Small Gods

water container, I expect.”
    “You wouldn’t.”
    “Who knows? I might. In a hundred years’ time we’ll all be dead, you said.”
    “Yes! Yes!” said Om desperately. “But here and now—”
    “Right.”

    Didactylos smiled. It wasn’t something that came easily to him. It wasn’t that he was a somber man, but he could not see the smiles of others. It took several dozen muscle movements to smile, and there was no return on his investment.
    He’d spoken many times to crowds in Ephebe, but they were invariably made up of other philosophers, whose shouts of “Bloody daft!,” “You’re making it up as you go along!” and other contributions to the debate always put him at his ease. That was because no one really paid any attention. They were just working out what they were going to say next.
    But this crowd put him in mind of Brutha. Their listening was like a huge pit waiting for his words to fill it. The trouble was that he was talking in philosophy, but they were listening in gibberish.
    “You can’t believe in Great A’Tuin,” he said. “Great A’Tuin exists . There’s no point in believing in things that exist.”
    “Someone’s put up their hand,” said Urn.
    “Yes?”
    “Sir, surely only things that exist are worth believing in?” said the enquirer, who was wearing a uniform of a sergeant of the Holy Guard.
    “If they exist, you don’t have to believe in them,” said Didactylos. “They just are.” He sighed. “What can I tell you? What do you want to hear? I just wrote down what people know. Mountains rise and fall, and under them the Turtle swims onward. Men live and die, and the Turtle Moves. Empires grow and crumble, and the Turtle Moves. Gods come and go, and still the Turtle Moves. The Turtle Moves .”
    From the darkness came a voice, “And that is really true?”
    Didactylos shrugged. “The Turtle exists . The world is a flat disc. The sun turns around it once every day, dragging its light behind it. And this will go on happening, whether you believe it is true or not. It is real. I don’t know about truth. Truth is a lot more complicated than that. I don’t think the Turtle gives a bugger whether it’s true or not, to tell you the truth.”
    Simony pulled Urn to one side as the philosopher went on talking.
    “This isn’t what they came to hear! Can’t you do anything?”
    “Sorry?” said Urn.
    “They don’t want philosophy. They want a reason to move against the Church! Now! Vorbis is dead, the Cenobiarch is gaga, the hierarchy are busy stabbing one another in the back. The Citadel is like a big rotten plum.”
    “Still a few wasps in it, though,” said Urn. “You said you’ve only got a tenth of the army.”
    “But they’re free men,” said Simony. “Free in their heads. They’ll be fighting for more than fifty cents a day.”
    Urn looked down at his hands. He often did that when he was uncertain about anything, as if they were the only things he was sure of in all the world.
    “They’ll get the odds down to three to one before the rest know what’s happening,” said Simony grimly. “Did you talk to the blacksmith?”
    “Yes.”
    “Can you do it?”
    “I…think so. It wasn’t what I…”
    “They tortured his father. Just for having a horseshoe hanging up in his forge, when everyone knows that smiths have to have their little rituals. And they took his son off into the army. But he’s got a lot of helpers. They’ll work through the night. All you have to do is tell them what you want.”
    “I’ve made some sketches…”
    “Good,” said Simony. “ Listen , Urn. The Church is run by people like Vorbis. That’s how it all works. Millions of people have died for—for nothing but lies. We can stop all that—”
    Didactylos had stopped talking.
    “He’s muffed it,” said Simony. “He could have done anything with them. And he just told them a lot of facts. You can’t inspire people with facts. They need a cause. They need a symbol.”

    They left the temple just before sundown. The lion had crawled into the shade of some rocks, but stood up unsteadily to watch them go.
    “It’ll track us,” moaned Om. “They do that. For miles and miles.”
    “We’ll survive.”
    “I wish I had your confidence.”
    “Ah, but I have a God to have faith in.”
    “There’ll be no more ruined temples.”
    “There’ll be something else.”
    “And not even snake to eat.”
    “But I walk with my God.”
    “Not as a snack, though. And