The hostility of Sultok's - Aboro's - guard was palpable as Virdon and Galen passed them. It emanated from the stares of the Chimps flanking the open gate; it stiffened the posture of the guards manning the wall-walk above the riders' heads as they slowly passed through the gate; and it pounced on them in the utter silence of the rest of the town guard that had formed a cordon to both sides of the street. They were blocking all the entrances to the side alleys, Virdon noticed, leaving only one way open for Voltis - the way that Aboro was leading, still moving backwards, still keeping his eyes on his superior.

"I don't like this," Galen muttered behind him.

Virdon turned around in his saddle to face him - and stiffened at the sight of the still open gate behind them. Riders were piling in behind them, but they didn't belong to Voltis...

"Kobavasa!"

It was as if his shout had broken Aboro's strange spell; the guards on the wall-walk yanked the guns to their shoulders, taking aim, while Voltis' men tore their horses around to face the new threat pressing down on them from behind - black-robed riders, their faces hidden behind hideous, skull-like masks that were gleaming in the pale light of dawn.

Then the guards up on the battlement opened fire.

Virdon jumped from Apache, using the horse as a living shield against the bullets. It was all he could do - he didn't have a gun, due to the apes' philosophy of keeping their humans unarmed, and Aboro's guard blocked all escape routes. Voltis' guard - as well as he and Galen - were trapped on a wide plaza, with no means to seek cover. It was like shooting fish in a barrel.

Did Voltis really expect Aboro to just roll over and show his belly?

Virdon hung on to the reins to keep his panicked horse from rearing, trying to keep out of reach of its hooves and keeping it between himself and the shooters at the same time. With Tala still tied to Apache's saddlehorn though, it was impossible. The horses took off, trampling a few of Aboro's men in the process, and vanished into an alley. Other guards closed the gap before any of Voltis' men could take advantage of it.

The acrid smell of gunpowder filled his nose as Voltis' men returned fire, and the noise was deafening after the eerie silence a moment earlier, the sharp staccato of shots interspersed with the howl of ricocheting bullets. Nobody was on horseback anymore - many guards had been killed during that first assault, while the rest of them had followed Virdon's example, and were now trying to use their mounts as makeshift cover. Still, Virdon thought wildly, jumping out of the way of a Kobavasa rider who smashed through Voltis' men like a wrecking ball, trampling them underfoot before he was shot from his horse, they had no chance. They were outnumbered and encircled, and-

Something whooshed past Virdon's head and hit the pavement with a crack. It had been bigger than a bullet, much bigger, and when it broke on the cobblestones, thick white smoke emerged from it, choking him. Virdon stumbled back, coughing. For a moment, engulfed in the smoke, he couldn't see a thing.

Cracks all around him signaled the arrival of more smoke bombs; someone was throwing them over the stockade. The whole plaza was engulfed in smoke now, hiding them from Aboro's shooters on the walkway above. Virdon stumbled through the smoke, trying to protect his lungs from the burning sensation by burying his nose and mouth in the crook of his arm, and to part the clouds by waving his other arm. Maybe he'd be able to slip through the cordon in the confusion created by the smoke screen. He hadn't intended to be caught up in Voltis' fight, and without a weapon, there was nothing he could do except to get away from the battleground as quickly as possible, before a stray - or not so stray - bullet found him. He only hoped that Galen, wherever he was in that chaos, wouldn't try any heroics just because he had Betsy at his disposal.

The gate to his right crashed open again, and Virdon dove aside before he was trampled down by the new riders pouring in - not Kobavasa, as far as Virdon could glimpse through the roiling smoke. Voltis' reinforcement, that he had kept tucked away somewhere in the underbrush.

No, Voltis hadn't been as thoughtless as Virdon had feared. But still reckless, offering himself as bait for the rogue prefect as he had done, though it probably was the only bait that would tempt Aboro to open the gate.

The numbers were more even again now, and the cordon of Aboro's men had been broken by the new arrivals; sudden chaos broke out as they mingled with both Aboro's men and their own, and the gunshots subsided - the apes had switched to hand-to-hand combat. In the still billowing smoke, nobody dared to shoot at a moving shadow, for fear of hitting one of his own.

Virdon ducked behind a fallen horse and tried to get a quick overview of the situation. The apes might not be able to tell simian friend from simian foe, but a human was still discernible even in this smoke. He clenched his fists in helpless frustration - if he had needed any more convincing that a life as Taris-the-pet wasn't for him, he had found it here, defenseless in the middle of a simian skirmish.

Right on the other side of Virdon's cover, two apes were fighting each other with knives, their snarls and grunts surprisingly loud in the silence after the gunfire. Somewhere to his left, a horse was screaming. A single shot cracked, but it hadn't been aimed to end the poor beast's agony - one of the fighting apes was jerked to the side, half across Virdon's dead horse, as the bullet whipped through his skull. Virdon hastily ducked out of the way, and felt the sting of bone shards and the hot spray of blood and brain hitting the side of his face.

The battle was moving towards him; he had to move. Virdon came into a half-crouch, ready to sprint towards the mouth of the nearest alley... and froze.

An ape loomed over him in the thinning smoke, his bloodied hand gripping a machete. Virdon recognized the face - Aboro. His helmet was gone, and he bore a nasty gash on his cheek.

Aboro's face was expressionless. He took a step forward, raised the knife, and grabbed Virdon's shirt with the other hand, ready to put him down like a dog, and Virdon couldn't do anything but stare up into that almost-human face.

We're not different at all, brother... we're all sinners...

And then Aboro's face exploded, and his fist loosened on Virdon's shirt as he slumped, and Virdon stared into Galen's face, not ten feet away from him. The chimp's eyes were huge, his mouth slightly agape; his expression reminded Virdon of the day Galen had accidentally shot one of Urko's guards to defend Zana.

But this hadn't been an accident. And he wasn't Zana... but...

Galen blinked, his momentary stupor dissolving, and lunged at him. Virdon felt his hand close around his upper arm like an iron band; the next moment, he was yanked to his feet and towards the mouth of the nearest alley.

He stumbled along, still dazed. "You shot Aboro."

Galen didn't look at him. "Yes." He sounded just as dazed as Virdon felt. "Let's find Peet and Laisa and get out of here as quickly as possible."

A commotion behind them made Virdon jump aside, dragging a surprised Galen with him. Their backs pressed flat to the wall of one of the houses, they gazed back to the plaza, where their attackers' movements suddenly changed, becoming more frantic, less focused. It took Virdon a moment to realize why: the Kobavasa were scattering, trying to escape into the side alleys as well, where they would throw off their gruesome costumes and transform into harmless citizens again: a baker, a farrier, a teacher...

Aboro's town guard, on the other hand, was not as easily spooked by the death of their leader - maybe because they knew that they couldn't escape the district chief's wrath, since their identities were known. They were fighting against Voltis' men even more ferociously now, but they were also trying to cut off the Kobavasa, preventing their escape. Suddenly, everyone was fighting everyone else.

Then Aboro's guard suddenly fell back, retreating into the side alleys, and Virdon and Galen hastily ducked behind a potted palm as they rushed by them. The guard's movements looked too ordered, too intentional for a panicked escape. Someone among them had taken command, and had ordered them to regroup. But where?

"Leave the Kobavasa be for now," someone to Virdon's right said. "Focus on the guard while I'm gone - don't let them get back to the watch house."

Voltis appeared around the corner, conspiring with his lieutenant. Both looked bruised, and Voltis was pressing a hand to his side. He didn't look as if whatever injury he had suffered would keep him from seeing this operation through, though.

"Take to the roofs, if necessary," Voltis was saying. "Cut them off at all costs."

"What if they surrender?" his lieutenant asked. He didn't look overly eager to burden himself with prisoners.

Voltis shrugged. "If they lay down their weapons, you'll arrest them; that's the law, Voran."

Voran made a face, but saluted and turned away to rally his men; Voltis wiped the blood from his face and moved on, passing Virdon and Galen without noticing them. Galen, apparently recovered from his shock of having killed the leader of this little uprising, jumped up and hurried after him. Virdon followed him after a moment's hesitation; it was no use if they got separated again in the chaos. He was still without a weapon.

"Where are you going?" Galen gasped, still a few steps behind Voltis. He moved stiffly; he wasn't used to fighting, although their new way of life had forced him to adapt somewhat, and had to be feeling sore now. Virdon could see that he had a hard time keeping up with the district chief.

Voltis didn't break his stride. "I'm going to get my son. Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm still looking for my human, as you know," Galen wheezed. The gun was dangling from his fingers as if it had become too heavy for him. "Now that the prefect is dead, maybe your wife can tell me where he is."

Voltis flicked him a glance from the corner of his eyes. "And why would you think that?"

"She lived with Aboro for over a year."

Virdon fought the urge to snatch the gun from Galen's careless hands. They could still be ambushed, both Aboro's guard and the Kobavasa were still at large in this town.

"And she is very concerned about the fate of humans living under simian rule," Galen was saying, still oblivious to the danger around him. "I'd say she's bound to know, one way or the other, what happened to a human that recently stumbled into Kobavasa territory."

Voltis made a noncommittal sound at that, but didn't try to turn them away anymore. Virdon wondered if Aelia hadn't been the reason that Voltis had hesitated to crack down on Aboro all this time. Maybe he hadn't wanted to give the impression that he was persecuting the prefect over a woman. Did the apes view a runaway wife as an embarrassment for the husband?

They turned another corner, and Voltis stopped abruptly.

The house across the street was surrounded by a wall that was at least seven feet high, and was topped with a platform that jutted outward at a sharp downward angle; it was meant to prevent an invader from climbing across as much as it enabled the defenders to hurl all kinds of deterrents at their attackers. It was the first time that Virdon saw a house this fortified inside a town.

The guards manning the battlement only heightened Virdon's impression that this was no simple town house; some of them were bloodied from the recent battle - apparently, not everyone had tried to reach the watch house. Had Aboro left orders for them in case of his death?

Voltis ignored the guards; his gaze was fixed on one ape alone, and Virdon thought that he had never seen such deep despair and hopeless love in a man's face before, be it human or simian.

Aelia was returning her husband's gaze with an unreadable expression. Her hands rested lightly on her son's shoulders, keeping him in front of her like a shield. Ennis looked nauseated and ready to bolt.

Then Ennis' eyes fell on him, and before either his mother nor his father could utter a word, he leaned forward so suddenly that he slipped from his mother's grip. "Taris! You came! You found me!"

Then his expression changed from elation to alarm. "They're hunting Dehni and Laisa, in the mountains! They're going to kill them!"

Virdon felt the blood drain from his face, his limbs; it was all rushing into his heart, making it heavy and aching, as if he had swallowed a stone. He stepped forward without meaning to, his gaze glued to the boy's agitated face.

"Where?" he asked hoarsely. "Where did they go?"

Ennis wildly waved his arm. "Out the eastern gate, I don't know where they went then..." He shook off his mother's grasping hand, and stumbled back two steps, out of her reach. He glared fiercely at her. "You..." he pointed an accusing finger at her, and turned his head to search Virdon's gaze. "She ordered it! She ordered to hunt them!"

Virdon didn't really care who had given that order. "How long ago did they leave?"

Ennis looked unsure. "Maybe half an atseht ago..."

"All at the same time?" Virdon asked urgently. Half an hour ago, roughly... though at this time of year, more like fifteen minutes, twenty... plenty of time to kill off two humans stumbling through the underbrush.

Ennis shook his head. "No, they let the humans go first..."

"Enough," his mother snapped. "It's out of our hands now. Nature will take its course, as it has for eons."

Virdon clenched his fists, but she was out of his reach, both literally and... "We'll see about that." He turned away. He'd find them, both of them, and-

"Alan!"

Virdon reacted before he realized that Galen had called him by his old name. He stood as if rooted to the ground, his back still to the apes.

But then he remembered Galen's face after he had shot Aboro - after he had saved his life. Galen had no reason to save Taris, the pet of 'Young Master Ennis'.

He had saved Alan Virdon.

He slowly turned around. Galen had followed him, and looked at him with a searching expression.

For a moment, neither of them said a word.

Then Galen held out Betsy. "I think it would be wise not to race into this situation unarmed." He made a little shoving motion when Virdon didn't immediately take the gun. Virdon slowly reached for it, still too stunned to say anything.

"And this," Galen pulled the ammunition belt over his head to hand it to him, "should also come in handy."

Virdon stared at the gun and the belt in his hands, then back at Galen. "Thank you," he said at last.

Galen nodded. "I'd also give you a horse, but I'm afraid they ran away when the shooting started. They're somewhere in town, but it would probably take too long to find them..."

"You won't catch up with them anymore," Aelia called down to them. Virdon slowly raised his gaze, but his eyes were drawn to Ennis instead.

The boy was staring down at him, his face mirroring his own shock.

He knows. Taris is gone.

I'm so sorry, Ennis...

"The hunters may be on horseback," Galen said, "but their prey isn't." He wasn't looking at Aelia, Virdon realized when he turned his gaze away from the grief-stricken boy on the battlement. Galen was talking to him. "They can't outrun a horse any more than you can - they're hiding somewhere in the vicinity. It's not too late to save them."

"Are you inciting a human to use violence against apes?" Voltis growled. "You do know what'll happen to him, don't you?"

"I know, yes," Virdon said, before Galen could answer. "But I also know what will happen to my friends if nobody intervenes. And I'm... willing to bear the consequences if that means they'll be saved."

"He won't go alone," Galen said suddenly. Virdon whipped his head around, but Galen's attention wasn't on him anymore. "But I would much appreciate it if one of your men could lend me a gun, since I only brought one for the two of us. A regrettable oversight of mine, I admit."

Voltis narrowed his eyes. "So you are inciting my human to use violence against apes. Shall I remind you of the consequences of that for the ape?"

"You don't have to do this, Galen," Virdon murmured.

Galen drew a deep breath. "A wise ape recently reminded me that a friend is never nothing," he said quietly, without taking his eyes off the district chief. "I wish she had reminded me sooner."

"Yes, I am aware of the consequences," he said to Voltis, before Virdon could react. "But I'm willing to take responsibility for my actions. Will you lend me a gun, District Chief?"

Voltis studied him for a long moment; then he turned his icy gaze to Virdon. "For this operation - and only for this operation - you have my permission to use any means necessary to protect Dr. Kova's property - and that healer, too - from the Kobavasa outlaws." With an abrupt motion, he offered Galen his gun; Galen took it with the slightest of bows.

Virdon stared at the district chief. I've just been promoted to police dog.

"If you manage to arrest some of them instead of killing them all, it would be an unexpected, but very welcome feat," Voltis added dryly. "I have some urgent questions I'd like to ask them."

Virdon bowed slightly as well. "I make no promises."

But if Laisa or Pete were dead, he'd unleash hell on their murderers.

That was a promise he was willing to make, if only to himself.


"Alan!" Doctor Kova shouted, and Ennis thought his heart would explode and break out of his chest... splatter everyone with blood and bone fragments...

... because Taris froze.

And then he slowly, slowly turned around.

For a moment, he and Doctor Kova stared at each other; then the doctor gave him his gun, and Ennis realized that Taris was about to go after Dehni and Laisa, alone, and armed...

You just told him he should go, stupid! He's just doing as he's told.

But Taris wasn't, not really. He was going after his friend, because Dehni was his friend, and he had remembered him, just as he had remembered his name, his real name, and everything else...

Taris looked up as if he'd heard him, and Ennis saw that his friend was gone, really... really gone. The eyes that were boring into his now were the eyes of another human, one that was more alert, more... Ennis couldn't put a finger on it. Different.

And he was telling him goodbye.

The heart in his chest was still aching like crazy, and though Ennis hadn't thought it possible, the pain was getting worse now. Crying would help, but he couldn't cry, not in front of all these people, not in front of his father, not over a human...

"Aelia, listen..."

When Ennis turned around to see who was speaking, he nearly fell off the walkway. The ape that had appeared out of nowhere was bleeding everywhere; one eye was swollen shut... or... or missing? Ennis took a step back, then another. He didn't want to be too close to that guard, who was reeking of blood and gunpowder.

At least Ennis thought that the smell underneath the gunpowder was blood. It was somehow... meaty, like the innards of some freshly slaughtered cow, but he couldn't see any innards hanging out. Maybe they were kept in place by the leather of the ape's uniform.

Ennis took another step back.

The guard was breaking down, clutching at his mother's arms. Aelia was gripping his arms in return, bending down to catch what he was saying. Ennis couldn't understand a word from where he was standing, but he saw his mother flinch, then freeze. Whatever was happening, it couldn't be good.

Then his mother straightened, letting the guard slip from her hands. The man crumpled on the walkway, and Ennis stared in horrified disbelief at his prone form. The guard wasn't moving, but he was still breathing - was he dying there, at his mother's feet? Ennis hastily looked around: was nobody coming to help the man?

But none of the guards moved a finger, and his mother was staring down at his father again, her face completely calm, even thoughtful. "I don't want us to yell back and forth on the street like some gutter monkeys, Voltis - no need to put on a show for the neighbours."

"So what do you suggest?" his father asked. Ennis wished he'd look at him just once, just a quick glance to acknowledge he had seen him; but his father's gaze was riveted at his mother's face, as if she was the only ape in existence.

"Let's talk about this... situation like adults, in my house," Aelia said.

"Open the gate, then, and send out your guard." His father sounded resigned, as if he didn't really believe she'd do that - surrender her men to him.

"They are Aboro's men, not mine," his mother said. "I can't order them to surrender. Why don't you tell him to order them to come out?"

"Aboro's dead," his father said tersely, and although his mother gasped, and gripped the edge of the wall with both hands, Ennis knew that it was all just for show; she had already known. The guard had told her, before he died.

"In that case," his mother said in a weak voice that was also just for show, and now Ennis was beginning to feel irritated with her, "I... I need something to convince these people to give themselves into your hand. You understand? An incentive, like... an amnesty."

His father's face hardened, but after a moment of silence, he nodded. "Any ape who comes through this gate and lays down his weapon will be granted amnesty for inciting unrest, and for resisting the district force. That includes entrenching themselves in your house, and using firearms against my guards at the town gate."

"I'll tell them," Aelia said. "Give me a few moments - I have to negotiate with them, I can't force them."

His father didn't look as if he believed her, but he didn't say anything. Aelia pushed away from the wall, and hurried towards the steps that led down from the walkway. She gripped Ennis' upper arm in passing, and dragged him down the stairs with her. At the foot of the stairs, the captain of the guard awaited her, scowling fiercely.

"You don't think he's letting us all off the hook?" he growled.

Aelia didn't stop, forcing him to join them. "He just made a public announcement," she said. "It's the best you can hope for, under the circumstances. I won't tell you what to do - it's your decision. Do take your time, though - I need two horses ready."

"You're not trusting his amnesty?"

"I wasn't included, and anyway, I don't plan to stay. Without Aboro..." Her voice broke. She really must've loved that prefect, Ennis thought. She really wouldn't have come back home. Ever.

It didn't hit him as hard as he had expected. Maybe he was still numb from losing Taris. Or maybe he had known for a long time, and just hadn't noticed that knowledge growing inside him, slowly and silently, like a tree.

"Without Aboro, there is nothing for me here," his mother continued. "So get me those horses, before Voltis starts tearing down the gate."

The ape nodded and turned away. Aelia grabbed Ennis' shoulders and leaned forward to stare into his eyes. "We'll need to hurry now, sweetie," she said, "there's no time to pack your things, I'm afraid. But it'll be alright, I'll buy you new things, don't worry..."

Ennis shook his head. "How do you want to get out of here?" he asked. "The house is surrounded, and Father's troops are already in town."

Aelia smiled and patted his cheek. "As I said, don't worry. Your old mother has some tricks up her sleeve."

Ennis stepped back, out of her reach. "I'm not coming with you. And this time, I won't let you drug me, either."

His mother straightened with a sigh. "I don't have the time to argue with you." She reached into the folds of her robe, and Ennis stumbled backwards, into the hands of a guard. The ape grabbed his arms and forced them behind his back.

Panic slammed into Ennis' gut. "You can't drug me for the rest of my life," he yelled. "I'll run away as soon as I'll wake up, you'll see! You can't force me to stay with you, I hate you, I hate you-" He thrashed in the guard's grip, but the man's hands were like iron bands around his arms.

"You're my son," Aelia said firmly. "A child belongs with his mother... and once we're in the northern badlands, it'd be a very bad idea for a young ape to run off alone. The humans there are truly savage, not to mention the other beasts that roam the wilderness." She pulled out a little flask and uncorked it. A sharp, sweet smell hit Ennis nose, a smell he recognized. It made him gag.

Aelia dribbled a bit of the liquid on her handkerchief and moved towards him. "You say you hate me now, but you'll understand that it's for the best when you're older... and then you'll understand that I gave you a better life, a life that doesn't turn you into a slave-keeper..."

"It always makes me suspicious when a virtuous life has to be bought with vice," a new voice said. It wasn't loud, but it still carried clearly across the whole yard. It made his mother jerk up in alarm, and made the guards grab for their weapons. The one still holding Ennis in his grip whirled around, dragging him along, face to face with...

... two apes, shadowy figures under the open stable gate. They stepped out into the gray light now, and Ennis recognized the lady from the shelter, the Orangutan his mother had worked for, before she had left. Zorya.

And Mila - he'd thought that he'd recognized that voice. She was looking grim, her lips pressed together as she gestured at the fabric with the ugly smelling stuff in his mother's hand. "If you have no better argument, you should think again about your claims," she said. "Are you really going to drug your son every time he disagrees with you? Do you think that's how one should raise a child?"

"How did you get in... you showed her the secret passage," his mother hissed. She was addressing Zorya now, who apologetically spread her arms.

A secret passage? Wow. Ennis was impressed against his will. This was almost like in the adventure scrolls he loved to read, the ones about Melos and his faithful human, Taris. Taris...

"It took us a while to find it in the darkness, but we thought you might not open the front door for us," Mila said dryly. "But we need to talk with you all the same."

His mother narrowed her eyes. "Who are you?"

"I'm a..." Mila flicked a glance at him. "A friend of Ennis. Vetya Zorya and I are very worried about him - and about some of your other activities, too."

"Yes, Aelia, how could you?" Zorya said in a mournful tone. "The poor things!"

"Do you know that woman?" Aelia murmured without taking her eyes off the women.

"Yes, she's Doctor Kova's wife," Ennis murmured back, and for a moment, he could've sworn that his mother held her breath, but then she shrugged, and maybe he had just imagined it.

"I really don't have the time to explain it to you, Zorya," she said. "Voltis is waiting for that gate to open, and for the guard to surrender... and I don't plan on being here when that happens. I have other plans for my life."

"And plans for the lives of the humans in your path, I'm sure," Mila said in the same dry tone as before, and now Ennis was sure that his mother stiffened.

"But you're right, this is not the time or place to talk about that," Mila continued, and gestured at him. "Today, we only ask of you not to drag your son into the mess you made of your life. He deserves a stable and normal environment..."

"A normal environment?" his mother laughed harshly. "When 'normal' is damaging to humans and apes alike? How could I wish to inflict such a life on him?"

"Instead you want to inflict the life of an outlaw on him," Mila snapped. "A life on the road, never knowing where you'll sleep, always listening for the hoofbeats of the next patrol, always living in fear... not to mention hungry. Or do you have any skills you could use to earn money while on the road? How will you feel when your son is starving, and you don't know how to feed him? What if he falls ill?"

"I have friends," his mother said, but she didn't sound so self-assured anymore.

Mila raised her brows. "In the badlands? I really doubt that. And even if you do have friends up north, a fever, a poisonous animal, or a pack of... violent humans hurting Ennis will get him in such a bad shape that I doubt you'd reach your friends quickly enough. And what will he do when these things incapacitate you instead?"

Before his mother could counter Mila's rapid-fire arguments, Zorya cut in. "How could you join with these despicable Kobavasa thugs? They are criminals, murderers..."

"I didn't join them," Aelia said impatiently. "And I told Aboro I was against his way of handling things, but this was his prefecture. I tried to save as many of them as possible, relocating them in their natural habitat, but Zorya, I really need to go now!" From the other side of the door, Ennis could hear his father calling her name.

"Fine," Mila said to Ennis' surprise. She even stepped aside a bit, clearing the exit. "I have no intention of stopping you. But Ennis needs to stay here. You cannot expose him to the dangers of your new life. Not if you really love him."

"And leaving him to people who'll turn him into a slave-keeper would be any less dangerous for him?" Aelia shouted.

"I'm talking about dangers to his life!" Now Mila raised her voice, too.

"And I'm talking about dangers to his soul!" Aelia strode over to him and put a hand on his shoulder; the guard let go of him, but stayed in grabbing range. No chance for him to run over to Zorya and Mila, Ennis realized. And even if he made it... all the guards had guns; Zorya and Mila were unarmed, as far as he could see, and anyway, there were only the two of them, but so many guards...

He had to convince her somehow to let him go with them. Convince her that his soul would be alright, even if he stayed behind. Ennis drew a deep breath.

"You told me that apes and humans can't be friends, because the human has no say when the ape decides something," he began, then hesitated. He didn't really know what he was going to say... but this was somehow important. This was the root from which everything grew, and he had to follow it upward, and outward, and find the faulty branch in his mother's argument. The one that would break if you put weight on it.

"And you think that you found a better way to treat them, a... a superior way," he continued, feeling his way upward. "You say you give them that freedom... to decide for themselves. Away from apes. But you..."

And then Ennis remembered Dehni's eyes, boring into him. Dehni, limping across the yard in the iron grip of his mother's guards, his back bleeding from their abuse.

"Dehni had no say when you decided to give him to the Kobavasa." He clenched his fists at the memory of Dehni's cries when the guard had beaten him. "You say you despise apes who own humans, because the humans are at their mercy and have no say, but you did the same with Laisa and Dehni! I bet they didn't want to be hunted!"

"I had no choice in that matter," Aelia protested. "You talk of things you don't understand!"

Ennis took a step back. It was a step that brought him closer to Zorya and Mila, but his mother didn't seem to notice. "I do understand, and you were right - apes shouldn't own humans."

His mother stiffened, surprised, but not convinced. "And of course you'd give up your pet human, too."

"Yes." He had to clench his jaw, hard, to hold back the tears, and to force his voice not to waver. "He was never mine to keep anyway. I didn't want it to be true, but... I know it now. I can't own him."

And now there was moisture in his eyes; Ennis furiously rubbed it away. "But I hate what you did here, with Dehni and Laisa, and I swear, I'll run away. I don't want to go with you, I won't stay with you, I don't want to drug humans and dump them somewhere in a Forbidden Zone where they'll die, I don't care if you think it's natural!" He glared at his mother. "I don't see humans as working animals, like father does, but I also don't think they should live somewhere far away from us, like you want them to. I want to live with humans as my friends, like she does!" He pointed at Mila.

His mother's lip curled in a nasty sneer. "Did she tell you that? Do you really think she doesn't have ownership papers for her friends?"

"Only because our society demands them," Mila said. "Without papers, our friends have no protection against apes who simply claim that they're wildlings, and thus up for grabs for any ape who wants them."

She was talking of Taris, and Ennis felt his fur bristle with embarrassment.

But Mila didn't even look at him - she was holding his mother's gaze as she continued. "I dream of the day when humans and apes will live in this society as equals, and humans won't need any papers anymore, because it's simply become unthinkable that a human can be owned by an ape; until then, I'll treat our humans as if they were already free, with all the respect that they deserve. It may not be 'natural', but it's a whole lot more dignified than what you are inflicting on them without even asking their permission!"

"I want what she wants," Ennis cut in. "And I'll never stop wanting anything else." He felt strangely calm as he said it; the pain in his chest was gone. Maybe it was because he suddenly understood that he hadn't lost Taris - Alann - to Doctor Kova; because the human didn't belong to Doctor Kova, either. He was his own master - and that meant he could still be his friend, even if he was no longer Taris.

The realization hit him unexpectedly; Ennis had to fight the smile that threatened to spread across his face.

"What that woman wants is impossible," his mother scoffed. "Our society will never accept animals as equals. As persons. The best we can do for them is to get them as far away from their ape masters as possible."

"We are the society," Ennis said stubbornly. "When we change, one by one, society changes, too."

Aelia snorted. "If only it was that easy... and I'd love to explain to you why it isn't, but our time is running out. If you don't come with me, that woman's crazy dream will hurt you, Ennis, and it'll hurt you deeply."

Ennis took another step back. Away from her. "Like your dream hurt the humans - and your guards." He gestured at the dead ape.

"I missed you so much," he continued, "I thought every day you'd come home and everything would be like it was before. Everything would be right again. That was my crazy dream. And it hurt me every day."

He began walking towards Mila and Madame Zorya. "But I know now... that it was a child's dream. And I'm not a child anymore." He looked over his shoulder at his mother, who stood where he had left her, still clutching the wet handkerchief.

"And my dreams are different from yours," he added quietly.

Maybe there were tears in his mother's eyes; he was too far away to say for sure. But her voice was firm when she spoke. "I love you, Ennis, you know that, don't you? Even while I wasn't with you, and... even when I'll be far away, I'll always love you." She turned away to mount her horse. The guards watched her silently as she rode towards the stable - towards her secret escape. For a moment, Ennis regretted not seeing it. Maybe Mila would show him - she had come in through the same passageway, after all.

Aelia stopped the horse beside him. "You stay strong, darling... my beautiful child. I'll come back to you one day, I promise."

Ennis nodded; he didn't know what to say. Aelia hesitated, then spurred on her horse. She vanished into the dark mouth of the stable gate.

Nobody said a word until the sound of hoofbeats had become muffled, then vanished.

Mila nodded at the captain. "Are you ready to face your master?"

She threw open the gate.