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"We think that you areit up," said the fatup? When it was just sitting there in his head
"Can you re that's ever happened to you?" said the stocky hout the exchange Brutha was glad of the interruption
"No, lord Most things"
"You forget things?"
"Uh There are soetfulness, although he found it hard to iine But there were times in his life, in the first few years of his life especially, when there wasnothing Not an attrition of reat locked roootten, any more than a locked room ceases to exist, butlocked
"What is the first thing you can remember, ht light, and then someone hit me," said Brutha
The three men stared at hih the
"is there to lose?"Foolishness and probably deh" "One chance, and they will be expecting us"
And so on
He looked around the roo was not a priority in the Citadel Shelves, stools, tablesThere was a ru the novices that priests towards the top of the hierarchy had golden furniture, but there was no sign of it here The rooh it had, perhaps, a more opulent severity; it wasn't the forced bareness of poverty, but the starkness of intent
"My son?"
Brutha looked back hurriedly
Vorbis glanced at his colleagues The stocky ed
"Brutha," said Vorbis, "return to your dorive you so to eat, and a drink You will report to the Gate of Horns at dawn tomorrow, and you will coation to Ephebe?"
Brutha shook his head
"Perhaps there is no reason why you should," said Vorbis "We are going to discuss political matters with the Tyrant Do you understand?"
Brutha shook his head
"Good," said Vorbis "Very good Oh, and-Brutha?"
"Yes, lord?"
"You will forget thisYou have not been in this rooaped at his just by wishing Sos in those locked rooms-but that was because of some mechanism he could not access What did this man mean?
"Yes, lord," he said
It seemed the simplest way
Gods have no one to pray to
The Great God Om scurried towards the nearest statue, neck stretched, inefficient legs pu an infidel, although this was no great cole stopped circling and swooped
Om had been a tortoise for only three years, but with the shape he had inherited a grab-bag of instincts, and a lot of them centered around a total terror of the one wild creature that had found out how to eat tortoise
Gods have no one to pray to
Om really wished that this was not the case
But everyone needs someone
"Brutha! "
Brutha was a little uncertain about his immediate future Deacon Vorbis had clearly cut hi to do for the rest of the afternoon
He gravitated towards the garden There were beans to tie up, and he welcomed the fact You knehere you ith beans They didn't tell you to do i to be away for a while, he ought to s to Lu-Tze
Lu-Tze caanization has so a broo the shelves in the back of the stores (where they are the only person who knohere anything is) or have souous but essential relationship with the boiler-room Everyone knoho they are and no one reo when they're not, well, where they usually are Just occasionally, people who are slightly more observant than most other people, which is not on the face of it very difficult, stop and wonder about the else
Strangely enough, given his gentle aarden around the Citadel, Lu-Tze never showed much interest in the plants themselves He dealt in soil,it about Generally he was pushing a broo he lost interest
He was raking the paths when Brutha entered He was good at raking paths He left scallop patterns and gentle soothing curves Brutha always felt apologetic about walking on them
He hardly ever spoke to Lu-Tze, because it didn't matter much what anyone ever said to Lu-Tze The old le-toothed s away for a little while," said Brutha, loudly and distinctly "I expect soardens, but there are so"
Nod, s the rohile Brutha spoke beans and herbs
"Understand?" said Brutha, after ten minutes of this
Nod, smile Nod, smile, beckon