Chapter 1

Just before the Jem'Hadar booby trap killed Or-Lin, her twin sister, Em-Lin, told her to shut up or she would come down and make her shut up.

Em-Lin thought the message to her, actually, communicating via the telepathic link that the two Miradorn women shared. The thought was so filled with anger that Em-Lin would have felt guilty about sending it, given the fact that her sister died right after receiving it—if Em-Lin had not been so completely brain-fried by the experience of having her linked twin die, for all intents and purposes, in Em-Lin's head.

It was the most devastating experience of Em-Lin's life. Nothing in her thirty-two years of existence had prepared her for the moment of Or-Lin's death.

When the two of them had returned to the work site that morning, Em-Lin had not expected any trouble. She had been in a good mood, looking forward to the week's vacation that she and Or-Lin were set to begin the next day. As much as Em-Lin loved her work, restoring the ancient shrine of Ho'nig in the caves of Mirada's moon, Zasharu, she was ready for some relaxation back home on Mirada.

Soon, though, she and Or-Lin were going at it. Though they, like all Miradorn twins, considered themselves two halves of the same self, those halves were sometimes at war with each other.

I'm marrying Sil-Vo, Or-Lin had said in Em-Lin's mind from the opposite end of the huge shrine. When we go home for vacation, I'm staying there with him.

Em-Lin was lying on her back atop a scaffolding four stories above the stone floor, cleaning a mural on the vaulted ceiling. After receiving Or-Lin's thoughts, Em-Lin dropped the tool she was working with, and it clattered down the scaffolding on the long trip to the floor.

What? Em-Lin's thoughts were in a whirl. Miradorn twins almost never separated from each other; if Or-Lin planned to stay on Mirada, she planned for Em-Lin to stay there, too. You can't be serious.

Sil-Vo's twin, Qua-Vo, will accept you as his wife, said Or-Lin, this latest thought rippling with hopefulness.

I can't believe this, thought Em-Lin. And she truly couldn't. Miradorn twins—in other words, ninety-eight percent of all Miradorn—shared everything. At that very moment, for example, even as Em-Lin stared up at the ceiling mural that she had been cleaning, she saw Or-Lin's work in her mind's eye, watching as Or-Lin polished the bas-relief gold floor plates near the entrance to the shrine.

It was rare for one twin to manage to hide something from the other—not impossible, but rare. Apparently, Or-Lin had done just that, concealing her intentions toward Sil-Vo and masking certain events, like Sil-Vo's proposal of marriage, from Em-Lin's attention.

How did you keep this from me? thought Em-Lin. She felt betrayed, offended, confused—and dizzy, which was not a good thing to feel on top of a scaffolding four stories above a stone floor.

Or-Lin let out the telepathic equivalent of a deep sigh. I didn't want you to know until it was definite.

Definite? Em-Lin felt her hurt (and dizziness) dissolving into raw, churning rage. Since when is this definite?

In her mind's eye, Em-Lin saw Or-Lin's reflection in the gold floor plate that she was polishing. Her bright white hair swept back from a sharp peak on her forehead, flowing down over her shoulders all the way to her waist. Her face had a roughly triangular shape, with a broad forehead tapering down to a small, rounded chin. Her eyes had softly glowing white irises set against black sclera, the result of a rare genetic condition that the Miradorn people had nicknamed "star eyes."

In other words, she was the spitting image of her twin, Em-Lin.

I love Sil-Vo, said Or-Lin, looking her reflection in the eyes as a way of defiantly meeting her sister's gaze. Come or don't come. It's all the same to me.

Again, Em-Lin was stunned. She pulled her mind back a little from Or-Lin's, hoping that she had misunderstood.

Copyright © 2006 by Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.