leguin, ursula k - ekumen 03 - city of illusion

7/25/2019 LeGuin, Ursula K - Ekumen 03 - City of Illusion

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The Ekumen 03

Ursula K. Le Guin – City of Illusion

Introduction:

He was a fully grown man, alone in a dense forest, with no trail to show where he had come from and no memory to

tell who—or what he was.

His eyes were not human eyes.

The forest people took him in and raised him almost as a child, teaching him to speak, training him in forest lore,

giving him all the knowledge they had. But they could not solve the riddle of his past, and at last he had to set out on a

quest to Es Toch, the City of the hing, the !iars of Earth, the Enemy of "ankind.

There he would find out the truth a#out himself$and a universe of danger.

%

%"&'%(E )&*+(E.

%n the darkness that faces outward from the sun a mute spirit woke. holly involved in chaos, he knew no pattern. He

had no language, and did not know the darkness to #e night.

&s unremem#ered light #rightened a#out him he moved, crawling, running sometimes on all fours, sometimes pulling

himself erect, #ut not going anywhere. He had no way through the world in which he was, for a way implies a #eginning

and an end. &ll things a#out him were tangled, all things resisted him. The confusion of his #eing was impelled to

movement #y forces for which he knew no name- terror, hunger, thirst, pain. Through the dark forest of things he

#lundered in silence till the night stopped him, a greater force. But when the light #egan again he groped on. hen he

#roke out into the sudden #road sunlight of the Clearing he rose upright and stood a moment. Then he put his hands over

his eyes and cried out aloud.eaving at her loom in the sunlit garden, arth saw him at the forest/s edge. he called to the others with a quick #eat

of her mind. But she feared nothing, and #y the time the others came out of the house she had gone across the Clearing to

the uncouth figure that crouched among the high, ripe grasses. &s they approached they saw her put her hand on his

shoulder and #end down to him, speaking softly.

he turned to them with a wondering look, saying, 0)o you see his eyes$10

They were strange eyes, surely. The pupil was large2 the iris, of a grayed am#er color, was oval lengthwise so that the

white of the eye did not show at all. 0!ike a cat,0 said 'arra. 0!ike an egg all yolk,0 said +ai, voicing the slight distaste of

uneasiness roused #y that small, essential difference. 3therwise the stranger seemed only a man, under the mud and

scratches and filth he had got over his face and naked #ody in his aimless struggle through the forest2 at most he was a

little paler4skinned than the #rown people who now surrounded him, discussing him quietly as he crouched in the sunlight,

cowering and shaking with e5haustion and fear.

Though arth looked straight into his strange eyes no spark of human recognition met her there. He was deaf to their

speech, and did not understand their gestures.

0"indless or out of his mind,0 said 6ove. 0But also starving2 we can remedy that.0 &t this +ai and young Thurro half

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led half dragged the sham#ling fellow into the house. There they and arth and Buckeye managed to feed and clean him,

and got him onto a pallet, with a shot of sleep4dope in his veins to keep him there.

0%s he a hing10 arth asked her father.

0&re you1 &m %1 )on/t #e naive, my dear,0 6ove answered. 0%f % could answer that question % could set Earth free.

However, % hope to find out if he/s mad or sane or im#ecile, and where he came from, and how he came #y those yellow

eyes. Have men taken to #reeding with cats and falcons in humanity/s degenerate old age1 &sk +retyan to come up to the

sleeping4porches, daughter.0

arth followed her #lind cousin +retyan up the stairs to the shady, #ree8y #alcony where the stranger slept. 6ove and

his sister +arell, called Buckeye, were waiting there. Both sat cross4legged and straight4#acked, Buckeye playing with her

patterning frame, 6ove doing nothing at all- a #rother and sister getting on in years, their #road, #rown faces alert and very

tranquil. The girls sat down near them without #reaking the easy silence. arth was a reddish4#rown color with a flood of

long, #right, #lack hair. he wore nothing #ut a pair of loose silvery #reeches. +retyan, a little older, was dark and frail2 a

red #and covered her empty eyes and held her thick hair #ack. !ike her mother she wore a tunic of delicately woven

figured cloth. %t was hot. "idsummer afternoon #urned on the gardens #elow the #alcony and out on the rolling fields of

the Clearing. 3n every side, so close to this wing of the house as to shadow it with #ranches full of leaves and wings, so

far in other directions as to #e #lued and ha8ed #y distance, the forest surrounded them.

The four people sat still for quite a while, together and separate, unspeaking #ut linked. 0The am#er #ead keeps

slithering off into the 9astness pattern,0 Buckeye said with a smile, setting down her frame with its :ewel4strung, crossing

wires.

0&ll your #eads end up in 9astness,0 her #rother said. 0&n effect of your suppressed mysticism. ;ou/ll end up like our

mother, see if you don/t, a#le to see the patterns on an empty frame.00uppressed fiddlediddle,0 Buckeye remarked. 0% never suppressed anything in my life.0

0+retyan,0 said 6ove, 0the man/s eyelids move. He may #e in a dreaming cycle.0

The #lind girl moved closer to the pallet. he reached out her hand, and 6ove guided it gently to the stranger/s

forehead. They were all silent again. &ll listened. But only +retyan could hear.

he lifted her #owed, #lind head at last.

0(othing,0 she said, her voice a little strained.

0(othing10

0& :um#le—a void. He has no mind.0

0+retyan, let me tell you how he looks. His feet have walked, his hands have worked. leep and the drug rela5 his

face, #ut only a thinking mind could use and wear a face into these lines.0

0How did he look when he was awake100&fraid,0 said arth. 0&fraid, #ewildered.0

0He may #e an alien,0 6ove said, 0not a Terran man, though how that could #e—But he may think differently than we.

Try once more, while he still dreams.0

0%/ll try, uncle. But % have no sense of any mind, of any true emotion or direction. & #a#y/s mind is frightening #ut this

$ is worse—darkness and a kind of empty :um#le—0

0ell, then keep out,0 6ove said easily. 0(o4mind is an evil place for mind to stay.0

0His darkness is worse than mine,0 said the girl. 0This is a ring, on his hand$0 he had laid her hand a moment on the

man/s, in pity or as if asking his unconscious pardon for her eavesdropping on his dreams.

0;es, a gold ring without marking or design. %t was all he wore on his #ody. &nd his mind stripped naked as his flesh.

o the poor #rute comes to us out of the forest—sent #y whom10

&ll the family of 6ove/s House e5cept the little children gathered that night in the great hall downstairs, where highwindows stood open to the moist night air. tarlight and the presence of trees and the sound of the #rook all entered into

the dimly lit room, so that #etween each person and the ne5t, and #etween the words they said, there was a certain space

for shadows, night4wind, and silence.

0Truth, as ever, avoids the tranger,0 the "aster of the House said to them in his deep voice. 0This stranger #rings us a

choice of several unlikelihoods. He may #e an idiot #orn, who #lundered here #y chance2 #ut then, who lost him1 He may

#e a man whose #rain has #een damaged #y accident, or tampered with #y intent. 3r he may #e a hing masking his mind

#ehind a seeming amentia. 3r he may #e neither man nor hing2 #ut then, what is he1 There/s no proof or disproof for any

of these notions. hat shall we do with him10

0ee if he can #e taught,0 said 6ove/s wife *ossa.

The "aster/s eldest son "etock spoke- 0%f he can #e taught, then he is to #e distrusted. He may have #een sent here to

#e taught, to learn our ways, insights, secrets. The cat #rought up #y the kindly mice.0

0% am not a kindly mouse, my son,0 the "aster said. 0Then you think him a hing10

03r their tool.0

0e/re all tools of the hing. hat would you do with him10

<



0+ill him #efore he wakes.0

The wind #lew faintly, a whippoorwill called out in the humid, starlit Clearing.

0% wonder,0 said the 3ldest oman, 0if he might #e a victim, not a tool. erhaps the hing destroyed his mind as

punishment for something he did or thought. hould we then finish their punishment10

0%t would #e truer mercy,0 "etock said.

0)eath is a false mercy,0 the 3ldest oman said #itterly.

o they discussed the matter #ack and forth for some while, equa#ly #ut with a gravity that included #oth moral

concern and a heavier, more an5ious care, never stated #ut only hinted at whenever one of them spoke the word hing.

arth took no part in the discussion, #eing only fifteen, #ut she listened intently. he was #ound #y sympathy to the

stranger and wanted him to live.

*ayna and +retyan :oined the group2 *ayna had #een running what physiological tests she could on the stranger, with

+retyan standing #y to catch any mental response. They had little to report as yet, other than that the stranger/s nervous

system and the sense areas and #asic motor capacity of his #rain seemed normal, though his physical responses and motor

skill compared with those of a year4old child, perhaps, and no stimulus of localities in the speech area had got any

response at all. 0& man/s strength, a #a#y/s coordination, an empty mind,0 *anya said.

0%f we don/t kill him like a wild #east,0 said Buckeye, 0then we shall have to tame him like a wild #east$0

+retyan/s #rother +ai spoke up. 0%t seems worth trying. !et some of us younger ones have charge of him2 we/ll see

what we can do. e don/t have to teach him the %nner Canons right away, after all. &t least teaching him not to wet the #ed

comes first$ % want to know if he/s human. )o you think he is, "aster10

6ove spread out his #ig hands. 0ho knows1 *ayna/s #lood4tests may tell us. % never heard that any hing had yellow

eyes, or any visi#le differences from Terran men. But if he is neither hing nor human, what is he1 (o #eing from the3ther orlds that once were known has walked on Earth for twelve hundred years. !ike you, +ai, % think % would risk his

presence here among us out of pure curiosity$0

o they let their guest live.

&t first he was little trou#le to the young people who looked after him. He regained strength slowly, sleeping much,

sitting or lying quietly most of the time he was awake. arth named him =alk, which in the dialect of the Eastern =orest

meant 0yellow,0 for his sallow skin and opal eyes.

3ne morning several days after his arrival, coming to an unpatterned stretch in the cloth she was weaving, she left her

sunpowered loom to purr away #y itself down in the garden and clim#ed up to the screened #alcony where 0=alk0 was

kept. He did not see her enter. He was sitting on his pallet ga8ing intently up at the ha8e4dimmed summer sky. The glare

made his eyes water and he ru##ed them vigorously with his hand, then seeing his hand stared at it, the #ack and the palm.

He clenched and e5tended the fingers, frowning. Then he raised his face again to the white glare of the sun and slowly,tentative, reached his open hand up towards it.

0That/s the sun, =alk,0 arth said. 0un—0

0un,0 he repeated, ga8ing at it, centered on it, the void and vacancy of his #eing filled with the light of the sun and the

sound of its name.

o his education #egan.

arth came up from the cellars and passing through the 3ld +itchen saw =alk hunched up in one of the window4#ays,

alone, watching the snow fall outside the grimy glass. %t was a tennight now since he had struck *ossa and they had to

lock him up till he calmed down. Ever since then he had #een dour and would not speak. %t was strange to see his man/s

face dulled and #lunted #y a child/s sulky o#stinate suffering. 0Come on in #y the fire, =alk,0 arth said, #ut did not stop to

wait for him. %n the great hall #y the fire she did wait a little, then gave him up and looked for something to raise her own

low spirits. There was nothing to do2 the snow fell, all the faces were too familiar, all the #ooks told of things long ago andfar away that were no longer true. &ll around the silent House and its fields lay the silent forest, endless, monotonous,

indifferent2 winter after winter, and she would never leave this House, for where was there to go, what was there to do1 $

3n one of the empty ta#les *anya had left her tean#, a nat, keyed instrument, said to #e of Hainish origin. arth picked

out a tune in the melancholic tepped "ode of the Eastern =orest, then retuned the instrument to its native scale and #egan

anew. he had no skill with the tean# and found the notes slowly, singing the words, spinning them out to keep the melody

going as she sought the ne5t note.

Beyond the sound of wind in trees

#eyond the storm4enshadowed seas,

on stairs of sunlit stone the fair

daughters of &irek stands$

he lost the tune, then found it again-

$ stands,

silent, with empty hands.

& legend who knew how old, from a world incredi#ly remote, its words and tune had #een part of man/s heritage for

>



centuries. arth sang on very softly, alone in the great firelit room, snow and twilight darkening the windows.

There was a sound #ehind her and she turned to see =alk standing there. There were tears in his strange eyes. He said,

0arth—stop—0

0=alk, what/s wrong10

0%t hurts me,0 he said, turning away his face that so clearly revealed the incoherent and defenseless mind.

0hat a compliment to my singing,0 she teased him, #ut she was moved, and sang no more. !ater that night she saw

=alk stand #y the ta#le on which the tean# lay. He raised his hand to it #ut dared not touch it, as if fearing to release the

sweet relentless demon within it that had cried out under erth/s hands and changed her voice to music.

0"y child learns faster than yours,0 arth said to her cousin 'arra, 0#ut yours grows faster. =ortunately.0

0;ours is quite #ig enough,0 'arra agreed, looking down across the kitchen4garden to the #rookside where =alk stood

with 'arra/s year4old #a#y on his shoulder. The early summer afternoon sang with the shrilling of crickets and gnats.

arth/s hair clung in #lack locks to her cheeks as she tripped and reset and tripped the catches of her loom. &#ove her

patterning shuttle rose the heads and necks of a row of dancing herons, silver thread on gray. &t seventeen she was the #est

weaver among the women. %n winter her hands were always stained with the chemicals of which her threads and yarns

were made and the dyes that colored them, and all summer she wove at her sunpowered loom the delicate and various stuff

of her imagination.

0!ittle spider,0 said her mother near#y, 0a :oke is a :oke. But a man is a man.0

0&nd you want me to go along with "etock to +athol/s house and trade my heron4tapestry for a hus#and. % know,0 said

arth.

0% never said it—did %10 inquired her mother, and went weeding on away #etween the lettuce4rows.

=alk came up the path, the #a#y on his shoulder squinting in the glare and smiling #enignly. He put her down on thegrass and said, as if to a grown person, 0%t/s hotter up here, isn/t it10 Then turning to arth with the grave candor that was

characteristic of him he asked, 0%s there an end to the =orest, arth10

0o they say. The maps are all different. But that way lies the sea at last—and that way the prairie.0

0rairie10

03pen lands, grasslands. !ike the Clearing #ut going on for a thousand miles to the mountains.0

0The mountains10 he asked, innocently relentless as any child.

0High hills, with snow on their tops all year. !ike this.0 ausing to reset her shuttle, arth put her long, round, #rown

fingers together in the shape of a peak.

=alk/s yellow eyes lit up suddenly, and his face #ecame intense. 0Below the white is #lue, and #elow that the—the lines

—the hills far away—0

arth looked at him, saying nothing. & great part of all he knew had come straight from her, for she had always #eenthe one who could teach him. The remaking of his life had #een an effect and a part of the growth of her own. Their minds

were very closely interwoven.

0% see it—have seen it. % remem#er it,0 the man stammered.

0& pro:ection, =alk10

0(o. (ot from a #ook. %n my mind. % do remem#er it. ometimes going to sleep % see it. % didn/t know its name- the

"ountain.0

0Can you draw it10

+neeling #eside her he sketched quickly in the dust the outline of an irregular cone, and #eneath it two lines of

foothills. 'arra craned to see the sketch, asking, 0&nd it/s white with snow10

0;es. %t/s as if % see it through something—a #ig window, #ig and high up$ %s it from your mind, arth10 he asked a

little an5iously.0(o,0 the girl said. 0(one of us in the House have ever seen high mountains. % think there are none this side of the

%nland *iver. %t must #e far from here, very far.0 he spoke like one on whom a chill had fallen.

Through the edge of dreams a sawtooth sound cut, a faint :agged droning, eerie. =alk roused and sat up #eside arth2

#oth ga8ed with strained, sleepy eyes northward where the remote sound thro##ed and faded and first light paled the sky

a#ove the darkness of the trees. 0&n aircar,0 arth whispered. 0% heard one once #efore, long ago$ 0 he shivered. =alk

put his arm around her shoulders, gripped #y the same unease, the sense of a remote, uncomprehended, evil presence

passing off there in the north through the edge of daylight.

The sound died away2 in the vast silence of the =orest a few #irds piped up for the sparse dawn4chorus of autumn.

!ight in the east #rightened. =alk and arth lay #ack down in the warmth and the infinite comfort of each other/s arms2

only half wakened, =alk slipped #ack into sleep. hen she kissed him and slipped away to go a#out the day/s work he

murmured, 0)on/t go yet$ little hawk, little one$0 But she laughed and slipped away, and he drowsed on a while, una#le

as yet to come up out of the sweet la8y depths of pleasure and of peace.

The sun shone #right and level in his eyes. He turned over, then sat up yawning and stared into the deep, red4leaved

#ranches of the oak that towered up #eside the sleeping4porch. He #ecame aware that in leaving arth had turned on the

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sleepteacher #eside his pillow2 it was muttering softly away, reviewing Cetian num#er theory. That made him laugh, and

the cold of the #right (ovem#er morning woke him fully. He pulled on his shirt and #reeches—heavy, soft, dark cloth of

arth/s weaving, cut and fitted for him #y Buckeye—and stood at the wooden rail of the porch looking across the Clearing

to the #rown and red and gold of the endless trees.

=resh, still, sweet, the morning was as it had #een when the first people on this land had waked in their frail, pointed

houses and stepped outside to see the sun rise free of the dark forest. "ornings are all one, and autumn always autumn, #ut

the years men count are many. There had #een a first race on this land$ and a second, the conquerors2 #oth were lost,

conquered and conquerors, millions of lives, all drawn together to a vague point on the hori8on of past time. The stars had

#een gained, and lost again. till the years went on, so many years that the =orest of archaic times, destroyed utterly

during the era when men had made and kept their history, had grown up again. Even in the o#scure vast history of a planet

the time it takes to make a forest counts. %t takes a while. &nd not every planet can do it2 it is no common effect, that

tangling of the sun/s first cool light in the shadow and comple5ity of innumera#le wind4stirred #ranches$

=alk stood re:oicing in it, perhaps the more intensely #ecause for him #ehind this morning there were so few other

mornings, so short a stretch of remem#ered days #etween him and the dark. He listened to the remarks made #y a

chickadee in the oak, then stretched, scratched his head vigorously, and went off to :oin the work and company of the

house.

6ove/s House was a ram#ling, towering, intermitted chalet4castle4farmhouse of stone and tim#er2 some parts of it had

stood a century or so, some longer. There was a primitiveness to its aspect- dark staircases, stone hearths and cellars, #are

floors of tile or wood. But nothing in it was unfinished2 it was perfectly fireproof and weatherproof2 and certain elements

of its fa#ric and function were highly sophisticated devices or machines—the pleasant, yellowish fusion4lights, the

li#raries of music, words and images, various automatic tools or devices used in house4cleaning, cooking, washing, andfarmwork, and some su#tler and more speciali8ed instruments kept in workrooms in the East ing. &ll these things were

part of the House, #uilt into it or along with it, made in it or in another of the =orest Houses. The machinery was heavy

and simple, easy to repair2 only the knowledge #ehind its power4source was delicate and irreplacea#le.

3ne type of technological device was nota#ly lacking. The li#rary evinced a skill with electronics that had #ecome

practically instinctive2 the #oys liked to #uild little tellies to signal one another with from room to room. But there was no

television, telephone, radio, telegraph transmitting or receiving #eyond the Clearing. There were no instruments of

communication over distance. There were a couple of homemade air4cushion sliders in the East ing, #ut again they

featured mainly in the #oys/ games. They were hard to handle in the woods, on wilderness trails. hen people went to

visit and trade at another House they went afoot, perhaps on horse#ack if the way was very long.

The work of the House and farm was light, no hard #urden to anyone. Comfort did not rise a#ove warmth and

cleanliness, and the food was sound #ut monotonous. !ife in the House had the dra# levelness of communal e5istence, aclean, serene frugality. erenity and monotony rose from isolation. =orty4four people lived here together. +athol/s House,

the nearest, was nearly thirty miles to the south. &round the Clearing mile after mile uncleared, une5plored, indifferent,

the forest went on. The wild forest, and over it the sky. There was no shutting out the inhuman here, no narrowing man/s

life, as in the cities of earlier ages, to within man/s scope. To keep anything at all of a comple5 civili8ation intact here

among so few was a singular and very perilous achievement, though to most of them it seemed quite natural- it was the

way one did2 no other way was known. =alk saw it a little differently than did the children of the House, for he must

always #e aware that he had come out of that immense unhuman wilderness, as sinister and solitary as any wild #east that

roamed it, and that all he had learned in 6ove/s House was like a single candle #urning in a great field of darkness.

&t #reakfast—#read, goat/s4milk cheese and #rown ale—"etock asked him to come with him to the deer4#linds for the

day. That pleased =alk. The Elder Brother was a very skillful hunter, and he was #ecoming one himself2 it gave him and

"etock, at last, a common ground. But the "aster intervened- 0Take +ai today, my son. % want to talk with =alk.0Each person of the household had his own room for a study or workroom and to sleep in in free8ing weather2 6ove/s

was small, high, and light, with windows west and north and east. !ooking across the stu##le and fallow of the autumnal

fields to the forest the "aster said, 0arth first saw you there, near that copper #eech, % think. =ive and a half years ago. &

long time@ %s it time we talked10

0erhaps it is, "aster,0 =alk said, diffident.

0%t/s hard to tell, #ut % guessed you to #e a#out twenty4five when you first came. hat have you now of those twenty4

five years10

=alk held out his left hand a moment- 0& ring,0 he said.

0&nd the memory of a mountain10

0The memory of a memory.0 =alk shrugged. 0&nd often, as %/ve told you, % find for a moment in my mind the sound of

a voice, or the sense of a motion, a gesture, a distance. These don/t fit into my memories of my lif e here with you. But

they make no whole, they have no meaning.0

6ove sat down in the windowseat and nodded for =alk to do the same. 0;ou had no growing to do2 your gross motor

skills were unimpaired. But even given that #asis, you have learned with ama8ing quickness. %/ve wondered if the hing, in

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controlling human genetics in the old days and weeding out so many as colonists, were selecting us for docility and

stupidity, and if you spring from some mutant race that somehow escaped control. hatever you were, you were a highly

intelligent man$ &nd now you are one again. &nd % should like to know what you yourself think a#out your mysterious

past.0

=alk was silent a minute. He was a short, spare, well4made man2 his very lively and e5pressive face :ust now looked

rather som#er or apprehensive, reflecting his feelings as candidly as a child/s face. &t last, visi#ly summoning up his

resolution, he said, 0hile % was studying with *anya this past summer, she showed me how % differ from the human

genetic norm. %t/s only a twist or two of a heli5$ a very small difference. !ike the difference #etween wei and o.0 6ove

looked up with a smile at the reference to the Canon which fascinated =alk, #ut the younger man was not smiling.

0However, % am unmistaka#ly not human. o % may #e a freak2 or a mutant, accidental or intentionally produced2 or an

alien. % suppose most likely % am an unsuccessful genetic e5periment, discarded #y the e5perimenters$ There/s no telling.

%/d prefer to think %/m an alien, from some other world. %t would mean that at least %/m not the only creature of my kind in

the universe.0

0hat makes you sure there are other populated worlds10

=alk looked up, startled, going at once with a child/s credulity #ut a man/s logic to the conclusion- 0%s there reason to

think the other orlds of the !eague were destroyed10

0%s there reason to think they ever e5isted10

0o you taught me yourself, and the #ooks, the histories—0

0;ou #elieve them1 ;ou #elieve all we tell you10

0hat else can % #elieve10 He flushed red. 0hy would you lie to me10

0e might lie to you day and night a#out everything, for either of two good reasons. Because we are hing. 3r #ecause we think you serve them.0

There was a pause. 0&nd % might serve them and never know it,0 =alk said, looking down.

0ossi#ly,0 said the "aster. 0;ou must consider that possi#ility, =alk. &mong us, "etock has always #elieved you to

#e a programmed mind, as they call it.—But all the same, he/s never lied to you. (one of us has, knowingly. The *iver

oet said a thousand years ago, /%n truth manhood lies$/0 6ove rolled the words out oratorically, then laughed. 0)ou#le4

tongued, like all poets. ell, we/ve told you what truths and facts we know, =alk. But perhaps not all the guesses and the

legends, the stuff that comes #efore the facts$0

0How could you teach me those10

0e could not. ;ou learned to see the world somewhere else—some other world, may#e. e could help you #ecome a

man again, #ut we could not give you a true childhood. That one has only once$0

0% feel childish enough, among you,0 =alk said with a som#er ruefulness.0;ou/re, not childish. ;ou are an ine5perienced man. ;ou are a cripple, #ecause there is no child in you, =alk2 you are

cut off from your roots, from your source. Can you say that this is your home10

0(o,0 =alk answered, wincing. Then he said, 0% have #een very happy here.0

The "aster paused a little, #ut returned to his questioning. 0)o you think our life here is a good one, that we follow a

good way for men to go10

0;es.0

0Tell me another thing. ho is our enemy10

0The hing.0

0hy10

0They #roke the !eague of &ll orlds, took choice and freedom from men, wrecked all man/s works and records,

stopped the evolution of the race. They are tyrants, and liars.00But they don/t keep us from leading our good life here.0

0e/re in hiding—we live apart, so that they/ll let us #e. %f we tried to #uild any of the great machines, if we gathered

in groups or towns or nations to do any great work together, then the hing would infiltrate and ruin the work and disperse

us. % tell you only what you told me and % #elieved, "aster@0

0% know. % wondered if #ehind the fact you had perhaps sensed the$ legend, the guess, the hope$0

=alk did not answer.

0e hide from the hing. &lso we hide from what we were. )o you see that, =alk1 e live well in the Houses—well

enough. But we are ruled utterly #y fear. There was a time we sailed in ships #etween the stars, and now we dare not go a

hundred miles from home. e keep a little knowledge, and do nothing with it. But once we used that knowledge to weave

the pattern of life like a tapestry across night and chaos. e enlarged the chances of life. e did man/s work.0

&fter another silence 6ove went on, looking up into the #right (ovem#er sky- 0Consider the worlds, the various men

and #easts on them, the constellations of their skies, the cities they #uilt, their songs and ways. &ll that is lost, lost to us, as

utterly as your childhood is lost to you. hat do we really know of the time of our greatness1 & few names of worlds and

heroes, a ragtag of facts we/ve tried to patch into a history. The hing law for#ids killing, #ut they killed knowledge, they



#urned #ooks, and what may #e worse, they falsified what was left. They slipped in the !ie, as always. e aren/t sure of

anything concerning the &ge of the !eague2 how many of the documents are forged1 ;ou must remem#er, you see,

wherein the hing are our Enemy. %t/s easy enough to live one/s whole life without ever seeing one of them—knowingly2 at

most one hears an aircar passing #y far away. Here in the =orest they let us #e, and it may #e the same now all over the

Earth, though we don/t know. They let us #e so long as we stay here, in the cage of our ignorance and the wilderness,

#owing when they pass #y a#ove our heads. But they don/t trust us. How could they, even after twelve hundred years1

There is no trust in them, #ecause there is no truth in them. They honor no compact, #reak any promise, per:ure, #etray

and lie ine5hausti#ly2 and certain records from the time of the =all of the !eague hint that they could mindlie. %t was the

!ie that defeated all the races of the !eague and left us su#:ect to the hing. *emem#er that, =alk. (ever #elieve the truth

of anything the Enemy has said.0

0% will remem#er, "aster, if % ever meet the Enemy.0

0;ou will not, unless you go to them.0

The apprehensiveness in =alk/s face gave way to a listening, still look. hat he had #een waiting for had arrived. 0;ou

mean leave the House,0 he said.

0;ou have thought of it yourself,0 6ove said as quietly.

0;es, % have. But there is no way for me to go. % want to live here. arth and %—0

He hesitated, and 6ove struck in, incisive and gentle. 0% honor the love grown #etween you and arth, your :oy and

your fidelity. But you came here on the way to somewhere else, =alk. ;ou are welcome here2 you have always #een

welcome. ;our partnership with my daughter must #e childless2 even so, % have re:oiced in it. But % do #elieve that the

mystery of your #eing and your coming here is a great one, not lightly to #e put aside2 that you walk a way that leads on2

that you have work to do$00hat work1 ho can tell me10

0hat was kept from us and stolen from you, the hing will have. That you can #e sure of.0

There was an aching, scathing #itterness in 6ove/s voice that =alk had never heard.

0ill those who speak no truth tell me the truth for the asking1 &nd how will % recogni8e what % seek when % find it10

6ove was silent a little while, and then said with his usual ease and control, 0% cling to the notion, my son, that in0 you

lies some hope for man. % do not like to give up that notion. But only you can seek your own truth2 and if it seems to you

that your way ends here, then that, perhaps, is the truth.0

0%f % go,0 =alk said a#ruptly, 0will you let arth go with me10

0(o, my son.0

& child was singing down in the garden—'arra/s four4year4old, turning inept somersaults on the path and singing

shrill, sweet nonsense. High up, in the long wavering 9 of the great migrations, skein after skein of wild geese went oversouthward.

0% was to go with "etock and Thurro to fetch home Thurro/s #ride,0 =alk said. 0e planned to go soon, #efore the

weather changes. %f % go, %/l7 go on from *ansifel House.0

0%n winter10

0There are Houses west of *ansifel, no dou#t, where % can ask shelter if % need it.0

He did not say and 6ove did not ask why west was the direction he would go.

0There may #e2 % don/t know. % don/t know if they would give shelter to strangers as we do. %f you go you will #e alone,

and must #e alone. 3utside this House there is no safe place for you on Earth.0

He spoke, as always, a#solutely truthfully$ and paid the cost of truth in self4control and pain. =alk said with quick

reassurance, 0% know that, "aster. %t/s not safety %/d regret—0

0% will tell you what % #elieve a#out you. % think you came from a lost world2 % think you were not #orn on Earth. %think you came here, the first &lien to return in a thousand years or more, #ringing us a message or a sign. The hing

stopped your mouth, and turned you loose in the forests so that none might say they had killed you. ;ou came to us. %f you

go % will grieve and fear for you, knowing how alone you go. But % will hope for you, and for ourselves@ %f you had words

to speak to men, you/ll remem#er them, in the end. There must #e a hope, a sign- we cannot go on like this forever.0

0erhaps my race was never a friend of mankind,0 =alk said, looking at 6ove with his yellow eyes. 0ho knows what %

came here to do10

0;ou/ll find those who know. &nd then you/ll do it. % don/t fear it. %f you serve the Enemy, so do we all- all/s lost and

nothing/s to lose. %f not, then you have what we men have lost- a destiny2 and in following it you may #ring hope to us

all$0



%%

639E H&) !%9E) si5ty years, arth twenty2 #ut she seemed, that cold afternoon in the !ong =ields, old in a way no

man could #e old, ageless. he had no comfort from ideas of ultimate star4spanning triumph or the prevalence of truth. Her

father/s prophetic gift in her was only lack of illusion. he knew =alk was going. he said only, 0;ou won/t come #ack.0

0% will come #ack, arth.0

he held him in her arms #ut she did not listen to his promise.He tried to #espeak her, though he had little skill in telepathic communication. The only !istener in the house was

#lind +retyan2 none of them was adept at the nonver#al communication, mindspeech. The techniques of learning

mindspeech had not #een lost, #ut they were little practiced. The great virtue of that most intense and perfect form of

communication had #ecome its peril for men.

"indspeech #etween two intelligences could #e incoherent or insane, and could of course involve error, mis#elief2 #ut

it could not #e misused. Between thought and spoken word is a gap where intention can enter, the sym#ol #e twisted aside,

and the lie come to #e. Between thought and sent4thought is no gap2 they are one act. There is no room for the lie.

%n the late years of the !eague, the tales and fragmentary records =alk had studied seemed to show, the use of mind4

speech had #een widespread and the telepathic skills very highly developed. %t was a skill Earth had come to late, learning

its techniques from some other race2 the !ast &rt, one #ook called it. There were hints of trou#les and upheavals in the

government of the !eague of &ll orlds, rising perhaps from that prevalence of a form of communication that precludedlying. But all that was vague and half4legendary, like all man/s history. Certainly since the coming of the hing and the

downfall of the !eague, the scattered community of man had mistrusted trust and used the spoken word. & free man can

speak freely, #ut a slave or fugitive must #e a#le to hide truth and lie. o =alk had learned in 6ove/s House, and so it was

that he had had little practice in the attunement of minds. But he tried now to #espeak arth so she would know he was not

lying- 0Believe me, arth, % will come #ack to you@0

But she wouldn/t hear. 0(o, % won/t mindspeak,0 she said aloud.

0Then you/re keeping your thoughts from me.0

0;es, % am. hy should % give you my grief1 hat/s the good of truth1 %f you had lied to me yesterday, %/d still #elieve

that you were only going to *ansifel and would #e #ack home in a tennight. Then %/d still have ten days and nights. (ow %

have nothing left, not a day, not an hour. %t/s all taken, all over. hat good is truth10

0=aith, will you wait for me one year100(o.0

03nly a year—0

0& year and a day, and you/ll return riding a silver steed to carry me to your kingdom and make me its queen. (o, %

won/t wait for you, =alk. hy must % wait for a man who will #e lying dead in the forest, or shot #y anderers out on the

prairie, or #rainless in the City of the hing, or gone off a hundred years to another star1 hat should % wait for1 ;ou

needn/t think %/ll take another man. % won/t. %/ll stay here in my father/s house. %/ll dye #lack thread and weave #lack cloth to

wear, #lack to wear and #lack to die in. But % won/t wait for anyone, or anything. (ever.0

0% had no right to ask you,0 he said with the humility of pain—and she cried, 03 =alk, % don/t reproach you@0

They were sitting together on the slight slope a#ove the !ong =ield. 'oats and sheep gra8ed over the mile of fenced

pasture #etween them and the forest. ;earling colts pranced and tagged around the shaggy mares. & gray (ovem#er wind

#lew.

Their hands lay together. arth touched the gold ring on his left hand. 0& ring is a thing given,0 she said. 0ometimes

%/ve thought, have you1 that you may have had a wife. Think, if she was waiting for you$0 he shivered.

0hat of it10 he said. 0hat do % care a#out what may have #een, what % was1 hy should % go from here1 &ll that %

am now is yours, arth, came from you, your gift—0

0%t was freely given,0 the girl said in tears. 0Take it and go. 'o on$0 They held each other, and neither would #reak

free.

The House lay far #ehind hoar #lack trunks and inter4tangling leafless #ranches. The trees closed in #ehind the trail.

The day was gray and cool, silent e5cept for the drone of wind through #ranches, a meaningless whisper without

locality that never ceased. "etock led the way, setting a long easy pace. =alk followed and young Thurro came last. They

were all three dressed light and warm in hooded shirt and #reeches of an unwoven stuff called wintercloth, over which no

coat was needed even in snow. Each carried a light #ackpack of gifts and trade4goods, sleeping4#ag, enough dried

concentrated food to see him through a month/s #li88ard. Buckeye, who had never left the House of her #irth, had a greatfear of perils and delays in the =orest and had supplied their packs accordingly. Each wore a laser4#eam gun2 and =alk

carried some e5tras—another pound or two of food2 medicines, compass, a second gun, a change of clothing, a coil of

rope2 a little #ook given him two years ago #y 6ove—amounting in all to a#out fifteen pounds of stuff, his earthly

D



possessions. Easy and tireless "etock loped on ahead, and ten yards or so #ehind he followed, and after him came Thurro.

They went lightly, with little sound, and #ehind them the trees gathered motionless over the faint, leaf4strewn trail.

They would come to *ansifel on the third day. &t evening of the second day they were in country different from that

around 6ove/s House. The forest was more open, the ground #roken. 'ray glades lay along hillsides a#ove #rush4choked

streams. They made camp in one of these open places, on a south4facing slope, for the north wind was #lowing stronger

with a hint of winter in it. Thurro #rought armloads of dry wood while the other two cleared away the gray grass and piled

up a rough hearth of stones. &s they worked "etock said, 0e crossed a divide this afternoon. The stream down there runs

west. To the %nland *iver, finally.0

=alk straightened up and looked westward, #ut the low hills rose up soon and the low sky closed down, leaving no

distant view.

0"etock,0 he said, %/ve #een thinking there/s no point in my going on to *ansifel. % may as well #e on my way. There

seemed to #e a trail leading west along the #ig stream we crossed this afternoon. %/ll go #ack and follow it.0

"etock glanced up2 he did not mindspeak, #ut his thought was plain enough- &re you thinking of running #ack home1

=alk did use mindspeech for his reply- 0(o, damn it, %/m not@0

0%/m sorry,0 the Elder Brother said aloud, in his grim, scrupulous way. He had not tried to hide the fact that he was glad

to see =alk go. To "etock nothing mattered much #ut the safety of the House2 any stranger was a threat, even the stranger

he had known for five years, his hunting4companion and his sister/s lover. But he went on, 0They/ll make you welcome at

*ansifel. hy not start from there10

0hy not from here10

0;our, choice.0 "etock worked a last rock into place, and =alk #egan to #uild up the fire. 0%f that was a trail we

crossed, % don/t know where it comes from or goes. Early tomorrow we/ll cross a real path, the old Hirand *oad. HirandHouse was a long way west, a week on foot at least2 no#ody/s gone there for si5ty or seventy years. % don/t know why. But

the trail was still plain last time % came this way. The other might #e an animal track, and lead you straying or leave you in

a swamp.0

0&ll right, %/ll try the Hirand *oad.0

There was a pause, then "etock asked, 0hy are you going west10

0Because Es Toch is in the west.0

The name seldom spoken sounded flat and strange out here under the sky. Thurro coming up with an armload of wood

glanced around uneasily. "etock asked nothing more.

That night on the hillside #y the campfire was =alk/s last with those who were to him his #rothers, his own people.

(e5t morning they were on the trail again a little after sunrise, and long #efore noon they came to a wide, overgrown trace

leading to the left off the path to *ansifel. There was a kind of gateway to it made #y two great pines. %t was dark and stillunder their #oughs where they stopped.

0Come #ack to us, guest and #rother,0 young Thurro said, trou#led even in his #ridegroom/s self4a#sorption #y the look

of that dark, vague way =alk would #e taking. "etock said only, 0'ive me your water4flask, will you,0 and in e5change

gave =alk his own flask of chased silver. Then they parted, they going north and he west.

&fter he had walked a while =alk stopped and looked #ack. The others were out of sight2 the *ansifel trail was already

hidden #ehind the young trees and #rush that overgrew the Hirand *oad. The road looked as though it was used, if

infrequently, #ut had not #een kept up or cleared for many years. &round =alk nothing was visi#le #ut the forest, the

wilderness. He stood alone under the shadows of the endless trees. The ground was soft with the fall of a thousand years2

the great trees, pines and hemlocks, made the air dark and quiet. & fleck or two of sleet danced on the dying wind.

=alk eased the strap of his pack a #it and went on.

By nightfall it seemed to him that he had #een gone from the House for a long, long time, that it was immeasura#ly far #ehind him, that he had always #een alone.

His days were all the same. 'ray winter light2 a wind #lowing2 forest4clad hills and valleys, long slopes, #rush4hidden

streams, swampy lowlands. Though #adly overgrown the Hirand *oad was easy to follow, for it led in long straight shafts

or long easy curves, avoiding the #ogs and the heights. %n the hills =alk reali8ed it followed the course of some great

ancient highway, for its way had #een cut right through the hills, and two thousand years had not effaced it wholly. But the

trees grew on it and #eside it and all a#out it, pine and hemlock, vast holly4thickets on the slopes, endless stands of #eech,

oak, hickory, alder, ash, elm, all overtopped and crowned #y the lordly chestnuts only now losing their last dark4yellow

leaves, dropping their fat #rown #urrs along the path. &t night he cooked the squirrel or ra##it or wild hen he had #agged

from among the infinity of little game that scurried and flitted here in the kingdom of the trees2 he gathered #eechnuts and

walnuts, roasted the chestnuts on his campfire coals. But the nights were #ad. There were two evil dreams that followed

him each day and always caught up with him #y midnight 3ne was of #eing stealthily pursued in the darkness #y a person

he could never see. The other was worse. He dreamed that he had forgotten to #ring something with him, something

important, essential, without which he would #e lost. =rom this dream he woke and knew that it was true- he was lost2 it

was himself he had forgotten. He would #uild up his fire then if it was not raining and would crouch #eside it, too sleepy



and dream4#emused to take up the #ook he carried, the 3ld Canon, and seek comfort in the words which declared that

when all ways are lost the ay lies clear. & man all alone is a misera#le thing. &nd he knew he was not even a man #ut at

#est a kind of half4#eing, trying to find his wholeness #y setting out aimlessly to cross a continent under uninterested stars.

The days were all the same, #ut they were a relief after the nights.

He was still keeping count of their num#er, and it was on the eleventh day from the crossroads, the thirteenth of his

:ourney, that he came to the end of the Hirand *oad. There had #een a clearing, once. He found a way through great tracts

of wild #ram#le and second4growth #irch thickets to four crum#ling #lack towers that stuck high up out of the #ram#les

and vines and mummied thistles- the chimneys of a fallen House. Hirand was nothing now, a name. The road ended at the

ruin.

He stayed around the fallen place a couple of hours, kept there simply #y the #leak hint of human presence. He turned

up a few fragments of rusted machinery, #its of #roken pottery which outlive even men/s #ones, a scrap of rotten cloth

which fell to dust in his hands. &t last he pulled himself together and looked for a trail leading west out of the clearing. He

came across a strange thing, a field a half4mile square covered perfectly level and smooth with some glassy su#stance,

dark violet colored, unflawed. Earth was creeping over its edges and leaves and #ranches had scurfed it over, #ut it was

un#roken, unscratched. %t was as if the great level space had #een flooded with melted amethyst. hat had it #een—a

launching4field for some unimagina#le vehicle, a mirror with which to signal other worlds, the #asis of a force4field1

hatever it was, it had #rought doom on Hirand. %t had #een a greater work than the hing permitted men to undertake.

=alk went on past it and entered the forest, following no path now.

These were clean woods of stately, wide4aisled deciduous trees. He went on at a good pace the rest of that day, and the

ne5t morning. The country was growing hilly again, the ridges all running north4south across his way, and around noon,

heading for what looked from one ridge like the low point of the ne5t, he #ecame em#roiled in a marshy valley full ofstreams. He searched for fords, floundered in #oggy watermeadows, all in a cold heavy rain. =inally as he found a way up

out of the gloomy valley the weather #egan to #reak up, and as he clim#ed the ridge the sun came out ahead of him under

the clouds and sent a wintry glory raying down among the naked #ranches, #rightening them and the great trunks and the

ground with wet gold. That cheered him2 he went on sturdily, figuring to walk till day/s end #efore he camped. Everything

was #right now and utterly silent e5cept for the drip of rain from twig4ends and the far4off wistful whistle of a chickadee.

Then he heard, as in his dream, the steps that followed #ehind him to his left.

& fallen oak that had #een an o#stacle #ecame in one startled moment a defense- he dropped down #ehind it and with

drawn gun spoke aloud- 0Come on out@0

=or a long time nothing moved.

0Come out@0 =alk said with the mindspeech, then closed to reception, for he was afraid to receive. He had a sense of

strangeness2 there was a faint, rank odor on the wind.& wild #oar walked out of the trees, crossed his tracks, and stopped to snuff the ground. & grotesque, magnificent pig,

with powerful shoulders, ra8or #ack, trim, quick, filthy legs. 3ver snout and tusk and #ristle, little #right eyes looked up at

=alk.

0&ah, aah, aah, man, aah,0 the creature said, snuffling.

=alk/s tense muscles :umped, and his hand tightened on the grip of his laser4pistol. He did not shoot. & wounded #oar

was hideously quick and dangerous. He crouched there a#solutely still.

0"an, man,0 said the wild pig, the voice thick and flat from the scarred snout, 0think to me. Think to me. ords are

hard for me.0

=alk/s hand on the pistol shook now. uddenly he spoke aloud- 0)on/t speak, then. % will not mindspeak. 'o on, go

your pig/s way.0

0&ah, aah, man, #espeak me@00'o or % will shoot.0 =alk stood up, his gun pointing steadily. The little #right hog4eyes watched the gun.

0%t is wrong to take life,0 said the pig.

=alk had got his wits #ack and this time made no answer, sure that the #east understood no words. He moved the gun a

little, recentered its aim, and said, 0'o@0 The #oar dropped its head, hesitated. Then with incredi#le swiftness, as if

released #y a cord #reaking, it turned and ran the way it had come.

=alk stood still a while, and when he turned and went on he kept his gun ready in his hand. His hand shook again, a

little. There were old tales of #easts that spoke, #ut the people of 6ove/s House had thought them only tales. He felt a #rief

nausea and an equally #rief wish to laugh out loud. 0arth,0 he whispered, for he had to talk to some#ody, 0% :ust had a

lesson in ethics from a wild pig$ 3h, arth, will % ever get out of the forest1 )oes it ever end10

He worked his way on up the steepening, #rushy slopes of the ridge. &t the top the woods thinned out and through the

trees he saw sunlight and the sky. & few paces more and he was out from under the #ranches, on the rim of a green slope

that dropped down to a sweep of orchards and plow4lands and at last to a wide, clear river. 3n the far side of the river a

herd of fifty or more cattle gra8ed in a long fenced meadow, a#ove which hayfields and orchards rose steepening towards

the tree4rimmed western ridge. & short way south of where =alk stood the river turned a little around a low knoll, over the

7F



shoulder of which, gilt #y the low, late sun, rose the red chimneys of a house.

%t looked like a piece of some other, golden age caught in that valley and overlooked #y the passing centuries,

preserved from the great wild disorder of the desolate forest. Haven, companionship, and a#ove all, order- the work of

man. & kind of weakness of relief filled =alk, at the sight of a wisp of smoke rising from those red chimneys. &

hearthfire$ He ran down the long hillside and through the lowest orchard to a path that wandered along #eside the

river#ank among scru# alder and golden willows. (o living thing was to #e seen e5cept the red4#rown cattle gra8ing

across the water. The silence of peace filled the wintry, sunlit valley. lowing his pace, he walked #etween kitchen4gardens

to the nearest door of the house. &s he came around the knoll the place rose up #efore him, walls of ruddy #rick and stone

reflecting in the quickened water where the river curved. He stopped, a little daunted, thinking he had #est hail the house

aloud #efore he went any farther. & movement in an open window :ust a#ove the deep doorway caught his eye. &s he

stood half hesitant, looking up, he felt a sudden deep, thin pain sear through his chest :ust #elow the #reast#one- he

staggered and then dropped, dou#ling up like a swatted spider.

The pain had #een only for an instant. He did not lose consciousness, #ut he could not move or speak.

eople were around him2 he could see them, dimly, through waves of non4seeing, #ut could not hear any voices. %t was

as if he had gone deaf, and his #ody was entirely num#. He struggled to think through this deprivation of the senses. He

was #eing carried somewhere and could not feel the hands that carried him2 a horri#le giddiness overwhelmed him, and

when it passed he had lost all control of his thoughts, which raced and #a##led and chattered. 9oices #egan to ga##le and

drone inside his mind, though the world drifted and e##ed dim and silent a#out him. ho are you are you where do you

come from =alk going where going are you % don/t know are you a man west going % don/t know where the way eyes a man

not a man$ aves and echoes and flights of words like sparrows, demands, replies, narrowing, overlapping, lapping,

crying, dying away to a gray silence.& surface of darkness lay #efore his eyes. &n edge of light lay along it.

& ta#le2 the edge of a ta#le. !amp4lit, in a dark room.

He #egan to see, to feel. He was in a chair, in a dark room, #y a long ta#le on which a lamp stood. He was tied into the

chair- he could feel the cord cut into the muscles of his chest and arms as he moved a little. "ovement- a man sprang into

e5istence at his left, another at his right. They were sitting like him, drawn up to the ta#le. They leaned forward and spoke

to each other across him. Their voices sounded as if they came from #ehind high walls a great way off, and he could not

understand the words.

He shivered with cold. ith the sensation of cold he came more closely in touch with the world and #egan to regain

control of his mind. His hearing was clearer, his tongue was loosed. He said something which was meant to #e, 0hat did

you do to me10

There was no answer, #ut presently the man on his left stuck his face quite close to =alk/s and said loudly, 0hy didyou come here10

=alk heard the words2 after a moment he understood them2 after another moment he answered. 0=or refuge. The night.0

0*efuge from what10

0=orest. &lone.0

He was more and more penetrated with cold. He managed to get his heavy, clumsy hands up a little, trying to #utton

his shirt. Below the straps that #ound him in the chair, :ust #elow his #reast#one was a little painful spot.

0+eep your hands down,0 the man on his right said out of the shadows. 0%t/s more than programming, &rgerd, (o

hypnotic #lock could stand up to penton that way.0

The one on his left, sla#4faced and quick4eyed, a #ig man, answered in a weak si#ilant voice- 0;ou can/t say that—

what do we know a#out their tricks1 &nyhow, how can you estimate his resistance—what is he1 ;ou, =alk, where is this

place you came from, 6ove/s House100East. % left$0 The num#er would not come to mind. 0=ourteen days ago, % think.0

How did they know the name of his House, his name1

He was getting his wits #ack now, and did not wonder very long. He had hunted deer with "etock using hypodermic

darts, which could make even a scratch4wound a kill. The dart that had felled him, or a later in:ection when he was

helpless, had #een some drug which must rela5 #oth the learned control and the primitive unconscious #lock of the

telepathic centers of the #rain, leaving him open to para4ver#al questioning. They had ransacked his mind. &t the idea, his

feeling of coldness and sickness increased, complicated #y helpless outrage. hy this violation1 hy did they assume he

would lie to them #efore they even spoke to him1

0)id you think % was a hing10 he asked.

The face of the man on his right, lean, long4haired, #earded, sprang suddenly into the lamplight, the !ips drawn #ack,

and his open hand struck =alk across the mouth, :olting his head #ack and #linding him a moment with the shock. His ears

rang2 he tasted #lood. There was a second #low and a third. The man kept hissing many times over. 0;ou do not say that

name, don/t say it, you do not say it, you don/t say it—0

=alk struggled helplessly to defend himself, to get free. The man on his left spoke sharply. Then there was silence for

77



some while.

0% meant no harm coming here,0 =alk said at last, as steadily as he could through his anger, pain and fear.

0&ll right,0 said the one on the left, &rgerd, 0go on and tell your little story. hat did you mean in coming here10

0To ask for a night/s shelter. &nd ask if there/s any trail going west.0

0hy are you going west10

0hy do you ask1 % told you in mindspeech, where there/s no lying. ;ou know my mind.0

0;ou have a strange mind,0 &rgerd said in his weak voice. 0&nd strange eyes. (o#ody comes here for a night/s shelter

or to ask the way or for anything else. (o#ody comes here. hen the servants of the 3thers come here, we kill them. e

kill toolmen, and the speaking #easts, and anderers and pigs and vermin. e don/t o#ey the law that says it/s wrong to

take life—do we, )rehnem10

The #earded one grinned, showing #rownish teeth.

0e are men,0 &rgerd said. 0"en, free men, killers. hat are you, with your half4mind and your owl/s eyes, and why

shouldn/t we kill you1 &re you a man10

%n the #rief span of his memory, =alk had not met directly with cruelty or hate. The few people he had known had

#een, if not fearless, not ruled #y fear2 they had #een generous and familiar. Between these two men he knew he was

defenseless as a child, and the knowledge #oth #ewildered and enraged him.

He sought some defense or evasion and found none. &ll he could do was speak the truth. 0% don/t know what % am or

where % came from. %/m going to try to find out.0

0'oing where10

He looked from &rgerd to the other one, )rehnem. He knew they knew the answer, and that )rehnam would strike

again if he said it.0&nswer@0 the #earded one muttered, half rising and leaning forward.

0To Es Toch,0 =alk said, and again )rehnem struck him across the face, and again he took the #low with the silent

humiliation of a child punished #y strangers.

0This is no good2 he/s not going to say anything different from what we got from him under penton. !et him up.0

Then what10 said )rehnem.

0He came for a night/s shelter2 he can have it 'et up@0

The strap that held him into the chair was loosened. He got shakily onto his feet. hen he saw the low door and the

#lack down4pitch of stairs they forced him towards, he tried to resist and #reak free, #ut his muscles would not yet o#ey

him. )rehnem arm4twisted him down into a crouch and pushed him through the doorway. The door slammed shut as he

turned staggering to keep his footing on the stairs.

%t was dark, #lack dark. The door was as if sealed shut, no handle on this side, no mote or hint of light coming under it,no sound. =alk sat down on the top step and put his head down on his arms.

'radually the weakness of his #ody and the confusion in his mind wore off. He raised his head, straining to see. His

night4vision was e5traordinarily acute, a function, *anna had long ago pointed out, of his large4pupiled, large4irised eyes.

But only flecks and #lurs of after4images tormented his eyes2 he could see nothing, for there was no light. He stood up and

step #y step felt his slow way down the narrow, unseen descent.

Twenty4one steps, two, three—level. )irt. =alk went slowly forward, one hand e5tended, listening.

Though the darkness was a kind of physical pressure, a constraint, deluding him constantly with the notion that if he

only looked hard enough he would see, he had no fear of it in itself. "ethodically, #y pace and touch and hearing, he

mapped out a part of the vast cellar he was in, the first room of a series which2 to :udge #y echoes, seemed to go on

indefinitely. He found his way directly #ack to the stairs, which #ecause he had started from them were home #ase. He sat

down, on the lowest step this time, and sat still. He was hungry and very thirsty. They had taken his pack, and left himnothing.

It's your own fault , =alk told himself #itterly, and a kind of dialogue #egan in his mind-

What did I do? Why did they attack me?

Zove told you: trust nobody. They trust nobody, and they're right.

ven someone who comes alone asking for hel!?

With your face"your eyes? When it's obvious even at a glance that you're not a normal human being?

#ll the same, they could have given me a drink of water, said the perhaps childish, still fearless part of his mind.

$ou're damned lucky they didn't kill you at sight , his intellect replied, and got no further answer.

&ll the people of 6ove/s House had of course got accustomed to =alk/s looks, and guests were fair and circumspect, so

that he had never #een forced into particular awareness of his physical difference from the human norm. %t had seemed so

much less of a difference and #arrier than the amnesia and ignorance that had isolated him so long. (ow for the first time

he reali8ed that a stranger looking into his face would not see the face of a man.

The one called )rehnem had #een afraid of him, and had struck him #ecause he was afraid and repelled #y the alien,

the monstrous, the ine5plica#le.

7<



%t was only what 6ove had tried to tell him when he had said with such grave and almost tender warning, 0;ou must go

alone, you can only go alone.0

There was nothing for it, now, #ut sleep. He curled up as well as he could on the #ottom step, for the dirt floor was

damp, and closed his eyes on the darkness.

ome time later in timelessness he was awakened #y the mice. They ran a#out making a faint tiny scra##le, a 8ig8ag

scratch of sound across the #lack, whispering in very small voices very close to the ground, 0%t is wrong to take "e it is

wrong to take life hello heeellllooo don/t kill us don/t kill.0

0% will@0 =alk roared and all the mice were still.

%t was hard to go to sleep again2 or perhaps what was hard was to #e sure whether he was asleep or awake. He lay and

wondered whether it was day or night2 how long they would leave him here and if they meant to kill him, or use that drug

again until his mind was destroyed, not merely violated2 how long it took thirst to change from discomfort to torment2 how

one might go a#out catching mice in the dark without trap or #ait2 how long one could stay alive on a diet of raw mouse.

everal times, to get a vacation from his thoughts, he went e5ploring again. He found a great up4ended vat or tun and

his heart leaped with hope, #ut it rang hollow- splintered #oards near the #ottom scratched his hands as he groped around

it. He could find no other stairs or doors in his #lind e5plorations of the endless unseen walls.

He lost his #earings finally and could not find the stairs again. He sat on the ground in the darkness and imagined rain

falling, out in the forest of his lonely :ourneying, the gray light and the sound of rain. He spoke in his mind all he could

remem#er of the 3ld Canon, #eginning at the #eginning2

The way that can #e gone

is not the eternal ay$

His mouth was so dry after a while that he tried to lick the damp dirt floor for its coolness2 #ut to the tongue it was drydust. The mice scuttled up quite close to him sometimes, whispering.

=ar away down long corridors of darkness #olts clashed and metal clanged, a #right piercing clangor of light. !ight—

9ague shapes and shadows, vaultings, arches, vats, #eams, openings, #ulked and loomed into dim reality a#out him. He

struggled to his feet and made his way, unsteady #ut running, towards the light.

%t came from a low doorway, through which, when he got close, he could see an upswell of ground, treetops, and the

rosy sky of evening or morning, which da88led his eyes like a midsummer noon. He stopped inside the door #ecause of

that da88lement, and #ecause a motionless figure stood :ust outside.

0Come out,0 said the weak, hoarse voice of the #ig man, &rgerd.

0ait. % can/t see yet.0

0Come out. &nd keep going. )on/t even turn your head, or %/ll #urn it off your neck.0

=alk came into the doorway, then hesitated again. His thoughts in the dark served some purpose now. %f they did lethim go, he had thought, it would mean that they were afraid to kill him.

0"ove@0

He took the chance. 0(ot without my pack,0 he said, his voice faint in his dry throat.

0This is a laser.0

0;ou might as well use it. % can/t get across the continent without my own gun.0

(ow it was &rgerd who hesitated. &t last, his voice going up almost into a shriek, he yelled to someone- 0'retten@

'retten@ Bring the stranger/s stuff down here@0 & long pause. =alk stook in the darkness :ust inside the door, &rgerd,

motionless, :ust outside it. & #oy came running down the grassy slope visi#le from the door, tossed =alk/s pack down and

disappeared.

0ick it up,0 &rgerd ordered2 =alk came out into the light and o#eyed. 0(ow get going.0

0ait,0 =alk muttered, kneeling and looking hastily through the disarrayed, unstrapped pack. 0here/s my #ook10Book10

0The 3ld Canon. & hand#ook, not electronic—0

0;ou think we/d let you leave here with that10

=alk stared. 0)on/t you people recogni8e the Canons of "an when you see them1 hat did you take it for10

0;ou don/t know and won/t find out what we know, and if you don/t get going %/ll #urn your hands off. 'et up and go

on, go straight on, get moving@0 The shrieking note was in &rgerd/s voice again, and =alk reali8ed he had nearly driven

him too far. &s he saw the look of hate and fear in &rgerd/s heavy, intelligent face the contagion of it caught him, and

hastily he closed and shouldered his pack, walked past the #ig man and started up the grassy rise from the door of the

cellars. The light was that of evening, a little past sunset. He walked towards it. & fine elastic strip of pure suspense

seemed to connect the #ack of his head to the nose of the laserpistol &rgerd held, stretching out, stretching out as he

walked on. &cross a weedy lawn, across a #ridge of loose planks over the river, up a path #etween the pastures and then

#etween orchards. He reached the top of the ridge. There he glanced #ack for one moment, seeing the hidden valley as he

had first seen it, full of a golden evening light, sweet and peaceful, high chimneys over the sky4reflecting river. He

hastened on into the gloom of the forest, where it was already night.

7>



Thirsty and hungry, sore and downhearted, =alk saw his aimless :ourney through the Eastern =orest stretching on ahead

of him with no vague hope, now, of a friendly hearth somewhere along the way to #reak the hard, wild monotony. He must

not seek a road #ut avoid all roads, and hide from men and their dwellingplaces like any wild #east. 3nly one thing

cheered him up a #it, #esides a creek to drink from and some travel4ration from his pack, and that was the thought that

though he had #rought his trou#le on himself, he had not knuckled under. He had #luffed the moral #oar and the #rutal

man on their own ground, and got away with it. That did hearten him2 for he knew himself so little that all his acts were

also acts of self4discovery, like those of a #oy, and knowing that he lacked so much he was glad to learn that at least he

was not without courage.

&fter drinking and eating and drinking again he went on, in a #roken moonlight that sufficed his eyes, till he had put a

mile or so of #roken country #etween himself and the house of =ear, as he thought of the place. Then, worn out, he lay

down to sleep at the edge of a little glade, #uilding no fire or shelter, lying ga8ing up at the moon4washed winter sky.

(othing #roke the silence #ut now and again the soft query of a hunting owl. &nd this desolation seemed to him restful

and #lessed after the scurrying, voice4haunted, lightless prison4cellar of the house of =ear.

&s he pushed on westward through the trees and the days, he kept no more count of one than of the other. Time went

on2 and he went on.

The #ook was not the only thing he had lost2 they had kept "etock/s silver water4flask, and a little #o5, also of silver,

of disinfectant salve. They could only have kept the #ook #ecause they wanted it #adly, or #ecause they took it for some

kind of code or mystery. There was a period when the loss of it weighed unreasona#ly on him, for it seemed to him it had

#een his one true link with the people he had loved and trusted, and once he told himself, sitting #y his fire, that ne5t day

he would turn #ack and find the house of =ear again and get his #ook. But he went on, ne5t day. He was a#le to go west,

with compass and sun for guides, #ut could never have refound a certain place in the vastness of these endless hills andvalleys of the =orest. (ot &rgerd/s hidden valley2 not the Clearing where arth might #e weaving in the winter sunlight,

either. %t was all #ehind him, lost.

"ay#e it was :ust as well that the #ook was gone. hat would it have meant to him here, that shrewd and patient

mysticism of a very ancient civili8ation, that quiet voice speaking from amidst forgotten wars and disasters1 "ankind had

outlived disaster2 and he had outrun mankind. He was too far away, too much alone. He lived entirely now #y hunting2 that

slowed his daily pace. Even when game is not gunshy and is very plentiful, hunting is not a #usiness one can hurry. Then

one must clean and cook the game, and sit and suck the #ones #eside the fire, full4#ellied for a while and drowsy in the

winter cold2 and #uild up a shelter of #oughs and #ark against the rain2 and sleep2 and ne5t day go on. & #ook had no place

here, not even that old canon of Gnaction. He would not have read it2 he was ceasing, really, to think. He hunted and ate

and walked and slept, silent in the forest silence, a gray shadow slipping westward through the cold wilderness.

The weather was more and more often #leak. 3ften lean feral cats, #eautiful little creatures with their pied or stripedfur and green eyes, waited within sight of his campfire for the leavings of his meat, and came forward with sly, shy

fierceness to carry off the #ones he tossed them- their rodent prey was scarce now, hi#ernating through the cold. (o #easts

since the house of =ear had spoken to or #espoken him. The animals in the lovely, icy, lowland woods he was now

crossing had never #een tampered with, had never seen or scented man, perhaps. &nd as it fell farther and farther #ehind

him he saw its strangeness more clearly, that house hidden in its peaceful valley, its very foundations alive with mice that

squeaked in human speech, its people revealing a great knowledge, the truth4drug, and a #ar#aric ignorance. The Enemy

had #een there.

That the Enemy had ever #een here was dou#tful. (o#ody had ever #een here. (o#ody ever would #e. ays screamed

in the gray #ranches. =rost4rimed #rown leaves crackled underfoot, the leaves of hundreds of autumns. & tall stag looked

at =alk across a little meadow, motionless, questioning his right to #e there.

0% won/t shoot you. Bagged two hens this morning,0 =alk said.The stag stared at him with the lordly self4possession of the speechless, and walked slowly off. (othing feared =alk,

here. (othing spoke to him. He thought that in the end he might forget speech again and #ecome as he had #een, dum#,

wild, unhuman. He had gone too far away from men and had come where the dum# creatures ruled and men had never

come.

&t the meadow/s edge he stum#led over a stone, and on hands and knees read weatherworn letters carved in the half4

#uried #lock- C+ 3.

"en had come here2 had lived here. Gnder his feet, under the icy, hummocky terrain of leafless #ush and naked tree,

under the roots, there was a city. 3nly he had come to the city a millennium or two too late.

7?



%%%

THE )&; of which =alk kept no count had grown very short, and had perhaps already passed ;ear/s End, the winter

solstice. Though the weather was not so #ad as it might have #een in the years when the city had stood a#oveground, this

#eing a warmer meteorological cycle, still it was mostly #leak and gray. now fell often, not so thickly as to make the

going hard, #ut enough to make =alk know that if he had not had his wintercloth clothing and sleeping4#ag from 6ove/s

House he would have suffered more than mere discomfort from the cold. The north wind #lew so unwearyingly #itter thathe tended always to #e pushed a little southwards #y it, picking the way south of west when there was a choice, rather than

face into the wind.

%n the dark wretched afternoon of one day of sleet and rain he came slogging down a south4trending stream4valley,

struggling through thick #ram#ly undergrowth over rocky, muddy ground. &ll at once the #rush thinned out, and he was

#rought to a sudden halt. Before him lay a great river, dully shining, peppered with rain. *ainy mist half o#scured the low

farther #ank. He was awed #y the #readth, the ma:esty of this great silent westward drive of dark water under the low sky.

&t first he thought it must #e the %nland *iver, one of the few landmarks of the inner continent known #y rumor to the

eastern =orest Houses2 #ut that was said to run south marking the western edge of the kingdom of the trees. urely it was a

tri#utary of the %nland *iver, then. He followed it, for that reason, and #ecause it kept him out of the high hills and

provided #oth water and good hunting2 moreover it was pleasant to have, sometimes, a sandy shore for a path, with the

open sky overhead instead of the everlasting leafless darkness of #ranches. o following the river he went west #y souththrough a rolling land of woods, all cold and still and colorless in the grip of winter.

3ne of these many mornings #y the river he shot a wild hen, so common here in their squawking, low4flying flocks

that they provided his staple meat. He had only winged the hen and it was not dead when he picked it up. %t #eat its wings

and cried in its piercing #ird4voice, 0Take—life—take—life—take—0 Then he wrung its neck.

The words rang in his mind and would not #e silenced. !ast time a #east had spoken to him he had #een on the

threshold of the house of =ear. omewhere in these lonesome gray hills there were, or had #een, men- a group in hiding

like &rgerd/s household, or savage anderers who would kill him when they saw his alien eyes, or toolmen who would

take him to their !ords as a prisoner or slave. Though at the end of it all he might have to face those !ords, he would find

his own way to them, in his own time, and alone. Trust no one, avoid men@ He knew his lesson now. 9ery warily he went

that day, alert, so quiet that often the water#irds that thronged the shores of the river rose up startled almost under his feet.

He crossed no path and saw no sign at all that any human #eings dwelt or ever came near the river. But towards the endof the short afternoon a flock of the #ron8e4green wild fowl rose up ahead of him and flew out over the water all clucking

and calling together in a ga##le of human words.

& little farther on he stopped, thinking he had scented woodsmoke on the wind.

The wind was #lowing upriver to him, from the northwest. He went with dou#le caution. Then as the night rose up

among the tree4trunks and #lurred the dark reaches of the river, far ahead of him along the #rushy, willow4tangled shore a

light glimmered, and vanished, and shone again.

%t was not fear or even caution that stopped him now, standing in his tracks to stare at that distant glimmer. &side from

his own solitary campfire this was the first light he had seen lit in the wilderness since he had left the Clearing. %t moved

him very strangely, shining far off there across the dusk.

atient in his fascination as any forest animal, he waited till full night had come and then made his way slowly and

noiselessly along the river#ank, keeping in the shelter of the willows, until he was close enough to see the square of a

window yellow with firelight and the peak of the roof a#ove it, snow4rimmed, pine4overhung. Huge over #lack forest and

river 3rion stood. The winter night was very cold and silent. (ow and then a fleck of dry snow dislodged from a #ranch

drifted down towards the #lack water and caught the sparkle of the firelight as it fell.

=alk stood ga8ing at the light in the ca#in. He moved a little closer, then stood motionless for a long time.

The door of the ca#in creaked open, laying down a fan of gold on the dark ground, stirring up powdery snow in puffs

and spangles. 0Come on into the light,0 said a man standing, vulnera#le, in the golden o#long of the doorway.

=alk in the darkness of the thickets put his hand on his laser, and made no other movement.

0% mindheard you. %/m a !istener. Come on. (othing to fear here. )o you speak this tongue10

ilence.

0% hope you do, #ecause %/m not going to use mind4speech. There/s no#ody here #ut me, and you,0 said the quiet voice.

0% hear without trying, as you hear with your ears, and % still hear you out there in the dark. Come and knock if you want to

get under a roof for a while.0The door closed.

=alk stood still for some while. Then he crossed the few dark yards to the door of the little ca#in, and knocked.

0Come in@0

7A



He opened the door and entered into warmth and light.

&n old man, gray hair #raided long down his #ack, knelt at the hearth #uilding up the fire. He did not turn to look at

the stranger, #ut laid his firewood methodically. &fter a while he said aloud in a slow chant,

0% alone am confused

confused

desolate

3h, like the sea

adrift

3h, with no har#or

to anchor in$0

The gray head turned at last. The old man was smiling2 his narrow, #right eyes looked sidelong at =alk.

%n a voice that was hoarse and hesitant #ecause he had not spoken any words for a long time, =alk replied with the ne5t

verse of the 3ld Canon-

0Everyone is useful

only % alone

am inept

outlandish.

% alone differ from others

#ut % seek

the milk of the "other

the ay$00Ha ha ha@0 said the old man. 0)o you, ;ellow4eyes1 Come on, sit down, here #y the hearth. 3utlandish, yes yes, yes

indeed. ;ou are outlandish. How far out the land1—who knows1 How long since you washed in hot water1 ho knows1

here/s the damned kettle1 Cold tonight in the wide world, isn/t it, cold as a traitor/s kiss. Here we are2 fill that from the

pail there #y the door, will you, then %/ll put it on the fire, so. %/m a Thurro4dowist, you know what that is % see, so you

won/t get much comfort here. But a hot #ath/s hot, whether the kettle/s #oiled with hydrogen fusion or pine4knots, eh1 ;es,

you really are outlandish, lad, and your clothes could use a #ath too, weatherproof though they may #e. hat/s that1—

ra##its1 'ood. e/ll stew /em tomorrow with a vegeta#le or two. 9egeta#les are one thing you can/t hunt down with a

lasergun. &nd you can/t store ca##ages in a #ackpack. % live alone here, my lad, alone and all alonio. Because % am a great,

a very great, the greatest !istener, % live alone, and talk too much. % wasn/t #orn here, like a mushroom in the woods2 #ut

with other men % never could shut out the minds, all the #u88 and grief and #a##le and worry and all the different ways

they went, as if % had to find my way through forty different forests all at once. o % came to live alone in the real forestwith only the #easts around me, whose minds are #rief and still. (o death lies in their thoughts. &nd no lies lie in their

thoughts. it down2 you/ve #een a long time coming here and your legs are tired.0

=alk sat down on the wooden hearth4#ench. 0% thank you for your hospitality,0 he said, and was a#out to name himself

when the old man spoke- 0(ever mind. % can give you plenty of good names, good enough for this part of the world.

;ellow Eyes, 3utlander, 'uest, anything will do. *emem#er %/m a !istener, not a paraver#alist. % get no words or names. %

don/t want them. That there was a lonely soul out there in the dark, % knew, and % know how my lighted window shone into

your eyes. %sn/t that enough, more than enough1 % don/t need names. &nd my name is &ll4&lonio. *ight1 (ow pull up to

the fire, get warm.0

0%/m getting warm,0 =a%k said.

The old man/s gray #raid flipped across his shoulders as he moved a#out, quick and frail, his soft voice running on2 he

never asked a real question, never paused for an answer. He was fearless and it was impossi#le to fear him. (ow all the days and nights of :ourneying through the forest drew together and were #ehind =alk. He was not

camping- he had come to a place. He need not think at all a#out the weather, the dark, the stars and #easts and trees. He

could sit stretching out his legs to a #right hearth, could eat in company with another, could #athe in front of the fire in a

wooden tu# of hot water. He did not know which was the greater pleasure, the warmth of that water washing dirt and

weariness away, or the warmth that washed his spirit here, the a#surd elusive vivid talk of the old man, the miraculous

comple5ity of human conversation after the long silence of the wilderness.

He took as true what the old man told him, that he was a#le to sense =alk/s emotions and perceptions, that he was a

mindhearer, an empath. Empathy was to telepathy somewhat as touch to sight, a vaguer, more primitive, and more intimate

sense. %t was not su#:ect to fine learned control to the degree that telepathic communication was2 conversely, involuntary

empathy was not uncommon even among the untrained. Blind +retyan had trained herself to mindhear, having the gift #y

nature. But it was no such gift as this. %t did not take =alk long to make sure that the old man was in fact constantly aware

to some degree of what his visitor was feeling and sensing. =or some reason this did not #other =alk, whereas the

knowledge that &rgerd/s drug had opened his mind to telepathic search had enraged him. %t was the difference in intent2

and more.

7



0This morning % killed a hen,0 he said, when for a little the old man was silent, warming a rough towel for him #y the

leaping fire. 0%t spoke, in this speech. ome words of$ of the !aw. )oes that mean anyone is near here, who teaches

language to the #easts and fowls10 He was not so rela5ed, even getting out of the hot #ath, as to say the Enemy/s name—

not after his lesson in the house of =ear.

By way of answer the old man merely asked a question for the first time- 0)id you eat the hen10

0(o,0 said =alk, toweling himself dry in the firelight that reddened his skin to the color of new #ron8e. 0(ot after it

talked. % shot the ra##its instead.0

0+illed it and didn/t eat it1 hameful, shameful.0 The old man cackled, then crowed like a wild cock. 0Have you no

reverence for life1 ;ou must understand the !aw. %t says you mustn/t kill unless you must kill. &nd hardly even then.

*emem#er that in Es Toch. &re you dry1 Clothe your nakedness, &dam of the ;aweh Canon. Here, wrap this around you,

it/s no fine artifice.like your own clothes, it/s only deerhide tanned in piss, #ut at least it/s clean.0

0How do you know %/m going to Es Toch10 =alk asked, wrapping the soft leather ro#e a#out him like a toga.

0Because you/re not human,0 said the old man. 0&nd remem#er, % am the !istener. % know the compass of your mind,

outlandish as it is, whether % will or no. (orth and south are dim2 far #ack in the east is a lost #rightness2 to the west there

lies darkness, a heavy darkness. % know that darkness. !isten. !isten to me, #ecause % don/t want to listen to you, dear

guest and #lunderer. %f % wanted to listen to men talk % wouldn/t live here among the wild pigs like a wild pig. % have this to

say #efore % go to sleep. (ow listen- There are not very many of the hing. That/s a great piece of news and wisdom and

advice. *emem#er it, when you walk in the awful darkness of the #right lights of Es Toch. 3dd scraps of information may

always come in handy. (ow forget the east and west, and go to sleep. ;ou take the #ed. Though as a Thurro4dowist % am

opposed to ostentatious lu5ury, % applaud the simpler pleasures of e5istence, such as a #ed to sleep on. &t least, every now

and then. &nd even the company of a fellow man, once a year or so. Though % can/t say % miss them as you do. &lone/s notlonely$0 &nd as he made himself a sort of pallet on the floor he quoted in an affectionate singsong from the ;ounger

Canon of his creed- 0/% am no more lonely than the mill #rook, or a weathercock, or the north star, or the south wind, or an

&pril shower, or a anuary thaw, or the first spider in a new house$ % am no more lonely than the loon on the pond that

laughs so loud, or than alden ond itself/ 0.

Then he said, 0'ood night@0 and said no more. =alk slept that night the first sound, long sleep he had had since his

:ourney had #egun.

He stayed two more days and nights in the riverside ca#in, for his host made him very welcome and he found it hard to

leave the little haven of warmth and company. The old man seldom listened and never answered questions, #ut in and out

of his ever4running talk certain facts and hints glanced and vanished. He knew the way west from here and what lay along

it—for how far, =alk could not make sure. Clear to Es Toch, it seemed2 perhaps even #eyond1 hat lay #eyond Es Toch1

=alk himself had no idea, e5cept that one would come eventually to the estern ea, and on #eyond that to the 'reatContinent, and eventually on around again to the Eastern ea and the =orest. That the world was round, men knew, #ut

there were no maps left. =alk had a notion that the old man might have #een a#le to draw one2 #ut where he got such a

notion he scarcely knew, for his host never spoke directly of anything he himself had done or seen #eyond this little river4

#ank clearing.

0!ook out for the hens, downriver,0 said the old man, apropos of nothing, as they #reakfasted in the early morning

#efore =alk set off again. 0ome of them can talk. 3thers can listen. !ike us, eh1 % talk and you listen. Because, of course,

% am the !istener and you are the "essenger. !ogic #e damned. *emem#er a#out the hens, and mistrust those that sing.

*oosters are less to #e mistrusted2 they/re too #usy crowing. 'o alone. %t won/t hurt you. 'ive my regards to any rinces

or anderers you may meet, particularly Henstrella. By the way, it occurred to me in #etween your dreams and my own

last night that you/ve walked quite enough for e5ercise and might like to take my slider. %/d forgotten % had it. %/m not going

to use it, since %/m not going anywhere, e5cept to die. % hope someone comes #y to #ury me, or at least drag me outside for the rats and ants, once %/m dead. % don/t like the prospect of rotting around in here after all the years %/ve kept the place tidy.

;ou can/t use a slider in the forest, of course, now there are no trails left worth the name, #ut if you want to follow the

river it/ll take you along nicely. &nd across the %nland *iver too, which isn/t easy to cross in the thaws, unless you/re a

catfish. %t/s in the lean4to if you want it. % don/t.0

The people of +athol/s House, the settlement nearest 6ove/s, were Thurro4dowists2 =alk knew that one of their

principles was to get along, as long as they could do so sanely and unf anatically, without mechanical devices and artifices.

That this old man, living much more primitively than they, raising poultry and vegeta#les #ecause he did not even own a

gun to hunt with, should possess a #it of fancy technology like a slider, was queer enough to make =alk for the first time

look up at him with a shadow of dou#t.

The !istener sucked his teeth and cackled. 0;ou never had any reason to trust me, outlandish laddie,0 he said. 0(or %

you. &fter all, things can #e hidden from even the greatest !istener. Things can #e hidden from a man/s own mind, can/t

they, so that he can/t lay the hands of thought upon them. Take the slider. "y traveling days are done. %t carries only one,

#ut you/ll #e going alone. &nd % think you/ve got a longer :ourney to make than you can ever go #y foot. 3r #y slider, for

that matter.0

7



=alk asked no question, #ut the old man answered it-

0"ay#e you have to go #ack home,0 he said.

arting from him in the icy, misty dawn under the ice4furred pines, =alk in regret and gratitude offered his hand as to

the "aster of a House2 so he had #een taught to do2 #ut as he did so he said, 0Tiokioi$0

0hat name do you call me, "essenger10

0%t means$ it means father, % think$ 0 The word had come on his lips un#idden, incongruous. He was not sure he

knew its meaning, and had no idea what language it was in.

0'ood#ye, poor trusting fool@ ;ou will speak the truth and the truth will set you free. 3r not, as the case may #e. 'o all

alonio, dear fool2 it/s much the #est way to go. % will miss your dreams. 'ood#ye, good#ye. =ish and visitors stink after

three days. 'ood#ye@0

=alk knelt on the slider, an elegant little machine, #lack paristolis inlaid with a three4dimensional ara#esque of

platinum wire. The ornamentation all #ut concealed the controls, #ut he had played with a slider at 6ove/s House, and after

studying the control4arcs a minute he touched the left arc, moved his finger along it till the slider had silently risen a#out

two feet, and then with the right arc sent the little craft slipping over the yard and the river4#ank till it hovered a#ove the

scummy ice of the #ackwater #elow the ca#in. He looked #ack then to call good#ye, #ut the old man had already gone into

the ca#in and shut the door. &nd as =alk steered his noiseless craft down the #road dark avenue of the river, the enormous

silence closed in around him again.

%cy mist gathered on the wide curves of water ahead of him and #ehind him, and hung among the gray trees on either

#ank. 'round and trees and sky were all gray with ice and fog. 3nly the water sliding along a little slower than he slid

air#orne a#ove it was dark. hen on the following day snow #egan to fall the flakes were dark against tie sky, white

against the water #efore they vanished, endlessly falling and vanishing in the endless current.This mode of travel was twice the speed of walking, and safer and easier—too easy indeed, monotonous, hypnotic.

=alk was glad to come ashore when he had to hunt or to make camp. ater#irds all #ut flew into his hands, and animals

coming down to the shore to drink glanced at him as if he on the slider were a crane or heron skimming past, and offered

their defenseless flanks and chests to his hunting gun. Then all he could do was skin, hack up, cook, eat, and #uild himself

a little shelter for the night against snow or rain with #oughs or #ark and the up4ended slider as a roof2 he slept, at dawn

ate cold meat left from last night, drank from the river, and went on. &nd on.

He played games with the slider to #eguile the eventless hours- taking her up a#ove fifteen feet where wind and air4

layers made the aircushion unrelia#le and might tilt the slider right over unless he compensated instantly with the controls

and his own weight2 or forcing her down into the water in a wild commotion of foam and spray so she slapped and skipped

and skittered all over the river, #ucking like a colt. & couple of falls did not deter =alk from his amusements. The slider

was set to hover at one foot if uncontrolled, and all he had to do was clam#er #ack on, get to shore and make a fire if hehad got chilled, or if not, simply go on. His clothes were weatherproof, and in any case the river could get him little wetter

than the rain. The wintercloth kept him fairly warm2 he was never really warm. His little camp4fires were strictly

cookingfires. There was not enough dry wood in the whole Eastern =orest, pro#a#ly, for a real fire, after the long days of

rain, wet snow, mist, and rain again.

He #ecame adept at slapping the slider downriver in a series of long, loud fish4leaps, diagonal #ounces ending in a

whack and a :et of spray. The noisiness of the process pleased him sometimes as a #reak in the smooth silent monotony of

sliding along a#ove the water #etween the trees and hills. He came whacking around a #end, #anking his curves with

delicate flicks of the control4arcs, then #raked to a sudden soundless halt in mid4air. =ar ahead down the steely4shining

reach of the river a #oat was coming towards him.

Each craft was in full view of the other2 there was no slipping past in secret #ehind screening trees. =alk lay flat on the

slider, gun in hand, and steered down the right #ank of the river, up at ten feet so he had height advantage on the people inthe #oat.

They were coming along easily with one little triangular sail set. &s they drew nearer, though the wind was #lowing

downriver, he could faintly hear the sound of their singing.

They came still nearer, paying no heed to him, still singing.

&s far #ack as his #rief memory went, music had always #oth drawn him and frightened him, filling him with a kind of

anguished delight, a pleasure too near torment. &t the sound of a human voice singing he felt most intensely that he was

not human, that this game of pitch and time and tone was alien to him. But #y that strangeness it drew him, and now

unconsciously he slowed the slider to listen. =our or five voices sang, chiming and parting and interweaving in a more

artful harmony than any he had heard. He did not understand the words. &ll the forest, the miles of gray water and gray

sky, seemed to him to listen in intense, uncomprehending silence.

The song died away, chiming and fading into a little gust of laughter and talk. The slider and the #oat were nearly

a#reast now, separated #y a hundred yards or more. & tall, very slender man erect in the stern hailed =alk, a clear voice

ringing easily across the water. &gain he caught none of the words. %n the steely winter light the man/s hair and the hair of

the four or five others in the #oat shone fulvent gold, all the same, as if they were all of one close kin, or one kind. He

7D



could not see the faces clearly, only the red4gold hair, the slender figures #ending forward to laugh and #eckon. He could

not make sure how many there were. =or a second one face was distinct, a woman/s face, watching him across the moving

water and the wind. He had slowed the slider to a hover, and the #oat too seemed to rest motionless on the river.

0=ollow us,0 the man called again, and this time, recogni8ing the language, =alk understood. %t was the old !eague

tongue, 'alaktika. !ike all =oresters, =alk had learned it from tapes and #ooks, for the documents surviving from the

'reat &ge were recorded in it, and it served as a common speech among men of different tongues. The =orest dialect was

descended from 'alaktika, #ut had grown far from it over a thousand years, and #y now differed even from House to

House. Travelers once had come to 6ove/s House from the coast of the Eastern ea, speaking a dialect so divergent that

they had found it easier to speak 'alaktika with their hosts, and only then had =alk heard it used as a living tongue2

otherwise it had only #een the voice of a sound#ook, or the murmur of the sleep teacher in his ear in the dark of a winter

morning. )reamlike and archaic it sounded now in the clear voice of the steersman. 0=ollow us, we go to the city@0

0To what city10

03ur own,0 the man called, and laughed.

0The city that welcomes the traveler,0 another called2 and another, in the tenor that had rung so sweetly in their singing,

spoke more softly- 0Those that mean no harm find no harm among us.0 &nd a woman called as if she smiled as she spoke,

0Come out of the wilderness, traveler, and hear our music for a night.0

The name they called him meant traveler, or messenger.

0ho are you10 he asked.

ind #lew and the #road river ran. The #oat and the air#oat hovered motionless amid the flow of air and water,

together and apart as if in an enchantment.

0e are men.0ith that reply the charm vanished, #lown away like a sweet sound or fragrance in the wind from the east. =alk felt

again a maimed #ird struggle in his hands crying out human words in its piercing unhuman voice- now as then a chill went

through him, and without hesitation, without decision, he touched the silver arc and sent the slider forward at full speed.

(o sound came to him from the #oat, though now the wind #lew from them to him, and after a few moments, when

hesitation had had time to catch up with him, he slowed his craft and looked #ack. The #oat was gone. There was nothing

on the #road dark surface of the water, clear #ack to the distant #end.

&fter that =alk played no more loud games, #ut went on as swiftly and silent as he might2 he lit no fire at all that night,

and his sleep was uneasy. ;et something of the charm remained. The sweet voices had spoken of a city, lonaae in the

ancient tongue, and drifting downriver alone in mid4air and mid4wilderness =alk whispered the word aloud. Elonaae, the

lace of "an- myriads of men gathered together, not one house #ut thousands of houses, great dwelling4places, towers,

walls, windows, streets and the open places where streets met, the trading4houses told of in #ooks where all the ingenuitiesof men/s hands were made and sold, the palaces of government where the mighty met to speak together of the great works

they did, the fields from which ships shot out across the years to alien suns- had Earth ever #orne so wonderful a thing as

the laces of "an1

They were all gone now. There remained only Es Toch, the lace of the !ie. There was no city in the Eastern =orest.

(o towers of stone and steel and crystal crowded with souls rose up from among the swamps and alder4groves, the ra##it4

warrens and deer4trails, the lost roads, the #roken, #uried stones.

;et the vision of a city remained with =alk almost like the dim memory of something he had once known. By that he

:udged the strength of the lure, the illusion which he had #lundered safely through, and he wondered if there would #e

more such tricks and lures as he went on always westward, towards their source.

The days and the river went on, flowing with him, until on one still gray afternoon the world opened slowly out and

out into an awesome #readth, an immense plain of muddy waters under an immense sky- the confluence of the =orest*iver with the %nland *iver. %t was no wonder they had heard of the %nland *iver even in the deep ignorance of their

isolation hundreds of miles #ack east in the Houses- it was so huge even the hing could not hide it. & vast and shining

desolation of yellow4gray waters spread from the last crowns and islets of the flooded =orest on and on west to a far shore

of hills. =alk soared like one of the river/s low4flying #lue herons over the meetingplace of the waters. He landed on the

western #ank and was, for the first time in his memory, out of the =orest.

To north, west, and south lay rolling land, clumped with many trees, full of #rush and thickets in the lowlands, #ut an

open country, wide open. =alk with easy self4delusion looked west, straining his eyes to see the mountains. This open land,

the rairie, was #elieved to #e very wide, a thousand miles perhaps2 #ut no one in 6ove/s House really knew.

He saw no mountains, #ut that night he saw the rim of the world where it cut across the stars. He had never seen a

hori8on. His memory was all encircled with a #oundary of leaves, of #ranches. But out here nothing was #etween him and

the stars, which #urned from the Earth/s edge upwards in a huge #owl, a dome #uilt of #lack patterned with fire. &nd

#eneath his feet the circle was completed2 hour #y hour the tilting hori8on revealed the fiery patterns that lay eastward and

#eneath the Earth. He spent half the long winter night awake, and was awake again when that tilting eastern edge of the

world cut across the sun and daylight struck from outer space across the plains.

7



That day he went on due west #y the compass, and the ne5t day, and the ne5t. (o longer led #y the meanderings 3f the

river, he went straight and fast. *unning the slider was no such dull game as it had #een over the water2 here a#ove uneven

ground it #ucked and ripped at each drop and rise unless he was very alert every moment at the controls. He liked the vast

openness of sky and prairie, and found loneliness a pleasure with so immense a domain to #e alone in. The weather was

mild, a calm sunlit spell of late winter. Thinking #ack to the =orest he felt as if he had come out of stifling, secret darkness

into light and air, as if the prairies were one enormous Clearing. ild red cattle in herds of tens of thousands darkened the

far plains like cloud4shadows. The ground was everywhere dark, #ut in places misted faintly with green where the first

tiny dou#le4leaved shoots of the hardiest grasses were opening2 and a#ove and #elow the ground was a constant scurrying

and #urrowing of little #easts, ra##its, #adgers, coneys, mice, feral cats, moles, stripe4eyed arcturies, antelope, yellow

yappers, the pests and pets of fallen civili8ations. The huge sky whirred with wings. &t dusk along the rivers flocks of

white cranes settled, the water #etween the reeds and leafless cotton4woods mirroring their long legs and long uplifted

wings.

hy did men no longer :ourney forth to see their world1 =alk wondered, sitting #y his campfire that #urned like a tiny

opal in the vast #lue vault of the prairie twilight. hy did such men as 6ove and "etock hide in the woods, never once in

their lives coming out to see the wide splendor of the Earth1 He now knew something that they, who had taught him

everything, did not know- that a man could see his planet turn among the stars$

(e5t day under a lowering sky and through a cold wind from the north he went on, guiding the slider with a skill soon

#ecome ha#it. & herd of wild cattle covered half the plains south of his course, every one of the thousands and thousands

of them standing facing the wind, white faces lowered in front of shaggy red shoulders. Between him and the first ranks of

the herd for a mile the long gray grass #owed under the wind, and a gray #ird flew towards him, gliding with no motion of

its wings. He watched it, wondering at its straight gliding flight—not quite straight, for it turned without a wing#eat tointercept his course. %t was coming very fast, straight at him. &#ruptly he was alarmed, and waved his arm to frighten the

creature away, then threw himself down flat and veered the slider, too late. The instant #efore it struck he saw the #lind

featureless head, the glitter of steel. Then the impact, a shriek of e5ploding metal, a sickening #ackward fall. &nd no end

to the falling.

%9

0+E(3+&T;/ old woman says it/s going to snow,0 his friend/s voice murmured near him. 0e should #e ready, ifthere comes a chance for us to run away.0

=alk did not reply #ut sat listening with sharpened hearing to the noises of the camp- voices in a foreign tongue,

distance4softened2 the dry sqund of some#ody near#y scraping a hide2 the thin #awl of a #a#y2 the snapping of the tentfire.

0Horressins@0 someone outside summoned him, and he got up promptly, then stood still. %n a moment his friend/s hand

was on his arm and she guided him to where they wanted him, the communal fire in the center of the circle of tents, where

they were cele#rating a successful hunt #y roasting a whole #ull. & shank of #eef was shoved into his hands. He sat down

on the ground and #egan to eat. uices and melted fat ran down his :aws #ut he did not wipe them off. To do so was

#eneath the dignity of a Hunter of the "8urra ociety of the Basnasska (ation. Though a stranger, a captive, and #lind, he

was a Hunter, and was learning to comport himself as such.

The more defensive a society, the more conformist. The people he was among walked a very narrow, a tortuous and

cramped ay, across the #road free plains. o long as he was among them he must follow all the twistings of their ways

e5actly. The diet of the Basnasska consisted of fresh half4raw #eef, raw onions, and #lood. ild herdsmen of the wild

cattle, like wolves they culled the lame, the la8y and unfit from the vast herds, a lifelong feast of meat, a life with no rest.

They hunted with hand4lasers and warded strangers from their territory with #om#irds like the one that had destroyed

=alk/s slider, tiny impact4missiles programmed to home in on anything that contained a fusion element. They did not make

or repair these weapons themselves, and handled them only after purifications and incantations2 where they o#tained them

=alk had not found out, though there was occasional mention of a yearly pilgrimage, which might #e connected with the

weapons. They had no agriculture and no domestic animals2 they were illiterate and did not know, e5cept perhaps through

certain myths and hero4legends, any of the history of humankind. They informed =alk that he had not come out of the

=orest, #ecause the =orest was inha#ited only #y giant white snakes. They practiced a monotheistic religion whose rituals

involved mutilation, castration and human sacrifice.

%t was one of the outgrowth4superstitions of their comple5 creed that had induced them to take =alk alive and make

him a mem#er of the tri#e. (ormally, since he carried a laser and thus was a#ove slave4status, they would have cut out hisstomach and liver to e5amine for auguries, and then let the women hack him up as they pleased. However, a week or two

#efore his capture an old man of the "8urra ociety had died. There #eing no as4yet4unnamed infant in the tri#e to receive

his name, it was given to the captive, who, #linded, disfigured, and only conscious at intervals, still was #etter than

<F



no#ody2 for so long as 3ld Horressins kept his name his ghost, evil like all ghosts, would return to trou#le the ease of the

living. o the name was taken from the ghost and given to =alk, along with the full initiations of a Hunter, a ceremony

which included whippings, emetics, dances, the recital of dreams, tattooing, antiphonal free4association, feasting, se5ual

a#use of one woman #y all the males in turn, and finally nightlong incantations to The 'od to preserve the new Horressins

from harm. &fter this they left him on a horsehide rug in a cowhide tent, delirious and unattended, to die or recover, while

the ghost of 3ld Horressins, nameless and powerless, went whining away on the wind across the plains.

The woman, who, when he had first recovered consciousness, had #een #usy #andaging his eyes and looking after his

wounds, also came whenever she could to care for him. He had only seen her when for #rief moments in the semi4privacy

of his tent he could lift the #andage which her quick wits had provided him when he was first #rought in. Had the

Basnasska seen those eyes of his open, they would have cut out his tongue so he could not name his own name, and then

#urned him alive. he had told him this, and other matters he needed to know a#out the (ation of the Basnasska2 #ut not

much a#out herself. &pparently she had not #een with the tri#e very much longer than himself2 he gathered that she had

#een lost on the prairie, and had :oined the tri#e rather than starve to death. They were willing to accept another she4slave

for the use of the men, and she had proved skillful at doctoring, so they let her live. he had reddish hair, her voice was

very soft, her name was Estrel. Beyond this he knew nothing a#out her2 and she had not asked him anything at all a#out

himself, not even his name.

He had escaped lightly, all things considered. aris4tolis, the (o#le "atter of ancient Cetian science, would not

e5plode nor take fire, so the slider had not #lown up under him, though its controls were wrecked. The #ursting missile

had chewed the left side of his head and upper #ody with fine shrapnel, #ut Estrel was there with the skill and a few of the

materials of medicine. There was no infection2 he recuperated fast, and within a few days of his #lood4christening as

Horressins he was planning escape with her.But the days went on and no chances came. & defensive society- a wary, :ealous people, all their actions rigidly

scheduled #y rite, custom, and ta#u. Though each Hunter had his tent, women were held in common and all a man/s doings

were done with other men2 .they were less a community than a clu# or herd, interdependent mem#ers of one entity. %n this

effort to attain security, independence and privacy of course were suspect2 =alk and Estrel had to snatch at any chance to

talk for a moment. he did not know the =orest dialect, #ut they could use 'alaktika, which the Basnasska spoke only in a

pidgin form.

0The time to try,0 she said once, 0might #e during a snowstorm, when the snow would hide us and our tracks. But how

far could we get on foot in a #u88ard1 ;ou/ve got a compass2 #ut the cold$0

=alk/s wintercloth clothing had #een confiscated, along with everything else he possessed, even the gold ring he had

always worn. They had left him one gun- that was integral with his #eing a Hunter and could not #e taken from him. But

the clothes he had worn so long now covered the #ony ri#s and shanks of the 3ld Hunter +ess4nokaty and he had hiscompass only #ecause Estrel had got it and hidden it #efore they went through his pack. He and she were well enough

clothed in Basnasska #uckskin shirts and leggings, with #oots and parkas of red cowhide2 #ut nothing was adequate shelter

from one of the prairie #li88ards, with their hard su#free8ing winds, e5cept walls, roof and a fire.

0%f we can get across into amsit territory, :ust a few miles west of here, we could hole up in an 3ld lace % know there

and hide till they give up looking. % thought of trying it #efore you came. But % had no compass and was afraid of getting

lost in the storm. ith a compass, and a gun, we might make it$ e might not.0

0%f it/s our #est chance,0 =alk said, 0we/ll take it.0 He was not quite so naive, so hopeful and easily swayed, as he had

#een #efore his capture. He was a little more resistant and resolute. Though he had suffered at their hands he had no

special grudge against the Basnasska2 they had #randed him once and for all down #oth his arms with the #lue tattoo4

slashes of their kinship, #randing him as a #ar#arian, #ut also as a man. That was all right. But they had their #usiness, and

he had his. The hard individual will developed in him #y his training in the =orest House demanded that he get free, thathe get on with his :ourney, with what 6ove had called mans work. These people were not going anywhere, nor did they

come from anywhere, for they had cut their roots in the human past. %t was not only the e5treme precariousness of his

e5istence among the Basnasska that made him impatient to get out2 it was also a sense of suffocation, of #eing cramped

and immo#ili8ed, which was harder to endure than the #andage that #lanked his vision.

That evening Estrel stopped #y his tent to tell him that it had #egun to snow, and they were settling their plan in

whispers when a voice spoke at the flap of the tent. Estrel translated quietly- 0He says, /Blind Hunter, do you want the *ed

oman tonight1/0 he added no e5planation. =alk knew the rules and etiquette of sharing the women around2 his mind

was #usy with the matter of their talk, and he replied with the most useful of his short list of Basnasska words—0"ieg@0—

no.

The male voice said something more imperative. %f it goes on snowing, tomorrow night, may#e,0 Estrel murmured in

'alaktika. till thinking, =alk did not answer. Then he reali8ed she had risen and gone, leaving him alone in the tent. &nd

after that he reali8ed that she was the *ed oman, and that the other man had wanted her to copulate with.

He could simply have said ;es instead of (o2 and when he thought of her cleverness and gentleness towards him, the

softness of her touch and voice, and the utter silence in which she hid her pride or shame, then he winced at his failure to

<7



spare her, and felt himself humiliated as her fellowman, and as a man.

0e/ll go tonight,0 he said to her ne5t day in the drifted snow #eside the omen/s !odge. 0Come to my tent. !et a

good part of the night pass first.0

0+okteky has told me to come to his tent tonight.0

0Can you slip away10

0"ay#e.0

0hich tent is +okteky/s10

0Behind the "8urra ociety !odge to the left. %t has a patched place over the flap.0

0%f you don/t come %/ll come get you.0

0&nother night there might #e less danger—0

0&nd less snow. inter/s getting on2 this may #e the last #ig storm. ell go tonight.0

0%/ll come to your tent,0 she said with her unarguing, steady su#missiveness.

He had left a slit in his #andage through which he could dimly see his way a#out, and he tried to see her now2 #ut in

the dull light she was only a gray shape in grayness.

%n the late dark of that night she came, quiet as the wind#lown snow against the tent. They each had ready what they

had to take. (either spoke. =alk fastened his o5hide coat, pulled up and tied the hood, and #ent to unseal the doorflap. He

started aside as a man came pushing in from outside, #ent dou#le to clear the low gap—+okteky, a #urly shaven4headed

Hunter, :ealous of his status and his virility. 0Horressins. The *ed oman—0 he #egan, then saw her in the shadows

across the em#ers of the fire. &t the same moment he saw how she and =alk were dressed, and their intent. He #acked up

to close off the doorway or to escape from =alk/s attack, and opened his mouth to shout. ithout thought, refle54quick and

certain =alk fired his laser at point#lank range, and the #rief flick of mortal light stopped the shout in the Basnasska/smouth, #urnt away mouth and #rain and life in one moment, in perfect silence.

=alk reached across the em#ers, caught the woman/s hand, and led her over the #ody of the man he had killed into the

dark.

=ine snow on a light wind sifted and whirled, taking their #reaths with cold. Estrel #reathed in so#s. His left hand

holding her wrist and his right his gun, =alk set off west among the scattered tents, which were #arely visi#le as slits and

we#s of dim orange. ithin a couple of minutes even these were gone, and there was nothing at all in the world #ut night

and snow.

Handlasers of Eastern =orest make had several settings and functions- the handle served as a lighter, and the weapon4

tu#e converted to a not very efficient flashlight. =alk set his gun to give a glow #y which they could read the compass and

see the ne5t few steps ahead, and they went on, guided #y the mortal light.

3n the long rise where the Basnasska winter4camp stood the wind had thinned the snowcover, #ut as they went on,una#le to pick their course ahead, the compass est their one guideline in the confusion of the snowstorm that mi5ed air

and ground into one whirling mess, they got onto lower land. There were four4 and five4foot drifts through which Estrel

struggled gasping like a spent swimmer in high seas. =alk pulled out the rawhide drawstring of his hood and tied it around

his arm, giving her the end to hold, and then went ahead, making her a path. 3nce she fell and the tug on the line nearly

pulled him down2 he turned and had to seek for a moment with the light #efore he saw her crouching in his tracks, almost

at his feet. He knelt, and in the wan, snowstreaked sphere of light saw her face for the first time clearly. he was

whispering, 0This is more than % #argained for$0

0'et your #reath a while. e/re out of the wind in this hollow.0

They crouched there together in a tiny #u##le of light, around which hundreds of miles of wind4driven snow hurtled in

darkness over the plains.

he whispered something which at first he did not understand- 0hy did you kill the man10*ela5ed, his senses dulled, drawing up resources of strength for the ne5t stage of their slow, hard escape, =alk made no

response. =inally with a kind of grin he muttered, 0hat else$10

0% don/t know. ;ou had to.0

Her face was white and drawn with strain2 he paid no attention to what she said. he was too cold to rest there, and he

got to his feet, pulling her up with him. 0Come on. %t can/t #e much farther to the river.0

But it was much farther. he had come to his tent after some hours of darkness, as he thought of it—there was a word

for hours in the =orest tongue, though its meaning was imprecise and qualitative, since a people without #usiness and

communication across time and space have no use for timepieces—and the winter night had still a long time to run. They

went on, and the night went on.

&s the first gray #egan to leaven the whirling #lack snowru##le of the storm they struggled down a slope of fro8en

tangled grass and shru#s. & mighty groaning #ulk rose up straight in front of =alk and plunged off into the snow.

omewhere near#y they heard the snorting of another cow or #ull, and then for a minute the great creatures were all a#out

them, white mu88les and wild liquid eyes catching the light, the driven snow hillocky and #ulking with flanks and shaggy

shoulders. Then they were through the herd, and came down to the #ank of the little river that separated Basnasska from

<<



amsit territory. %t was fast, shallow, unfro8en. They had to wade, the current tugging at their feet over loose stones,

pulling at their knees, icily rising till they struggled waist4deep through #urning cold. Estrel/s legs gave way under her

#efore they were clear across. =alk hauled her up out of the water and through the ice4crusted reed#eds of the west #ank,

and then again crouched down #y her in #lank e5haustion among the snowmounded #ushes of the overhanging shore. He

switched off his lightgun. 9ery faint, #ut very large, a stormy day was gaining on the dark.

0e have to go on, we/ve got to have a fire.0

he did not reply.

He held her in his arms against him. Their #oots and leggings and parkas from the shoulders down were fro8en stiff

already. The woman/s face, #owed against his arm, was deathly white.

He spoke her name, trying to rouse her. 0Estrel@ Estrel, come on. e can/t stay here. e can get on a little farther. %t

won/t #e so hard. Come on, wake up, little one, little hawk, wake up$0 %n his great weariness he spoke to her as he had

used to speak to arth, at day#reak, a long time ago.

he o#eyed him at last, struggling to her feet with his help, getting the line into her fro8en gloves, and step #y step

following him across the shore, up the low #luffs, and on through the tireless, relentless, driving snow.

They kept along the rivercourse, going south, as she had told him they would do when they had planned their run. He

had no real hope they could find anything in this spinning whiteness, as featureless as the night storm had #een. But #efore

long they came to a creek tri#utary to the river they had crossed, and turned up it, rough going for the land was #roken.

They struggled on. %t seemed to =alk that #y far the #est thing to do would #e to lie down and fall asleep, and he was only

una#le to do this #ecause there was someone who was counting on him, someone a long way off, a long time ago, who had

sent him on a :ourney2 he could not lie down, for he was accounta#le to someone$

There was a croaking whisper in his ear, Estrel/s voice. &head of them a clump of high cottonwood #oles loomed likestarving wraiths in the snow, and Estrel was tugging at his arm. They #egan to stum#le up and down the north side of the

snow4choked creek :ust #eyond the cottonwoods, searching for something. 0& stone,0 she kept saying, 0a stone,0 and

though he did not know why they needed a stone, he searched and scra##led in the snow with her. They were #oth

crawling on hands and knees when at last she came on the landmark she was after, a snowmounded #lock of stone a

couple of feet high.

ith her fro8en gloves she pushed away the dry drifts from the east side of the #lock. %ncurious, listless with fatigue,

=alk helped her. Their scraping #ared a metal rectangle, level with the curiously level ground. Estrel tried to open it. &

hidden, handle clicked, #ut the edges of the rectangle were fro8en shut. =alk spent his last strength straining to lift the

thing, till finally he came to his wits and unsealed the fro8en metal with the heat#eam in the handle of his gun. Then they

lifted up the door and looked down a neat steep set of stairs, weirdly geometric amidst this howling wilderness, to a shut

door 0%t/s all right,0 his companion muttered, and going down the stairs—crawling #ackwards, as on a ladder, #ecause she

could not trust her legs—she pushed the door open, and then looked up at =alk. 0Come on@0 she said.

He came down, pulling the trapdoor to a#ove him as she directed. %t was a#ruptly utterly dark, and crouching on the

steps =alk hastily pressed the stud of his handgun for light. Below him Estrel/s white face glimmered. He came down and

followed her in the door, into a place that was very dark and very #ig, so #ig his light could only hint at the ceiling and the

nearer walls. %t was silent, and the air was dead, flowing past them in a faint unchanging draft.

0There should #e wood over here,0 Estrel/s soft, strain4hoarsened voice said somewhere to his left. 0Here. e need a

fire2 help me with this$0

)ry wood was stacked in high piles in a corner near the entrance. hile he got a #la8e going, #uilding it up inside a

circle of #lackened stones nearer the center of the cavern, Estrel crept off into some farther corner and returned dragging a

couple of heavy #lankets. They stripped and ru##ed down, then huddled on the #lankets, inside their Basnasska sleep4rolls, up close to the fire. %t #urned hot as if in a chimney, drawn up #y a high draft that also carried off the smoke. There

was no warming the great room or cave, #ut the firelight and heat rela5ed and cheered them. Estrel got dried meat out of

her #ag, and they munched as they sat, though their lips were sore with frost#ite and they were too tired to #e hungry.

'radually the warmth of the fire #egan to soak into their #ones.

0ho else has used this place10

0&nyone that knows of it, % suppose.0

0There was a mighty House here once, if this was the cellar,0 =alk said, looking into the shadows that flickered and

thickened into impenetra#le #lack at a distance from the fire, and thinking of the great #asements under the house of =ear.

0They say there was a whole city here. %t goes on a long way from the door, they say. % don/t know.0

0How did you know of it—are you a amsit woman10

0(o.0

He asked no further, recalling the code2 #ut presently she said in her su#missive way, 0% am a anderer. e know

many places like this, hiding places$ % suppose you/ve heard of the anderers.0

0& little,0 said =alk, stretching out and looking across the fire at his companion. Tawny hair curled a#out her face as

<>



she sat huddled in the shapeless #ag, and a pale :ade amulet at her throat caught the firelight.

0They know little of us in the =orest.0

0(o anderers came as far east as my House. hat was told of them there fits the Basnasska #etter—savages, hunters,

nomads.0 He spoke sleepily, laying his head down on his arm.

0ome anderers might #e called savages. 3thers not. The Cattle4Hunters are all savages and know nothing #eyond

their own territories, these Basnasska and amsit and &rksa. e go far. e go east to the =orest, and south to the mouth of

the %nland *iver, and west over the 'reat "ountains and the estern "ountains even to the sea. % myself have seen the

sun set in the sea, #ehind the chain of #lue isles that lies far off the coast, #eyond the drowned valleys of California,

earthquake4whelmed$0 Her soft voice had slipped into the cadence of some archaic chant or plaint. 0'o on,0 =alk

murmured, #ut she was still, and #efore long he was fast asleep. =or a while she watched his sleeping face. &t last she

pushed the em#ers together, whispered a few words as if in prayer to the amulet chained around her neck, and curled down

to sleep across the fire from him.

hen he woke she was making a stand of #ricks over the fire to support a kettle filled with snow. 0%t looks like late

afternoon outside,0 she said, 0#ut it could #e morning, or noon for that matter. The storm/s as thick as ever. They can/t

track us. &nd if they did, still they couldn/t get in this place$ This kettle was in the cache with the #lankets. &nd there/s a

#ag of dried peas. e/ll do well enough here.0 The hard, delicate face turned to him with a faint smile. 0%t/s dark, though. %

don/t like the thick walls and the dark.0

0%t/s #etter than #andaged eyes. Though you saved my life with that #andage. Blind Horressins was #etter off than dead

=alk.0 He hesitated and then asked, 0hat moved you to save me10

he shrugged, still with the faint, reluctant smile. 0=ellow prisoners$ They always say anderers are clever at ruses

and disguises. )id you not hear them call me =o5 oman1 !et me look at those hurts of yours. % #rought my #ag oftricks.0

0&re anderers all good healers, too10

0e have certain skills.0

0&nd you know the 3ld Tongue2 you have not forgotten man/s old way, like the Basnasska.0

0;es, we all know 'alaktika. !ook there, the rim of your ear was frost#itten yesterday. Because you took the tie from

your hood for me to hold.0

0% can/t look at it,0 =alk said amia#ly, su#mitting to her doctoring. 0% don/t need to, usually.0

&s she dressed the still unhealed cut on his left temple she glanced once or twice sidelong at his face, and at last she

ventured- 0There are many =oresters with such eyes as yours, no dou#t.0

0(one.0

Evidently the code prevailed. he asked nothing, and he, having resolved to confide in no one, volunteered nothing.But his own curiosity got the #etter of him and he said, 0They don/t frighten you, then, these cat4eyes10

0(o,0 she answered in her quiet way. 0;ou frightened me only once. hen you shot—so fast—0

0He would have raised the whole camp.0

0% know, % know. But we carry no guns. ;ou shot so quick, % was frightened—it was like a terri#le thing % saw once,

when % was a child. & man who killed another with a gun, quicker than thought, like that. He was one of the *a8es.0

0*a8es10

03h, one meets with them in the "ountains sometimes.0

0% know very little of the "ountains.0

he e5plained, though as if unwillingly. 0;ou know the !aw of the !ords. They do not kill—you know. hen there is

a murderer in their city, they cannot kill him to stop him, so they make him into a *a8e. %t is something they do to the

mind. They can turn him loose and he starts to live anew, innocent. This man % spoke of was older than you, #ut had amind like a little child. But he got a gun in his hands, and his hands knew how to use it, and he—shot a man very close up,

like you did—0

=alk was silent. He glanced across the fire at his handgun, lying atop his pack, the marvelous little tool that had started

his fires, provided his meat, and lighted his darkness all his long way. There had #een no knowledge in his hands of how to

use the thing—had there1 "etock had taught him how to shoot. He had learned from "etock, and grown skillful #y

hunting. He was sure of it. He could not #e a mere freak and criminal given a second chance #y the arrogant charity of the

!ords of Es Toch$

;et was that not more plausi#le than his own vague dreams and notions of his origin1

0How do they do this to a man/s mind10

0% do not know.0

0They might do it,0 he said harshly, 0not only to criminals, #ut to—to re#els10

0hat are re#els10

he spoke 'alaktika much more fluently than he, #ut she had never heard that word.

he had finished dressing his hurt and was carefully tucking her few medicaments away in their pouch. He turned

<?



around to her so a#ruptly that she looked up startled, drawing #ack a little.

0Have you ever seen eyes like mine, Estrel10

0(o.0

0;ou know—the City10

0Es Toch1 ;es, % have #een there.0

0Then you have seen the hing10

0;ou are no hing.0

0(o. But % am going among them.0 He spoke fiercely. 0But % dread—0 He stopped.

Estrel closed the medicine4pouch and put it in her pack. 0Es Toch is strange to men from the !onely Houses and the far

lands,0 she said at last in her soft, careful voice. 0But % have walked its streets with no harm2 many people live there, in no

fear of the !ords. ;ou need not go in dread. The !ords are very powerful, #ut much is told of Es Toch that is not true$0

Her eyes met his. ith sudden decision, summoning what paraver#al skill he had, he #espoke her for the first time-

0Then tell me what is true of Es Toch@0

he shook her head, answering aloud, 0% have saved your life and you mine, and we are companions, and fellow4

anderers perhaps for a while. But % will not #espeak you or any person met #y chance2 not now, nor ever.0

0)o you think me a hing after all10 he asked ironically, a little humiliated, knowing she was right.

0ho can #e sure10 she said, and then added with her faint smile, 0Though % would find it hard to #elieve of you$

There, the snow in the kettle has melted down. %/ll go up and get more. %t takes so much to make a little water, and we are

#oth thirsty. ;ou$ you are called =alk10

He nodded, watching her.

0)on/t mistrust me, =alk,0 she said. 0!et me prove myself to you. "indspeech proves nothing2 and trust is a thing thatmust grow, from actions, across the days.0

0ater it, then,0 said =alk, 0and % hope it grows.0

!ater, in the long night and silence of the cavern, he roused from sleep to see her sitting hunched #y the em#ers, her

tawny head #owed on her knees. He spoke her name.

0%/m cold,0 she said. 0There/s no warmth left$0

0Come over to me.0 He spoke sleepily, smiling. he did not answer, #ut presently she came to him across the red4lit

darkness, naked e5cept for the pale :ade stone #etween her #reasts. he was slight, and shaking with the cold. %n his mind

which was in certain aspects that of a very young man he had resolved not to touch her, who had endured so much from

the savages2 #ut she murmured to him, 0"ake me warm, let me have solace.0 &nd he #la8ed up like fire in the wind, all

resolution swept away #y her presence and her utter compliance. he lay all night in his arms, #y the ashes of the fire.

Three more days and nights in the cavern, while the #li88ard renewed and spent itself overhead, =alk and Estrel passedin sleep and lovemaking. he was always the same, yielding, acquiescent. He, having only the memory of the pleasant and

:oyful love he had shared with arth, was #ewildered #y the insatia#ility and violence of the desire Estrel roused in him.

3ften the thought of arth came to him accompanied #y a vivid image, the memory of a spring of clear, quick, water that

rose among rocks in a shadowy place in the forest near the Clearing. But no memory quenched this thirst, and again he

would seek satisfaction in Estrel/s fathomless su#missiveness and find, at least, e5haustion. 3nce it all turned to

uncomprehended anger. He accused her2 0;ou only take me #ecause you think you have to, that %/d have raped you

otherwise.0

0&nd you would not10

0(o@0 he said, #elieving it. 0% don/t want you to serve me, to o#ey me—%sn/t it warmth, human warmth, we #oth want10

0;es,0 she whispered.

He would not come near her for a while2 he resolved he would not touch her again. He went off #y himself with hislightgun to e5plore the strange place they were in. &fter several hundred paces the cavern narrowed, #ecoming a high,

wide, level tunnel. Black and still, it led him on perfectly straight for a long time, then turned without narrowing or

#ranching and around the dark turning went on and on. His steps echoed dully. (othing caught any #rightness or cast any

shadow from his light. He walked till he was weary and hungry, then turned. %t was all the same, leading nowhere. He

came #ack to Estrel, to the endless promise and unfulfillment of her em#race.

The storm was over. & night/s rain had laid the #lack earth #are, and the last hollowed drifts of snow dripped and

sparkled. =alk stood at the top of the stairway, sunlight on his hair, wind fresh on his face and in his lungs. He felt like a

mole done hi#ernating, like a rat come out of a hole. 0!et/s go,0 he called to Estrel, and went #ack down to the cavern only

to help her pack up quickly and clear out.

He had asked her if she knew where her people were, and she had answered, 0ro#a#ly far ahead in the west, #y now.0

0)id they know you were crossing Basnasska territory alone10

0&lone1 %t/s only in fairytales from the Time of the Cities that women ever go anywhere alone. & man was with me.

The Basnasska killed him.0 Her delicate face was set, une5pressive.

=alk #egan to e5plain to himself, then, her curious passivity, the want of response that had seemed almost a #etrayal of

<A



his strong feeling. he had #orne too much and could no longer respond. ho was the companion the Basnasska had

killed1 %t was none of =alk/s #usiness to know, until she wanted to tell him. But his anger was gone and from that time on

he treated Estrel with confidence and with tenderness.

0Can % help you look for your people10

he said softly, 0;ou are a kind man, =alk. But they will #e far ahead, and % cannot com# all the estern lains$0

The lost, patient note in her voice moved him. 0Come west with me, then, till you get news of them. ;ou know what

way % take.0

%t was still hard for him to say the name 0Es Toch,0 which in the tongue of the =orest was an o#scenity, a#omina#le. He

was not yet used to the way Estrel spoke of the hing city as a mere place among other places.

he hesitated, #ut when he pressed her she agreed to come with him. That pleased him, #ecause of his desire for her

and his pity for her, #ecause of the loneliness he had known and did not wish to know again. They set off together through

the cold sunshine and the wind. =alk/s heart was light at #eing outside, at #eing free, at going on. Today the end of the

:ourney did not matter. The day was #right, the #road #right clouds sailed overhead, the way itself was its end. He went

on, the gentle, docile, unwearying woman walking #y his side.

9

THE; C*3E) the 'reat lains on foot—which is soon said, #ut was not soon or easily done. The days were longer than the nights and the winds of spring were softening and growing mild when they first saw, even from afar, their goal-

the #arrier, paled #y snow and distance, the wall across the continent from north to south. =alk stood still then, ga8ing at

the "ountains.

0High in the mountains lies Es Toch,0 Estrel said, ga8ing with him. 0There % hope we each shall find what we seek.0

0% often fear it more than % hope it$ ;et %/m glad to have seen the mountains.0

0e should go on from here.0

0%/ll ask the rince if he is willing that we go tomorrow.0

But #efore leaving her he turned and looked eastward at the desert land #eyond the rince/s gardens a while, as if

looking #ack across all the way he and she had come together.

He knew still #etter now how empty and mysterious a world men inha#ited in these later days of their history. =or days

on end he and his companion had gone and never seen one trace of human presence.Early in their :ourney they had gone cautiously, through the territories of the amsit and other Cattle4Hunter nations,

which Estrel knew to #e as predatory as the Basnasska. Then, coming to more arid country, they were forced to keep to

ways which others had used #efore, in order to find water2 still, when there were signs of people having recently passed, or

living near#y, Estrel kept a sharp lookout, and sometimes changed their course to avoid even the risk of #eing seen. he

had a general, and in places a remarka#ly specific, knowledge of the vast area they were crossing2 and sometimes when

the terrain worsened and they were in dou#t which direction to take, she would say, 0ait till dawn,0 and going a little

away would pray a minute to her amulet, then come #ack, roll up in her sleeping#ag and sleep serenely- and the way she

chose at dawn was always the right one. 0anderer/s instinct,0 she said when =alk admired her guessing. 0&nyway, so

long as we keep near water and far from human #eings, we are safe.0

But once, many days west of the cavern, following the curve of a deep stream4valley they came so a#ruptly upon a

settlement that the guards of the place were around them #efore they could run. Heavy rain had hidden any sight or sound

of the place #efore they reached it. hen the people offered no violence and proved willing to take them in for a day or

two, =alk was glad of it, for walking and camping in that rain had #een a misera#le #usiness.

This tri#e or people called themselves the Bee4+eepers.

& strange lot, literate and laser4armed, all clothed alike, men and women, in long shifts of yellow wintercloth marked

with a #rown cross on the #reast, they were hospita#le and uncommunicative. They gave the travelers #eds in their

#arrack4houses, long, low, flimsy #uildings of wood and clay, and plentiful food at their common ta#le2 #ut they spoke so

little, to the strangers and among themselves, that they seemed almost a community of the dum#. 0They/re sworn to

silence. They have vows and oaths and rites, no one knows what it/s all a#out,0 Estrel said, with the calm uninterested

disdain which she seemed to feel for most kinds of men. The anderers must #e proud people, =alk thought. But the Bee4

+eepers went her scorn one #etter- they never spoke to her at all. They would talk to =alk, 0)oes your she want a pair of

our shoes10—as if she were his horse and they had noticed she wanted shoeing. Their own women used male names, and

were addressed and referred to as men. 'rave girls, with clear eyes and silent lips, they lived and worked as men amongthe equally grave and so#er youths and men. =ew of the Bee4+eepers were over forty and none were under twelve. %t was

a strange community, like the winter #arracks of some army encamped here in the midst of utter solitude in the truce of

some une5plained war2 strange, sad, and admira#le. The order and frugality of their living reminded =alk of his =orest

<



home, and the sense of a hidden #ut flawless, integral dedication was curiously restful to him. They were so sure, these

#eautiful se5less warriors, though what they were so sure of they never told the stranger.

0They recruit #y #reeding captured savage women like sows, and #ringing up the #rats in groups. They worship

something called the )ead 'od, and placate him with sacrifice—murder. They are nothing #ut the vestige of some ancient

superstition,0 Estrel said, when =alk had said something in favor of the Bee4+eepers to her. =or all her su#missiveness she

apparently resented #eing treated as a creature of a lower species. &rrogance in one so passive #oth touched and

entertained =alk, and he teased her a little-

0ell, %/ve seen you at nightfall mum#ling to your amulet. *eligions differ$0

0%ndeed they do,0 she said, #ut she looked su#dued.

0ho are they armed against, % wonder10

0Their Enemy, no dou#t. &s if they could fight the hing. &s if the hing need #other to fight them@0

0;ou want to go on, don/t you10

0;es. % don/t trust these people. They keep too much hidden.0

That evening he went to take his leave of the head of the community, a gray4eyed man called Hiardan, younger perhaps

than himself. Hiardan received his thanks laconically, and then said in the plain, measured way the Bee4+eepers had, 0%

think you have spoken only truth to us. =or this % thank you. e would have welcomed you more freely and spoken to you

of things known to us, if you had come alone.0

=alk hesitated #efore he answered. 0% am sorry for that. But % would not have got this far #ut for my guide and friend.

&nd$ you live here all together, "aster Hiardan. Have you ever #een alone10

0eldom,0 said the other. 0olitude is soul/s death- man is mankind. o our saying goes. But also we say, do not put

your trust in any #ut #rother and hive4twin, known ince infancy. That is our rule. %t is the only safe one.00But % have no kinsmen, and no safety, "aster,0 =alk said, and #owing soldierly in the Bee4+eepers/ fashion, he took

his leave, and ne5t morning at day#reak went on westward with Estrel.

=rom tune to time as they went they saw other settlements or encampments, none large, all wide4scattered—five or si5

of them perhaps in three or four hundred miles. &t some of these =alk left to himself would have stopped. He was armed,

and they looked harmless- a couple of nomad tents #y an ice4rimmed creek, or a little solitary herd#oy on a great hillside

watching the half4wild red o5en, or, away off across the rolling land, a mere feather of #luish smoke #eneath the

illimita#le gray sky. He had left the =orest to seek, as it were, some news of himself, some hint of what he was or guide

towards what he had #een in the years he could not remem#er2 how was he to learn if he dared not risk asking1 But Estrel

was afraid to stop even at the tiniest and poorest of these prairie settlements. 0They do not like anderers,0 she said, 0nor

any strangers. Those that live so much alone are full of fear. %n their fear they would take us in and give us food and

shelter. But then in the night they would come and #ind and kill us. ;ou cannot go to them, =alk0—and she glanced at hiseyes—0and tell them I am your fellow%man& They know we are here2 they watch. %f they see us move on tomorrow they

won/t trou#le us. But if we don/t move on, or if we try to go to them, they/ll fear us. %t is fear that kills.0

ind#urned and travelweary, his hood pushed #ack so the keen, glowing wind from the red west stirred his hair, =alk

sat, arms across his knees, near their campfire in the lee of a kno##ed hill. 0True enough,0 he said, though he spoke

wistfully, his ga8e on that far4off wisp of smoke.

0erhaps that/s the reason why the hing kill no one.0

Estrel knew his mood and was trying to hearten him, to change his thoughts.

0hy/s that10 he asked, aware of her intent, #ut unresponsive.

0Because they are not afraid.0

0"ay#e.0 he had got him to thinking, though not very cheerfully. Eventually he said, 0ell, since it seems % must go

straight to them to ask my questions, if they kill me %/ll have the satisfaction of knowing that % frightened them$0Estrel shook her head. 0They will not. They do not kill.0

0(ot even cockroaches10 he inquired, venting the ill4temper of his weariness on her. 0hat do they do with

cockroaches, in their City—disinfect them and set them free again, like the *a8es you told me a#out10

0% don/t know,0 Estrel said2 she always took his questions seriously. 0But their law is reverence for life, and they do

keep the law.0

0They don/t revere human life. hy should they1—they/re not human.0

0But that is why their rule is reverence for all life—isn/t it1 &nd % was taught that there have #een no wars on Earth or

among the worlds since the hing came. %t is humans that murder one another@0

0There are no humans that could do to me what the hing did. % honor life, % honor it #ecause it/s a much more difficult

and uncertain matter than death2 and the most difficult and uncertain quality of all is intelligence. The hing kept their law

and let me live, #ut they killed my intelligence. %s that not murder1 They killed the man % was, the child % had #een. To

play with a man/s mind so, is that reverence1 Their law is a lie, and their reverence is mockery.0

&#ashed #y his anger, Estrel knelt #y the fire cutting up and skewering a ra##it he had shot. The dusty reddish hair

curled close to her #owed head2 her face was patient and remote. &s ever, she drew him to her #y compunction and desire.

<



Close as they were, yet he never understood her2 were all women so1 he was like a lost room in a great house, like a

carven #o5 to which he did not have the key. he kept nothing from him and yet her secrecy remained, untouched.

Enormous evening darkened. 3ver rain4drenched miles of earth and grass. The little flames of their fire #urned red4

gold in the clear #lue dusk.

0%t/s ready, =alk,0 said the soft voice.

He rose and came to her #eside the fire. 0"y friend, my love,0 he said, taking her hand a moment. They sat down side

#y side and shared their meat, and later their sleep.

&s they went farther west the prairies #egan to grow dryer, the air clearer. Estrel guided them southward for several

days in order to avoid an area which she said was, or had #een, the territory of a very wild nomad people, the Horsemen.

=alk trusted her :udgment, having no wish to repeat his e5perience with the Basnasska. 3n the fifth and si5th day of this

southward course they crossed through a hilly region and came into dry, high terrain, flat and treeless, forever windswept.

The gullies filled with torrents during the rain, and ne5t day were dry again. %n summer this must #e semidesert2 even in

spring it was very dreary.

&s they went on they twice passed ancient ruins, mere mounds and hummocks, #ut aligned in the spacious geometry of

streets and squares. =ragments of pottery, flecks of colored glass and plastic were thick in the spongy ground around these

places. %t had #een two or three thousand years, perhaps, since they had #een inha#ited. This vast steppe4land, good only

for cattle4gra8ing, had never #een resettled after the diaspora to the stars, the date of which in the fragmentary and falsified

records left to men was not definitely known.

0trange to think,0 =alk said as they skirted the second of these long4#uried towns, 0that there were children playing

here and$ women hanging out the washing$ so long ago. %n another age. =arther away from us than the worlds around a

distant star.00The &ge of Cities,0 Estrel said, 0the &ge of ar$% never heard tell of these places, from any of my people. e may

have come too far south, and #e heading for the )eserts of the outh.0

o they changed course, going west and a little north, and the ne5t morning came to a #ig river, orange and tur#ulent,

not deep #ut dangerous to cross, though they spent the whole day seeking a ford.

3n the western side, the country was more arid than ever. They had filled their flasks at the river, and as water had

#een a pro#lem #y e5cess rather than default, =alk thought little a#out it. The sky was clear now, and the sun shone all

day2 for the first time in hundreds of miles they did not have to resist the cold wind as they walked, and could sleep dry

and warm. pring came quick and radiant to the dry land2 the morning star #urned a#ove the dawn and wildflowers

#loomed under their steps. But they did not come to any stream or spring for three days after crossing the river.

%n their struggle through the flood Estrel had taken some kind of chill. he said nothing a#out it, #ut she did not keep

up her untiring pace, and her face #egan to look wan. Then dysentery attacked her. They made camp early. &s she lay #eside their #rushwood fire in the evening she #egan to cry, a couple of dry so#s only, #ut that was much for one who kept

emotion so locked within herself.

Gneasy, =alk tried to comfort her, taking her hands2 she was hot with fever.

0)on/t touch me,0 she said. 0)on/t, don/t. % lost it, % lost it, what shall % do10

&nd he saw then that the cord and amulet of pale :ade were gone from her neck.

0% must have lost it crossing the river,0 she said controlling herself, letting him take her hand.

0hy didn/t you tell me—0

0hat good10

He had no answer to that. he was quiet again, #ut he felt her repressed, feverish an5iety. he grew worse in the night

and #y morning was very ill. he could not eat, and though tormented #y thirst could not stomach the ra##it4#lood which

was all he could offer her to drink. He made her as comforta#le as he could and then taking their empty flasks set off tofind water.

"ile after mile of wiry, flower4speckled grass and clumped scru# stretched off, slightly rolling, to the #right ha8y edge

of the sky. The sun shone very warm2 desert larks went up singing from the earth. =alk went at a fast steady pace,

confident at first, then dogged, quartering out a long sweep north and east of their camp. !ast week/s rains had already

soaked deep into this soil, and there were no streams. There was no water. He must go on and seek west of the camp.

Circling #ack from the east he was looking out an5iously for the camp when, from a long low rise, he saw something

miles off to westward, a smudge, a dark #lur that might #e trees. & moment later he spotted the nearer smoke of the

campfire, and set off towards it at a :ogging run, though he was tired, and the low sun hammered its light in his eyes, and

his mouth was dry as chalk.

Estrel had kept the fire smoldering to guide him #ack. he lay #y it in her worn4out sleeping#ag. he did not lift her

head when he came to her.

0There are trees not too far to the west of here2 there may #e water. % went the wrong way this morning,0 he said,

getting their things together and slipping on his pack. He had to help Estrel get to her feet2 he took her arm and they set

off. Bent, with a #lind look on her face, she struggled along #eside him for a mile and then for another mile. They came up

<D



one of the long swells of land. 0There@0 =alk said2 0there—see it1 %t/s trees, all right—there must #e water there.0

But Estrel had dropped to her knees, then lain down on her side in the grass, dou#led up on her pain, her eyes shut. he

could not walk farther.

0%t/s two or three miles at most, % think. %/ll make a smudge4fire here, and you can rest2 %/ll go fill the flasks and come

#ack—%/m sure there/s water there, and it won/t take long.0 he lay still while he gathered all the scru#4wood he could and

made a little fire and heaped up more of the green wood where she could put it on the fire. 0%/ll #e #ack soon,0 he said, and

started away. &t that she sat up, white and shivering, and cried out, 0(o@ don/t leave me@ ;ou mustn/t leave me alone—you

mustn/t go—0

There was no reasoning with her. he was sick and frightened #eyond the reach of reason. =alk could not leave her

there, with the night coming2 he might have, #ut it did not seem to him that he could. He pulled her up, her arm over his

shoulder, half pulling and half carrying her, and went on.

3n the ne5t rise he came in sight of the trees again, seeming no nearer. The sun was setting away off ahead of them in

a golden ha8e over the ocean of land. He was carrying Estrel now, and every few minutes he had to stop and lay his #urden

down and drop down #eside her to get #reath and strength. %t seemed to him that if he only had a little water, :ust enough

to wet his mouth, it would not #e so hard.

0There/s a house,0 he whispered to her, his voice dry and whistling. Then again, 0%t/s a house, among the trees. (ot

much farther$0 This time she heard him, and twisted her #ody fee#ly and struggled against him, moaning, 0)on/t go

there. (o, don/t go there. (ot to the houses. *amarren mustn/t go to the houses. =alk—0 he took to crying out weakly in a

tongue he did not know, as if crying for help. He plodded on, #ent down under her weight.

Through the late dusk light shone out sudden and golden in his eyes- light shining through high windows, #ehind high

dark trees.& harsh, howling noise rose up, in the direction of the light, and grew louder, coming closer to him. He struggled on,

then stopped, seeing shadows running at him out of the dusk, making that howling, coughing clamor. Heavy shadow4

shapes as high as his waist encircled him, lunging and snapping at him where he stood supporting Estrel/s unconscious

weight. He could not draw his gun and dared not move. The lights of the high windows shone serenely, only a few

hundred yards away. He shouted, 0Help us@ Help@0 #ut his voice was only a croaking whisper.

3ther voices spoke aloud, calling sharply from a distance. The dark shadow4#easts withdrew, waiting. eople came to

him where, still holding Estrel against him, he had dropped to his knees. 0Take the woman,0 a man/s voice said2 another

said clearly, 0hat have we here1—a new pair of toolmen10 They commanded him to get up, #ut he resisted, whispering,

0)on/t hurt her—she/s sick—0

0Come on, then@0 *ough and e5peditious hands forced him to o#ey. He let them take Estrel from him. He was so di88y

with fatigue that he made no sense of what happened to him and where he was until a good while had passed. They gavehim his fill of cool water, that was all he knew, all that mattered.

He was sitting down. ome#ody whose speech he could not understand was trying to get him to drink a glassful of

some liquid. He took the glass and drank. %t was stinging stuff, strongly scented with :uniper. & glass—a little glass of

slightly clouded green- he saw that clearly, first. He had not drunk from a glass since he had left 6ove/s House. He shook

his head, feeling the volatile liquor clear his throat and #rain, and looked up.

He was in a room, —a very large room. & long e5panse of polished stone floor vaguely mirrored the farther wall, on

which or in which a great disk of light glowed soft yellow. *adiant warmth from the disk was palpa#le on his lifted face.

Halfway #etween him and the sunlike circle of light a tall, massive chair stood on the #are floor2 #eside it, unmoving,

silhouetted, a dark #east crouched.

0hat are you10

He saw the angle of nose and :aw, the #lack hand on the arm of the chair. The voice was deep, and hard as stone. Thewords were not in the 'alaktika he had now spoken for so long #ut in his own tongue, the =orest speech, though a

different dialect of it. He answered slowly with the truth.

0% do not know what % am. "y self4knowledge was taken from me si5 years ago. %n a =orest House % learned the way of

man. % go to Es Toch to try to learn my name and nature.0

0;ou go to the lace of the !ie to find out the truth1 Tools and fools run over weary Earth on many errands, #ut that

#eats all for folly or a lie. hat #rought you to my +ingdom10

0"y companion—0

0ill you tell me that she #rought you here10

0he fell sick2 % was seeking water. %s she—0

0Hold your tongue. % am glad you did not say she #rought you here. )o you know this place10

0(o.0

0This is the +ansas Enclave. % am its master. % am its lord, its rince and 'od. % am in charge of what happens here.

Here we play one of the great games. +ing of the Castle it/s called. The rules are very old, and are the only laws that #ind

me. % make the rest.0

<



The soft tame sun glowed from floor to ceiling and from wall to wall #ehind the speaker as he rose from his chair.

3verhead, far up, dark vaults and #eams held the unflickering golden light reflected among shadows. The radiance

silhouetted a hawk nose, a high slanting forehead, a tall, powerful, thin frame, ma:estic in posture, a#rupt in motion. &s

=alk moved a little the mythological #east #eside the throne stretched and snarled. The :uniper4scented liquor had

volatili8ed his thoughts2 he should #e thinking that madness caused this man to call himself a king, #ut was thinking rather

that kingship had driven this man mad.

0;ou have not learned your name, then10

0They called me =alk, those who took me in.0

0To go in search of his true name- what #etter way has a man ever gone1 (o wonder it #rought you past my gate. % take

you as a layer of the 'ame,0 said the rince of +ansas. 0(ot every night does a man with eyes like yellow :ewels come

#egging at my door. To refuse him would #e cautious and ungracious, and what is royalty #ut risk and grace1 They called

you =alk, #ut % do not. %n the game you are the 3palstone. ;ou are free to move. 'riffon, #e still@0

0rince, my companion—0

0—is a hing or a tool or a woman- what do you keep her for1 Be still, man2 don/t #e so quick to answer kings. % know

what you keep her for. But she has no name and does not play in the game. "y cow#oys/ women are looking after her, and

% will not speak of her again.0 The rince was approaching him, striding slowly across the #are floor as he spoke. 0"y

companion/s name is 'riffon. )id you ever hear in the old Canons and !egends of the animal called dog1 'riffon is a dog.

&s you see, he has little in common with the yellow yappers that run the plains, though they are kin. His #reed is e5tinct,

like royalty. 3palstone, what do you most wish for10

The rince asked this with shrewd, a#rupt geniality, looking into =alk/s face. Tired and confused and #ent on speaking

truth, =alk answered- 0To go home.00To go home$0 The rince of +ansas was #lack as his silhouette or his shadow, an old, :et#lack man seven feet tall

with a face like a sword#lade. 0To go home$0 He had moved away a little to study the long ta#le near =alk/s chair. &ll the

top of the ta#le, =alk now saw, was sunk several inches into a frame, and contained a network of gold and silver wires

upon which #eads were strung, so pierced that they could slip from wire to wire and, at certain points, from level to level.

There were hundreds of #eads, from the si8e of a #a#y/s fist to the si8e of an apple seed, made of clay and rock and wood

and metal and #one and plastic and glass and amethyst, agate, topa8, turquoise, opal, am#er, #eryl, crystal, garnet,

emerald, diamond. %t was a patterning4frame, such as 6ove and Buckeye and others of the House possessed. Thought to

have come originally from the great culture of )avenant, though it was now very ancient on Earth, the thing was a

fortune4teller, a computer, an implement of mystical discipline, a toy. %n =alk/s short second life he had not had time to

learn much a#out patterning4frames. Buckeye had once remarked that it took forty or fifty years to get handy with one2

and hers, handed down from old in her family, had #een only ten inches square, with twenty or thirty #eads$& crystal prism struck an iron sphere with a clear, tiny clink. Turquoise shot to the left and a dou#le link of polished

#one set with garnets looped off to the right and down, while a fire4opal #la8ed for a moment in the dead center of the

frame. Black, lean, strong hands flashed over the wires, playing with the :ewels of life and death. 0o,0 said the rince,

0you want to go home. But look@ Can you read the frame1 9astness. E#ony and diamond and crystal, all the :ewels of fire-

and the 3pal4stone among them, going on, going out. =arther than the +ing/s House, farther than the allwindow rison,

farther than the hills and hollows of +opernik, the stone flies among the stars. ill you #reak the frame, time/s frame1 ee

there@0

The slide and flicker of the #right #eads #lurred in =alk/s eyes. He held to the edge of the great patterning4frame and

whispered, 0% cannot read it$0

0This is the game you play, 3palstone, whether you can read it or not. 'ood, very good. "y dogs have #arked at a

#eggar tonight and he proves a prince of starlight. 3palstone, when % come asking water from your wells and shelterwithin your walls, will you let me in1 %t will #e a colder night than this——&nd a long time from now@ ;ou come from

very, very long ago. % am old #ut you are much older2 you should have died a century ago. ill you remem#er a century

from now that in the desert you met a +ing1 'o on, go on, % told you you are free to move here. There are people to serve

you if you need them.0

=alk found his way across the long room to a curtained portal. 3utside it in an anteroom a #oy waited2 he summoned

others. ithout surprise or servility, deferent only in that they waited for =alk to speak first, they provided him a #ath, a

change of clothing, supper, and a clean #ed in a quiet room.

Thirteen days in all he lived in the 'reat House of the Enclave of +ansas, while the last light snow and the scattered

rains of spring drove across the desert lands #eyond the rince/s gardens. Estrel, recovering, was kept in one of the many

lesser houses that clustered #ehind the great one. He was free to #e with her when he chose$ free to do anything he

chose. The rince ruled his domain a#solutely, #ut in no way was his rule enforced- rather it was accepted as an honor2 his

people chose to serve him, perhaps #ecause they found, in thus affirming the innate and essential grandeur of one person,

that they reaffirmed their own quality as men. There were not more than two hundred of them, cow#oys, gardeners,

makers and menders, their wives and children. %t was a very little kingdom. ;et to =alk, after a few days, there was no

>F



dou#t that had there #een no su#:ects at all, had he lived there quite alone, the rince of +ansas would have #een no more

and no less a prince. %t was, again, a matter of quality.

This curious reality, this singular validity of the rince/s domain, so fascinated and a#sor#ed him that for days he

scarcely thought of the world outside, that scattered, violent, incoherent world he had #een traveling through so long. But

talking on the thirteenth day with Estrel and having spoken of going, he #egan to wonder at the relation of the Enclave

with all the rest, and said, 0% thought the hing suffered no lordship among men. hy should they let him guard his

#oundaries here, calling himself rince and +ing10

0hy should they not let him rave1 This Enclave of +ansas is a great territory, #ut #arren and without people. hy

should the !ords of Es Toch interfere with him1 % suppose to them he is like a silly child, #oasting and #a##ling.

0%s he that to you10

0ell—did you see when the ship came over, yesterday10

0;es, % saw.0

&n aircar—the first =alk had ever seen, though he had recogni8ed its thro##ing drone—had crossed directly over the

house, up very high so that it was in sight for some minutes. The people of the rince/s household had run out into the

gardens #eating pans and clappers, the dogs and children had howled, the rince on an upper #alcony had solemnly fired

off a series of deafening firecrackers, until the ship had vanished in the murky west. 0They are as foolish as the Basnasska,

and the old man is mad.0

Though the rince would not see her, his people had #een very kind to her2 the undertone of #itterness in her soft voice

surprised =alk. 0The Basnasska have forgotten the old way of man,0 he said2 0these people may#e remem#er it too well.0

He laughed. 0&nyway, the ship did go on over.0

0(ot #ecause they scared it away with firecrackers, =alk,0 she said seriously, as if trying to warn him of something.He looked at her a moment. he evidently saw nothing of the lunatic, poetic dignity of those firecrackers, which

enno#led even a hing aircar with the quality of a solar eclipse. %n the shadow of total calamity why not set off a

firecracker1 But since her illness and the loss of her :ade talisman she had #een an5ious and :oyless, and the so:ourn here

which pleased =alk so was a trial to her. %t was time they left. 0% shall go speak to the rince of our going,0 he told her

gently, and leaving her there under the willows, now #eaded yellowgreen with leaf4#uds, he walked up through the

gardens to the great house. =ive of the long4legged, heavy4shouldered #lack dogs trotted along with him, an honor guard

he would miss when he left this place.

The rince of +ansas was in his throne4room, reading. The disk that covered the east wall of the room #y day shone

cool mottled silver, a domestic moon2 only at night did it glow with soft solar warmth and light. The throne, of polished

petrified wood from the southern deserts, stood in front of it. 3nly on the first night had =alk seen the rince seated on the

throne. He sat now in one of the chairs near the patterning4frame, and at his #ack the twenty4foot4high windows looking tothe west were uncurtained. There the far, dark mountains stood, tipped with ice.

The rince raised his sword#lade face and heard what =alk had to say. %nstead of answering he touched the #ook he

had #een reading, not one of the #eautiful decorated pro:ector4scrolls of his e5traordinary li#rary #ut a little handwritten

#ook of #ound paper. 0)o you know this Canon10

=alk looked where he pointed and saw the verse,

hat men fear

must #e feared.

3 desolation@

%t has not yet not yet

reached its limit@0% know it, rince. % set out on this :ourney of mine with it in my pack. But % cannot read the page to the left, in your

copy.0

0Those are the sym#ols it was first written in, five or si5 thousand years ago- the tongue of the ;ellow Emperor—my

ancestor. ;ou lost yours along the way1 Take this one, then. But you/ll lose it too, % e5pect2 in following the ay the way is

lost. 3 desolation@ hy do you always speak the truth, 3palstone10

0%/m not sure.0 %n fact, though =alk had gradually determined that he would not lie no matter whom he spoke to or how

chancy the truth might seem, he did not know why he had come to this decision. 0To—to use the enemy/s weapon is to

play the enemy/s game$0

03h, they won their game long ago.—o you/re off1 'o on, then2 no dou#t it/s time. But % shall keep your companion

here a while.0

0% told her % would help her find her people, rince.0

0Her people10 The hard, shadowy face turned to him. 0hat do you take her for10

0he is a anderer.0

0&nd % am a green walnut, and you a fish, and those mountains are made of roasted sheepshit@ Have it your way. peak

>7



the truth and hear the truth. 'ather the fruits of my flowery orchards as you walk westward, 3palstone, and drink the milk

of my thousand wells in the shade of giant ferntrees. )o % not rule a pleasant kingdom1 "irages and dust straight west to

the dark. %s it lust or loyalty that makes you hold to her10

0e have come a long way together.0

0"istrust her@0

0he has given me help, and hope2 we are companions. There is trust #etween us—how can % #reak it10

03h fool, oh desolation@0 said the rince of +ansas. 0%ll give you ten women to accompany you to the lace of the !ie,

with lutes and flutes and tam#ourines and contraceptive pills. %/ll give you five good friends armed with firecrackers. %/ll

give you a dog—in truth % will, a living e5tinct dog, to #e your true companion. )o you know why dogs died out1 Because

they were loyal, #ecause they were trusting. 'o alone, man@0

0% cannot.0

0'o as you please. The game here/s done.0 The rince rose, went to the throne #eneath the moon4circle, and seated

himself. He never turned his head when =alk tried to say farewell.

9%

%TH H% lone memory of a lone peak to em#ody the word 0mountain,0 =alk had imagined that as soon as they

reached the mountains they would have reached Es Toch2 he had not reali8ed they would have to clam#er over the roof4tree of a continent. *ange #ehind range the mountains rose2 day after day the two crept upward into the world of the

heights, and still their goal lay farther up and farther on to the southwest. &mong the forests and torrents and the cloud4

conversant slopes of snow and granite there was every now and then a little camp or village along the way. 3ften they

could not avoid these as there was #ut one path to take. They rode past on their mules, the rince/s princely gift at their

going, and were not hindered. Estrel said that the mountain people, living here on the doorstep of the hing, were a wary

lot who would neither molest nor welcome a stranger, and were #est left alone.

Camping was a cold #usiness, in &pril in the mountains, and the once they stopped at a village was a welcome relief. %t

was a tiny place, four wooden houses #y a noisy stream in a canyon shadowed #y great storm4wreathed peaks2 #ut it had a

name, Besdio, and Estrel had stayed there once years ago, she told him, when she had #een a girl. The people of Besdio, a

couple of whom were light4skinned and tawny4haired like Estrel herself, spoke with her #riefly. They talked in the

language which the anderers used2 =alk had always spoken 'alaktika with Estrel and had not learned this esterntongue. Estrel e5plained, pointing east and west2 the mountain people nodded coolly, studying Estrel carefully, glancing at

=alk only out of the corner of their eyes. They asked few questions, and gave food and a night/s shelter ungrudgingly #ut

with a cool, incurious manner that made =alk vaguely uneasy.

The cowshed where they were to sleep was warm, however, with the live heat of the cattle and goats and poultry

crowded there in sighing, odorous, peacea#le companionship. hile Estrel talked a little longer with their hosts in the

main hut, =alk #etook himself to the cowshed and made himself at home. %n the hayloft a#ove the stalls he made a

lu5urious dou#le #ed of hay and spread their #edrolls on it. hen Estrel came he was already half asleep, #ut he roused

himself enough to remark, 0%/m glad you came$ % smell something kept hidden here, #ut % don/t know what.0

0%t/s not all % smell.0

This was as close as Estrel had ever come to making a :oke, and =alk looked at her with a #it of surprise. 0;ou are

happy to #e getting close to the City, aren/t you10 he asked. 0% wish % were.0

0hy shouldn/t % #e1 There % hope to find my kinsfolk2 if % do not, the !ords will help me. &nd there you will find

what you seek too, and #e restored into your heritage.0

0"y heritage1 % thought you thought me a *a8e.0

0;ou1 (ever@ urely you don/t #elieve, =alk, that it was the hing that meddled with your mind1 ;ou said that once,

down on the plains, and % did not understand you then. How could you think yourself a *a8e, or any common man1 ;ou

are not Earth#orn@0

eldom had she spoken so positively. hat she said heartened him, concurring with his own hope, #ut her saying it

pu88led him a little, for she had #een silent and trou#led for a long time now. Then he saw something swing from a leather

cord around her neck- 0They gave you an amulet.0 That was the source of her hopefulness.

0;es,0 she said, looking down at the pendant with satisfaction. 0e are of the same faith. (ow all will go well for us.0

He smiled a little at her superstition, #ut was glad it gave her comfort. &s he went to sleep he knew she was awake,

lying looking into the darkness full of the stink and the gentle #reath and presence of the animals. hen the cock crowed #efore daylight he half4roused and heard her whispering prayers to her amulet in the tongue he did not know.

They went on, taking a path that wound south of the stormy peaks. 3ne great mountain #ulwark remained to cross, and

for four days they clim#ed, till the air grew thin and icy, the sky dark #lue, and the sun of &pril shone da88ling on the

><



fleecy #acks of clouds that gra8ed the meadows far #eneath their way. Then, the summit of the pass attained, the sky

darkened and snow fell on the naked rocks and #lanked out the great #are slopes of red and gray. There was a hut for

wayfarers in the pass, and they and their mules huddled in it till the snow stopped and they could #egin the descent.

0(ow the way is easy,0 Estrel said, turning to look at =alk over her mule/s :ogging rump and his mule/s nodding ears2

and he smiled, #ut there was a dread in him that only grew as they went on and down, towards Es Toch.

Closer and closer they came, and the path widened into a road2 they saw huts, farms, houses. They saw few people, for

it was cold and rainy, keeping people indoors under a roof. The two wayfarers :ogged on down the lonely road through the

rain. The third morning from the summit dawned #right, and after they had ridden a couple of hours =alk halted his mule,

looking questioningly at Estrel.

0hat is it, =alk10

0e have come—this is Es Toch, isn/t it10

The land had leveled out all a#out them, though distant peaks closed the hori8on all around, and the pastures and

plowlands they had #een riding through had given way to houses, houses and still more houses. There were huts, ca#ins,

shanties, tenements, inns, shops where goods were made and #artered for, children everywhere, people on the highway,

people on side4roads, people, afoot, on horses and mules and sliders, coming and going- it was crowded yet scanty, slack

and #usy, dirty, dreary and vivid under the #right dark sky of morning in the mountains.

0%t is a mile or more yet to Es Toch.0

Then what is this city10

0This is the outskirts of the city.0

=alk stared a#out him, dismayed and e5cited. The road he had followed so far from the house in the Eastern =orest had

#ecome a street, leading only too quickly to its end. &s they sat their mules in the middle of the street people glanced atthem, #ut none stayed and none spoke. The women kept their faces averted. 3nly some of the ragged children stared, or

pointed shouting and then ran, vanishing up a filth4encum#ered alley or #ehind a shack. %t was not what =alk had

e5pected2 yet what had he e5pected1 0% did not know there were so many people in the world,0 he said at last. 0They

swarm a#out the hing like flies on dung.0

0=ly4maggots flourish in dung,0 Estrel said dryly. Then, glancing at him, she reached across and put her hand lightly on

his. 0These are the outcasts and the hangers4on, the ra##le outside the walls. !et us go on to the city, the true City. e have

come a long way to see it$0

They rode on2 and soon they saw, :utting up over the shanty roofs, the walls of windowless green towers, #right in the

sunlight.

=alk/s heart #eat hard2 and he noticed that Estrel spoke a moment to the amulet she had #een given in Besdio.

0e cannot ride the mules inside the city,0 she said. 0e can leave them here.0 They stopped at a ramshackle pu#licsta#le2 Estrel talked persuasively a while in the estern tongue with the man who kept the place, and when =alk asked

what she had #een asking him she said, 0To keep our mules as surety.0

0urety10

0%f we don/t pay for their keep, he will keep them. ;ou have no money, have you10

0(o,0 =alk said hum#ly. (ot only did he have no money, he had never seen money2 and though 'alaktika had a word

for the thing, his =orest dialect did not.

The sta#le was the last #uilding on the edge of a field of ru##le and refuse which separated the shantytown from a

high, long wall of granite #locks. There was one entrance to Es Toch for people on foot. 'reat conical pillars marked the

gate. 3n the left4hand pillar an inscription in 'alaktika was carved- *E9E*E(CE =3* !%=E. 3n the right was a longer

sentence in characters =alk had never seen. There was no traffic through the gate, and no guard.

0The pillar of the !ie and the pillar of the ecret,0 he said aloud as he walked #etween them, refusing to let himself #eoverawed2 #ut then he entered Es Toch, and saw it, and stood still saying nothing.

The City of the !ords of Earth was #uilt on the two rims of a canyon, a tremendous cleft through the mountains,

narrow, fantastic, its #lack walls striped with green plunging terrifically down half a mile to the silver tinsel strip of a river

in the shadowy depths. 3n the very edges of the facing cliffs the towers of the city :utted up, hardly #ased on earth at all,

linked across the chasm #y delicate #ridgespans. Towers, roadways and #ridges ceased and the wall closed the city off

again :ust #efore a vertiginous #end of the canyon. Helicopters with diaphanous vanes skimmed the a#yss, and sliders

flickered along the half4glimpsed streets and slender #ridges. The sun, still not far a#ove the massive peaks to eastward,

seemed scarcely to cast shadows here2 the great green towers shone as if translucent to the light.

0Come,0 Estrel said, a pace ahead of him, her eyes shining. 0There/s nothing to fear here, =alk.0

He followed her. There was no one on the street, which descended #etween lower #uildings toward the cliff4edge

towers. 3nce he glanced #ack at the gate, #ut he could no longer see the opening #etween the pillars. 0here do we go10

0There/s a place % know, a house where my people come.0 he took his arm, the first time she had ever done so in all

the way they had walked together, and clinging to him kept her eyes lowered as they came down the long 8ig8ag street.

(ow to their right the #uildings loomed up high as they neared the city/s heart, and to the left, without wall or parapet, the

>>



di88y gorge dropped away full of shadows, a #lack gap #etween the luminous perching towers.

0But if we need money here—0

0They/ll look after us.0

eople #rightly and strangely dressed passed them on sliders2 the landing4ledges high up the sheer4walled #uildings

flickered with helicopters. High over the gorge an aircar droned, going up.

0&re these all$ hing10

0ome.0

Gnconsciously he was keeping his free hand on his laser. Estrel without looking at him, #ut smiling a little, said, 0)o

not use your lightgun here, =alk. ;ou came here to gain your memory, not to lose it0

0here are we going, Estrel10

0Here.0

0This1 This is a palace.0

The luminous greenish wall towered up windowless, featureless, into the sky. Before them a square doorway stood

open.

0They know me here. )on/t #e afraid. Come on with me.0

he clung to his arm. He hesitated. !ooking #ack up the street he saw several men, the first he had seen on foot,

loitering towards them, watching them. That scared him, and with Estrel he entered the #uilding, passing through inner

automatic portals that slid apart at their approach. ust inside, possessed #y a sense of mis:udgment, having made a

hideous error, he stopped. 0hat is this place1 Estrel—0

%t was a high hall, full of a thick greenish light, dim as an underwater cave2 there were doorways and corridors, down

which men approached, hurrying towards him. Estrel had #roken away from him. %n panic he turned to the doors #ehindhim- they were shut now. They had no handles. )im figures of men #roke into the hall, running at him and shouting. He

#acked up against the shut doors and reached for his laser. %t was gone. %t was in Estrel/s hands. he stood #ehind the men

as they surrounded =alk, and as he tried to #reak through them and was sei8ed, and fought and was #eaten, he heard for a

moment a sound he had never heard #efore- her laugh.

& disagreea#le sound rang in =alk/s ears2 a metallic taste filled his mouth. His head swam when he raised it, and his

eyes would not focus, and he could not seem to move freely. resently he reali8ed that he was waking from

unconsciousness, and thought he could not move #ecause he had #een hurt or drugged. Then he made out that his wrists

were shackled together on a short chain, his ankles likewise. But the swimming in his head grew worse. There was a great

voice #ooming in his ears now, repeating the same thing over and over- ramarren%ramarren%ramarren. He struggled and

cried out, trying to get away from the #ooming voice which filled him with terror. !ights flashed in his eyes, and through

the sound roaring in his head he heard someone scream in his own voice, 0% am not—0hen he came to again everything was utterly still. His head ached, and still he could not see very clearly2 #ut there

were no shackles on his arms and legs now, if there ever had #een any, and he knew he was #eing protected, sheltered,

looked after. They knew who he was and he was welcome. His own people were coming for him, he was safe here,

cherished, #eloved, and all he need do now was rest and sleep, rest and sleep, while the soft, deep stillness murmured

tenderly in his head, marren%marren%marren&

He woke. %t took a while, #ut he woke, and managed to sit up. He had to #ury his acutely aching head in his arms for a

while to get over the vertigo the movement caused, and at first was aware only that he was sitting on the floor of some

room, a floor which seemed to #e warm and yielding, almost soft, like the flank of some great #east. Then he lifted his

head, and got his eyes into focus, and looked a#out him.

He was alone, in the midst of a room so uncanny that it revived his di88iness for a while. There was no furniture. alls

floor and ceiling were all of the same translucent stuff, which appeared soft and undulant like many thicknesses of palegreen veiling, #ut was tough and slick to the touch. Iueer carvings and crimpings and ridges forming ornate patterns all

over the floor were, to the e5ploring hand, none5istent2 they were eye4deceiving paintings, or lay #eneath a smooth

transparent surface. The angles where walls met were thrown out of true #y optical4illusion devices of crosshatching and

pseudo4parallels used as decoration2 to pull the corners into right angles took an effort of will, which was perhaps an effort

of self4deception, since they might, after all, not #e right angles. But none of this teasing su#tlety of decoration so

disoriented =alk as the fact that the entire room was translucent. 9aguely, with the effect of looking into a depth of very

green pond4water, underneath him another room was visi#le. 3verhead was a patch of light that might #e the moon,

#lurred and greened #y one or more intervening ceilings. Through one wall of the room strings and patches of #rightness

were fairly distinct, and he could make out the motion of the lights of helicopters or air4cars. Through the other three walls

these outdoor lights were much dimmer, #lurred #y the veilings of further walls, corridors, rooms. hapes moved in those

other rooms. He could see them #ut there was no identifying them- features, dress, color, si8e, all was #lurred away. & #lot

of shadow somewhere in the green depths suddenly rose and grew less, greener, dimmer, fading into the ma8e of

vagueness. 9isi#ility without discrimination, solitude without privacy. %t was e5traordinarily #eautiful, this masked

shimmer of lights and shapes through inchoate planes of green, and e5traordinarily distur#ing. . &ll at once in a #righter

>?



patch on the near wall =alk caught a glimpse of movement. He turned quickly and with a shock of fear saw something at

last vivid, distinct- a face, a seamed, savage, staring face set with two inhuman yellow eyes.

0& hing,0 he whispered in #lank dread. The face mocked him, the terri#le lips mouthing soundlessly & hing, and he

saw that it was the reflection of his own face.

He got up stiffly and went to the mirror and passed his hand over it to make sure. %t was a mirror, half concealed #y a

molded frame painted to appear flatter than it actually was.

He turned from it at the sound of a voice. &cross the room from him, not too clear in the dim, even light from hidden

sources, #ut solid enough, a figure stood. There was no doorway visi#le, #ut a man had entered, and stood looking at him-

a very tall man, a white cape or cloak dropping from wide shoulders, white hair, clear, dark, penetrating eyes. The man

spoke2 his voice was deep and very gentle. 0;ou are welcome here, =alk. e have long awaited you, long guided and

guarded you.0 The light was growing #righter in the room, a clear, swelling radiance. The deep voice held a note of

e5altation. 0ut away fear and #e welcome among us, 3 "essenger. The dark road is #ehind you and your feet are set

upon the way that leads you home@0 The #rilliance grew till it da88led =alk/s eyes2 he had to #link and #link again, and

when he looked up, squinting, the man was gone.

There came un#idden into his mind words spoken months ago #y an old man in the =orest- The awful darkness of the

bright lights of s Toch.

He would not #e played with, drugged, deluded any longer. & fool he had #een to come here, and he would never get

away alive2 #ut he would not #e played with. He started forward to find the hidden doorway to follow the man. & voice

from the mirror said, 0ait a moment more, =alk. %llusions are not always lies. ;ou seek truth.0

& seam in the wall split and opened into a door2 two figures entered. 3ne, slight and small, strode in2 he wore #reeches

fitted with an ostentatious codpiece, a :erkin, a close4fitting cap. The second, taller, was heavily ro#ed and movedmincingly, posing like a dancer2 long, purplish4#lack hair streamed down to her waist—his waist, it must #e for the voice

though very soft was deep. 0e are #eing filmed, you know, trella.0

0% know,0 said the little man in Estrel/s voice. (either of them so much as glanced at =alk2 they #ehaved as if they were

alone. 0'o on with what you were a#out to say, +radgy.0

0% was a#out to ask you why it took you so long.0

0o long1 ;ou are un:ust, my !ord. How could % track him in the =orest east of horg1—it is utter wilderness. The

stupid animals were no help2 all they do these days is #a##le the !aw. hen you finally dropped me the man4finder % was

two hundred miles north of him. hen % finally caught up he was heading straight into Basnasska territory. ;ou know the

Council has them furnished with #om#irds and such so that they can thin out the anderers and the olia4pachim. o %

had to :oin the filthy tri#e. Have you not heard my reports1 % sent them in all along, till % lost my sender crossing a river

south of +ansas Enclave. &nd my mother in Besdio gave me another. urely they kept my reports on tape100% never listen to reports. %n any case, it was all time and risk wasted, since you did not in all these weeks succeed in

teaching him not to fear us.0

0Estrel,0 =alk said. 0Estrel@0

'rotesque and frail in her transvestite clothes, Estrel did not turn, did not hear. he went on speaking to the ro#ed man.

Choked with shame and anger =alk shouted her name, then strode forward and sei8ed her shoulder—and there was

nothing there, a #lur of lights in the air, a flicker of color, fading.

The door4slit in the wall still stood open, and through it =alk could see into the ne5t room. There stood the ro#ed man

and Estrel, their #acks to him. He said her name in a whisper, and she turned and looked at him. he looked into his eyes

without triumph and without shame, calmly, passively, detached and uncaring, as she had looked at him all along.

0hy—why did you He to me10 he said. 0hy did you #ring me here10 He knew why2 he knew what he was and

always had #een in Estrel/s eyes. %t was not his intelligence that spoke, #ut his self4respect and his loyalty, which could notendure or admit the truth in this first moment.

0% was sent to #ring you here. ;ou wanted to come here.0

He tried to pull himself together. tanding rigid, not moving towards her, he asked, 0&re you a hing10

0% am,0 said the ro#ed man, affa#ly smiling. 0% am a hing. &ll hing are liars. &m %, then, a hing lying to you, in

which case of course % am not a hing, #ut a non4hing, lying1 3r is it a lie that all hing lie1 But % am a hing, truly2 and

truly % lie. Terrans and other animals have #een known to tell lies also2 li8ards change color, #ugs mimic sticks and

flounders lie #y lying still, looking pe##ly or sandy depending on the #ottom which underlies them. trella, this one is

even stupider than the child.0

0(o, my !ord +radgy, he is very intelligent,0 Estrel replied, in her soft, passive way. he spoke of =alk as a human

#eing speaks of an animal.

he had walked #eside =alk, eaten with him, slept with him. he had slept in his arms$ =alk stood watching her,

silent2 and she and the tall one also stood silent, unmoving, as if awaiting a signal from him to go on with their

performance.

He could not feel rancor towards her. He felt nothing towards her. he had turned to air, to a #lur and flicker of light.

>A



His feeling was all towards himself- he was sick, physically sick, with humiliation.

'o alone, 3palstone, said the rince of +ansas. 'o alone, said Hiardan the Bee4+eeper. 'o alone, said the old !istener

in the forest. 'o alone, my son, said 6ove. How many others would have guided him aright, helped him on his quest,

armed him with knowledge, if he had come across the prairies alone1 How much might he have learned, if he had not

trusted Estrel/s guidance and good faith1

(ow he knew nothing, e5cept that he had #een measurelessly stupid, and that she had lied. he had lied to him from

the start, steadily, from the moment she told him she was a anderer—no, from #efore that- from the moment she had first

seen him and had pretended not to know who or what he was. he had known all along, and had #een sent to make sure he

got to Es Toch2 and to counteract, perhaps, the influence those who hated the hing had had and might have upon his

mind. But then why, he thought painfully, standing there in one room ga8ing at her in another, why had she stopped lying,

now1

0%t does not matter what % say to you now,0 she said, as if she had read his thoughts.

ossi#ly she had. They had never used mindspeech2 #ut if she was a hing and had the mental powers of the hing, the

e5tent of which was only a matter of rumor and speculation among men, she might have #een attuned to his thoughts all

along, all the weeks of their traveling. How could he tell1 There was no use asking her$

There was a sound #ehind him. He turned, and saw two people standing at the other end of the room, near the mirror.

They wore #lack gowns and white hoods, and were twice the height of ordinary men.

0;ou are too easily fooled,0 said one giant.

0;ou must know you have #een fooled,0 said the other.

0;ou are half a man only.0

0Half a man cannot know the whole truth.00He who hates is mocked and fooled.0

0He who kills is ra8ed and tooled.0

0here do you come from, =alk10

0hat are you, =alk10

0here are you, =alk10

0ho are you, =alk10

Both giants raised their hoods, showing that there was nothing inside #ut shadow, and #acked into the wall, and

through it, and vanished.

Estrel ran to him from the other room, flung her arms a#out him, pressing herself against him, kissing him hungrily,

desperately. 0% love you, % have loved you since % first saw you. Trust me, =alk, trust me@0 Then she was torn from him,

wailing, 0Trust me@0 and was drawn away as if pulled #y some mighty, invisi#le force, as if #lown #y a great wind,whirled a#out, #lown through a slit doorway that closed silently #ehind her, like a mouth closing.

0;ou reali8e,0 said the tall male in the other room, 0that you are under the influence of hallucinatory drugs.0 His

whispering, precise voice held an undertone of sarcasm and ennui. 0Trust yourself least of all. Eh10 He then lifted his long

ro#es and urinated copiously2 after which he wandered out, rearranging his ro#es and smoothing his long flowing hair.

=alk stood watching the greenish floor of the other room gradually a#sor# the urine till it was quite gone.

The sides of the door were very slowly drawing together, closing the slit. %t was the only way out of the room in which

he was trapped. He #roke from his lethargy and ran through the slit #efore it shut. The room in which Estrel and the other

one had stood was e5actly the same as the one he had left, perhaps a trifle smaller and dimmer. & slit4door stood open in

its far wall, #ut was closing very slowly. He hurried across the room and through it, and into a third room which was

e5actly like the others, perhaps a trifle smaller and dimmer. The slit in its far wall was closing very slowly, and he hurried

through it into another room, smaller and dimmer than the last, and from it squee8ed through into another small, dimroom, and from it crawled into a small dim mirror and fell upwards, screaming in sick terror, towards the white, seamed,

staring moon.

He woke, feeling rested, vigorous, and confused, in a comforta#le #ed in a #right, windowless room. He sat up, and as

if that had given a signal two men came hurrying from #ehind a partition, #ig men with a staring, #ovine look to them.

0'reetings !ord &gad@ 'reetings !ord &gad@0 they said one after the other, and then, 0Come with us, please, come with

us, please.0 =alk stood up, stark naked, ready to fight—the only thing clear in his mind at the moment was his fight and

defeat in the entrance hall of the palace—#ut they offered no violence. 0Come on, please,0 they repeated antiphonally,

until he came with them. They led him, still naked, out of the room, up a long #lank corridor, through a mirror4walled hall,

up a staircase that turned out to #e a ramp painted to look like stairs, through another corridor and up more ramps, and

finally into a spacious, furnished room with #luish4green walls, one of which was glowing with sunlight. 3ne of the men

stopped outside the room2 the other entered with =alk. 0There/s clothes, there/s food, there/s drink. (ow you—now you eat,

drink. (ow you—now you ask for need. &ll right10 He stared persistently #ut without any particular interest at =alk.

There was a pitcher of water on the ta#le, and the first thing =alk did was drink his fill, for he was very thirsty. He

looked around the strange, pleasant room with its furniture of heavy, glass4clear plastic and its windowless, translucent

>



walls, and then studied his guard or attendant with curiosity. & #ig, #lank4faced man, with a gun strapped to his #elt.

0hat is the !aw10 he asked on impulse.

3#ediently and with no surprise the #ig, staring fellow answered, 0)o not take life.0

0But you carry a gun.0

03h, this gun, it makes you all stiff, not dead,0 said the guard, and laughed. The modulations of his voice were

ar#itrary, not connected with the meaning of the words, and there was a slight pause #etween the words and the laugh.

0(ow you eat, drink, get clean. Here/s good clothes. ee, here/s clothes.0

0&re you a *a8e10

0(o. % am a Captain of the Bodyguard of the True !ords, and % key in to the (um#er Eight computer. (ow you eat,

drink, get clean.0

0% will if you leave the room.0

& slight pause. 03h yes, very well, !ord &gad,0 said the #ig man, and again laughed as if he had #een tickled. erhaps

it tickled when the computer spoke through his #rain. He withdrew. =alk could see the vague hulking shapes of the two

guards through the inner wall of the, room2 they waited one on either side of the door in the corridor. He found the

washroom and washed up. Clean clothes were laid out on the great soft #ed that filled one end of the room2 they were

loose long ro#es patterned wildly with red, magenta and violet, and he e5amined them with distaste, #ut put them on. His

#attered #ackpack lay on the ta#le of gold4mounted glassy plastic, its contents seemingly untouched, #ut his clothes and

guns were not in evidence. & meal was laid out, and he was hungry. How long had it #een since he had entered the doors

that closed #ehind him1 He had no idea, #ut his hunger told him it had #een some while, and he fell to. The food was

queer stuff, highly flavored, mi5ed, sauced, and disguised, #ut he ate it all and looked for more. There #eing no more, and

since he had done what he had #een asked to do, he e5amined the room more carefully. He could not see the vagueshadows of the guards on the other side of the semi4transparent, #luish4green wall any longer, and was going to investigate

when he stopped short. The #arely visi#le vertical slit of the door was widening, and a shadow moved #ehind it. %t opened

to a tall oval, through which a person stepped into the room.

& girl, =alk thought at first, then saw it was a #oy of si5teen or so, dressed in loose ro#es like those he wore himself.

The #oy did not come close to =alk, #ut stopped, holding out his hands palm upwards, and spouted a whole rush of

gi##erish.

0ho are you10

03rry,0 said the young man, 03rry@0 and more gi##erish. He looked frail and e5cited2 his voice shook with emotion.

He then dropped down on #oth knees and #owed his head low, a #odily gesture that =alk had never seen, though its

meaning was unmistaka#le- it was the full and original gesture, of which, among the Bee4+eepers and the su#:ects of the

rince of +ansas, he had seen certain vestigial remnants.0peak in 'alaktika,0 =alk said fiercely, shocked and uneasy. 0ho are you10

0% am Har43rry4rech4*amarren,0 the #oy whispered.

0'et up. 'et off your knees. % don/t—)o you know me10

0rech *amarren, do you not remem#er me1 % am 3rry, Har eden/s son—0

0hat is my name10

The #oy raised his head, and =alk stared at him—at his eyes, which looked straight into his own. They were of a gray4

am#er color, e5cept for the large dark pupil- all iris, without visi#le white, like the eyes of a cat or a stag, like no eyes =alk

had ever seen, e5cept in the mirror last night.

0;our name is &gad *amarren,0 the #oy said, frightened and su#dued.

0How do you know it10

0%—% have always known it, prech *amarren.00&re you of my race1 &re we of the same people10

0% am Har eden/s son, prech *amarren@ % swear to you % am@0

There were tears in the gray4old eyes for a moment. =alk himself had always tended to react to stress with a #rief

#linding of tears2 Buckeye had once reproved him for #eing em#arrassed #y this trait, saying it appeared to #e a purely

physiological reaction, pro#a#ly racial.

The confusion, #ewilderment, disorientation =alk had undergone0 since he had entered Es Toch now left him

unequipped to question and :udge this latest apparition. art of his mind said, That is e(actly what they want: they want

you confused to the !oint of total credulity. &t this point he did not know whether Estrel—Estrel whom he knew so well

and loved so loyally—was a friend or a hing or a tool of the hing, whether she had ever told him the truth or ever lied to

him, whether she had #een trapped here with him or had lured him here into a trap. He remem#ered a laugh2 he also

remem#ered a desperate em#race, a whisper$ hat then was he to make of this #oy, this #oy looking at him in awe and

pain with unearthly eyes like his own- would he turn if touched to a #lur of lights1 ould he answer questions with lies, or

truth1

&midst all illusions, errors and deceptions there remained, it seemed to =alk, only one way to take- the way he had

>



followed all along, from 6ove/s House on. He looked at the #oy again and told him the truth.

0% do not know you. %f % should remem#er you, % do not, #ecause % remem#er nothing longer ago than four or five

years.0 He cleared his throat, turned away again sat down on one of the tall spindly chairs, motioned for the #oy to do the

same.

0;ou $ do not remem#er erel10

0ho is erel10

03ur home. 3ur world.0

That hurt. =alk said nothing.

0)o you remem#er the—the :ourney here, prech *amarren10 the #oy asked, stammering. There was incredulity in his

voice2 he seemed not to have taken in what =alk had told him. There was also a shaken, yearning note, checked #y respect

or fear.

=alk shook his head.

3rry repeated his question with a slight change- 0;ou do remem#er our :ourney to Earth, prech *amarren10

0(o. hen was the :ourney10

0i5 Terran years ago.—=orgive me, please, prech *amarren. % did not know—% was over #y the California ea and

they sent an aircar for me, an automatic2 it did not say what % was wanted for. Then !ord +radgy told me one of the

E5pedition had #een found, and % thought—But he did not tell me this a#out your memory—;ou remem#er$ only$ only

the Earth, then10

He seemed to #e pleading for a denial. 0% remem#er only the Earth,0 =alk said, determined not to #e swayed #y the

#oy/s emotion, or his naivete, or the childish candor of his face and voice. He must assume that this 3rry was not what he

seemed to #e. But if he was1 I will not be fooled again, =alk thought #itterly. $es you will, another part of his mind retorted2 you will be fooled if

they want to fool you, and there is no way you can !revent it. If you ask no )uestions of this boy lest the answer be a lie,

then the lie !revails entirely, and nothing comes of all your *ourney here but silence and mockery and disgust. $ou came to

learn your name. +e gives you a name: acce!t it.

0ill you tell me who$ who we are10 The #oy eagerly #egan again in his gi##erish, then checked himself at =alk/s

uncomprehending ga8e. 0;ou don/t remem#er how to speak +elshak, prech *amarren10 He was almost plaintive.

=alk shook his head. 0+elshak is your native language10

The #oy said, 0;es,0 adding timidly, 0&nd yours, prech *amarren.0

0hat is the word for /father/ in +elshak10

0Hiowech. 3r wawa—for #a#ies.0 & flicker of an ingenuous grin passed over 3rry/s face.

0hat would you call an old man whom you respected100There are a lot of words like that—kinship words—revwa, kioinap, ska n4gehoy$ !et me think, prechna. % haven/t

spoken +elshak for so long$ & prechnoweg—a higher4level non4relative could #e tiokioi, or pre49iotio—0

0Tiokioi. % said the word once, not$ knowing where % learned it$0

%t was no real test. There was no test here. He had never told Estrel much a#out his stay with the old !istener in the

=orest, #ut they might have learned every memory in his #rain, everything he had ever said or done or thought, while he

was drugged in their hands this past night or nights. There was no knowing what they had done2 there was no knowing

what they could do, or would. !east of all could he know what they wanted. &ll he could do was go ahead trying to get at

what he wanted.

0&re you free to come and go here10

03h, yes, prech *amarren. The !ords have #een very kind. They have long #een seeking for any$ other survivors of

the E5pedition. )o you know, prechna, if any of the others$00% do not know.0

0&ll that +radgy had time to tell me, when % got here a few minutes ago, was that you had #een living in the forest in

the eastern part of this continent, with some wild tri#e.0

0%/ll tell you of that if you want to know. But tell me some things first. % do not know who % am, who you are, what the

E5pedition was, what erel is.0

0e are +elshy,0 the #oy said with constraint, evidently em#arrassed at e5plaining on so low a level to one he

considered his superior, in age of course, #ut also in more than age. 03f the +elshak (ation, on erel—we came here on

the ship #lterra —0

0hy did we come here10 =alk asked, leaning forward.

&nd slowly, with digressions and #acktrackings and a thousand question4interruptions, 3rry went on, till he was worn

out with talking and =alk with hearing, and the veil4like walls of the room were glowing with evening light2 then they

were silent for a while, and dum# servants #rought in food and drink for them. &nd all the time he ate and drank =alk kept

ga8ing in his mind at the :ewel that might #e false and might #e priceless, the story, the pattern, the glimpse—true vision

or not—of the world he had lost.

>D



9%%

& G( !%+E a dragon/s eye, orange4yellow, like a fire4opal with seven glittering pendants swinging slowly through

their long ellipses. The green third planet took si5ty of Earth/s years to complete its year- ucky the man who sees his

second s!ring, 3rry translated a prover# of that world. The winters of the northern hemisphere, tilted #y the angle of the

ecliptic away from the sun while the planet was at its farthest from the sun, were cold, dark, terri#le- the vast summers,

half a lifetime long, were measurelessly opulent. 'iant tides of the planet/s deep seas o#eyed a giant moon that took fourhundred days to wa5 and wane2 the world was rife with earthquakes, volcanoes, plants that walked, animals that sang, men

who spoke and #uilt cities- a catalogue of wonders. To this miraculous though not unusual world had come, twenty years

ago, a ship from outer space. Twenty of its great years, 3rry meant- something over twelve hundred Ter4ran years.

Colonists and hilfers of the !eague of &ll orlds, the people on that ship were committing their work and lives to the

new4found planet, remote from the ancient central worlds of the !eague, in the hope of #ringing its native intelligent

species eventually into the !eague, a new ally in the ar To Come. uch had #een the policy of the !eague ever since,

generations #efore, warnings had come from #eyond the Hyades of a great wave of conquerors that moved from world to

world, from century to century, closer toward the farflung cluster of eighty planets that so proudly called itself the !eague

of &ll orlds. Terra, near the edge of the !eague heart48one and the nearest !eague planet to the new4found planet erel,

had supplied all the colonists on this first ship. There were to have #een other ships from other worlds of the !eague, #ut

none ever came- the ar came first.The colonists/ only communications with Earth, with the rime orld )avenant, and the rest of the !eague, was #y the

ansi#le, the instantaneous transmitter, a#oard their ship. (o ship, said 3rry, had ever flown faster than light—here =alk

corrected him. arships had indeed #een #uilt on the ansi#le principle, #ut they had #een only automatic death4machines,

incredi#ly costly and carrying no living creatures. !ightspeed, with its foreshortening of time for the voyager, was the

limit of human voyaging, then and now. o the colonists of. erel were a very long way from home and wholly dependent

on their ansi#le for news. They had only #een on erel five years when they were informed that the Enemy had come, and

immediately after that the communications grew confused, contradictory, intermittent, and soon ceased altogether. &#out a

third of the colonists chose to take the ship and fly #ack across the great gap of years to Earth, to re:oin their people. The

rest stayed on erel, self4marooned. %n their lifetimes they could never know what had #ecome of their home world and

the !eague they served, or who the Enemy was, and whether he ruled the !eague or had #een vanquished. ithout ship or

communicator, isolated, they stayed, a small colony surrounded #y curious and hostile High %ntelligence !ife =orms of aculture inferior, #ut an intelligence equal, to their own. &nd they waited, and their sons/ sons waited, while the stars stayed

silent over them. (o ship ever came, no word. Their own ship must have #een destroyed, the records of the new planet

lost. &mong all the stars the little orange4yellow opal was forgotten.

The colony thrived, spreading up a pleasant sea4coast land from its first town, which was named &lterra. Then after

several years—3rry stopped and corrected himself, 0(early si5 centuries, Earth4style, % mean. %t was the Tenth ;ear of the

Colony, % think. % was :ust #eginning to learn history2 #ut =ather and$ and you, prech *amarren, used to tell me these

things, #efore we made the 9oyage, to e5plain it all to me$0 &fter several centuries, then, the colony had come onto hard

days. =ew children were conceived, still fewer #orn alive. Here again the #oy paused, e5plaining finally, 0% remem#er your

telling me that the &lterrans didn/t know what was happening to them, they thought it was some #ad effect of in#reeding,

#ut actually it was a sort of selection. The !ords, here, say it couldn/t have #een that, that no matter how long an alien

colony is esta#lished on a planet they remain alien. ith gene4manipulation they can #reed with natives, #ut the children

will always #e sterile. o % don/t know what it was that happened to the &lterrans—% was only a child when you and =ather

were trying to tell me the story—% do remem#er you spoke of selection towards a$ via#le type$ &nyhow, the colonists

were getting near e5tinction when what was left of them finally managed to make an alliance with a native erelian

nation, Tevar. They wintered4through together, and when the pring #reeding season came, they found that Tevarans and

&lterrans could reproduce. Enough of them, at least, to found a hy#rid race. The !ords say that is not possi#le. But %

remem#er you telling it to me.0 The #oy looked worried and a little vague.

0&re we descendants of that race10

0;ou are descended from the &lterra &gat, who led the colony through the inter of the Tenth ;ear@ e learned a#out

&gat even in #oy4school. That is your name, prech *amarren—&gad of Charen. % am of no such lineage, #ut my great4

grandmother was of the family Esmy of +iow—that is an &lterran name. 3f course, in a democratic society as Earth/s,

these distinctions are meaningless, aren/t they$10 &gain 3rry looked worried, as if some vague conflict was occurring in

his mind. =alk steered him #ack to the history of erel, filling out with guesses and e5trapolation the childish narrativethat was all 3rry could supply.

The new mi5ed stock and mi5ed culture of the Tevar4&lterran nation flourished in the years after that perilous Tenth

inter. The little cities grew2 a mercantile culture was esta#lished on the single north4hemisphere continent. ithin a few

>



generations it was spreading to the primitive peoples of the southern continents, where the pro#lem of keeping alive

through the winter was more easily solved. opulation went up2 science and technology #egan their e5ponential clim#,

guided and aided always #y the Books of &lterra, the ship/s li#rary, the mysteries of which grew e5plica#le as the

colonists/ remote descendants relearned lost knowledge. They had kept and copied those #ooks, generation after

generation, and learned the tongue they were written in—'alaktika, of course. =inally, the moon and sister4planets all

e5plored, the sprawl of cities and the rivalries of nations controlled and #alanced #y the powerful +elshak Empire in the

old (orthland, at the height of an age of peace and vigor the Empire had #uilt and sent forth a lightspeed ship.

That ship, the #lterra, left erel eighteen and a half years after the ship of the Colony from Earth landed- twelve

hundred years, Earth style. %ts crew had no idea what they would find on Earth. erel had not yet #een a#le to reconstruct

the principles of the ansi#le transmitter, and had hesitated to #roadcast radio4signals that would #etray their location to a

possi#le hostile world ruled #y the Enemy the !eague had feared. To get information living men must go, and return,

crossing the long night to the ancient home of the &lterrans.

0How long was that voyage10

03ver two erelian years—may#e a hundred and thirty or forty light4years—% was only a #oy, a child, prech

*amarren, and some things % didn/t understand, and much wasn/t told me—0

=alk did not see why this ignorance should em#arrass the lad2 he was much more struck #y the fact that 3rry, who

looked fifteen or si5teen, had #een alive for perhaps a hundred and fifty years. &nd himself1

The #lterra, 3rry went on, had left from a #ase near the old coast4town Tevar, her coordinates set for Terra. he had

carried nineteen people, men, women and children, +elshak for the most part and claiming Colonist descent- the adults

selected #y the Harmonious Council of the Empire for training, intelligence, courage, generosity, and arlesh.

0% don/t know a word for it in 'alaktika. %t/s :ust arlesh.0 3rry smiled his ingenuous smile. 0*ale is$ the right thing todo, like learning things at school, or like a river following its course, and arlesh derives from rale, % guess.0

0Tao10 asked =alk2 #ut 3rry had never heard of the 3ld Canon of "an.

0hat happened to the ship1 hat happened to the other seventeen people10

0e were attacked at the Barrier. The hing got there only after the #lterra was destroyed and the attackers were

dispersing. They were re#els, in planetary cars. The hing rescued me off one. They didn/t know whether the rest of us had

#een killed or carried off #y the re#els. They kept searching, over the whole planet, and a#out a year ago they heard a

rumor a#out a man living in the Eastern =orest—that sounded like it might #e one of us$0

0hat do you remem#er of all this—the attack and so on10

0(othing. ;ou know how lightspeed flight affects you—0

0% know that for those in the ship, no time passes. But % have no idea how that feels.0

0ell, % don/t really remem#er it very clearly. % was :ust a #oy—nine years old, Earth style. &nd %/m not sure any#odycould remem#er it clearly. ;ou can/t tell how—how things relate. ;ou see and hear, #ut it doesn/t hang together—nothing

means anything—% can/t e5plain it. %t/s horri#le, #ut only like a dream. But then coming down into planetary space again,

you go through what the !ords call the Barrier, and that #lacks out the passengers, unless they/re prepared for it. 3ur ship

wasn/t. (one of us had come to when we were attacked, and so % don/t remem#er it, any—any more than you, prech

*amarren. hen % came to % was a#oard a hing vessel.0

0hy were you #rought along as a #oy10

0"y father was the captain of the e5pedition. "y mother was on the ship too. ;ou know, otherwise, prech *amarren—

well, if one came #ack one/s people would all have #een dead, long long ago. (ot that it mattered—my parents are dead,

now, anyhow. 3r may#e they were treated like you, and$ and wouldn/t recogni8e me if we met$0

0hat was my part in the e5pedition10

0;ou were our navigator.0The irony of that made =alk wince, #ut 3rry went on in his respectful, naive fashion, 03f course, that means you set

the ship/s course, the coordinates—you were the greatest prosteny, a mathematician4astronomer, in all +elshy. ;ou were

prechnowa to all of us a#oard e5cept my father, Har eden. ;ou are of the Eighth 3rder, prech *amarren@ ;ou—you

remem#er something of that—10

=alk shook his head.

The #oy su#sided, saying at last, sadly, 0% can/t really #elieve that you don/t remem#er, e5cept when you do that.0

0hake my head10

03n erel we shrug for no. This way.0

3rry/s simplicity was irresisti#le. =alk tried the shrug2 and it seemed to him that he found a certain *ightness in it, a

propriety, that could persuade him that it was indeed an old ha#it. He smiled, and 3rry at once cheered up. 0;ou are so like

yourself, prech *amarren, and so different@ =orgive me. But what did they do, what did they do to make you forget so

much10

0They destroyed me. urely %/m like myself. % am myself. %/m =alk$0 He put his head in his hands. 3rry, a#ashed, was

silent. The quiet, cool air of the room glowed like a #lue4green :ewel around them2 the western wall was lam#ent with late

?F



sunlight.

0How closely do they watch you here10

0The !ords like me to carry a communicator if % go off #y aircar.0 3rry touched the #racelet on his left wrist, which

appeared to #e simple gold links. 0%t can #e dangerous, after all, among the natives.0

0But you/re free to go where you like10

0;es, of course. This room of yours is :ust like mine, across the canyon.0 3rry looked pu88led again. 0e have no

enemies here, you know, prech *amarren,0 he ventured.

0(o1 here are our enemies, then10

0ell—outside—where you came from—0

They stared at each other in mutual miscomprehension.

0;ou think men are our enemies—Terrans, human #eings1 ;ou think it was they that destroyed my mind10

0ho else10 3rry said, frightened, gaping.

0The aliens—the Enemy—the hing@0

0But,0 the #oy said with timid gentleness, as if reali8ing at last how utterly his former lord and teacher was ignorant

and astray, 0there never was an Enemy. There never was a ar.0

The room trem#led softly like a tapped gong to an almost su#4aural vi#ration, and a moment afterward a voice,

disem#odied, spoke- The -ouncil meets. The slit4door parted and a tall figure entered, stately in white ro#es and an ornate

#lack wig. The eye#rows, were shaven and repainted high2 the face, masked #y makeup to a matte smoothness, was that of

a husky man of middle age. 3rry rose quickly from the ta#le and #owed, whispering, 0!ord &#undi#ot.0

0Har 3rry,0 the man acknowledged, his voice also damped to a creaking whisper, then turned to =alk. 0&gad

*amarren. Be welcome. The Council of Earth meets, to answer your questions and consider your requests. Beholdnow . . .0 He had glanced at =alk only for a second, and did not approach either erelian closely. There was a queer air

a#out him of power and also of utter self4containment, self4a#sorption. He was apart, unapproacha#le. &ll three of them

stood motionless a moment2 and =alk, following the others/ ga8e, saw that the inner wall of the room had #lurred and

changed, seeming to #e now a depth of clear grayish :elly in which lines and forms twitched and flickered. Then the image

came clear, and =alk caught his #reath. %t was Estrel/s face, ten times lifesi8e. The eyes ga8ed at him with the remote

composure of a painting.

0% am trella io#el#el.0 The lips of the image moved, #ut the voice had no locality, a cold, a#stract whisper trem#ling

in the air of the room. 0% was sent to #ring to the City in safety the mem#er of the erel E5pedition said to #e living in the

East of Continent 3ne. % #elieve this to #e the man.0

&nd her face, fading, was replaced #y =alk/s own.

& disem#odied voice, si#ilant, inquired, 0)oes Har 3rry recogni8e this person10&s 3rry answered, his face appeared on the screen.

0This is &gad *amarren, !ords, the (avigator of the #lterra.

The #oy/s face faded and the screen remained #lank, quivering, while many voices whispered and rustled in the air,

like a #rief multitudinous discussion among spirits, speaking an unknown tongue. This was how the hing held their

Council- each in his own room, apart, with only the presence of whispering voices. &s the incomprehensi#le questioning

and replying went on, =alk murmured to 3rry, 0)o you know this tongue10

0(o, prech *amarren. They always speak 'alaktika to me.0

0hy do they talk this way, instead of face to face10

0There are so many of them—thousands and thousands meet in the Council of Earth, !ord &#undi#ot told me. &nd

they are scattered over the planet in many places, though Es Toch is the only city. That is +en +enyek, now.0

The #u88 of disem#odied voices had died away and a new face had appeared on the screen, a man/s face, with deadwhite skin, #lack hair, pale eyes. 0&gad *amarren, we are met in Council, and you have #een #rought into our Council,

that you may complete your mission to Earth and, if you desire, return to your home. The !ord elleu &#undi#ot will

#espeak you.0

The wall a#ruptly #lanked, returned to its normal translucent green. The tall man across the room was ga8ing steadily

at =alk. His lips did not move, #ut =alk heard him speak, not in a whisper now #ut clearly—singularly clearly. He could

not #elieve it was mind4speech, yet it could #e nothing else. tripped of the character and tim#re, the incarnateness of

voice, this was comprehensi#ility pure and simple, reason addressing reason.

0e mindspeak so that you may hear only truth. =or it is not true that we who call ourselves hing, or any other man,

can pervert or conceal truth in paraver#al speech. The !ie that men ascri#e to us is itself a lie. But if you choose to use

voicespeech do so, and we will do likewise.0

0% have no skill at #espeaking,0 =alk said aloud after a pause. His living voice sounded loud and coarse after the

#rilliant, silent mind4contact. 0But % hear you well enough. % do not ask for the truth. ho am % to demand the truth1 But %

should like to hear what you choose to tell me.0

;oung 3rry looked shocked. &#undi#ot/s face registered nothing at all. Evidently he was attuned to #oth =alk and 3rry

?7



—a rare feat in itself, in =alk/s e5perience—for 3rry was quite plainly listening as the telepathic speech #egan again.

0"en ra8ed your mind and then taught you what they wished you to know—what they wish to #elieve. o taught, you

distrust us. e feared it would #e so. But ask what you will, &gad *amarren of erel2 we will answer with the truth.0

0How long have % #een here10

0i5 days.0

0hy was % drugged and #efooled at first10

0e were attempting to restore your memory. e failed.0

/o not believe him, do not believe him, =alk told himself so urgently that no dou#t the hing, if he had any empathic

skill at all, received the message clearly. That did not matter. The game must #e played, and played their way, though they

made all the rules and had all the skill. His ineptitude did not matter. His honesty did. He was staked now totally on one

#elief- that an honest man cannot #e cheated, that truth, if the game #e played through right to the end, will lead to truth.

0Tell me why % should trust you,0 he said.

The mindspeech, pure and clear as an electronically produced musical. note, #egan again, while the sender &#undi#ot,

and he and 3rry, stood motionless as pieces on a chess#oard.

0e whom you know as hing are men. e are Terrans, #orn on Earth of human stock, as was your ancestor aco#

&gat of the =irst Colony on erel. "en have taught you what they #elieve a#out the history of Earth in the twelve

centuries since the Colony on erel was founded. (ow we—men also—will teach you what we know.

0(o Enemy ever came from distant stars to attack the !eague of &ll orlds. The !eague was destroyed #y revolution,

civil war, #y its own corruption, militarism, despotism. 3n all the worlds there were revolts, re#ellions, usurpations2 from

the rime orld came reprisals that scorched planets to #lack sand. (o more lightspeed ships went out into so risky a

future- only the =T!s, the missile4ships, the world4#usters. Earth was not destroyed, #ut half its people were, its cities, itsships and ansi#les, its records, its culture—all in two terri#le years of civil war #etween the !oyalists and the *e#els, #oth

armed with the unspeaka#le weapons developed #y the !eague to fight an alien enemy.

0ome desperate men on Earth, dominating the struggle for a moment #ut knowing further counter4revolt and

wreckage and ruin was inevita#le, employed a new weapon. They lied. They invented a name for themselves, and a

language, and some vague tales of the remote home4world they came from, and then they went spreading the rumor over

Earth, in their own ranks and the !oyalist camps as well, that the Enemy had come. The civil war was all due to the

Enemy. The Enemy had infiltrated everywhere, had wrecked the !eague and was running Earth, was in power now and

was going to stop the war. &nd they had achieved all this #y their one une5pecta#le, sinister, alien power- the power to

mindlie.

0"en #elieved the tale. %t suited their panic, their dismay, their weariness. Their world in ruins around them, they

su#mitted to an Enemy whom they were glad to #elieve supernatural, invinci#le. They swallowed the #ait of peace.0&nd they have lived since then in peace.

0e of Es Toch tell a little myth, which says that in the #eginning the Creator told a great lie. =or there was nothing at

all, #ut the Creator spoke, saying, %t e5ists. &nd #ehold, in order that the lie of 'od might #e 'od/s truth, the universe at

once #egan to e5ist$

0%f human peace depended on a lie, there were those willing to maintain the lie. ince men insisted that the Enemy had

come and ruled the Earth, we called ourselves the Enemy, and ruled. (one came to dispute our lie or wreck our peace2 the

worlds of the !eague are all sundered, the age of interstellar flight is past2 once in a century, perhaps, some ship from a far

world #lunders here, like yours. There are re#els against our rule, such as those who attacked your ship at the Barrier. e

try to control such re#els, for, rightly or wrongly, we #ear and have #orne for a millennium the #urden of human peace.

=or having told a great lie, we must now uphold a great law. ;ou know the law that we—men among men—enforce- the

one !aw, learned in humanity/s most terri#le hour.0The #rilliant toneless mindspeech ceased2 it was like the switching off of a light. %n the silence like darkness which

followed, young 3rry whispered aloud, 0*everence for !ife.0

ilence again. =alk stood motionless, trying not to #etray in his face or in his perhaps overheard thoughts the confusion

and irresolution he felt. as all he had learned false1 Had mankind indeed no Enemy1

0%f this history is the true one,0 he said at last, 0why do you not tell it and prove it to men10

0e are men,0 came the telepathic answer. 0There are thousands upon thousands of us who know the truth. e are

those who have power and knowledge, and use them for peace. There come dark ages, and this is one of them, all through

man/s history, when people will have it that the world is ruled #y demons. e play the part of demons in their

mythologies. hen they #egin to replace mythology with reason, we help them2 and they learn the truth.0

0hy do you tell me these things10

0=or truth/s sake, and for your own.0

0ho am % to deserve the truth10 =alk repeated coldly, looking across the room into &#undi#ot/s masklike face.

0;ou were a messenger from a lost world, a colony of which all record was lost in the ;ears of Trou#le. ;ou came to

Earth, and we, the !ords of Earth, failed to protect you. This is a shame and a grief to us. %t was men of Earth who

?<



attacked you, killed or mindra8ed all your company—men of Earth, of the planet to which, after so many centuries, you

were returning. They were re#els from Continent Three, which is neither so primitive nor so sparsely inha#ited as this

Continent 3ne2 they were using stolen interplanetary cars2 they assumed that any lightspeed ship must #elong to the

/hing,/ and so attacked it without warning. This we could have prevented, had we #een more alert. e owe to you any

reparation we can make.0

0They have sought for you and the others all these years,0 3rry put in, earnest and a little pleading2 o#viously he very

much wanted =alk to #elieve it all, to accept it, and to—to do what1

0;ou tried to restore my memory,0 =alk said. 0hy10

0%s that not what you came seeking here- your lost self10

0;es. %t is. But %$0 He did not even know what questions to ask2 he could neither #elieve nor dis#elieve all he had

#een told. There seemed to #e no standard to :udge it all #y. That 6ove and the others had lied to him was inconceiva#le,

#ut that they themselves were deceived and ignorant was certainly possi#le. He was incredulous of everything &#undi#ot

affirmed, and yet it had #een mindsent, in clear immediate mindspeech where lying was impossi#le—or was it possi#le1 %f

a liar says he is not lying—=alk gave it all up again. !ooking once more at &#undi#ot he said, 0lease do not #espeak me.

%—% would rather hear your voice. ;ou found, % think you said, that you could not restore my memory10

&#undi#ot/s muted, creaking whisper in 'alaktika came strangely after the fluency of his sending. 0(ot #y the means

we used.0

0By other means10

0ossi#ly. e thought you had #een given a para4hypnotic #lock. %nstead, you were mindra8ed. e do not know where

the re#els learned that technique, which we keep a close secret. &n even closer secret is the fact that a ra8ed mind can #e

restored.0 & smile appeared for a moment on the heavy, mask4like face, then disappeared completely. 0ith our psycho4computer techniques, we think we can effect the restoration in your case. However, this incurs the permanent total

#locking of the replacement4personality2 and this #eing so we did not wish to proceed without your consent.0

The replacement4personality$ %t meant nothing particular. hat did it mean1

=alk felt a little cold creep over him, and he said carefully, 0)o you mean that, in. order to remem#er what % was, %

must$ forget what % am10

0Gnfortunately that is the case. e regret it very much. The loss, however, of a replacement4personality of a few years/

growth is, though regretta#le, perhaps not too high a price to pay for the repossession of a mind such as yours o#viously

was, and, of course, for the chance of completing your great mission across the stars and returning at last to your home

with the knowledge you so gallantly came to seek.0

)espite his rusty, unused4sounding whisper, &#undi#ot was as fluent in speaking as in mindspeaking2 his words poured

out and =alk caught the meaning, if he caught it, only on the third or fourth #ounce$ 0The chance—of completing—10 herepeated, feeling a fool, and glancing at 3rry as if for support. 0;ou mean, you would send me—us—#ack to$ this planet

% am supposed to have come from10

0e would consider it an honor and a #eginning of the reparation due you to give you a lightspeed ship for the voyage

home to erel.0

0Earth is my home,0 =alk said with sudden violence. &#undi#ot was silent. &fter a minute the #oy spoke- 0erel is

mine, prech *amarren,0 he said wistfully. 0&nd % can never go #ack to it without you.0

0hy not10

0% don/t know where it is. % was a child. 3ur ship was destroyed, the course4computers and all were #lown up when we

were attacked. % can/t recalculate the course@0

0But these people have lightspeed ships and course4computers@ hat do you mean1 hat star does erel circle, that/s

all you need to know.00But % don/t know it.0

0This is nonsense.0 =alk #egan, pushed #y mounting incredulity into anger. &#undi#ot held up his hand in a curiously

potent gesture. 0!et the #oy e5plain, &gad *amarren,0 he whispered.

0E5plain that he doesn/t know the name of his planet/s sun10

0%t/s true, prech *amarren,0 3rry said shakily, his face crimson. 0%f—if you were only yourself, you/d know it without

#eing told. % was in my ninth moonphase—% was still =irst !evel. The !evels$ ell, our civili8ation, at home, it/s

different from anything here, % guess. (ow that % see it #y the light of what the !ords here try to do, and democratic ideals,

% reali8e it/s very #ackward in some ways. But anyhow, there are the !evels, that cut across all the 3rders and ranks, and

make up the Basic Harmony of—prechnoye$ % don/t know how to say it in 'alaktika. +nowledge, % guess. &nyway % was

on the =irst !evel, #eing a child, and you were Eighth !evel and 3rder. &nd each !evel has—things you don/t learn, and

things you aren/t told, and can/t #e told or understand, until you enter into it. &nd #elow the eventh !evel, % think, you

don/t learn the True (ame of the orld or the True (ame of the un—they/re :ust the world, erel, and the sun, prahan.

The True (ames are the old ones—they/re in the Eighth &nalect of the Books of &lterra, the #ooks of the Colony. They/re

in 'alaktika, so that they/d mean something to the !ords here. But % couldn/t tell them, #ecause % didn/t know2 all % know

?>



is/sun/ and /world,/ and that wouldn/t get me home—nor you, if you can/t remem#er what you knew@ hich sun1 hich

world1 3h, you/ve got to let them give you your memory #ack, prech *amarren@ )o you see10

0&s through a glass,0 =alk said, 0darkly.0

&nd with the words from the ;aweh Canon he remem#ered all at once, certain and vivid amidst his #ewilderment, the

sun shining a#ove the Clearing, #right on the windy, #ranch4em#owered #alconies of the =orest House. Then it was not his

name he had come here to learn, #ut the sun/s, the true name of the sun.

9%%%

THE T*&('E G(EE( Council of the !ords of Earth was over. %n parting &#undi#ot had said to =alk, 0The choice

is yours- to remain =alk, our guest on Earth, or to regain your heritage and complete your destiny as &gad *amarren of

erel. e wish that your choice #e made knowingly and in your own time. e await your decision and will a#ide #y it.0

Then to 3rry- 0"ake your kinsman free of the City, Har 3rry, and let all he and you desire #e known to us.0 The slit4door

opened #ehind &#undi#ot and he withdrew, his tall #ulky figure vanishing so a#ruptly outside the doorway that it seemed

to have #een flicked off. Had he in fact #een there in su#stance, or only as some kind of pro:ection1 =alk was not sure. He

wondered if he had yet seen a hing or only the shadows and images of the hing.

0%s there anywhere we can walk—out of doors10 he asked the #oy a#ruptly, sick of the indirect and insu#stantial ways

and walls of this place, and also, wondering how far their freedom actually e5tended.0&nywhere, prech *amarren. 3ut in the streets—or shall we take a slider1 3r there is a garden here in the alace.0

0& garden will do.0

3rry led him down a great, empty, glowing corridor and through a valve4door into a small room. 0The 'arden,0 he said

aloud, and the valve shut2 there was no sense of motion #ut when it opened they stepped out into a garden. %t was scarcely

out of doors- the translucent walls glimmered with the lights of the City, far #elow2 the moon, near full, shone ha8y and

distorted through the glassy roof. The place was full of soft moving lights and shadows, crowded with tropical shru#s and

vines that twined a#out trellises and hung from ar#ors, their masses of cream and crimson flowers sweetening the steamy

air, their leafage closing off vision within a few feet on every side. =alk turned suddenly to make sure that the path to the

e5it still lay clear #ehind him. The hot, heavy, perfumed silence was uncanny2 it seemed to him for a moment that the

am#iguous depths of the garden held a hint of something alien and enormously remote, the hues, the mood, the comple5ity

of a lost world, a planet of perfumes and illusions, of swamps and transformations$3n the path among the shadowy flowers 3rry paused to take a small white tu#e from a case and insert it endwise

#etween his lips, sucking on it eagerly. =alk was too a#sor#ed in other impressions to pay much heed, #ut as if slightly

em#arrassed the #oy e5plained, 0%t/s parJtha, a tranquillant—the !ords all use it2 it has a very stimulating effect on the

mind. %f you/d care to—0

0(o, thanks. There are some more things % want to ask you.0 He hesitated, however. His new questions could not #e

entirely direct. Throughout the 0Council0 and &#undi#ot/s e5planations he had felt, recurrently and uncomforta#ly, that the

whole thing was a performance—a !lay, such as he had seen on ancient telescrolls in the li#rary of the rince of +ansas,

the )reamplay of Hain, the mad old king !ir raving on a stormswept heath. But the curious thing was his distinct

impression that the play was not #eing acted for his #enefit, #ut for 3rry/s. He did not understand why, #ut again and again

he had felt that all &#undi#ot said to him was said to prove something to the #oy.

&nd the #oy #elieved it. %t was no play to him2 or else he was an actor in it.

03ne thing pu88les me,0 =alk said, cautiously. 0;ou told me that erel is a hundred and thirty or forty light4years from

Earth. There cannot #e very many stars at :ust that distance.

0The !ords say there are four stars with planets that might #e our system, #etween a hundred and fifteen and a hundred

and fifty light4years away. But they are in four different directions, and if the hing sent out a ship to search it could spend

up to thirteen hundred years realtime going to and among those four to find the right one.0

0Though you were a child, it seems a little strange that you didn/t know how long the voyage was to take—how old

you would #e when you got home, as it were.0

0%t was spoken of as/two years/, prech *amarren—that is, roughly a hundred and twenty Earth years—#ut it was clear

to me that that was not the e5act figure, and that % was not to ask the e5act figure.0 =or a moment, harking #ack thus to

erel, the #oy spoke with a touch of so#er resoluteness that he did not show at other times. 0% think that perhaps, not

knowing who or what they were going to find on Earth, the adults of the E5pedition wanted to #e sure that we children,

with no mindguard technique, could not give away erel/s location to an enemy. %t was safest for us to #e ignorant, perhaps.0

0)o you remem#er how the stars looked from erel—the constellations10

3rry shrugged for no, and smiled. 0The !ords asked that too. % was inter4#orn, prech *amarren. pring was :ust

??



#eginning when we left. % scarcely ever saw a cloudless sky.0

%f all this was true, then it would seem that in fact only he—his suppressed self, *amarren—could say where he and

3rry came from. ould that then e5plain what seemed almost the central pu88le, the interest the hing took in him, their

#ringing him here under Estrel/s tutelage, their offer to restore his memory1 There was a world not under their control2 it

had re4invented light4speed flight2 they would want to know where it was. &nd if they restored his memory, he could tell

them. %f they could restore his memory. %f anything at all of what they had told him was true.

He sighed. He was weary of this turmoil of suspicions, this plethora of unsu#stantiated marvels. &t moments he

wondered if he was still under the influence of some drug. He felt wholly inadequate to :udge what he should do. He, and

pro#a#ly this #oy, were like toys in the hands of strange faithless players.

0as he—the one called &#undi#ot—was he in the room :ust now, or was it a pro:ection, an illusion10

0% don/t know, prech *amarren,0 3rry replied. The stuff he was #reathing in from the tu#e seemed to cheer and soothe

him2 always rather childlike, he spoke now with #lithe ease. 0% e5pect he was there. But they never come close. % tell you

—this is strange—in this long time %/ve #een here, si5 years, % have never touched one of them. They keep very much

apart, each one alone. % don/t mean that they are unkind,0 he added hastily, looking with his clear eyes at =alk to make sure

he had not given the wrong impression. 0They are very kind. % am very fond of !ord &#undi#ot, and +en +enyek, and

arla. But they are so far—#eyond me—They know so much. They #ear so much. They keep knowledge alive, and keep

the peace, and #ear the #urdens, and so they have done for a thousand years, while the rest of the people of Earth take no

responsi#ility and live in #rutish freedom. Their fellow men hate them and will not learn the truth they offer. &nd so they

must always hold themselves apart, stay alone, in order to preserve the peace and the skills and knowledge that would #e

lost, without them, in a few years, among these warrior tri#es and Houses and anderers and roving canni#als.0

0They are not all canni#als,0 =alk said dryly.3rry/s well4learnt lesson seemed to have run out. 0(o,0 he agreed, 0% suppose not.0

0ome of them say that they have sunk so low #ecause the hing keep them low2 that if they seek knowledge the hing

prevent them, if they seek to form a City of their own the hing destroy it, and them.0

There was a pause. 3rry finished sucking on his tu#e of parJtha and carefully #uried it around the roots of a shru# with

long, hanging, flesh4red flowers. =alk waited for his answer and only gradually reali8ed that there was not going to #e one.

hat he had said simply had not penetrated, had not made sense to the #oy.

They walked on a little among the shifting lights and damp fragrances of the garden, the moon #lurred a#ove them.

0The one whose image appeared first, :ust now$ do you know her10

0trella io#el#el,0 the #oy answered readily. 0;es, % have seen her at Council "eetings #efore.0

0%s she a hing10

0(o, she/s not one of the !ords2 % think her people are mountain natives, #ut she was #rought up in Es Toch. "any people #ring or send their children here to #e #rought up in the service of the !ords. &nd children with su#normal minds

are #rought here and keyed into the psychocomputers, so that even they can share in the great work. Those are the ones the

ignorant call toolmen. ;ou came here with trella io#el#el, prech *amarren10

0Came with her2 walked with her, ate with her, slept with her. he called herself Estrel, a anderer.0

0;ou could have known she was not a hing—0 the #oy said, then went red, and got out another of his tranquillant4

tu#es and #egan sucking on it.

0& hing would not have slept with me10 =alk inquired. The #oy shrugged his erelian 0(o,0 still #lushing2 the drug

finally encouraged him to speak and he said, 0They do not touch common men, prech *amarren—they are like gods, cold

and kind and wise—they hold themselves apart—0

He was fluent, incoherent, childish. )id he know his own loneliness, orphaned and alien, living out his childhood and

entering adolescence among these people who held themselves apart, who would not touch him, who stuffed him withwords #ut left him so empty of reality that, at fifteen, he sought contentment from a drug1 He certainly did not know his

isolation as such—he did not seem to have clear ideas on anything much—#ut it looked from his eyes sometimes,

yearning, at =alk. ;earning and fee#ly hoping, the look of one perishing of thirst in a dry salt desert who looks up at a

mirage. There was much more =alk wanted to ask him, #ut little use in asking. itying him, =alk put his hand on 3rry/s

slender shoulder. The #oy started at the touch, smiled timidly and vaguely, and sucked again at his tranquillant.

Back in his room, where everything was so lu5uriously arranged for his comfort—and to impress 3rry1—=alk paced a

while like a caged #ear, and finally lay down to sleep. %n his dreams he was in a house, like the =orest House, #ut the

people in the dream house had eyes the color of agate and am#er. He tried to tell them he was one of them, their own

kinsman, #ut they did not understand his speech and watched him strangely while he stammered and sought for the right

words, the true words, the true name.

Toolmen waited to serve him when he woke. He dismissed them, and they left. He went out into the hall. (o one

#arred his way2 he met no one as he went on. %t all seemed deserted, no one stirring in the long misty corridors or on the

ramps or inside the half4seen, dim4walled rooms whose doors he could not find. ;et all the time he felt he was #eing

watched, that every move he made was seen.

?A



hen he found his way #ack to his room 3rry was waiting for him, wanting to show him a#out the city. &ll afternoon

they e5plored, on foot and on a paristolis slider, the streets and terraced gardens, the #ridges and palaces and dwellings of

Es Toch. 3rry was li#erally provided with the slips of iridium that served as money, and when =alk remarked that he did

not like the fancy4dress his hosts had provided him, 3rry insisted they go to a clothier/s shop and outfit him as he wished.

He stood among racks and ta#les of gorgeous cloth, woven and plastiformed, da88ling with #right patterned colors2 he

thought of arth weaving at her small loom in the sunlight, a pattern of white cranes on gray. 0% will weave #lack cloth to

wear,0 she had said, and remem#ering that he chose, from all the lovely rain#ow of ro#es and gowns and clothing, #lack

#reeches and dark shirt and a short #lack cloak of wintercloth.

0Those are a little like our clothes at home—on erel,0 3rry said, looking dou#tfully for a moment at his own flame4

red tunic. 03nly we had no wintercloth there. 3h, there would #e so much we could take #ack from Earth to erel, to tell

them and teach them, if we could go@0

They went on to an eating4place #uilt out on a transparent shelf over the gorge. &s the cold, #right evening of the high

mountains darkened the a#yss under them, the #uildings that sprang up from its edges glowed iridescent and the streets

and hanging #ridges #la8ed with lights. "usic undulated in the air a#out them as they ate the spice4disguised foods and

watched the crowds of the city come and go.

ome of the people who walked in Es Toch were dressed poorly, some lavishly, many in the transvestite, gaudy apparel

that =alk vaguely remem#ered seeing Estrel wear. There were many physical types, some different from any =alk had ever

seen. 3ne group was whitish4skinned, with #lue eyes and hair like straw. =alk thought they had #leached themselves

somehow, #ut 3rry e5plained they were tri#esmen from an area on Continent two, whose culture was #eing encouraged #y

the hing, who #rought their leaders and young people here #y air4car to see Es Toch and learn its ways. 0;ou see, prech

*amarren, it is not true that the !ords refuse to teach the natives—it is the natives who refuse to learn. These white onesare sharing the !ords/ knowledge.0

0&nd what have they forgotten, to earn that pri8e10 =alk asked, #ut the question meant nothing to 3rry. He knew

almost nothing of any of the 0natives,0 how they lived or what they knew. hopkeepers and waiters he treated with

condescension, pleasantly, as a man among inferiors. This arrogance he might have #rought from erel2 he descri#ed

+elshak society as hierarchic, intensely conscious of each person/s place on a scale or in an order, though what esta#lished

the order, what values it was founded on, =alk did not understand. %t was not mere #irth4ranking, #ut 3rry/s childish

memories did not suffice to give a clear picture. However that might #e, =alk disliked the tone of the word 0natives0 in

3rry/s mouth, and he finally asked with a trace of irony, 0How do you know which you should #ow to and which should

#ow to you1 % can/t tell !ords from (atives. The !ords are natives—aren/t they10

03h, yes. The natives call themselves that, #ecause they insist the !ords are alien conquerors. % can/t always tell them

apart either,0 the #oy said with his vague, engaging, ingenuous smile. 0"ost of these people in the streets are hing100% suppose so. 3f course % only know a few #y sight.0

0% don/t understand what keeps the !ords, the hing, apart from the natives, if they are all Terran men together.0

0hy, knowledge, power—the !ords have #een ruling Earth for longer than the achinowao have #een ruling +elshy@0

0But they keep themselves a caste apart1 ;ou said the !ords #elieve in democracy.0 %t was an antique word and had

struck him when 3rry used it2 he was not sure of its meaning #ut knew it had to do with general participation in

government.

0;es, certainly, prech *amarren. The Council rules democratically for the good of all, and there is no king or dictator.

hall we go to a parJtha4hall1 They have stimulants, if you don/t care for parJtha, and dancers and tean#4players—0

0)o you like music10

0(o,0 the #oy said with apologetic candor. 0%t makes me want to weep or scream. 3f course on erel only animals and

little children sing. %t is—it seems wrong to hear grown men do it. But the !ords like to encourage the native arts. &nd thedancing, sometimes that/s very pretty$0

0(o.0 & restlessness was rising strong in =alk, a will to see the thing through and #e done with it. 0% have a question for

that one called &#undi#ot, if he will see us.0

0urely. He was my teacher for a long time2 % can call him with this.0 3rry raised toward his mouth the gold4link

#racelet on his wrist. hile he spoke into it =alk sat remem#ering Estrel/s muttered prayers to her amulet and marveling at

his own vast o#tuseness. &ny fool might have guessed the thing was a transmitter2 any fool #ut this one$ 0!ord

&#undi#ot says to come as soon as we please. He is in the East alace,0 3rry announced, and they left, 3rry tossing a slip

of money to the #owing waiter who saw them out.

pring thunderclouds had hidden stars and moon, #ut the streets #la8ed with light. =alk went through them with a

heavy heart. )espite all his fears he had longed to see the city, elonaae, the lace of "en- #ut it only worried and wearied

him. %t was not the crowds that #othered him, though he had never in his memory seen more than ten houses or a hundred

people together. %t was not the reality of the city that was overwhelming, #ut its unreality. This was not a lace of "en. Es

Toch gave no sense of history, of reaching #ack in time and out in space, though it had ruled the world for a millennium.

There were none of the li#raries, schools, museums which ancient telescrolls in 6ove/s House had led him to look for2

?



there were no monuments or reminders of the 'reat &ge of "an2 there was no flow of learning or of goods. The money

used was a mere largesse of the hing, for there was no economy to give the place a true vitality of its own. Though there

were said to #e so many of the !ords, yet on Earth they kept only this one city, held apart, as Earth itself was held apart

from the other worlds that once had formed the !eague. Es Toch was self4contained, self4nourished, rootless2 all its

#rilliance and transcience of lights and machines and faces, its multiplicity of strangers, its lu5urious comple5ity was #uilt

across a chasm in the ground, a hollow place. %t was the lace of the !ie. ;et it was wonderful, like a carved :ewel fallen in

the vast wilderness of the Earth- wonderful, timeless, alien.

Their slider #ore them over one of the swooping rail4less #ridges towards a luminous tower. The river far #elow ran

invisi#le in darkness2 the mountains were hidden #y night and storm and the city/s glare. Toolmen met =alk and 3rry at the

entrance to the tower, ushered them into a valve4elevator and thence into a room whose walls, windowless and translucent

as always, seemed made of #luish, sparkling mist. They were asked to #e seated, and were served tall silver cups of some

drink. =alk tasted it gingerly and was surprised to find it the same :uniper4flavored liquor he had once #een given in the

Enclave of +ansas. He knew it was a strong into5icant and drank no more2 #ut 3rry swigged his down with relish.

&#undi#ot entered, tall, white4ro#ed, mask4faced, dismissing the toolmen with a slight gesture. He stopped at some

distance from =alk and 3rry. The toolmen had left a third silver cup on the little stand. He raised it as if in salute, drank it

right off, and then said in his dry whispering voice, 0;ou do not drink, !ord *amarren. There is an old, old saying on

Earth- %n wine is truth.0 He smiled and ceased smiling. 0But your thirst is for the truth, not for the wine, perhaps.0

0There is a question % wish to ask you.0

03nly one10 The note of mockery seemed clear to =alk, so clear that he glanced at 3rry to see if he had caught it. But

the #oy, sucking on another tu#e of parJtha, his gray4gold eyes lowered, had caught nothing.

0% should prefer to speak to you alone, for a moment,0 =alk said a#ruptly.&t that 3rry looked up, pu88led2 the hing said, 0;ou may, of course. %t will make no difference, however, to my

answer, if Har 3rry is here or not here. There is nothing we keep from him that we might tell you, as there is nothing we

might tell him and keep from you. %f you prefer that he leave, however, it shall #e so.0

0ait for me in the hall, 3rry,0 =alk said2 docile, the #oy went out. hen the vertical lips of the door had closed

#ehind him, =alk said—whispered, rather, #ecause everyone whispered here—% wished to repeat what % asked you #efore.

% am not sure % understood. ;ou can restore my earlier memory only at the cost of my present memory—is that true10

0hy do you ask me what is true1 ill you #elieve it10

0hy—why should % not #elieve it10 =alk replied, #ut his heart sank, for he felt the hing was playing with him, as

with a creature totally incompetent and powerless.

0&re we not the !iars1 ;ou must not #elieve anything we say. That is what you were taught in 6ove/s House, that is

what you think. e know what you think.00Tell me what % ask,0 =alk said, knowing the futility of his stu##ornness.

0% will tell you what % told you #efore, and as #est % can, though it is +en +enyek who knows these matters #est. He is

our most skilled mindhandler. )o you wish me to call him1—no dou#t he will #e willing to pro:ect to us here. (o1 %t does

not matter, of course. Crudely e5pressed, the answer to your question is this- ;our mind was, as we say, ra8ed. "indra8ing

is an operation, not a surgical one of course, #ut a paramental one involving psychoelectric equipment, the effects of

which are much more a#solute than those of any mere hypnotic #lock. The restoration of a ra8ed mind is possi#le, #ut is a

much more drastic matter, accordingly, than the removal of a hypnotic #lock. hat is in question, to you, at this moment,

is a secondary, super4added, partial memory and personality4structure, which you now call your /self./ This is, of course,

not the case. !ooked at impartially, this second4growth self of yours is a mere rudiment, emotionally stunted and

intellectually incompetent, compared to the true self which lies so deeply hidden. &s we cannot and do not e5pect you to

#e a#le to look at it impartially, however, we wish we could assure you that the restoration of *amarren will include thecontinuity of =alk. &nd we have #een tempted to lie to you a#out this, to spare you fear and dou#t and make your decision

easy. But it is #est that you know the truth2 we would not have it otherwise, nor, % think, would you. The truth is this- when

we restore to its normal condition and function the synaptic totality of your original mind, if % may so simplify the

incredi#ly comple5 operation which +en +enyek and his psychocomputers are ready to perform, this restoration will

entail the total #locking of the secondary synaptic totality which you now consider to #e your mind and self. This

secondary totality will #e irrecovera#ly suppressed- ra8ed in its turn.0

0To revive *amarren you must kill =alk, then.0

0e do not kill,0 the hing said in his harsh whisper, then repeated it with #la8ing intensity in mindspeech— We do

not kill0

There was a pause.

0To gain the great you must give up the less. %t is always the rule,0 the hing whispered.

0To live one must agree to die,0 =alk said, and saw the mask4face wince. 09ery well. % agree. % consent to let you kill

me. "y consent does not really matter, does it1—yet you want it.0

0e will not kill you.0 The whisper was louder. 0e do not kill. e do not take life. e are restoring you to your true

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life and #eing. 3nly you must forget. That is the price2 there is not any choice or dou#t- to #e *amarren you must forget

=alk. To this you must consent, indeed, #ut it is all we ask.0

0'ive me one day more,0 =alk said, and then rose, ending the conversation. He had lost2 he was powerless. &nd yet he

had made the mask wince, he had touched, for a moment, the very quick of the lie2 and in that moment he had sensed that,

had he the wits or strength to reach it, the truth lay very close at hand.

=alk left the #uilding with 3rry, and when they were in the street he said, 0Come with me a minute. % want to speak

with you outside those walls.0 They crossed the #right street to the edge of the cliff and stood side #y side there in the cold

night4wind of spring, the lights of the #ridge shooting on out past them, over the #lack chasm that dropped sheer away

from the street/s edge.

0hen % was *amarren,0 =alk said slowly, 0had % the right to ask a service of you10

0&ny service,0 the #oy answered with the so#er promptness that seemed to hark #ack to his early training on erel.

=alk looked straight at him, holding his ga8e a moment. He pointed to the #racelet of gold links on 3rry/s wrist, and

with a gesture indicated that he should slip it off and toss it into the gorge.

3rry #egan to speak- =alk put his finger to his lips.

The #oy/s ga8e flickered2 he hesitated, then slipped the chain off and cast it down into the dark. Then he turned again to

=alk his face in which fear, confusion, and the longing for approval were clear to see.

=or the first time, =alk #espoke him in mindspeech- 0)o you wear any other device or ornament, 3rry10

&t first the #oy did not understand. =alk/s sending was inept and weak compared to that of the hing. hen he did at

last understand, he replied paraver#ally, with great clarity, 0(o, only the communicator. hy did you #id me throw it

away10

0% wish to speak with no listener #ut you, 3rry.0The #oy looked awed and scared. 0The !ords can hear,0 he whispered aloud. 0They can hear mindspeech anywhere,

prech *amarren—and % had only #egun my training in mindguarding—0

0Then we/ll speak aloud,0 =alk said, though he dou#ted that the hing could overhear mindspeech 0anywhere,0 without

mechanical aid of some land. 0This is what % wish to ask you. These !ords of Es Toch #rought me here, it seems, to restore

my memory as *amarren. But they can do it, or will do it, only at the cost of my memory of myself as % am now, and all %

have learned on Earth. This they insist upon. % do not wish it to #e so. % do not wish to forget what % know and guess, and

#e an ignorant tool in their hands. % do not wish to die again #efore my death@ % don/t think % can withstand them, #ut % will

try, and the service % ask of you is this—0 He stopped, hesitant among choices, for he had not worked out his plan at all.

3rry/s face, which had #een e5cited, now dulled with confusion again, and finally he said, 0But why$0

0ell10 =alk said, seeing the authority he had #riefly e5erted over the #oy evaporate. till, he had shocked 3rry into

asking 0hy10 and if he was ever to get through to the #oy, it would #e right now.0hy do you mistrust the !ords1 hy should they want to suppress your memory of Earth10

0Because *amarren does not know what % know. (or do you. &nd our ignorance may #etray the world that sent us

here.0

0But you$ you don/t even remem#er our world$0

0(o. But % will not serve the !iars who rule this one. !isten to me. This is all % can guess of what they want. They will

restore my former mind in order to learn the true name, the location of our home world. %f they learn it while they are

working on my mind, then % think they/ll kill me then and there, and tell you that the operation was fatal2 or ra8e my mind

once more and tell you that the operation was a failure. %f not, they/ll let me live, at least until % tell them what they want to

know. &nd % won/t know enough, as *amarren, not to tell them. Then they/ll send us #ack to erel—sole survivors of the

great :ourney, returning after centuries to tell erel how, on dark #ar#aric Earth, the hing #ravely hold the torch of

civili8ation alight. The hing who are no man/s Enemy, the self4sacrificing !ords, the wise !ords who are really men ofEarth, not aliens or conquerors. e will tell erel all a#out the friendly hing. &nd they/ll #elieve us. They will #elieve

the lies we #elieve. &nd so they will fear no attack from the hing2 and they will not send help to the men of Earth, the

true men who await deliverance from the lie.0

0But prech *amarren, those are not lies,0 3rry said.

=alk looked at him a minute in the diffuse, #right, shifting light. His heart sank, #ut he said finally, 0ill you do the

service % asked of you10

0;es,0 the #oy whispered.

0ithout telling any other living #eing what it is10

0;es.0

0%t is simply this. hen you first see me as *amarren—if you ever do—then say to me these words- *ead the first

page of the #ook.0

0/*ead the first page of the #ook,/0 3rry repeated, docile.

There was a pause. =alk stood feeling himself encompassed #y futility, like a fly #undled in spider4silk.

0%s that all the service, prech *amarren10

?D



0That/s all.0

The #oy #owed his head and muttered a sentence in his native tongue, evidently some formula of promising. Then he

asked, 0hat should % tell them a#out the #racelet communicator, prech *amarren10

0The truth—it doesn/t matter, if you keep the other secret,0 =alk said. %t seemed, at least, that they had not taught the

#oy to lie. But they had not taught him to know truth from lies.

3rry took him #ack across the #ridge on his slider, and he re4entered the shining, mist4walled palace where Estrel had

first #rought him. 3nce alone in his room he gave way to fear and rage, knowing how he was utterly fooled and made

helpless2 and when he had controlled his anger still he walked the room like a #ear in a cage, contending with the fear of

death.

%f he #esought them, might they not let him live on as =alk, who was useless to them, #ut harmless1

(o. They would not. That was clear, and only cowardice made him turn to the notion. There was no hope there.

Could he escape1

"ay#e. The seeming emptiness of this great #uilding might #e a sham, or a trap, or like so much else here, an illusion.

He felt and guessed that he was constantly spied upon, aurally or visually, #y hidden presences or devices. &ll doors were

guarded #y toolmen or electronic monitors. But if he did escape from Es Toch, what then1

Could he make his way #ack across the mountains, across the plains, through the forest, and come at last to the

Clearing, where arth$ (o@ He stopped himself in anger. He could not go #ack. This far he had come following his way,

and he must follow on to the end- through death if it must #e, to re#irth—the re#irth of a stranger, of an alien soul.

But there was no one here to tell that stranger and alien the truth. There was no one here that =alk could trust, e5cept

himself, and therefore not only must =alk die, #ut his dying must serve the will of the Enemy. That was what he could not

#ear2 that was unendura#le. He paced up and down the still, greenish dusk of his room. Blurred inaudi#le lightning flashedacross the ceiling. He would not serve the !iars2 he would not tell them what they wanted to know. %t was not erel he

cared for—for all he knew, his guesses were all astray and erel itself was a lie, 3rry a more ela#orate Estrel2 there was

no telling. But he loved Earth, though he was alien upon it. &nd Earth to him meant the house in the =orest, the sunlight

on the Clearing, arth. These he would not #etray. He must #elieve that there was a way to keep himself, against all force

and trickery, from #etraying them.

&gain and again he tried to imagine some way in which he as =alk could leave a message for himself as *amarren- a

pro#lem in itself so grotesque it #eggared his imagination, and #eyond that, insolu#le. %f the hing did not watch him write

such a message, certainly they would find it when it was written. He had thought at first to use 3rry as the go4#etween,

ordering him to tell *amarren, 0)o not answer the hing/s questions,0 #ut he had not #een a#le to trust 3rry to o#ey, or to

keep the order secret. The hing had so mindhandled the #oy that he was #y now, essentially, their instrument2 and even

the meaningless message that =olk had given him might already #e known to his !ords.There was no device or trick, no means or way to get around or get out. There was only one hope, and that very small-

that he could hold on2 that through whatever they did to him he could keep hold of himself and refuse to forget, refuse to

die. The only thing that gave him grounds for hoping that this might #e possi#le was that the hing had said it was

impossi#le.

They wanted him to #elieve that it was impossi#le.

The delusions and apparitions and hallucinations of his first hours or days in Es Toch had #een worked on him, then,

only to confuse him and weaken his self4trust- for that was what they were after. They wanted him to distrust himself, his

#eliefs, his knowledge, his strength. &ll the e5planations a#out mind4ra8ing were then equally a scare, a #ogey, to

convince him that he could not possi#ly withstand their parahypnotic operations.

*amarren had not withstood them$

But *amarren had had no suspicion or warning of their powers or what they would try to do to him, whereas =alk did.That might make a difference. Even so, *amarren/s memory had not #een destroyed #eyond recall, as they insisted =alk/s

would #e- the proof of that was that they intended to recall it.

& hope2 a very small hope. &ll he could do was say % will survive in the hope it might #e true2 and with luck, it would

#e. &nd without luck$1

+o!e is a slighter, tougher thing even than trust, he thought, pacing his room as the soundless, vague lightning flashed

overhead. %n a good season one trusts life2 in a #ad season one only hopes, But they are of the same essence- they are the

mind/s indispensa#le relationship with other minds, with the world, and with time. ithout trust, a man lives, #ut not a

human life2 without hope, he dies. hen there is no relationship, where hands do not touch, emotion atrophies in void and

intelligence goes sterile and o#sessed. Between men the only link left is that of owner to slave, or murderer to victim.

!aws are made against the impulse a people most fears in itself. /o not kill was the hing/s vaunted single !aw. &ll

else was permitted- which meant, perhaps, there was little else they really wanted to do$ =earing their own profound

attraction towards death, they preached *everence for !ife, fooling themselves at last with their own lie.

&gainst them he could never prevail e5cept, perhaps, through the one quality no liar can cope with, integrity. erhaps it

would not occur to them that a man could so will to #e himself, to live his life, that he might resist them even when

?



helpless in their hands.

erhaps, perhaps.

)eli#erately stilling his thoughts at last, he took up the #ook that the rince of +ansas had given him and which,

#elying the rince/s prediction, he had not yet lost again, and read in it for a while, very intently, #efore he slept.

(e5t morning—his last, perhaps, of this life—3rry suggested that they sightsee #y aircar, and =alk assented, saying

that he wished to see the estern 3cean. ith ela#orate courtesy two of the hing, &#undi#ot and +en +enyek, asked if

they might accompany their honored guest, and answer any further questions he might wish to ask a#out the )ominion of

Earth, or a#out the operation planned for tomorrow. =alk had had some vague hopes in fact of learning more details of

what they planned to do to his mind, so as to #e a#le to put up a stronger resistance to it. %t was no good. +en +enyek

poured out endless ver#iage concerning neurons and synapses, salvaging, #locking, releasing, drugs, hypnosis,

parahypnosis, #rain4linked computers$ none of which was meaningful, all of which was frightening. =alk soon ceased to

try to understand.

The aircar, piloted #y a speechless toolman who seemed little more than an e5tension of the controls, cleared the

mountains and shot west over the deserts, #right with the #rief flower of their spring. ithin a few minutes they were

nearing the granite face of the estern *ange. till sheered and smashed and raw from the cataclysms of two thousand

years ago, the ierras stood, :agged pinnacles upthrust from chasms of snow. 3ver the crests lay the ocean, #right in the

sunlight2 dark #eneath the waves lay the drowned lands,

There were cities there, o#literated—as there were in his own mind forgotten cities, lost places, lost names. &s the

aircar circled to return eastward he said, 0Tomorrow the earthquake2 and =alk goes under$0

0& pity it must #e so, !ord *amarren,0 &#undi#ot said with satisfaction. 3r it seemed to =alk that he spoke with

satisfaction. henever &#undi#ot e5pressed any emotion in words, the e5pression rang so false that it seemed to imply anopposite emotion2 #ut perhaps what it implied actually was a total lack of any affect or feeling whatsoever. +en +enyek,

white4faced and pale4eyed, with regular, ageless features, neither showed nor pretended any emotion when he spoke or

when, as now, he sat motionless and e5pressionless, neither serene nor stolid #ut utterly closed, self4sufficient, remote.

The aircar flashed #ack across the desert miles #etween Es Toch and the sea2 there was no sign of human ha#itation in

all that great e5panse. They landed on the roof of the #uilding in which =alk/s room was. &fter a couple of hours spent in

the cold, heavy presence of the hing he craved even that illusory solitude. They permitted him to have it2 the rest of the

afternoon and the evening he spent alone in the mist4walled room. He had feared the hing might drug him again or send

illusions to distract and weaken him, #ut apparently they felt they need take no more precautions with him. He was left

undistur#ed, to pace the translucent floor, to sit still, and to read in his #ook. hat, after all, could he do against their will1

&gain and again through the long hours he returned to the #ook, the 3ld Canon. He did not dare mark it even with his

fingernail2 he only read it, well as he knew it, with total a#sorption, page after page, yielding himself to the words,repeating them to himself as he paced or sat or lay, and returning again and again and yet again to the #eginning, the first

words of the first page-


is not the eternal ay.

The name that can #e named

is not the eternal (ame.

&nd far into the night, under the pressure of weariness and of hunger, of the thoughts he would not allow himself to

think and the terror of death that he would not allow himself to feel, his mind entered at last the state he had sought. The

walls fell away2 his self fell away from him, and he was nothing. He was the words- he was the word, the word spoken in

darkness with none to hear at the #eginning, the first page of time. His self had fallen from him and he was utterly,

everlastingly himself- nameless, single, one.'radually the moment returned, and things had names, and the walls arose. He read the first page of the #ook once

again, and then lay down and slept.

The east wall of his room was emerald4#right with early sunlight when a couple of toolmen came for him and took him

down through the misty hall and levels of the #uilding to the street, and #y slider through the shadowy streets and across

the chasm to another tower. These two were not the servants who had waited on him, #ut a pair of #ig, speechless guards.

*emem#ering the methodical #rutality of the #eating he had got when he had first entered Es Toch, the first lesson in self4

distrust the hing had given him, he guessed that they had #een afraid he might try to escape at this last minute, and had

provided these guards to discourage any such impulse.

He was taken into a ma8e of rooms that ended in #rightly lit, underground cu#icles all walled in #y and dominated #y

the screens and #anks of an immense computer comple5. %n one of these +en +enyek came forward to meet him, alone. %t

was curious how he had seen the hing only one or two at a time, and very few of them in all. But there was no time to

pu88le over that now, though on the fringes of his mind a vague memory, an e5planation, danced for a moment, until +en

+enyek spoke.

0;ou did not try to commit suicide last night,0 the hing said in his toneless whisper.

AF



That was in fact the one way out that had. never occurred to =alk.

0% thought % would let you handle that,0 he said.

+en +enyek paid no heed to his words, though he had an air of listening closely. 0Everything is set up,0 he said.

0These are the same #anks and precisely the same connections which were used to #lock your primary mental4paramental

structure si5 years ago. The removal of the #lock should #e without difficulty or trauma, given your consent. Consent is

essential to restoration, though not to repression. &re you ready now10 &lmost simultaneously with his spoken words he

#espoke =alk in that da88lingly clear mindspeech- 0&re you ready10

He listened closely as =alk answered in kind, 0% am.0

&s if satisfied #y the answer or its empathic overtones, the hing nodded once and said in his monotonous whisper, 0%

shall start out then without drugs. )rugs #efog the clarity of the parahypnotic processes2 it is easier to work without them.

it down there.0

=alk o#eyed, silent, trying to keep his mind silent as well.

&n assistant entered at some unspoken signal, and came over to =alk while +en +enyek sat down in front of one of the

computer4#anks, as a musician sits down to an instrument. =or a moment =alk remem#ered the great patterning4frame in

the Throneroom of +ansas, the swift dark hands that had hovered over it, forming and un4forming the certain, changeful

patterns of stones, stars, thoughts$ & #lackness came down like a curtain over his eyes and over his mind. He was aware

that something was #eing fitted over his head, a hood or cap2 then he was aware of nothing, only #lackness, infinite

#lackness, the dark. %n the dark a voice was speaking a word in his mind, a word he almost understood. 3ver and over the

same word, the word, the word, the name$ !ike the flaring up of a light his will to survive flared up, and he declared it

with terri#le effort, against all odds, in silence- I am 1alk0 Then darkness.

%K

TH% & a quiet place, and dim, like a deep forest. eak, he lay a long time #etween sleep and waking. 3ften he

dreamed or remem#ered fragments of a dream from earlier, deeper sleep. Then again he slept, and woke again to the dim

verdant light and the quietness.

There was a movement near him. Turning his head, he saw a young man, a stranger.

0ho are you10

0Har 3rry.0The name dropped like a stone into the dreamy tranquillity of his mind and vanished. 3nly the circles from it widened

out and widened out softly, slowly, until at last the outermost circle touched shore, and #roke. 3rry, Har eden/s son, one

of the 9oyagers$ a #oy, a child, winter#orn.

The still surface of the pool of sleep was crisscrossed with a little distur#ance. He closed his eyes again and willed to

go under.

0% dreamed,0 he murmured with his eyes closed. 0% had a lot of dreams$0

But he was awake again, and looking into that frightened, irresolute, #oyish face. %t was 3rry, edens son- 3rry as he

would look five or si5 moonphases from now, if they survived the 9oyage.

hat was it he had forgotten1 0hat is this place10

0lease #e still, prech *amarren—don/t talk yet2 please lie still.0

0hat happened to me10 )i88iness forced him to o#ey the #oy and lie #ack. His #ody, even the muscles of his lips and

tongue as he spoke, did not o#ey him properly. %t was not weakness #ut a queer lack of control. To raise his hand he had to

use conscious volition, as if it were someone else/s hand he was picking up.

omeone else/s hand$ He stared at his arm and hand for a good while. The skin was curiously darkened to the color of

tanned hann4hide. )own the forearm to the wrist ran a series of parallel #luish scars, slightly stippled, as if made #y

repeated :a#s of a needle. Even the skin of the palm was toughened and weathered as if he had #een out in the open for a

long time, instead of in the la#oratories and computer4rooms of 9oyage Center and the Halls of Council and laces of

ilence in egest$

He looked around suddenly. The room he was in was windowless2 #ut, weirdly, he could see the sunlight in and

through its greenish walls.

0There was an accident,0 he said at last. 0%n the launching, or when$ But we made the 9oyage. e made it. )id %

dream it10

0(o, prech *amarren. e made the 9oyage.0ilence again. He said after a while, 0% can only remem#er the 9oyage as if it were one night, one long night, last

night$ But it aged you from a child almost to a man. e were wrong a#out that, then.0

0(o—the 9oyage did not age me—0 3rry stopped.

A7



0here are the others10

0!ost.0

0)ead1 peak entirely, vesprech 3rry.0

0ro#a#ly dead, prech *amarren.0

0hat is this place10

0lease, rest now—0

0&nswer.0

0This is a room in a city called Es Toch on the planet Earth,0 the #oy answered with due entirety, and then #roke out in

a kind of wail, 0;ou don/t know it1—you don/t remem#er it, any of it1 This is worse than #efore—0

0How should % remem#er Earth10 *amarren whispered.

0%—% was to say to you, 2ead the first !age of the book.

*amarren paid no need to the #oy/s stammering. He knew now that all had gone amiss, and that a time had passed that

he knew nothing of. But until he could master this strange weakness of his #ody he could do nothing, and so he was quiet

until all di88iness had passed. Then with closed mind he told over certain of the =ifth !evel oliloquies2 and when they

had quieted his mind as well, he summoned sleep.

The dreams rose up a#out him once more, comple5 and frightening yet shot through with sweetness like the sunlight

#reaking through the dark of an old forest. ith deeper sleep these fantasies dispersed, and his dream #ecame a simple,

vivid memory- He was waiting #eside the airfoil to accompany his father to the city. Gp on the foothills of Charn the

forests were half leafless in their long dying, #ut the air was warm and clear and still. His father &gad +arsen, a lithe spare

old man in his ceremonial gar# and helmet, holding his office4stone, came leisurely across the lawn with his daughter, and

#oth were laughing as he teased her a#out her first suitor, 0!ook out for that lad, arth, he/ll woo without mercy if you lethim.0 ords lightly spoken long ago, in the sunlight of the long, golden autumn of his youth, he heard them again now,

and the girl/s laugh in response. ister, little sister, #eloved &rnan$ hat had his father called her1—not #y her right

name #ut something else, another name—

*amarren woke. He sat up, with a definite effort taking command of his #ody—yes, his, still hesitant and shaky #ut

certainly his own. =or a moment in waking he had felt he was a ghost in alien flesh, displaced, lost.

He was all right. He was &gad *amarren, #orn in the silverstone house among #road lawns under the white peak of

Charn, the ingle "ountain2 &gad/s heir, fall4#orn, so that all his "e had #een lived in autumn and winter. pring he had

never seen, might never see, for the ship #lterra had #egun her 9oyage to Earth on the first day of spring. But the long

winter and the fall, the length of his manhood, #oyhood, childhood stretched #ack #ehind him vivid and un#roken,

remem#ered, the river reaching upward to the source.

The #oy 3rry was no longer in the room. 03rry@0 he said aloud2 for he was a#le and determined now to learn what hadhappened to him, to his companions, to the #lterra and its mission. There was no reply or signal. The room seemed to #e

not only windowless #ut doorless. He checked his impulse to mindcall the #oy2 he did not know whether 3rry was still

tuned with him, and also since his own mind had evidently suffered either damage or interference, he had #etter go

carefully and keep out of phase with any other mind, until he learned if he was threatened #y volitional control or

antichrony.

He stood up, dismissing vertigo and a #rief, sharp occipital pain, and walked #ack and forth across the room a few

times, getting himself into muscular harmony while he studied the outlandish clothes he was wearing and the queer room

he was in. There was a lot of furniture, #ed, ta#les, and sitting4places, all set up on long thin legs. The translucent, murky

green walls were covered with e5plicitly deceptive and dis:unctive patterns, one of which disguised an iris4door, another a

half4length mirror. He stopped and looked at himself a moment. He looked thin, and weather#eaten, and perhaps older2 he

hardly knew. He felt curiously self4conscious, looking at himself. hat was this uneasiness, this lack of concentration1hat had happened, what had #een lost1 He turned away and set himself to study the room again. There were various

enigmatic o#:ects a#out, and two of familiar type though foreign in detail- a drinking4cup on one ta#le, and a leafed #ook

#eside it. He picked up the #ook. omething 3rry had said flickered in his mind and went out again. The title was

meaningless, though the characters were clearly related to the alpha#et of the Tongue of the Books. He opened the thing

and glanced through it. The left4hand pages were written—handwritten, it appeared—with columns of marvelously

complicated patterns that might #e holistic sym#ols, ideographs, technological shorthand. The right4hand pages were also

handwritten, #ut in the letters that resem#led the letters of the Books, 'alaktika. & code4#ook1 But he had not yet pu88led

out more than a word or two when the doorslit silently irised open and a person entered the room- a woman.

*amarren looked at her with intense curiosity, unguardedly and without fear2 only perhaps, feeling himself vulnera#le,

he intensified a little the straight, authoritative ga8e to which his #irth, earned !evel and arlesh entitled him. Gna#ashed,

she returned his ga8e. They stood there a moment in silence.

he was handsome and delicate, fantastically dressed, her hair #leached or reddish4pigmented. Her eyes were a dark

circle set in a white oval. Eyes like the eyes of painted faces in the !ighall of the 3ld City, frescoes of dark4skinned, tall

people #uilding a town, warring with the "igrators, watching the stars- the Colonists, the Terrans of &lterra$

A<



(ow *amarren knew past dou#t that he was indeed on Earth, that he had made his 9oyage. He set pride and self4

defense aside, and knelt down to her. To him, to all the people who had sent him on the mission across eight hundred and

twenty4five trillion miles of nothingness, she was of a race that time and memory and forgetting had im#ued with the

quality of the divine. ingle, individual as she stood #efore him, yet she was of the *ace of "an and looked at him with

the eyes of that *ace, and he did honor to history and myth and the long e5ile of his ancestors, #owing his head to her as

he knelt.

He rose and held out his open hands in the +elshak gesture of reception, and she #egan to speak to him. Her speaking

was strange, very strange, for though he had never seen her #efore her voice was infinitely familiar to his ear, and though

he did not know the tongue she spoke he understood a word of it, then another. =or a second this frightened him #y its

uncanniness and made him fear she was using some form of mindspeech that could penetrate even his outphase #arrier2 in

the ne5t second, he reali8ed that he understood her #ecause she was speaking the Tongue of the Books, 'alaktika. 3nly

her accent and her fluency in speaking it had kept him from recogni8ing it at once.

he had already said several sentences to him, speaking in a curiously cold, quick, lifeless way2 0$ not know % am

here,0 she was saying. 0(ow tell me which of us is the liar, the faithless one. % walked with you all that endless way, % lay

with you a hundred nights, and now you don/t even know my name. )o you, =alk1 )o you know my name1 )o you know

your own10

0% am &gad *amarren,0 he said, and his own name in his own voice sounded strange to him.

0ho told you so1 ;ou/re =alk. )on/t you know a man named =alk1—he used to wear your flesh. +en +enyek and

*radgy for#ade me to say his name to you, #ut %/m sick of playing their games and never my own. % like to play my own

games. )on/t you remem#er your name, =alk1—=alk—=alk—don/t you remem#er your name1 &h, you/re still as stupid as

you ever were, staring like a stranded fish@0&t once he dropped his ga8e. The matter of looking directly into another person/s eyes was a sensitive one among

erelians, and was strictly controlled #y ta#u and manners. That was his only response at first to her words, though his

inward reactions were immediate and various. =or one thing, she was lightly drugged, with something on the stimulant4

hallucinogenic order- his trained perceptions reported this to him as a certainty, whether he liked its implications

concerning the *ace of "an or not. =or another thing, he was not sure he had understood all she/d said and certainly had

no idea what she was talking a#out, #ut her intent was aggressive, destructive. &nd the aggression was effective. =or all

his lack of comprehension, her weird :eers and the name she kept repeating moved and distressed him, shook him, shocked

him.

He turned away a little to signify he would not cross her ga8e again unless she wished, and said at last, softly, in the

archaic tongue his people knew only from the ancient #ooks of the Colony, 0&re you of the *ace of "an, or of the

Enemy10he laughed in a forced, gi#ing way. 0Both, =alk. There is no Enemy, and % work for them. !isten, tell &#undi#ot your

name is =alk. Tell +en +enyek. Tell all the !ords your name is =alk—that/ll give them something to worry a#out@ =alk—0

0Enough.0

His voice was as soft as #efore, #ut he had spoken with his full authority- she stopped with her mouth open, gaping.

hen she spoke again it was only to repeat that name she called him #y, in a voice gone shaky and almost supplicating.

he was pitiful, #ut he made no reply. he was in a temporary or permanent psychotic state, and he felt himself too

vulnera#le and too unsure, in these circumstances, to allow her further communication. He felt pretty shaky himself, and

moving away from her he in4drew, #ecoming only secondarily aware of her presence and voice. He needed to collect

himself2 there was something very strange the matter with him, not drugs, at least no drug he knew, #ut a profound

displacement and im#alance, worse than any of the induced insanities of eventh !evel mental discipline. But he was

given little time. The voice #ehind him rose in shrill rancor, and then he caught the shift to violence and along with it thesense of a second presence. He turned very quickly- she had #egun to draw from her #i8arre clothing what was o#viously a

weapon, #ut was standing fro8en staring not at him #ut at a tall man in the doorway.

(o word was spoken, #ut the newcomer directed at the woman a telepathic command of such shattering coercive force

that it made *amarren wince. The weapon dropped to the floor and the woman, making a thin keening sound, ran stooped

from the room, trying to escape the destroying insistence of that mental order. Her #lurred shadow wavered a moment in

the wall, vanished.

The tall man turned his white4rimmed eyes to *amarren and #espoke him with normal power- 0ho are you10

*amarren answered in kind, 0&gad *amarren,0 #ut no more, nor did he #ow. Things had gone even more wrong than

he had first imagined. ho were these people1 %n the confrontation he had :ust witnessed there had #een insanity, cruelty

and terror, and nothing else2 certainly nothing that disposed him either to reverence or trust.

But the tall man came forward a little, a smile on his heavy, rigid face, and spoke aloud courteously in the Tongue of

the Books. 0% am elleu &#undi#ot, and % welcome you heartily to Earth, kinsman, son of the long e5ile, messenger of the

!ost Colony@0

*amarren, at that, made a very #rief #ow and stood a moment in silence. 0%t appears,0 he said, 0that % have #een on

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Earth some while, and made an enemy of that woman, and earned certain scars. ill you tell me how this was, and how

my shipmates perished1 Bespeak me if you will- % do not speak 'alaktika so well as you.0

Trech *amarren,0 the other said—he had evidently picked that up from 3rry as if it were a mere honorific, and had no

notion of what constituted the relationship of prechnoye—0forgive me first that % speak aloud. %t is not our custom to use

mindspeech e5cept in urgent need, or to our inferiors. &nd forgive ne5t the intrusion of that creature, a servant whose

madness has driven her outside the !aw. e will attend to her mind. he will not trou#le you again. &s for your questions,

all will #e answered. %n #rief, however, here is the unhappy tale which now at last draws to a happy ending. ;our ship

#lterra was attacked as it entered Earthspace #y our enemies, re#els outside the !aw. They took two or more of you off

the #lterra into their small planetary cars #efore our guard4ship came. hen it came, they destroyed the #lterra with all

left a#oard her, and scattered in their small ships. e caught the one on which Har 3rry was prisoner, #ut you were carried

off—% do not know for what purpose. They did not kill you, #ut erased your memory #ack to the pre4lingual stage, and

then turned you loose in a wild forest to find your death. ;ou survived, and were given shelter #y #ar#arians of the forest2

finally our searchers found you, #rought you here, and #y parahypnotic techniques we have succeeded in restoring your

memory. %t was all we could do—little indeed, #ut all.0

*amarren listened intently. The story shook him, and he made no effort to hide his feelings2 #ut he felt also a certain

uneasiness or suspicion, which he did conceal. The tall man had addressed him, though very #riefly, in mindspeech, and

thus given him a degree of attunement. Then &#undi#ot had ceased all telepathic sending and had put up an empathic

guard, #ut not a perfect one2 *amarren, highly sensitive and finely trained, received vague empathic impressions so much

at discrepancy with what the man said as to hint at dementia, or at lying. 3r was he himself so out of tune with himself—

as he might well #e after parahypnosis—that his empathic receptions were simply not relia#le1

0How long$10 he asked at last, looking up for a moment into those alien eyes.0i5 years ago Terran style, prech *amarren.0

The Terran year was nearly the length of a moonphase. 0o long,0 he said. He could not take it in. His friends, his

fellow49oyagers had #een dead then for a long time, and he had #een alone on Earth$ 0i5 years10

0;ou remem#er nothing of those years10

0(othing.0

0e were forced to wipe out what rudimentary memory you may have had of that time, in order to restore your true

memory and personality. e very much regret that loss of si5 years of your life. But they would not have #een sane or

pleasant memories. The outlaw #rutes had made of you a creature more #rutish than themselves. % am glad you do not

remem#er it, prech *amarren.0

(ot only glad, #ut gleeful. This man must have very little empathic a#ility or training, or he would #e putting up a

#etter guard2 his telepathic guard was flawless. "ore and more distracted #y these mindheard overtones that impliedfalsity or unclarity in what &#undi#ot said, and #y the continuing lack of coherence in his own mind, even in his physical

reactions, which remained slow and uncertain, *amarren had to pull himself together to make any response at all.

"emories—how could si5 years have passed without his remem#ering one moment from them1 But a hundred and forty

years had passed while his light4speed ship had crossed from erel to Earth and of that he remem#ered only a moment,

indeed, one terri#le, eternal moment$ hat had the madwoman called him, screaming a name at him with cra8y, grieving

rancor1

0hat was % called, these past si5 years10

0Called1 &mong the natives, do you mean, prech *amarren1 % am not sure what name they gave you, if they #othered

to give you any$0

=alk, she had called him, =alk. 0=ellowman,0 he said a#ruptly, translating the +elshak form of address into 'alaktika,

0% will learn more of you later, if you will. hat you tell me trou#les me. !et me #e alone with it a while.00urely, surely, prech *amarren. ;our young friend 3rry is eager to #e with you—shall % send him to you10 But

*amarren, having made his request and heard it accepted, had in the way of one of his !evel dismissed the other, tuned

him out, hearing whatever else he said simply as noise.

0e too have much to learn of you, and are eager to learn it, once you feel quite recovered.0 ilence. Then the noise

again- 03ur servants wait to serve you2 if you desire refreshment or company you have only to go to the door and speak.0

ilence again, and at last the unmannerly presence withdrew.

*amarren sent no speculations after it. He was too preoccupied with himself to worry a#out these strange hosts of his.

The turmoil within his mind was increasing sharply, coming to some kind of crisis. He felt as if he were #eing dragged to

face something that he could not endure to face, and at the same time craved to face, to find. The #itterest days of his

eventh !evel training had only #een a hint of this disintegration of his emotions and identity, for that had #een an induced

psychosis, carefully controlled, and this was not under his control. 3r was it1—was he leading himself into this,

compelling himself towards the crisis1 But who was 0he0 who compelled and was compelled1 He had #een killed, and

#rought #ack to life. hat was death, then, the death he could not remem#er1

To escape the utter panic welling up in him he looked around for any o#:ect to fi5 on, reverting to early trance4

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discipline, the 3utcome technique of fi5ing on one concrete thing to #uild up the world from once more. But everything

a#out him was alien, deceptive, unfamiliar2 the very floor under him was a dull sheet of mist. There was the #ook he had

#een looking at when the woman entered calling him #y that name he would not remem#er. He would not remem#er it.

The #ook- he had held it in his hands, it was real, it was there. He picked it up very carefully and stared at the page that it

opened to. Columns of #eautiful meaningless patterns, lines of half4comprehensi#le script, changed from the letters he had

learned long ago in the =irst &nalect, deviant, #ewildering. He stared at them and could not read them, and a word of

which he did not know the meaning rose up from them, the first word-

The way$

He looked from the #ook to his own hand that held it. hose hand, darkened and scarred #eneath an alien sun1 hose

hand1


is not the eternal ay.

The name—

He could not remem#er the name2 he would not read it. %n a dream he had read these words, in a long sleep, a death, a

dream.

The name that can #e named

is not the eternal (ame.

&nd with that the dream rose up overwhelming him like a wave rising, and #roke.

He was =alk, and he was *amarren. He was the fool and the wise man- one man twice #orn.

%n those first fearful hours, he #egged and prayed to #e delivered sometimes from one self, sometimes from the other.

3nce when he cried out in anguish in his own native tongue, he did not understand the words he had spoken, and this wasso terri#le that in utter misery he wept2 it was =alk who did not understand, #ut *amarren who wept.

%n that same moment of misery he touched for the first time, for a moment only, the #alance4pole, the center, and for a

moment was himself: then lost again, #ut with :ust enough strength to hope for the ne5t moment of harmony. Harmony-

when he was *amarren he clung to that idea and discipline, and it was perhaps his mastery of that central +elshak doctrine

that kept him from going right over the edge into madness. But there was no integrating or #alancing the two minds and

personalities that shared his skull, not yet2 he must swing #etween them, #lanking one out for the other/s sake, then drawn

at once #ack the other way. He was scarcely a#le to move, #eing plagued #y the hallucination of having two #odies, of

#eing actually physically two different men.

He did not dare sleep, though he was worn out- he feared the waking too much.

%t was night, and he was left to himself. To myselves, =alk commented. =alk was at first the stronger, having had some

preparation for this ordeal. %t was =alk who got the first dialogue going- I have got to get some slee!, 2amarren, he said,and *amarren received the words as if in mindspeech and without premeditation replied in kind- I'm afraid to slee!. Then

he kept watch for a little while, and knew =alk/s dreams like shadows and echoes in his mind.

He got through this first, worst time, and #y the time morning shone dim through the green veilwalls of his room, he

had lost his fear and was #eginning to gain real control over #oth thought and action.

There was of course no actual overlap of his two sets of memories. =alk had come to conscious #eing in the vast

num#er of neurons that in a highly intelligent #rain remain unused—the fallow fields of *amarren/s mind. The #asic motor

and sensory paths has never #een #locked off and so in a sense had #een shared all along, though difficulties arose there

caused #y the dou#ling of the sets of motor ha#its and modes of perception. &n o#:ect looked different to him depending

on whether he looked at it as =alk or as *amarren, and though in the long run this reduplication might prove an

augmentation of his intelligence and perceptive power, at the moment it was confusing to the point of vertigo. There was

considera#le emotional intershading, so that his feelings on some points quite literally conflicted. &nd, since =alk/smemories covered his 0lifetime0 :ust as did *amarren/s, the two series tended to appear simultaneously instead of in

proper sequence. %t was hard for *amarren to allow for the gap of time during which he had not consciously e5isted. Ten

days ago where had he #een1 He had #een on mule#ack among the snowy mountains of Earth2 =alk knew that2 #ut

*amarren knew that he had #een taking leave of his wife in a house on the high green plains of erel$ &lso, what

*amarren guessed a#out Terra was often contradicted #y what =alk knew, while =alk/s ignorance of erel cast a strange

glamor of legend over *amarren/s own past. ;et even in this #ewilderment there was the germ of interaction, of the

coherence toward which he strove. =or the fact remained, he was, #odily and chronologically, one man- his pro#lem was

not really that of creating a unity, only of comprehending it.

Coherence was far from #eing gained. 3ne or the other of the two memory4structures still had to dominate, if he was to

think and act with any competence. "ost often, now, it was *amarren who took over, for the (avigator of the #lterra was

a decisive and potent person. =alk, in comparison, felt himself childish, tentative2 he could offer what knowledge he had,

#ut relied upon *amarren/s strength and e5perience. Both were needed, for the two4minded man was in a very o#scure and

ha8ardous situation.

3ne question was #asic to all the others. %t was simply put- whether or not the hing could #e trusted. =or if =alk had

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merely #een inculcated with a groundless fear of the !ords of Earth, then the ha8ards and o#scurities would themselves

prove groundless. &t first *amarren thought this might well #e the case2 #ut he did not think it for long.

There were open lies and discrepancies which already his dou#le memory had caught. &#undi#ot had refused to

mindspeak to *amarren, saying the hing avoided paraver#al communication- that =alk knew to #e a lie. hy had

&#undi#ot told it1 Evidently #ecause he wanted to tell a lie—the hing story of what had happened to the #lterra and its

crew—and could not or dared not tell it to *amarren in mindspeech.

But he had told =alk very much the same story, in mindspeech.

%f it was a false story, then, the hing could and did mindlie. as it false1

*amarren called upon =alk/s memory. &t first that effort of com#ination was #eyond him, #ut it #ecame easier as he

struggled, pacing up and down the silent room, and suddenly it came clear2 he could recall the #rilliant silence of

&#undi#ot/s words- 0e whom you know as hing are men$0 &nd hearing it even in memory, *amarren knew it for a lie.

%t was incredi#le, and indu#ita#le. The hing could lie telepathically—that guess and dread of su#:ected humanity was

right. The hing were, in truth, the Enemy.

They were not men #ut aliens, gifted with an alien power2 and no dou#t they had #roken the !eague and gained power

over Earth #y the use of that power. &nd it was they who had attacked the #lterra as she had come into Earthspace2 all the

talk of re#els was mere fiction. They had killed or #rainra8ed all the crew #ut the child 3rry. *amarren could guess why-

#ecause they had discovered, testing him or one of the other highly trained paraver#alists of the crew, that a erelian

could tell when they were mindlying. That had frightened the hing, and they had done away with the adults, saving out

only the harmless child as an informant.

To *amarren it was only yesterday that his fellow49oyagers had perished, and, struggling against that #low, he tried to

think that like him they might have survived somewhere on Earth. But if they had—and he had #een very lucky—wherewere they now1 The hing had had a hard time locating even one, it appeared, when they had discovered that they needed

him.

hat did they need him for1 hy had they sought him, #rought him here, restored the memory that they had

destroyed1

(o e5planation could #e got from the facts at his disposal e5cept the one he had arrived at as =alk- The hing needed

him to tell them where he came from.

That gave =alk4*amarren his first amount of amusement. %f it really was that simple, it was funny. They had saved out

3rry #ecause he was so young2 untrained, unformed, vulnera#le, amena#le, a perfect instrument and informant. He

certainly had #een all of that. But did not know where he came from$ &nd #y the time they discovered that, they had

wiped the information they wanted clean out of the minds that knew it, and scattered their victims over the wild, ruined

Earth to die of accident or starvation or the attack of wild #easts or men.He could assume that +en +enyek, while manipulating his mind through the psychocomputer yesterday, had tried to

get him to divulge the 'alaktika name of erel/s sun. &nd he could assume that if he had divulged it, he would #e dead or

mindless now. They did not want him, *amarren2 they wanted only his knowledge. &nd they had not got it.

That in itself must have them worried, and well it might. The +elshak code of secrecy concerning the Books of the

!ost Colony had evolved along with a whole technique of mindguarding. That mystique of secrecy—or more precisely of

restraint—had grown over the long years from the rigorous control of scientific4technical knowledge e5ercised #y the

original Colonists, itself an outgrowth from the !eague/s !aw of Cultural Em#argo, which for#ade cultural importation to

colonial planets. The whole concept of restraint was fundamental in erelian culture #y now, and the stratification of

erlian society was directed #y the conviction that knowledge and technique must remain under intelligent control. uch

details as the True (ame of the un were formal and sym#olical, #ut the formalism was taken seriously—with ultimate

seriousness, for in +elshy knowledge was religion, religion knowledge. To guard the intangi#le holy places in the mindsof men, intangi#le and invulnera#le defenses had #een devised. Gnless he was in one of the laces of ilence, and

addressed in a certain form #y an associate of his own !evel, *amarren was a#solutely una#le to communicate, in words

or writing or mindspeech, the True (ame of his world/s sun.

He possessed, of course, equivalent knowledge- the comple5 of astronomical facts that had ena#led him to plot the

#lterra's coordinates from erel to Earth2 his knowledge of the e5act distance #etween the two planets/ suns2 his clear,

astronomer/s memory of the stars as seen from erel. They had not got this information from him yet, pro#a#ly #ecause

his mind had #een in too chaotic a state when first restored #y +en +enyek/s manipulations, or #ecause even then his

parahypnotically strengthened mindguards and specific #arriers had #een functioning. +nowing there might still #e an

Enemy on Earth, the crewmen of the #lterra had not set off unprepared. Gnless hing mindscience was much stronger

than erelian, they would not now #e a#le to force him to tell them anything. They hoped to induce him, to persuade him.

Therefore, for the present, he was at least physically safe.

—o long as they did not know that he remem#ered his e5istence as =alk.

That came over him with a chill. %t had not occurred to him #efore. &s =alk he had #een useless to them, #ut harmless.

&s *amarren he was useful to them, and harmless. But as =alk4*amarren, he was a threat. &nd they did not tolerate

A



threats- they could not afford to.

&nd there was the answer to the last question- hy did they want so #adly to know where erel was—what did erel

matter to them1

&gain =alk/s memory spoke to *amarren/s intelligence, this time recalling a ca#in, #lithe, ironic voice. The old

!istener in the deep forest spoke, the old man lonelier on Earth than even =alk had #een- 0There are not very many of the

hing$0

& great piece of news and wisdom and advice, he had called it2 and it must #e the literal truth. The old histories =alk

had learned in 6ove/s House held the hing to #e aliens from a very distant region of the gala5y, out #eyond the Hyades, a

matter perhaps of thousands of light4years. %f that was so, pro#a#ly no vast num#ers of them had crossed so immense a

length of spacetime. There had #een enough to infiltrate the !eague and #reak it, given their powers of mindlying and

other skills or weapons they might possess or have possessed2 #ut had there #een enough of them to rule over all the

worlds they had divided and conquered1 lanets were very large places, on any scale #ut that of the spaces in #etween

them. The hing must have had to spread themselves thin, and take much care to keep the su#:ect planets from re4allying

and :oining to re#el. 3rry had told =alk that the hing did not seem to travel or trade much #y lightspeed2 he had never

even seen a lightspeed ship of theirs. as that #ecause they feared their own kin on other worlds, grown away from them

over the centuries of their dominion1 3r conceiva#ly was Earth the only planet they still ruled, defending it from all

e5plorations from other worlds1 (o telling2 #ut it did seem likely that on Earth there were indeed not very many of them.

They had refused to #elieve 3rry/s tale of how the Terrans on erel had mutated toward the local #iological norm and

so finally #lended stocks with the native hominids. They had said that was impossi#le- which meant that it had not

happened to them2 they were una#le to mate with Terrans. They were still alien, then, after twelve hundred years2 still

isolated on Earth. &nd did they in fact rule mankind, from this single City1 3nce again *amarren turned to =alk for theanswer, and saw it as (o. They controlled men #y ha#it, ruse, fear, and weaponry, #y #eing quick to prevent the rise of any

strong tri#e or the pooling of knowledge that might threaten them. They prevented men from doing anything. But they did

nothing themselves. They did not rule, they only #lighted.

%t was clear, then, why erel posed a deadly threat to them. They had so far kept up their tenuous, ruinous hold on the

culture which long ago they had wrecked and redirected2 #ut a strong, numerous, technologically advanced race, with a

mythos of #lood4kinship with the Terrans, and a mindscience and weaponry equal to their own, might crush them at a

#low. &nd deliver men from them.

%f they learned from him where erel was, would they send out a lightspeed #om#4ship, like a long fuse #urning

across the light4years, to destroy the dangerous world #efore it ever learned of their e5istence1

That seemed only too possi#le. ;et two things told against it- their careful preparation of young 3rry, as if they wanted

him to act as a messenger2 and their singular !aw..=alk4*amarren was una#le to decide whether that rule of *everence for !ife was the hing/s one genuine #elief, their

one plank across the a#yss of self4destruction that underlay their #ehavior as the #lack canyon gaped #eneath their city, or

instead was simply the #iggest lie of all their lies. They did in fact seem to avoid killing sentient #eings. They had left him

alive, and perhaps the others2 their ela#orately disguised foods were all vegeta#le2 in order to control populations they

evidently pitted tri#e against tri#e, starting the war #ut letting humans do the killing2 and the histories told that in the early

days of their rule, they had used eugenics and resettlement to consolidate their empire, rather than genocide. %t might #e

true, then, that they o#eyed their !aw, in their own fashion.

%n that case, their grooming of young 3rry indicated that he was to #e their messenger. ole survivor of the 9oyage, he

was to return across the gulfs of time and space to erel and tell them all the hing had told him a#out Earth—quack,

quack, like the #irds that quacked It is wrong to take life, the moral #oar, the squeaking mice in the foundations of the

house of "an$ "indless, honest, disastrous, 3rry would carry the !ie to erel.Honor and the memory of the Colony were strong forces on erel, and a call for help from Earth might #ring help

from them2 #ut if they were told there was not and never had #een an Enemy, that Earth was an ancient happy garden4spot,

they were not likely to make that long :ourney :ust to see it. &nd if they did they would come unarmed, as *amarren and

his companions had come.

&nother voice spoke in his memory, longer ago yet, deeper in the forest- 0e cannot go on like this forever. There

must #e a hope, a sign$0

He had not #een sent with a message to mankind, as 6ove had dreamed. The hope was a stranger one even than that,

the sign more o#scure. He was to carry mankind/s message, to utter their cry for help, for deliverance.

I must go home3 I must tell them, the truth, he thought, knowing that the hing would at all costs prevent this, that 3rry

would #e sent, and he would #e kept here or killed.

%n the great weariness of his long effort to think coherently, his will rela5ed all at once, his chancy control over his

racked and worried dou#le mind #roke. He dropped down e5hausted on the couch and put his head in his hands. If I could

only go home, he thought2 if I could walk once more with 4arth down in the ong 1ield&

That was the dream4self grieving, the dreamer =alk. *amarren tried to evade that hopeless yearning #y thinking of his

A



wife, dark4haired, golden4eyed, in a gown sewn with a thousand tiny chains of silver, his wife &drise. But his wedding4

ring was gone. &nd &drise was dead. he had #een dead a long, long time. he had married *amarren knowing that they

would have little more than a moonphase together, for he was going on the 9oyage to Terra. &nd during that one, terri#le

moment of his 9oyage, she had lived out her "e, grown old, died2 she had #een dead for a hundred of Earth/s years,

perhaps. &cross the years #etween the stars, which now was the dreamer, which the dream1

0;ou should have died a century ago,0 the rince of +ansas had told uncomprehending =alk, seeing or sensing or

knowing of the man that lay lost within him, the man #orn so long ago. &nd now if *amarren were to return to erel it

would #e yet farther into his own future. (early three centuries, nearly five of erel/s great ;ears would then have elapsed

since he had left2 all would #e changed2 he would #e as strange on erel as he had #een on Earth.

There was only one place to which he could truly go home, to the welcome of those who had loved him- 6ove/s House.

&nd he would never see it again. %f his way led anywhere, it was out, away from Earth. He was on his own, and had only

one :o# to do- to try to follow that way through to the end.

K

%T & B*3&) )&;!%'HT now, and reali8ing that he was very hungry *amarren went to the concealed door and

asked aloud, in 'alaktika, for food. There was no reply, #ut presently a toolman #rought and served him food2 and as he

was finishing it a little signal sounded outside the door. 0Come in@0 *amarren said in +elshak, and Har 3rry entered, thenthe tall hing &#undi#ot, and two others whom *amarren had never seen. ;et their names were in his mind- +en +enyek

and +radgy. They were introduced to him2 politenesses were uttered. *amarren found that he could handle himself pretty

well2 the necessity of keeping =alk completely hidden and suppressed was actually a convenience, freeing him to #ehave

spontaneously. He was aware that the mentalist +en +enyek was trying to mindpro#e, and with considera#le skill and

force, #ut that did not worry him. %f his #arriers had held good even under the parahypnotic hood, they certainly would not

falter now.

(one of the hing #espoke him. They stood a#out in their strange stiff fashion as if afraid of #eing touched, and

whispered all they said. *amarren managed to ask some of the questions which as *amarren he might #e e5pected to ask

concerning Earth, mankind, the hing, and listened gravely to the answers. 3nce he tried to get into phase with young

3rry, #ut failed. The #oy had no real guard up, #ut perhaps had #een su#:ected to some mental treatment which nullified

the little skill in phase4catching he had learned as a child, and also was under the influence of the drug he had #eenha#ituated to. Even as *amarren sent him the slight, familiar signal of their relationship in prechnoye, 3rry #egan sucking

on a tu#e of parJtha. %n the vivid distracting world of semi4hallucination it provided him, his perceptions were dulled, and

he received nothing.

0;ou have seen nothing of Earth as yet #ut this one room,0 the one dressed as a woman, +radgy, said to *amarren in a

harsh whisper. *amarren was wary of them all, #ut +radgy roused an instinctive fear or aversion in him2 there was a hint

of nightmare in the #ulky #ody under flowing ro#es, the long purplish4#lack hair, the harsh, precise whisper.

0% should like to see more.0

0e shall show you whatever you wish to see. The Earth is open to its honored visitor.0

0% do not remem#er seeing Earth from the #lterra when we came into or#it,0 *amarren said in stiff, erelian4accented

'alaktika. 0(or do % remem#er the attack on the ship. Can you tell me why this is so1

The question might #e risky, #ut he was genuinely curious for the answer2 it was the one #lank still left in his dou#le

memory.

0;ou were in the condition we term achronia,0 +en +enyek replied. 0;ou came out of lightspeed all at once at the

Barrier, since your ship had no retemporali8er. ;ou were at that moment, and for some minutes or hours after, either

unconscious or insane.0

0e had not run into the pro#lem in our short runs at lightspeed.0

0The longer the flight, the stronger the Barrier.0

0%t was a gallant thing,0 &#undi#ot said in his creaky whisper and with his usual floridity, 0a :ourney of a hundred and

twenty4five light4years in a scarcely tested ship@0

*amarren accepted the compliment without correcting the num#er.

0Come, my !ords, let us show our guest the City of Earth.0 imultaneously with &#undi#ot/s words, *amarren caught

the passage of mindspeech #etween +radgy and +en +enyek, #ut did not get the sense of it2 he was too intent on

maintaining his own guard to #e a#le to mindhear or even to receive much empathic impression.0The ship in which you return to erel,0 +en +enyek said, 0will of course #e furnished with a retemporali8er, and you

will suffer no derangement at re4entering planetary space.0

*amarren had risen, rather awkwardly—=alk was used to chairs #ut *amarren was not, and had felt most

AD



uncomforta#le perched up in mid4air—#ut he stood still now and after a moment asked, 0The ship in which we return—10

3rry looked up with #lurry hopefulness. +radgy yawned, showing strong yellow teeth. &#undi#ot said, 0hen you

have seen all you wish to see of Earth and have learned all you wish to learn, we have a lightspeed ship ready for you to

go home to erel in—you, !ord &gad, and Har 3rry. e ourselves travel little. There are no more wars2 we have no need

for trade with other worlds2 and we do not wish to #ankrupt poor Earth again with the immense cost of lightspeed ships

merely to assuage our curiosity. e "en of Earth are an old race now2 we stay home, tend our garden, and do not meddle

and e5plore a#road. But your 9oyage must #e completed, your mission fulfilled. The 5ew #lterra awaits you at our

spaceport, and erel awaits your return. %t is a great pity that your civili8ation had not rediscovered the ansi#le principle,

so that we could #e in communication with them now. By now, of course, they may have the instantaneous transmitter2 #ut

we cannot signal them, having no coordinates.0

0%ndeed,0 *amarren said politely.

There was a slight, tense pause.

0% do not think % understand,0 he said.

0The ansi#le—0

0% understand what the ansi#le transmitter did, though not how it did it. &s you say, sir, we had not when % left erel

rediscovered the principles of instantaneous transmission. But % do not understand what prevented you from attempting to

signal erel.0

/angerous ground. He was all alert now, in control, a player in the game not a piece to #e moved- and he sensed the

electric tension #ehind the three rigid faces.

0rech *amarren,0 &#undi#ot said, 0as Har 3rry was too young to have learned the precise distances involved, we

have never had the honor of knowing e5actly where erel is located, though of course we have a general idea. &s he hadlearned very little 'alaktika, Har 3rry was una#le to tell us the 'alaktika name for erel/s sun, which of course would #e

meaningful to us, who share the language with you as a heritage from the days of the !eague. Therefore we have #een

forced to wait for your assistance, #efore we could attempt ansi#le contact with erel, or prepare the coordinates on the

ship we have ready for you.0

0;ou do not know the name of the star erel circles10

0That unfortunately is the case. %f you care to tell us—0

0% cannot tell you.0

The hing could not #e surprised2 they were too self4a#sor#ed, too egocentric. &#undi#ot and +en +enyek registered

nothing at all. +radgy said in his strange, dreary, precise whisper, 0;ou mean you don/t know either10

0% cannot tell you the True (ame of the un,0 *amarren said serenely.

This time he caught the flicker of mindspeech, +en +enyek to &#undi#ot- I told you so.I apologi8e, prech *amarren for my ignorance in inquiring after a for#idden matter. ill you forgive me1 e do not

know your ways, and though ignorance is a poor e5cuse it is all % can plead.0 &#undi#ot was creaking on when all at once

the #oy 3rry interrupted him, scared into wakefulness-

0rech *amarren, you—you will #e a#le to set the ship/s coordinates1 ;ou do remem#er what—what you knew as

(avigator10

*amarren turned to him and asked quietly, 0)o you want to go home, vesprechna10

0;es@0

0%n twenty or thirty days, if it pleases these !ords who offer us so great a gift, we shall return in their ship to erel. %

am sorry,0 he went on, turning #ack to the hing, 0that my mouth and mind are closed to your question. "y silence is a

mean return for your generous frankness.0 Had they #een using mindspeech, he thought, the e5change would have #een a

great deal less polite2 for he, unlike the hing, was una#le to mindlie, and therefore pro#a#ly could not have said one wordof his last speech.

0(o matter, !ord &gad@ %t is your safe return, not our questions, that is important@ o long as you can program the ship

—and all our records and course4computers are at your service when you may require them—then the question is as good

as answered.0 &nd indeed it was, for if they wanted to know where erel was they would only have to e5amine the course

he programmed into their ship. &fter that, if they still distrusted him, they could re4erase his mind, e5plaining to 3rry that

the restoration of his memory had caused him finally to #reak down. They would then send 3rry off to deliver their

message to erel. They did still distrust him, #ecause they knew he could detect their mindlying. %f there was any way out

of the trap he had not found it yet.

They all went together through the misty halls, down the ramps and elevators, out of the palace into daylight =alk/s

element of the dou#le mind was almost entirely repressed now, and *amarren moved and thought and spoke quite freely

as *amarren. He sensed the constant, sharp readiness of the hing minds, particularly that of +en +enyek, waiting to

penetrate the least flaw or catch the slightest slip. The very pressure kept him dou#ly alert. o it was as *amarren, the

alien, that he looked up into the sky of late morning and saw Earth/s yellow sun.

He stopped, caught #y sudden :oy. =or it was something, no matter what had gone #efore and what might follow after

A



—it was something to have seen the light, in one lifetime, of two suns. The orange gold of erel/s sun, the white gold of

Earth/s- he could hold them now side #y side as a man might hold two :ewels, comparing their #eauty for the sake of

heightening their praise.

The #oy was standing #eside him2 and *amarren murmured aloud the greeting that +elshak #a#ies and little children

were taught to say to the sun seen at dawn or after the long storms of winter, 0elcome the star of life, the center of the

year$0 3rry picked it up midway and spoke it with him. %t was the first harmony #etween them, and *amarren was glad

of it, for he would need 3rry #efore this game was done.

& slider was summoned and they went a#out the city, *amarren asking appropriate questions and the hing replying as

they saw fit. &#undi#ot descri#ed ela#orately how all of Es Toch, towers, #ridges, streets and palaces, had #een #uilt

overnight a thousand years ago, on a river4isle on the other side of the planet, and how from century to century whenever

they felt inclined the !ords of Earth summoned their wondrous machines and instruments to move the whole city to a new

site suiting their whim. %t was a pretty tale2 and 3rry was too #enum#ed with drugs and persuasions to dis#elieve anything,

while if *amarren #elieved or not was little matter. &#undi#ot evidently told lies for the mere pleasure of it. erhaps it was

the only pleasure he knew. There were ela#orate descriptions also of how Earth was governed, how most of the hing

spent their lives among common men, disguised as mere 0natives0 #ut working for the master plan emanating from Es

Toch, how carefree and content most of humanity was in their knowledge that the hing would keep the peace and #ear

the #urdens, how arts and learning were gently encouraged and re#ellious and destructive elements as gently repressed. &

planet of hum#le people, in their hum#le little cottages and peaceful tri#es and townlets2 no warring, no killing, no

crowding2 the old achievements and am#itions forgotten2 almost a race of children, protected #y the firm kindly guidance

and the invulnera#le technological strength of the hing caste——

The story went on and on, always the same with variations, soothing and reassuring. %t was no wonder the poor waif3rry #elieved it2 *amarren would have #elieved most of it, if he had not had =alk/s memories of the =orest and the lains

to show the rather su#tle #ut total falseness of it. =alk had not lived on Earth among children, #ut among men, #rutali8ed,

suffering, and impassioned.

That day they showed *amarren all over Es Toch, which seemed to him who had lived among the old streets of egest

and in the great interhouses of +aspool a sham city, vapid and artificial, impressive only #y its fantastic natural setting.

Then they #egan to take him and 3rry a#out the world #y aircar and planetary car, all4day tours under the guidance of

&#undi#ot or +en +enyek, :aunts to each of Earth/s continents and even out to the desolate and long4a#andoned "oon.

The days went on2 they went on playing the play for 3rry/s #enefit, wooing *amarren till they got from him what they

wanted to know. Though he was directly or electronically watched at every moment, visually and telepathically, he was in

no way restrained2 evidently they felt they had nothing to fear from him now.

erhaps they would let him go home with 3rry, then. erhaps they thought him harmless enough, in his ignorance, to #e allowed to leave Earth with his read:usted mind intact.

But he could #uy his escape from Earth only with the information they wanted, the location of erel. o far he had

told them nothing and they had asked nothing more.

)id it so much matter, after all, if the hing knew where erel was1

%t did. Though they might not #e planning any immediate attack on this potential enemy, they might well #e planning

to send a ro#ot monitor out after the 5ew #lterra, with an ansi#le transmitter a#oard to make instantaneous report to them

of any preparation for interstellar flight on erel. The ansi#le would give them a hundred and forty year start on the

erelians2 they could stop an e5pedition to Terra #efore it started. The one advantage that erel possessed tactically over

the hing was the fact that the hing did not know where it was and might have to spend several centuries looking for it.

*amarren could #uy a chance of escape only at the price of certain peril for the world to which he was responsi#le.

o he played for time, trying to devise a way out of his dilemma, flying with 3rry and one or another of the hing hereand there over the Earth, which stretched out under their flight like a great lovely garden gone all to weeds and wilderness.

He sought with all his trained intelligence some way in which he could turn his situation a#out and #ecome the controller

instead of the one controlled- for so his +elshak mentality presented his case to him. een rightly, any situation, even a

chaos or a trap would come clear and lead of itself to its one proper outcome- for there is in the long run no disharmony,

only misunderstanding, no chance or mischance #ut only the ignorant eye. o *amarren thought, and the second soul

within him, =alk, took no issue with this view, #ut spent no time trying to think it all out, either. =or =alk had seen the dull

and #right stones slip across the wires of the patterning4frame, and had lived with men in their fallen estate, kings in e5ile

on their own domain the Earth, and to him it seemed that no man could make his fate or control the game, #ut only wait

for the #right :ewel luck to slip #y on the wire of time. Harmony e5ists, #ut there is no understanding it2 the ay cannot #e

gone. o while *amarren racked his mind, =alk lay low and waited. &nd when the chance came he caught it.

3r rather, as it turned out, he was caught #y it.

There was nothing special a#out the moment. They were with +en +enyek in a fleet little auto4pilot aircar, one of the

#eautiful, clever machines that allowed the hing to control and police the world so effectively. They were returning

toward Es Toch from a long flight out over the islands of the estern 3cean, on one of which they had made a stop of

F



several hours at a human settlement. The natives of the island4chain they had visited were handsome, contented people

entirely a#sor#ed in sailing, swimming, and se5—afloat in the a8ure amniotic sea- perfect specimens of human happiness

and #ackwardness to show the erelians. (othing to worry a#out there, nothing to fear.

3rry was do8ing, with a parJtha4tu#e #etween his fingers. +en +enyek had put the ship on automatic, and with

*amarren—three or four feet away from him, as always, for the hing never got physically close to anyone—was looking

out the glass side of the aircar at the five4hundred4mile circle of fair weather and #lue sea that surrounded them. *amarren

was tired, and let himself rela5 a little in this pleasant moment of suspension, aloft in a glass #u##le in the center of the

great #lue and golden sphere.

0%t is a lovely world,0 the hing said.

0%t is.0

0The :ewel of all worlds$ %s erel as #eautiful10

0(o. %t is harsher.0

0;es, the long year would make it so. How long1—si5ty Earthyears10

0;es.0

0;ou were #orn in the fall, you said. That would mean you had never seen your world in summer when you left it.0

03nce, when % flew to the outhern hemisphere. But their summers are cooler, as their winters are warmer, than in

+elshy. % have not seen the 'reat ummer of the north.0

0;ou may yet. %f you return within a few months, what will the season #e on erel10

*amarren computed for a couple of seconds and replied, 0!ate summer2 a#out the twentieth moonphase of summer,

perhaps.0

0% made it to #e fall—how long does the :ourney take100& hundred and forty4two Earthyears,0 *amarren said, and as he said it a little gust of panic #lew across his mind and

died away. He sensed the presence of the hing/s mind in his own2 while talking, +en +enyek had reached out mentally,

found his defenses down, and taken whole4phase control of his mind. That was all right. %t showed incredi#le patience and

telepathic skill on the hing/s part. He had #een afraid of it, #ut now that it had happened it was perfectly all right.

+en +enyek was #espeaking him now, not in the creaky oral whisper of the hing #ut in clear, comforta#le

mindspeech- 0(ow, that/s all right, that/s right, that/s good. %sn/t it pleasant that we/re attuned at last10

09ery pleasant,0 *amarren agreed.

0;es indeed. (ow we can remain attuned and all our worries are over. ell then, a hundred and forty4two lightyears

distant—that means that your sun must #e the one in the )ragon constellation. hat is its name in 'alaktika1 (o, that/s

right, you can/t say it or #espeak it here. Eltanin, is that it, the name of your sun10

*amarren made no response of any kind. pL0Eltanin, the )ragon/s Eye, yes, that/s very nice. The others we had picked as possi#ilities are somewhat closer in. (ow

this saves a great deal of time. e had almost—0

The quick, clear, mocking, soothing mindspeech stopped a#ruptly and +en +enyek gave a convulsive start2 so did

*amarren at the identical moment. The hing turned :erkily toward the controls of the aircar, then away. He leaned over in

a strange fashion, too far over, like a puppet on strings carelessly managed, then all at once slid to the floor of the car and

lay there with his white, handsome face upturned, rigid.

3rry, shaken from his euphoric drowse, was staring. 0hat/s wrong1 hat happened10

He got no answer. *amarren was standing as rigidly as the hing lay, and his eyes were locked with the hing/s in a

dou#le unseeing stare. hen at last he moved, he spoke in a language 3rry did not know. Then, la#oriously, he spoke in

'alaktika. 0ut the ship in hover,0 he said.

The #oy gaped. 0hat/s wrong with !ord +en, prech *amarren10

0'et up. ut the ship in hover@0

He was speaking 'alaktika now not with his erelian accent #ut in the de#ased form used #y Earth natives. But

though the language was wrong the urgency and authority were powerful. 3rry o#eyed him. The little glass #u##le hung

motionless in the center of the #owl of ocean, eastward of the sun.

Trechna, is the—0

0Be still@0

ilence. +en +enyek lay still. 9ery gradually *amarren/s visi#le tension and intensity rela5ed.

hat had happened on the mental plane #etween him and +en +enyek was a matter of am#ush and re4am#ush. %n

physical terms, the hing had :umped *amarren, thinking he was capturing one man, and had in turn #een surprised #y a

second man—the mind in am#ush, =alk. 3nly for a second had =alk #een a#le to take control and only #y sheer force of

surprise, #ut that had #een long enough to free *amarren from the hing/s phase4control. The instant he was free, while

+en +enyek/s mind was still in phase with his and vulnera#le, *amarren had taken control. %t took all his skill and all hisstrength to keep +en +enyek/s mind phased with his, helpless and assenting, as his own had #een a moment #efore. But

his advantage still remained- he was still dou#le4minded, and while *amarren held the hing helpless, =alk was free to

think and act.

7



This was the chance, the moment2 there would #e no other.

=alk asked aloud, 0here is there a lightspeed ship ready for flight10

%t was curious to hear the hing answer in his whispering voice and know, for once to know certainly and a#solutely,

that he was not lying. 0%n the desert northwest of Es Toch.0

0%s it guarded10

0;es.0

0By live guards10

0(o.0

0;ou will guide us there.0

0% will guide you there.0

0Take the car where he tells you, 3rry.0

0% don/t understand, prech *amarren2 are we—0

0e are going to leave Earth. (ow. Take the controls.0

0Take the controls,0 +en +enyek repeated softly. 3rry o#eyed, following the hing/s instructions as to course. &t full

speed the aircar shot eastward, yet seemed still to hang in the changeless center of the sea4sphere, towards the

circumference of which the sun, #ehind them, dropped visi#ly. Then the estern %sles appeared, seeming to float towards

them over the wrinkled glittering curve of the sea2 then #ehind these the sharp white peaks of the coast appeared, and

approached, and ran #y #eneath the aircar. (ow they were over the dun desert #roken #y arid, fluted ranges casting long

shadows to the east. till following +en +enyek/s murmured instructions, 3rry slowed the ship, circled one of these

ranges, set the controls to catch the landing4#eacon and let the car #e homed in. The high lifeless mountains rose up a#out

them, walling them in, as the aircar settled down on a pale, shadowy plain. (o spaceport or airfield was visi#le, no roads, no #uildings, #ut certain vague, very large shapes trem#led mirage4like

over the sand and sage#rush under the dark slopes of the mountains. =alk stared at them and could not focus his eyes on

them, and it was 3rry who said with a catch of his #reath, 0tarships.0

They were the interstellar ships of the hing, their fleet or part of it, camouflaged with light4dispeller nets. Those =alk

had first seen were smaller ones2 there were others, which he had taken for foothills$

The aircar had intangi#ly settled itself down #eside a tiny, ruined, roofless shack, its #oards #leached and split #y the

desert wind.

0hat is that shack10

0The entrance to the underground rooms is to one side of it.0

0&re there ground4computers down there10

0;es.00&re any of the small ships ready to go10

0They are all ready to go. They are mostly ro#ot4controlled defense ships.0

0%s there one with pilot4control10

0;es. The one intended for Har 3rry.0

*amarren kept close telepathic hold on the hing/s mind while =alk ordered him to take them to the ship and show

them the on#oard computers. +en +enyek at once o#eyed. =alk4*amarren had not entirely e5pected him to- there were

limits to mind4control :ust as there were to normal hypnotic suggestion. The drive to self4preservation often resisted even

the strongest control, and sometimes shattered the whole attunement when infringed upon. But the treason he was #eing

forced to commit apparently aroused no instinctive resistance in +en +enyek2 he took them into the starship and replied

o#ediently to all =alk4*amarren/s questions, then led them #ack to the decrepit hut and at command unlocked, with

physical and mental signals, the trapdoor in the sand near the door. They entered the tunnel that was revealed. &t each ofthe underground doors and defenses and shields +en +enyek gave the proper signal or response, and so #rought them at

last to attack4proof, cataclysm4proof, thief4proof rooms far underground, where the automatic control guides and the

course computers were.

3ver an hour had now passed since the moment in the aircar. +en +enyek, assenting and su#missive, reminding =alk

at moments of poor Estrel, stood harmlessly #y—harmless so long as *amarren kept total control over his #rain. The

instant that control was rela5ed, +en +enyek would send a mindcall to Es Toch if he had the power, or trip some alarm,

and the other hing and their toolmen would #e here within a couple of minutes. But *amarren must rela5 that control- for

he needed his mind to think with. =alk did not know how to program a computer for the lightspeed course to erel,

satellite of the sun Eltanin. 3nly *amarren could do that.

=alk had his own resources, however. 0'ive me your gun.0

+en +enyek at once handed over a little weapon kept concealed under his ela#orate ro#es. &t this 3rry stared in

horror. =alk did not try to allay the #oy/s shock2 in fact, he ru##ed it in. 0*everence for !ife10 he inquired coldly,

e5amining the weapon. &ctually, as he had e5pected, it was not a gun or laser #ut a lowlevel stunner without kill capacity.

He turned it on +en +enyek, pitiful in his utter lack of resistance, and fired. &t that 3rry screamed and lunged forward,

<



and =alk turned the stunner on him. Then he turned away from the two sprawled, paraly8ed figures, his hands shaking, and

let *amarren take over as he pleased. He had done his share for the time #eing.

*amarren had no time to spend on compunction or an5iety. He went straight to the computers and set to work. He

already knew from his e5amination of the on#oard controls that the mathematics involved in some of the ship/s operations

was not the familiar Cetian4#ased mathematics which Terrans still used and from which erel/s mathematics, via the

Colony, also derived. ome of the processes the hing used and #uilt into their computers were entirely alien to Cetian

mathematical process and logic2 and nothing else could have so firmly persuaded *amarren that the hing were, indeed,

alien to Earth, alien to all the old !eague worlds, conquerors from some very distant world. He had never #een quite sure

that Earth/s old histories and tales were correct on that point, #ut now he was convinced. He was, after all, essentially a

mathematician.

%t was :ust as well that he was, or certain of those processes would have stopped him cold in his effort to set up the

coordinates for erel on the hing computers. &s it was, the :o# took him five hours. &ll this time he had to keep, literally,

half his mind on +en +enyek and 3rry. %t was simpler to keep 3rry unconscious than to e5plain to him or order him

a#out2 it was a#solutely vital that +en +enyek stay completely unconscious. =ortunately the stunner was an effective little

device, and once he discovered the proper setting =alk only had to use it once more. Then he was free to coe5ist, as it

were, while *amarren plugged away at his computations.

=alk looked at nothing while *amarren worked, #ut listened for any noise, and was conscious always of the two

motionless, senseless figures sprawled out near#y. &nd he thought2 he thought a#out Estrel, wondering where she was now

and what she was now. Had they retrained her, ra8ed her mind, killed her1 (o, they did not kill. They were afraid to kill

and afraid to die, and called their fear *everence for !ife. The hing, the Enemy, the !iars$ )id they in truth lie1 erhaps

that was not quite the way of it2 perhaps the essence of their lying was a profound, irremedia#le lack of understanding.They could not get into touch with men. They had used that and profited #y it, making it into a great weapon, the mindlie2

#ut had it #een worth their while, after all1 Twelve centuries of lying, ever since they had first come here, e5iles or pirates

or empire4#uilders from some distant star, determined to rule over these races whose minds made no sense to them and

whose flesh was to them forever sterile. &lone, isolated, deafmutes ruling deafmutes in a world of delusions. 6h

desolation&.

*amarren was done. &fter his five hours of driving la#or, and eight seconds of work for the computer, the little indium

output slip was in his hand, ready to program into the ship/s course4control.

He turned and stared foggily at 3rry and +en +enyek. hat to do with them1 They had to come along, evidently.

rase the records on the com!uters, said a voice inside his mind, a familiar voice, his own—=alk/s. *amarren was di88y

with fatigue, #ut gradually he saw the point of this request, and o#eyed. Then he could not think what to do ne5t. &nd so,

finally, for the first time, he gave up, made no effort to dominate, let himself fuse into$ himself.=alk4*amarren got to work at once. He dragged +en +enyek la#oriously up to ground level and across the starlit sand

to the ship that trem#led half4visi#le, opalescent in the desert night2 he loaded the inert #ody into a contourseat, gave it an

e5tra dose of the stunner, and then came #ack for 3rry.

3rry #egan to revive partway, and managed to clim# fee#ly into the ship himself. 0rech *amarren,0 he said hoarsely,

clutching at =alk4*amarren/s arm, 0where are we going10

0To erel.0

0He/s coming too—+en +enyek10

0;es. He can tell erel his tale a#out Earth, and you can tell yours, and % mine$ There/s always more than one way

towards the truth. trap yourself in. That/s it.0

=alk4*amarren fed the little metal strip into the course4controller. %t was accepted, and he set the ship to act within

three minutes. ith a last glance at the desert and the stars, he shut the ports and came hurridly, shaky with fatigue andstrain, to strap himself in #eside 3rry and the hing.

!ift4off was fusionpowered- the lightspeed drive would go into effect only at the outer edge of Earthspace. They took

off very softly and were out of the atmosphere in a few seconds. The visual screens opened automatically, and =alk4

*amarren saw the Earth falling away, a great dusky #luish curve, #right4rimmed. Then the ship came out into the unending

sunlight.

as he leaving home, or going home1

3 th d i th E t 3 h i ld t f t i t th d t f t

leguin, ursula k - ekumen 03 - city of illusion

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