said. "It is not for you to cite Scripture." He stared through the window. "What does the Mother want of me?"

"As you shout, do not forget that I am a mother, too," Martha said. She dabbed a finger at her eye.

"Fagep mir, Liebling," Aaron said. He walked behind the chair where his wife sat. Tenderly, he kneaded the muscles at the back of her neck. "I am trying to get inside Musa's head, and Kazunzumi's; I am trying to see their world through their eyes. It is not an easy thing to do, Martha. Though I lived for a spell among the 'English,' my head is still House-Amish; a fat, Dutch cheese."

"It is a good head," Martha said, relaxing under his massage, "and if there be cheese-heads hereabouts, it's these blackfolk that wear them, and not my man."

"If I knew what the die-hinker our neighbors mean by their Mother-talk, it might be I could see myself through Murnan eyes, as I can hear a bit with Hausa ears," Aaron said. "Iss sell nix so, Martha?"

"We should have stood at home, and thought with our own good heads," she said.

"Let me think," Aaron said. "If I were to strike you, wife," he mused, it could do you great hurt, and harm our unborn child, Nee?"

"Aaron!" Martha scooted out from under her husbands kneading hands.

"Druuvel dich net!" he said. "I am only thinking. These blackfolk now, these neighbors who were before last night our friends, speak of Light as our bishop at home speaks of Grace. To have it is to have all, to be one with the congregation. If I can find this Light, we and the Sarki and his people can again be friends." Aaron sat down. "I must learn what I have done wrong," he said.

"Other than drink a glass of cider now and then, and make worldly music with a guitar, you've done no wrong," Martha said stubbornly. "You're a good man."

"In the Old Order, I am a good man, so long as no Diener makes trouble over a bit of singing or cider," Aaron said. "As a guest on Murna, I have done some deed that has hurt this Mother-god, whom our neighbors hold dear."

"Heathenish superstition!"

"Martha, love, I am older than you, and a man," Aaron said. "Give me room to think! If the goddess-Mother is heathen as Baal, it matters not; these folk who worship her hold our future in their hands. Besides, we owe them the courtesy not 

 Prev. P 27/30 next