ods, omnipotent, omnipresent.

The mine was a mile from his hut, which lay on the outskirts of Dolfya.
It was halfway down a long valley, a gut between hills pitted with many
other mines. There coal was dug for the gentry and the priests. He
walked up to the entrance, gave his name telepathically to the god-guard
at the top of the shaft, and went down the ladders until he'd reached
his level. Another god passed him there, its aura of energy just
touching his skin and tingling it into small bumps.

* * * * *

Shutting off the thoughts of his various brains from any probing mind
that might be eavesdropping, he said to himself, Always, always they're
near a man! You go out of your hut and there's a god, a big golden globe
hanging in the air shoving its tentacles at you and reading your mind.
You come down the mine shaft and every hundred feet or so you see the
yellow luminosity. Why can't they leave us alone! Why can't they stick
to their temples, and exact their worship on Orbsday, instead of all
week long, all day long, every day in the year!

He came to his work place, a dead-end tunnel. Jerran was there before
him, as usual. Revel grinned at him. Jerran was a runty wisp of a man,
with a face the color of old straw, and he had been Revel's friend since
the day he came to the mine from distant Hakes Town by the sea. A
wonderful drinking companion, Jerran, but he wouldn't brawl ... strange!
He was forever pulling Revel out of fights and trying to teach him
serenity.

As Revel greeted him, he involuntarily glanced at the end of the tunnel.
There, behind a carefully casual erection of boulders, lay their secret
cave. They'd broken into it the morning before, and after no more than a
hasty glimpse of unknown wonders, and a check to see that no globes were
in sight, they'd walled up the opening and begun to dig along the
shaft's sides. Revel wasn't quite sure why he had followed Jerran's lead
in keeping it secret, but the brain which had decided to do it must be
the rebellious one. All secrets were taboo to the ruck, who were
required to report all finds to the gentry or the god-guards.

Now a globe came drifting down the corridor, and Revel got quickly to
work, prying coal from a vein with his pick. The thing passed him,
flicking his mind lightly with its own, and went on to the end of the
tunnel. He watched it from the tail of his eye. Its glow brightened with
interest; it shifted back a