You are truly a man, and one of wit and perception."
Tak bowed before him.
Ratri chuckled.
Tell us, clever Takўfor mayhap we have been gods
too long, and so lack the proper angle of visionўhow
shall we proceed in this matter of rehumanizing him, so
as to best serve the ends we seek?"
Tak bowed him then to Ratri.
"As Yama has proposed," he stated. "Today, mis-
tress, you take him for a walk in the foothills. Tomor-
row, Lord Yama conducts him as far as the edge of the
forest. The following day I shall take him amidst the
trees and the grasses, the flowers and the vines. And we
shall see. We shall."
"So be it," said Yama, and so it was.
In the weeks that followed, Sam came to look for-
ward to these walks with what appeared at first a mild
anticipation, then a moderate enthusiasm, and finally a
22 ROGER ZELAZNY
blazing eagerness. He took to going off unaccompanied
for longer and longer stretches of time: at first, it was for
several hows in the morning; then, morning and eve-
ning. Later, he stayed away all day, and on occasion a -
day and a night.
At the end of the third week, Yama and Ratri dis-
cussed it on the porch in the early hours of morning.
"This thing I do not like," said Yama. "We cannot
insult him by forcing our company upon him now,
when he does not wish it. But there is danger out there,
especially for one born again such as he. I would that
we knew how he spends his hours."
"But whatever he does, it is helping him to recover,"
