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The child will be of full consciousness," Yaki of Yatols, ion -UL just interior to Jacintha The Chezru Chieftain had chosen the invitation lists to his ether disparate, often feuding, priests He didn&039;t want any secret alliances building, to fester dur-ing the tiather-ings during which he would give the traditional Transcendence speech, Yaki Yatols, such as Peridan and De Hah to form any destructive alliances

"What does that truly reat Dahdah Oasis, nine days&039; journey west of Jacintha ?Will the child be able to speak? Words or sentences?"

Yakiest of the Yatol priests, and he was certainly a the most fit He ruled Dahdah with an iron hand, Yakieous fees for shelter and supplies fro in fro out to the west from the main city No doubt, Yatol Grysh had been forced to reach deep into his pockets for a needed stop at Dahdah on his way back to Dharyan

"Full consciousness," Yakim replied ?The child, of no more than a year, will be able to speak as fluently as you or I The child will know of our ways, will know of me, his predecessor, and will know of his destiny"

"Surely a peasantto elevate her family could teach - "The child will know ion than any peasant could possibly guess," Yakim interrupted the ever-petulant Bohl ?You will see, you will understand, and you will believe"

"God-Voice, please do not believe that I a his hands out wide, assu a posture of perfect innocence

Yakim Douan just smiled at the pose He knew exactly that, of course, All the others, except for those rave doubts about the Transcendence, the mystical Menvan went to the next Chezru Chieftain Of course they did - wouId they not? For so fluently and knowing all the secrets of their culture&039;s wisest was a stretch, certainly, a test of faith against logic, of belief against well Yakim Douan could sympathize with those doubts! He rebered that time, so many hundreds of years before, when he had first learned of the Transcendence Things were done very differently back ien for it was not the Chezru Chieftain delivering a speech such as this No, the Chezru Chieftain would die, often unexpectedly, and then the leaders of the Chezru religion would initiate the search

Yaki Yatol, had been just a bit older than Bohl was nohen he had participated in that search those centuries ago He re-reat joy he had been at the thought that he was about to witness a miracle, a confirmation of his faith that every man so desires, whether he admits it or not They had discovered the blessed infant soon after, and full of anticipation and the expectation of extreone in to witness the miracle child

And he had found a baby Not a blessed baby, not athe words of Yatol, but a normal baby

The leaders of Chezru, their names lost to him now, had told him and the other Yatols of the ?miracles" they had witnessed the child perfor Many of the other Yatols had taken those proclah that this was indeed the miracle child, the new God-Voice of Yatol

But Yakim Douan had known better He had understood instinctively that this baby was nothing h which the leaders of the Yatol priests could spend the rest of their days in control of the religion, and thus, of all Behren

He knew

And so he understood the doubts and the fears that Yatols such as Bohlcrisis If Yaki to hold them in check until after the birth, until they saw proof positive that their faith was not misplaced, that the selected child was indeed the God-Voice, then men like Bohl could become very valuable allies to the next incarnation

When I was chosen, I knew as much about the truth of Yatol as I do &039; he told them all ?I could recite the Verses of Propriety as well as I bow" He gave a little laugh ?No, better, for then un to fail athering of ten Yatols all chuckled at the Chezru Chieftain&039;s un-characteristic co hard at Douan, obviously taking a careful measure of the man

Yakim resisted the tely in response

"You are hus, and so you hold your doubts," he said, and there came a chorus of denials, to which Yakim merely looked away and held up his hands ?It is the expected response, ical sense of faith Who here has seen the paradise of the afterlife?" He paused and let the gathered Yatols all look to each other questioningly ?Nay, you cannot see the spirit or hear the spirit For you in your current state of existence, only the eic would tell you, then, that death is the end of consciousness

"I know better, and I tell you that this Transcendence will show you, too, that there is more to this existence than what our physical senses can show us When you look upon the reincarnated God-Voice, when you hear him speak the words of Truth, you will know and you will be content

"Fear not for those doubts you now harbor," Yakie of passion in his voice, trying not to lapse into the simple recitation of this, a speech he had spoken many times over the cen-turies ?Fear not that you will be disappointed, and fear not that your doubts somehow mark you as less than true to Yatol You are supposed to question and supposed to doubt! Else, hoill you be certain that you have selected the correct child? Question and doubt everything! When you find the new God-Voice, your questions will catch in your throats and your doubts will vanish so completely that you will be befuddled as to how you ever held them And then you will know true peace, my children, for then you will understand the truth of your faith To witness aitself Look upon those few living Yatols who remem-ber the last Transcendence! See the contentment in their old eyes, my chil-dren, and take heart that you, too, will know that supreh Only three Yatols remained alive who remembered the last Transcendence, when Yakim Douan had been identified as the next God-Voice of Yatol, and those three were considered a the happiest of all the Yatol priests Happy because they had seen a miracle and knew that heaven awaited them Happy because they understood the value of their lives in service to Yatol

Happy because Yaki dispersed a short while later,and speaking excitedly about the coht Yaki flock Merwan Ma sat at the side of the stage, in the shadows, staring at hi look upon his face The man was deeply troubled by Yakim&039;s expected and hoped-for death, the Chieftain knew, and was deeply troubled by his own inability to ac-reality, to brush aside his logical fears ofa man he considered as mentor and friend nosture and his fears did not bother Yakih, for he hat Merwan Ma would rejoice when the God-Voice was discovered

Chezru Chieftain decided then and there that when they found him, of his first spoken revelations would be to tell poor Merwan Ma that on Douan was still with hi pride that his udent was perfor his ultimately important duties so very well The second exception to the coh, for Yatol Bohl left the cha itedly His face was stern and locked into an expression of deepest reflection

That one could prove to be dangerous, Yakier and impatient And he was ambitious - too much so, perhaps, to sublimate himself to a mere child The one true concern that had followed Yakih his centuries of poas the weak-ness of true spirituality in the face of human emotions A Yatol priest, for all of his piousness, even heroics, in the eyes of the church, could only ascend so far, could never be greater than the second rank of the hierarchy Cer-tainly if Bohl witnessed the selected child, the God-Voice who could tell him of the Yatol tenets and codes as well as any scholar priest, then he would be convinced and would put aside his earthly ambitions-and huh patience? Would he wait the nearly two years it would take after Yakim Douan s death to even finer the new Chezru? Or was he plotting a more direct route to instalL-anew leader of Yatol?

Yakiic that allowed the decep-tion of Transcendence would soon provide him with practical information

We are to wait years to be disappointed?" Yatol Bohl asked his guest, Yatol Thei&039;a&039;hu, incredulously ?Surely you cannot believe this chatter of a speaking infant!"

Lhezru Chieftain Douan has asked us to trust in our faith, and what is ithout trust?" replied the other Yatol, older than Bohl byworn and thin, with sleepy eyes and a badly balding I and a jaw that constantly trembled from a disease he had contracted years before ?Are we to believe in the miracle of Paradise if we can in this relativlelyskepticism ?An infant recite the tenets of Yatol? An infant?

Have you even known an in-3 speak in a complete sentence, Yatol, let alone in any manner that makes sense?"

"Minor," Yatol Thei&039;a&039;hu insisted ?If Yatol can fashion Paradise, if Yatol can transcend death, then how can you doubt this?"

Bohl settled back on his co, and took a deep draw on the hose extending from a watery tube beside hi now Else, friend why are you here?"

Yatol Thei&039;a&039;hu si at his counterpart Bohl&039;s words were true enough, he had to ad Transcendence were not positive at all and his expression and posture showed that clearly In truth, Thei&039;a&039;hu had never been overly fond of Yakireed with the ed lead-ership and obeyed Douan&039;s co decisions concerning Yatol Thei&039;a&039;hu&039;s province of Eh&039;thu, located teeks to the south and west of Jacintha Ten years be-fore, Douan had clipped off the northerniven it to Yatol Presh, who rode with the nomads of Tossionas Desert, in an effort to settle the often-troublesome nomadic warriors That ploy had hardly worked, for the Tossionas norief as ever, and yet, that redrawing of province lines had cost Thei&039;a&039;hu an important oasis For all of his faith, Yatol Thei&039;a&039;hu could hardly believe that Douan&039;s decision had been god-inspired - how could Yatol have rievous exa at the reasonable Thei&039;a&039;hu&039;s logic

"For centuries, we have followed the Transcendence of Yatol," Thei&039;a&039;hu said ?When the Chezru dies, the search begins for the next God-Voice, and that God-Voice will be identified through the e and voice That is our way, and so Chezru Douan prepares us now for the next Transcendence What would you have us do, Yatol Bohl? Are we to seize the title for ourselves? Do you believe that the other two hundred Yatols of Behren will accept a religious coup?"

"I have suggested no such thing!" Bohl sputtered in reply

"Then what?"

"WeYatol insisted ?We must insinuate ourselves into the process of the search, to find a child ill be sympathetic to our needs"

"You believe that you can know such a thing about an infant? You be-lieve that you can find a child ill be acceptable to the other Yatols, if this child is not speaking as Chezru Douan has told us?"

"Do you believe that there will be such a child, a clear-cut God-Voice speaking the tenets as fluently as our present Chezru Chieftain?"

Thei&039;a&039;hu settled back even farther at the continuing blunt, bordering on heretical, declarations of Yatol Bohl That was it, was it not? Either they be-lieved that such a creature would be born into their midst, literally as Douan had said, or they did not And if they did not, then perhaps uld do well to find a child whose mother would favor Bohl and friend, if such a child is found, then perhaps we should abandon selection and fall in line with the others," Bohl went on ?And if not, hen what have we lost?" If we find a bright child to elevate, there remains the problem of Chezru an&039;s choice of Shepherd Merwan Ma as tutor and mentor the ? Yatol Thei&039;a&039;hu reminded ?Merwan Ma above all others will help shape the next Chezru, and he is likely of similar mind and heart as Douan, else he would not have been chosen That heart is not synificant," Yatol Bohl insisted ?He will be ato Chezru Douan" ?Who will be dead and buried," the other reminded Yatol Thei&039;a&039;hu narrowed his sleepy eyes at the obvious threat, for Bohl&039;s tone made it quite clear that he believed he could have Merwan Ma elimi-nated, if the need arose, and that he would not hesitate to do so