Books In English "City Of Illusions" Ursula K. Le Guin | Page 122

paraverbally, with great clarity, "No, only the communicator. Why did you
bid me throw it away?"
"I wish to speak with no listener but you, Orry."
The boy looked awed and scared. "The Lords can hear," he whispered
aloud. "They can hear mindspeech anywhere, prech Ramarren—and I had
only begun my training in mindguarding—"
"Then we'll speak aloud," Falk said, though he doubted that the Shing
could overhear mindspeech "anywhere," without mechanical aid of some
land. "This is what I wish to ask you. These Lords of Es Toch brought me
here, it seems, to restore my memory as Ramarren. But they can do it, or
will do it, only at the cost of my memory of myself as I am now, and all I
have learned on Earth. This they insist upon. I do not wish it to be so. I do
not wish to forget what I know and guess, and be an ignorant tool in their
hands. I do not wish to die again before my death! I don't think I can
withstand them, but I will try, and the service I ask of you is this—" He
stopped, hesitant among choices, for he had not worked out his plan at all.
Orry's face, which had been excited, now dulled with confusion again,
and finally he said, "But why…"
"Well?" Falk said, seeing the authority he had briefly exerted over the
boy evaporate. Still, he had shocked Orry into asking "Why?" and if he
was ever to get through to the boy, it would be right now.
"Why do you mistrust the Lords? Why should they want to suppress
your memory of Earth?"
"Because Ramarren does not know what I know. Nor do you. And our
ignorance may betray the world that sent us here."
"But you…you don't even remember our world…"
"No. But I will not serve the Liars who rule this one. Listen to me.
This is all I can guess of what they want. They will restore my former
mind in order to learn the true name, the location of our home world. If
they learn it while they are working on my mind, then I think they'll kill
me then and there, and tell you that the operation was fatal; or raze my
mind once more and tell you that the operation was a failure. If not, they'll
let me live, at least until I tell them what they want to know. And I won't
know enough, as Ramarren, not to tell them. Then they'll send us back to
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