certain extent. Can we negotiate some kind of share agreement?»
«They can have it all,» Tall said, with a scornful gesture toward the jury-rigged control board. «All this is ruined. Ruined! You come from the stars. Why do you not take my people back to our homeworld? We are effectively dispossessed. We've been ignored since the day we were robbed by the Flat Ones. No one will notice our absence. Let the thieves who have used our machinery have it and the husk that remains of this planet.»
«We'd be happy to do that,» Keff said, carefully «but forgive me, Tall, you won't have much in common with the people of your homeworld anymore, will you? You were born here. Five hundred generations of your people have been native Ozrans. Just when it could start to get better, do you really want to leave?»
«Hear, hear,» said Carialle.
One of the amphibioids looked sad and made a gesture that threw the idea away. The Frog Prince looked at him. «I guess we do not. Truth, I do not, but what to do?»
«What was your peoples mission? Why did you come here?»
«To grow things on this green and fertile planet,» Tall signed, almost a dance of graceful gestures, as if repeating a well-learned lesson. He stopped. «But nothing is green and fertile anymore like in the old stories. It is dry, dusty, cold.»
«Don't you want to try and bring the planet back to a healthy state?»
«How?»
Keff touched the small amphibioid gently on the back and drew Chaumel closer with the other arm. «The know-how is obviously still in your people's oral tradition. Why not fulfill your ancestors' hopes and dreams? Work together with the humans. Share with them. You can fix the machinery. I agree that you should make contact with your homeworld, and we'll help with that, but don't go back to stay. Ask them for technical support and communication. They'll be thrilled to know that any of the colonists are still alive.»
The sad frog looked much happier. «Leader, yes!» he signed enthusiastically.
«Help us,» Keff urged, raising his hands high. «We'll try to establish mutual respect among the species. If it fails, Carialle and I can always take you back once we've fixed the system here.»
Chaumel cleared his throat and spoke, mixing sign language with the spoken linga esoterka. «You have much in common with our lower class,» he said. «You'll find much sympathy among the farmers and workers.»
«We know them,» Tall signed scornfully. «They kick us.»
Keff signaled for peace.
«Once they know you're intelligent, that will change. The human civilization on this planet has slid backward to a subsistence farming culture. Only with your help can Ozran join the confederation of intelligent races as a voting member.»
«That's a slippery slope you're negotiating there, Keff,» Carialle warned, noticing Plenna's shocked expression. Chaumel, on the other hand, was nodding and concealing a grin. He approved of Keff's eliding the truth for the sake of diplomacy.
«For mutual respect and an equal place we might stay,» the Frog Prince signed after conferring with his fellows.
«You won't regret it,» Keff assured him. «You'll be able to say to your offspring that it was your generation, allied with another great and intelligent race, who completed your ancestors' tasks.»
«To go from nothing to everything,» the Frog Prince signed, his pop eyes going very wide, which Keff interpreted as a sign of pleasure. «The ages may not have been wasted after all.»
«Only if we can keep this planet from blowing up,» Carialle reminded them. Keff relayed her statement to the others.
«But what needs to be done to bring the system back to a healthy balance?» Chaumel asked.
«Stop using it,» Keff said simply. «Or at least, stop draining the system so profligately as you have been doing. The mages will have to be limited in future to what power remains after the legitimate functions have been supplied: weather control, water conservation, and whatever it takes to stabilize the environment. That's what those devices were originally designed to do. Only the most vital uses should be made of what power's left over. And until the frogs get the system repaired, that's going to be precious little. You saw how much colder and drier Ozran has become over the time human beings have been here. It won't be long until this planet is uninhabitable, and you have nowhere else to go.»
«I understand perfectly,» Chaumel said. «But the others are not going to like it.»
«They must see for themselves.» Plenna spoke up unexpectedly. «Let them come here.»
«Your girlfriend has a good idea,» Carialle told Keff.
«Show them this place. The globe-frogs can keep everyone on short power rations. Give them enough to fly their chariots here, but not enough to start a world war.»
«Just enough,» Keff stressed as the Frog Prince went to make the adjustment, «so they don't feel strangled, but let's make it clear that the days of making it snow firecrackers are over.»
«Hah!» Chaumel said. «What would impress them most is if you could make it snow snow! Everyone will have to see it for themselves, or they will not believe. The meeting must be called at once.»
The Frog Prince and his companions paddled back to Keff. «We will stay here to feel out the machinery and learn what is broken.»
Keff stood up, stamping to work circulation back into his legs.
«And I'll stay here, too. Since there is no manual or blueprints, Carialle and I will plot schematics of the mechanism, and see what we can help fix. Cari?»
«I'll be there with tools and components before you can say alakazam, Sir Galahad,» she replied.
«I had better stay, too, then,» Plenna said. «Someone needs to keep others from entering if the silver tower leaves the plain. She attracts too much curiosity.»
«Good thinking. Bring Brannel, too,» Keff told Carialle. «He deserves to see the end of all his hard work. This will either make or break the accord.»
«It will be either the end or the beginning of our world,» Chaumel agreed, settling into the silver chair. It lifted off from the platform and slammed away toward the distant light.
Chapter Fourteen
The vast cavern swallowed up the few hundred mages like gnats in a garden. Each high mage was surrounded by underlings spread out and upward in a wedge to the rim of an imaginary bowl with Keff, Chaumel, Plenna, Brannel, and the three globe-frogs at its center on the platform. All the newcomers were staring down at the machinery on the cave floor and gazing at the high platform with expressions of awe. The Noble Primitive gawked around him at the gathering of the greatest people in his world. All of them were looking at him. Keff aimed a companionable slap at the workers shoulders and winked up at him.
«You're perfectly safe,» he assured Brannel.
«I do not feel safe,» Brannel whispered. «I wish they could not see me.»
«Whether or not they realize it, they owe you a debt of gratitude. You've been helping them, and you deserve recognition. In a way, this is your reward.»
«I would rather not be recognized,» Brannel said definitely. «No one will shoot fire at a target that cannot be seen.»
«No one is going to shoot fire,» Keff said. «There isn't enough power left out there to light a match.»
«What is going on here?» Ilnir roared, projecting his voice over the hubbub of voices and the hum of machinery. «I am not accustomed to being summoned, nor to waiting while peasants confer!»
«Why has the silver tower been moved to this place?» a mage called out. «Doesn't it belong to the East?»
«Why will my items of power not function?» a lesser magess of Zolaika's contingent complained. «Chaumel, are you to blame for all this?»
«High Ones, mages and magesses,» the silver magiman said smoothly. «Events over the past weeks have culminated in this meeting today. Ozran is changing. You may perhaps be disappointed in some of the changes, but
