Hidden in Sight Read Online Free PDF

the requisite ruthless progenitor, but the physical trappings of a House—the older and more bloodstained, the better. How long did Skalet plan to use this as her preferred public form? Human life spans were long, but that long? She was capable of such a plan, I knew. And would relish every aspect of it, including the cost.
    If this bothered Ersh, something I couldn’t predict, she could deal with our errant web-kin. I wanted my plants back in the greenhouse where they belonged. For that, I required the shuttle unloading to take a little longer.
    Ears cocked for any sound they were returning, I began setting out my bait. Each crystal blazed in my paws, varied in color and hue, but all flawless, as if the facets had been cut with the skill of a lifetime. Biology was a wonderful thing.
    One here. So. Two more there. The sunlight reflected so vividly the crystals might have been lit from within. This Uriel couldn’t help but see them. Each was worth, conservatively, the price of his shuttle. There for the taking.
    I backed down the path leading away from the landing pad, looking over my shoulder frequently to be sure I didn’t step close to the sheer cliff which made this Ersh’s preferred spot for flying lessons. I really wasn’t fond of heights. There. I rounded an outcropping, intending to leave the last few less obviously in sight before running back to the shuttle, only to find myself surrounded.
    Not that the Tumblers were interested in me. I froze, lowering my paw to the ground and letting the crystals fall discreetly behind, hopefully out of sight.
    They were busy.
    It was Eclipse, I remembered, drymouthed, and, of course, they were busy.
    If I’d thought the crystals gorgeous, their makers were beyond description. Their towering bodies took the sunlight and fractured it into streams of color, flashing with their every movement against rock, ground, and one another until I squinted in order to make out what they were doing. They were picking up crystals with their trowellike hands and holding them up to the sunlight. I could hear a discordant chime, soft, repeated, as though they chanted to themselves.
    Then a loud Crack !
    I cried out as crystal shards peppered my snout and dodged behind the outcrop.
    The Tumblers noticed me now. “Guest of Ershia,” one chimed, the resonating crystals within its chest picking out a minor key of distress. “Are you harmed?”
    Licking blood off my nose, I stepped out again and bowed. “I’m fine,” I said, knowing there was no point explaining skin damage and blood loss to mineral beings. It would only upset them. “And you?”
    One tilted forward, slowly, and gracefully tumbled closer. “In rapture, Guest of Ershia. Do you see it?” The Tumbler held up a crystal identical to those all around me, then placed it somewhere in the midst of its body. I couldn’t make out exactly where in all the reflections. Then the Tumbler began to vibrate, its companions humming along, until my teeth felt loose in their sockets.
    There were two possibilities. This was a group of crazed individuals, tumbling around looking for “ritual leavings” as part of a bizarre ceremony, or this was exactly what I’d hoped to find at the start of Eclipse—parental Tumblers hunting their offspring.
    Which meant I’d been collecting children, not droppings. My tail slid between my legs.
    However, this didn’t explain the tiny fragments sticking out of my snout. Or why Ersh hadn’t wanted me to see it.
    Another Tumbler held up a crystal, identical, as far as my Lanivarian eyes could detect, to any of the others. The light bending through it must have meant something different to the Tumbler, however, for she gave a melancholy tone, deep and grief-stricken, then closed her hand.
    I buried my face in my arms quickly enough to save my eyes, if not my shoulders and forearms, from the spray of fragments.
    â€œAh, you feel