The Oversoul fell silent.
"What?"
"I'm doing a little research for a moment."
"Well, pardon me for interrupting," said Shedemei.
"This has to have begun before humans left Earth," said the Over-soul.
"Yes?"
"The earthquakes, the volcanos out along the Galapagos ridge- what was it that encased the Earth in ice for a while? In my memory, it was all linked with human misbehavior-with wars, nuclear and biological weapons. But how exactly did those things cause the Earth to become uninhabitable?"
"I love watching a brilliant mind at work," said Shedemei.
"I will have to search all my records from that time period," said the Oversoul, "and see whether I can rule out the possibility that it was the movement of the Cocos plate, and not the warfare directly, that caused the destruction of the habitable zones of Earth."
"You're saying that the warfare might have caused the Cocos plate to move? That's absurd."
The Oversoul ignored her scoffing. "Why did all human life leave Earth? The diggers and angels managed to survive. I never thought to question it till now, starmaster, but don't you find it a bit suspicious? Surely some group of humans could have survived. In some equatorial zone."
"Please, I know creativity and serendipity are designed into your thinking algorithms," said Shedemei, "but are you seriously entertaining the notion that human misdeeds could have caused the Cocos plate to move?"
"I'm saying that perhaps human misdeeds could cause the Keeper of Earth to cause the Cocos plate to move."
"And how could she possibly do that?"
"I can't imagine any entity of any kind with power enough to move the currents of magma under the crust of the planet," said the Over-soul. "But I also can't imagine any natural force that could have caused the many anomalies that created the gornaya. The world is full of strange and unnatural things, Shedemei. Like the symbiotic interdependence that the diggers and angels used to have. You said yourself that it was artificial."
"And my hypothesis is that these changes were deliberately introduced by human beings before they left."
"But why would they do it, Shedemei? Whose purpose were they fulfilling? Why would they even care, knowing that they would leave this planet and believing that they would never come back?"
"I think it's possible for us to ascribe too many events to the plots and plans of the Keeper of Earth," said Shedemei. "She causes dreams and influences human behavior. We have no evidence for anything else."
"We have no evidence. Or we have the most obvious evidence imaginable. I must do research. There are gaps in my knowledge. The truth has been hidden from me, but I know that the Keeper is involved in all of this."
"Search all you want. I'll be fascinated to know the outcome."
"It may be that I'm programmed not to find the truth, you know," said the Oversoul. "And that I'm programmed not to find the way I've been programmed to hide the truth from me."
"How circular."
"I may need your help."
"I may need a nap." She yawned. "I don't believe that any computer, even the Keeper of Earth, has power over such things as currents of magma. But I'll help, if I can. Maybe in pursuing this worthless hypothesis you'll come across something useful."
"At least you're keeping an open mind," said the Oversoul.
"I'm sure you meant that in the nicest possible way," said Shedemei.
That night, in their hut, Akmaro and Akma washed and dressed Che-beya's wounds.
"You could have been killed, Mother," said Akma quietly.
"It was the bravest thing I ever saw," said Akmaro.
Chebeya wept silently-in relief that she hadn't been slaughtered in the field; in delayed fear at what she had dared to do; in gratitude to her husband for praising what she did.
"Do you see, Akma, what your mother is doing?" said Akmaro.
"She defied them," said Akma. "And they didn't kill her."
"There's more to it than that, Akma," said Akmaro. "It's a gift that your mother has had all her life. She's a raveler."
"Hushidh," whispered Luet. The tales of Hushidh the Raveler were well known among the women and girls. Not to mention Chveya, Nafai's and Luet's daughter, the Ancient One for whom Chebeya had been named.
"She sees the connections between people," Akmaro explained to Akma.
"I know what a raveler is," said Akma.
"To be a raveler is a gift of the Keeper," said Akmaro. "The Keeper must have seen, years ago, the dilemma we'd be in today, and so he gave a great gift to Chebeya so that when this day came, she could begin to unravel the conspiracy of evil that rules over us. We had with us all along the power to do what your mother began today. The Keeper only waited for us to realize it. For your mother to find the right moment to act."
"It looked to me," said Akma, "as if Mother stood alone."
"Is that what you saw?" asked Akmaro. "Then your vision is still very young and blurred. For your mother stood with the power of the Keeper in her, and with the love of her husband and children inside her. If you and Luet and I had not been in the field with her, do you think she would have done it?"
"We were there," said Akma. "But where was the Keeper?"
"Someday," said Akmaro, "you will learn to see the Keeper's hand in many things."
When the children were asleep, Chebeya rested her head on her husband's chest and clung to him and wept. "Oh, Kmadaro, Kma-daro, I was so frightened that I would make things worse."
"Tell me your plan," he said. "If I know your plan I can help you."
"I don't know my plan. I have no plan."
"Then here is the plan that came into my mind as I watched you and listened to you. I thought at first that you were simply trying to get those boys to rebel against their father. But then I realized that you wete doing something far more subtle."
"I was?"
"You were winning Didul's heart."
"If he has one."
"You were teaching him how to be a man. It's a new idea to him. I think he'd like to be a good man, Bedaya."
She thought about it. "Yes, I think you're right."
"So we won't tear these boys away from each other. Instead we'll make friends and allies of them."
"Do you think we can?" asked Chebeya.
"You mean, Do I think we should? Yes, Bedaya. They can't help being what their father taught them to be. But if we can teach them to be something else, they might be good men yet. That is what the Keeper wants us to do-not destroy our enemies, but make friends of them if we can."
"They've hurt my children so many times," said Chebeya.
"Then how sweet the day will be when they kneel and ask your forgiveness, and your children's forgiveness, and the three of you say, We know that you are no longer the men you were then. Now you are our brothers."
"I can't ever say that to them."
"You can't say that to them now," said Akmaro. "But you, too, will have a change of heart, when you see them also change."
"You always believe the best of other people, Kmadaro."
"Not always," said Akmaro. "But in that boy today, I saw a spark of decency. Let's blow on that spark and give it fuel."
"I'll try," said Chebeya.
Lying on his mat, Akma heard his parents' conversation and thought, What kind of man is he, to talk to Mother about making friends with the very ones who lashed her skin and made her bleed today? I will never forgive these men, never, no matter how they seem to change. Men who are friends with diggers can never be trusted. They have become just like diggers, low filthy creatures who belong in holes under the earth like worms.