Homesmind Read Online Free PDF Page A

here. Skydwellers can dream and soothe themselves with their potions and devices and make a game of life. They can look at this world through Homesmind's eyes and feel as though they're here, so why should they travel to Earth? You might do the same, Gennon. You might find their world so pleasant that you wouldn't want to leave. Every time you felt a longing for the village, you could dream of it—
    —That sort of dreaming isn't for us— Gennon said. Anra nodded in agreement. Skydwellers could control their dreaming, but Earthfolk, used to a harder life, might find the dreams a seductive escape. The villagers had always avoided such a pursuit, afraid that it might weaken them, and Anra had often thought that even the skydwellers might have been stronger without the dreams.
    Gennon rose. Taking the two little boys by their hands, he strolled slowly up the bank toward his own hut.
    —Maybe we could travel together— Fiella said as she stood up. —Lydee's taught you how to pilot her craft and Luret could show me—
    —It's easy enough to learn— Anra said. —A craft pilots itself most of the time. Maybe if we began to bring solitaries back here ourselves, Luret and Wiland could stay here for a while without wandering. I know how much they'd like to raise their own children—
    —I don't know. There's something in my sister's mind that drives her. I sometimes think she would keep wandering as long as she thought that there was even one person who might need her— Fiella's thoughts were still for a moment. —Luret told me that Lydee wept after Cerwen died. She saw two tears on her face—
    Anra was surprised. She had thought that Lydee was still too much of a skydweller to weep. —I know why she wept, then. Cerwen thinks he'll live on in another life— She paused as she stood up; she was speaking of the old man as if he still lived. "Lydee knows he won't." As she spoke out loud, she began to mask her thoughts.
    "You don't have to hide your thoughts from me," Fiella said as they walked up the bank toward the huts. "I also doubt. The skydwellers have traveled the heavens and have found no sign of God, the Merged One."
    "The heavens are so vast that God could hide in them. All of the sky might only be a dream in the mind of the Merged One." Anra was echoing Cerwen's assertions. "But I don't doubt for your reasons. It's because of what happens when people cling to such things. The old ones here are kind, but in the time before the skydwellers came, they put their solitary children to death because they believed they had no souls. And they struck out at the skydwellers because their beliefs told them that such people had to be evil. I'd rather believe in nothing than in One Who could allow that."
    "And yet the old ones gain comfort from their faith."
    —Yes— Anra said, mindspeaking again. —And many other Earthfolk still believe that God must have worked through people when the Minds were built, that we could not have created Them by ourselves. If they could shed such beliefs, Earth might change. They'd understand that we have the power to do more than they realize—
    —Perhaps— Fiella said. —But until the old ones everywhere die, many will hide their doubts. I know you mourn your great-grandfather, but a part of you knows that his passing was for the best. Cerwen knew it, too. Daiya told my mother that Cerwen spoke of a cycle drawing to an end, and they wondered what he could have meant. Well, I know. Cerwen knew his world was ending and that it had to end. He chose to die before it did—
    Anra withdrew from her friend's thoughts. Fiella's musings had eased her grief a little. Fiella touched her arm, then turned toward the path leading to her own hut.
    Anra walked on alone. The babbling of the children she passed seemed muffled; the odors of cooking food were thick and smoky. Her eyesight blurred and she squinted, repressing her tears. She suddenly wondered if Cerwen had touched her hidden thoughts, if without