Francois Boucher The Interrupted Sleepno," he murmured. "Twenty million people in this world, and the only one who believes in me is a suicide­"

Francois Boucher The Interrupted SleepFrancois Boucher Portrait of Marquise de PompadourFrancois Boucher Diana Resting after her Bath
no," he murmured. "Twenty million people in this world, and the only one who believes in me is a suicide­"
"We can't just leave it," said Brutha.
"We can. We can. It's a lion. You leave lions alone. "
Brutha knelt faith.
Brutha grasped the spear-haft. The lion growled as he moved it.
"Can't you speak to it?" said Brutha.
"It's an animal."
"So are you. You could try to calm it down. Because if it gets excited-”
Om snapped into concentration.
In fact the lion's mind contained nothing but pain, a spreading nebuladown. The lion opened one crusted yellow eye, too weak even to bite him."You're going to die, you're going to die. I'm not going to find anyone to believe in me out here-”Brutha's knowledge of animal anatomy was rudimentary. Although some of the inquisitors had an enviable knowledge of the insides of the human body that is denied to all those who are not allowed to open it while it's still working, medicine as such was frowned upon in Omnia. But somewhere, in every village, was someone who officially didn't set bones and who didn't know a few things about certain plants, and who stayed out of reach of the Quisition because of the fragile gratitude of their patients. And every peasant picked up a smattering of knowledge. Acute toothache can burn through all but the strongest in