The Keeper | Page 5

Keeper," Salvadro said. "It was made on this world,
before the first starship was built. This world is Terra, the Mother-World; didn't you
know that, Keeper? This is the world where Man was born."
He hadn't known that. Of course, there had to be a world like that, but a great world in the
middle of everything, like Dremna. Not this old, forgotten world.
"It's true, Keeper," Dranigo told him. He hesitated slightly, then cleared his throat.
"Keeper, you're young no longer, and some day you must die, as your father and his
father did. Who will care for the Crown then?"
Who, indeed? His woman had died long ago, and she had given him no sons, and the
daughters she had given him had gone their own ways with men of their own choosing
and he didn't know what had become of any of them. And the village people--they would
start picking the Crown apart to sell the jewels, one by one, before the ashes of his pyre
stopped smoking.

"Let us have it, Keeper," Salvadro said. "We will take it to Dremna, where armed men
will guard it day and night, and it will be a trust upon the Government of the Empire
forever."
He recoiled in horror. "Man! You don't know what you're saying!" he cried. "This is the
Crown, and I am the Keeper; I cannot part with it as long as there is life in me."
"And when there is not, what? Will it be laid on your pyre, so that it may end with you?"
Dranigo asked.
"Do you think we'd throw it away as soon as we got tired looking at it?" Salvadro
exclaimed. "To show you how we'll value this, we'll give you ... how much is a thousand
imperials in trade-tokens, Dranigo?"
"I'd guess about twenty thousand."
"We'll give you twenty thousand Government trade-tokens," Salvadro said. "If it costs us
that much, you'll believe that we'll take care of it, won't you?"
Raud rose stiffly. "It is a wrong thing," he said, "to enter a man's house and eat at his
table, and then insult him."
Dranigo rose also, and Salvadro with him. "We had no mind to insult you, Keeper, or
offer you a bribe to betray your trust. We only offer to help you fulfill it, so that the
Crown will be safe after all of us are dead. Well, we won't talk any more about it, now.
We're going in Yorn Nazvik's ship, tomorrow; he's trading in the country to the west, but
before he returns to the Warm Seas, he'll stop at Long Valley Town, and we'll fly over to
see you. In the meantime, think about this; ask yourself if you would not be doing a better
thing for the Crown by selling it to us."
They wanted to leave the dishes and the new lumicon, and he permitted it, to show that
he was not offended by their offer to buy the Crown. He knew that it was something very
important to them, and he admitted, grudgingly, that they could care for it better than he.
At least, they would not keep it in a hole under a hut in the wilderness, guarded only by
dogs. But they were not Keepers, and he was. To them, the Crown would be but one of
many important things; to him it was everything. He could not imagine life without it.
He lay for a long time among his bed-robes, unable to sleep, thinking of the Crown and
the visitors. Finally, to escape those thoughts, he began planning tomorrow morning's
hunt.
He would start out as soon as the snow stopped, and go down among the scrub-pines; he
would take Brave with him, and leave Bold on guard at home. Brave was more obedient,
and a better hunter. Bold would jump for the deer that had been shot, but Brave always
tried to catch or turn the ones that were still running.
He needed meat badly, and he needed more deerskins, to make new clothes. He was
thinking of the new overshirt he meant to make as he fell asleep....

It was past noon when he and Brave turned back toward Keeper's House. The deer had
gone farther than he had expected, but he had found them, and killed four. The carcasses
were cleaned and hung from trees, out of reach of the foxes and the wolves, and he would
take Brave back to the house and leave him on guard, and return with Bold and the sled
to bring in the meat. He was thinking cheerfully of the fresh meat when he came out onto
the path from the village, a mile from Keeper's House. Then he stopped short, looking at
the tracks.
Three men--no, four--had come from the