"I'm not even c1~iming it was war. I know what he was to you.

Lawn, I demand this."

She turned her back and wept. The Grad did not turn his back. He'd virtually invited her to try to kill him. Now or never, Lawn! You can add too. There's me or there's Mark or there's nobody. I might be giving Mark another reason to kill me. Do I want to risk that?

She turned around. "I forgive you for murdering Kiance."

"Then let's go to the carm and register a marriage. We'll pick up witnesses along the way."

Gave looked down into the treemouth. "I see rocks down there. Good. We'll have to collect them for a cookflre. Cook Gavving's

waterbirds. Tear out some foliage so we'll have room. Where do we want the Commons?"

He didn't see many of his citizens in earshot, and none were listening. He raised his voice. "Treefodder, we have to get organized! A reservoir. Tunnels. Huts. Pens. Maybe we won't find turkeys, but we're bound to find something. Maybe dumbos. We need everything. Sooner or later we want elevators to the midpoint so we can moor the carm there. But for now-"

Anthon, flat on his back in the foliage with a long, long woman in

each arm, bellowed, "Claaave! Feed it to the treeee!"

Gave grinned at Anthon. He did seem to represent the majority opinion. "Take a break, citizens. We're home."

For good or ill, they were alive and safe, two-thirds of the distance from Goldblatt's World to the congestion of masses and life forms around the L4 point; and they would remember Kendy.

He had promised a treasure of knowledge. A pity he hadn't had time to give them more of a foretaste; but they must have experienced exactly what he'd predicted during reentry, given that they'd survived. A savage's gods were omniscient, weren't they? Or were they gullible, easily manipulated? Kendy's memory had been pruned of such data.

Whatever:the legend would spread.

I can show you how to link your little tribes into one great State.

He had altered the progrpmming in the CARM. The CAR.M would watch their behavior and record everything. Before the children of the State came again to Kendy, he would know them .

He would know one tiny enclave within that vast cloud. The Smoke Ring was roomy enough for endless variety. lO'~ cubic kilometers of breathable atmosphere was about thirty times the volume of the Earth! Kendy wished for a thousand CARMs, ten thousand. What were they doing in there?

Never mind. Sooner or later there would come a man eager to carve out an empire, determined enough to take the CARM, crazy enough to trust his life to the ancient, leaky service vehicle. Kendy would know how to use him. Such men had helped to shape the State on Earth. They would again, in this strange environment.

Kendy waited.

Dramatis Personae

Discipline