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There is a briefon the floor of the interstellar craft I feel Alanda and Gaia close It is possible Alanda even calls my name She must know I have successfully co for lorious future

Butfrom me

Finally I areeary, I also crave a change

Before Alanda can callon another page of history I return to the first vaht Yaksha was born, five thousand years ago in India, when I was a girl of seven years The Aghoran ceremony has ended and the evil priest has been killed by Amba&039;s animated corpse The corpse finally lies down but there is movement inside Amba&039;s belly, which is still swollen with the nine- when she died My father takes his knife and goes to cut out the unborn child trapped in the wo place behind the bushes

"Father!" I cry, as I reach for his hand that holds the knife "Do not let that child come into the world Amba is dead, see with your own eyes Her child must likewise be dead Please, Father, listen to me"

Naturally, all the men are surprised to see ry with me, but he kneels and speaks to me patiently

"Sita," he says, "your friend does appear dead, and rong to let this priest use her body in this way But he has paid for his evil kar evil karma of our own if we do not try to save the life of this child You remember when Sashi was born, how her mother died before she ca child is born to a dead woman"

"No, "I protest "That was different Sashi was born just as hisliving can come out of her"

My father gestures with his knife to the squir life inside Amba&039;s bloody abdomen "Then how do you explain the life here?"

"That is the yashiniinside her," I say "You sa the demon smiled at us before it departed It intends to trick us It is not gone It has entered into the child"

My father ponders ent for e, and occasionally asks uidance, but they are evenly divided So inside A a sin Finally my father turns back to me and hands me the knife

"You knew Amba better than any of us," he says "You would best know if this life that ood If you know for sure in your heart that it is evil, then strike it dead None of the men here will blame you for the act"

I a me to commit an atrocious act But my father is wiser than I have taken him for He shakes his head as I stare at him in amazement, and he ive the knife to him

I know in my heart what I must do

I stab the blade deep into Aushes over my hands

But it is only the blood of one Not thousands

The creature inside A

Alanda turns to Gaia after studying her friend&039;s body They are not in a spaceship, but stand in the desert at night beside a clear pond Many stars shine overhead

"She is not breathing," Alanda says "Her heart has stopped"

"But she stopped him," Gaia says, who actually can speak in his oay "The path is now clear for lances down at her friend There is sorrow in her voice "But she was co back to us," she says

Gaia coo this way"