"No," said Bego. "Only your father is challenged." Akma smiled. "If my father is teaching people to behave in uncomfortable ways, solely because the Keeper says they must, and then it turns out there is no Keeper, then whose will is it that my father is trying to foist onto the people?"
"I think your father is a sincere man," said Bego. "Sincere but wrong," said Akma. "And the people hate what he's teaching."
"The former slaves love it," said Bego.
"The people," said Akma.
"I gather, then, that you don't consider diggers to be people," said Bego.
"I consider them to be the natural enemies of humans and angels.
And I also think that there's no reason why humans should rule over angels."
"Now we're definitely back to treason," said Bego.
"Why not an alliance?" said Mon. "A king of the humans and a king of the angels, both ruling over peoples spread through the same territory?"
"Not possible," said Bego. "One king for one territory. Otherwise there would be war and hatred between humans and angels. The Ele-maki would seize the opportunity and destroy us all."
"But we shouldn't be required to live together, anyway," said Akma.
Bego looked at Mon. "Is that what you want?" he asked. "You, who as a child dreamed of being-"
"My childish dreams are done with!" Mon cried. "In fact if I hadn't been living among angels I wouldn't have had those wishes, would I!"
"I thought they were rather sweet. And perhaps a bit flattering," said Bego. "Considering how many angels grow up wishing they were human."
"None!" cried Mon. "Not one!"
"Many."
"They're all mad, then," Mon replied.
"Quite likely," said Bego. "So let's see if I understand you. There is no Keeper and there never was. Humans never left Earth, just the gornaya. Diggers and angels never needed each other and there was no tiny organ that Shedemei removed from our bodies with a disease. And therefore there is no reason to change our whole way of life, all our customs, just because Akmaro tells us that it's the will of the Keeper that the three species become one people, the Keeper's Children, the People of Earth."
"Exactly," said Akma.
"So what?" asked Bego.
Akma and Mon looked at each other. "What do you mean, so what?" asked Mon.
"So why are you telling me?" asked Bego.
"Because maybe you can talk to Father about this," said Mon. "Get him to stop pushing these laws."
"Take my father away from his position of authority," said Akma.
Bego blinked once at Akma's words. "If I said these things to your father, my dear friends, I would simply be removed immediately from any position of responsibility. That's the only change that would be made."
"Does my father completely control the king, then?" asked Akma.
"Careful," said Mon. "Nobody controls my father."
"You know what I mean," Akma said impatiently.
"And I know Motiak," said Bego. "He's not going to change his mind, because as far as he's concerned, you have no evidence at all. For him, the very fact that true dreams led the soldiers of Ilihiak to find the Rasulum leaves is proof that the Keeper wanted them found. Therefore it is the Keeper who corrects the mistakes of the Heroes- more proof that the Keeper lived then, and the Keeper lives now. You aren't going to dissuade someone who wants so desperately to believe in the Keeper."
Angrily, Akma pound his fist down into the sod. "My father must be stopped from spreading his lies!"
"His mistakes," said Bego. "Remember? You would never be so disloyal a son as to accuse your father of lying. Who would believe you then?"
"Just because he believes them doesn't mean they're not lies," said Akma.
"Ah, but they're not his lies, are they?" said Bego. "So you must call them mistakes, when you say they are your father's."
Mon chuckled. "Do you hear him, Akma? He's with us. This is what he wanted us to realize all along."
"Why do you think so?" asked Bego.
"Because you're advising us on strategy," said Mon.
Akma sat up, grinning. "Yes, you are, aren't you, Bego!"
Bego shrugged again. "You can't possibly have any strategy right now. Akmaro is too closely linked to the king's policy, and vice versa. But perhaps there'll come a time when the Houses of the Kept are much more clearly separated from the house of the king."
"What do you mean?" asked Akma.
"I mean only this. There are those who want to tear your father from his throne, they're so angry about these policies."
"That's not what we want!" cried Mon.
"Of course not. No one in their right mind wants that. The only reason we don't have invasions from the Elemaki every year is because the entire empire of Darakemba is united, with armies and spies constantly patrolling and protecting our borders. It's only a tiny minority of bigots and madmen who want to throw down the throne. However, that tiny treasonous minority will gain more and more support, the farther your father pushes these reforms of Akmaro's. It will mean civil war, sooner or later, and no matter who wins, we'll be weakened. There are people who don't want that. Who want us to go back to the way we were before."
"The old priests, you mean," said Mon scornfully.
"Some of them, yes," said Bego.
"And you," said Akma. "You want things to go back the way they were."
"I don't have opinions on public policy," said Bego. "I'm a scholar, and I'm reporting to you in a scholarly way the current condition of the kingdom. There are those who want to fend off civil war, protect the throne, and stop Akmaro from pushing these insane, offensive, impossible laws breaking down all distinctions between men and women, humans and diggers and angels. All this talk of forgiveness and understanding."
Akma interrupted, full of bitterness. "It's only a mask for those who want to turn this into a land where diggers strut around with weapons in their hands, tormenting their betters and-"
"You almost make me fear that you are one of those who wants to destroy this kingdom," said Bego. "If that is the case, Akma, then you'll be of no use to those who are trying to preserve the throne."
Akma fell silent, pulling at the grass. A clump came free, spraying his face with dirt. Angrily he brushed it away.
"But what if those who are trying to preserve the throne could assure the people, Just wait. The children of Motiak don't believe in this nonsense of all the species being equal children of the Keeper. The children of Akma have no intention of pursuing their father's mad policies. Be patient. When the time comes, things will go back to the old way."
"I'm not the heir," said Mon.
"Then perhaps you should work to persuade Aronha," said Bego.
"Even if I did, Father would only pass the kingdom on to Ominer, skipping us both."
"Then perhaps you should also persuade Ominer and even Khimin." At Mon's sound of disgust Bego laughed. "He's bright enough. He may be his mother's son, but he's your father's son, too. What can your father do if all his children reject this policy?"
"My father wouldn't care," said Akma. "He'd just pick one of his favorites to be high priest after him. I don't imagine he even considers me for the position."
"Dee-dool!" cried Mon derisively.
Akma's face went hot with anger at the sound of Didul's name.
"It doesn't matter who your father's successor would really be," said Bego. "Don't you see that if his own son publicly preaches against his policies, he would be hopelessly undermined? Even among his own priests and teachers there's dissension, a lack of confidence. Some of them will listen to you. Some of them won't. But the Kept will be weakened."
"Ho, Akma, I can imagine you preaching," said Mon scornfully.