The Elder Gods by David Eddings, Leigh Eddings Read Free Book Online

first formed right up to the present.”
    “You’re just making this up, Zelana,” Veltan scoffed.
    “No, baby brother, I’m not. The pearl—and quite probably that whale as well—aren’t what they seem to be.”
    “Our sister believes that Mother Sea’s starting to tamper with things,” Dahlaine said then, “and I think she might be right.”
    “Now we come to the interesting part, big brother,” Zelana said brightly. “Just exactly who and what
are
these children you so generously gave us a few years ago?”
    “The Dreamers, of course, Zelana,” Dahlaine replied just a bit too quickly.
    “And?” she pressed.
    “And what?”
    “What
else
are they, Dahlaine? You’re so obvious most of the time that the rest of us can see right through you.”
    “You
didn’t!
” Veltan exclaimed, his eyes almost popping out as he stared at Dahlaine.
    “I don’t quite . . .” Aracia began. Then her eyes bulged out as well. “Dahlaine!” she gasped.
    “Well,” he floundered, “it
was
kind of an emergency, wasn’t it?” he asked plaintively.
    “Are you
insane?
” Veltan demanded. “They
can’t
be present during our cycle. As soon as they realize who they are, they’ll usurp our Domains!”
    “I was careful to blot out their previous memories before I woke them,” Dahlaine replied. “And I modified them slightly to make them more closely resemble newborn man-creatures. They sleep and breathe and eat food instead of light. Their minds are still very infantile, and they have no idea of who—or what—they really are, so their presence during our cycle won’t tear the Land of Dhrall apart. They’re really nothing more than children, and our cycle will come to a close before they’re fully mature and realize just who they really are.”
    “You’ve put the whole world at risk with this idiocy!” Aracia flared.
    “Calm yourself, Aracia,” Zelana said. “Now that I’ve had time to push my horror away, I think I’m beginning to see what Dahlaine had in mind. If the hideous thing in the Wasteland is on the verge of moving against us, we’ll need all the help we can get, and the others have as much to lose as we do. Besides, we’ve never really gotten to know them, have we? They’re really very sweet. I didn’t really care for the idea of being supplanted before, but now that I’ve gotten to know Eleria, I love her. That was sort of what you had in mind when you came up with this scheme, wasn’t it, Dahlaine? If we know them and love them, we can trust them. Isn’t that the short and the long of this grand plan of yours?”
    “Sometimes you’re so clever you make me sick, Zelana,” he said sourly.
    “He’s brighter than I thought he was,” Veltan told his sisters. “If we awaken the others before the end of our cycle, we can raise them as if they were our children and prepare them for anything that might happen after we’ve gone to our rest.”
    “And then we can return the favor at the end of
their
cycle,” Zelana added. “I get to mother Eleria this time, and then
she
mothers
me
next time.”
    “It sounds fair to me,” Veltan said. Then he paused. “We’ve been strangers to the others for far too long, I think. We all have the same responsibilities, so a bit of cooperation might be in order. I’m still not too happy that you didn’t tell the rest of us what you had in mind, Dahlaine, but we can set that aside for now. What’s next?”
    “First off,” Zelana said, “I don’t think we want to get too specific about what’s happening when we’re speaking with our Dreamers. They’re still children, and children are impressionable, no matter what their species. We don’t want to contaminate their dreams by explaining what these dreams really mean. As long as they believe that their dreams are just flights of fancy, they won’t become too upset by any horrors that crop up. Then, too, if they realize what they can actually
do
with their dreams, they might try to tamper with