Nafai pointed at the screen. "Kolesnisha. That's a word in Kunic. You've got the meaning right there - war wagon. Kunic hasn't been spoken in ten million years. It's just a written language now. And yet they had a word for war wagon. Which was only just invented. Which means that there used to be war wagons a long time ago."
Issib laughed. A low chuckle, but it went on and on.
"What, am I wrong?"
"It just kills me, that's all. How obvious it is. Even you can just walk up to a computer display and see the whole thing at once. So why hasn't anybody noticed this before? Why hasn't anybody noticed the fact that we had the word wagon already, and we all knew what it meant, and yet as far as we know there have never been any wagons anywhere in the world ever?
"That's really weird, isn't it?"
"It isn't weird, it's scary. Look at what the Wetheads are doing with their war wagons - their kolesnishety. It gives them a vital advantage in war. They're building a real empire, not just a system of alliances, but actual control over nations that are six days' travel, away from their city. Now, if war wagons can do that, and people used to have them millions of years ago, how did we ever forget what they were? "
Nafai thought about that for a while. "You'd have to be really stupid," he said. "I mean, people don't forget things like that. Even if you had peace for a thousand years, you'd still have pictures in the library."
"No pictures of war wagons," said Issib.
"I mean, that's stupid," said Nafai.
"And this word," said Issib.
"Zrakoplov? said Nafai. "That's definitely an Obilazati word."
"Right."
"What does it mean? ‘Air ' something."
"Broken down and loosely translated, yes, it means ‘air swimmer.'"
Nafai thought about this for a while. He conjured up a picture in his mind-a fish moving through the air. "A flying fish?"
"It's a machine," said Issib.
"A really fast ship?"
"Listen to yourself, Nafai. It should be obvious to you. And yet you keep resisting the plain meaning of it."‘
"An underwater boat?"
"How would that be an air swimmer, Nyef?"
"I don't know." Nafai felt silly. "I forgot about the air part."
"You forgot about it-and yet you recognized the ‘air part' right off, by yourself. You knew that Zraky was the Obilazati root for air, and yet you forgot the ‘air part.'"
"So I'm really, really dumb."
"But you're not, Nyef. You're really really smart, and yet you're still standing here looking at the word and I'm telling you all this and you still can't think of what the word means."
"Well, what's this word," said Nafai, pointing ztpuscani prah. "I don't recognize the language."
Issib shook his head. "If I didn't see it happening to you, I wouldn't believe it."
"What?"
"Aren't you even curious to know what a zrakoplov is?"
"You told me. Air swimmer."
"A machine whose name is air swimmer."
"Sure. Right. So what's a puscani prah?"
Issib slowly turned around and faced Nafai. "Sit down, my dear beloved brilliant stupid brother, thou true servant of the Oversoul. I've got something to tell you about machines that swim through the air."
"I guess I'm interrupting you," said Nafai.
"I want to talk to you," said Issib. "It's not an interruption. I just want to explain the idea of flying-"
Td better go."
"Why? Why are you so eager to leave?"
"I don't know." Nafai walked to the door. "I need some air. I'm running out of air." He walked out of the room. Immediately he felt better. Not lightheaded anymore. What was all that about, anyway? The library was too stuffy. Too crowded. Too many people in there,
"Why did you leave?" asked Issib.
Nafai whirled. Issib was silently floating out of the library after him. Nafai immediately felt the same kind of claustrophobia that had driven him out into the hall. "Too crowded in there," said Nafai. "I need to be alone."
"I was the only person in there," said Issib.
"Really?" Nafai tried to remember. "I want to get outside. Just let me go."
"Think," said Issib. "Remember when Luet and Father were talking yesterday?"
Immediately Nafai relaxed. He didn't feel claustrophobic anymore. "Sure."
"And Luet was testing Father-about his memories. When his memory of the vision he saw was wrong, he felt kind of stupid, right?"
"He said."
"Stupid. Disconnected. He just stared into space." . "I guess."
"Like you," said Issib. "When I pushed you about the meaning of zrakoplov"
Suddenly Nafai felt as if there were no air in his lungs. "I've got to get outside!"
"You are really sensitive to this," said Issib. "Even worse than Father and Mother when I tried to tell them?
"Stop following me!" Nafai cried. But Issib continued to float down the hall after him, down the stairs, out into the street. There, in the open, Issib easily passed Nafai, floating here and there in front of him. As if he were herding Nafai back toward the house.
"Stop it!" cried Nafai. But he couldn't get away. He had never felt such panic before. Turning, he stumbled, fell to his knees.
"It's all right," said Issib softly. "Relax. It's nothing. Relax."
Nafai breathed more easily. Issib's voice sounded safe now. The panic subsided. Nafai lifted his head and looked around. "What are we doing out here on the street? Mother's going to kill me."
"You ran out here, Nafai."
"I did?"
"It's the Oversoul, Nafai."
"What's the Oversoul?"
"The force that sent you outside rather than listen to me talk about-about the thing that the Oversoul doesn't want people to know about."
"That's silly," said Nafai. "The Oversoul spreads information, it doesn't conceal it. We submit our writings, our music, everything, and the Oversoul transmits it from city to city, from library to library all over the world."
"Your reaction was much stronger than Father's," said Issib. "Of course, I pushed you harder, too."
"What do you mean?"
"The Oversoul is inside your head, Nafai. Inside all of our heads. But some have it more than others. It's there, watching what we think. I know it's hard to believe."
But Nafai remembered how Luet had known what was in his mind. "No, Issya, I already knew that."
"Really?" said Issib. "Well then. As soon as the Over-soul knew that you were getting close to a forbidden subject, it started making you stupid"
"What forbidden subject?"
"If I remind you, if it'll just set you off again," said Issib.
"When did I get stupid?"
"Trust me. You got very stupid. Trying to change the subject without even realizing it. Normally you're extremely insightful, Nafai. Very bright. You get things. But this time up in the library you just stood there like an idiot, with the truth staring you in the face, and you didn't recognize it. When I reminded you, when I pushed, you got claustrophobic, right? Hard to breathe, had to get out of the room. I followed you, I pushed again, and here we are."
Nafai tried to think back over what had happened. Issib was right about the order of events. Only Nafai hadn't connected his need to get out of the house with anything Issib said. In fact, he couldn't for the life of him remember what it was that Issib had been talking about. "You pushed?"