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Brother Nhu and turning on his bed like a beached whale

"It's the sun," said Nhu the exquisitor coarden It was bound to happen"

"Have you tried beating him?" said Brother Vorbis

"I' to flog a mattress," said Nhumrod "He says `ow!' but I think it's only because he wants to show he's willing Very willing lad, Brutha He's the one I told you about"

"He doesn't look very sharp," said Vorbis

"He's not," said Nhuence in a novice was a reater glory of Om, but often it causedwell, it did not cause trouble, because Vorbis knew exactly what to do with ence, but it did cause unnecessary work

"And yet you tell hly of hied

"He is very obedient," he said "Andwell, there's his memory"

"What about his memory?"

"There's so oodword It's superb He's word-perfect on the entire Sept-"

"Hht the deacon's eye

"As perfect, that is, as anything may be in this most imperfect world," heman," said Vorbis

"Er," said Nhumrod, "no He can't read Or write"

"Ah A lazy boy"

The deacon was not a rey areas Nhuht for the proper words

"No," he said "He tries We're sure he tries He just does not seem to be able to make thehe cannot fathom the link between the sounds and the letters"

"You have beaten him for that, at least?"

"It seems to have little effect, deacon"

"How, then, has he become such a capable pupil?"

"He listens," said Nhumrod

No one listened quite like Brutha, he reflected Itin a great big cave All your words just vanished into the unfillable depths of Brutha's head The sheer concentrated absorption could reduce unwary tutors to stuttering silence, as every word they uttered whirled away into Brutha's ears

"He listens to everything," said Nhu He takes it all in"

Vorbis stared down at Brutha

"And I've never heard him say an unkind word," said Nhumrod "The other novicesDuaze took in Brutha's has

He appeared to be thinking deeply

"Cannot read and write," said Vorbis "But ex?tremely loyal, you say?"

"Loyal and devout," said Nhuood memory," Vorbis murmured

"It's more than that," said Nhumrod "It's not like memory at all"

Vorbis appeared to reach a decision

"Send him to see me when he is recovered," he said

Nhumrod looked panicky

"I merely wish to talk to him," said Vorbis "I may have a use for him"

"Yes, lord?"

"For, I suspect, the Great God Oh above No sound but the hiss of wind in feathers The eagle stood on the breeze, looking down at the toy buildings of the Citadel

It had dropped it somewhere, and now it couldn't find it Soreen

Bees buzzed in the bean blossoms And the sun beat down on the upturned shell of Om

There is also a hell for tortoises

He was too tired to waggle his legs now That was all you could do, waggle your legs And stick your head out as far as it would go and wave it about in the hope that you could lever yourself over

You died if you had no believers, and that hat a senerally worried about But you also died if you died

In the part of his hts of heat, he could feel Brutha's terror and bewilder?ment He shouldn't have done that to the boy Of course he hadn't been watching hiod did that? Who cared what people did? Belief was the thing He'd just picked the memory out of the boy'sfro hotter, and I' to die

And yetand yetthat bloody eagle had dropped hile A whole place built of rocks on a rock in a rocky place, and he landed on the one thing that'd break his fall without breaking him as well And really close to a believer