"State your belief," said Matlin.
"Kill me." A barely audible whisper.
"State your belief, Felg."
Felg's eyes riveted on the mace. His face was gray. His eyes pleaded with the mace, as if cold metal, death-dealing metal, might heed the message Matlin would not. Silence was a wall between this room and the rest of the world.
And Felg screamed, "I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"
His eyes blinked. Tears streamed down his cheeks and he rolled over to fall on his knees before Matlin. "If you had killed me at once," he sobbed bitterly. "If you would have killed me. Damn you, I don't believe, I don't believe...."
"Then live," said Matlin indifferently, all at once not caring if Felg lived or died.
A roar went up from the crowd of extra-Kedaki, but the Kedaki themselves were sullen. Highborn like Felg, they also did not believe in reincarnation. They saw themselves on the floor, craven before what seemed to be a lowborn member of their race, lives spared and honor destroyed.
The beautiful woman who had been with Felg took Matlin's elbow. "They're ugly now," she said. "You'd better get out of here."
"What difference does it make to you?"