He said, “Going back to the subject, let’s just say that becoming a human being after having been a Taglioni is a brutal and sobering ordeal. One I’ve had to relive in too-intimate a detail over the last month as Demon picked through the disgusting flotsam that makes up my memory. The man I am now really hates that guy who swaggered his way onto Ashanti. Not only that, I’m ashamed of him. The stuff you heard about? As the old saying goes: tip of the iceberg.”

“That’s not winning you a whole lot of points.” She scrambled when rock rolled under her feet. As it did, a flurry of invertebrates exploded, only to vanish into cracks and crevices. “But I will say this, it’s nice to have Dek back and Demon at bay. How’s that going, by the way?”

“I think we’re on the way to solving something. That fall into the river, it broke the impasse. I’ve got a war going on inside me. Nothing I can put my finger on. A feeling of desperation and conflict, and the fact that one way or another, I’m going to be different when it’s all settled.”

“Different, how?”

“One way, I’m a new Dek. The other way, Demon triumphs and I either drown myself or put a bullet in my head. The lines are drawn, Tal. I won’t be what Demon wants me to be. Nor will I be the heartless-and-amoral tool that my dear father was so desperate to mold me into. I will be the man I want to be—one worthy of what I think you might come to love in a man.”

“You think I’m that kind of a prize? Me?”

“That’s what I was getting at when I said I’d known a lot of women. Even loved a few. You, however, make me whole.” He smiled to himself. “And that is something I’ve never known.”

She remained silent as they climbed through a steep cone of talus. Little multi-legged creatures kept scattering this way and that. Most had sharp horns, stingers, or things that looked like spears protruding from their backs. Not the kind of creatures to grab with a bare hand. At the head of the talus, the narrow-walled crevice loomed dark in shadow, the aquajade, stonewood, and some big-leafed overhanging . . . “Tal? That’s a mundo tree right there in the opening to the crevice.”

He stopped, let her climb up next to him. On either side, weird thorn-covered two-meter-tall plants with waving hair-covered leaves ensured they didn’t venture too near.

“Mundo tree all right,” she agreed, avoiding his eyes. “See the detritus beneath? That’s bones and bits of body parts. If you look closely you’ll see tentacles hanging down in the lowest leaves.”