Until the Celebration by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Author:Zilpha Keatley Snyder [Snyder, Zilpha Keatley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4532-7194-0
Publisher: Open Road
Published: 2012-10-23T15:20:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

HIRO. YOU MUST WAKE up. It will soon be time for the meeting of the Council.” It was Jorda’s voice, and it reached Hiro dimly at first, as from a great distance. For what seemed a very long time, he struggled upward towards consciousness through a thick fog of dreams. Dream images, fleeting, fading fragments, swarmed before him until, at last, his eyes opened and Jorda’s anxious troubled face replaced the thronging shadows.

“You sleep so restlessly,” Jorda was saying. “You turn and shake your head and cry out in your sleep.

“I was dreaming,” Hiro said. “I feel as if I have been dreaming for days.” Sighing, he climbed down from his nid and, reaching out for his bond partner, he drew her to him. They stood quietly for a time, encircled in each other’s arms, drawing strength from the power of their communion.

“Of what were you dreaming?” Jorda asked.

“Of many things. Many things. The past, the far past, and the long months since the Rejoyning. But just as you awakened me, I was dreaming of the two children whom I saw earlier.”

“The children? What children?”

“Two little boys. They were playing on the branch-path just outside my balcony this morning. One of them was obviously Erdling. In my dream they were again on the branchpath, playing roughly and running in circles, just as they were before and Í was watching them. But suddenly—in my dream—I knew it was terribly important that I talk to them. I knew that they were going to fall, and I felt that I must talk to them before it happened. So I ran from the chamber and all the way through the nid-place, calling to them to wait, but just as I reached the branchpath, I saw them at the very edge clinging together. And then, before I could reach them, they fell—just as they did this morning.”

“They really fell? Oh, Hiro,” Jorda said. “The Erdling child? Do you think he was injured?”

“No,” Hiro said. “I could see them as they fell. The Erdling boy clearly was not adept at gliding, but when I last saw him, he was gliding. I’m sure he reached the forest floor without injury.”

Jorda sighed with relief. “It frightens me to think of them. They might as well be without wing-panels for all they are able to make use of them.”

Turning away, Hiro went to the window and stood for a moment looking out into the forest distances.

“What is it?” Jorda’s voice broke into his musing.

“I was thinking of Axon Befal. This morning Neric brought news of him. He has disappeared from his place of exile in Farbelo. It seems that he has been gone for some time, and the Erdling guards who were assigned to him did not report his absence to the Council.”

“But why? Why would the guards fail to report his absence?”

“Who can say? Perhaps they feared they would be blamed. The Erdling Councilor to whom Neric spoke seemed to think it was only because they felt

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