“Anyway, I just don’t like meddling around with the Eth-icals. I’m no coward. Anyone who knows me’ll tell you that. But I just don’t think it’s right to mess around with things we know nothing about.”
In addition, Burton thought, you’d like to be captain of the riverboat and live the good and high life.
“You won’t get much help from the locals,” Burton said.
He gestured at the banks and the stream, which were crowded with people in boats or getting ready to shove off.
“This area will be near-emptied within a month. La Viro is sending almost everybody down-River to restore the faith of the Chancers, to correct deviations from their theology, and to make new converts. The breakdowns have shaken the faith of many.”
“Yeah,” Parker said, his broad brown face twisted with a sardonic smile. “Yeah. La Viro himself is shaken. I understand he’s spending a lot of time on his knees praying. He doesn’t look so sure of himself now.”
Burton didn’t try to argue the Seneca into going on with him. He did wish Parker luck before walking away, though he wasn’t going to have any. The Not For Hire was going to stay where it was until the current nudged it off the ledge and it sank to the bottom, three thousand feet down.
When the Post No Bills sank or wore out, its end would be the end of the age of advanced technology on the Riverworld. What few metal tools and weapons existed would wear out. And then the Valleydwellers would be lucky if they had stone artifacts. The entire planet would be in the Wood Age.
The news about Podebrad’s story was certainly interesting. Whether or not the Nova Bohemujo had brought about the line breakdown, Podebrad had been an agent or an Ethical. Only one of them could have known where the metal deposits were in that state. Only one of them could have known that trying to tap the power of the line could result in a catastrophe.
But Podebrad, or whatever his real name was, was dead.
Burton wondered if he could have been X.
Hearing a familiar voice hail him, he stopped and turned around. Hermann Goring, thinner than before, and he’d been very thin, approached him. His broad face was grave, and his eyes were rimmed with the darkness of fatigue.
“Sinjoro Burton! Mi dezirus akompani vin.”
“You’d like to go with me? Why?”
“For the same reason that drives you. I want desperately to know what has gone wrong. I’ve always wanted to know, but I told myself that it was much more important to raise the ethical level of the kas. Now… I don’t know. Yes, I do! If we are to have faith, we must also have knowledge. I mean… faith is the only thing to cling to if you can’t know the truth. But now… now… it may be possible to know!”
“What does La Viro think of this?”
“We’ve quarreled, something I thought I’d never do. He insists that I go with him down-River. He intends to travel to the mouth of The River, even if it takes him three hundred years, preaching all the way. He wants to restore the faith of • the people…”
“How does he know that it needs restoring?” Burton said.
“He knows what’s been happening downstream for as far as a hundred thousand miles. What’s happening there must also be happening elsewhere. Besides, didn’t you notice that there’s been much doubt, much falling away from the Church, while you were traveling on the boat?”
“I noticed some but didn’t think much about it,” Burton said. “It’s to be expected, you know.”
“Yes. Even some of the Virolanders have been troubled, and they have the presence of La Viro himself to strengthen them. However, I believe that the best course is to get into the tower and determine exactly what has happened. That will insure that the Church is right, and when that happens, all of the people will have no doubt and all will come to the Church.”
“On the other hand,” Burton drawled, “what you find there may blow your religion to bits.”
Goring shuddered and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he said, “Yes, I know. But my faith is so strong that I am willing to chance it.”
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