cudyk opened the door.

a few aliens were sitting at the round tables in the big outer room. cudyk watched harkway's face, and saw his eyes widen with shock. the niori were something to see, the first time.

they were tall and erect, and their anatomy was not even remotely like man's. they had six limbs each, two for walking, four for manipulation. their bodies were covered by a pale, horny integument which grew in irregular sections, so that you could tell the age of a niori by the width of the growth-areas between the plates of his armor. but you saw none of those things at first. you saw the two glowing violet eyes, set wide apart in a helmet-shaped head, and the startlingly beautiful markings on the smooth shell of the face—blue on pale cream, like an ancient porcelain tile. and you saw the crest—a curved, lucent shape that even in a lighted room glowed with its own frost-blue. no niori ever walked in darkness.