He waited just long enough to make Kiv uneasy and the rest of his delegation thoroughly uncomfortable, and just when everyone was beginning to fidget, he said: "These people are Brajjyds." He indicated Gwyl peRob and the other farmers with him.
Kiv nodded. "I assumed they were Clansmen," he said.
"They're starving," said Norvis loudly. "The new hormone, and the almost exclusive use of it by the Elders—don't you see what it's doing to them? They can't sell their crops! The warehouses are full!"
"I know,'' said Kiv in a quiet voice. "My own farms do not make use of the new hormone, and my overseers are reporting difficulties along the lines you mention.''
"How does the stuff square with Scripture?" Norvis demanded.
''I— don't know,'' said Kiv. He stared past Norvis, focusing his eyes on the symbolic lens of the Great Light in the niche in the wall above Norvis' head. "That is why I have not used the hormone myself."
"But the Council—"
"The Council as a group has approved use of the hormone, on the recommendation of Smith." He spread his hands. "I am a minority."
"Can't you fight?" Norvis asked.
"I have yielded to their greater numbers,'' said Kiv.
"They are willing to trust the word of the Earthman, and I do not wish to quarrel. I prefer not to use the hormone myself, but I cannot publicly take a stand against the will of the Council as a whole."
Norvis looked from one member of his delegation to another. They were standing in a tight clump, and it seemed they were more awed by the immediate presence of the Grandfather than they were concerned with their own pressing problems. Norvis told himself that they had not been through the same embittering experiences he had, and thus they were still able to cling to the old faith.
He looked back at Kiv. "You won't help us, then?"
Kiv smiled. "You haven't made it clear just what help you require, Norvis peRahn."
"Certainly I have,'' Norvis retorted hotly. His words reverberated loudly in the little chamber, reminding him of that day when they had echoed through the Square at Bel-rogas. "I want you to go before the Council and demand abolition of the hormone!"
He felt Gwyl nudge him gently with an elbow. "Norvis—you're speaking to an elder," he said in a frightened whisper.
"Let me handle this," Norvis muttered. "Well?" he asked aloud.
"I have told you." Kiv spread his hands. "I have yielded to the Will of the Council.'' He closed his eyes, as if he would brook no more debate.
"But it's ruining Nidor!" Norvis shouted. He was angry now; the obstinate old man was deliberately refusing to see beyond the end of his nose. "Forty years ago, you nearly ruined everything with your Edris adaptation, and now you're letting the same sort of thing happen—only we won't recover so quickly!"
The Edris reference evidently stung Kiv. He straightened in his seat, and what had been the remainder of his earlier smile sharpened into a grim frown. "I can do nothing. The Council has decided. This audience is at an end."
"You can't throw me out like this!" Norvis sputtered. "Why won't you think? Why won't you look at—"
"This audience is at an end,'' Kiv peGanz said icily.
Norvis started to say something, but he felt the pressure of Gwyl peRob's hand on his arm, and subsided. Drawing a deep breath, he said: "All right. If you won't do anything, I will. I'll take the matter into my own hands."
"Please go," Kiv said. Suddenly he seemed very old and tired. "This audience is at its end."
Norvis, still raging, barely managed to control himself. "I'll go," he said. "But remember—the Council has had its chance. From now on, this is in my hands!''
He turned and stalked out, pushing the door open himself, without waiting for an acolyte to do it for him. The delegation of Brajjyd farmers followed him.
When they were outside, Gwyl peRob confronted him.
"Norvis peRahn, you failed us. That was a most irreverent way to address a Council Elder! Particularly your own mother's father."
"Failed you? I haven't yet started! You heard what I told him! From now on, this is in my hands. I'll talk to Elder Grandfathers the way they ought to be talked to!"
"I don't like it," the farmer said stoutly. "It seems to border on blasphemy. Why should you talk in such a way?"
Norvis realized then that at least a part of his anger at his grandfather had been caused, not by the old man's present attitude, but his attitude of four years before.
But he brushed the thought aside; there was other work to be done.
"Gwyl peRob, I think you'll find that our failure was not my fault. I'll be willing to bet that none of the other delegations have had any more luck with their Clan Elders than we Brajjyds have. We've got to do something big—something forceful, that will make the Council sit up and look at the problem of our people— all the people, not just Brajjyds or farmers, but all Nidorians. I want you and the others to help me get the people together so that I can talk to them. Will you help?"
Gwyl peRob turned it over in his mind for a moment. Then:
"I will help, yes. The people of the Clans have a right to know what you are planning. But they might not like what you say."
"Don't worry; I'm not advocating any violence; all I want to do is show them how to act peacefully, within the Law, to get justice. Now, come on; we've got work to do."
IV
The mass meeting had been called for late evening. Every farmer in town had been asked to show up at Shining Lake Park for a special address by Norvis peRahn Brajjyd, whose mother's father was the Elder Grandfather of the Brajjyd Clan.
Word had spread throughout the city that something was to be done about the worsening of the peych-bean situation, and by the time the Great Light had gone to rest, a sizable crowd had gathered in the park. Torches had been set up in the holders that ringed the Speakers' Platform.
It was something new to the people: a speech given without a formal occasion. Normally, the platform at the lake's edge was used for scheduled rituals or for concerts held by the various musical groups in Gelusar who wanted to perform for the public.
At the appointed time, Norvis stood up on the platform and raised his hands to silence the murmuring of the crowd. They were used to being addressed by a priest or a public official, so they quieted down immediately, despite the fact that Norvis peRahn was, properly speaking, nobody.
"In case you don't know who I am," Norvis began, "I'm Norvis peRahn Brajjyd. You all know what our trouble is: this new thing the Earthmen have given out. This new-fangled hormone that doubles the crops of the Elders and robs those who don't have it of their proper share of the crop money."
He paused and surveyed the crowd. It was growing larger by the minute, and it was a restless, shifting group of people. All the better, Norvis thought; it meant they were unhappy with the state of things.
"Farmers are being ruined!" he roared. "Men who have held their land all their lives—whose families have held it for a hundred generations, since the times of our many-times-great-grandfathers—these men are losing their land! They are being forced to leave that sacred ground!"
As the crowd began muttering, Norvis smiled inwardly; he was beginning to reach them.
"We know what is wrong, and we know that something has to be done about it. The question is: what are we to do?
"We have petitioned our Elders, and we have been put off. Our requests have been denied. And do you know why? I'll tell you why! We've been going about it the wrong way! We've been asking for help and not getting it because we haven't been attacking the problem in the right way."