Hero! by Dave Duncan Read Free Book Online

time of day?”
    Vaun forces his eyes open. He forces his head to turn. He recognizes Nivel’s withered foot.
    He smiles a little.
    Now Nivel is carrying him, which is very funny, because Nivel rocks when he walks, dragging his bad leg, and now Vaun had the same sway as Nivel does. Hup—swoosh! Hup—swoosh! He hears Glora singing praise somewhere behind.
    “You hungry, Little Black Eyes?” Nivel is panting hard. “Got some eel soup for hungry lads.”
    “Not hungry, Nivel.”
    “What’sat? Young lad not hungry? Never grow up to be a big boy if you don’t eat, Vaun.”
    “Not hungry,” Vaun insists, forcing the words from his dry mouth. Sore tummy…
    Nivel gasps, and lowers Vaun to the ground, and kneels down beside him. Glora is a long way back, her arms waving, doing a dance.
    “Need a rest,” Nivel pants, peering very hard at Vaun. He lays a raspy thumb on one of Vaun’s eyelids and pushes it up, as though wanting to see what is underneath. “You been getting your booster every day, lad?”
    Vaun nods uncertainly.
    Nivel mutters something he doesn’t catch. “You listen to me, Little Black Eyes! Listen good! And never mind what that muddy-wit…what Mommy tells you contrariwise, all right? You make sure you get your booster every day , understand? Every single day! And if you haven’t got any in the house, you come and see me. Or ask anyone. Even in a big town. If you haven’t got booster, you can ask any boy or girl at all, and they have to share with you if they have some. That’s the law. Booster’s free for everyone. Understand?”
    Vaun has never seen Nivel look so fierce, so he nods.
    “Eating isn’t enough,” Nivel says, seeming a little less sure of himself. “Food hasn’t got some things in it that it should have, and it has things it shouldn’t, and people who don’t take their booster every day get sick awful fast and don’t grow up to be big strong boys and beat the shit out of Olmin.”
    Vaun sniggers at that. It’s a secret, private joke between him and Nivel. Nivel isn’t very big, and he can’t work very hard with his bad leg, and he lives by himself, when all the other boys live with girls and little kids. Sometimes Nivel comes and lives at his house for a while, and those are good times, even if Vaun does have to sleep on the floor, because then Glora doesn’t talk to God so much and wake Vaun up in the night to sing praise, but those times never seem to last very long.
    Vaun likes Nivel better’n anyone. Even Glora. Specially Glora, because the things she says about him make the other kids laugh at him. Sometimes Glora is nice.
    Nivel stands up again, and pulls Vaun up, too, and hoists him on his shoulder again, muttering and heaving. “So you remember, Black Eyes! People who don’t get their booster can’t live on Ult, remember?”
    After a few steps… Hup—swoosh! Hup—swoosh!…
    Vaun says hoarsely, “Where do they live, Nivel? People who don’t get their booster?”
    “They don’t,” Nivel says, between pants. “They sort of shrivel up and die.”
     
    T HE DREAMER IS Pink and Scarlet is It. There are dozens of units—no, hundreds—no, thousands, all dodging and laughing as Scarlet pursues them. They scamper and eddy all over the grass, ebbing and flowing in millions of colors, always defining a clearing around Scarlet, shrieking and yelling, mocking and gleeful. High overhead the twin suns are shining—two crimson pillows in an indigo sky. But Scarlet is tiring. Scarlet is weary and laughing no more. The Dreamer takes pity and fakes a brief stumble, so Scarlet can tag him; now Pink is It and must tag another. Come to me, brothers, so I can touch you…
    The dream changes. The Dreamer is Blue…
    Brown arms wheel in a chaos of shrieks and flying water as the Dreamer’s crop all reach the bank together. With shouts of Cheat ! and He tripped me ! they scramble out, jostling, shivering, laughing, in a tangle of wet brown youngsters. The Dreamer is Blue