“Oh, you’ll get to know the most common kiths. You can tell by their names, too. Each kith has a specific phonetic sound at the end. For instance, the names of all members of the noble kith end with ’h. Bureaucrats end with ’s. Workers end with ’k. The half-breeds add a combination of sounds. Military officers from the noble and the soldier classes end with ’nh. Rememberers come from the bureaucrat and noble kiths, and have 'sh at the ends of their names.” She shrugged. “That’s all approximate, of course, since their alphabet is different from ours.”

For dessert, Rlinda presented a yellow taffylike substance shaped into a cone. She looked at the two women. “I don’t know much about green priests, either. Do you marry? Are you allowed to take mates, or is that against the priesthood?”

Otema smiled. “It is certainly allowed, though many of us devote our lives to the trees. When we feel a calling, we take lovers.” She sat back. “I’m rather old for that now, though.”

“Well, I’ve gotten married enough times myself.” The merchant scooped up a bite of the dessert and gestured for the two to taste it. “I outlived two of my husbands, and the bitterest split was with my most recent one. He left me to marry a young beauty—then, a year later, she murdered him in a fit of passion.”

Nira gasped. Rlinda shook her head with a knowing smile. “I always said the man was impossible to get along with, and his new wife must have figured it out, too. So far, my best exhusband was the second one, a man named Branson Roberts. I call him BeBob, though no one else does. We’re still good friends, and he’s my best pilot—we just couldn’t get along well enough to stay married.” She ate her dessert in three bites and dabbed her lips with a napkin.

“I’ve given up on marriage now and decided to become a gourmand. Forget sex … well, for the most part. What could be better than sampling all the culinary pleasures I find on other worlds?”

Rlinda studied the chronometer and then powered up a viewscreen on her cabin wall, showing brilliant clustered stars as they approached. “Won’t be long now. Those are the seven suns of the Ildiran system.” She began to clean up the cooking implements.

52: REMEMBERER DIO’SH

52REMEMBERER DIO’SH

The deepest archives in the Prism Palace were silent and empty. As with every structure in Mijistra, even far underground, the chambers remained well-lit at all hours, with blazers at every intersection and dazzling panels in the ceiling. But though the chemical fires simulated bright daylight, Rememberer Dio’sh could sense oppressive shadows hiding in enclosed spaces. Mysteries and fears and tragic memories of Crenna…