Books In English "City Of Illusions" Ursula K. Le Guin | Page 69

remember; how was he to learn if he dared not risk asking? But Estrel was
afraid to stop even at the tiniest and poorest of these prairie settlements.
"They do not like Wanderers," she said, "nor any strangers. Those that live
so much alone are full of fear. In their fear they would take us in and give
us food and shelter. But then in the night they would come and bind and
kill us. You cannot go to them, Falk"—and she glanced at his eyes—"and
tell them I am your fellow-man… They know we are here; they watch. If
they see us move on tomorrow they won't trouble us. But if we don't move
on, or if we try to go to them, they'll fear us. It is fear that kills."
Windburned and travelweary, his hood pushed back so the keen,
glowing wind from the red west stirred his hair, Falk sat, arms across his
knees, near their campfire in the lee of a knobbed hill. "True enough," he
said, though he spoke wistfully, his gaze on that far-off wisp of smoke.
"Perhaps that's the reason why the Shing kill no one."
Estrel knew his mood and was trying to hearten him, to change his
thoughts.
"Why's that?" he asked, aware of her intent, but unresponsive.
"Because they are not afraid."
"Maybe." She had got him to thinking, though not very cheerfully.
Eventually he said, "Well, since it seems I must go straight to them to ask
my questions, if they kill me I'll have the satisfaction of knowing that I
frightened them…"
Estrel shook her head. "They will not. They do not kill."
"Not even cockroaches?" he inquired, venting the ill-temper of his
weariness on her. "What do they do with cockroaches, in their
City—disinfect them and set them free again, like the Razes you told me
about?"
"I don't know," Estrel said; she always took his questions seriously.
"But their law is reverence for life, and they do keep the law."
"They don't revere human life. Why should they?—they're not
human."
"But that is why their rule is reverence for all life—isn't it? And I was
taught that there have been no wars on Earth or among the worlds since the
Shing came. It is humans that murder one another!"
~ 67 ~