"I used to," Smitta said. "With Risher-he was a lot prettier once- and lately with Mik, the Huntmaster's boy." Minya flinched. Maybe Smitta noticed. "We give all that up when we join. You just have to hold it inside. You know that."

"Does anyone ever . . ."

"What? Quit? Cheat? Alse jumped into the sky, a little after I joined, but nobody really knows why. That's the only way to quit. If you get caught cheating, I can name some would tear you apart. Sal's one."

Tight lips and clenched teeth held back Minya's secret. Now Smitta did notice. "Don't get caught cheating," she repeated. "Maybe you don't know how citizens feel about us. They tolerate us. We won't give the tribe babies, so we do the most dangerous jobs anyone can think of, and pay the debt that way. But you don't ask any ordinary man to, you know, help you be in both worlds."

Minya nodded. Lips pressed together, teeth clenched: if only she had kept them that way when she was with Mik! Mik had been impossible

to get rid of, eight years ago. How had he changed so much? Would he tell?

"Smitta-"

"Drop it, Sal's coming."

Minya looked. There were four figures down there, four women rising on jets of sprayed gas and seeds; and they carried no water. Sal shouted something the wind snatched away.

"They're wasting jet pods," Smitta observed.

They were closer now and in range to snag the bark. This time Minya heard Sal's joyful bellow.

"Invaderrrsss!"

Chapter Seven - The Checker's

Hand

T~ TWO TRIADS MOVED INWARD, STAYING IN CRACKS IN THE

bark where they could. Every minute or so Denisse, a tall, dark woman of Thanya's triad, would pop up, look around fast, and drop back into the bark.

"We counted six of them around the tribemark," Thanya said. "Dark clothes. Maybe they're from the Dark Tuft."

"Intruders on the tree." Sal's voice was eager, joyful. "We've never fought invaders! There were some citizens thrown out for mutiny, long ago . . . some of them killed the Chairman, and the rest went with them. Maybe they settled in the Dark Tuft. Mutineers . . . Tbanya, what kind of weapons were they carrying?"

"We couldn't go ask them, could we? Denisse says she saw things like giant arrows. I couldn't even tell their sexes, but one had no legs."

They veered to avoid a crack clogged with old-man's-hair. Smitta said, "Six of them, six of us, you may have missed a few . . . shall we send someone back for Jeel's triad?"

Sal grinned wolfishly. "No."

"And no," said Thanya for her triad.

Minya said nothing-her triad leader spoke for her-but she felt a fierce joy. Right now there was nothing she needed more than a fight.

Denisse dropped back from her next survey. Her voice was deadly

calm. "Intruders. We have intruders, three hundred meters in and a

hundred to port, moving outward. At least six."