Universal Language Read Online Free PDF Page B

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    " Not a single one of them ," said Folcrum. " And that is what happens tomorrow. "
    With a little difficulty, Folcrum got to his knees. Leaning forward, he extended a hand toward Jalila, palm up, and fixed her with his black pearl gaze.
    " So what do you say? " he whispered. " Will you come with me? "
    Jalila slipped her hand into Folcrum's and shook it.
    He got to his feet and she followed, taking care not to make much noise. When he headed for the tunnel entrance across the chamber, however, she made a detour.
    From the piles of weapons on the floor, she selected a few items, stuffing a holstered knife into her boot and a handgun in a pocket of her gray jumpsuit. She slung a rifle over her back, then picked her way over the dirt floor to catch up with Folcrum.
    Â 
    *****
    Chapter 8

    This time, Jalila's trip through the underground tunnels wasn't nearly so harrowing. The passages were still pitch black, claustrophobic, and convoluted, full of twists and sharp angles and drop-offs and cave-ins, but Folcrum set a humane pace and seemed genuinely considerate, unlike Nalo.
    After a long crawl through uninterrupted blackness, Jalila glimpsed Folcrum's hindquarters in front of her in a dim light filtering from somewhere up ahead. She could see her hands as they pressed into the tunnel floor...and then the rough red earth around her as the glow grew brighter.
    When she followed Folcrum around a tight bend, the light flared, and she could see it pouring in from an opening a few meters off. For an instant, she allowed herself to hope she was about to emerge on the planet's surface...but then she realized the light she saw, bright as it was, wasn't sunlight.
    Fortunately, that realization didn't rob her of the thrill she felt upon emerging from the tunnel into the underground garden.
    Blinking as her eyes adjusted to the brilliant light, she crawled out after Folcrum and let him help her to her feet. As soon as she took her first breath, she was assailed by a rich mixture of sweet floral perfumes.
    It was like stepping into a greenhouse or arboretum when all the flowers were in full bloom--a whirl of heady scents commingled into one breathtaking fragrance. As Jalila inhaled it, she knew at once it consisted of a multitude of parts, each scent on its own as agreeable as the next...and yet, she was unable to pry apart the whole and single out one piece from another.
    Not only was the fragrance intense and multi-layered, it shifted as she stood there, component scents ebbing and flowing. A sharp sweetness was preeminent, then a citrus, then a nutmeg...the soft tones of something like a rose wafting up and sliding away before a piquant mix of mown grass and daffodil. The transmutations were continuous and mesmerizing, stirring up new and beautiful combinations in progressive waves like strains of music.
    The restless perfume was unexpected, even shocking after all the musty dirt Jalila had crawled through...but no less so than the sights that greeted her as she looked down from the sloped rim of the cavern in which she stood.
    The space was so huge, it made Nalo's hideaway look like a mouse hole. Instead of a makeshift camp, a tidy village nestled amid lush and colorful gardens; Vox gardeners moved through the vegetation individually or in groups, tending the harmoniously arranged plant life. Waterfalls cascaded from the walls, splashing from opposite sides of the grotto into foaming ruby pools.
    Light sparkled on the surface of the pools and bathed the village and gardens, cast from the illuminated walls and ceiling. The cavern was blanketed in glowing white moss like that in Nalo's cubbyhole, but more developed. Tendrils hung from it, studded with giant blossoms like sunflowers that shone with steady white incandescence.
    Earlier, Jalila had been captivated by the beauty of the surface world with its see-through rainbow buildings and blown-glass architecture...but the cavern's natural