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confirmed Daklar, nodding again. “I know I’ve got a long way to go, but, yes, I am feeling better, and…”
    Ponter waited for her to go on. Finally, he prodded her. “Yes?”
    “Well,” she said, now avoiding his eyes, “it’s just that I’m by myself, and…” She paused again, but this time continued of her own volition. “And you’re by yourself, too. And, well, Two becoming One can be so very lonely when you have no one to spend the time with.” She briefly glanced at his face, but then looked away, perhaps afraid of what she might see there.
    Ponter was startled. But…
    But Daklar was intelligent, and that
did
appeal to Ponter. And her hair was showing wonderful streaks of gray mixed in with the brown. And—
    But no. No. It was madness. After what she’d done to Adikor…
    Ponter’s jaw twinged. It did that occasionally, but usually only on cold mornings. He brought up a hand to rub it through his beard.
    His jaw had been broken, some 229 moons ago, by Adikor, during a stupid fight. Had Ponter not lifted his head in time, Adikor’s blow would have killed him.
    But Ponter
had
lifted his head quickly enough, and, although almost half his mandible and seven teeth had needed to be replaced with synthetic duplicates, he had lived.
    And he’d forgiven Adikor. Ponter had made no accusation; Adikor had been spared from the enforcers’ scalpel. Adikor had undergone treatment for anger management, and in all the months since, he’d never so much as threatened to hit Ponter or anyone else.
    Forgiveness.
    He’d talked a lot with Mare, over in the other world, about her belief in God, and about the putative human son of God, who had tried to inculcate forgiveness in Mare’s people. Mare had been an adherent of that man’s teachings.
    And, after all, Ponter
was
alone. There was no telling what the High Gray Council would decide about reopening the portal to Mare’s world, and, even if they did choose to allow it, Ponter wasn’t absolutely sure that the gateway could be reestablished.
    Forgiveness.
    It was what he’d given Adikor half a lifetime ago.
    It was what Mare’s belief system held as the highest virtue.
    It was what Daklar seemed to need from him now.
    Forgiveness.
    “All right,” said Ponter. “You must make your peace with Adikor, but contingent on that, I dispel any animosity between us over recent events.”
    Daklar smiled. “Thank you.” She paused, though, and the smile faded. “Do you wish my company—until your children are free, that is? I may be Mega’s
tabant,
and she and I and Jasmel still share a house, but I know you need time alone with them, and I will not interfere with that. But until then…”
    She trailed off, and her eyes briefly met Ponter’s again, clearly inviting him to fill the void.
    “Until then,” said Ponter, making his decision, “yes, I would be glad of your company.”

Chapter Four
    Mary Vaughan’s lab at York University was much as she had left it—not surprisingly, since, despite all the things that had happened to her, it had only been twenty-three days since she’d last been here.
    Daria Klein—one of Mary’s grad students—had clearly been in repeatedly during Mary’s absence, though. Her work area had been rearranged, and the chart on the wall showing her sequencing of the ancient Egyptian Y chromosome she was working on had many more spaces filled in.
    Arne Eggebrecht of the Pelizaeus Museum in Hildersheim, Germany, had recently suggested that an Egyptian body purchased from an old Niagara Falls tourist attraction might in fact have been Ramses I, founder of the line that contained Seti I, Ramses II (the one portrayed by Yul Brynner in
The Ten Commandments
), Ramses III, and Queen Nefertari. The specimen was now housed in Atlanta’s Emory University, but DNA samples had been sent to Toronto for analysis; Mary’s lab was world-renowned for its success in recovering ancient DNA, a fact that had led directly to her involvement with Ponter