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O face down on the deck

"What are you doing?" said O"

"That's good What for?"

"You don't know?"

"Oh"

If Brutha dies

The tortoise shuddered in its shell If Brutha died, then it could already hear in itsof the wind in the deep, hot places of the desert

Where the sods coo?

Soious philosopher Kooo-Video Liber Deoruhly as Gods: A Spotter's Guide

People said there had to be a Supre because otherwise how could the universe exist, eh?

And of course there clearly had to be, said Koo But since the universe was a bit of ahadn't in factSupreht given, taking an exan of the common nostril Or, to put it another way, the existence of a badly puttogether watch proved the existence of a blind watchmaker You only had to look around to see that there was roogested that the Universe had probably been put together in a bit of a rush by an underling while the Supre, in the same way that Boy Scouts' Association minutes are done on office photocopiers all over the country

So, reasoned Kooood idea to address any prayers to a Supreht cause trouble

And yet there seeods around the place Koorow and flourish because they are believed in Belief itself is the food of the gods Initially, when mankind lived in sods Now there tended to be only a few very iods of thunder and love, for exaether like pools of e, powerful priod could join Any god could start srow in stature as its believers increased And dwindle as they decreased It was like a great big gaa

Kooood old Gnostic heresy, which tends to turn up all over the et up off their knees and start thinking for two h the shock of the sudden altitude tends tois a little whacked But it upsets priests, who tend to vent their displeasure in traditional ways

When the Omnian Church found out about Koomi, they displayed him in every toithin the Church's eument

There were a lot of towns, so they had to cut hied clouds ripped across the skies The sails creaked in the rising wind, and Om could hear the shouts of the sailors as they tried to outrun the stor storm, even by the mariners' standards White water crowned the waves

Brutha snored in his nest

Om listened to the sailors They were not men who dealt in sophistries Someone had killed a porpoise, and everyone knehat thatto be a stor to be sunk It was simple cause and effect It orse than women aboard It orse than albatrosses

Om wondered if tortoises could swiers had the shell for it

It would be too od had anyone to ask) that a body designed for trundling around a dry wilderness had any hydrodynamic properties other than those necessary to sink to the bottood He had rights

He slid down a coil of rope and crawled carefully to the edge of the swaying deck, wedging his shell against a stanchion so that he could see down into the roiling water

Then he spoke in a voice audible to nothing that washappened for a while Then one wave rose higher than the rest, and changed shape as it rose Water poured upward, filling an invisible mold; it was humanoid, but obviously only because it wanted to be It could as easily have been a waterspout, or an undertow The sea is always powerful So many people believe in it But it seldom answers prayers

The water shape rose level with the deck and kept pace with Om

It developed a face, and opened a s, oh Queen of- Oan

The watery eyes focused

"But you are just a sod And you dare to su

"I have believers," said Oht"

There was the briefest of pauses Then the Sea Queen said, "One believer?"

"One or hts"

"And what rights do you demand, little tortoise?" said the Queen of the Sea

"Save the ship," said Om

The Queen was silent

"You have to grant the request," said Om "It's the rules"

"But I can name my price," said the Sea Queen

"That's the rules, too"

"And it will be high"

"It will be paid"

The coluan to collapse back into the waves

"I will consider this"

O hi foreclaw hooked itself around the stanchion as Os paddled helplessly over the waters