After a pause, Horng's dry voice came. APPROXIMATELY. THERE WAS ...
COMMUNICATION RAPPORT. TEBRON WAS KING PRIEST.
"Then Tebron made this prohibition in the name of Kor. When did this
occur?"
THE KNOWLEDGE PROHIBITION WAS COMMUNICATED TO HIRLAJ WHEN TEBRON ASSUMED
POWER RIGHT.
"The same day?"
THE DAY AFTER. TEBRON COMMUNICATED WITH KOR IMMEDIATELY AFTER OUSTING
REPLACING THE PRIESTS.
Rynason watched Horng's replies as they were recorded by the
interpreter; he was frowning. So this dawn-era king was supposed to have
spoken, perhaps telepathically, with the god of the Hirlaji. Could he
have simply claimed to have done so in an effort to stabilize his own
power? But the fact that this race was telepathic threw some doubt on
that supposition.
"Are there memories of Tebron's conversation with Kor?" he asked.
Horng's eyes closed and opened in acknowledgement, and then abruptly the
alien rose to his feet. He moved slowly past Rynason to the base of a
long, sweeping flight of stairs which led upward toward the empty dome,
trailing the wires of the interpreter. Rynason moved to unplug the
wires, but Horng stopped at the base of the stairs, looking up along the
curving ramp to where it ended in a blunt, weathered break two-thirds of
the way up. Rubble lay below the break.
Rynason watched the grey being staring silently up those broken steps,
and asked softly, "What are you doing?"
Horng, still gazing upward, dipped his head to one side. THERE IS NO
PURPOSE. He turned and came slowly back to his stone seat.
Rynason grinned wryly. He was beginning to get used to such things from
Horng, whose mind often seemed to run in non sequiturs. It was as though
the alien's perceptions of the present were as jumbled as the welter of
memories he held. Crazy old mound of leather.
But he was not crazy, of course; his mind simply ran in a way that was
alien to the Earthmen. Rynason was beginning to learn to respect that
alien way, if not to understand it.
"Are there memories of Tebron's conversation with Kor?" Rynason asked
again.
TEBRON COMMUNICATED WITH KOR IMMEDIATELY AFTER OUSTING THE PRIESTS. IT
OCCURRED IN THE TEMPLE.
"Are there memories of what was said?"
Horng sat silently, perhaps in thought. His reply didn't come for
several minutes.