A Heritage of Stars by Charles Morgan

Author:Charles Morgan [Morgan, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: InNexus
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“But that was five hundred miles away, said Cushing. “What would a rock be doing there?”

“Five hundred miles is a long way,” said the warden, “but the rocks do travel. You say you found a living rock? How could you know it was a living rock? They aren’t any different; they look like any other rock.”

“I could tell,” said Meg.

“The Trees shall let us through,” said Ezra. “I shall talk with them.”

“Hush, Grandfather,” said Elayne. “These gentlemen have a reason for not wanting us to go there. We should give them hearing.”

“I have already told you,” said the warden, “we fear the Sleepers will awake. For centuries we have watched—we and those other generations that have gone before us. The trust is handed on, from a father to his son. There are old stories, told centuries ago, about the Sleepers and what will happen when they finish out their sleep. We keep the ancient faith

The words rolled on—the solemn, dedicated words of a man sunk deep in faith. The words, thought Cushing, paying slight attention to them, of a sect that had twisted an ancient fable into a body of belief and a dedication that made them owe their lives to the keeping of that mistaken

The sun was sinking in the west and its slanting light threw the landscape into a place of tangled shadows. Beyond the rise on which they squatted, a deep gully slashed across the land, and along the edges of it grew thick tangles of plum trees. In the far distance a small grove of trees clustered, perhaps around a prairie pond. But except for the gully and its bushes and the stand of distant trees, the land was a gentle ocean of dried and withered grass that ran in undulating waves toward the steep immensity of Thunder Butte.

Cushing rose from where he had been squatting and moved over to one side of the two small groups facing one another. Rollo, who had not squatted with the others but had remained standing a few paces to the rear, moved over to join him.

“Now what?” the robot asked.

“I’m not sure,” said Cushing. “I don’t want to fight them. From the way they act, they don’t want any fighting, either. We could just settle down, I suppose, and try to wear them out with waiting, but I don’t think that would work. And there’s no arguing with them. They are calm and conceited fanatics who believe in what they’re doing.”

“They aren’t all that tough,” said Rollo. “With a show of force . .

Cushing shook his head. “Someone would get hurt.”

Elayne rose to her feet. Her voice came to them, calm, unhurried, so precise it hurt. “You are wrong,” she said to the wardens. “The things you have been telling us have no truth in them. There are no Sleepers and no danger. We are going on.”

With that, she walked toward them, slowly, deliberately, as if there were no one there to stop her. Meg rose swiftly, clutching at her arm, but Elayne shook off the hand.

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