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but send you here? What will they let you
do when you get out? Anything decent or just more dirty, murderous jobs like
this one?” She realized she was shouting, and Miria looked stunned.
    “I don’t know,” Miria said. “I don’t
know, Kylis. Please stop saying such dangerous things.” She was terrified
and shaken, much more upset than when she had been crying.
    Kylis moved nearer and took her hand. “I’m
sorry, Miria, I didn’t mean to hurt you or say anything that could get
you in trouble.” She paused, wondering how far Miria’s fear of
Redsun’s government might take her from her loyalty.
    “Miria, “ she said on impulse, “have you
ever thought of partnering with anybody?”
    Miria hesitated so long that Kylis thought she would not
answer. Kylis wondered if she had intruded on Miria’s past again.
    “No,” Miria finally said. “Never.”
    “Would you?”
    “Think about it? Or do it?”
    “Both. Partner with me and Gryf and Jason. Not just
here, but when we get out.”
    “No,” Miria said. “No, I couldn’t.”
She sounded frightened again.
    “Because we want to leave Redsun?”
    “Other reasons.”
    “Would you just think about it?”
    Miria shook her head.
    “I know you don’t usually live in groups on
Redsun,” Kylis said. “But where I was born, a lot of people did,
even though my parents were alone. I remember, before I ran away, my friends
were never afraid to go home like I was. Jason spent all his life in a group
family, and he says it’s a lot easier to get along.” She was
skipping over her own occasional doubts that any world could be as pleasant as
the one Jason described. Whatever it was like, it had to be better than her own
former existence of constant hiding and constant uncertainty; it had to be
better than what Gryf told her of Redsun, with its emphasis on loyalty to the
government at the expense of any family structure too big to move instantly at
the whim or order of the rulers.
    Miria did not respond.
    “Anyway, three people aren’t enough — we
thought we’d find others after we got out. But I think — “
    “Gryf doesn’t — “ Miria interrupted
Kylis, then stopped herself and started over. “They don’t know you
were going to ask me?”
    “Not exactly, but they both know you,” Kylis
said defensively. She thought Miria might be afraid Kylis’ partners would
refuse her. Kylis knew they would not but could not put how she knew into
proper words.
    The rain had blurred away the marks of tears on Miria’s
cheeks, and now she smiled and squeezed Kylis’ hand. “Thank you,
Kylis,” she said. “I wish I could accept. I can’t, but not
for the reasons you think. You’ll find someone better.” She started
up, but Kylis stopped her.
    “No, you stay here. This is your place.” Kylis
stood. “If you change your mind, just say. All right?”
    “I won’t change my mind.”
    “I wish you wouldn’t be so sure.”
Reluctantly, she started away.
    “Kylis?”
    “Yes?”
    “Please don’t tell anyone you asked me this.”
    “Not even Gryf and Jason?”
    “No one. Please.”
    “All right,” Kylis said unwillingly.
    Kylis left Miria on the stony hillside. She glanced back
once before entering the forest. Miria was sitting on the stone again, hunched
forward, her forearms on her knees. Now she was looking down at the huge slash
of clay and trash heaps, the complicated delicate cooling towers that condensed
the generators’ steam, the high impervious antenna beaming power north
toward the cities.
    When Kylis reached the sleeping place, the sun was high.
Beneath the dead fern trees it was still almost cool. She crept in quietly and
sat down near Jason without waking him. He lay sprawled in dry moss, breathing
deeply, solid and real. As if he could feel her watching him, he half opened
his eyes.
    Kylis lay down and drew her hand up his side, feeling bones
that had become more prominent, dry and flaking sunburned skin, and the scabs
of cuts and