wall.
Paddling had been hard against the river’s flow. Their sleep had been uneasy, without the people to protect them. One of them always had to stay awake. They could not set up harmonies to keep animals off, but several times joined their minds to push them away. The waterfall, impassable though it was, marked a new beginning. There would be Peeps to help and guide them on their way.
They camped at the edge of the spray, close enough to enjoy its cooling touch. No fire was possible, which increased the danger from animals – but presently a voice whispered: Xantee, Lo.
Yes. We thank you for your help, Xantee said.
You’re safe here tonight. Follow us in the morning.
That was all, but after a moment the singing began, weaving through the clamour of the waterfall. Xantee tried to help Duro hear, and soon he was able to pick out a pleasant buzzing. Xantee, listening with him, heard a lilting and retreating and advance, like her mother Pearl playing her flute, and she wondered if one day humans would learn the people’s music and travel through the jungle without help.
They slept well that night, but woke with their blankets and clothes sodden from drifting spray.
This is a place where there could be gools, Lo said.
The people would have told us, Xantee said.
No gools, whispered a voice.
Can you tell us if Sal and Mond – the two who are joined – came this way? Xantee asked.
No one has come.
They’re not looking for the Dog King, Lo said. They’re heading for the city. They’ll be further west.
They ate wet food and drank cold water. Duro pulled the canoe under the trees as a gift for the people. The sun was playing rainbow colours across the waterfall when they started out. Now and then a whisper came, leading them eastwards through giant trees. They began to climb. By midday the trees were smaller and the understorey thinner, but at nightfall the jungle still enclosed them. Again they slept well, and Xantee, waking early, enjoyed the gleam of stars through the canopy. She had missed them in the deeper jungle.
At dawn the people roused them with a voice that seemed more distant: Now you must go on alone. Climb into the open slopes and then into the mountains. The pass lies between the fist and the serpent’s head. Beyond there is jungle again, and higher mountains. The people will help you.
How far to the Dog King? Lo said.
We don’t know. The Dog King is never in one place. Beyond the furthest mountains, that’s all we know.
Are there any gools?
We know of one, far away. The people will take you safely past.
The knowledge that one of the beasts lay ahead, even though distant, struck cold into them. But when they had climbed for another hour and broken out of trees on to slopes of coarse grass and sliding stone and seen the jungle stretching behind them and the white line of the Inland Sea, and seen how big the world was and how it stretched out and seemed to yawn, Xantee felt her fear slip away. The gool could take only little bites.
Little bites are enough when it’s got forever, Duro said.
I want to talk to Blossom and Hubert, Lo said. They mightn’t be able to reach us over the mountains. I want to find how Hari is.
And Pearl, Xantee said. Her mother’s fear and sadness had been with her, like a silent companion, ever since they had left the farm. The thought of her sitting by Hari, watching him waste away, caught her like a bone broken in her chest.
Let’s climb first, Duro said. We’ll try when we get to the pass.
At noon they reached the formations the people had told them of, one shaped like a hooded serpent ready to strike, the other like a clenched fist defying it. They sat in the cool sunlight and ate strips of dried meat and jungle fruit.
Now Xantee, Lo said, the twins.
They stood and faced the jungle and the Inland Sea and joined hands, joined minds, like two strands of wool weaving in and out, and Xantee understood, in her closeness to her brother, how Sal and Mond
Paddling had been hard against the river’s flow. Their sleep had been uneasy, without the people to protect them. One of them always had to stay awake. They could not set up harmonies to keep animals off, but several times joined their minds to push them away. The waterfall, impassable though it was, marked a new beginning. There would be Peeps to help and guide them on their way.
They camped at the edge of the spray, close enough to enjoy its cooling touch. No fire was possible, which increased the danger from animals – but presently a voice whispered: Xantee, Lo.
Yes. We thank you for your help, Xantee said.
You’re safe here tonight. Follow us in the morning.
That was all, but after a moment the singing began, weaving through the clamour of the waterfall. Xantee tried to help Duro hear, and soon he was able to pick out a pleasant buzzing. Xantee, listening with him, heard a lilting and retreating and advance, like her mother Pearl playing her flute, and she wondered if one day humans would learn the people’s music and travel through the jungle without help.
They slept well that night, but woke with their blankets and clothes sodden from drifting spray.
This is a place where there could be gools, Lo said.
The people would have told us, Xantee said.
No gools, whispered a voice.
Can you tell us if Sal and Mond – the two who are joined – came this way? Xantee asked.
No one has come.
They’re not looking for the Dog King, Lo said. They’re heading for the city. They’ll be further west.
They ate wet food and drank cold water. Duro pulled the canoe under the trees as a gift for the people. The sun was playing rainbow colours across the waterfall when they started out. Now and then a whisper came, leading them eastwards through giant trees. They began to climb. By midday the trees were smaller and the understorey thinner, but at nightfall the jungle still enclosed them. Again they slept well, and Xantee, waking early, enjoyed the gleam of stars through the canopy. She had missed them in the deeper jungle.
At dawn the people roused them with a voice that seemed more distant: Now you must go on alone. Climb into the open slopes and then into the mountains. The pass lies between the fist and the serpent’s head. Beyond there is jungle again, and higher mountains. The people will help you.
How far to the Dog King? Lo said.
We don’t know. The Dog King is never in one place. Beyond the furthest mountains, that’s all we know.
Are there any gools?
We know of one, far away. The people will take you safely past.
The knowledge that one of the beasts lay ahead, even though distant, struck cold into them. But when they had climbed for another hour and broken out of trees on to slopes of coarse grass and sliding stone and seen the jungle stretching behind them and the white line of the Inland Sea, and seen how big the world was and how it stretched out and seemed to yawn, Xantee felt her fear slip away. The gool could take only little bites.
Little bites are enough when it’s got forever, Duro said.
I want to talk to Blossom and Hubert, Lo said. They mightn’t be able to reach us over the mountains. I want to find how Hari is.
And Pearl, Xantee said. Her mother’s fear and sadness had been with her, like a silent companion, ever since they had left the farm. The thought of her sitting by Hari, watching him waste away, caught her like a bone broken in her chest.
Let’s climb first, Duro said. We’ll try when we get to the pass.
At noon they reached the formations the people had told them of, one shaped like a hooded serpent ready to strike, the other like a clenched fist defying it. They sat in the cool sunlight and ate strips of dried meat and jungle fruit.
Now Xantee, Lo said, the twins.
They stood and faced the jungle and the Inland Sea and joined hands, joined minds, like two strands of wool weaving in and out, and Xantee understood, in her closeness to her brother, how Sal and Mond
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