"But you don't want to see Motiak brought down, anyway," said Ilihi. "Not you, not any of the Zenifi. No, you're content with this arrangement, living here in these boggy lands-"
"Content? Every bit of soil we farm has to be dug up from the muck and carried here to raise the land above the flood. We have to wall it with logs and stones-which we have to float down from higher lands-"
"You're still in the gornaya."
"Flat, that's what this land is. Flat and boggy."
"You're content," said Ilihi, "because you have the protection of Motiak's armies keeping the Elemaki from you, while Motiak allows you to live without angels in your sky."
"They're in our sky all the time. But they don't live among us. We don't hurt them, they don't bother us."
"Akmaro is your problem, isn't he. Teaching the things Binaro taught."
"Binadi," said Khideo.
"Binaro, who said that the great evil of the Zenifi was to reject not just the angels, but the diggers as well. That the Keeper would not be happy with us until in every village in all the world, human, digger, and angel lived together in harmony. Then in that day the Keeper would come to Earth in the shape of a human, a digger, and an angel, and-"
"No!" Khideo cried out in rage, lashing out with his hand. If the blow had landed on Ilihi it would have knocked him down, for the truth was that Khideo had lost very little of his great strength. But Khideo slapped at nothing, at air, at an invisible inaudible mosquito. "Don't remind me of the things he said."
"Your anger is still a fearsome thing, Khideo."
"Binaro should have been killed before he converted Akmaro. Nuak waited too long, that's what I think."
"We'll never agree on this, Khideo. Let's not argue."
"No, let's not."
"Just tell me this, Khideo. Is there a plan to raise a hand of violence against Akmaro?"
Khideo shook his head. "There was talk of it. I let it be known that any man who raised a hand against Akmaro would find me tearing his heart out through his throat."
"You and he were friends, weren't you?"
Khideo nodded.
"Now every word he says is poison to you, but you're still loyal?"
"Friends are more important than ideas," said Khideo.
"If I liked your ideas better, Khideo, I might not be so glad that you put friendship ahead of them. But that doesn't matter. You say that Akma and the Motiaki are not planning violence, not against their fathers, not against anybody."
"That's right."
"But they're planning something."
"Think about it," said Khideo. "What Akmaro weaves can be unwoven."
Ilihi nodded. "Motiak won't dare to prosecute his own sons for treason."
"I don't think he could even if he dared," said Khideo.
"For defying the king's own appointed high priest?"
"I don't think we have a high priest," said Khideo.
"Just because Akmaro disdains the title og... ."
"Motiak abolished all priests appointed by the king. Akmaro came from outside, supposedly appointed by the Keeper of Earth himself. His authority didn't derive from the king. So defiance of his teachings isn't treason."
Ilihi laughed. "Do you think that Motiak will be fooled by legal technicalities?"
"No," said Khideo. "Which is why you haven't heard the voices of those fine young men with royal blood raised in defiance against Akmaro's vile mixing of the species and his upending of the rule of men over women."
"But something is coming."
"Let's say that there will be a test case. I don't know what it is- it's not my business-but a test case that will be a very hard knot for Akmaro and Motiak to untie. Any solution they reach, however, will... clarify things for us."
"You just told me more than you needed to."
"Because even if you go straight to Motiak and tell him all that I've said, it will do no good. He has already planted the seeds. Akmaro will lose his status as ruler of the religion of Darakemba."
"If you think Motiak will ever break his word and remove Akmaro from office-"
"Think about what I said, Ilihi." Khideo smiled. "The test will come, and at the end of it, Akmaro will no longer be ruler of the religion of Darakemba. It will happen, and no warnings can prevent it, because the seeds of it have already been planted by the king himself."
"You're too clever for me, Khideo, I can't figure you out."
"I always was, and you never could," said Khideo.
"All fathers imagine that," said Ilihi. "And all sons refuse to believe it."
"Which is true?" asked Khideo. "The confidence of the fathers? Or the refusal of the sons?"
"I think that the fathers are all too clever," said Ilihi. "So clever that when the day comes when they want to tell everything to their sons, their sons won't believe them, because they're still looking for the trick."
"When I want to tell you all my wisdom," said Khideo, "you'll know it, and you'll believe it."
"I have a secret for you, Khideo," said Ilihi. "You already taught me your wisdom, and I've already seen what you've got planned for poor Akmaro."
"Did you think you could trick me into telling you by pretending that you already know?" said Khideo. "Give up on that, won't you? It didn't work when you were fifteen and it doesn't work now."
"Let me tell you something that you may not know," said Ilihi. "Even though Akmaro was your friend-"
"Is my friend-"
"He is stronger than you. He is stronger than me. He is stronger than Motiak. He is stronger than anyone."
Khideo laughed. "Akmaro? He's all talk."
"He's stronger than all of us, because, my friend, he really is doing the will of the Keeper of Earth, and the Keeper of Earth will have his way-he will have his way with us, or he will sweep us aside and make way for yet another group of his children. This time perhaps descended from jaguars and condors, or perhaps he'll dip into the sea and choose the sons and daughters of the squids or the sharks. But the Keeper of Earth will prevail."
"If the Keeper is so powerful, Ilihi, why doesn't he just change us all into peaceful, happy, contented little diggers and angels and humans living together in a perverse menagerie?"
"Maybe because he doesn't want us to be a menagerie. Maybe because he wants us to understand his plan and to love it for its own sake, and follow it because we believe that it's good."
"What kind of feather-brained religion is that? How long would Motiak last as king if he waited for people to obey him until they loved the law and wanted to obey."
"But in fact that's why they do obey, Khideo."
"They obey because of all those men with swords, Ilihi."
"But why do the men with swords obey?" asked Ilihi. "They don't have to, you know. At any point, one of them could become so outraged that he-"
"Don't throw this in my face just for a jest," said Khideo. "Not after all these years."
"Not for a jest," said Ilihi. "I'm just pointing out that a good king like Motiak is obeyed, ultimately, because the best and strongest people know that his continuing rule is good for them. His kingdom brings them peace. Even if they don't like all his rules, they can find some way to be happy in the empire of Darakemba. That's why you obey him, isn't it?" Khideo nodded.
"I've thought about this a long time. Why didn't the Keeper of Earth just stop Father from doing the things he did? Why didn't the Keeper just lead us to freedom instead of making us serve so many years in bondage before Monush came? Why why why, what was the plan? It troubled me until one day I realized-"
"I'm relieved. I thought you were going to tell me that your wife gave you the answer."