"We can be bad. But for Doc Wright and his dreams that Ed Spearman finds so impractical, we'd have done you harm." Helpless at her innocence, Paul saw she did not believe him. "On Earth, we fought each other. We hunted for lies to make ourselves feel big. We created great institutions built on vanity--tickling lies: imperialism, communism--most of the isms you find so puzzling when we talk of Earth history. The anger of Charins rarely focused itself on the actual causes of unhappiness or injustice. Instead we hunted for scapegoats, easy solutions. We wouldn't study ourselves. Always we itched for something external to take the blame for our own follies and crimes." "I don't understand." "As if you stumbled on a root, Arek, and then banged your fist on the tree that grew it, to blame it for your own clumsiness." "But Paul--only a very small child would act like that." "Darling, let's watch the sunset." She felt his pain, touched his knee, and was silent until he said, "A poor naughty child...." "There was a thing Ed Spearman said to me--what I wanted to talk to you about. I've never gone to Pakriaa's village. You know, even Mijok won't go there except with one of you. I asked Ed if Pakriaa still kept that stockade for drugging and fattening prisoners--in spite of her agreeing to the laws. He said yes, she did. I said it was not right. I said we made a law against slavery too. He said, 'Forget it, baby--one thing at a time.' I am not a baby. How can the laws govern us unless all obey them?" "Ed--meant no harm, Arek. He only meant it does take time. The pygmies have more to unlearn. You--started clean. And--well--with the army of Lantis likely to come back at any time--we can't afford--" Yet it seemed natural that this giant child, who had herself done murder in the old days, should answer his troubled evasions not only with reproach but with command: "If the laws are to govern us they must be respected by everyone. I wish I had gone to that village and torn down the stockade with my hands." "And they would have killed you with a hundred spears and Pakriaa's people would hate us forever, learning nothing but more hatred." Arek cried a little, rubbing at the unfamiliar wetness. "Maybe I begin to see, how difficult.... The sun's going." But they sat quietly in the warm and undemanding wind until the first sapphire glint of fireflies dotted the slope where Jensen City might one day shine. Arek stood, reaching down an affectionate hand. 2 Paul glanced down at sunrise-tinted snow on the highest peak of the coastal range, thirteen thousand feet above the sea. Prairie spread for thirty miles east of its base; then came a region of forest and small lakes fed by the outlet of Lake Argo, which was the core of the empire of Lantis, Queen of the World.