. The world was falling around him.

* * * * *

He stared at the limp corpse of the globe. The tentacles were already
shriveling up, the emanation of energy that surrounded the living orbs
was gone. He bent, sniffed; no odor. He peered at it keenly, in the soft
blue light of the mine's lanterns, then straightened.

A hand fell on his shoulder.

He spun on one heel, the pick arcing round to gut whoever was behind
him. He had a glimpse of a short red beard and a popping walleye, and
stopped his whirl by an instantaneous checking of his whole muscular
system. The pick's point, still splattered with god's gore, was nudging
his brother's belly.

"Nobody could have halted such a swing but you, Revel," said Rack
absently. His good eye, ice blue and sharp as a bone needle, was fixed
on the dead globe. "What happened?"

"An accident," said Jerran. "The god interposed itself between your
brother's pick and the coal."

"That's right," said Revel. He had been lying to his brother for years,
but he never grew reconciled to it; still, Rack was a man with but one
brain, and that one servile and obedient to every whim of the gentry,
the priests, the gods. So he had to be lied to.

Rack brought his gaze to Revel's tense face. "I got in the way of your
pick," he said heavily. "You have the keenest nerves, the strongest body
in the mines. This was no accident."

Revel began to grow cold in the head and the bowels. If Rack was
convinced that he'd slain the god on purpose, then he'd report him. The
religion that held the world so tightly was greater than any family
bonds. He looked up at Rack. The man was a giant towering four inches
over Revel's six feet one, and sixty pounds heavier. Rack's eyes were
blue and white, Revel's lustrous brown; the elder's hair and beard were
flame-colored, the younger had a sleek chocolate-brown thatch with a
hint of rich black in its sheen, and was clean-shaven.

I'd hate to kill you, big man, thought Revel, but if I must, to save my
neck, I will.

Jerran thrust his pick under the flaccid corpse and tossed it with one
quick motion into the hole. He piled rocks on it, as Revel stamped the
yellow ichor out thin and stringy, spread rock dust and jetty coal
fragments over it till no sign of the murder remained.

"I'll report it," said Rack, apparently making up his mind.

"Then I'll say you did it," snapped Jerran, turning on him like a mouse
baiting a bear. "What c