Prologue

These D'ni people who are now gone came thousands of years ago to the shelter of the cavern to return to leastness. They found solace in their smallness in the dark, and so did I. But light is powerful in the darkness...

I was seduced while in D'ni. My humble darkness lasted only a short time before I began to bask in what I could do, what I could write. My gift, my path, the knowledge of my father and the dreams of my mother pierced a hole in the darkness, in the weakness, I was aware of my power and I was proud. Whole worlds at my fingertips...

It was the same with the D'ni. The same cycle. Light opens the darkness. It takes, it uses, and it keeps. The D'ni found power in these books...

I found power in these books...

I am Yeesha. We have met before, back in the Cleft at Tomahna. Things were so different then- you had yet to see what the D'ni were. You had only seen but a glimpse, now you have seen all. You have followed the path, you have sought the journey. You have done it all and yet...yet there is one thing that you still remain unknowing about.

Me...

I am Yeesha. My parents brought me to this place.

And now I have brought you. Together we sit, here, in K'veer overlooking the once great city of the D'ni. I can see the questions on your face...in your eyes. I know what you wish to know and I will tell you.

But stories must begin at the beginning. My beginning is not unlike my father's in that it starts at the Cleft.

The Cleft, the fissure in the desert, the wound in the earth, the path of the things beneath the surface. It was there I sought to find my purpose. It was from there I came to know the dead underground city of D'ni.

Yet still that is not the beginning...my beginning starts on the first time my parents took me to the Cleft on what seems a day so long ago only the stars remember it.

Part 1-The Desert

Within the great volcano's shadow, the desert floor was fractured. There, in a crack some eighty feet by fifteen, the darkness was intense. Book of Atrus

Before this crack lay the desert, a bright mass of hot sand which stretched for miles beneath the scorching sun. And behind it rose a volcano, the steam issuing from it showing up faintly in the setting sun. There was little to see in this location, only the volcano and small cleft and yet there was no one to even see those.

A green lizard, stretched out, basking itself in one of the last few rays of the sun cocked its head to one side, listening. Suddenly a shower of small rocks rained down from above causing it to scamper off. Again there came a shower of rocks and dust and a male voice called out,

"Be careful, the ground is loose here."

Jumping down from an overhanging ledge, the man set a bag down on the ground and looked about him. For a moment, as he stared ahead at where the cleft lay highlighted by the sun, he seemed to be lost in a word all his own, a faint smile flickering at the edges of his mouth. Yet the longer he looked, the more the faint smile turned into a frown.

Memories are so often painful and wonderful at the same time, thought Atrus.

Even as he looked back up to check and see how his wife and daughter's progress was coming, he could almost see the figure of his father striding down as he had the first time Atrus saw him. That was the beginning of it all, everything which had finally lead him back here again.

Reaching out a hand to help his wife down, Atrus caught a knowing look in her eyes. Squeezing his hand, Catherine jumped lightly to earth.

"Thank you, my love," she said simply but he knew there was more behind what she was saying. Glancing up, Catherine called to the slight figure still making its way down the steep surface.

"How are you doing, Yeesha?"

"I'm fine!"

Smiling, Atrus watched as his daughter leapt nimbly from rock ledge to ledge, occasionally walking sideways, one hand stretched behind her for balance. How often he thought that Yeesha had to be part Ma'laf, a small furry creature which was native to Tomahna and could frequently be seen running all over the rocky hills. Watching Yeesha take an especially far leap though, Atrus felt himself grimace.

Catherine laughed softly beside him.

"Don't worry about her. She's used to running all over Tomahna."

"I know. I just can't help thinking that she could be a little more careful."

"She's fine."

Sighing, Atrus let the conversation go. Catherine was more lax with what she allowed Yeesha to do then he was. Perhaps it was because Catherine herself had run wild over Riven when she was little. Even still, Atrus could see no reason to allow Yeesha to do something as dangerous as jumping all over rock cliffs. But to argue with Catherine would get him nowhere.

That woman is just too stubborn.

"Yes I am," said Catherine taking his hand in her own.

With a final leap, Yeesha landed as lightly as her mother on the ground beside them. Thinking back over his own heavy landing, Atrus wondered if a bit more rock-climbing when he was younger would have been good.

"Father, are you ready?" asked Yeesha holding up his bag and interrupting his thoughts.

Atrus accepted it and the three of them turned and began to head toward the gash in the earth.

There it was, just the way it had been when he left it years ago. Only now the sands had pushed closer and with no one to clean it away, had consumed the stone wall that used to surround the edges.

He was the first one down the ladder- he hadn't wanted to be but Catherine insisted. He could see the thoughts behind her eyes, 'It will be good for you.' Anna's death had been hard on him, and it took him a long time to get over it, yet Catherine didn't believe that he was over it. Along with other things...

But as he stood on the wooden slat bridge and looked from one edge of the cleft to the other, Atrus almost found himself agreeing with her. And then, as he slowly made his way into the sleeping chamber and stared at what was his old bed, he could hear Anna's voice inside his head causing his throat to constrict.

What do you see, Atrus?

A small rock shelf at the back of the room, a now worn down, woven quilt and another blanket covered in stars.

I see...I see...

"Atrus?"

"In here, Catherine," he called back, gulping.

Tears were pricking at the corner of his eyes. Pulling off his D'ni glasses he wiped them away then turned to face his wife.

"Where's Yeesha?"

"She's off exploring. The look on her face as she stepped down here...there is something wonderful about this place, Atrus."

"I know. There was only one other place that ever came close to feeling like this does- and she helped create it," replied Atrus.

Nodding, Catherine ran a hand over one of the stone shelves.

"I don't think that it will ever be possible to forget that place," she said softly. "Or the people."

"And we shouldn't, yet to live in the past is to die in the present."

This won him the smile he was looking for. Atrus knew how much Catherine said that he overused that phrase and maybe he did. But sometimes- without it- he believed that he would have gone mad from grief and confusion.

Reaching out, Atrus pulled Catherine to him and kissed the top of her head.

What do you see, Atrus? he heard the familiar voice ask again.

I see my old home. I see love, Grandmother.