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He tried to say "Urn?"

"Shut up, you," said the otherthe knife to his throat

"Brutha?" said Urn "You're alive?"

Brutha moved his eyes from his captor to Urn in a hich he hoped would indicate that it was too soon to ht," said Urn

"All right? He's a priest!"

"But he's on our side Aren't you, Brutha?"

Brutha tried to nod, and thought: I'm on everyone's side It'd be nice if, just for once, someone was on mine

The hand was uncla on his throat Brutha's norht processes ran like quicksilver

"The Turtle Moves?" he ventured

The knife ithdraith obvious reluctance

"I don't trust him," said the man "We should shove him down the hole at least"

"Brutha's one of us," said Urn

"That's right That's right," said Brutha "Which ones are you?"

Urn leaned closer

"How's your memory?"

"Unfortunately, it is fine"

"Good Good Uh It would be a good idea to stay out of trouble, d'you hearif anything happens Remember the Turtle Well, of course you would"

"What things?"

Urn patted hi Brutha think for a moment of Vorbis Vorbis, who never touched another person inside his head, was a great toucher with his hands

"Best if you don't knohat's happening," said Urn

"But I don't knohat's happening," said Brutha

"Good That's the way"

The burly estured with his knife towards the tunnels that led into the rock

"Are we going, or what?" he demanded

Urn ran after him and then stopped briefly and turned

"Be careful," he said "We need what's in your head!"

Brutha watched theo

"So do I," he ain

But he thought: Hold on I don't have to be I'one and soon the world will end, so at least I , Brutha set off towards the Place

Bishops s don't expect theo that way!"

The sun ell up now In fact it was probably setting, if Didactylos's theories about the speed of light were correct, but in matters of relativity the point of view of the observer is very iolden ball in a flae sky

He pulled himself up another slope, and stared blearily at the distant Citadel In his ods

They didn't like a god who had failed They didn't like that at all It let them all down It reminded them of mortality He'd be thrust out into the deep desert, where no one would ever come Ever Until the end of the world

He shivered in his shell

Urn and Fergh the tunnels of the Citadel, using the kind of nonchalant hich, had there been anyone to take an interest in it, would have drawn detailed and arrow-sharp attention to them within seconds But the only people around were those with vital jobs to do Besides, it was not a good idea to stare too hard at the guards, in case they stared back

Sireed to this He couldn't quite reeant kneay into the Citadel, that was sensible And Urn knew about hydraulics Fine Noalking through these dry tunnels with his toolbelt clinking There was a logical connection, but it had been rille, which stretched froht once have been a door-there was a suggestion of hinges, rusted into the stone Urn peered through the bars Beyond, in the gloom, there were pipes

"Eureka," he said

"Going to have a bath, then?" said Fergmen

"Just keep watch"

Urn selected a short crowbar frorille and the stonework Give ood steel and a wall to braceround forward and then popped out with a leaden sound-and I can change the world

He stepped inside the long, dark, daave a whistle of admiration

No one had done any es to beco rust-but all this still worked?

He looked up at lead and iron buckets bigger than he was, and a tangle of man-sized pipes

This was the breath of God

Probably the last man who kneorked had been tortured to death years before Or as soon as it was installed Killing the creator was a traditional method of patent-protection

There were the levers and there, hanging over pits in the rock floor, were the two sets of counterweights Probably it'd only take a few hundred gallons of water to swing the balance either way Of course, the water'd have to be pumen peered round the door He looked nervous, like an atheist in a thunderstorm