Ancients of Days

On Confluence -- an artificial world created by the long-vanished Preservers -- young Yama's ancestry is a mystery. And on a day near the end of the world, he must finally acknowledge his awesome and mystifying powers and discover his destiny. To the common folk he is the fulfillment of age-old prophecies. To the bureaucrats, he is a weapon to be molded and used in the bloody civil war raging at the planet's midpoint. But there are still others who have taken notice of Yama as he pursues the hidden secrets of his past. Intelligent powers as old, perhaps, as the Preservers themselves are pursuing Yama in turn. And they will stop at nothing to control his present and, as a result, the future of everything that lives.