Virginia Hamilton by The Gathering: The Justice Cycle (Book Three) Read Free Book Online

time for the packens to settle down, for the four were beyond their understanding, appearing out of nowhere as they did. Grims were too mentally slow and physically starved to be startled or shocked by the four. These older humans, who resembled one another, ran in disorganized bands.
    Grims aren’t the parents of packen kinds, Justice decided, observing the scene. They’re a class all their own. Are they a mistake, created old?
    Somewhere human beings are duplicated, she thought. Made to look alike. Somewhere they are being created.
    Thinking it made it seem less impossible.
    Justice searched among the Slakers for the wise and ancient female, the Bambnua, Dustwalker. Justice had been in mind contact with her, but she was not among the Slakers who moved about and regrouped throughout the night.
    Duster, Siv and Glass took care of their own packen and helped leaders of other packens. So many had come to drink and to feel the power. The pool teemed with kinds. Still there was only one Miacis. She strutted around, trying to tempt the Sivs into chasing her out into the black nothing of Nolight. Sivs stayed watchful in their darks by their leaders when it was time for sleeping. All kinds did sleep, although fitfully—Slakers out in the open and covered with dust, huddled with wings around one another; grims, too old to dig their darks near the pool. They slept entwined in heaving bunches as those on top sought warmth and safety on the bottom.
    It looks like the worst nightmare you could think of, Thomas traced, watching it all, deep in the Nolight. The youngens in their darks look just like corpses lying in open graves! What a night!
    All through the Nolight the four were alert. Duster did not dream this night, but slept deeply, soundly, better than he had in many Graylights.
    After a sparkling dawn of the unit’s second Dustland Graylight, Mal came sweeping. Its sudden, unexpected glide across made many around the water pool fall down, sick to death. Female Slakers gave off a stench of fear. Their bald heads glistened with perspiration. Male Slakers whipped their dangerous third legs around like clubs. Sixty of them, an entire colony, huddled at one end of the water pool.
    The Mal swept back and forth. Many covered their faces, rocked themselves for comfort, shuddering. Duster felt nauseous, shaky, but he held his ground. Weak and ill, Miacis lay at his feet, whimpering.
    Deep in the packens, the four had hidden themselves. Justice’s split-second premonition of the Mal gave them the chance to hide. Thomas, Levi and Dorian were invisible now and surrounded by Thomas’ illusion that they were a Duster, a Siv and a Glass. Justice was again microscopic on Levi’s clothing.
    Darkness surrounded the pool as the Mal spoke. All is well here? It questioned Duster.
    “Be well,” Duster sang. He had his simple mind, which held no thought beyond dust and Graylight; dust and Nolight. His understanding was of dust and dark dens; dust and packens, Siv and Glass.
    The Mal sensed the unusual in Duster’s stance. If you play tricks, I will hurt you and your kind! Mal told him.
    “Praise, be well,” Duster sang with peace of mind. “Be nothing but the same.”
    There are many at this water, said Mal. Whence c ame the water? I did not offer it. Who knew of water?
    “Be time for water,” Duster thought to sing, modulating to a higher key. “All be drinking. Be thirsting, nothing.”
    Mal was dissatisfied. It fumed, sweeping Its force over them. It probed the kinds around the pool at random. It missed the four of power.
    Mal knew that Duster alone stood on his feet. It sensed what It could not know or name; It cared to make Duster bow down. So It did what It had not done in the dustland. It raged to warn the kinds.
    Flashing light struck the dust. After-images of awesome shapes were reflected in the pool. Mal brought moisture and then piercing sunlight. It roared the dust in swirls around them. It packed them in dust cocoons and broke