Midworld Read Online Free PDF Page B

and Oh ripens. She will ripen within the month.” Sand and everyone else nodded or murmured approval.
    Somewhere far above, thunder pealed, echoed down cellulose canyons, rolled off chlorophyllous cliffs. The evening litany droned on: how much and what kinds of fruit and nuts gathered; how much of what kinds of meat killed and cured; the experiences and accomplishments and failures of each member of the tribe for that day now past.
    There was an appreciative, admiring murmur from the crowd when Born announced the taking of the grazer, but it was not as strong as he had wished. He did not take into account the fact that there was something else paramount in everyone’s mind. It was for Reader to bring it up. “This afternoon,” he began, gesturing with his totem of office, the holy axe, “something came out of the Upper Hell into the world. Something gigantic beyond imagining—”
    “No, not beyond imagining,” Joyla interrupted. “It must be assumed the Pillars are greater.”
    Appreciative mutters sounded in agreement.
    “Well considered, Joyla,” Reader admitted. “Something for its size, heavy
    beyond imagining, then,” and this time he looked satisfied as Joyla remained silent. “It entered the world northwest of the stormtreader and passed on to the Lower Hell. Probably it was a denizen of that Hell visiting its cousins in the Upper, and it has returned now to its home.”
    “Might we not be wrong about the demons of the Upper?” someone in the crowd ventured. “Might they not in truth grow as large as those below? We know little enough of both Hells.”
    “And I for one,” someone else put in, “have no desire to know more!” There was sympathetic laughter.
    “Nevertheless,” the shaman insisted, gesturing with the axe at the dweller who had preferred his comfortable ignorance, “this particular demon chose to descend near to us. What if it has not returned to its home in the depths? It has made no sound or movement since its arrival. If it remains near us, who can say what it might do?” There were nervous stirrings in the crowd, “There is a chance it might be dead. While the opportunity to inspect a dead demon would be interesting, so much meat would be more valuable.”
    “Unless its relatives come around to claim its corpse,” someone shouted, “in which case I’d rather be elsewhere!” There were mutters of agreement.
    Lightning crackled above the tallest emergent, and thunder rolled down to them again. To his amazement Born found himself suddenly on his feet, speaking. “I don’t think it was a demon.” There was a mass shifting of bodies as all eyes came to focus on him. The abrupt attention made him acutely uncomfortable, but he held his ground.
    “How do you know? Did you see the thing?” Reader finally asked, recovering from Born’s unexpected pronouncement.
    “You said nothing of this to anyone.” Born shrugged, tried to sound casual about it. “No one rushed to ask me about it.”
    “If it was not a demon, this thing you say you saw, then what was it?” asked Losting suspiciously.
    Born hesitated. “I do not know. I had but the briefest glimpse of it as it fell through the world—but see it I did!” Losting sat back in his place, his muscles rippling in the firelight, and smiled at those near him.
    “Come, Born,” prompted Joyla, “either you saw the thing or you didn’t.”
    “But that is exactly it,” he protested. “I was falling myself. I saw it, yet did not. As the breaking sounds and shaking of the world reached its peak, I saw a flash of deep blue through the trees. Shining bright blue, like that of an asanis.”
    “Maybe that’s what you saw, a drifting asanis bloom,” Losting said with a smirk. “No!” Born spun to glare angrily across at his rival. “It was that color, but brilliant, deep, and too … too sharp. It threw back the light.”
    “Threw back the light?” wondered Reader. “How could this be?”
    How could it? They were all