on the way back, Lui-Pang said something that bothered her at a subconscious level.

As they neared the city gate, he looked at her and said, "Yes, it was the morning light. Now your eyes are brown again."

She barely had time to change her clothes before Huomeng was there rapping on her door. He asked her to wear the plain, white uniform of the general populace, so as not to distinguish herself, and thus she had to change again.

"Why is that?" she asked.

"People will behave more ordinary if they don't know who you are. They are used to me, and think of me as a scholar and scientist. You will seem like my student and be free to ask questions."

"But I am your student."

"Yes, but I'm only one of your teachers. You're really First Mother's student now, and I'm your guide. Think carefully about all you see, and ask yourself what problems exist on Shanji. There will be many excursions, and this is only the first. Mengmoshu himself will accompany you on others. This is important, Kati. We follow the will of First Mother."

And so she followed him, and that first day Huomeng took her onto the mountain on whose flank the city rested, and there he showed her a world she did not previously know.

They took the monorail up the mountain until they were far above the palace, just inside the great, clear dome enclosing the city. The car stopped, and there was a high fence of wire patrolled by many troopers. Beyond it lay a vast, flat area that was the landing field for flyers. They were parked in rows too numerous to count, and one lifted off as she watched, straight up to the dome opening a hundred meters above them, then outside for its daily patrol.

The guards let them pa.s.s through a gate, and they went to an open car on rails that ran along the edge of the landing field towards the maw of a huge tunnel leading into the mountain. The summit was still two hundred meters above them. Just the two of them got into the car. Huomeng's hands moved over a panel there. A whirring sound, and the car moved forward.

"Magnetic lifters," instructed Huomeng. "We're floating three millimeters above the rails. With these cars, we could have a public transportation system going anywhere on Shanji. But it is not traditional, and thus not allowed for the people."

The tunnel was cool and very monstrously big, lined with dim lights along the floor and walls. They seemed to float along it, and cool, moist wind whipped her hair. The air grew warm as they came to a station, a platform with benches before a high, transparent wall, and beyond it a brightly lit cavern. Huomeng turned to her, and said, "The people know none of this. The workers here are chosen by the Moshuguang for their intelligence and skills, and they live in apartments high on the other side of the mountain. Everything you see today is kept secret from the people."

He took her into the cavern, and there she saw three different types of delta-winged aircraft being a.s.sembled by a swarm of workers. One of the craft seemed large enough to carry hundreds of people. "I've never seen one of these flying," she said. "Where are they used?"

"They are not used. These are all prototypes, and the Emperor will not allow flight testing for fear the people will see them. He allows the Moshuguang to play with technology without application of it. With these planes, we could live anywhere on Shanji, with rapid transport of people and goods."

They went back to the car and proceeded on, past smaller caverns filled with people, only a few of them Moshuguang. There were laboratories for chemistry and metallurgy, and one that specialized in the bioengineering of new plants for agriculture. Kati said she'd heard of none of the plants he'd named, and Huomeng laughed at her.

"You eat them all the time: rice, fruits, even grains for your noodles. None of these could survive here in their original forms. All have been bioengineered for Shanji, and all are grown on the eastern plains. The little barley and wheat fields near the city are nothing. They only contribute to the Emperor's illusion of a small, feudal kingdom."

"Those little fields were taken from my people, and you make them sound unimportant," Kati said angrily.

"The Tumatsin have the sea, and the land near it. It is more than adequate for their needs. Kati, you also have an illusion. To you, Shanji is the city, the western mountains and the sea, yet you know it is a very large globe, and your familiar world is only a tiny part of it. To you, the people who live here are those in the city, and your own. I must tell you that the Tumatsin and the city people together are like a drop in that garden pool you used to wade in. But now I want to show you the thing that is most important to me. I have my own little world, too."

They went around a gradual curve for a long time, and Kati guessed they were now in the eastern side of the mountain on a great, looping route through it. The car slowed as they came to another cavern, the tracks bisecting it, and on either side, floor to ceiling, were ma.s.sive walls of grey metal. They stopped there, and Huomeng took her to a door by a gla.s.sed-in booth, inside of which a trooper sat, eyeing them. Huomeng showed him a card, and inserted it in a slot by the door. The door clicked open and they entered a short, bare hallway to another door. Huomeng paused there, grinning. "This is my world," he said dramatically, and opened the door. A rush of hot air surprised her, and there was sudden, hot light from panels in a curved ceiling far above them.

It was the biggest cavern she'd seen: tiers of walkways circ.u.mscribing it horizontally, people walking there, going in and out of doorways. A pair of tracks, each two-and-half meters in diameter, came from the wall and branched into two other pairs of equal size. And sitting on those tracks, in the center of the cavern, were two huge wedge-shaped ships of gleaming metal. Kati's mouth hung open, and she stared.

"First Mother showed you the great ship in orbit around Shanji," said Huomeng. "That one brought our ancestors here from Tengri-Nayon. The ships you see here are the ones that brought us down to the surface of the planet. They have no fuel left, but we will get some some day soon. They have been waiting here for an eternity of years for someone to use them again, and I'm going to be the one to do it."

His voice was soft, reverent, and there was a light in his eyes she'd never seen before. The emotion in him was deep and roiling, and he made no effort to mask it from her. She was surprised to see he could feel such emotion, and was somehow drawn to him because of it. "They're so large," was all she could say.

"Magnetic lifters, and fusion drive. They each hold two hundred people comfortably. That's how many there were in the beginning, Kati; only four hundred people, and n.o.body was left on the mother ship in the end. She's been up there nearly two thousand years, quietly taking care of herself, waiting for our return."

"You would fly one of these to the mother ship? And then what?

Huomeng's eyes were those of a zealot. "I would fly between the stars, and find new worlds. I would not be confined to a single planet, especially this one. If I could, I would see all the universe there is to see. But even with the mother ship it isn't possible. This is one of the reasons I envy you so much. I was not born special, like you."

"Me?"

"Yes. You go to First Mother in the gong-shi-jie. I cannot do this. None of us can. You are special. You can travel anywhere in an instant. Time has no meaning for you; every star, every world is within your reach."

"I've only seen the mother ship," Kati protested, for she keenly felt his envy, now.

"There will be more. First Mother will show you. The way your abilities are growing you might even find a way to take me with you someday. In the meantime, I will dream my dreams."

"Does Mengmoshu know about your dreams?"

"Yes. We've talked a lot about this, and he's encouraged me. When I'm not with you I'm here, by his a.s.signment. I have a little office up there on the third level." He pointed towards it. "There's not much to see. For the past two years, I've been learning all the systems on the mother ship. In another two, I should have them all down. The shuttles you see here were easy to learn, and I could fly one now. We could make the fuel. But the Moshuguang bides its time. It waits patiently, but I do not."

"Waiting for what?" asked Kati.

Huomeng spoke in a near whisper, though n.o.body was near them. "I think there are things Mengmoshu does not tell me. There are plans being made; they involve me, and they involve you. No other people are being trained so intensely as you and I. I can understand it in your case. Your abilities are unique, and First Mother has claimed you as a student. But why me?"

"I've heard Mengmoshu speak highly of you," said Kati. "He says your a.n.a.lytical skills are far advanced, and your memory cannot be matched."

"I know that," said Huomeng, without arrogance. "Your own memory and logic is considerable. So why have I been a.s.signed as your tutor since the first day you arrived here? The learning machine has been enough for you."

"You've answered some questions and directed my studies, Huomeng. I've learned faster with your help."

That pleased him, and she felt it. "Perhaps. But there's more to it than that. I think the Moshuguang has deliberately put us together for a purpose. You said First Mother wants her people back. We are somehow involved with that. Somehow, our skills are to be combined."

"For what? To take the people back to Mandughai-First Mother? To leave Shanji? The Emperor will not stand idly by and let this happen!"

"No, he won't, but something is coming, and as for the Emperor he is already old and his son is a sickly boy with effeminate ways. I see no future for his throne." Huomeng nodded his head sagely. "A change is coming, Kati. I know it."

"It is speculation," said Kati, and then she surprised herself by reaching out and taking hold of his hand for just a moment. "Huomeng, who are the Moshuguang? Where do they come from? In some ways we're alike, you and I."

"Yes," said Huomeng, giving her a wry smile. "There's no written history of us, but a story has been pa.s.sed down. It's said that within three generations after First Mother's invasion of Shanji She sought to change the people by sending Her two eldest sons to selectively breed with them. Even their names are unknown, but the result was two new peoples on Shanji. The one is now called Moshuguang." He paused.

"And the other?"

Huomeng squeezed her hand. "It's said that your people, the Tumatsin, are cousins to the Moshuguang. This is why they've been so closely watched by us over the years."

Kati felt suddenly excited. "Mandughai has told me I come from two of Her sons, not one. What can this mean?"

Huomeng shook his head. "There must be Moshuguang blood somewhere in your ancestry. It's possible. Only the Emperor forbids relations between our people. There are no biological problems I'm aware of."

Kati felt satisfied by his answer, and smiled, but then Huomeng tried to release her hand and she held on.

"Huomeng-thank you for telling me about your dreams. I think I understand you a lot better, now."

Huomeng was not startled by her persistent touch. He smiled, and squeezed her hand gently before releasing it.

"I thank you for listening to them. We'd better move on, now. There's one more important thing I want you to see today."

They returned to the car and drove on in silence for minutes along a tunnel now featureless, staring at the lights. The car slowed as they came to an intersection with another tunnel, and Kati saw a car flash by, then another. Suddenly there were moving walkways filled with people, many of them women and children on both sides of the tunnel. The walls were solid with brightly lit windows of shops and stores with colorful, luminous signs advertising their wares. People crowded in the shops, and the air was filled with the odors of rice, vegetables and meat cooking in sweet and sour spices. The noise was a din, and Kati felt suddenly crowded in, a little claustrophobic.

"The workers' village!" Huomeng shouted at her. "Their apartments are off to our left!"

Cars were darting in and out of traffic from several tunnels on her left, people chatting amiably in them while the cars seemed to move according to their own minds. Kati grasped the arm rest on her seat, and hung on.

And then the village was suddenly behind them. It was quiet again, and only one car was ahead of them. The car veered into a tunnel to the left; Huomeng touched something on his control panel and they also veered left to follow it. The tunnel followed the arc of a circle to a platform with cutouts in which cars were parked before a brightly lit window, and a sign advertising tea and honeycakes. They parked there, and went inside.

Odors of tea, and honey. Many tables, mostly empty, a handful of people here and there, drinking tea and eating cakes, some reading, others watching them as they came inside. The furniture was black, tables covered with red cloth, and colorful lamps hung on long, bronze chains from a red ceiling. A mural on one wall showed a vast plain, with mountains beyond it, and birds flying. The room was quiet, and restful.

A woman came up to Huomeng, and bowed. "We'd like a table outside," he said.

They followed her to a door, and suddenly the light of Tengri-Khan was in her eyes, making her blink rapidly. They went out onto a stone patio, several tables there with red umbrellas to shield them. Kati squinted, eyes slowly adjusting to the light as they went to a table and were seated there, a transparent wall the height of a man to their left.

And then she saw what was there.

Huomeng pointed, and said, "This is Shanji."

They were perched on the side of the mountain only a negligible distance beneath the summit, and the rock sloped steeply below them for thousands of meters to a plain stretching towards the horizon in every direction; in the far distance was a faint silhouette of mountain peaks. To the north, spires rose from the plain, belching smoke, and near the mountain's base was a solid, packed ma.s.s of buildings with streets between them, people moving there like armies of ants. Beyond the tall buildings were cl.u.s.ters of smaller structures, and beyond that the plain was broken into squares of green and gold and glittering blue, as if painted by an artist's giant brush, as far as the eye could see.

"A city!" she gasped.

"It is called Wanchou," said Huomeng. There was sadness in his voice. "It is the only true city on Shanji. And the Emperor, in his palace, does not bother to speak of it. Kati, how many Tumatsin do you suppose live in all the ordus you know of?"

"Oh, thousands. There were many people at Festival when we came together."

Huomeng chuckled wryly. "Actually, it's closer to a hundred thousand, so I guess a lot of Tumatsin don't go to Festival. And in the Emperor's city, with the royalty, n.o.bility, the Moshuguang, troopers and their families, we count around twice that number. That is three hundred thousand people, Kati, which seems like many until you realize that in that city you see below you, in all those buildings and smaller houses, there now live nine million people. And in thousands of hamlets, on farms, zones around the smoking factories, even beyond where we can see from here there are another six million. They go about their daily lives, raising their children in ways used by the ancestors of our ancestors, before the time of First Mother. This is Shanji, Kati. This is where the people are."

There was a pa.s.sion in his voice, an anger when he spoke.

"I didn't realize-" she began, stunned.

A woman came to take their order and left quickly. People at other tables were watching them. All were Hansui. Huomeng pointed behind her. "Our workers live there, by the village we pa.s.sed."

Kati turned around, saw buildings sprouting like black crystals from the face of the rock, several tiers of them slightly lower than where she was sitting.

"The workers here have it much easier than those in Wanchou, and far better than the country people. Their rooms are cooled and heated, they have the finest medicine we can provide, and machines make their work faster and easier. The people below, the real people of Shanji, have none of this. Simple diseases like influenza have killed hundreds of thousands of them in past epidemics. They have adjusted to it by breeding like rabbits, unchecked, for they know that only two children in four will survive to adulthood. The n.o.bles own their land, their homes, all the stores that provide them with goods. The people own nothing, not even themselves."

"They are like the Tumatsin," said Kati.

"No, they are not."

"And why not? The Emperor takes our land, kills those who resist, forces us to the sea. We are under His control, not ours."

"Suddenly you are Tumatsin," said Huomeng softly. "There is a parallel, of course, but it is not the same for the people below us. There is no n.o.ble cla.s.s within the Tumatsin, and that is the difference. A Tumatsin farmer produces a bushel of grain, and uses it to barter for his needs. The grain is his. But here, everything belongs to the n.o.bles, who barter with each other and the Emperor to provide themselves with luxuries far beyond those of the people. The people have nothing to call their own. They receive scrip for their labors and buy goods from shops owned by the n.o.bles. The goods are limited, priced high, and no private enterprise by the people is allowed. There is no compet.i.tion for the n.o.bles.

"If the people are unhappy, then why don't they do something about it?" asked Kati, perplexed.

"They aren't unhappy. They take each day as it comes. They have a place to live, and those who work have full stomachs. They have no idea how the n.o.bles live, and they have never seen the Emperor's city. They are content through ignorance. Their lives could be much better, but they don't see it.

"But they are happy," said Kati. "I was happy living in the ordu. I lived outdoors with the freedom to ride in the mountains, and I was never hungry. But I see your point. What we produced was ours. Our anger came from the Emperor pushing us around like we were cattle. We thought the lands were ours, but they weren't."

"Exactly. There's another problem that bothers me even more. The farms and factories continue to produce excesses. There are great stocks of copper, bronze and steel filling warehouses near the factories, and food stored in bins on every farm. We produce more than we need, and it's useless, yet there is much unemployment for unskilled people. We do not expand, and the Emperor isolates us from other worlds we could trade with. We have become stagnant on Shanji. We do not progress, but our population grows."

Their tea and cakes had arrived. Kati munched sweet honey, and said, "Mandughai told me she would have Shanji join the rest of her worlds. Could this be the plan of the Moshuguang?"

"I think so," said Huomeng. "Why else would Mengmoshu have me spending my days learning about the shuttles and the mother ship? He clearly intends to use them."

"But what is my part in this? I play mind games, moving energy from place to place, and talk to Mandughai in Her gong-shi-jie, and She tells me there's something I must do. So what is it?"

"Ask Her," Huomeng said, sipping tea. "Ask Mengmoshu. Maybe they don't know the answer yet. You're still changing, Kati. Don't you feel it?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're thirteen, and a Tumatsin. There are changes in your chemistry as you reach womanhood. Haven't you felt anything? Haven't you noticed people staring at us for the last few minutes?"

"No!" said Kati, suddenly uncomfortable.

Huomeng leaned over, and put a hand on hers, whispering, "Kati, the color of your eyes has changed four times since we sat down here. They were brown, then amber, even red for a moment, then brown. Now, they're red again."

Kati's face flushed.

"Even redder," said Huomeng. "Fascinating."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she whispered angrily.

"What for? It's natural. Your eyes reflect your emotions, and I think they're pretty. You're Kati, not Mengnu. You're a Changeling, and that's not a bad thing to be. You have the blood of First Mother in you."

People were staring, she now noticed. She wanted to close her eyes, or cover them, but Huomeng held onto her hand. "Be calm. Relax, and be yourself. I think First Mother has waited for these changes in you. Maybe these are necessary before you can do what she wants. It's all part of a bigger picture, Kati. We're both involved in it."

The words calmed her, and she closed her eyes a moment, breathing deeply. When she opened them again, Huomeng smiled, and released her hand. "Brown again," he said.