Books In English "City Of Illusions" Ursula K. Le Guin | Page 119

tasted it gingerly and was surprised to find it the same juniper-flavored
liquor he had once been given in the Enclave of Kansas. He knew it was a
strong intoxicant and drank no more; but Orry swigged his down with
relish. Abundibot entered, tall, white-robed, mask-faced, dismissing the
toolmen with a slight gesture. He stopped at some distance from Falk and
Orry. The toolmen had left a third silver cup on the little stand. He raised it
as if in salute, drank it right off, and then said in his dry whispering voice,
"You do not drink, Lord Ramarren. There is an old, old saying on Earth: In
wine is truth." He smiled and ceased smiling. "But your thirst is for the
truth, not for the wine, perhaps."
"There is a question I wish to ask you."
"Only one?" The note of mockery seemed clear to Falk, so clear that
he glanced at Orry to see if he had caught it. But the boy, sucking on
another tube of parьtha, his gray-gold eyes lowered, had caught nothing.
"I should prefer to speak to you alone, for a moment," Falk said
abruptly.
At that Orry looked up, puzzled; the Shing said, "You may, of course.
It will make no difference, however, to my answer, if Har Orry is here or
not here. There is nothing we keep from him that we might tell you, as
there is nothing we might tell him and keep from you. If you prefer that he
leave, however, it shall be so."
"Wait for me in the hall, Orry," Falk said; docile, the boy went out.
When the vertical lips of the door had closed behind him, Falk
said—whispered, rather, because everyone whispered here—I wished to
repeat what I asked you before. I am not sure I understood. You can
restore my earlier memory only at the cost of my present memory—is that
true?"
"Why do you ask me what is true? Will you believe it?"
"Why—why should I not believe it?" Falk replied, but his heart sank,
for he felt the Shing was playing with him, as with a creature totally
incompetent and powerless.
"Are we not the Liars? You must not believe anything we say. That is
what you were taught in Zove's House, that is what you think. We know
what you think."
~ 117 ~