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“We’re not waiting at all,” said Olivenko. “Go. Do whatever it is you’re so eager to do.”
“There’s nothing to do,” said Param.
“Then we’re not waiting,” said Olivenko. “We’re merely purposeless. Find a purpose, and go accomplish it. You don’t have to wait for anything.”
“What purpose is there? We know the world ends in a very few years. What’s the point of starting anything?”
“I’m sure Umbo will take you back in time, as far as you want,” said Olivenko. “You can marry and have babies. Raise an army and conquer a wallfold. Assassinate General Citizen before he meets your mother. So many exciting possibilities.”
“I’m not going to marry Umbo or have his babies,” said Param.
“I didn’t suggest that you do so,” said Olivenko. “I said he would take you back in time. You’re the one who leapt to the conclusion that Umbo would be involved in any marriage or baby-making you might embark on.”
Umbo spoke from the other side of the fire, where he had been dozing. “Thank you for finding a way to insult me in a conversation I wasn’t even part of.”
“I’m not having your babies or Olivenko’s,” said Param. “Or Loaf’s, in case anyone wants to include him. The world is ending no matter what time period we go back to. So what if it’s twenty years or two hundred? Knowing the whole world burns makes the whole enterprise . . .”
“The whole world always burns,” said Loaf. “Or it floods. Or some insect eats the crop and you starve. Or a disease ravages the wallfold, killing nine out of ten, and the survivors eat the dead. Every baby you have dies eventually, no matter what you do. Yet we have babies and we try to go on.”
“I’m not sure,” said Umbo. “Is that your idea of inspiring us with new hope?”
“It’s my way of telling you that only a child thinks that anything you build will last,” said Loaf.
“What we’re waiting for,” said Olivenko, “and we all know it, is Rigg.”
Since they all knew it, there was no point in commenting.
Umbo commented anyway. “He could have returned to us at any time. For instance, a half hour after he left, he could have walked back into our camp and told us what he had just spent the last week or month or five years doing. When somebody can jump from one time to another, it’s just rude to make other people wait.”
Nobody said anything.
“That was not just me being resentful of Rigg the way I used to be,” said Umbo into the silence.
“Nobody said it was,” said Olivenko.
“I’m just tired of waiting,” said Umbo. “And it is rude of him.”
“On the other hand, maybe he’s dead,” said Loaf. “In which case, our wait is truly pointless.”
“Who could possibly kill Rigg?” asked Param. “He already stopped Ra
m Odin from assassinating him.”
“And now he’s gone back to stop himself from stopping Ram Odin,” said Loaf. “Which means Ram Odin might still find a way to kill him.”
“Even with the mask?” asked Olivenko.
“He won’t try to kill me again,” said Rigg.
If anyone was startled by his sudden appearance, they didn’t show it. Umbo had to laugh, though. “How many times did you make a later entrance till you decided on this moment?”
“I came, I heard, I answered,” said Rigg. “I don’t have to time my entrances. You’re always arguing, and there’s always something to say that’s smarter than anything you’d come up with.”
“Good to have you back,” said Param. “To remind me that Umbo isn’t the only annoying boy in the world.”
“So Ram Odin is alive again,” said Loaf.
Rigg nodded.
