that the chosen ones who had descended over the desert on billowy wings would
not be present to witness the Coming at Pergassos. For it was clear that the
Enlightener had asked their assistance in the Meracasine merely as a precaution
while he tested the powers that the Lifemaker had bestowed upon him. The powers
had proved so awesome that he had elected to go on alone and complete the
conversion of Pergassos single-handed, leaving his followers free to attend to
other matters back in Carthogia.
“Wish them good luck, and tell them I’m sure we’ll meet again sometime, I hope
in happier circumstances,” Zambendorf said to Abaquaan.
“Hear how the Archangel promiseth that he will return!” Ezimbial, the Druid
prophet, told the assembled followers. As a prophet Ezimbial had always been
holy and therefore hadn’t needed renaming. “And let it be written that the time
will be one of great rejoicing. Thus hath it been prophesied.”
“It has been a privilege to work with them. Their help will never be forgotten,”
Zambendorf said.
“This collaboration with angels hath brought great blessings. Our place in
eternity is assured,” Ezimbial interpreted.
“They must return to Genoa now, and help Arthur to found institutions of true
learning. That is the way to acquire the knowledge that will allow them to fly
beyond the sky. Then—who knows?—perhaps one day we’ll be able to welcome them at
our world.”
“It is revealed that Carthogia is the Land promised in the Scribings. There
shall the Enlightener’s followers erect a Great Temple, and Kleippur shall
direct them. And they who heed no false teachings before those that shall be
preached in the Temple will be redeemed, and then will they arise and rejoin the
angels in the shining land that floats beyond the sky.”
“I guess that’s it, Otto.”
“And here endeth the lesson.”
“Andy, you’d better stay here and work out a schedule with them for getting
packed up and loaded aboard,” Zambendorf said to Schwartz. “Otto will stay with
you to handle the translating. We’ll see you both back in the ship when you’re
through.”
“Sure,” Schwartz answered.
Vernon watched Zambendorf and the others turn to leave, and then wheeled himself
around in his suit to look at Nelson and Abraham. “I’d like to stay back too,”
he said, “. . . for the last few minutes.” He couldn’t help feeling guilty about
what had happened to Moses—he had started the whole thing with the ice slab he’d
given Moses on the mountain. Now he instinctively put off what he felt
subconsciously would amount to desertion of the remaining Taloids as well.
“As you wish,” Zambendorf said. “We’ll see you later, Vernon.” His party began
to walk back to the ship, the probing, flitting beams of their flashlamps
growing fainter and more distant in the darkness.
Schwartz turned back toward Abaquaan. “Tell them I’d like to be ready for
takeoif not later than three hours from now, but it’d help a lot if they could
get all their personal stuff loaded right away. We can take all the animals they
brought with them, but they’ll have to let go the ones they’ve been collecting
since . . . the big rock-crushers with the caterpillar tracks, anyhow.”
Abaquaan conveyed the message, and Abraham responded with a question that
appeared on the screen as DESTINATION IN GENOA?
“The Terran base just outside the city,” Abaquaan replied.
DRUIDS’ ASSIGNMENT AFTER THAT? the screen asked.
And Abaquaan answered, “We have no specific instructions to give. You’ll be on
your own then. Talk to Arthur’s scientists at Camelot. That’s where the most
useful work is being done.”
Ezimbial puzzled over the plant’s reply for a moment. “Kleippur’s inquirers?” he
said to the Renamer. “The Lifemaker will make known His wishes through them? But
knowest thou which among them? Whom are we to approach?”
The Renamer stared thoughtfully at the trees in the background. “Perhaps,” he
answered slowly. “There is a one called Thirg, whose steps the Lifemaker
directed out of Kroaxia to enter the service of Kleippur. The workings of the
Lifemaker’s plan are clearer to me now. It was I who in blindness would have
frustrated the Maker’s design, and for that it has been my penance to bear the