Book excerpt: The third book in Lisanne Norman's Sholan Alliance long-running science fiction series of alien contact and interspecies conflict Carrie and Kusac—she a human telepath, he a Sholan one—have together found a love stronger than all the differences between their two races. But now they have become the center of a power struggle between their peoples, as well as of one between the various guilds and clans on the Sholan homeworld. And they have discovered, too, that their situation is not unique. Other humans and Sholans are bonding as well. With the Sholan homeworld about to bear witness to the birth of a new hybridized race with powers beyond any of the Guilds, the current unstable political climate may soon explode into something far more violent. Approached by the Telepaths, the Warriors, and the secret organization known as the Brotherhood, Kusac realizes that he and Carrie have no choice but to strike out on their own, forming a new group outside of all the Clans and Guilds, and owing loyalty only to the most ancient of their gods. For only through exploring the Sholans’ long-buried and purposefully forgotten past, can they hope to find the answers they seek—and the path to survival not only for their own new people, but for the Sholans and humans as well....