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army. His forces do battle against Third Earth Warriors of the Blood, the latter working hard to protect those not yet under Chustaffus’s thumb.
    “Tens of thousands of slaves serve his whims alone in Chicago Three where he’s headquartered. He has sons who also work on his behalf. And it was his daughter, Yolanthe, who took Duncan into a trance and kept him there through a Third Earth mind-link, of which few are capable of creating. I’ve always believed Yolanthe was underestimated. She is Chustaffus’s daughter, after all.
    “But knowing now that Rachel is Duncan’s shield leads me to believe that Duncan possesses an ability, maybe yet undiscovered, that Yolanthe is after.” He shifted to meet Duncan’s gaze. “Would you say that’s accurate based on the time you spent with her?”
    Santiago called out in his Latin accent. “What do you mean, time spent with the woman? I thought you were in the hospital?”
    “I was physically in the hospital, but Yolanthe kept my attention fixed on her through the use of a Third Earth voyeur window.”
    “Shit.” Endelle drew the word out as though it had three syllables.
    Duncan addressed Merl, “Maybe you can explain how the window worked.”
    All eyes once again shifted to Merl, but he shrugged. “I have no idea. I don’t have that ability and I don’t know anyone who does. But again it’s one helluva an indication how much power Yolanthe has and why, if she wants Rachel dead, she’s going to keep sending wreckers to chase her down.”
    When more questions came up, Duncan, Merl and Endelle took pains to answer each one, fleshing out as many details as each could.
    When there were no more questions, Endelle said, “So there’s something else I need to tell you.”
    Once again, the room fell silent and every pair of warriors’ eyes shot to Endelle.
    She sighed heavily, then said, “I had a vision.”
    ~ ~ ~
    Rachel worked hard to process everything that she’d just heard, especially the horrifying details of Endelle’s vision. She’d never heard of the Supreme High Administrator of Second Earth even having visions. Although, she’d also mentioned that receiving the vision had felt as though it had been pressed on her in a way that didn’t sound very Seer-like.
    That the vision had included Duncan in a significant way was one more indication that he would play a prominent role in the coming days, weeks, maybe even months.
    And she was his shield.
    Great.
    As the meeting broke up, the warriors gathered in smaller knots to discuss things like strategy and hurrying up the production of wrecker sawed-off shotguns and accompanying ammo. All engaged in the discussion except Luken, who went to check on the steaks he had grilling. He’d folded more than once during the meeting to do just that.
    With Duncan engaged in deep conversation with Santiago, who created all kinds of weapons as a hobby, as well as Zacharius, Rachel pulled away from the gathered warriors and moved slowly into the entry way. The front door was open to allow bees to pollinate the flowers that bloomed all over the living sculpture on the central table. The fresh air felt good.
    There was so much beauty in all the dimensions of earth and though she’d only been gone from the Seattle colony for a few hours, she already missed her garden.
    But thoughts of the colony brought the memory flooding back of seeing seven extremely powerful warriors, built just like Duncan and the others, firing at her. And the blast must have done some damage to her backyard.
    She felt horribly confused. She had only one real goal, to return to her home. Beyond that, she didn’t want to be part of the war, not even to serve as some kind of Third shield for the man of the hour.
    Merl drew close. “It’s a magnificent sculpture.”
    “Yes, by one of our award-winning horticultural artists. I think she’s called Tazianne.”
    After a moment, he asked quietly, “Are you okay? This has been a lot to take in.”
    Was she