The Kin by Peter Dickinson Read Free Book Online

side. Sula, walking close behind, almost bumped into them.
    â€œWhat makes this noise?” he whispered.
    She looked at him a moment as if she didn’t want to answer. Then she muttered, “He is called Big Voice. His true name is not spoken.”
    Suth understood what she meant. The people in two of the Kins, Snake and Crocodile, never spoke about their First Ones by name. Instead they called them “The Silent One” and “She Who Waits.” Was the creature Sula called Big Voice the First One of these people?
    Suth smelled the water before he saw it, though it didn’t have the usual clean, hard smell he knew. Instead, it smelled like the water they had found seeping out of the cliff two mornings ago. They came to it very suddenly. At one moment they were surrounded by the brooding trees, and the next moment there it was, a long, narrow lake twisting away further than he could see towards the distant ridges. It was utterly still, and except in the small clearing where they stood, the trees came right down to the water.
    Dith raised his right hand with the fingers spread wide apart in a gesture of formal greeting and muttered quietly for a few moments. Suth knew what this meant. When the Kin came to a place that had power in it, such as Tarutu Rock or Lightning Tree, their leader would make their peace with that power before they passed by, or camped there.
    Dith moved aside and gestured to the Moonhawks to drink while he and Mohr stood guard. Noli took longer than the others because she was feeding Otan a sip at a time from her mouth. While they waited for her, Suth gazed at the lake. His sense of awe grew steadily stronger. He had never in his life seen such an expanse of water, nor felt such stillness. Nowhere in the world, not even the Rock of Meeting at Odutu below the Mountain, where he would not go until the time came for him to be made a man, could be like this. Perhaps he would never go to Odutu now. But he had seen this place.
    Tinu touched his elbow, breaking his trance. She pointed towards the water’s edge. There, on a patch of mud, just beyond where they had drunk, was a large paw print. The mark of each broad toe showed clearly. Suth’s father had shown him just such a print on a sandbank at Sometimes River.
    Now he knew what the men stood guard against.
    Leopard.

Oldtale
    ODUTU BELOW THE MOUNTAIN
    The First Ones made nests and lairs for the children of An and Ammu, according to their kinds. Thus Moonhawk made a nest of twigs among the crags and carried there the two that she was to care for, and the Ant Mother dug a chamber in the earth for the two that she was to care for. So with the others, according to their kinds .
    Only Monkey did nothing. An and Ammu did all that, and he watched .
    The First Ones fed the children according to their kinds. Thus Little Bat fed them upon insects, and Crocodile fed them upon creatures that she caught as she lay in wait. So with the others, according to their kinds .
    Only Monkey did nothing. An and Ammu did all that, and he watched .
    When the children were grown to the height of a garri bush, the First Ones brought them to Odutu below the Mountain. It was there that An and Ammu had their camp at that season .
    The First Ones set the children down a little way from Odutu and told them, “See that great rock. Go there and find a thing.”
    The children went forward hand in hand, two and two, while the First Ones watched invisible around. They gave back to Ammu the memory that they had taken from her, and she looked up and saw her children, pair and pair and pair, coming to her out of the bush .
    Then she rejoiced that they were given back to her .
    And An rejoiced with her, and said, “This is Odutu below the Mountain. This is our Rock of Meeting. From this day it is sacred. From this day an oath sworn here is an oath for ever, and a peace made here is a peace for ever.”
    And it was so .

CHAPTER SIX
    While the Moonhawks