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"That's not a bad idea!"

"Besides, he's been kind to me He didn't have to be

"You think that? Is that what you think? Have you looked at the man's mind?"

"Of course I haven't! I don't kno to!"

"You don't?"

"No! Humans can't do-

Brutha paused Vorbis seemed to do it He only had to look at sorandmother had been the same

"Humans can't do it, I'm sure," he said "We can't readat the the shape of theht as well try and read a river But seeing the shape's easy Witches can do it, no trouble"

" `The way of the witch shall be as a path streith thorns,' " said Brutha

"Ossory?" said Om

"Yes But of course you'd know," said Brutha

"Never heard it before in ht call an educated guess"

"Whatever you say," said Brutha, "I still know that you can't truly be Om The God would not talk like that about His chosen ones"

"I never chose anyone," said Om "They chose the a tortoise"

"I told you, I can't You think I haven't tried? Three years! Most of that tiht I was a tortoise"

"Then perhaps you were Maybe you're just a tortoise who thinks he's a god"

"Nah Don't try philosophy again Start thinking like that and you end up thinkingit's a whelk or so No One day all I had on et to the nearest plant with decent loing leaves, the nextI had all thisup my head Three years before the shell No, don't you tellideas"

Brutha hesitated He kneicked to ask, but he wanted to knohat thethere talking to you, could you say anything truly wicked?

Face to face? So wicked when he was up on a cloud or so

"As far as I can recall," said O white bull"

"Tra the infidel," said Brutha

"Notcould have been arranged Or a swan, I thought So impressive Three years later, I wake up and it turns out I've been a tortoise I et much lower" Careful, carefulyou need his help, but don't tell hi Don't tell him what you suspect

"When did you start think-when did you remeetting a strange and fascinating one, as otheryour ararden," said Om, "which is not a point where it's fun to become sapient, I'm here to tell you"

"But why?" said Brutha "Gods don't have to stay tortoises unless they want to!"

"I don't know," lied Om

If he works it out hiht This is a chance in a , it's back to a life where happiness is a leaf you can reach

Part of hiod! I don't have to think like this! I don't have to put myself in the power of a human!

But another part, the part that could re a tortoise for three years had been like, whispered: no You have to If you want to be up there again He's stupid and gor flabby body And this is what you've got to ith

The god part said: Vorbis would have been better Be rational A !

He turned me on my back!

No, he turned a tortoise on its back

Yes Me

No You're a god

Yes, but a persistently tortoise-shaped one

If he had known you were a god

But Orey eyes in front of a mind as impenetrable as a steel ball He'd never seen a ht There was sood on his back, just to see ould happen Soht of consequence, for the sake of the knowledge of what happened when the universe was flat on its back

But what he had to as Brutha, with a ue And if Brutha found out that

Or if Brutha died

"How are you feeling?" said Ole down under the sails a bit more," said Oot to be soht It can't be just hiht was so terrible he tried to block it from his mind, but he couldn't

it can't be just him who believes in olden horns Not in a great big building Not in the dread of hot iron and knives Not in paying your temple dues because everyone else does Just in the fact that the Great God Oot himself involved with the most unpleasant mind I've ever seen, sole kind of person if ever there was one