Time Quintet-03-A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle

Author:Madeleine L'Engle [L'Engle, Madeleine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-06-15T03:31:25+00:00

"You won't let it happen?" Brandon begged. "If Zylle is harmed, Ritchie will kill."

"We will not let it happen."

"The men of the settlement expect the Indians to come. They have guns. They are out of their right minds, and they will not hesitate to shoot."

141 The lightning with its rapid wrath141

"They must be prevented. Have you seen anything in a vision lately?"

"I have tried not to. I am afraid."

"No one knows you are here?"

"Only Maddok."

Zillo pulled a polished metal sphere from a small pouch and held it out to catch the light of the late moon. "What do you see?"

Brandon hesitantly looked into it. "This is right for me to do, when my father .

. . ?"

Zillo's eyes were expressionless. "I have held this action in prayer all day.

It

is not your father's wish to deny a gift of the gods, and at this time we have no one in the tribe with the gift of seeing."

As Brandon looked, the light in the metal sphere shifted, and he saw clouds moving swiftly across the sky, clouds reflected in water. Not taking his eyes from the scrying metal he said, "I see a lake where the valley should be, a lake I have seen before in a picture. It is beautiful."

Zillo nodded. "It is said there was a lake here in long-gone days. In the valley people have found stones with the bones of fish in them."

"The sky is clouding up," Brandon reported. "Rain is starting to fall, spattering into the water of the lake."

"You see no fire?"

"Before, I saw fire, and I was afraid. Now there is only rain."

The severity of Zillo's face lifted barely perceptibly.

142

"That is good, that picture. Now I will teach you some words. You must learn them very carefully, and you must make sure that you do not use them too soon.

Only the blue-eyed children of the Wind People are taught these words, and never before have they been given to one not of the tribe. But I give them to you for Zylle's saving."

On the morning of the execution Zylle was returned to the settlement. Infant Brandon was taken from her and given to Goody Llawcae.

"He is too young to be weaned," Goody Llawcae objected. "He will die of the summer sickness."

"The witch will not harm her own child," Pastor Mortmain said.

It took six of the strongest men in the settlement to restrain Ritchie and Richard.

"Tie the witch's hands," the man from the city ordered.

"I will do it," Goodman Higgins said. "Hold out your hands, child."

"Show her no gentleness, Higgins," Pastor Mortmain warned, "unless you would have us think you tainted, too. After all, you have listened to their tales."

Goody Llawcae, holding the crying baby, said, "Babies have died of the summer sickness for years, long before Zylle came to dwell among us, and no one thought of witchcraft."

Angry murmurs came from the gathered people. "The witch made another baby die.

Let her brat die as well."

Ritchie, struggling compulsively, nearly broke away.

Pastor Mortmain said, "When the witch is dead, you 143 The lightning with its rapid wrath143

will come back to your senses.

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