was all he could do to keep from smiling as he watched Luet's feeble attempt to absolve her husband of guilt for Gaballufix's murder. Her words didn't matter - Elemak knew he had done the job thoroughly with the first blow. Nafai was discredited even before he returned. It was his fault we left the city; we forgive him for that; but nothing he says is going to change the way we live here. Elemak had provided the reasonable justification for total resistance to this latest maneuver by the women and their little male puppet. The proof of his success was the fact that neither Father nor Mother - nor anyone else, except Luet - was mounting any kind of defense, and she had been sidetracked onto the issue of why Nafai killed Gaballufix. The idea of star-ships and hidden lands was dead.
Until Oykib walked out into the middle of the meeting area. "Shame on you all," he said. "Shame on you!"
They fell silent, except Rasa. "Okya, dear, this is an adult conversation."
"Shame on you, too. Have you all forgotten that we came here because of the Oversoul? Have you all forgotten that the reason we have such a perfect place to live is that the Oversoul prepared it for us? Have you forgotten that the only reason there weren't already ten cities here was because the Oversoul kept other people away - except us? You, Elemak, could you have found this place? Would you have known to lead the family across the water and down the island to here?"
"What do you know of this, little boy?" said Elemak scornfully, trying to wrench control back from this child.
"No, you wouldn't," said Oykib. "None of you knew anything and none of us would have anything if the Oversoul hadn't chosen us all and brought us here. I wasn't even born when a lot of this happened, and I was a baby through most of the rest, so why do I remember, when you older ones - any older and wiser brothers and sisters, my parents - seem to have forgotten?"
His high piping voice grated on Elemak's nerves. What was going on here? He knew how to neutralize all the adults - he hadn't counted on having to deal with Father's and Rasa's new spawn as well. "Sit down, child," said Elemak. "You're out of your depth."
"We're all out of our depth," said Luet. "But only Oykib seems to have remembered how to swim."
"No doubt you coached him on what to say," said Elemak.
"Oh, yes, exactly," said Luet. "As if any of us knew in advance what you would say. Though we should have. I thought these matters were all settled long ago, but we should have known that you would never cease to be ambitious."
"Me!" shouted Elemak, leaping to his feet. "I'm not the one who staged this phony visit to an invisible city, which we know about only because of supposed reports from a metal ball that only you can interpret!"
"If you would lay your hand on the Index," said Father, "the Index would gladly speak to you."
"There's nothing I want to hear from a computer," said Elemak. "I tell you again, I will not put my family's lives and happiness at risk because of supposed instructions from an invisible computer that these women persist in worshipping as a god!"
Father rose to his feet. "I see that you are disposed to doubt," he said. "Perhaps it was a mistake to share the good news with everyone. Perhaps we should have waited until Nafai came back, and we could all go to the place he found, and see what he has seen. But I thought that there should be no secrets among us, and so I insisted that we tell the story now, so no one could say later that they were not informed."
"A little late to try the honesty approach, isn't it, Father?" asked Mebbekew. "You said yourself that when Nafai left day before yesterday, he was searching for this hidden place and he thought it was probably where the first humans disembarked from their starships. Yet you didn't think of telling us all then, did you?"
Father glanced at Rasa, and Elemak felt completely confirmed in his suspicions. The old man was dancing to the old lady's tune. She had insisted it be kept secret before, and had probably counseled him against telling now, knowing her.
Nevertheless, it was time for Elemak's next move - he had to seize the