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more than a beacon– he needed love, a place to grow, someone to train him how to use his powers with the control he’d need. He needed his father.
    Somehow, he let go of Kare’s hands. He couldn’t waver. He’d been over and over this, with Darwin and again alone on the ship, weighing up everything, and there was no other way.
    “Remember to call me,” Ealyn said. “I’ll stay in orbit until I hear from you.”
    “I’m not going.”
    “You are ,” he said to his son. “You’re going to walk out of the yard, follow the directions on that comms unit and go to Shug; he’s expecting you. He’ll take you to your Aunt Marine’s. When you’re there, let me know, and… ”
    He couldn’t say the words and it was Kare who whispered, “And then you’re going to leave me.”
    God help me, I am. Kare’s vision had shown the boy with Marine and that only happened if there was a pathway to it. Besides, there was no one he could trust more than Marine. The very fact she’d survived the attack on the family when he’d left the planet, that she’d been strong enough and tough enough to make it through those hellish days, told him what he needed to know: hers was a place of safety. He had to take it; there was nothing else open to him, not now. He nodded. “I’m going to leave you where you’re safe, and take your sister somewhere where she’s safe.” He tried to smile and hoped it looked reassuring. “Your aunt– she’ll look after you.”
    “Why can’t we go together?” asked Karia. The question they’d asked all through the flight, separately, together, pleading. An acrid taste flooded into Ealyn’s mouth: to know where they both were, to be able to check…. No . He’d chosen one destination, Darwin the other, arranged as a hand-over in a day’s time. That way, if either man were taken, both twins wouldn’t be given up. He choked out the answer. “It’s safer to be apart.”
    He looked between the children, and wondered which would be harder: knowing and being unable to come back, or the aching blackness of total loss.
    “You promise to come if I need you?” whispered Kare, his eyes huge in his pale face. His lip trembled a little and Ealyn guessed he was only just holding back from crying.
    “I won’t go anywhere until I hear you’re safe.” He hugged the small, thin body close, trying to ease its trembling. “I love you,” he whispered into his son’s hair, struggling to keep his voice steady. Kare nodded– a small nod, like he had no fight left in him– against his dad’s shoulder.
    Karia joined them and Ealyn moved to let her embrace her twin. Their arms tightened around each other, Karia’s head buried against Kare, his head on her shoulder. They were so close it looked like they might become one being. She touched her brother’s forehead, pushing his jet-black hair back, revealing his eyes.
    “Keep sending your thoughts,” she said. “No matter where I am, I’ll pick them up.”
    “We’ll come back to each other,” said Kare. “As soon as we can.” Her shoulders were shaking with silent tears, and he patted her. “It’ll be all right. I promise.”
    Ealyn pulled her away, wrapping his arm around her, and nodded to Kare. “We have to go.”
    The boy stepped back until he was right up against one of the perimeter fence’s launch-shelters.
    “Good lad,” mouthed Ealyn. He walked up the gangway, his arm around Karia’s shoulders. The walkway blurred and he had to blink before his vision cleared. When he looked back, his son’s face swam under tears.
    He closed the hatch and went to the control room. Karia sat in her seat, silently crying, her eyes focused on the yard and her brother. Her face was so bleak, so lonely, Ealyn could think of nothing to say to comfort her. There was no comfort in any of this. He primed the engines, breathing hard, and stabbed his finger down, taking the ship away from the planet, past the checkpoint and into space beyond.
    Dignad