Tsu got lithely up. She looked down at him, lips drawn, eyes lidded with slumbering sorrow.
"It was your wish, sintaha Rowley. Come with us. Study and learn...."
"It could have been an accident," Rowley reported over the comm, "but I have a feeling it was staged."
"You saw the dead woman?"
"She was dead, all right. They let me see that she was dead, then they buried her—at the foot of the tree. No ceremony. Shallow grave—not over a foot and a half deep."
"Then what?"
"Then they all went back to tending the trees. Tsu seemed happy as hell about the whole thing. She hoped I had learned what I wanted, she said."
"I'm interested," Spliid broke in. "I'm coming down tonight, Cliff."
"Where are you now?"