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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.
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?
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.
"Mailsh Heelbare, if there is no Dark Place where do the Sky Fire and the Always-Same go when they are not in the sky?" "They never leave the sky; the World is round, and there is sky everywhere around it." They knew that, or had at least heard it, since the Terrans had come. They just couldn't believe it. It was against common sense.
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.
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?
"Would anybody tell a secret of this sort, about his own people, if it were not real?" "We had better say nothing about Mailsh Heelbare. We will say that the Gone Ones told us in dreams." "Let us say that the Great Spirit sent a dream of warning to each of us," another shoonoo said. "There has been too much talk about dreams from the Gone Ones already."
"Mailsh Heelbare, this is not real! It cannot be!" "The Gone Ones " "The Always-Cool Time, when there will be no more hunger or hard work or death; it cannot be real that this will never come!" He rose, holding up his hands; his action stopped the clamor. "Why should the Gone Ones want to return to this poor world that they have gladly left?" he asked.
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.
They are fools." "Am I a fool, Grandfather? Do I mock at the old stories, or show disrespect to elders and shoonoon? Yet I, Mailsh Heelbare, tell you this. The World is indeed round, and I will show you." The shoonoo looked contemptuously at the globe. "I have seen those things," he said. "That is not the World; that is only a make-like." He held up his phallic wood-carving.
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