The Marriage of the Living Dark

He could simply not imagine it

But then, he did not have to. He had only to look at his other self, there on the far side of the kitchen. That strange, unhappy man. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I...”

A moment’s sudden realisation stopped him dead in his tracks. He had what this man had lost Had lost and thought irredeemable. The most important thing in his life. And he had it Identical in all respects.

“The gods help us ...” Kim whispered.

K turned. “Pardon?”

Kim sat, the bowl unregarded on the table before him. How did he even begin to broach this?

K. came across and sat, then began to spoon up his stew. After a moment he stopped and looked across at Kim. “Aren’t you hungry, Kim?” Not now, Kim thought, but in lieu of an answer that would suffice, he picked up his own spoon and began to eat in a desultory fashion. Strange thoughts were filling his head. Indeed, the strangest thoughts he had ever had. And pictures, too. Images ...

Squeezing his eyes tight shut, he let his spoon fall with a clatter to the table.

“Kim?”

He felt KL’s hand upon his arm.

“Kim, are you all right?”

Kim nodded, then opened his eyes again. K. was leaning right across the table, staring into his face. “Is it about that?”

His head gestured past Kim towards the painting. Kim nodded, afraid to say what he’d been thinking. Afraid because, once said, it could not be retracted.

“Are you afraid of me?” K. asked, his eyes staring into Kim’s candidly. “Because if you are, you have no reason to be. I would not harm you. No, nor your Jelka.” Kim shivered. So he understood.

“It must be hard,” Kim said after a moment “I mean, this situation.””Yes .. .” K. relaxed back into his seat, but his eyes remained locked with Kim’s. “I’ve tried not to think too much about it Tried not to ... well, picture things.”

Again Kim shivered. Too dose, he thought, finding this intimacy of understanding

almost unbearable. Yet at the same time he knew it could not be helped. This was

the price of their

doubleness.

“I know what you mean.”

K. nodded. “Myself, I would be guarded. Oh, and jealous, too.” Kim swallowed but did not answer. He did not have to answer. It was the truth, after all, “All the same, I would like to see her again. Or should I say, I would like to meet her... as she is now. With your permission, of course.”

How could he deny such a request? If their fates had been reversed, would he not have wanted precisely that? To see the woman he’d loved - the woman he’d thought lost forever? Of course he would. Yet he feared it Feared it more than he’d feared anything in his whole life.

Kim looked away, knowing that what he felt showed in his face - that the other could read him as clearly as one read a page. But he could not help it “You must not be ashamed of what you feel, Kim. I understand. You do not want to share her with me.”

Kim looked to him. It was unfair. He knew it was unfair. But that was how he felt He nodded.

Yes, and saw the disappointment in the other’s face. And behind it, the longing.

Oh gods, the longing. How he understood that. ‘I’m sorry .. .” But K. waved the apology away. “It was some while before I got up the courage to visit you, you know. I found you months ago. I spent one whole evening watching you from the shadows of your workroom. But then she came into the room. Until then, you see, I thought you’d lost her too. I thought...” K. looked down, then pushed his bowl away, as if he too had lost his appetite.”I imagined how you’d feel. Or rather, how I’d feel if I were in your place. How I’d rather die than share her, even with myself. Strange that, eh? I mean, where’s the logic in it? But then, when it comes down to feelings, there is no logic is there, only gut reaction. Which is to say, my soul’s brother, that I understand. Yet if I could meet her once and talk with her.” Kim hesitated, then nodded.

“Then let that be enough.”

They went back to Kalevala. Back to Kim’s reality. And there, while K. waited in the workroom, Kim went up to speak to Jelka.

As he came into the kitchen she turned, smiling at him. “How’s it going?” Kim went across and, without a word, held her, closing his eyes, drinking in the wonderful smell of her, the warmth of her body against his own, knowing in those few instants that he was blessed. Blessed beyond all imagining. He moved back a little, his eyes studying her eyes. “We’ve a visitor.”

“A visitor? But I didn’t hear the bell.”

“No ... I mean I’ve brought someone back with me.”

She laughed, confused. “Back?” Then her expression changed. “You mean ... back?” He nodded. “But there’s something you have to understand. Something very important You see, if s ma” “You?”

“Yes, me. Or almost me. Like me, but not exactly me.”

He saw her mouth fall open, the lips parting in shock. “You.” “That’s right. But thaf s not all. In his universe, he lost you. Lost you to the Golden Dreams plague.”

Her eyes widened. He saw the understanding there, the deep compassion, and felt again that awful stab of jealousy. Pure jealousy. He was trembling now. “But I’m afraid.”

“Afraid?””About you ... and him.”

“But he is you, Kim.”

“No, he isn’t And that’s the point.”

“Ahh ...”

Jelka sat, then shook her head, trying to think it through. “So you’re afraid I’ll fall in love with him? And maybe want to leave you for him?” “Or share you with him.”

Jelka’s eyes met his. “Is that what you’re afraid of?”

He nodded.

“And still you brought him?”

Again he nodded. His mouth was dry now. “I told him that I wouldn’t” “You told him.” There was a flicker of a smile, quickly suppressed. “And what about me? Did you consult me before you told him?”

“I...” He looked down, ashamed of himself. Gods, it was a mess. And there he’d been thinking it was all a simple matter of equations. But where was the mathematics of love and jealousy? Where was the graph that charted the movements of the human heart? ‘1 love you, you know.”

His head came up. He swallowed, then nodded. “I know.” But it didn’t help. He was still afraid. Afraid of himself. It was ridiculous, but he couldn’t help it “And if I find that that love extends to him too, that would be no betrayal, Kim. Honestly. Indeed, it would be the most natural thing, don’t you think?” He gave an embarrassed laugh. “Do you think Tom and Sampsa have these problems?”

“Undoubtedly.”

“Only ...” he paused, then carried the logic of the thing through, “they both have their twins. Ai Yin and Lin Yu are both alive. But if one of them were to die ...”

“Kim?

Her tone startled him. She was staring at him sternly now. ‘This isn’t like you.” He bridled. “No? You forget who I defied to win you” “I don’t forget. But he defied my father, too. Remember that, Kim.” She sighed. “You must trust yourself, Kim. Literally so. Would you hurt him?”

“No...”

“Then trust to that. You are a generous man, Kim Ward. If s one of the reasons why I love you. Maybe the greatest reason. So be generous this once. Give him this moment with us.”

“With you.”

She smiled. “Okay. With me.”

He sighed, then gave the briefest nod.

“Then go,” she said, watching him with kindly eyes. “I think he’s waited long enough.”

It was, perhaps, the strangest moment of her life, to see the two of them emerge from the door at the top of the steps and come towards her down the shadowed corridor.

Strange, yes, and dreamlike, too. And for a moment she wondered why she had not dreamed it beforehand.

She saw at once how alike they were, even as she saw the differences of build and height.

And then he saw her.

He stopped dead, almost as if he’d walked into some unseen barrier, his eyes visibly widening. And then he smiled. A great beaming smile of awe and love that had in it such depths of hurt and loss that her heart went out to him. For how could it not? This was her man. Through all eternity and in every universe, her soul mate.

She opened her arms and embraced him, hugging him to her, feeling him begin to sob, his arms wrapped tight about her, the way a lost child clings to his mother once she’s found.

She stroked his hair and petted him, then kissed the side of his head, murmuring reassurances.

“There ... if s alright now. Everything’s okay . ..” Her eyes met Kim’s, who stood there looking on. And saw, to her surprise, that tears were streaming down his cheeks, as if whatever fear he’d had had crumbled in that instant She put out a hand, gesturing for him to come and hold her too. And so he did, and so they stood there for a while, the three of them, holding tight to each other in the very strangest of embraces. “It’s alright,” Kim said, after a moment, reaching out to touch and hold K.’s shoulder. “You’re home now, brother. Home.”

Karr waited at the door, his helmet under his arm, frowning down at the patterned marble beneath his feet As the door swung back, he looked up and smiled. “Ah, Jelka ... I came as quickly as I could.”

She embraced him, kissing his cheek, then stood back, a mischievous glint in her eyes puzzling Karr.

“Well?” he asked, as she closed the door behind him. “Whaf s going on?” “Wait and see,” she said, taking his hand and leading him through to the kitchen.

As they entered, Kim looked up from where he sat at the long table and smiled.

“Gregor ...”

Again that same secretive smile, as if some joke were being played on him. Karr huffed and, setting the helmet down on the table, demanded, “Come on, you two, what is going on?”

“Gregor?”

Karr turned, looking to the doorway, thinking for a moment that maybe Kim had learned to throw his voice, and then did an almost comic double-take. He turned, astonished, looking from one Kim to the other, then gave a little laugh, understanding in that instant what had happened. “It works!”

Both Kims nodded, with an eerie synchronicity. The new one - taller, Karr noted through narrowed eyes - came and stood behind the Kim he knew and placed his hands on his shoulders.

The new one spoke. “I understand you’ve problems, Gregor.”

“I’ve dealt with them.”

‘Temporarily. But you haven’t solved them.”

“And you can?”

K. nodded.

“How?” Karr asked.

But K. merely smiled. “I want you to set up a broadcast, for this evening. I want it to go out on every channel and into every set We use the override and make sure every set is working.”

Karr looked to Kim, but Kim merely nodded. “If s okay, Gregor. You can trust him.”

Karr looked to Jelka, appealing to her. “Won’t you tell me whaf s going on?”

She smiled. “I can’t”

“Can’t?”

“No. Because they won’t tell me. But I trust them. I’d trust them with my life, wouldn’t you?”

Karr hesitated, then nodded. He looked back at the strangely doubled image of his friend. “Tonight?”

“At eight,” both Kims said, the movements of their mouths so perfectly synchronised that Karr found himself blinking at the sight, surprised. “I feel...” He laughed, as if it were too stupid a thing to say. “I feel like I’m dreaming, only I can’t wake.”

“I understand,” K. said, coming round until he stood before the giant; looking up into his face. “Then it’s time for us to make things real again.”

At precisely eight that evening, every screen in Ganymede, in every room and every public place, on the four great spaceships and in every transit vehicle, switched on, showing the image of Kim’s face.

“Friends,” Kim began, without prelude. “I am sorry to divert you from whatever you are doing, but something very important has happened. The breakthrough has been made. We have forged a door into another universe.” He paused, letting that sink in, then continued. “That door is stable and it works. Yet we must use it wisely and expeditiously.” Kao Chen, who had been relaxing in his living room, dipping into the second volume of the San Kuo Yon Yi and reading his favourite episodes, now sat forward, spilling his wine over the rug.

“Wang Ti!” he yelled. “Come see!” “. .. to introduce a friend,” Kim was saying as Wang Ti hurried from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel. “In fact, more than a friend. Fellow colonists and travellers, may I introduce my close friend, K.”

“Aiyal” both Kao Chen and Wang Ti said as one, astonished by the vision on the screen.

Indeed, throughout Ganymede there was a sharp intake of breath as a second Kim stepped into view and stood beside the Kim they knew. “I am Kim Ward,” the newcomer said, “and in many ways I share a common history with my brother here. Yet our universes are not identical. There are many differences. And those differences will prove useful in the days to come. But I believe - and my brother here shares my belief - that it is our task to put an end to all such differences. To unify reality. And tonight we take the first step in that process. Tonight we return to our own space and time. To our own universe.”

The camera pulled back until it showed the window behind them and the perfect blackness of the sky.

“Look!” two voices said as one. “We return!”

And as if it were some great conjuring trick that blackness was suddenly alive - alive with shimmering points of light Again, throughout Ganymede there was a gasp.

They had left no-space. They were back inside the universe of stars and motion.

And they were sailing full-tilt towards Eridani.

One could almost feel the relief.

“Our journey continues,” Kim’s voice said, speaking over the image of the star-spattered sky. “But some of us must go back, to face our old adversary, DeVore. And defeat him. And thus end all divisions. It is our purpose to make things whole again.”

The broadcast ended, as abruptly as it had begun. But back in the room, unseen by the watching thousands, Kim turned to K “And you? What will happen to you when that happens?” K’s smile was bleak and knowing. ‘Then I will vanish from this world of yours, as if I’d never been.”Kim stared at him, understanding that K. knew much - had considered much - that he had not yet even begun to think of. And reaching out, he held his mirror-self to him.

“Then we must use these moments well, neh, brother?”

That night, in the silence before midnight, Kim climbed from his bed and went to K’s room.

K. sat up, a shadow among the shadows. “What is it?”

Kim sat beside him, reaching out to take his hand. Steeling himself to take it.

“I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking ...”

“Thinking, eh?”

Kim nodded, unable to see the other’s eyes in the dark.

“And?”

In answer, Kim tugged at K.’s hand, making him follow him, out of the room and down the passageway until they stood before the room where Kim and Jelka slept “Are you sure?” K. asked, knowing without being told what Kim meant by this. “No. But I know if s right. You are me. I am you. And to keep her from you, or you from her ... I couldn’t do that” “Yes, but...”

Kim put a finger to K.’s lips. “There’s so little time. Lefs make the best of it, eh?”

K. reached out, embracing him. Then, hand in hand, they walked over to the bed where their wife awaited them.

CHAPTER-21

the feather in the coffin

Li Yuan sat in the chair at the far end of the table, listening as Emily recounted what had been happening in the Wilds and itemised the details of her long guerrilla war against DeVore. The conference table was crowded. This was a full Council of War and besides Emily’s own people, Li Yuan’s full staff were in attendance, including both of his sons, the latter disconcertingly wearing a long, flowing dress over a very full bosom.

Hannah, standing by the door, looked on, part of her thrilled at being there on this momentous occasion, part of her watching analytically as Emily came to the end of her account and fell silent. Li Yuan sat forward slightly, steepling his fingers before his nose, then began to speak.

“Thank you, Mu Ch’in Ascher. It seems we have much to thank you for. It could not have been easy for you. But now we have a chance to rid ourselves of this disease called DeVore. To cleanse this world - and others - of his malice.” Li Yuan paused, looking about him, a real authority in every glance and gesture. “But before we come to the matter of what actions we shall take, let me - if briefly - advise you of our own recent history. As you might know, the bombing of Boston led to a brief but very bitter civil war - a war from which we were fortunate to emerge the victors. But at a great cost. My son-in-law, Mark Egan, was assassinated and one of my grandchildren - Samuel - taken hostage.” Hannah noted how Kuei Jen looked down at that, a tightness in her face. “For those crimes we captured Old Man Egan. I personally saw that he burned for them. Then, in the months that followed, thinking us weak, Coover made his move, attacking us in Denver and pushing east. We let him come on, two thousand li and more, until, at Memphis, we turned on him and annihilated his Banners, destroying every last man. Which left our enemies in the south.” There was a brief smile before he spoke again.

“We invited them to a meeting, on neutral ground. There we offered them terms, but they sought to trick us. All of which my spies knew, of course. They meant to assassinate us in our seats, but they did not know that their assassins were already dead, garroted in the cell beneath the floor of the room in which we met And so their plans misfired and now their bones lie rotting in the desert” Hannah shivered. Though she had heard much and read even more of Li Yuan’s life, this aspect of him - the sheer brutality - surprised her, and for a moment she found herself astonished that he should be sitting here at table with the, woman who had once been his greatest enemy.

But then, necessity makes strange bedfellows.

Emily, she saw, had lowered her head. Li Yuan was now looking at her, a strange expression in his eyes.

“I say all of this not by way of boasting, but to explain how things were. The past few years have seen much ugliness and much brutality. Nor is it easy to steel oneself to do those things that one must do. Yet they had to be done For there was always a greater enemy to face, and if I had not triumphed in America, he would have gone unchallenged. And time, I knew, was running out. Though we held the high ground of space, we could not keep him contained much longer.” Emily looked up. “I understand.””Do you?” Li Yuan was suddenly like a rock. Like Pai Shan itself. ‘1 am not proud of what I have done in my life, Emily Ascher, and looking back I can see every reason for you to have opposed me. I was not always a good man and many times I claimed necessity as an excuse. But it is not always necessary to be brutal, or callous. Only now, at the end of the world, do I understand that” Emily narrowed her eyes. “Then you really think it is ending, Li Yuan?” “Assuredly so. The only question now is whether it is DeVore or these new forms - these floraforms, as you call them - who inherit That is why, yesterday, I launched a full scale assault on DeVore’s forces. We struck from space, targeting his main nerve centres. We hit his camps and factories, his warehouses and spaceports. But in doing so we left ourselves open to counter-attack, and DeVore was quick to retaliate. He hit our satellites. Put out our eyes.” “And the Three Palaces?” Emily asked.

“Have survived, it seems. They were too heavily defended. None of our rockets got through. Yet his strength is broken.”

“So now ifs cat and mouse.”

Li Yuan nodded. “Our time on this planet is over. We must seek our destiny elsewhere. But I will not go without a fight” Emily smiled. “Nor I.”

“Then let us talk of strategy.” Li Yuan paused. “I believe that DeVore means to destroy it all.”

It was Daniel who interrupted. “Everything?”

Li Yuan nodded. “Everything. And the quickest way to achieve that would be to destroy the oxygen generators. It would make this planet a barren, lifeless waste.” He sighed. “Indeed, if my information is correct, he has begun already.” The news clearly shocked Emily. “What have you heard?” “That the Iceland Station was hit, yesterday, just after dark.”

And now Hannah felt that same shock reverberate within her. So it was finally happening. DeVore had finally had enough of the game. He was kicking away the legs of the board by systematically destroying Chung Kuo’s atmosphere.”So whafs to stop him?” Emily asked, her voice much smaller than usual. “Us,” Li Yuan answered. “I’ve set up temporary defensive positions about the remaining eight generators in Europe. But they are only temporary, and were DeVore to make a concerted effort against any of those forces, he would succeed.”

“Then what is to be done?” Daniel asked.

“We must outguess him. Work out where he means to strike next and be there.” Li Yuan smiled. “And then it will be him or us. A battle to the last” “And if we win?” Emily asked. “Do we then turn and fight the floraforms?” “No,” Li Yuan answered her. “If we win we leave here. Find a new home.” “So you have become a Dispersionist in your old age?” Emily laughed at the irony of it “Then Ward was right.”

“So it seems,” Li Yuan said, smiling in agreement “Things change. We cannot stand still. That is the lesson of history, neh, Han A?” Hannah, addressed directly, blushed. She gave a little bow, acknowledging the truth of what Li Yuan had said, then looked to Daniel, who was staring at her, a mixture of love and pride in his eyes.

“Then we will do as you say,” Emily said, giving Li Yuan a tiny bow of respect.

“The years have given you great wisdom, Li Yuan.”

“Maybe,” Li Yuan acknowledged. “But then I have had a good teacher.”

Tuan Ti Fo sat in the sunlight in the space between the palaces, the board before him, the game balanced at a crucial stage. It was there that DeVore came upon him.

“Master Tuan?”

Old Tuan looked up. “Will you play, Howard?”

DeVore stared back at him, astonished. “How did you get here? The guards ...”

“Are only human.” Tuan smiled calmly and gestured to the seat facing him. “Come.

You’ve time to play one last game with

me, surely?”

DeVore sat, bemused, then, with a tiny shrug, focused on the board. At once his attention was drawn into the pattern of the stones.

“Ahhh ...” he said, the noise like the sighing of the wind. For a long time

after that he was silent, concentrating, then he looked up, meeting Tuan’s eyes

once more. “You are white, I

take it’”

But Tuan Ti Fo shook his head. “This once I am black.” “But...” DeVore looked back, surprised. “Then who have you been playing?”

Tuan laughed, a gentle, mocking laughter. “Why you, of course. Do you not recognise your own play, Howard? Or have you forgotten everything, brother?” “Forgotten?” And then he noted what Tuan had said. “What do you mean, brother?”

“Then you have indeed forgotten.”

Tuan seemed to swell, to extend himself backwards, changing even as he did, until a huge, giant spider squatted in his place - a great metallic beast with two abdomens and long, steel spikes for legs.

DeVore’s eyes were wide now, but not with surprise; his expression was one of recognitioa “AiyaV he said softly, putting a hand to his brow. And even as he did, his human form seemed to split like a husk and his true form emerge. Yet whereas Tuan’s form was beautiful and polished, like a sculpture of burnished steel, his own was mottled and cracked, as if it had been subjected to intense heat The two Edderimmaru glared at each other across the tiny board.

“So now you know,” Tuan said, speaking in his own tongue. “So finally you remember.” He laughed, then gestured with one long, spindly arm towards his twin. “It is a pity you did not look after yourself better” DeVore was silent for a time, then tried to speak, but his voice, like the great shells of his twinned abdomens, was cracked and brittle. What came out was a squeaky whine, like the sound two pieces of metal make when they are ground together. He tried again. “Why did you wake me?’

Tuan’s smile was a yard long. “So that you would know. At the end.”

“Know?’

“Why you had to die. Why there was room for only one of us in the universe.” Tuan vanished. With a great shudder, DeVore returned to his human shape. But now that shape was creased and torn, the frail flesh barely held together where the great Edderimi-naru shape had burst from it.

DeVore stood, blood dripping from his hands and chin. He staggered forward, spilling the stones from the board, then went down onto his knees, a great groan ripped from deep inside him.

For a moment he stayed there, his head down, eyes closed. Then, slowly, he lifted his head again and his eyes popped open. Steel-blue eyes that now remembered everything.

“Of course ...”

Li Yuan stood on the slope above the meadow, watching as the last of the teams prepared to depart They had decided to concentrate on just three of the generators; those in Norway, Southern Spain and - closer to home - the central generator beneath Geneva, sending a force of five thousand men and heavy armaments to bolster the current defensive strength. DeVore could easily hit elsewhere. But the chances were that he’d hit one or other of those three, and when he did, they would attempt to keep him there - to pin him down - until they could bear such strength upon him that he would break. We are fortunate my ancestors considered everything, Li Yuan thought, recalling what he’d been shown - long ago, when he was but a boy - about the generators. Unlike their Martian equivalents, Chung Kuo’s oxygen generators had been buried deep in the crust of the earth,where even a nuclear strike could not destroy them. Moreover, they vented over an area of several hundred square miles. To destroy one, you had to take the “tap” - the head of the great shaft - and then travel down almost a mile.

It was possible, of course, that DeVore had already mined them. Possible, but not likely. Not if what Li Yuan’s spies had told him was true. No, if his information was correct, DeVore had thought he could defeat the floraforms. Until two days back.

And that was why he’d come. To stop DeVore. To keep Chung Kuo alive, even if humankind were not to benefit For the floraforms were life, if of a strange, transmuted kind. And life - life of any kind - was preferable to the nullity DeVore wished for.

It was all a question of direction.

Li Yuan sighed, then began to make his way down towards his own cruiser, which waited, the ramp extended, the hatch open, not fifty metres away. All was arranged. Li Han Ch’in and Emily knew what to do. He was not needed now.

He had led them to this point, now it was up to them to carry out his strategy. It was time for him to make his peace with an old friend. To see him and talk with him one last time before he left.

Li Yuan smiled, then stepped up onto the ramp, making his way inside.

Yes, and maybe well have rabbit stew for supper.

Li Han Ch’in frowned, then scratched his head, amazed. “Master Tuan? What in the gods’ names are you doing here?” “I was hoping to speak to your father, but it seems he has already gone.”

“Gone?” Han Ch’in looked about him. “You must be mistaken, Master Tuan. He said nothing about going.”

Tuan smiled benevolently. “I think you’ll find he’s gone to see Shepherd.”

“Shepherd?” Han Ch’in shook his head. “But Shepherd’s with DeVore.”

“Again, I think you’ll find . . .”

“... that I am mistaken.” Han Ch’in huffed. “What are you doing here, Master Tuan?”

“I’m here to bring you a message.”

“A message?”

“From Ward. You do remember Ward?”

“But isn’t he ... well, out there somewhere.”

“Yes. But he’s coming back.”

Han Ch’in laughed. “Then he’ll be too late, I’d say, unless he’s already in orbit.” He paused, narrowing his eyes. “Is he?” Master Tuan shook his head. “Not at all. In fact, he’s close on eleven light years from here right now. But he says to watch for him.” “To watch ...” Han Ch’in roared with laughter. “Now I know you are teasing me, Master Tuan!”

A log fire crackled in the grate, throwing patterns of golden light across the shadowed room. The polished frame of the fireguard gleamed. Outside, beyond the open casement window, the day was ending, the sky slowly fading from blue to black. Inside the two friends talked, reminiscing over a world that seemed as insubstantial as a dream.

“Chung Kuo is ending, Ben.”

Ben laughed; a soft, amused laughter. “It ended long ago, Yuan. What we’ve been witnessing are post-mortem effects.”

“You think so?”

“Oh, I know so. I was fooled for a while. I thought...”

“What?”

“Oh, that history would go on forever. But I forgot how frail we are as a species. Silly really. I always prided myself on my sense of perspective.” “You think if s futile, then, leaving here?”

“Not futile. Nothing’s futile, except suicida But it will only delay things. I like the idea of the floraforms: of something better than us, bigger than us, inheriting the world. If s a better idea than DeVore’s. Evolution, not devolution. It has to be applauded, don’t you think?”Li Yuan shrugged. “I’m not so sure. I liked human beings. They were... troublesome, I guess, but their capacity for love was great” “You always were sentimental, Yuan. It was your weakness.” “And you were always hard. That was your weakness. But you’ve changed. You’ve changed a great deal since we last met I was ... well, uncertain what I’d find.” “I am less mad than I was.”

Li Yuan laughed, then sipped from the glass he held. For a moment he stared into the bright red liquid, watching the flames dance within it Then he sighed. “There is so much that I would have done differently, if I could.”

“You did as you were fated to do.”

He looked up, meeting Ben’s eyes. “No. I used to believe that, but it was an excuse. I could have chosen differently, but I didn’t I governed Chung Kuo badly. I let emotion rather than reason govern my actions.” “Well... I won’t argue with that Fei Yen, for instance.”

“An obsession ...”

“Yes. But understandable. It must have been wonderful making love to her ...”

“Ben!”

Ben looked across. Meg was standing in the doorway, the baby asleep on her shoulder.

“Well, if s true,” he said, grinning at her. “Not that I’m envious in the least I have been the most fortunate of men in that regard.”