"Karen Wehrstein - Chevenga 01 - Lion's Heart" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wehrstein Karen)

taken you to the next valley instead, I would have known to wait there.
That is hard to understand, I know, for those who don't have a touch of it
themselves; perhaps the best explanation is to say that the God-In-Me told
me."

The teacher was overjoyed. "You are one of us!"

"No," said Yeola. "But I can speak the language of your thought. I
believe in none of the gods as their priests would have me do, and believe
in all of them as they are: the spirit of life as people feel it. I serve no god,
for none has spoken and asked it of me; I serve all, because their presence
asks, in all the wonders of life. I proselytize for no god, since each is part of
the truth as nations are part of the world; but I speak the language of
each, so that I may understand all people. To Enchians I would have said
my prescience came from First Curlion, to nature-cultists, from the
Hermaphrodite, to animists, from the mountain-sprites, to Fire-cultists,
from the Twin Hawks. But you happen to be Athyel, so I said it came from
the God-In-Myself."

"WellтАж I thank you for being so considerate as to speak in the language
of our thought," the teacher said finally. "But I am curious to know where
you believe it came from."

"I believeтАФI firmly believeтАФit came from all of them. Or none. Or me.
Or out of the sky. I firmly believe I do not know. Also that I do not care. It
came from the world of the unknown, which is wondrous because it is
unknown. All the gods' names are names for it. Once given, such a name
becomes Truth, the name of the Truth a people feel from the unknown.
Yours is the God-In-Ourselves. So I used it, to give you from the unknown
your Truth of where my prescience came from.

"Not that it matters a whit anyway. I hope this never ends up in some
chronicle. You're here, there's food and bed, and you are invited to stay as
long as you like."

So it was, they stayed. When they were strong enough they began the
work of life, on the land, and continued their education from the many
ancient books that Yeola had. Seek wisdom, she taught them, find the
God-In-Yourselves: live by the ultimate law that is hardest to live by: that
there is no ultimate law. For meanings their native tongue had none for,
they invented new words; for settling their disputes and making their
common choices they created new customs.

Years passed, and the children grew, built houses and had children of
their own. Yeola grew old. In their thirtieth year in the valley, as their
children were just beginning to have children, Yeola took ill, and it
became clear she would soon die.

Around her bed the people gathered. "My children," she said, "you
think I have shared everything I have with you, but in all honesty I have