"Bruce Holland Rogers - In the Matter of the Ukdena" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rogers Bruce Holland)

many?"
"The future shall unfold according to prophecy," said Holds the Corn.
"Yes," agreed Woods Burning, "but many paths are possible to the same point in prophecy."
The principal priest said, "In the matter of the Ukdena and a third priest, how are we resolved?"
Again, the Beloved Men of the majority clans spoke their positions. Nothing had changed. Walks the
River looked at his bony hands and bit his lip. What else was there to do? All of his arguments had been
repeated many times. He had not moved any of the others, and he had not himself been moved to join
them.
Politeness dictated that he should withdraw now. He and all of his clan should leave the council house
so that the decision could be made unanimously in their absence. That was not what he wanted to do, but
how could he stay and still believe himself a reasonable man?
Clearly he must withdraw.
But he waited. He thought of what the Blue clan speaker had just said. Was there one future, or
many? Perhaps he was now at the place where the futures divided like channels of a river moving around
a great stone. He was the great stone. If he leaned one way, this channel would be the greater. Lean the
other way, and the other channel would determine how prophecy would be fulfilled.
And what prophecy was it that was flowing around him? What futures might depend on him?
The Ukdena were beautiful. The Ukdena were terrible. Harmony was beautiful and holy, but was it
better preserved by defending the Ukdena or by letting the matter drop?
Continue or withdraw? Each choice seemed both right and wrong.
"We will not be moved," he said for his clan.
People in the Council House shifted around, as if feeling for the first time the stiffness of sitting for
many days. The Beloved Men of the other clans looked over their shoulders to read the eyes of their
people.
After a time the speaker for the Wolf clan turned to face the priests and the sacred fire. "It is the sixth
day," he said. "For six days, the Wild Potato clan has not moved. Nothing moves them, and they do not
turn aside. Walks the River is a thoughtful and well-mannered man. He bears a lot and does not anger.
This begins to change our hearts. We say there shall be a third priest, and he shall learn to master the
Ukdena."
That was how the tide turned, but politics flow slowly. It was not until late in the next day that the Blue
clan and Deer clan supported the training of a new priest.
"Think of the Great Bear, stamping on the ground," the Paint clan's Beloved Man argued, though the
flow had clearly shifted against him. "Fear and ignorance, that's what he tramples down. Let the Ukdena
decline. We don't need them. We do not need a third priest."
But it was after this speech that Holds the Corn had brought the Long Hair clan to the other side, in
favor of maintaining an additional priest. Woods Burning felt his own clan shift beneath him, and whatever
his own feelings, he had to speak for his people. "Let there be a third priest," he said.
The Paint clan held their ground until the end of that seventh day. Their Beloved Man argued about the
risks of crowding the skies with Ukdena, but too many Ukdena seemed a less plausible future than a
future where the last Ukdena had vibrated itself out of this world. Everyone had already agreed that the
Ukdena were in decline.
In the end, the Paint clan could not agree with the majority, but they left the Council House and let the
village make a unanimous decision in their absence.
"In the matter of the Ukdena and a third priest," said the principal priest, "how are we resolved?"
"That there shall be a third priest so that we may remember how to hold the Ukdena to the earth," said
Red Fox. "That is the decision of all the people."
If any Tsalagi were angry over the outcome, they turned their anger aside and it did not show. The
village held the form of harmony, and the sacred fire was extinguished. The last year of the eleventh
heaven was over. The priests kindled a new fire in the Council House, and women carried embers from it
into each home. The people carried their new clothes to the river, and then they bathed, letting the current