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It was just that, here and now and suddenly, Brutha felt so alone that even Vorbis was good company

"Why do you bother with him? He's had thousands of people killed!"

"Yes, but perhaps he thought you wanted it"

"I never said I wanted that"

"You didn't care," said Brutha

"But I-

"Shut up!"

Om's mouth opened in astonishment

"You could have helped people," said Brutha "But all you did was stamp around and roar and try toa donkey with a stick But people like Vorbis ood, that's all the donkey ends up believing in"

"That could use some work, as a parable," said O about!"

"It's not my fault if people misuse the-

"It is! It has to be! If you muck up people's minds just because you want them to believe in you, what they do is all your fault!"

Brutha glared at the tortoise, and then stamped off toward the pile of rubble that doed around in it

"What are you looking for?"

"We'll need to carry water," said Brutha

"There won't be anything," said Om "People just left The land ran out and so did the people They took everything with thenored hi under the rocks and sand

"Why worry about Vorbis?" Om whined "In a hundred years' time, he'll be dead anyway We'll all be dead"

Brutha tugged at the piece of curved pottery It came away, and turned out to be about two-thirds of a wide bowl, broken right across It had been almost as wide as Brutha's outstretched arms, but had been too broken for anyone to loot

It was useful for nothing But it had once been useful for soures round its ri to distract himself, while Oures looked ion You could tell by the knives (it's not od) In the center of the boas a larger figure, obviously i it for

"What?" he said

"I said, in a hundred years' tiures round the bowl No one kneho their god was, and they were gone Lions slept in the holy places and-

-Chilopoda aridius, the common desert centipede, his memory resident library supplied

-scuttled beneath the altar

"Yes," said Brutha "We will" He raised the bowl over his head, and turned

Oritted his teeth as he staggered under the weight "And now-

He threw the bowl It landed against the altar Fragain The echoes boomed around the temple

"-we are alive!"

He picked up Om, who had withdrawn completely into his shell

"And we'll make it home All of us," he said "I know it"

"It's written, is it?" said Oue-a tortoise shell is a pretty good water container, I expect"

"You wouldn't"

"Who knows? I ht In a hundred years' time we'll all be dead, you said"

"Yes! Yes!" said Oht"

Didactylos s that came easily to him It wasn't that he was a somber man, but he could not see the smiles of others It took several dozen muscle movements to smile, and there was no return on his investment

He'd spoken many times to crowds in Ephebe, but they were invariably made up of other philosophers, whose shouts of "Bloody daft!," "You're !" and other contributions to the debate always put him at his ease That was because no one really paid any attention They were just working out what they were going to say next

But this crowd put hie pit waiting for his words to fill it The trouble was that he was talking in philosophy, but they were listening in gibberish

"You can't believe in Great A'Tuin," he said "Great A'Tuin exists There's no point in believing in things that exist"

"Someone's put up their hand," said Urn

"Yes?"

"Sir, surely only things that exist are worth believing in?" said the enquirer, earing a uniforeant of the Holy Guard

"If they exist, you don't have to believe in thehed "What can I tell you? What do you want to hear? I just wrote dohat people know Mountains rise and fall, and under them the Turtle swirow and cruo, and still the Turtle Moves The Turtle Moves "

From the darkness came a voice, "And that is really true?"

Didactylos shrugged "The Turtle exists The world is a flat disc The sun turns round it once every day, dragging its light behind it And this will go on happening, whether you believe it is true or not It is real I don't know about truth Truth is a lot ives a bugger whether it's true or not, to tell you the truth"

Si

"This isn't what they ca?"

"Sorry?" said Urn

"They don't want philosophy They want a reason to ainst the Church! Now! Vorbis is dead, the Cenobiarch is gaga, the hierarchy are busy stabbing one another in the back The Citadel is like a big rotten pluh," said Urn "You said you've only got a tenth of the army"

"But they're freefor more than fifty cents a day"

Urn looked down at his hands He often did that when he was uncertain about anything, as if they were the only things he was sure of in all the world

"They'll get the odds down to three to one before the rest knohat's happening," said Sirimly "Did you talk to the blacksmith?"

"Yes"

"Can you do it?"