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body stiffened, the way one
stiffens in a dream just before coming back to the waking world. He
hesitated for a moment, unsure whether to give voice to his true
intentions—as if afraid that by naming them, they would somehow
lose their power.
    “ Where are you going?”
Tiera asked again. “You can trust me—I won’t tell.”
    “ To the temple,” he
whispered.
    Tiera frowned. “The
temple?”
    “ Yes—the Temple of a
Thousand Suns.”
    She stared at him for a few moments,
uncomprehending. When realization finally struck, her eyes grew
wide and her jaw dropped open in shock.
    “ Are you
serious?”
    “ Yes.”
    “ But—but that’s the
holiest shrine in the known universe! It’s the Noble Sanctuary, the
Center of All Creation, the—”
    “ I know.”
    “ But why?” she asked.
“Some people spend their whole lives trying to make the
pilgrimage—even Father hasn’t been there yet.”
    He took a deep breath. “I don’t know
if I’m worthy enough to make the pilgrimage, but I do know one
thing: the Holy Archives are at the temple, and they contain all
the knowledge and wisdom of Old Earth. If anyone can read the data
stored in my pendant, it’s those who keep the Holy
Archives.”
    “ But how do you know
they’d help you? How do you know they’d even care?”
    “ The temple is dedicated
to the memory of Earth,” he said, “but it’s also dedicated to the
last great hope of the patriarchs, that their children would one
day inhabit a thousand worlds and spread across the universe. I’m
from one of those other worlds, Tiera, even if I don’t know which
one. If the temple is still dedicated to that hope, then I know
I’ll find someone to help me.”
    Tiera stared at him for a moment,
shock gradually giving way to admiration. “You would travel to the
other side of the world just to find your home?”
    “ More than that,” Jalil
said softly. “I would leave this world and travel to the
stars.”
    Tiera said nothing for several
moments. The breeze idly tossed a strand of hair dangling from her
hastily-tied bandana. Jalil shifted uneasily—he saw, in her eyes, a
light that he hadn’t seen before, a light that he’d rarely seen in
anyone.
    “ Take me with you,” she
said. Her voice, though soft, was as fierce as Jalil had ever heard
it.
    “ Take you?” he asked.
“Away from the camp?”
    “ Yes. Wherever you go, I
want to go, too.”
    “ But—but Tiera, they need
you here.”
    “ Like hell they do,” she
hissed. “I do twice the work of any of Shira ’s
daughters and have yet to get any thanks for it. I want nothing
more than to get as far away from all of them as
possible.”
    “ You mustn’t say that,”
said Jalil. “Mother Shira and your half-sisters are
good people.”
    “ I wish I could still
believe that,” Tiera muttered as she glanced away.
    “ Besides,” Jalil
continued, “we couldn’t do the pilgrimage by ourselves. What would
the others think? When a boy and a girl are alone—”
    “ I know, I know. Satan is
the third one with them. I don’t believe that for one second. We’re
responsible enough to make our own decisions, aren’t we? We’re not
fated to break the rules just because no one else is around to keep
us in line.”
    “ I know, but what about
our honor? If word got out—”
    “ What is honor, Jalil?”
Tiera said. “Where does it come from?”
    “ I, uh,” Jalil stuttered.
“It comes from, uh—”
    “ Right here,” she said,
jabbing him in the chest. “It’s right here, and nowhere else. So
what if the others gossip about us? Let them! We’ll both know the
truth, and that’s honor enough for me.”
    For a moment, neither of them said
anything. Jalil swallowed and took a deep breath.
    “ I want to take you with
me, Tiera—I really do. But—”
    “ But what?”
    Jalil sighed. “What about Zayne?
You’re her last surviving child; if we both left her, she would be
devastated.”
    Tiera opened her mouth as if to speak,
but closed it