“Or some of them, anyway. Keep the dangerous ones quarantined,” said Noxon.

“Keep the technologies of Odinfold and the facemasks of Vadeshfold and the power of the expendables out of the hands of Mother and General Citizen,” said Rigg.

“So you’re going to make a play to be King-in-the-Tent?” asked Noxon. “They’ll be eager to follow you, with your pretty face.”

“I’ll set up Param as Queen-in-the-Tent. Or abolish the monarchy and the People’s Revolutionary Council,” said Rigg. “I have no plan.”

“Yet,” said Ram Odin.

“I’ll have a plan when I need one,” said Rigg.

“In a pinch, plans kind of make themselves, mostly because you don’t have a lot of choices,” said Noxon.

“Aren’t you going to ask the advice of someone older and wiser?” asked Ram Odin.

“When we find somebody wiser,” said Noxon, “we’ll ask him for advice.”

Chapter 2: Council in Larfold

CHAPTER 2

Council in Larfold

“What are we waiting for?” asked Param.

“We’re not waiting at all,” said Olivenko. “Go. Do whatever it is you’re so eager to do.”

“There’s nothing to do,” said Param.

“Then we’re not waiting,” said Olivenko. “We’re merely purpose­less. Find a purpose, and go accomplish it. You don’t have to wait for anything.”

“What purpose is there? We know the world ends in a very few years. What’s the point of starting anything?”

“I’m sure Umbo will take you back in time, as far as you want,” said Olivenko. “You can marry and have babies. Raise an army and conquer a wallfold. Assassinate General Citizen before he meets your mother. So many exciting possibilities.”

“I’m not going to marry Umbo or have his babies,” said Param.

“I didn’t suggest that you do so,” said Olivenko. “I said he would take you back in time. You’re the one who leapt to the conclusion that Umbo would be involved in any marriage or baby-making you might embark on.”

Umbo spoke from the other side of the fire, where he had been dozing. “Thank you for finding a way to insult me in a conversation I wasn’t even part of.”

“I’m not having your babies or Olivenko’s,” said Param. “Or Loaf’s, in case anyone wants to include him. The world is ending no matter what time period we go back to. So what if it’s twenty years or two hundred? Knowing the whole world burns makes the whole enterprise . . .”

“The whole world always burns,” said Loaf. “Or it floods. Or some insect eats the crop and you starve. Or a disease ravages the wallfold, killing nine out of ten, and the survivors eat the dead. Every baby you have dies eventually, no matter what you do. Yet we have babies and we try to go on.”

“I’m not sure,” said Umbo. “Is that your idea of inspiring us with new hope?”