World's End

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The Hegemony wanted Tiamat, and wanted it completely under their control, for only one reason: the water of life. The longevity drug was distilled from the blood of mers, bioengineered creatures of the Old Empire that survived only in Tiamat's seas. The drug was extremely rare, so expensive that even for someone like my father it was only a dream. It made Tiamat worth keeping, and it gave me a chance to see a living city of the Empire. "It's my only chance to see the world where they find the water of life, before its Gate closes. And when it does close, I'll be reassigned. . . . It's not as if I'll

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WORLD S END

be there for the rest of my life. I'll return home on leave--"

He smiled, to silence me. "I know thou will serve honorably, wherever thou go." The chiming of his antique watch made him glance down. His smile became an expression I couldn't put a name to. He took the watch from the pocket in his sash, where he always kept it.

And that was the last time I saw it, until the day I saw it in my brother's hand. . . .

The junkyard and the clamor and the heat reclaimed me again--I almost welcomed them. I put the trefoil into my belt pouch, along with my brothers' picture. I glanced at the holo of Song. I saw a girl-woman wearing the familiar sibyl sign, with dark eyes and a mass of black hair. Somehow I hadn't expected it to be black. I stared at the image for a long moment, trying to find something in her face to tell me why she'd done what she had. Her eyes were disturbingly alive, as if even her

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image could see into other worlds. As if another woman, another sibyl, with hair the color of moonlight, could look out through her eyes in search of me. I jammed the holo into my pouch.

I don't know what to make of this. Things seem to fall into my hands even as they're slipping through my fingers. Just when it all seems hopeless, I'm given what I need--just as I was on Tiamat. And just when I think

I'm safe, I remember Tiamat.

I remember that night, as if it were last night. I haven't thought of it in years. I wanted so much to forget that

I really believed I had. I haven't even wanted a woman, since. . . . But tonight, gods--I ache for the feel of her body against mine.

Damn it all! Maybe I am crazy.

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