Chapter 8

The aged voice coming out of the comm unit brought Michael, deep in the fragrance of human blood, instantly back to himself.

His mouth left Mary's, and he paused, letting the heightened state settle, before answering. He couldn't keep a thread of displeasure at the interruption out of his voice.

"Lord Matthew. You never contact me by comm. Why now, of all moments?"

"Heh. A good general must understand how to obey an order, and must know when to stop. Where has that self-control you're so proud of gone, Michael?"

"Lord Matthew. You haven't been watching through the crystal ball again, have you?"

"Call it strategic foresight."

At that moment Michael was cursing the damned old man in the privacy of his own head.

"You're cursing the damned old man in the privacy of your own head right now, aren't you?"

"Heh heh. Michael, my child, I know you far too well. Don't forget who took an unbreakable young hawk and trained him into a soldier."

"And what of it? I'll most likely spend the rest of my life in a tedious border patrol unit, or somewhere even more tedious, a marquess's castle. I'll never see a battlefield again. Everything you spent on me was wasted."

"Don't reach a conclusion so early, my child. Technology advances. We may find a new method of continuing the family line before long. Once new kin are born, you can naturally return to the front. Can't you?"

"I don't want a cloned substitute."

"I wasn't speaking of cloning."

"It's useless. Females of the Blood are born without viable ova. It's a physiological defect our entire species has failed to overcome in several million years, and the whole universe knows it. You cannot conjure into existence a thing that does not exist."

"Michael, my child. Nothing in this world is impossible."

"Lord Matthew, you have been researching Blood reproduction since before I can remember. Why do you hold such absolute confidence in a project that has never once succeeded in all of history?"

"Michael, have you considered this — if our existence genuinely violates natural law, then the Blood are themselves an error. In all this vast universe I have never once encountered a species wholly incapable of producing offspring. Not a single one. However long-lived a species may be, however powerful it may be, if it cannot generate new life then the ending is always the same: slow and total extinction. I hold it as a conviction that the Creator did not intend the Blood to die out. And if that is so, then a key to continuation must exist somewhere. We simply have not yet found it."

"Then I only hope you find that key before all thirteen great families are gone."

"Heh heh. Michael, have you ever wondered where the thirteen great families of the Blood originally came from?"

"By the legend recorded in the Sacred Codex, we are the descendants of Cain."

"Just so. It is a legend, but it tells us at minimum that we are somebody's descendants. Doesn't it? And so — have you ever wondered with whom Cain joined, to produce those descendants?"

"Lord Matthew, I have no particular interest in discussing ancient mythology."

"Oh, my child. Don't underrate a myth. Those old words handed down through the generations very often conceal something true out of the past. In every record we possess concerning the Sacred Blood, this one ancient legend alone speaks explicitly of a relationship between a parent and a descendant. I believe the essential clue to reproduction may be buried precisely there."

"Perhaps. I don't believe in conjecture. I believe in results."

Michael shut off the comm.

He stood on the dragon's back and looked out at Evernight, whose outline was beginning to emerge on the horizon.

New life?

If such a possibility genuinely existed in this world.

The process of studying Mary was extremely scientific and extremely thorough.

Blood samples, bone marrow extraction, gene sequencing, physiological response — she was analyzed from the inside out.

She was not, of course, actually dissected.

Two reasons.

First, this planet's technology had long since moved past the stage of needing to open a living body in order to observe it.

Second, the mere drawing of a small blood sample had triggered a modest riot in the Blood research laboratory, every person present having had an instinctive response provoked by the smell.

One can imagine how far out of control matters would have gone had a blade actually been involved.

Accordingly, the Council of Elders halted all invasive research on an emergency basis, and with impressive efficiency published its preliminary findings that same night.

Mary was very undignified about all of it — sealed, naked, into a transparent display case shaped like a coffin.

A small metal collar was fastened around her neck, its sensors transmitting each of her vital signs in real time to the enormous screen at the front of the hall.

Every person of any standing in the whole of Evernight received an invitation to the Council's academic hall to hear the Academy of Sciences present its results.

When Mary was fixed into the transparent case with fine electrode leads and rolled out onto the display platform, she understood instantly and completely how the rare animals behind zoo glass feel about it.

The researcher onstage read the report in a level voice. "Physical characteristics. Height five feet six inches. Weight approximately one hundred ten pounds. Hair pale gold. Skin light tan. Freckling present across the face. Muscular strength rated weak. Aggression assessment extremely low."

Elder Matthew stood onstage with a laser pointer, working through the projection at an even pace.

The elaborate embroidery on his robe swept now and then across the spotless crystal floor.

The Blood have always favored extravagant dress, and every guest below was in full formal wear, which combined with a population that is very nearly uniformly beautiful to make the entire hall glitter.

Against all that magnificence, the plain Earth organism strapped to the display platform with electrode leads looked badly out of place, and thoroughly diminished.

"On the basis of skeletal structure, female hormone levels, and a complete uterine organ, the organism is female. Following standard practice, we have of course conducted in vitro combination of its ova with sperm from males of our species. Regrettably, although the fertilized cells did successfully form embryos, development ceased and the embryos died almost immediately."

At this point Elder Matthew, who had been building steadily in animation, dropped noticeably in tone and looked rather deflated.

"I'll say frankly that I personally held extremely high hopes for this experiment. Because by comparison of biological characteristics, this organism is exceedingly similar to the humans of Earth as recorded in the cosmic historical archive. Yes. That Earth. The planet on which, in the legends of our ancestors, Cain once lived."

The lights across the hall went down all at once, and a holographic projection put a field of stars around every person in it.

Matthew turned and touched his remote, enlarging and brightening the solar system displayed in the corner of the hall.

Beside a dim red star, a blue planet that had lost all life and gone the gray of absolute stillness resolved clearly in front of the assembled Blood.