Kiv smiled inanely, trying to cover his blunder. He moved to one side to allow Yorgen to stand next to Sindi.
"Suppose I leave you two here," Kiv said. "There are some old friends I'd like to look up. Tell me—is the Earthman Jones still here?"
"He is," said Sindi. "But he's pretty hard to get to see. He's always busy and doesn't get around to the students very much any more."
"He'11 see me," Kiv said confidently. ''Don't worry about that." He walked away across the lawn, leaving Sindi to cope with Yorgen peBor Yorgen by herself.
"What's chemistry?" Yorgen asked her, as soon as they were alone. His broad, heavy face reflected an utter lack of knowledge, and he seemed thoroughly complacent about the situation.
Sindi considered the prospect of spending the rest of her life in the well-meaning but clumsy embraces of Yorgen peBor Yorgen, and entertained some thoughts about her father and his political aspirations which were so vivid in their malevolence that she looked around fearfully to see if anyone had overheard.
II
Kiv followed the well-worn path to the main building, and entered the big Central Room where he and Narla had spent so much time, twenty years before.
It looked much the same as his memory told him it had been. The winding staircase leading to the students' rooms still stood massively in the center of the hall, a glossy monument of black wood. The old familiar benches, the rows of books along the walls, the arching windows through which the Great Light gleamed— they had not changed.
A boy came by, clutching a stack of books under one arm. Kiv looked at him, feeling a sharp twinge of nostalgia. The boy's body was bright gold and his eyes were wide and shining. He might have been the twenty-year-old Kiv come back to life.
Kiv stopped him.
"Can you tell me where I can find the Earthman Jones?" he asked.
"Jones' office is upstairs," the boy said. "But he doesn't like visitors."
"Many thanks. May the Great Light—"
But the boy must have been in a hurry. Before Kiv had completed his blessing, the boy had scooted away. Kiv shook his head sadly and climbed the well-worn stairs to Jones' office.
He paused before the door, then knocked twice, firmly. There was no reply from within.
He knocked again.
A soft, barely audible voice said, "Who's there?" "May I come in?"
There was no answer. Kiv waited five seconds, then knocked again. After a short pause, the response came. "Who are you, please?"
"Kiv peGanz Brajjyd," Kiv said loudly. Again, no response for a few seconds. Then the door clicked open, and the soft voice said, "Come on in."
Kiv pushed open the door and peered in. Jones was standing behind the chair next to the door. Kiv remembered the tired-looking, strangely alien blue eyes, the short, almost arrogant little beard, the smooth Earthman face.
"Well, it's been twenty years," Kiv said.
"Has it been that long?" asked Jones. "I've barely noticed. It seems like just the last week that you were here, and your wife—what was her name?"
"Narla."
"Narla. And you were doing research on insects— the hugl, as I recall, wasn't it?"
Nodding, Kiv stared at Jones.
"You're old," Kiv suddenly said. "I remember your beard—it was brown. Now it's silver—the way an Elder's body hair is."
Jones smiled. "The Great Light deals with all His subjects in one way," he said. "I have been on Nidor for sixty-one years, Kiv. One's beard does turn to silver in sixty-one years."
He moved toward his desk, still littered as always with papers, and casually turned a sheet of paper face down, not concealing the action from Kiv.
"School records," he explained. "It wouldn't do for the parent of one of our pupils to see them. Confidential, you know. That is your daughter, of course? Sindi geKiv? A tall, very slender girl? I don't know the students as well as I did in your day."
"Sindi's my daughter," Kiv acknowledged.
"A fine girl. She'll make a better scientist than her father, they tell me—and we know how good her father was! We don't see many hugl any more, do we, Kiv? Thanks to you and your process, of course."
"I'd almost forgotten about that. Almost. But I think of it every now and then. It was one of the high points of a life that's far behind me. But ..."his voice grew sad "... though I'm a hero among the farmers, I'm afraid I'm not loved by the Edris powder manufacturers who I put out of business by wiping out the hugl. They had hard times on my account. Some of them still haven't regained a footing in society, after all these years."
He shook his head. "It's troubled me to think of the changes in Nidor since my days at Bel-rogas, Jones."
The Earthman frowned. "It troubles you? Why, Kiv? I thought you would be a happy man."
"I'm a priest now. I'm no longer the young hothead I once was, when I confronted the Council. And I see the patterns changing, and it frightens me."
"Have you talked like this to anyone else?" Jones asked abruptly.
"No—no. I've only recently come to realize it. I've been waiting for today, for this chance to discuss it with you. It's not only the Edris powder manufacturers. Other things are changing, too. The way children act, for instance. I'm thinking about my daughter."
"Your daughter's merely a reflection of yourself, Kiv. Your thoughts, your opinions, all eventually are taken over by her. You've molded her. Perhaps the failure's yours, as a parent?"
Kiv studied his hands. Once again, Jones was the teacher, he was the blind, fumbling pupil. As it had been twenty years before, when Jones had led him, prodded him, pushed him into the knowledge that had enabled him to end the hugl menace, he was at Jones' feet.
"Is the failure mine? How could it be? I've lived by the Law and the Scripture—you taught me yourself. I've raised her with the greatest care. And yet—and yet—"
Jones stood up, chuckling. "You're the one who should be retiring, Kiv. Not me."
"What—retiring? Are you retiring?"
"Soon," said Jones casually. "The Great Light wants me, I fear. But you're the one who should go. You've turned into a terribly old man very quickly. You sit here, protesting about the behavior of the younger generation, even though you know it's foolish to protest. Your parents worried about the way you carried on, when you left the farm to come to Gelusar, and Sindi's probably going to think her children are deviating woefully from the Law. It's an inevitable pattern, bound up with growing old. But don't worry about it, Kiv. Sindi's a fine, Law-abiding youngster. She's a credit to you, Kiv. Don't ever think otherwise about her."
Kiv stared uneasily at the old Earthman. "I see these things, and yet you tell me—"
Jones rested his hands lightly on Kiv's shoulders. "Kiv peGanz, listen to me. The Edris manufacturers had to go. It was a natural evolution. You can't go around feeling guilty over it; what if you hadn't come up with your technique for killing hugl? We'd all have starved by now, not just the Edris makers. And your daughter's a good girl. Do you have any plans for her marriage yet?"
"I'm considering a high member of the Yorgen clan," Kiv said.
He felt less tense; after twenty years, Jones was still a master at the art of removing burdens from his students' shoulders.
Jones moved a thin hand through his silvery chin hair. "Have you made the formal arrangements yet?" he asked.
"Not quite. The Yorgens, after all, have a high position. It takes a great deal of negotiation. But the outlook is promising."