"You want him living with you as a brother?"

"No! Maybe. No. I don't know."

Mari spread her hands as if helpless. "If you'd rather he'd gone back to Urth…"

"I didn't say that! I just want a chance to know him better!"

Her mother smiled reassuringly. "We're not keeping you apart. We'll give you that chance."

Kira exhaled heavily, gazing morosely ahead. "All right."

"All right?" Mari said. "Are you serious? That's it?"

"I don't feel like arguing," Kira said.

Her mother made an exaggerated reaction of surprise. "You don't feel like arguing? Who are you? And what have you done with Kira?"

"She's still here." Kira rolled her eyes at her mother. "See? But Kira knows a little bit more about herself now. And she knows a little bit more about her mother, and maybe even understands her mother a little more."

Her father managed a look of interest. "You must tell me what you have learned. I have spent twenty years trying to understand your mother and am still far from knowing what I should."

Mari rolled her eyes at both of them. "I always treasure these family moments when my husband and daughter gang up on me. However, at the moment nothing can bother me. We were so worried, Kira, especially after your father had that vision of you being chased along the side of a mountain."

"I was what?" Kira asked.

"Being chased along the side of a mountain. You and Jason. You had your pistol in your hand. When did that happen?"

Kira turned a puzzled gaze on Jason. "When did that happen? Did that happen?"

"I don't remember anything like that," Jason said. "As far as I can remember you holstered your pistol after we got out of Kelsi and didn't draw it again until we were in Ihris."

"I checked it and reloaded the night before we got to Ihris, but I was sitting down near the fire."

Her mother grew suddenly intent and serious. "Are you certain? You were never running along the side of a mountain with your pistol in your hand? Not even once for even a very short time?"

"No," Kira said. "I would have remembered that."

"Alain!" her mother said to her father.

He shook his head. "It has not yet happened."

"You're looking at Kira now. How much older was she in your vision?"

Her father studied Kira. "Not much older. It will happen within a few years at the most. Perhaps much sooner."

"What will happen?" Kira demanded.

Her mother answered in a weary voice. "Whatever will lead to that vision. Your adventures are not over, young lady. The vision your father saw still has to happen. At some point, before you're much older, you're going to be getting chased through mountains somewhere."

Kira realized that her mouth had fallen open and snapped it shut. "Jason was with me? You said that, didn't you?"

"Yes, Jason was with you," Alain said.