"Yes, sir. _Know_ you and love you, sir," Ri said.
"Get out!" Extrone said.
* * * * *
"It's frightening," Ri said, "to be that close to him."
Mia nodded.
The two of them, beneath the leaf-swollen branches of the gnarled tree,
were seated on their sleeping bags. The moon was clear and cold and
bright in a cloudless sky; a small moon, smooth-surfaced, except for a
central mountain ridge that bisected it into almost twin hemispheres.
"To think of him. As flesh and blood. Not like the--well; that--what
we've read about."
Mia glanced suspiciously around him at the shadows. "You begin to
understand a lot of things, after seeing him."
Ri picked nervously at the cover of his sleeping bag.
"It makes you think," Mia added. He twitched. "I'm afraid. I'm afraid
he'll.... Listen, we'll talk. When we get back to civilization. You,
me, the bearers. About him. He can't let that happen. He'll kill us
first."
Ri looked up at the moon, shivering. "No. We have friends. We have
influence. He couldn't just like that--"
"He could say it was an accident."
"No," Ri said stubbornly.
"He can say anything," Mia insisted. "He can make people believe
anything. Whatever he says. There's no way to check on it."
"It's getting cold," Ri said.
"Listen," Mia pleaded.
"No," Ri said. "Even if we tried to tell them, they wouldn't listen.
Everybody would _know_ we were lying. Everything they've come to
believe would tell them we were lying. Everything they've read, every
picture they've seen. They wouldn't believe us. _He_ knows that."
"Listen," Mia repeated intently. "This is important. Right now he
couldn't afford to let us talk. Not right now. Because the Army is
not against him. Some officers were here, just before we came back. A
bearer overheard them talking. They don't _want_ to overthrow him!"
Ri's teeth, suddenly, were chattering.
"That's another lie," Mia continued. "That he protects the people from
the Army. That's a lie. I don't believe they were _ever_ plotting
against him. Not even at first. I think they _helped_ him, don't you
see?"
Ri whined nervously.
"It's like this," Mia said. "I see it like this. The Army _put_ him in
power when the people were in rebellion against military rule."
* * * * *