"Second, these judges recall the Ayuntamiento, the council we overthrew in Viron. By `we' I mean not only Maytera Mint and Patera Silk, and Seawrack and I, but several hundred others who formed the nucleus of our rebellion. There were five councilors, too-Lemur, Loris, Potto, Galago, and Tarsier-and they controlled the Army and the Guard, immense advantages that the judges here lack. The Horde of Dorp is largely made up of reservists."

Vadsig looked doubtful. "These names not knowing, I am, mysire. This knowing I am. Legermen there are, and slug guns they have."

"We have weapons, too, Vadsig. The difficulty is to find men and women who'll use them with determined courage."

"She'll fight if she's fighting for Hide and a house of her own, Incanto. Mora and I will too, but then it won't be so dangerous for us."

"Boy come!" Oreb announced; and in a few seconds we heard Hide's feet on the stairs.

"The lady here… Aanvagen? Is that her name?"

We nodded.

"She and her husband and that fellow Strik have gone to Strik's to get some things so he can make himself comfortable, but I told the cook what we wanted, and she said she'd do it if I'd carry it up. She'll yell when it's ready."

"Down to help her I will go," Vadsig offered.

I shook my head. "We have a great deal to discuss. I mentioned the rebellion in Viron, in which I took part; I was one of General Mint's runners, was shot in the chest, and so on and so forth-none of which I need go into. The point is that it succeeded, though it faced opposition far more serious than the rebellion we will foment here in Dorp. It was sparked by a theophany, Echidna's appearing in the Sacred Window of my manteion. I doubt that any of you have seen a Sacred Widow."

Hide and Vadsig shook their heads. Oreb piped tentatively, "Bird see?"

"That's right, you were with me in the Grand Manteion, so you did indeed. You'll have to excuse me though, Oreb, while I explain to the young people."

Vadsig said, "I've heard about them." (It was probably Mora who spoke.) "Can you climb through them, like a real window?" That was certainly Fava.

"An interesting point. In a sense, the gods can. They can leave the Sacred Window in the form of unnoticed flashes of light to possess us, very much as you and Mora are possessing Vadsig. You don't do it like that, do you?"

"I don't know, Incanto. I don't think so. Into me they have walked, mysire, as one into this house might walk. Me they did not ask, but friends become we have."

"What I was going to say is that to anyone who hadn't been brought up to reverence the gods-and even in Viron many people had not-a god in a Sacred Window was nothing more than a large picture that spoke. Even so, that single theophany set off a rebellion that many had longed for but no one had prepared for. I believe something of the same sort might have the same effect here, with a little preparation."

Hide asked, "Do you, Father? Are you sure?" The simple words fail to convey his expression and voice; it was one of the few times I have felt absolutely certain that he loves me.

"No," I told him, "but I'm going to bet my life on it. I have no choice."

All of this took place before Hide went to Strik's house in hope of reclaiming his old bed and was beaten by Strik and his wife, and before Hoof joined us and Jahlee rejoined us in the dram shop. Now I would like to pray for a few minutes, and after that I must get to court. This High Judge business is becoming very reminiscent of Gaon, save that I have no wives here and want none.

Rereading, I see that I promised to describe my search for Jahlee. This would be a good time to do it; but first I should say that I was puzzled for some time after I arrived. I could not imagine how I had gotten to Green from Judge Hamer's sellaria when trips of the kind had previously required the presence of an inhuma. My initial feeling was that what I had experienced was impossible, and thus that I was not really on Green at all but was experiencing a dream or hallucination. This lasted for what seemed an hour or two, although it cannot really have been long.

Subsequently, I realized that there were at least three explanations. The first and certainly the most attractive is that Fava was possessing Vadsig. The difficulty is that the "Fava" possessing Vadsig may be nothing more than Mora's dream of Fava; if that is so, the web of difficulties becomes worse than ever.

The second (which I am loath to adopt though I think it the most plausible of the three) is that an inhumu was present but unknown to me. I write "an inhumu," despite the fact that my previous partners in bilocation have been female; it is possible that a male might serve as well. If this explanation is the true one, it would be interesting-and useful, perhaps-to know who it was. Hide, Vadsig, Aanvagen, Beroep, and Azijin can be dismissed; I have been too close to all of them far too often to be thus deceived. In my judgment Cijfer can be dismissed as well. That leaves Judge Hamer himself (surely the most interesting possibility), various troopers, and others, any of whom could be an inhuma or an inhumu.

The third is that I was assisted by the Neighbors, from whom the inhumi must originally have gained this power. I have been seeing and speaking to them, although this is not the proper time to write about it. It seems possible that Seawrack's ring not only identifies me as a friend, but actually attracts them-although we are all attracted to friends, with a ring or without one. (I may be making too much of this.)

Whether or not the ring has such a power, the Neighbors may have found me before they made themselves known to me, which was not until after Hide and I questioned Vadsig-indeed, after Hoof and I met Wapen in the dram shop. They were willing to help us, and indeed their testimony was of great value to us during my trial, as I shall describe in a moment or two.

I am loath to mention it, but there remains a fourth-

Oreb has returned. I heard him tapping at the window just now. In he flew and gave me his usual jaunty greeting, although he was cold and hungry. Blackbirds fatten best in cold weather, according to the saying, but it doesn't seem to apply to Oreb; in any event, I doubt that he is strong enough to get much food from a frozen corpse.

I had sent him with a message for Nettle, something I ought to have done long before. She must be worried about Hoof and Hide, as well as me, and very worried indeed about Sinew. In a small hand, on half a sheet of this paper, I explained that he is living happily on Green where we have two grandsons, and is calde of a thriving village. I also assured her that the twins are safe with me, and told her that we have an adopted daughter and that Krait, whom I also adopted, is dead. (This last was unwise perhaps; besides, if Jahlee was Krait's mother, he was properly a grandson-but one may adopt a grandson, surely.)

I see I have confused the rings. The one I am wearing is not the one Seawrack gave me, although it resembles it closely. This is Oreb's ring. It seems the stone changes color when it is worn; it was originally much darker, surely. I should go back and line out my mistake, I suppose, but I hate lining things out-it gives the page such an ugly appearance. Besides, to line out is to accept responsibility for the correctness of all that is let stand. To correct that or any other error would be to invite you to ask me (when you read this, as I hope you soon will) why I failed to correct some other. And I cannot correct all or even most of them without tearing the whole account to shreds and starting again. My new account, moreover, would be bound to be worse than this, since I could not prevent myself from attributing to myself knowledge and opinions I did not have at the time the events I recorded occurred. No, there really are such things as honest mistakes; this account is full of them, and I intend to leave it that way.