Child of the River

Confluence: A vast, ancient, artificial world orbiting a star beyond the edge of the galaxy. Confluence: Home to thousands of alien races, shaped and raised to intelligence by the Preservers, godlike descendants of humanity who long ago disappeared into a vast black hole. Confluence: Abandoned by its creators, a stagnant civilization now threatened by the appearance of a small band of humans, returning survivors of a millions-years-old expedition to a neighboring galaxy. It is into this oddly beautiful and violent world that Yama is born. As an infant he is found clutched in a dead woman's arms floating on the Great River. As Yama grows to manhood, raised in obscurity by adoptive parents, he discovers that he possesses strange -- and dangerous -- powers, powers that make him the target of those less than scrupulous who would use Yama to influence the destiny of their world. It falls to Yama to unravel the riddle of his birth before he can understand whether he is to be the savior of Confluence -- or its nemesis.