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practical requirements of life. Fie had now been here seven weeks, nearly
double the time Amanda had asked if he intended to stay. In itselfthis should
be no great time. but in his mind he could see the iniage offam, fighting ofF
death, hour by hour, waiting, and he fell the urgency like a hand pressing
always on his back.
He was to begin a walk in the circle again early this afternoon, but first,
this inorninu, he was scheduled to go with a foraging party to collect edible
wild fruits and vegetables growing in the forest below. The foragino group was
to consist of' six people and meet at Amid's reception building. He turned in
that direction, accordingly, and the sight of it, together with the thought of
the land below, brought back to his thoughts the matter ofCee. Ever since
Amanda had first suggested it, Artur had let one of the fernale Chantry Guild
members, a roundfaced, brown-haired, cheerful young woman named Onete, go down
to sit in the forest. But not seem(,, his niecc-at least not being able to
feel her presence there, and have direct personal evidence ofthe fact she was
alive and well-had been painful to Artur.
The pain had been evident; but he had borne it with a
quietness and patience that made no lessening of his usual activities in the
Guild. It wits behavior which had reminded Hal ol'something he had almost
forgotten. The Exotics, for all their ori6nal aoparent softness and tendency
to surround themselves
198
Gordon R. Dickson
with what many thought of as luxuries, had proved to have the inner strength
Hal had seen in them, that was even now makinL,
at it hard for the Occupation to kill them off. It was a strength th ' had its
roots in the constancy of their individual philosophies, regardless of how
each one might and did interpret it, that was as characteristic of them, as
unflinching faith was of the best of those on the Friendly worlds, and courage
was of the Dorsai.
He remembered with a sudden pang of sadness and loss, even after all these
years, Walter the InTeacher, who had been the Exotic among his tutors. as
Malachi Nasuno had been the Dorsai and Obadiah Testator the Friendly-until
Bleys' thugs had gunned the three of thein down, that one warm, late summer
afternoon in the mountains of Earth, years ago. Walter, who had ordinarily
seemed the most persuadable of the three old men who had brought Hal up, had
been in fact the most unyielding, once his mind was made up. So it was with
the best of his fellow Exotics under the heel of the Occupation.
Remembering this, Hal found he had reached Amid's reception building and that
he was in advance of his fellow foragers. There was no one else waiting
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outside. The thought of Cee returned to his mind@ and, since he was here, he
knocked at the door of the building, "Come in-corne in, anyone"' called Amid
from within. Hal pushed open the door and went in, closin(I it softly behind
him.
Amid was seated on one side of' the fireplace, in which ;I small fire,
probably built against the chill ofthe early hours, was now' burning doAn
unheeded to it few glowim, coais. His chair had been pulled around to face two
other chairs. in which Sat ArtUr and Onete.
-Ah, it*S you.'' Said Amid. "I'd almost have bet it'd he vou. Hal. Come
-1 _join Lis. Sit down. I Was OinO to C@Ill WLI in
on this. anyway.
Am I that prediadble'.' asked Hal. enterino and takim-, I chair which he
also Pulled around. so that thev sat in a rouoh circle, he and the three
others. "You sit out there to watch the sun come up every morning, said Amid.
"As soon as the sun's up. you oo to whatever dutv you've got. That duty's
foraging below, today. So you were bound to come here. weren't you'?"
THE CHANTRY GUILD
199
"But not necessarily to knock at your door," said Hal. "You're ahead of
tirne-watching the sun come up makes you that way." said Amid. "What are you
going to do, stand around alone out there'? Or am I so unapproachable'? You
know I like talkino to you."
Hal smiled. "When you've (,of time to spare," he answered. "But of course, I'd
forgotten. You sit here all day doing nothing, just hoping for someone to stop
and talk to you," he said. "As a matter of fact, I was going to ask about how
things are progressin- with Cm and you've got the sources of information right
with you. "It's Cee we're concerned about," said Artur. "What's aone wrong'.)"
"Nothing, as far as my trying to win her trust is concerned," said Onete. "But [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]