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Chapter 1

The Histories assert that a binary system cannot support life But we found life here on Pandora Except for the kelp, it was antagonistic and deadly, but still it was life Ship’s judgment is upon us now because iped out the kelp and unbalanced this world We few survivors are subject to the endless sea and the terrible vagaries of the two suns That we survive at all on our fragile Clone-rafts is as much a curse as a victory This is the time of madness

—Hali Ekel, the Journals

Duque sain, and whined His one good eye watered and pained him when he tried to knuckle it open His mother was out Out was a word he could say, like hot and Ma He could not precisely identify the location and shape of out He knew vaguely that his quarters were on a Clone-raft anchored off a black stone pinnacle, all that remained of Pandora’s land surface

The burning shtened hi Mostly, he did not talk; his nose got in the way He could whistle through his nose, though, and his mother understood She would whistle back Between them, they understood led his forehead This uncurled his thick, knobby nose and he whistled—tentative at first to see whether she was near

“Ma? Where are you, Ma?”

He listened for the unmistakable scuff-slap, scuff-slap of her bare feet on the soft slick deck of the raft

Burning smells filled his nose and made him sneeze He heard the slaps of many feet out in the corridor,he could identify as Ma There was shouting noords Duque did not know He sucked in a deep breath and let go the loudest whistle he could muster His thin ribs ached with it and the vibration made him dizzy

No one responded The hatch beside him remained closed No one plucked him out of his twisted covers and held him close

Despite the pain of the sht eyelid with the two nubs on his right hand and saw that the rooanics of the corridor wall Dull orange light cast a frightening illu like a cloud above hi doard toward his face And now there were other sounds outside added to the shouting and the slap-slap ofhis gloall Terror held him curled into a silent lump under the covers of his bunk

The burning smells contained a steamy, bitter flavor—not quite the sticky-sweet of the time when the stove scorched their wall He ree between their roo the corridor He had poked his head through the burned opening and whistled at their neighbors The s wall did not melt away

A ru over on the stove, but his , louder even than the other corridor noises Now, there were screams nearby

Duque kicked off his covers and gasped when his bare feet touched the deck

Hot!

Abruptly, the deck pitched, first backward and then forward The h the bulkhead The hot organics of the wall stretched and parted for him like a cooked noodle He kneas on the outer deck but stu his head and body with his arood eye The hot deck burned his knees and elbows Duque caught his breath in the sudden onslaught of pain and wrenched out another shrill whistle Soainst him Hands reached under his armpits and lifted him clear of the scorched bubbly that had been the deck Some of it came loose with him and stuck to his bare skin Duque kneho held hihbor wos and beautiful voice

“Duque,” she said, “let’s go find your ma”

He heard so in her voice It rasped low in a dry throat and cracked when she spoke

“Ma,” he said He knuckled his eye open and saw a nightht

Ellie shouldered the around and slapped his hand away “Look later,” she said “Right now you hang on to ht”

After that one brief glimpse, there was no need to repeat the order He clutched both arms around Ellie’s neck A small whih a crowd of people—voices all around saying words Duque did not understand Movea

inst the others peeled away chunks of bubbly from his skin It hurt

That one look at out re out of the dark water! It coiled up out of the water acco sound and the air was so full of stealow of fla Duque to hold even tighter to Ellie’s neck Chunks of the fire had rocketed into the sky high above their island Duque did not understand this but he heard the fire crash and sizzle through the body of the island into the sea beneath

Why water burn? He knew the whistle-words but Ellie would not understand

The raft tipped sharply under Ellie and sent her sprawling beneath the tra deck Ellie cursed and gasped More people fell around theanics of the deck She struggled at first, thrashing like a fresh-caught muree that his mother had put into his hands once before she cooked it Ellie’s twisting slowed and she beganEllie’s neck, felt hot bubbly against his hands and jerked them away Ellie screamed Duque tried to push himself away from her but the press of bodies all around prevented his escape He felt the hair at the nape of his neck standing up A questing whistle broke from his nose but there was no response

The deck tilted again and bodies rolled onto Duque He felt hot flesh, soed The people screaan coughing all around Duque He coughed, too, choking on hot, thick dust Soot Vata Help me We must save her”

Duque sensed a stillness in Ellie She wasn’tany Duque opened his mouth and spoke the tords he knew best:

“Ma Hot, Ma Ma”

Soht beside him said: “Who’s that?”

“Hot, Ma,” Duque said

Hands touched him and hauled him away from Ellie A voice next to his ear said: “It’s a child He’s alive”

“Bring hiot Vata”

Duque felt hi into a dih a thinner dust haze the glitter of tiny lights, shiny surfaces and handles He wondered if this could be the out where Ma went but there was no sign of Ma, only many people crowded into a se naked infant He knew about infants because Ma so over the Duque touch them and pet theer than any Duque had ever seen but he knew she was only an infant—those fat features, that still face