Earthborn

"Anywhere in the gornaya, yes, I can have some influence."

"And that technique you used back on Harmony, to keep us from developing dangerous technologies-"

"Making people temporarily stupid."

"And you can still send dreams."

"Not the powerful dreams the Keeper sends."

"Dreams, though. Clear ones."

"Much clearer than the Keeper's dreams," said the Oversoul.

"Well then. We have a party of Nafari soldiers headed up the valley of the Tsidorek. When they come near Lake Sidonod, the area is so thickly settled with Elemaki that they'll have to take a dangerous route high up on the mountainside. But the mountain range is ragged there. At some points the crest is very low, so the valleys co

"Slaves to Pabulog and his sons, you mean."

"So when they near that pass, the Keeper will naturally try to steer them that way."

"One would think," said the Oversoul.

"So why not make them very stupid until they've missed the chance?"

"The Keeper will just send them back," said the Oversoul. "And why would I want to keep them from rescuing Akmaro?"

"The Keeper will try to send them back. But in the meantime, you'll lead them along the mountainside until they drop down into the canyon where the river Zidomeg forms."

"Zinom," said the Oversoul, understanding now. "Where the main body of the Zenifi are also enslaved, more or less, by the Elemaki."

"Exactly," said Shedemei. "Monush will think he's fulfilled his mission. He'll have found a group of Zenifi in bondage to diggers. He'll figure out a way to bring them to safety. He'll bring them home."

"He can't take that whole population along the mountainside."

"No," said Shedemei. "You'll have to send him dreams that will ‘bring him home by going up the valley of the Ureg and then over the pass that leads down to the valley of the Padurek."

"That takes them right past Akmaro's group."

"And the Keeper will try to get Monush to find Akmaro's people again."

"And I interfere again," said the Oversoul. "That's not what I'm supposed to do, Shedemei. My purpose is not to interfere with the Keeper of Earth."

"No, your purpose is to get the Keeper's help so you can return to Harmony. Well, if you cause her enough trouble, my dear, perhaps she'll send you back to Harmony in order to stop you from interfering."

"I don't think I can do that." The Oversoul paused. "My programming may stop me from consciously rebelling against what I think the Keeper wants."

"Well, you figure it out," said Shedemei. "But in the meantime, keep this in mind: As long as the Keeper isn't telling you anything, how do you know the Keeper doesn't want you to pull exactly the kind of stunt I'm suggesting? Just to prove your mettle?"

"Shedemei, you're romanticizing again," said the Oversoul. "I'm a machine, not a puppet wishing to be made alive. There are no tests. I do what I'm programmed to do."

"Do you?" asked Shedemei. "You're programmed to take initiative. Here's a chance. If the Keeper doesn't like it, all she has to do is tell you to stop. But at least you'll be talking then."

"I'll think about it," said the Oversoul.

"Good," said Shedemei.

"All right," said the Oversoul. "I've thought about it. We'll do it."

"That quickly?" Shedemei knew the Oversoul was a computer, but it still surprised her how much the old machine could do in the time it took a human to say a single word.

"I made a test run and found that nothing in my programming interferes. I can do it. So we'll give it a try when Monush gets to the right place, and find out how much the Keeper will put up with before deigning to make contact with me."

Shedemei laughed. "Why can't you admit it, you old fake?"

"Admit what?"

"You're really pissed off at the Keeper."

"I am not," said the Oversoul. "I'm worried about what might be happening on Harmony."

"Relax," said Shedemei. "Your otherself is there, as the angels would say."

"I'm not an angel," said the Oversoul.

"Neither am I, my friend," said Shedemei.

"You sound wistful."

"I'm a gardener. I miss the feel of earth under my feet."

"Time for another trip to the surface?"

"No," said Shedemei. "No point in it. Nothing I planted last time will be ready for measurement. It would be a waste and a risk."

"You are allowed to have fun," said the Oversoul. "Even the one who wears the cloak of the starmaster is allowed to do a few things simply because of the joy of doing them."

"Yes, and I'll do it. When the time comes."

"You have a will of steel," said the Oversoul.

"And a heart of glass," said Shedemei. "Brittle and cold. I'm going to take a nap. Why don't you use the time to design a dream?"

"Don't you have dreams enough on your own?"

"Not for me," said Shedemei. "For Monush."

"I was making a joke," said the Oversoul.

"Well next time wink at me or something so I know." Shedemei got up from the terminal and padded off to bed.

Monush and his men slept yet another night on yet another narrow shelf of rock high above the valley floor. The torches in the digger village far below burned late; Monush's fifteen companions watched most of them until they guttered and winked out. It was hard to sleep, weary as they were, for if they rolled over in the night they would plunge twenty rods before so much as a knob of stone would break their fall-and, no doubt, the first of many bones. They all pushed sharp stakes into the rock or, if there was no slight crevice to hold them, they piled them so they might feel them if they started to roll toward the edge in their sleep. But all in all, it was a precarious slumber indeed, and there was probably no moment when more than half the men were asleep.

Despite all this, tonight Monush slept well enough to dream, and when he awoke, he knew the path that he had to take in order to find the Zenifi. This high path would widen and slope downward, but at a certain place, if he should climb, he would come to a pass over these mountains and down into another valley. There he would see a large lake, and by passing down the valley of the river that flowed from it, in due time he would come to the place that Edhadeya had dreamed of.

He awoke from the dream just as the sky was begi

Wordlessly-for sound carried far in the thin dry mountain air- Monush gave the signal to move. All the men were awake now, and they walked, slowly and stiffly at first, along the narrow shelf of rock. Twice they came to places where the shelf gave out and they had to climb, once up, once down, to another shelf that allowed them to walk on.

Then they reached a spot where the shelf widened and started to lead downward to an area of easier travel. Monush recognized the place at once, and thought... .