Wolfe, Gene - Long Sun 03 by Wolfe Gene

Author:Wolfe, Gene
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter 6 -- The Blind God

Oreb had eyed Dace's corpse hopefully when Urus let it fall to the tunnel floor and spun around to shout at Hammerstone. "Why we got to find him? Tell me that! Tell me, an' I'll look till I can't shaggy walk, till I got to crawl--"

"Pick it up, you." Without taking his eyes off Urus, Hammerstone addressed Incus. "All right if I kill him, Patera? Only I won't be able to carry them both and shoot."

Incus shook his head. "He has a _point_, my son, so let us consider it. _Ought_ we, as he inquires, continue to search for our friend Auk?"

"I'll leave it up to you, Patera. You're smarter than all of us, smarter than the whole city'd be if you weren't living there. I'd do anything you say, and I'll see to it these bios do, too."

"_Thank_ you, my son." Incus, who was exceedingly tired already, lowered himself gratefully to the tunnel floor. "Sit _down_, all of you.

We shall discuss this."

"I don't see why." Tired herself, Chenille grounded her launcher.

"Stony there does whatever you tell him to, and he could do for me and Urus like swatting flies. You say it and we'll do it. We'll have to."

"Sit _down_. My daughter, can't you see how very _illogical_ you're being? You _maintain_ that you're forced to obey in _all things_, yet you will not oblige even the simplest request."

"All right." She sat; and Hammemtone, laying a heavy hand on Urus, forced him to sit, too.

"Where Auk?" Oreb hopped optimistically across the damp gray shiprock. "Auk where?" Although he could not have put the feeling into words, Oreb felt that he was nearer Silk when he was with Auk than in any other company. The red girl was close to Silk as well, but she had once thrown a glass at him, and Oreb had not forgotten.

"_Where_ indeed?" Incus sighed. "My daughter, you invite me to be a _despot_, but what you say is true. I might lord it over you both if I chose. I need not lord it over our friend. _He_ obeys me very willingly, as you have seen. But I am _not_, by inclination, training, or _native character_ inclined toward despotism. A holy augur's part is to lead

and to advise, to _conduct_ the laity to rich fields and _unfailing_

springs, if I may put it thus _poetically_.

"So _let us_ review our position and take _council_, one with another.

Then I will lead us in prayer, a fervent and _devout_ prayer, let it be, to all the Nine, _imploring_ their guidance."

"Then we'll decide?" Urus demanded.

"Then _I_ will decide, my son." By an effort, Incus sat up straighter.

"But _first_, allow me to dispel certain fallacies that have already crept into our deliberations." He addressed himself to Chenille. "_You_, my daughter, seek to accuse me of despotism. It is _impolite_, but courtesy itself must at times give way to the _sacred duty_ of _correction_. May I remind you that _you_, for the space of nearly _two

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