Free This Star Shall Abide by Sylvia Engdahl Page A

knowledge and Machines should be shared by all of us. It is not right for them to be controlled by Scholars.”
    “Of course it is right! It is how things have been since the time of the Founding.”
    “I do not believe in the Founding,” said Noren.
    Once again the Chief of Council had to pound on the table to restore order, and this time it took quite a while to obtain it. No one in the village had ever heard of a heretic going so far as to deny the Prophecy’s account of the Founding.
    “Just how do you think people got here,” inquired a councilman sarcastically, “if they did not come from the sky? Did they rise out of the ground, perhaps, like plants?”
    With many interruptions, Noren attempted to explain his theory about the savages, noticing hopelessly that nobody was taking him seriously. “The savages are idiots,” protested someone in an exasperated tone.
    “Maybe our original ancestors were idiots, and as they learned more, became more intelligent.”
    That was the wrong thing to say. It was also a mistake to suggest that the ancestors of the Scholars and Technicians might have been idiots. Noren perceived that whatever secret support he might have gained had been wiped out; the spectators were now firmly united against him.
    “You can achieve nothing by mocking us,” the Chief of Council admonished. “You are exhausting our patience! Everyone knows that the savages are idiots because they disobeyed the High Law and drank impure water.”
    Noren hesitated only a moment; he had nothing to lose, and perhaps he could convince someone that in this respect at least, the High Law was foolish. “I doubt that,” he asserted. “I myself drank from a stream only yesterday, and as you see I’m still quite sane.”
    There was an exclamation of horrified disbelief, and the judges scowled, as if they considered that last point to be somewhat questionable. “You are not an idiot yet,” one of them conceded, “but we know nothing of how long the process takes. Any morning you could wake up to find yourself transformed.”
    “It’s indeed fortunate that the boy was apprehended before his marriage,” stated another coldly. “Some say that if a man should drink impure water and remain unchanged, his wife would give birth to idiot children.”
    Noren looked out at the people in surprise; that story was not prevalent, and he had never heard it before. He caught Talyra’s eye, seeing that she was more shocked and wounded than ever. Oh, Talyra, he thought wretchedly, surely you don’t believe such nonsense! But he knew that she did, and that she would never marry him after this even if he were to recant and be miraculously released. He also, for the first time, understood the real reason for Kern’s murder; Kern had been all too popular with girls.
    The councilmen huddled together; Noren realized that they were about to pronounce the verdict and that he would have little more chance to speak. Desperately he said, “Forget about the Founding! Forget all I’ve said if you wish, but is it not a fact that the Prophecy itself admits that it’s not good for the Scholars to keep things from us? Does it not say that someday they will no longer do so, that knowledge and Machines will come to everyone and that ‘the children of the Star will find their own wisdom and choose their own Law’? Why would the Scholars have made such a promise if not because they knew that’s how the world should be? I don’t deny that they’re wise! They knew, and they also knew that the promise would keep us content to hope instead of seizing what’s rightfully ours.”
    “The promise was not made by the Scholars,” reproved the Chief of Council. “It came from the Mother Star itself. The Prophecy will be fulfilled when the Star appears to us and not a day sooner; to believe that things should be otherwise is the worst sort of heresy.”
    It was not the worst sort, and Noren, seeing that his case was lost, took the ultimate step