suppressed his chuckle. He heard these same words every morning - every single morning!
Without fail, without the slightest devia-tion. Exactly as he had ordered them spoken fifty-two years and seven personal attendants ago.
"God-Voice?" Merwan Ma asked.
A telling question, Yakim Douan realized, for the younger man had spo-ken out of turn, without prompting and without permission. The Chezru Chieftain glared at the attendant, and Merwan Ma shrank back, nearly dis-appearing behind the door.
Yes, Yakim could still keep the overly curious young man in line, and with just a look. That, and the fact that he honestly liked Merwan Ma, was the only reason Yakim kept this one around. While one would normally expect intelligence to be a prized attribute for a personal attendant, Yakim Douan usually went out of his way to avoid that particular strength. The Chezru Chieftain was safer by far if those closest to him were somewhat dim-witted. Unfortunately for Yakim, though, by the time he had realized Merwan Ma's brightness, he was already enamored of the young man, who had been only sixteen when he had begun to serve. Even after he had come to understand Merwan Ma's intellect and curiosity, Yakim had kept him on, and now, with ie day of his death approaching, he was glad that he had. Merwan Ma was right and inquisitive, but he was also fiercely loyal and pious, dedicated enough to Yatol to rise into the priesthood. When Merwan Ma called Yakim "God-Voice," he honestly believed the title to be literal.
"Come in," the Chezru Chieftain bade the attendant.
Merwan Ma came around the door, standing straigta. He was tall, well over six feet, and lean, as were most of the people of Behren, where it was hot all the time and extra pounds and layers of fat did not sit well. He'd seem even taller if he ascended to the priesthood, Yakim realized, for then he'd grow his hair up high, as was the custom for Yatols.
Yakim nearly chuckled again as he considered the fact that his attendant was not a Yatol priest. For centuries, the Chezru Chieftain had been at-tended only by Yatol priests; for centuries, none but Yatol priests were even allowed to speak to the God-Voice. But Yakim Douan had changed that nearly four hundred years before, after one almost disastrous transforma-tion when several of his attending Yatols had decided to make a try for the principal Chezru title themselves, claiming that the new God-Voice could not be found, despite the fact that they had a two-year-old in hand who could fully recite the Codex of the Prophet.
Luck alone had allowed Yakim Douan to continue his reign in that instance, and so when he had risen to Consciousness at the tender age of ten, one of his first edicts was to change the strata at Chom Deiru, the Chezru Palace, putting those whose power was closest to the Chezru Chief-tain out of the loop, removing personal ambition from the formula in times of Transcendence "The Room of the Morning Sun is prepared for breakfast?" Yakim asked.
"Yes, God-Voice." Merwan Ma was careful to avert his eyes as he spoke. ?But you have risen late this day and I fear that the room is already heated beyond comfort."
"Yes... well, then have my food delivered here."
"Yes, God-Voice." Merwan Ma bowed quickly and turned to leave, but Yakim called out after him.
"Have a second meal delivered, as well. You will dine with me this morn-ing, I think. We have things that we should discuss."
"Yes, God-Voice."
Merwan Ma hustled out, and Yakim Douan nodded knowingly at the tremor in his last answer. Merwan Ma had always enjoyed sitting with Yakim - the two had become friends of a sort, a mentor-student relationship - but Mer-wan Ma knew now the reason for the invitation. Yakim wanted to speak with him about Transcendence again, about the Chezru Chieftain's impend-ing death and the duties that Merwan Ma must carry out perfectly during the time that would follow, the Beheading, it was called, a period when the Yatol Church would be without an official leader, when the Yatol priests would rule by consensus and were bound to make only little changes in standing policy.
Yakim Douan was glad that his talks about the time of Transcendence so unsettled Merwan Ma. That revealed the young attendant's love for his rhezru master, and that love, Yakim believed, would help to carry them both through the vulnerable few years they must face between Yakim's death and his subsequent ascension.