Note: Portions of this work previously appeared in Galaxy under the title Deathsong. (source: copyright page from the Putnam 0-399-11947-7 edition of Cloudcry.)

Synopsis: From the flaps of the Berkley first edition: "Verrons, the interstellar explorer, is infected with the dread "bloodblosom" disease, and exiled to a quarantine planet. But Verrons is not the kind of man to stay quietly in a depressing little colony of dying men and other humanoids. Together with Wells, a human from the ice-planet Talberon, and Tiehl, a bird-man alien, he strikes out across the surveyed-but-unexplored wilderness of the planet. All of them are cynical about the prospects of a cure and determine to live or die on their own. They discover a decadent tribe of alien humanoids and, further on, the ruins of a marvelous, once-great city, where they must escape the possessive spirits of the now-dead ancients, which take hold of them through the medium of musical, flutelike instruments. Tiehl in the meantime reverts to the primitive instincts of his winged ancestors and claims the highest tower in the city as his perch. Aleida, one of the primitive survivors of the great race, has followed the party to the city and there learns of her heritage. She has within herself the potential to wield enormous mental powers and energies that will allow her to control solar waves by an act of will. Aleida learns the secret location of the power crystals that she must have to allow her to focus her natural powers, but Verrons, Wells and Tiehl learn too. There follows a race across the wilderness to the source of the crystals and a deadly struggle for the ultimate power the crystals represent."