"Working with the n.o.bles."

"Yes. The Tumatsin don't realize it, and I don't like it, but I've come to see that one person can't do what needs to be done. Get on with it, Mengmoshu. You're confusing me." "In the very beginning, at first planetfall, there were no n.o.bles. There was only the male Emperor, self- proclaimed, and his family, and hard-working people who sought a new life among Tengri-Khan's planets-on Shanji. They fled from the system of Tengri-Nayon, where they lived in cities floating in the atmosphere of a great, gaseous planet.

"Ordinarily, the ship would not have been able to reach as far as Tengri-Khan within the lifetimes of those aboard. But the two stars were unusually near each other . . . as they will be again, very soon. They fled to escape the harsh rule of an Empress who lived on an inner world, close to a violent sun. Life on that planet was extremely severe. The people there had to be bioengineered to adapt to it. Their Empress ruled all Her planets with an iron fist. She was Mandughai."

Kati was struck dumb. She stared at him in shock, and he pressed his advantage before she could shout at him.

"Mandughai pursued the escapees with an army in another ship. She was old, and half-crazy, and She wanted death for all the people who'd fled Her. She thought our people would feel safe from Her, and be caught by surprise, but they weren't. Our ship orbiting us had been armed and was manned when She arrived with only a ground force."

"She honored the traditionalist ways!" said Kati.

Mengmoshu nodded. "In some ways, perhaps. She thought there was no danger from the air. Our ship was supposedly abandoned or at least unarmed; the rebels, in Her view, were incompetent malcontents. Her target was little more than a fledgling settlement on an unoccupied world."

Angry-voiced, Kati said: "Our people had been put out of the city because of a mixture of blood! She came to destroy the Emperor because of it!"

"There was no city, or mixture of blood, before Mandughai came. They had only been down on this world a short time-industries were just getting started. Oh, there was something they called a palace-a wooden structure-and a few other buildings, but certainly no dome, and the people who'd done well by their own initiative and intelligence lived in wooden cottages where the barley fields are.

"They felt her full wrath. She landed her forces on the plateau beyond Three Peaks, and was on them before people could react sufficiently to protect themselves. Her soldiers murdered-and raped-in the valley, fierce men with the fangs of a shizi; bioengineered, remember. They had already set fire to the palace, and were only a hundred meters from over-running everything when our orbiting ship came over and shot them to pieces with laser weapons. The few survivors fled to their landers, and back to their home planet. Our ship was not in a position to destroy those remnants, but it seemed to hardly matter . . . not for many, many generations."

Kati's eyes were red and moist. "You're telling me that everything I was taught as a child is a lie! How can you tell me such a thing, and pretend to care about me?" She twisted her hands together in her lap, and the hurt look on her face made him ache inside.

"Part truth, part errors that grew in the telling. When the children of Mandughai's soldiers began to appear, there was outrage and, yes, an ethnic cleansing by the Emperor. He was supported by the bulk of the people. They would not allow the mixed blood of those soldiers to remain among them. The families with children of mixed blood faced death or banishment, and they chose the latter. They fled to the mountains, a new race of people. They are your ancestors, Kati."

Kati's eyes narrowed in anger. "I've been told by you, Huomeng and even Mandughai that my people came from one of Her sons. Someone is lying to me."

Mengmoshu's face flushed. "Yes; that last thing I said was incomplete. The children of Mandughai's soldiers were the precursors of your Tumatsin people. The true Tumatsin lineage began two generations after that, when the star systems again approached each other and Her grand-daughter sent two sons to us. The idea was to incorporate Her genetic line to produce someone like Her, or beyond Her. She wasn't the same woman who led the attack, Kati. Mandughai is a t.i.tle, not a person's name. There have been thirty-five Mandughais in our history, and I don't know the true name of even one of them. They were just women, though extraordinary, and though you still think of Her as a G.o.d!"

Her probing was always there, and he allowed her one peek behind the mask. It was enough.

"You really believe this," she said.

"First Mother-this Mandughai-will verify it if you ask Her. She is a far different person from Her distant predecessor."

"You can be sure that I will. She could have told me in the first place. Why instead is it you?"

"Because she's a woman, Kati, not a G.o.ddess, and She knows you still don't accept that. She's a woman dealing with a historic tragedy, and a confrontation She sees as inevitable. Lives will be lost, and one of them could be yours. The Tumatsin must be joined with us if Shanji is to move ahead after the Emperor is gone. She doesn't think they'll do that without having to meet a threat by foreigners they now see as saviors. She will deliberately take the part of villain in order to unite our people and pave the way for a new ruler. The person who must bring us together with the Tumatsin is you, Kati. You're one of them."

"So I can talk to them. If Mandughai brings a new ruler my people can trust, there shouldn't be need for a war with anyone except the Emperor. And I still don't see why my people are so important in all of this."

He followed the unmasked churning of her thoughts, and knew she was approaching an important truth about her life. "The n.o.bles are all related to the Emperor. Like him, through the generations they have grown soft, and stagnant. Your Tumatsin people are practical and intelligent. All their lives, they've known hardship. Everything they have, they've had to work for. They've had to develop a strict moral code and depend on each other. They have few comforting illusions. They will relate to all the people, and work for reforms if given the power to do so. Their leadership must be mixed with that of the n.o.bles if there's to be any progress on Shanji."

"They hate the very idea of an Emperor," said Kati.

"They will not hate the one who replaces him." Mengmoshu's eyes were locked on hers, and they sat silently for a long moment.

Kati looked at him from behind her steepled hands, and sighed. "You want me to be the Empress of Shanji."

"Yes."

"Mandughai said as much."

"It's Her decision, Kati, and the Moshuguang supports it. We're doing all we can to prepare you for the responsibility."

"My first one is to recruit my people to fight a war for the Emperor, a war I don't see as necessary. Mandughai has chosen me as Her enemy."

"No! The invasion is a trial, and dangerous, but the main purpose is to rid the Tumatsin of their myths about an Empress they take as a G.o.ddess. The fact is that She was a woman who was considered evil in the history of Her own people on Tengri-Nayon. The invasion is to bring us back together again. If we oppose Her, She will withdraw."

"And if we don't?"

Mengmoshu took a deep breath, and said, "She will kill everyone west of the mountain, and start all over again. Those are Her words."

"So you and I are both Her enemies in this?" Kati seemed calm, her eyes amber in thought. He sensed no anger in her, and thought it strange.

"We will oppose Her, you and I. We have our own fighting force in the Moshuguang, and we can certainly count on the Emperor to oppose Her. The important thing is to bring the Tumatsin into it. Her forces will attack ordus to encourage their partic.i.p.ation, but your people must also fight to protect the rest of us. That is your task, Kati. It begins when we visit your people."

"So I'm supposed to tell my people I'll be Empress, and everything will be wonderful for them, but first they must help me fight the woman they've prayed to for centuries, fight to prevent the thing they've prayed for. She comes to place me on the throne, but first I have to fight Her. Listen to yourself, Mengmoshu! There's no logic in what you say. It makes no sense to me; it will make no sense to my people." Now what are you leaving out?

Mengmoshu sighed. "All right, there are other circ.u.mstances, other forces behind First Mother's decision. She will have to tell you these things. I cannot. But the decision has been made. A war must be fought to save Shanji from destruction, and we need the Tumatsin with us to fight it."

Kati's eyes were glowing rubies, her voice deep as a growl. "I'll talk to Her very soon. If you won't tell me everything, She will."

"Perhaps," said Mengmoshu, "perhaps not. Her agendum is much larger than yours, Kati. She has more than one world to rule, and many difficult people to deal with. You could be facing the same problems someday."

"If I live to be Empress, that is. I'm not Mandughai; I'll not sit idly on horseback and watch my people fight a war."

"We'll talk about that another time," said Mengmoshu. His daughter's eyes had changed color again, and now glinted like polished amber.

"It won't change anything," she said, then, "If I a.s.sume we're really going to fight this war, how much time do you think we have to prepare for it?"

She seemed strangely calm, now, but coldly so. No emotions were there, only a terrible hardness around her eyes.

"No more than three years. We'll have plenty of warning. She will not surprise us. I'm taking you to the coast in a few weeks. Your work will begin there."

"Let's talk about that," said Kati. She was breathing deeply, trying to calm herself. "Will you tell them I'm to be Empress?"

"They will hear it indirectly before our visit, but they must see it from your own actions, Kati. Does the idea of being Empress seem overwhelming to you?"

Kati shook her head slowly. "I think I've known it for some time without admitting it to myself, especially since our visit to Wanchou. Mandughai told me I must apply my powers, and now I know what She meant."

What she said bothered Mengmoshu deeply, and her mind was totally masked from him. She seemed to sense his concern, and quickly said, "I don't see myself as a figure on a throne, Mengmoshu. Huomeng and I have a good plan for reform, and we believe in it. I see the role of Empress as an overseer, working in a cooperative way with the people. If I'm to be Empress, the system will be changed. Will the Moshuguang support that kind of change?"

Mengmoshu relaxed a bit, and chuckled. He had just told her, and already she was a.s.suming the role.

"We'll support any change that will move Shanji ahead," he said.

"Good," said Kati. "May I tell Huomeng about what I'm to be?"

Now Mengmoshu smiled. "He's known about it for several days. First Mother wasn't certain Herself

until recently. Will you meet with Her soon?"

"This evening. I'll wait until I'm not so angry as I am now."

"She works with you, Kati, to help Her people. She's not your enemy."

"Mandughai brings Her forces against us. That makes Her my enemy."

Her eyes were very hard, now, and it worried him.

"I will talk to Her," Kati added. "I need to see Shan-lan, now. After this talk, I'm in a terrible mood for it,

but it must be done anyway.""Shan-lan? What do you have to say to him?""Certainly nothing about this conversation. He's been sending me poems, declaring his love for me. I have to make him understand we're only friends, but without hurting him, and now my mood is bad."

"You can delay the meeting."

"No, it must be done now. My head is swirling, Mengmoshu, but I'll talk to Huomeng. He always helps

me sort things out, and then I'll see Mandughai again."

She stood up, and frowned. "I'm sorry you had to tell me these things."

"I've had more difficult tasks," he said. But not many.

His daughter turned and marched out of the room without another word. Mengmoshu buried his face in

his hands. First Mother, please forgive my stumbling way with words. I fear I've made a shambles of this.

Shan-lan tried hard to focus on his painting of the three peaks, but his mind wouldn't obey. Mengnu's face had been so solemn when she'd asked him to meet with her, and now he was filled with apprehension.

He sat on the outer porch of the second level in Stork's Nest, facing west. His pens and brushes were arranged neatly on the little table he'd brought from inside the tower, and he sat on a bench, hunched over the nearly completed painting. It showed a young couple, backs turned, holding hands, and facing west towards the wall with Three Peaks beyond. He'd left a s.p.a.ce for a new poem for her, not yet composed.

He didn't even know she was there until she called out from behind him."

"Shan-lan! Are you here?"

"Outside!"

He smelled her fragrance when she came up behind him to look down over his shoulder. "It's beautiful,"

she said. "Peaceful."

"The way I feel when I'm with you," he said softly.

She sat down on the bench, dressed in her white uniform, and leaned warmly against him to look closer

at the painting. "Is that us standing there?"

"Yes."

"Two friends, looking at the mountains," she murmured.

"They are much more than that to each other," he said. "They are lovers." His heart had begun pounding

as he said it.

Mengnu said nothing, but put an arm through his, and rested her head on his shoulder. His heart was now aching, not from physical desire, but just from her presence so close to him. "Yes, I see that, but it's a love between two friends who care deeply about each other, and are sharing a private moment. It's like the moment we share now, Shan-lan. I love you as a friend."

Shan-lan swallowed hard, and clenched his teeth so there would be no tears. "My feelings for you are much deeper than that," he said. Mengnu squeezed his arm. "I know. I see it in your paintings, and the poems you've given to me. I treasure them all, Shan-lan. I will keep them forever."

He put down his brush, because his hand was shaking, and now Mengnu squeezed his arm even harder.

"What can I say to my heart?" he said, his voice breaking like shattered gla.s.s.

"Tell it you're the only man I love, Shan-lan. Tell it I care about you as I would for the brother I've lost, and that I would die for you if it were necessary. Tell it that, Shan-lan."

Tears filled his eyes. "I would also die for you, Mengnu," he croaked.

She reached over, and wiped a tear from his face, then kissed him softly on the cheek. "I love you," she said.

And then she walked away from him.

I'm grateful for you waiting to come here until your anger was softened. Mandughai's voice was calm. She had confirmed Mengmoshu's story. You listened to everything I said without once shouting at me.

Kati cried: But I need to know what other forces are behind your decision to bring war to people who love and revere you!

They looked out at blackness beyond the edge of a dust cloud at the rim of their universe. Each point of light glimmering faintly out there was another universe like their own, and now Kati wondered if she and Mandughai would ever journey there together.