Who cares? Let them poison the world if they want
to. Won't be ours anyway, it will be somebody else's world.
82 All right, First Speaker, I'll give you and your soldiers passage,
but don't bring any skirts. We got bids on any in our territory, so if
you wanna keep them safe, keep them home!"
83 He walked off, his friends following, still laughing. "Me?" he
cried, "A Warlock? HIM First Speaker? Have you ever heard so much crap?
May The Holy One be with me, I may die laughing!"
84 As they continued on down the street, Thundering Hawk laughed, to
himself. "That's quite a gag. Me, First Speaker! It's a real joke!"
85 The Young Speaker shook his head. "It's no joke!" he said. "I never
joke. Every word I ever say is true, or will BE true. I can never speak
a falsity. You will have to learn to remember that. You WILL be First
Speaker. Of course first, you will be City Speaker, Kingdom Speaker,
then First Speaker.
86 You'll have plenty of time. That's why the whole system was set up
the way it was, a person having to serve at least five years in each
lower position before he was eligible to run for the next, learning to
deal with more and more responsibility until they reached the top.
Only the strongest, and, the wisest can make it all the way!"
87 "I wouldn't call the current World Speaker very capable," argued one
of the boys, "considering everything he's let happen. We've got one
city taken over by Lovers of Men, another by Lovers of Women. Drugits
talk openly in public about legalizing their drugs, some of
them smoke Blue Grass in the street, and The Guard ignore it. Half of
them are on the take, and all the honest ones do, is walk a patrol.
They can't get promoted. The Law in some states, sometimes, in whole
nations, is unrecognizable."