an expression of deepest reflection.
That one could prove to be dangerous, Yakim Douan knew. He was young and strong and eager and impatient. And he was ambitious - too much so, perhaps, to sublimate himself to a mere child. The one true concern that had followed Yakim Douan through his centuries of power was the weak-ness of true spirituality in the face of human emotions. A Yatol priest, for all of his piousness, even heroics, in the eyes of the church, could only ascend so far, could never be greater than the second rank of the hierarchy. Cer-tainly if Bohl witnessed the selected child, the God-Voice who could tell him of the Yatol tenets and codes as well as any scholar priest, then he would be convinced and would put aside his earthly ambitions-and human weaknesses.
But would Yatol Bohl show enough patience? Would he wait the nearly two years it would take after Yakim Douan s death to even finer the new Chezru? Or was he plotting a more direct route to instalL-anew leader of Yatol?
Yakim Douan smiled knowingly. The same magic that allowed the decep-tion of Transcendence would soon provide him with practical information.
We are to wait years to be disappointed?" Yatol Bohl asked his guest, Yatol Thei'a'hu, incredulously. ?Surely you cannot believe this chatter of a speaking infant!"
Lhezru Chieftain Douan has asked us to trust in our faith, and what is with without trust?" replied the other Yatol, older than Bohl by more than ecade and seeming worn and thin, with sleepy eyes and a badly balding I and a jaw that constantly trembled from a disease he had contracted years before. ?Are we to believe in the miracle of Paradise if we can in this relativlely minor miracle?"
Imor?" Bohl echoed with the same unyielding skepticism. ?An infant recite the tenets of Yatol? An infant?
Have you even known an in-3 speak in a complete sentence, Yatol, let alone in any manner that makes sense?"
"Minor," Yatol Thei'a'hu insisted. ?If Yatol can fashion Paradise, if Yatol can transcend death, then how can you doubt this?"
Bohl settled back on his comfortable seat, a relatively shapeless stuffed bag, and took a deep draw on the hose extending from a watery tube beside him. ?And yet, you doubt it, too, for all of your reasoning now. Else, friend why are you here?"
Yatol Thei'a'hu similarly sat back on his shapeless chair, staring at his counterpart. Bohl's words were true enough, he had to admit to himself His feelings toward this impending Transcendence were not positive at all and his expression and posture showed that clearly. In truth, Thei'a'hu had never been overly fond of Yakim Douan, and had often privately disagreed with the man. While he accepted the Chezru Chieftain's unchallenged lead-ership and obeyed Douan's commands to the letter, Douan had made sev-eral very damaging decisions concerning Yatol Thei'a'hu's province of Eh'thu, located two weeks to the south and west of Jacintha. Ten years be-fore, Douan had clipped off the northernmost stretch of Thei'a'hu's prov-ince and given it to Yatol Presh, who rode with the nomads of Tossionas Desert, in an effort to settle the often-troublesome nomadic warriors. That ploy had hardly worked, for the Tossionas nomads were causing as much grief as ever, and yet, that redrawing of province lines had cost Thei'a'hu an important oasis. For all of his faith, Yatol Thei'a'hu could hardly believe that Douan's decision had been god-inspired - how could Yatol have made such an obvious mistake? That was the most grievous example, but there were others, always gnawing at the reasonable Thei'a'hu's logic.
"For centuries, we have followed the Transcendence of Yatol," Thei'a'hu said. ?When the Chezru dies, the search begins for the next God-Voice, and that God-Voice will be identified through the miracle of premature knowledge and voice. That is our way, and so Chezru Douan prepares us now for the next Transcendence. What would you have us do, Yatol Bohl? Are we to seize the title for ourselves? Do you believe that the other two hundred Yatols of Behren will accept a religious coup?"
"I have suggested no such thing!" Bohl sputtered in reply.
"Then what?"
"We must be aware and alert," the fiery young Yatol insisted. ?We must insinuate ourselves into the process of the search, to find a child who will be sympathetic to our needs."
"You believe that you can know such a thing about an infant? You be-lieve that you can find a child who will be acceptable to the other Yatols, if this child is