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"I can take her back dead or alive, Ozette," Nevi&039;s voice insisted It was closer now, only a few steps away "If she&039;s dead, the world will think you killed her If she&039;s aliv well, then everyone gets another chance"

"Going back there," she whispered, "that is not living"

"Don&039;t worry, he kno it&039;s got to be"

Three ht screen and pitted the boulder above them in a dazzle of red and violet Ben wrapped his arms around Crista to sandwich her between hi her out of a dream instead of into it She felt her head and senses clear beyond anything she&039;d experienced in Flattery&039;s custody

"I think the dus you were right about it," she told Ben "It&039;s offset whatever it was that Flattery gave hter around her and felt as though she werebetween the oscillations of his own She felt herself disasseer so e, a dream She felt no pain or pleasure, just a sense of transmission, of movement with purpose over which she had no control

"Ben," she asked, over a stab of fear, "Ben, are you here?"

"Yes," his breath puffed her ear, "I&039; was co, some feral intensity crested her awareness and would not be cowed "I&039;m sorry"

A sensation like the one she had felt at the dockside in Kalaloch welled up inside her, then burst with a loud crack that rolled outward fro around her stilled except the wet rush of the inco tide

Welcoh her mind, without the ihter, fro sense of detachment, then a familiar disehter skin and her own blurred She was enco tingle that she knew to be a kind of death in body that hatched the great hylighter of her ht its first breath

We hatched of the same vine, Crista Galli

She re that cut her free she had been rooted for safety in a pod of kelp The meroan in her ear reeled her attention back to their huddle on the beach The holo was gone, and enough of theof bodies in the rocks

"I thought I was dead," Ben said, rubbing his temples "Ho what have you done?"

Crista couldn&039;t answer She felt as though she straddled torlds - one on the beach, with Ben, and one in the sea with her great guardian, Avata The holo had switched off with the thunderclap, and Nevi lay on the beach, nearly within her reach, his eyes blinking stupidly and blood oozing froot up slowly and retrieved his lasgun Rico, though wobbly, was the first to recover and he did likeith Zentz

"My apologies, sister," Rico said, with a slight bow and a quizzical snorant brother did not understand"

He reeled and nearly fell, but caught the side of a great rock and steadied hi and shaking their heads A few, victier now, taller, and it seemed that even Rico looked up to her A deep breath of the th to her young legs The tide hissed up to her feet, and a few meters away it licked Nevi&039;s outstretched form in the sand

"So, Rico, do you still want to keep h and shook his head

"Two rules," he said "The first: never argue with an ar it for the first tiue with an arh, and Ben joined theot hiue with him," Rico said, "I tricked hiot more work to do Believe it or not, we have to save Flattery If we don&039;t -"

"Save Flattery?" Ben&039;s bitterness dripped from his voice "He started all this, he should suffer the consequences"

"Not if we all suffer," Crista said "Not if huuished He can do that, I feel it Rico is right Flattery must be stopped, but he led to regain their feet and their senses Ben picked up Nevi under the ared him out of reach of the water A Zavatan scout took over and trussed Nevi&039;s thuth of maki leader

"That holo," Ben said, "I&039;ve never seen anything like it How did you do that?"

"Thought you&039;d never ask," Rico said

He picked up a length of kelp vine froe, caressed it momentarily and then dropped it back into the sea

"That was the trick I think our Zavatan friends here have these two zeroes under control Follow reatest holo studio in the world"

A warning shout went up from a scout at the clifftop, and simultaneously a hunt of dashers splashed out of the upcoast un from Crista&039;s hand and pushed her toward Rico He fired a quick burst and the barest scent of ozone acco of the weapon Two dashers crumpled in a flurry of screaan to feed on their dead, as was their instinct A Zavatan scout ees into the rest of the hunt

"They&039;re s so fast," she gasped, and discovered herself clinging to Rico&039;s are or push her away, but put his arave her a squeeze

"Not much time to think topside," Rico said Then, to Ben, "I see you&039;re still quick in your old age"

"Sohed "Must be the company I keep"

Ben&039;s hand took her own and the three of theht their collective breath

"If they&039;re not too chewed up, we&039;ll get you one of those hides for a souvenir," Rico told her

"What would I do with a dead thing?" she asked A huge cold finger ran a shudder down her spine "I&039;m a lot et going I want a look at Rico&039;s ust of breeze puffed the last of the mist off the tidelands and both afternoon suns caressed Crista&039;s pale skin The fabric of her dive suit rippled in sunlight as the tide reclaimed, amoebalike, the tumble of rocks that marked its upper reaches With her hand clasped in Ben&039;s she followed Rico as he scrambled away frolesuits flanked a great entry way between boulders

"In here," Rico said "It&039;s not nearly as scary as the way I cahty slick"

Crista stood at the dark entry, feeling a pulse of das decorated the wall inside, carvings of intertwined kelp vines, fishes and suns She turned her face upward for onethe darkness

"Look there," Ben said, pointing skyward, "hylighters And they have the foil that these two came in on"

A half-dozen of the the shiny foil in a snarl of tentacles They all dropped in lazy circles to within a hundredtheir peculiar songs that included one long shrill "all clear" whistle Their great sails fluttered and snapped, tacking the coastal breeze Sunlight through their sail e, and even this far away she could make out the delicate ork of their veins

"Guardians of the Oracle," one of the Zavatans said "They, like you, are sent by Avata to help us There is nothing to fear"

It sees called "Avaaaata, Avaaaata," on the wind

"Couys h the high portal of carved rock and, though she had expected darkness, they entered a chaht ca out from the kelp and, like the warh it, too, were alive

"Avata brought h the sea," Rico told theh the kelp itself into the pool The entry closes off as the tide rises, then opens again at ebb I just squeaked through As you can see, it&039;s well-occupied"

The strong sea-smell of the beach had been replaced with the scent of thousands of blossoht A kelp root rose out of the pool at the center of the cavern, crowding all the way to the high do," Ben said "This rock was folded upside-down during the quake of &039;82 Look at that monster!"

She saw that it was true It did not rise out of the pool but dropped into it The top portion of root, thirty uishable fro to Around it sparkled the thousands of reflections from itsfor a good look "A very old one"

The cavern walls were terraced up to where the root joined the ceiling The terraces were cultivated, and thick fruit vines carpeted the walls A welcohtly ereenery As the three of thee of the pool applause broke out and the chant of "Cris-ta, Cris-ta, Cris-ta" pulsed with the brightening light

"Look at yourself," Ben said, over the din, "you&039;re glowing"

It was true Except for where his hand held hers a light surrounded her body It was not a reflection of the glow of the kelp on her white skin and white dive suit, because the pulse of this light er with every beat

"Thank you," she said, bowing to the crowd "Thank you all Your hopes for a new Pandora will soon be fulfilled"

She stepped to the edge of the pool and becaht and felt herself enter again the great heart of Avata It was as though she opened a thousand eyes throughout the world and looked everywhere at once, and with so Avata at the pool

She heard her voice rise to fill the cavern with a richness it had never held before

"Fear is the coin of Flattery&039;s realm," she announced "We shall buy out his interest in kind"

Ies leaped from the pool&039;s surface at the sweep of her outstretched arhosts Her body swelled to its limit in the seas, and she reached her thousands of arasp escaped one of the sentries, then a shout

"The kelp! Look at the kelp!"

But no one had to go outside for a look, it was all played before thehout the seas of Pandora the kelp reached its great vines high above the surface Colorful arcs of light bridged the gulfs between stands Even hylighters trailed great strea a link between isolated patches of wild and doht and Crista realized the difference between the Rico she had first met and the Rico who had saved the at Avata," he shouted "The kelp has risen Long live Avata"

Applause and exclaround rhythms of water-drum and flute