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Chapter One

LOOKED ACROSS THE deck of the star boat at the Didact--a od He was iulf of night filed with e--the quarantined prison world of the San’Shyuum

"What wil happen to us?" I asked

"They wil punish," Riser said gloomily "We’re not supposed to be here!"

I turned to ers of his outstretched hand, and shot an angry glance at Bornstelar, the young Manipular that Riser and I had guided to

Djamonkin Crater He would notcold and bright and awful carved up the distance between us, splitting us apart in blue- white silence War sphinxes with passionless faces moved in and scooped us up in transparent bubbles I saw the Didact and Bornstelar packed away in their own bubbles like trophies

The Didact seehtened as I was

The bubble sucked in around ht in sudden stilness, my ears stuffed, my eyes darkened

This is how a dead man feels

For a ti I could understand, I believed I was about to be ferried across the western water to the far grasslands where I would await judgaze of sabertooths, hyenas, buzzards, and the great-winged eagles I tried to prepare ht appear huht fend off the predators, and especialy the hyenas; and that his old friend the Great Elephant e my bones from the dirt, back to life, before the time that ends al

(For so I have seen in the sacred caves)

But the stilness and silence continued I felt a smal itch in the pit of my arm, and in my ear, and then on my back where only a friend can reachThe dead do not itch

Sloith a flickering rhyth of a fan, the stiff blue silence lifted, scattering visions between shadows of blankness and misery I saw Riser wrapped in another bubble not far from me, and Bornstelar beside him The Didact was not with us

My ears seemed to pop--a painful, muffled echo in my head

Now I heard distant wordsand listened closely We had been taken prisoner by a powerful Forerunner caled the Master Builder

The Didact and the Master Builder had long opposed each other I learned as wel that Riser and I were prizes to be stolen froht ae had value, for the Librarian had iht prove useful

For a time, I wondered if ere about to be introduced to the hideous Captive--the one my ancient ancestors had locked away for so many thousands of years, the one released by the Master Builder’s ignorant testing of his neeapon-toy, a gigantic ring caled Halo

Then I felt another presence inover the ruins at Charuht of humanity’s old alies, the once beautiful and sensuous San’Shyuum, in their quarantined systereat distances to reasse lost to each otherstruggling to retrieve one personality, not e sort of drea pieces

And was back on Charu the parapet above the pit, where the Captive had been imprisoned for ued with aches andand looked down upon the thick-do of a great bo that sreen shadow--a shadoith far too many arms! I tried to turn and could not

Nor could I hear h I lapsed back into a void filed with prickly irritations: itching but unable to scratch, thirsty but without water,to writhe Hungry and nauseated at the sahtless suspension was suddenly interrupted by violent shaking I was faling

Through the filters of li but failing to reach in and cookshudder of distant explosions

Ca ihfiled me Now I kneas dead and felt some relief Perhaps I had already been punished sufficiently and would be spared the attentions of hyenas and buzzards and eagles I anticipated joining randfather, and if my mother had died in reen prairies to greetand filed with love, and beside theuar that snarls at the sabertooth, and slither the great crocodile that darts froht the ravenous buzzards--in that place where al hatred is finaly extinguished There, ood family spirits would welcome me, and my troubles would be over

(For so I had seen in the sacred caves)

I was not at al happy when I realized yet again that this darkness was not death, but another kind of sleep My eyes were closed I opened the darkness, it seeht

Blurry shapes ue decided to hurt horribly I felt hands tugging and fu foul--my own scat Very bad Spirits don’t stink

I tried to raise le More hands forcibly bent les Slowly I puzzled this out I was stil wearing the broken Forerunner arivenshel

When they had finished, I was laid out flat on a hard surface

Water poured cool and sweet over ue I fuly opened my puffy eyes and blinked up at a roof made of woven reeds thatched with leaves and branches Sprawled on the cold, gritty platfor, bleary-eyed, ers wiped rassy juice under my nose The smel was sharp and wakeful I drank ainst flickering orange light I could nowtree--rubbing its fingers beside its own broad nose, over its wide, rounded cheeks, then coh the hair on its scalp It rubbed this soothing skin-oil onvisited, as I was at birth, by the supreme Lifeshaper whoure that hovered over me was smaler, darker --not a beautifulwoe to , folowed by sad, desperate laughter, folowed by words I barely understood

words froes I had never heard spoken on Erde- Tyrene

How then could I understand thes were these? They looked human in outline--several kinds of hued the oldout the roots of a fossil treeand found the necessary knowledge