"Pleading will get you nowhere now," said Elemak. "Or do you want to make one last speech of mutiny?"
"He wasn't speaking to us," said Eiadh. "He was speaking to her. To the Oversoul."
"Oversoul, because I have put my trust in you, deliver me from the murdering hands of my brothers! Give me the strength to burst these cords that bind my hands!"
How did it look to the others? Luet could only guess. What she saw was Nafai easily pulling one hand, then the other out of the cords, then clambering without much grace to his feet. But the others surely saw what they feared most - Nafai tearing the cords apart with his hands, then springing to his feet with majesty and danger gathering about him. No doubt the Over-soul was focusing all her influence on the others, sparing none for those who already accepted her purpose. Luet, Hushidh, and Lady Rasa were seeing the facts of what happened. The others were no doubt seeing something, not factual, but filled with truth: that Nafai had the power of the Oversoul with him, that he was the chosen one, the true leader.
"You will not turn those camels toward any city known to humankind!" cried Nafai. His voice was tense and harsh-sounding as he strained to be heard across the broad expanse between him and the farthest camels, where Vas had been helping Sevet to mount. "This mutiny of yours against the Oversoul has ended, Elemak. Only the Oversoul is more merciful than you. The Oversoul will let you live - but only as long as you vow never again to lay one hand upon me. Only as long as you promise to fulfil the journey we began - to join with Father, and then to voyage onward to the world that the Oversoul has prepared for us!"
"What kind of trick is this!" cried Elemak.
"The only trick is the one you used to fool yourself," said Nafai. "You thought that by binding me with cords you could also bind the Oversoul, but you were wrong. You could have led this expedition if you had been obedient and wise, but you were filled with your own lust for power and your own envy, and so you have nothing left now but to obey the Oversoul or die."
"Don't threaten me!" cried Elemak. "I have the pulse, you fool, and I've passed a sentence of death on you!"
"Kill him!" shouted Mebbekew. "Kill him now, or you'll regret it forever!"
"So brave of you," said Hushidh, "to urge your brother to do what you would never have the heart for yourself, little Meb." Her voice had such sting to it that he stepped back as if he had been slapped.
But Elemak did not step back. Instead he strode forward, holding the pulse. Luet could see that he was terrified - he absolutely believed that Nafai had done something miraculous by breaking free so easily from his bonds - yet terrified or not, he was determined to kill his youngest brother, and the Over-soul could not possibly stop him. It hadn't the power to turn Elemak away from his firm purpose.
"Elya, no!" The cry was from Eiadh. She ran forward, clutched at him, plucked at the sleeve that held the pulse. "For my sake," she said. "If you touch him, Elya, the Oversoul will kill you, don't you know that? It's the law of the desert - what you yourself said. Mutiny is death! Don't rebel against the Oversoul."
"This isn't the Oversoul," Elemak said. His voice trembled with fear and uncertainty, though - and no doubt the Oversoul was seizing on every scrap of doubt in his heart, magnifying it as Eiadh pled with him. "This is my arrogant little brother."
"It should have been you," said Nafai. "You should have been the one who made the others go along with the Oversoul's plan. The Oversoul would never have chosen me, if you had only been willing to obey."
"Listen to me, "said Eiadh. "Not to him. You're the one who is the father of the child within me - how do you know I don't have a child within me? If you hurt him, if you disobey him, then you'll die, and my child will be fatherless!"
At first Luet feared that Elemak would interpret Eiadh's pleading for Nafai's life as yet another proof that his wife loved Nafai more than him. But no. Her pleading was that he must save his