Prologue

You, my friends, are all to me,

For you have seen me deep within

And you have loved me long ere now

And I will love you years from hence.

I go to the darkness far ahead

As from this life I now depart

With a lifetime yet to be

And a million sunsets in my heart.

-----------------Folk song from the 2nd Telepath war

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The sun rose slowly over the plains that lead to the sea. In the distance, a river joined with the larger waters, rushing through the sand to empty itself into the ocean. She stood on a small cliff, overlooking the beach. She was dressed in animal skins, and she clutched a large rock in her right hand. Crouching down, she peered over the edge of the outcropping. A lizard darted out from the shade; she flicked her arm out and struck it with the rock. The small skull shattered, and the reptilian carcass dropped soundlessly to the sands, staining them red. She jumped down from her oerch, and picked up the lizard. It was nearly as long as she was tall, and had a fair amount of meat on its bones. Enough for one meal, at least, and enough skins to serve her needs.

A small breeze gusted along the shore, and she raised her head, sniffing the air. She could see a shape wavering on the horizon, just across the stream. She swuinted, her heavy brows beetling over purple eyes. The indistinct shape shivered once or twice, and slowly resolved into a shape like her own; this one, however, was a male.

She stiffened, and bent low to hide in the grass. She scooped a hole in the sand and dumped the lizard into it, smoothing the sand back over the top. She hadn’t waited three hours in the sun just to have a prize kill taken from her. She wondered if the stranger from across the river was the one who had killed her mate last winter. Life had been hard since she had been left alone, and no-one else in the tribe would care for her. She had survived, though she could count her own ribs, and had been toughened by the struggle. As the man came nearer, he seemed to be looking for her. His hair was dark, and his eyes shone like green flames in the shadow cast by his low forehead.

He paused, looking over the area where she had been standing a few moments before. A silver light flickered around his fingertips, and he stooped down to exmine the prints in the sand. Just as he began to trace them to her hiding place, she straightened up, and drove the rock into his skull with all her might.

Unlike the lizard, he did not die with one blow, and she kept striking until he stopped twitching. The silver light flickered once more in his right hand, then disappeared.

She stripped him of his clothes; nothing could be wasted. Wrapping the lizard in his rags, she placed them under the overhang, and drug the body of the man out to the beach where the tide would carry it away. There must be nothing to attract a larger beast, or she might not survive her next hunting expedition. She returned for the bundle of clothing and carcass, and slowly made her way to the small sandstone cave that she called home.

As the moon rose high, the fire flickered brightly against the cavern wall. She hummed happily, stitching the stranger’s rags into pouches and belts. Nothing must be wasted.