Stephenie Meyer - The Host

Copyright 2008 by Stephenie Meyer

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Little, Brown and Company

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Visit our Web site at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

First eBook Edition: May 2008

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

The author is grateful for permission to reprint the poem Question from Nature: Poems Old and New, by May Swenson. Copyright 1994 by The Literary Estate of May Swenson. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-316-03232-2

ALSO BY STEPHENIE MEYER

Twilight

New Moon

Eclipse

To my mother, Candy,
who taught me that love is the best part of any story

QUESTION

Body my house

my horse my hound

what will I do

when you are fallen

Where will I sleep

How will I ride

What will I hunt

Where can I go

without my mount

all eager and quick

How will I know

in thicket ahead

is danger or treasure

When Body my good

bright dog is dead

How will it be

to lie in the sky

without roof or door

and wind for an eye

with cloud for a shift

how will I hide?

May Swenson

Inserted

T he Healers name was Fords Deep Waters.

Because he was a soul, by nature he was all things good: compassionate, patient, honest, virtuous, and full of love. Anxiety was an unusual emotion for Fords Deep Waters.

Irritation was even rarer. However, because Fords Deep Waters lived inside a human body, irritation was sometimes inescapable.

As the whispers of the Healing students buzzed in the far corner of the operating room, his lips pressed together into a tight line. The expression felt out of place on a mouth more often given to smiling.

Darren, his regular assistant, saw the grimace and patted his shoulder.

Theyre just curious, Fords, he said quietly.

An insertion is hardly an interesting or challenging procedure. Any soul on the street could perform it in an emergency. Theres nothing for them to learn by observing today. Fords was surprised to hear the sharp edge marring his normally soothing voice.

Theyve never seen a grown human before, Darren said.

Fords raised one eyebrow. Are they blind to each others faces? Do they not have mirrors?

You know what I meana wild human. Still soulless. One of the insurgents.

Fords looked at the girls unconscious body, laid out facedown on the operating table. Pity swelled in his heart as he remembered the condition her poor, broken body had been in when the Seekers had brought her to the Healing facility. Such pain shed endured.

Of course she was perfect nowcompletely healed. Fords had seen to that.

She looks the same as any of us, Fords murmured to Darren. We all have human faces. And when she wakes up, she will be one of us, too.

Its just exciting for them, thats all.

The soul we implant today deserves more respect than to have her host body gawked at this way. Shell already have far too much to deal with as she acclimates. Its not fair to put her through this. By this, he did not mean the gawking. Fords heard the sharp edge return to his voice.

Darren patted him again. It will be fine. The Seeker needs information and

At the word Seeker, Fords gave Darren a look that could only be described as a glare. Darren blinked in shock.

Im sorry, Fords apologized at once. I didnt mean to react so negatively. Its just that I fear for this soul.

His eyes moved to the cryotank on its stand beside the table. The light was a steady, dull red, indicating that it was occupied and in hibernation mode.

This soul was specially picked for the assignment, Darren said soothingly. She is exceptional among our kindbraver than most. Her lives speak for themselves. I think she would volunteer, if it were possible to ask her.

Who among us would not volunteer if asked to do something for the greater good? But is that really the case here? Is the greater good served by this? The question is not her willingness, but what it is right to ask any soul to bear.

The Healing students were discussing the hibernating soul as well. Fords could hear the whispers clearly; their voices were rising now, getting louder with their excitement.

Shes lived on six planets.

I heard seven.

I heard shes never lived two terms as the same host species.

Is that possible?

Shes been almost everything. A Flower, a Bear, a Spider

A See Weed, a Bat

Even a Dragon!

I dont believe itnot seven planets.

At least seven. She started on the Origin.

Really? The Origin?

Quiet, please! Fords interrupted. If you cannot observe professionally and silently, then I will have to ask you to remove yourselves.

Abashed, the six students fell silent and edged away from one another.

Lets get on with this, Darren.

Everything was prepared. The appropriate medicines were laid out beside the human girl. Her long dark hair was secured beneath a surgical cap, exposing her slender neck. Deeply sedated, she breathed slowly in and out. Her sun-browned skin had barely a mark to show for her accident.

Begin thaw sequence now, please, Darren.

The gray-haired assistant was already waiting beside the cryotank, his hand resting on the dial. He flipped the safety back and spun down on the dial. The red light atop the small gray cylinder began to pulse, flashing faster as the seconds passed, changing color.

Fords concentrated on the unconscious body; he edged the scalpel through the skin at the base of the subjects skull with small, precise movements, and then sprayed on the medication that stilled the excess flow of blood before he widened the fissure. Fords delved delicately beneath the neck muscles, careful not to injure them, exposing the pale bones at the top of the spinal column.

The soul is ready, Fords, Darren informed him.

So am I. Bring her.

Fords felt Darren at his elbow and knew without looking that his assistant would be prepared, his hand stretched out and waiting; they had worked together for many years now. Fords held the gap open.

Send her home, he whispered.

Darrens hand moved into view, the silver gleam of an awaking soul in his cupped palm.

Fords never saw an exposed soul without being struck by the beauty of it.

The soul shone in the brilliant lights of the operating room, brighter than the reflective silver instrument in his hand. Like a living ribbon, she twisted and rippled, stretching, happy to be free of the cryotank. Her thin, feathery attachments, nearly a thousand of them, billowed softly like pale silver hair. Though they were all lovely, this one seemed particularly graceful to Fords Deep Waters.

He was not alone in his reaction. He heard Darrens soft sigh, heard the admiring murmurs of the students.

Gently, Darren placed the small glistening creature inside the opening Fords had made in the humans neck. The soul slid smoothly into the offered space, weaving herself into the alien anatomy. Fords admired the skill with which she possessed her new home. Her attachments wound tightly into place around the nerve centers, some elongating and reaching deeper to where he couldnt see, under and up into the brain, the optic nerves, the ear canals. She was very quick, very firm in her movements. Soon, only one small segment of her glistening body was visible.