For three days the Amar fought through the mistlands.  The floating ghosts were more and more persistent in their swarming; the Amar got little sleep, spent their days swinging at bubbles, dodging away from seeking tendrils.  One Amar dodged into a heavy bush and died with a hundred tiny darts in his skin.  Another stepped onto a patch of bright green grass and sank before he could be pulled out.

On the morning of the third day, Roha rounded a clump of rain-trees and saw a great round egg looming through the mist.  A grey egg higher than a hill.... or a seed....  Roha stared, a pulse drumming so loud in her ears she didn't at first hear Churr speak.

"Is that it?" he repeated, pulling at her arm.  "Is that what we're after?"

She licked her lips, stared at him blankly until the meaning of his words finally reached her.  "Yes," she whispered.  "Yes!" she cried.  "Yes, yes, yes."

The Amar fighters spread out in an arc on either side of the Twins.  Churr nodded briskly to Roha, then whistled a double note.  The warriors started moving cautiously forward, keeping the arc as smooth as possible, using brush and rock piles as cover, watching at the same time for the many dangers from plants and the earth itself.  Pushing Roha behind him and ordering her to stay there with Rihon, Churr ran forward and took his place in the center of the line.  Drifting like shadows across the ground the Amar crept toward the Egg.

Roha clutched Rihon's hand, staring at the Egg.  She took a step forward.  Rihon tried to pull her back.  She looked at him.  "I have to."

"Roha, you've got no business interfering with Churr."

"I won't.  Rihon, come on, we can't see anything back here."

He shrugged and let her go, following quietly along behind, ready, she knew, to catch her if he thought she went too far.  She ran ahead on quiet feet until she was close behind Churr.

He knelt in the shade of a liggabush, similar enough to the healthy ones outside to seem safe.  The Amar knelt beside him in their circle lying hidden outside a broad clearing.  Roha stopped, excited and afraid.  She looked about and saw billows of stone cast up beside a steaming pool.  She touched her hands to her face, wondering if she dared.  Behind her Rihon grunted.  He set her to one side and marched past her.  After kicking lightly at the glassy stone, he started climbing until he lay stretched out on the top.  For a moment he looked down the far side, then beckoned to her.

Roha scrambled up beside him and looked down.

The Egg was laid on its long axis, part buried in a cast-up mound of earth.  Behind it a geyser was sending up gouts of steam and sulphur vapor that spilled over the bulge of the Egg, condensing on the shell, staining the matte gray surface yellow and green and brown in long uneven streaks.  The wind shifted a little, carrying to Roha's nose the stench of sulphur and another odor, acrid and abominable; it clogged her throat, brought her claws arching out of her fingertips.  Her ears flickered and her nose flattened.  A cold rage rose in her.  She could hear breath snorting in and out of Rihon's nose and feel the same rage cold in him.  She growled deep in her throat, heard the same purring growl from Rihon.