This Star Shall Abide (31 page)

Noren nodded. Knowledge was what he’d longed for, and he could not believe that the process of absorbing it would be anything but a joy.

“It is not a life of comfort. Like the Founders, we endure greater hardships than the people whose heritage we hold in trust, and we are confined here, remember. The decree that you can’t leave the City still stands; that is one of the things we renounce. There are others.”

“Marriage,” murmured Noren, thinking again of Talyra.

“Not at all,” Stefred assured him. “We are free to marry among ourselves, and fully committed Scholars, who have revealed their rank, can even marry Technicians.”

“I—I won’t ever want to marry anyone, Stefred.”

“You don’t mean that. You mean you don’t want to marry anyone but the girl you’re in love with.” At Noren’s astonished look he went on, “Yes, I know how you feel about Talyra, but even if I didn’t, it would be easy enough to guess. The situation’s not exactly unusual. Many of us, both men and women, have been very deeply hurt by it.”

“I could bear that myself,” Noren said unhappily, “but when I think of
her
— She was there this morning. She suffered more than I did; that was the worst part of the whole thing.”

“I saw,” Stefred said. “Her instructors forbade her to attend, but she disobeyed them.” He hesitated, then added with abrupt candor, “Noren, there is one more fact you must know. There’s no need for Talyra to go on suffering on your account. If she loves you enough to share your confinement, she can become a Technician.”

Noren drew a breath of surprise. “Is that what happens to the people who vanish from the training center?” he asked, beginning to piece things together.

“Yes. That’s one reason I appointed her to go there: so that if it worked out as I hoped, her disappearance from the village could be explained.”

“But… we can’t marry unless I accept the robe?”

“Would it be fair to make her your wife without telling her that a barrier of secrecy must always stand between you?”

No, reflected Noren, and certainly not without letting her know that they’d be unable to rear their own children. Besides, Talyra wouldn’t want to be a Technician! The idea would shock her. She had been happy in the village, but in the City she’d be terrified and miserable. “Don’t bring her here,” he said resolutely.

“I couldn’t even if you wished it,” Stefred told him. “Those admitted must come of their own accord; they must request audience to plead clemency for someone who’s imprisoned. A village-reared woman must show herself spirited enough to adapt to the Inner City, where women’s roles are less restricted, as well as to see justification in the past actions of the man she loves. As a Technician, she’ll always believe that we made him a Scholar not because of his heresy, but in spite of it; yet she must sense that he has proven himself worthy.”

Then it was hopeless, Noren thought. He must put it out of his mind. Talyra was so very devout, so unwilling to question; she would never challenge the Chief Inquisitor! As he sat silent, remembering things she’d said, a new doubt came to him.

“Stefred,” he began hesitantly, “there’s something that bothers me. Lots of people believe in the Mother Star and it—well, comforts them. They’ve got the idea that it’s a power that takes care of things. If they knew the truth, they might feel… lost. There’d be nothing up there any more. Mightn’t that happen when the Time of the Prophecy comes?”

There was a long pause; Stefred, for the first time in Noren’s memory, seemed at a loss for an answer. “That’s a complicated question,” he said finally, “and a very serious one. People have always looked toward something above and beyond them; they always will. They’ve called it by different names. Throughout the history of the Six Worlds there were many, and by the time of the Founding the right of all individuals to choose their own was almost universally accepted. The High Law still grants that right, but few villagers exercise it; most of them have forgotten all names but that of the Mother Star—which, used in such a way, would have seemed blasphemous to people of the First Scholar’s day.”

“I don’t understand,” Noren admitted.

“No, and you won’t until you have studied much of the wisdom that is preserved here. What you can grasp now is that it’s the idea that’s important, not what it’s called: the idea that there is something higher and more significant than we are. You, I think, would call it Truth. Later you may find another name more meaningful, as many of us do.”

Comprehension stirred in Noren, making him glance again at the blue robe set aside. Stefred smiled. “Don’t try to solve everything at once. You have quite a few surprises coming—even Talyra may surprise you—and in the meantime, there’s plenty of work to get started on.”

Noren raised his eyes to the window. Beyond the wall of glass, beyond the bright towers and beacons of the City, he could see the far-off rim of the Tomorrow Mountains. A whole new earth, and beyond the earth, a universe! One day, above those ridges, the Mother Star would appear in radiant splendor, and the annunciation of the old worlds’ tragedy would become the confirmation of the new one’s faith.
“And the spirit of this Star shall abide forever in our hearts… .”
What did it matter if the truth was cloaked in a little symbolism? The idea behind it was the same! With sudden elation, he found himself looking forward to the tasks ahead.

#

Afterword

Today’s readers may perhaps think of a way that the people of Noren’s world might have been enabled to survive without the drastic system imposed by the Scholars. But in 1972, when this book was first published, science was not as far advanced as it is now, and I myself was unaware of any other way. I believed that there was no alternative to what the Scholars did; if I had not, I wouldn’t have written two novels (this one and its sequel
Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains
) that endorsed it—for of course, I would not have sanctioned it on any lesser basis than my conviction that the extinction of their human race would have been worse. So when, some years later, I learned of a new possibility, I was dismayed. I feared that new readers would assume that I had ignored it for plot reasons and had knowingly justified the social evils in the story on false grounds.

For that reason, I then wrote another novel,
The Doors of the Universe
, to explain why the Scholars’ knowledge had been incomplete. I won’t spoil the suspense of the second and third books in the
Children of the Star
trilogy by stating here what they’d not known, and what Noren ultimately does about it. But rest assured that the story doesn’t end with this first book.

Because of the possibility that readers might think it does end here, I have been reluctant to reissue the three novels separately. I was happy that Meisha Merlin put all three together in one volume,
Children of the Star
, when they were republished. However, I have found that many people hesitate to choose such a long book as that. Furthermore,
This Star Shall Abide
can be enjoyed by younger readers than the other two, which are rarely of interest to those below high school age—the third one is about Noren’s adult life. (Though all three were originally marketed as Young Adult books, the single-volume edition was issued as adult science fiction.) Teachers and others who wanted a story suitable for middle-school kids didn’t want to buy the whole trilogy. I have therefore issued its three parts simultaneously but separately as ebooks and this book alone in paperback. There are no present plans for paper editions of the other two.

However, although Meisha Merlin has gone out of business and
Children of the Star
is officially out of print, new copies can still be obtained from me and at Amazon.com. So while they last, you can get a paper edition of the whole trilogy if you want one. All three ebooks will remain available in EPUB, MOBI and PDF formats as well as for Amazon’s Kindle.

There is a detailed FAQ page about the trilogy at www.sylviaengdahl.com/noren.htm. Parts of it contain major spoilers, but it’s clearly marked so that you won’t see them before you’ve read
This Star Shall Abide
. I hope you’ll go there, as it deals with questions that are often raised by the story. It includes the commentary that was given to librarians at the time this book was first published, which offers some ideas for discussion.

UK readers may be wondering why, when the book appeared there in 1973, its title was
Heritage of the Star
. American and UK editions often have different titles because of their publishers’ preferences, which is confusing now that books are available internationally on the Internet.

The text of the new editions is identical to the Meisha Merlin edition, which was revised slightly from the original, mainly to remove outdated statements about computer technology.
   
—Sylvia Engdahl, January 2010

About the Author

“Between 1970 and 1981 Sylvia Louise Engdahl published six sf novels ostensibly for young adults but more challenging (and better written) than almost all of the material published at the time for the adult market… . Yet for some reason the public—aside from a select group of aficionados—largely ignored Engdahl’s work, and it’s only within the past few years that it’s been rediscovered as the treasure trove it is.” —
Fantasy Magazine, 2006

Sylvia Engdahl is the author of eight science fiction novels. Six of them are Young Adult books that are also enjoyed by adults, all of which were originally published by Atheneum and have been republished, in both hardcover and paperback, by different publishers in the twenty-first century. The one for which she is best known,
Enchantress from the Stars
, was a Newbery Honor book, winner of the 1990 Phoenix Award of the Children’s Literature Association, and a finalist for the 2002 Book Sense Book of the Year in the Rediscovery category.

Her two newest novels,
Stewards of the Flame
and its sequel
Promise of the Flame
, are not suitable for Young Adult audiences but will be enjoyed by the many adult fans of her work. More information about them, including a video trailer and a book group discussion guide, can be found at www.adstellaebooks.com.

Engdahl lives in Eugene, Oregon with two companionable cats. Currently she works as a freelance copyeditor and editor of nonfiction anthologies. She welcomes visitors to her website www.sylviaengdahl.com and e-mail to [email protected].