then wordjust the odd trickle here and there , once every five or ten thousand years or somade its way back to the center of things : on some of the outlying planets , the statues in their imagethe proud bird , wide wings spread in landing , in reaching for the ground , in sudden arrivalhad been defiled : a wing broken here , a beak sundered there , some evenso the odd trickle of word had ittorn down .