Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 by Gillian Andrews

underground cavern. But there were just two problems; it wasn’t the same cavern as the last time, and there was no sign of Diva.
    He looked all around, frantically searching for the Coriolan girl, but it was useless; she had disappeared. The lake had transported him to a different location. He waded towards the edge of the ortholake, wondering how Diva would take being left alone in the semi-darkness. He shook his head. There was nothing he could do right now about her. As he reached the shore, he closed his mind to the possibility that he might be trapped. Then he walked over to the side of the new cavern, and turned his attention to the walls, peering into the recesses to see if any of the amorphs were here.
    At first he could see nothing, but then his eyes became accustomed to the darkness. He moved over to the dark areas below the rocky cliff face which soared into the heights of the cavern dome. There was still nothing to be seen, and he was on the point of giving up when he caught the slightest movement to his right. He froze, not wanting to startle the small beings; not wanting to spoil all his chances of seeing these creatures who might in some way be able to sense who he was looking for. Gradually the amorphs appeared at his feet; they seemed drawn to him, clustering around until he would risk standing on one of them if he moved. He wondered what his chances were of finding the visitor or the trimorphs. If there were many of these underground caverns it could be that he had no possibility at all of finding one particular being. He looked down at the creatures at his feet, and gave a lengthy sigh. Then he squatted and picked one of them up. It lay for a moment in the palm of his hand, and then seemed to spin, and his hand burnt, forcing him to drop it.
    “So what now, genius?” he asked himself. “Think of something useful to do!”
    Hard as he tried, he couldn’t make any progress. He had managed to find an underground cavern, certainly, but last time it was the three amorphs that had found him, not the other way around, and he didn’t know enough about the habits of these small creatures to know how to get their attention. His mind kept turning to Diva, alone in the dark. Finally he slumped down to the floor. He would need to rest for a while if he were to make any attempt to scale the alarmingly vertical rock faces surrounding this particular cavern. And he could see very little light above him. It may be that this cavern was not connected to the surface; that there would be no escape for him.
    SIX WAS GLOOMILY propped up with his back to one of the soaring rock faces when the creatures found him. The first one suddenly appeared, hovering in front of him.
    “Six,” it acknowledged.
    “Visitor?” He scrambled to his feet eagerly.
    The small being modified its shape slightly, showing its discontent. “No,” it said. “The visitor is gone.”
    “Gone? How can he be gone? Arcan?”
    “I am the fusion of one of the Arcan amorphs with the black canth.”
    “So that makes you what Grace calls a trimorph.”
    The small globe considered the name, and then flashed. “I like that. Yes.”
    There was another glitter of light, and an identical being appeared beside the first.
    “Why did you leave me on my own …” it said rather crossly, before noticing the larger shape in front of it. “Oh! Hello, Six!”
    “You must be the other trimorph.”
    “We call ourselves the twins,” it told him sternly.
    “Err … How do you do? Are you quite well? Did the joining with the canths go according to plan?”
    The twin twinkled in the darkness of the cavern. “It was most satisfactory. There was a feeling of unity, of … of inevitability. It was as if this were something that should have happened many, many millions of years ago. The lost anima symbionts have come home.”
    Six looked from one to the other. “I can’t tell you apart.”
    “Of course not. That is why we call ourselves the twins.”
    “Do you