an inch from their faces.
PART 1 TO THE EDGE OF DARKNESS Chapter 8 Trial of Faith
The child will be of full consciousness," Yakim Douan said to his newest gathering of Yatols, most of them from the region -UL just interior to Jacintha. The Chezru Chieftain had chosen the invitation lists to his meetings very carefully, pulling together disparate, often feuding, priests. He didn't want any secret alliances building, to fester dur-ing the time when he would be most vulnerable. Thus, in the small gather-ings during which he would give the traditional Transcendence speech, Yakim drew together opposing Yatols, such as Peridan and De Hamman, who would never trust each other enough to form any destructive alliances.
"What does that truly mean, God-Voice?" asked Yatol Bohl, who led a flock at the great Dahdah Oasis, nine days' journey west of Jacintha. ?Will the child be able to speak? Words or sentences?"
Yakim studied Bohl carefully. At thirty, he was among the youngest of the Yatol priests, and he was certainly among the most fit. He ruled Dahdah with an iron hand, Yakim knew, collecting outrageous fees for shelter and supplies from any caravan coming in from the west toward Jacintha, or heading out to the west from the main city. No doubt, Yatol Grysh had been forced to reach deep into his pockets for a needed stop at Dahdah on his way back to Dharyan.
"Full consciousness," Yakim replied. ?The child, of no more than a year, will be able to speak as fluently as you or I. The child will know of our ways, will know of me, his predecessor, and will know of his destiny."
"Surely a peasant mother seeking to elevate her family could teach - "The child will know more of Yatol and the Chezru religion than any peasant could possibly guess," Yakim interrupted the ever-petulant Bohl. ?You will see, you will understand, and you will believe."
"God-Voice, please do not believe that I am a doubter," Yatol Bohl said, holding his hands out wide, assuming a posture of perfect innocence.
Yakim Douan just smiled at the pose. He knew exactly that, of course, All the others, except for those most pious, like the poor fool Ma held grave doubts about the Transcendence, the mystical Menvan went to the next Chezru Chieftain. Of course they did - wouId they not? For someone to believe that a baby, an infant, would caking fluently and knowing all the secrets of their culture's wisest was a stretch, certainly, a test of faith against logic, of belief against well Yakim Douan could sympathize with those doubts! He rebered that time, so many hundreds of years before, when he had first learned of the Transcendence. Things were done very differently back ien for it was not the Chezru Chieftain delivering a speech such as this. No, the Chezru Chieftain would die, often unexpectedly, and then the leaders of the Chezru religion would initiate the search.
Yakim Douan, a young Yatol, had been just a bit older than Bohl was now when he had participated in that search those centuries ago. He re-membered how full of eagerness, full of great joy he had been at the thought that he was about to witness a miracle, a confirmation of his faith that every man so desires, whether he admits it or not. They had discovered the blessed infant soon after, and full of anticipation and the expectation of extreme joy, Yakim Douan had gone in to witness the miracle child.
And he had found a baby. Not a blessed baby, not a miracle child spe ing the words of Yatol, but a normal baby.
The leaders of Chezru, their names lost to him now, had told him and the other Yatols of the ?miracles" they had witnessed the child perform, of the words they had heard this goo-gooing infant speaking. Many of the other Yatols had taken those proclamations as proof enough that this was indeed the miracle child, the new God-Voice of Yatol.
But Yakim Douan had known better. He had understood instinctively that this baby was nothing more than a pawn, through which the leaders of the Yatol priests could spend the rest of their days in control of the religion, and thus, of all Behren.
He knew.
And so he understood the doubts and the fears that Yatols such as Bohl must now be feeling in this time of approaching crisis. If Yakim could only hand them enough teasing to hold them in check until after the birth, until they saw proof