would rather _not_ kill. So I want to find out why I committed murder
on Earth."

The mutants looked at each other. Then the old man grinned and said,
"Citizen, we'll help you all we can. We mutants also have a prejudice
against killing, since it's always someone else killing us. We're all in
favor of citizens with a neurosis against murder."

"Then you'll skren my past?"

"It's not as easy as that," the young woman said. "The skrenning
ability, which is one of a cluster of psi talents, is difficult to use.
It doesn't always function. And when it does function, it often doesn't
reveal what it's supposed to."

"I thought all mutants could look into the past whenever they wanted
to," Barrent said.

"No," the old man told him, "that isn't true. For one thing, not all of
us who are classified mutants are true mutants. Almost any deformity or
abnormality these days is called mutantism. It's a handy term to cover
anyone who doesn't conform to the Terran standard of appearance."

"But some of you are true mutants?"

"Certainly. But even then, there are different types of mutantism. Some
just show radiation abnormalities--giantism, microcephaly, and the like.
Only a few of us possess the slightest psi abilities--although all
mutants claim them."

"Are you able to skren?" Barrent asked him.

"No. But Myla can," he said, pointing to the young woman. "Sometimes she
can."

The young woman was staring into the pan of water, into the faceted
glass. Her pale eyes were open very wide, showing almost all pupil, and
her fish-tailed body was rigidly upright, supported by the old woman.

"She's beginning to see something," the man said. "The water and the
glass are just devices to focus her attention. Myla's good at skrenning,
though sometimes she gets the future confused with the past. That sort
of thing is embarrassing, and it gives skrenning a bad name. It can't be
helped, though. Every once in a while the future is there in the water,
and Myla has to tell what she sees. Last week she told a Hadji he was
going to die in four days." The old man chuckled. "You should have seen
the expression on his face."

"Did she see how he would die?" Barrent asked.

"Yes. By a knife-thrust. The poor man stayed in his house for the entire
four days."

"Was he killed?"

"Of course. His wife killed him. She was a strong-minded woman, I'm
told."

Barrent hoped that Myla wouldn't skren any future for him. Life was
difficult enough wit