personification, had become the very instrument by which that service was repaid
with betrayal and callousness. How, then, could such a Holy One personify an
all-wise and all-knowing spirit, or be representative of such a being in any way
whatever? Certainly in no way that Groork could see. And if he admitted that
much doubt, what further credence could he give to any other facet of the whole
system of credos and dogmas that was derived from the same suspect premises by
means of the same dubious processes? None, obviously. But it was inconceivable
that the Lifemaker’s chosen method for communicating true knowledge could
include suspect or dubious elements. Therefore it seemed to follow on principle
that the Lifemaker’s chosen method for making true knowledge available couldn’t
depend on inspired interpretations of sacred revelation by self-proclaimed
diviners.
The mental processes that had brought Groork to these conclusions seemed
uncomfortably like the methods of reason by which Thirg hypothesized and
evaluated possible answers to his questions—a practice that Groork had always
denounced as sinful. When Groork applied this newfound skepticism to the
question of the Wearer and the angels, he found only two possible answers to
explain their failure to materialize over Pergassos: Either they had been unable
to, or they had chosen not to. If they had been unable to, then their powers
were not infinite, and they could not have been sent by the Lifemaker; if they
had chosen not to, then they had lied, and that alone was enough to force the
same conclusion. Groork felt the first possibility to be the more likely since
the philosophy of living that the Wearer had expounded would surely have been
irreconcilable with any form of moral deficiency, but either way it meant that
the angels hadn’t come from any supernatural realm. Since they were clearly not
of the known world, they could only be from some other, unknown one—a world
where, admittedly, arts and skills that were perhaps not mistakenly described as
miraculous seemed to be commonplace—which could exist only above the sky. So
again one of Thirg’s long-standing insistences and convictions appeared to have
been vindicated. And if that were so, was not Groork obliged to concede also
that the arts and skills that the angels exhibited were not the results of any
magical abilities at all, but simply the consequences of applying knowledge
gained by the universally accessible, comprehensible, nonmysterious methods of
inquiry that Thirg had always propounded? He regretted particularly that he
would not see Thirg again; he saw the world so differently now, and there would
have been so much for them to talk about.
The muffled tramp of heavy footfalls penetrated from outside. They stopped just
beyond the dungeon door. Groork could feel his coolant recirculator pounding,
and a sudden tightness wrenched his insides. He rose to his feet as the heavy,
organic-fibroid door curled itself aside, and the jailer entered, accompanied by
a guard captain, two priests, Vormozel, the prison governor, and Poskattyn,
Frennelech’s Judicial Chancellor from the Holy Palace. An escort of Palace
Guards remained outside in the passageway.
Poskattyn produced a scroll and read, “Groork, of the city of Pergassos, thou
hast been tried and found guilty of the crimes of heresy, blasphemy, and high
treason against the State, and sentenced to suffer death in the manner
prescribed by ecclesiastical law. Hast thou any final words to speak before thou
art taken to the place of execution?” Groork could only shake his head numbly,
“Hast thou prepared thyself and made thy peace with the Lifemaker, may He have
mercy on thy soul?” Groork made no reply. Poskattyn rerolled his scroll, stepped
back, and looked at Vormozel. “Proceed, Governor.” Vormozel nodded to the guard
captain, and Groork was led into the passageway and placed between the two
priests, with the captain in front, the governor and chancellor behind, and the
guards forming a file on either side with torch-bearers at front and rear. Their
footsteps echoed hollowly from the gaunt walls as the procession walked slowly
toward the damp stone stairs at the far end of the passageway. Faces appeared
and watched grimly from the windows of some of the other cell doors along the