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

them free, to cook them in fiery light.
    Duster would not fall. His packen howled hysterically at the dark and sun and cold. Duster had no time to speak to them, for there came a downpour of cool rain. It felt delicious on his face. The Mal roared above, splitting his mind. Duster shrieked to hold on to his senses. He shrieked again and again, and found himself imitating Mal’s ear-splitting sounds.
    “Be noise!” Duster sang in his strongest tenor. “Be Duster’s noise and light. A wet, like pool. Be Duster’s cool and clean!”
    All felt the rain. It cleansed the youngens’ pores and skin lesions. Youngens saw their skin washed clean for the first time. Slaker beings were sleek with wet. Twittering, they shook out glistening wingspans.
    The Bambnua, the Slaker Dustwalker, had landed. With a crew of females from her kelm, she had come down in the midst of the Mal’s force. She stood still on her three legs, her massive bulk and her ancient winged arms at rest.
    Alien, thought Justice about the Bambnua. She viewed everything by insight through the mind of an ordinary Slaker who was unaware of her presence. She allowed herself an instant of respect and sympathy for the Bambnua. She broke off contact, feeling the Mal sweeping near.
    And then the Mal was gone. The pool area, all at once, was empty of It. All of them except Duster and the four of power lay on the ground, arms wrapped about themselves, holding on.
    After a time Thomas traced to the other three, Where does Mal go when It goes?
    None of them had an answer. It’s like It no longer pays attention, Justice traced, when It goes.
    Slowly the Dustlanders pulled themselves together. The power of the four became stronger than ever. They became visible again over the pool. They had joined hands in unity, with Justice slightly in front of the other three.
    Packens and grims fell down as they had in the Mal’s presence. They were not sick this time, only frightened. Soon they could again sit or stand. Siv and Glass stood with Duster. Miacis was up, wagging her tail. Her ears fell back against her head. She was golden and smelled clean, for once. Rippling with muscle, Miacis held her tongue.
    The Bambnua changed position. The move she made went unseen by them. Justice had discovered that the Dustwalker, all Slakers, had this small amount of mind control that kept them from seeing them move.
    The Bambnua leaned on her leg and was in another place. She was at the water’s edge. She leaned on her back leg and was in the water. She spread her wings on the water and was at the feet of the four. She was in one place, another place and still another. Never did they see her move.
    The Bambnua had never seen the four of power. Yet, from the first encounter with them, she had known when they were present. She sensed them now above the water.
    YOU YOU in a flaming in the unit’s thoughts.
    i am the Watcher.
    The Bambnua burst from the water. She was at the shore. She was out of the water, hugely huddled on her three outlandish legs. She was at ease, waiting. For the true power was present. What would come next would be.
    YOU
    The power stood over the water as it had before the Mal had come. Duster had forgotten about the four as long as the Mal was present. The four from his dream could be four thoughts or one thought; four bodies. The Mal was never body. The four were force as the Mal was force. Only, they brought no sickness, as the Mal did.
    Duster signaled Siv and Glass, who trilled warnings. The grims quieted and packens grew calmer.
    When Glass thought about it, she realized that grims were not completely stupid. Once they had taught her and Siv and the leader when the three had been small, Glass remembered. Grims had fed her and helped her live. She had not thought about this in a long time.
    “Stand quiet, you see? Nothing be hurting you,” she toned softly to the grims. “Just be waiting.”
    She touched a grim near her because she felt like it. The grim came