Read Online Beyond The Tomorrow Mountains by Sylvia Engdahl - Free Book Online Page A

to do; and he was appalled. Talyra’s wits were sharp, but she would be defenseless against an expert assault on her misconception of herself. He wished heartily that he had never agreed to let her be questioned.
    “When a person loves someone that much,” Stefred was saying, “it’s only natural for her to be influenced by his opinions. Surely you did not disagree with all of Noren’s ideas.”
    “Of course not, only with the heretical ones,” Talyra said confidently, too naive to sense her peril.
    “He must often have told you that the things here in the City should be available to everyone, and not just to Technicians and Scholars. Did you agree with that?”
    “It is not in accordance with the High Law.”
    “I know the High Law, Talyra. I am asking whether you agreed with that particular idea of Noren’s, and you are bound to answer truthfully.”
    She dropped her eyes. “I—I agreed that it would be good for everyone to have things,” she admitted in a low voice. “But they will have them after the Mother Star appears.”
    Oh, Talyra , thought Noren hopelessly, the orthodox answer won’t do for Stefred! For the village council that would be a clever reply, but Stefred will hang you with it .
    “Yet what if when it appears,” the Scholar went on, “the Technicians decide to keep everything for themselves?”
    Shocked, Talyra protested, “That couldn’t happen.”
    “How do you know it couldn’t? Have you never met a person who might want to?”
    “Yes, but such people aren’t Technicians.”
    “Noren believed otherwise. He believed that Technicians were ordinary men and women like the villagers. Suppose, for instance, that you yourself were a Technician—”
    “Don’t mock me, sir,” she pleaded.
    “I am not mocking you. Suppose you woke up one day to find yourself a Technician. Would you feel glad to have things that other people don’t, or would you wish that the Mother Star would appear sooner so that you could share them?”
    Talyra was almost in tears. “How can I answer? I’d want to share, of course, yet if I picture myself in that position, I’m committing blasphemy by thinking of myself as Noren used to.”
    Ruthlessly Stefred drove the point home. “Come now, Talyra—do you really, deep inside, believe that you’d be unable to do the work of a Technician, or that you would not enjoy it?”
    She buried her face in her hands. Noren’s grip tightened on the arms of his chair and he half-rose, but Stefred shook his head, going himself to Talyra and laying a firm hand on her shoulder. “You have sworn by the Mother Star that you’ll tell me the truth,” he said impassively. “To break such an oath is a worse offense than the other.”
    “I am guilty, then,” she sobbed. “I didn’t even know it before, but you were right about me!”
    “You acknowledge these ideas? Think, Talyra! Your answer may determine the whole course of your future.”
    “I can’t deny them. My guilt’s greater than Noren’s, for he at least was not a hypocrite.”
    Her despair was more than Noren could bear. He would never forgive himself, he thought; he should have known that Stefred’s relentless approach to truth, so exhilarating to himself, would destroy Talyra. She’d been happy with her illusions; why had he let himself he convinced that she could remain happy after those illusions were gone?
    “No!” he burst out. “I’ll not let you do this to her!”
    “Be silent! If she’s to face what’s ahead, she must see herself for what she really is.”
    “Let her go free,” Noren begged, his lips dry. “Don’t make her face it for my sake.”
    “Having gone this far, Noren, I must proceed for her own sake; to stop now would be misplaced mercy.”
    Raising her head, Talyra faltered, “I—I never asked for mercy, sir. Even for Noren I asked only justice.”
    “And you seemed convinced that in the end I would be just. I promise you that I shall be.”
    “I believe that. You