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There was a pause of a few seconds. Then they burst out, in a hundred and eighty-four no, three hundred and sixty eight voices: "The Oomphel Secret, Mailsh Heelbare?" He nodded slowly. "Yes. The Oomphel Secret will be given." He leaned back and relaxed again while they were getting over the excitement. Foxx Travis looked at him apprehensively. "Rushing things, aren't you?
Mailsh Heelbare grew up among us; he took the Manhood Test with the boys of the village," another oldster said. "He listened with respect to the grandfather-stories. No, Mailsh Heelbare is not our enemy. He is our friend." "And so I will prove myself now," he told them.
The eldest shoonoo rose to his feet, begged leave, and then led the others to the rear of the room, where they went into a huddle. They didn't stay huddled long; inside of ten minutes they came back and took their seats. "We are agreed, Mailsh Heelbare," the spokesman said. Edith Shaw was impressed, more than by anything else she had seen. "Well, that was a quick decision!" she whispered.
"Why did your people come to this world, Mailsh Heelbare?" old Shatresh asked. "Was it to try to hide from the curse?" "There is no hiding from the curse of the Great Spirit, but we Terrans are not a people who submit without strife to any fate. From the time of the Curse of Death on, we have been trying to make spirits for ourselves." "But how can you do that?" "We do not know.
When we are wronged, he tries to get the wrongs righted. In times of famine he has spoken of our troubles, and gifts of food have come while the Government argued about what to do." He wished he could see Edith Shaw's face. "There was a sickness in our village, and my magic could not cure it," another said. "Mailsh Heelbare gave me oomphel to cure it, and told me how to use it.
The eldest shoonoo said: "We trust you, Mailsh Heelbare. You will do what is best for the People, and you will not let us be thrown out like broken pots, either." "No, I will not," he promised. "The Oomphel Secret will be given to you shoonoon." He thought for a moment of Foxx Travis' joking remark about the Kwannon Thaumaturgical Society.
"Why were we not told this before, Mailsh Heelbare?" "We were ashamed to have you know it. We are ashamed to be people without spirits." "Can we help you and your people? Maybe our magic might help." "It well might. It would be worth trying. But first, you must help yourselves. You and your people are sinning against the Great Spirit as grievously as did the Terrans of old.
At length, old Shatresh, who had seen the Hot Time before, spoke: "Mailsh Heelbare, we trust you," he said. "You have told us of wonders, and you have shown us that they were real. But do you know this for real?" "Do you tell me that you do not?" he demanded in surprise. "You have had fathers, and fathers' fathers. They have gone to join the Gone Ones. Why should you not, also?
Be warned in time, lest you answer it as grievously." "What do you mean, Mailsh Heelbare?" Old Shatresh was frightened. "You are making magic to bring the Sky Fire to the World. Do you know what will happen? The World of People will pass whole into the place of the Gone Ones, and both will be destroyed. The World of People is a world of death; everything that lives on it must die.
You must command them to lay down their arms and cease fighting. And you must tell them of the awful curse that was put upon the Terrans in the long-ago time, for a lesser sin than they are now committing." "If we say that Mailsh Heelbare told us this, the people may not believe us. He is not known to all, and some would take no Terran's word, not even his."
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