The Elder Gods Read Online Free PDF

small, glowing orb hovered just over him, bathing him with light.
    “What in the world are you doing, Dahlaine?” Zelana asked.
    Dahlaine turned sharply to look at his sister. “Why, Zelana!” he exclaimed. “You startled me. Is something wrong?”
    “Perhaps—or perhaps not. Are you taking up music now? If you are, you’re a little off-key.”
    “Just experimenting, dear sister,” he replied. “Some of the people beyond Mother Sea have discovered something they call ‘metal.’ I wanted to see if I could duplicate it. Is something afoot?”
    Zelana looked cautiously around Dahlaine’s cave. “Where’s your Dreamer?” she asked.
    “Ashad? He’s out playing with the bears.”
    “
Bears?
Surely you don’t allow him to play with bears! They’ll eat him, won’t they?”
    “Of course they won’t, Zelana. They’re his friends—in the same way the pink dolphins are Eleria’s friends. Is something unusual happening?”
    “Perhaps. Eleria had a dream last night, and I think it may have been significant. I thought you should know about it. There’s something else that may be even more significant than the dream itself.”
    “Oh?”
    “It appears that Mother Sea’s taking a hand in this herself.”
    Dahlaine stared at her.
    “Eleria was out playing with the young pink dolphins yesterday, and they introduced her to an old cow whale.”
    “I didn’t know that whales and dolphins spoke the same language,” Dahlaine said.
    “They don’t. That’s what leads me to believe that it wasn’t really a whale. Anyway, the old cow led Eleria to a small islet off the south coast of Thurn and showed her an oyster shell that was about fifty times bigger than any oyster
I’ve
ever seen. Then the whale touched the shell with one of her fins, and the oyster opened as if someone had just knocked on its door. There was a pearl inside—pink, and a bit larger than an apple.”
    “That’s impossible!” Dahlaine exclaimed.
    “You’ll have to take that up with the oyster, Dahlaine. Then the whale told Eleria that the oyster wanted her to have the pearl, so Eleria took it, and the whale gave her a ride back to Thurn.”
    “Now,
that’s
something I’d like to see,” Dahlaine said, laughing. “It might be a bit difficult to saddle a whale.”
    “Did you want to hear the rest of this, or did you want to make funny remarks?” Zelana said tartly.
    “Sorry, dear sister. Please go on.”
    “Eleria’d had a busy day, so she was very tired. She went to sleep almost immediately, and then some very strange things started to happen. That pink pearl rose up into the air above Eleria, and it started to glow—almost like a small pink moon—and its light shone down on Eleria. Then it spoke to me and told me to mind my own business. I recognized the voice immediately, since I’ve been listening to it since the beginning of time.”
    “You’re not serious!” Dahlaine exclaimed.
    “Very serious, brother dear. It
was
the voice of Mother Sea, and that seems to suggest that the whale might have been something other than an ordinary whale as well, wouldn’t you say?”
    “She’s never done that before,” Dahlaine said in a very troubled voice.
    “You’re being obvious again, Dahlaine,” Zelana said. “I think we’d better step around her very carefully until we get a better idea of what she’s doing and why. Mother Sea’s the central force of the whole world, so let’s stay on the good side of her.”
    “What happened next?” Dahlaine asked.
    “Eleria had a dream, naturally. Evidently, that was the whole idea. In some peculiar way, that pearl’s the essence of Mother Sea’s awareness. Her tides still rise and fall, and her waves wash the shores of Father Earth, but she’s awake now. I’m almost positive that the pearl, which is really Mother Sea incarnate, dictated Eleria’s dream, image by image.”
    “Did Eleria tell you about her dream?”
    “Of course she did. Why do you think I’m