of Green-sky.
Dergg would have liked to hear more about the new plan, but this time, when he squatted down to listen, Axon Befal glanced up and ordered him from the room.
Chapter Ten
T HE DAY WAS ALMOST over. It was a day of full service in the month of two moons, almost ten months after the beginning of the time of the Rejoyning. In the great orchard of Orbora the harvesters, laden with full packs of produce, were leaving the trees—carrying heavy, hard-shelled braazer nuts, fruits of many varieties, and the great full-bodied pan-fruit so indispensable to every Kindar food-taking.
At the sound of the foreman’s signal flute, many of the harvesters began the upward climb to the connecting ramps and branchways that led back to the storage halls and robing rooms of Orchardgrund, just as generations of harvesters had done before them. But now, there was also another route and another destination.
Now, at the sound of the flute, a goodly number of the heavily laden workers started to make their way downward by means of newly constructed hanging stairways that led down to the earth below. Too weighed down by their heavy packs to attempt to glide, they climbed slowly and carefully until they reached the orchard floor. Once there, they joined a procession of their fellow workers that wound its way to a number of long, low storage halls near the edge of the grund forest. There they deposited the produce that would be picked up later by Erdling carriers and transported to one of the surface cities or, perhaps, down to the caverns of Erda. These harvesters, whose job it was to supply the Erdlings who had not yet immigrated to the heights, were nearly all very young. The reason for this lay in the persistence of old fears. Veteran harvesters were not really frightened. They knew now that the terrible stories of the Pash-shan had not been true. Yet even to look at the forest floor still caused them a deep, unreasoned discomfort. So they were allowed to continue in the old ways, while the younger harvesters supplied the new Erdling storage halls.
On this particular day, as the harvesters moved out of the orchards, they were being watched by a small group hidden among the leaf-grown endbranches of a large forest grund. When the great orchard was finally deserted, the band of watchers moved out onto an open branchway. They were five in number, and one of them was wearing a shuba which, although frayed and soiled, had obviously once been white. Ten months after the abolishment of every distinction that had set the Ol-zhaan apart from their fellow Kindar, the young man who was leading the furtive advance out into the open orchard was dressed in the white shuba and the green-gold seal of the Ol-zhaan.
“All right,” he said suddenly, turning back to his followers. “Quickly now. Little enough time remains before the rains. Tarn, you and Pino take the pan grove. You, Wuul, try the nut trees, and Corro, see what has been left in the fruit rows. But be sure to leave the orchard at the first drops of rain and return to the outpost. I will meet you there, and we will wait until daybreak to return to Wissen-wald.”
Stepping to the edge of the high grundbranch, the Kindar workers launched themselves into space, their empty packs flapping behind them. For a moment, the young Ol-zhaan stood watching, and then moving purposefully and hastily, he began to make his way around the orchard in the direction of Orbora. The forest was dense here, with leafy endbranch thickets and heavy curtains of Vine making gliding impossible. So the traveler made his way on foot, trotting down narrow branches and scrambling through dense thickets of endgrowth. When he reached the outskirts of the city, he began to move slowly and carefully. At last he stopped and, looking carefully all around, pushed his way into a large thicket that concealed a tiny, crudely built chamber constructed of frond and woven tendril.
Except for a sagging overgrown nid, a lopsided
Dergg would have liked to hear more about the new plan, but this time, when he squatted down to listen, Axon Befal glanced up and ordered him from the room.
Chapter Ten
T HE DAY WAS ALMOST over. It was a day of full service in the month of two moons, almost ten months after the beginning of the time of the Rejoyning. In the great orchard of Orbora the harvesters, laden with full packs of produce, were leaving the trees—carrying heavy, hard-shelled braazer nuts, fruits of many varieties, and the great full-bodied pan-fruit so indispensable to every Kindar food-taking.
At the sound of the foreman’s signal flute, many of the harvesters began the upward climb to the connecting ramps and branchways that led back to the storage halls and robing rooms of Orchardgrund, just as generations of harvesters had done before them. But now, there was also another route and another destination.
Now, at the sound of the flute, a goodly number of the heavily laden workers started to make their way downward by means of newly constructed hanging stairways that led down to the earth below. Too weighed down by their heavy packs to attempt to glide, they climbed slowly and carefully until they reached the orchard floor. Once there, they joined a procession of their fellow workers that wound its way to a number of long, low storage halls near the edge of the grund forest. There they deposited the produce that would be picked up later by Erdling carriers and transported to one of the surface cities or, perhaps, down to the caverns of Erda. These harvesters, whose job it was to supply the Erdlings who had not yet immigrated to the heights, were nearly all very young. The reason for this lay in the persistence of old fears. Veteran harvesters were not really frightened. They knew now that the terrible stories of the Pash-shan had not been true. Yet even to look at the forest floor still caused them a deep, unreasoned discomfort. So they were allowed to continue in the old ways, while the younger harvesters supplied the new Erdling storage halls.
On this particular day, as the harvesters moved out of the orchards, they were being watched by a small group hidden among the leaf-grown endbranches of a large forest grund. When the great orchard was finally deserted, the band of watchers moved out onto an open branchway. They were five in number, and one of them was wearing a shuba which, although frayed and soiled, had obviously once been white. Ten months after the abolishment of every distinction that had set the Ol-zhaan apart from their fellow Kindar, the young man who was leading the furtive advance out into the open orchard was dressed in the white shuba and the green-gold seal of the Ol-zhaan.
“All right,” he said suddenly, turning back to his followers. “Quickly now. Little enough time remains before the rains. Tarn, you and Pino take the pan grove. You, Wuul, try the nut trees, and Corro, see what has been left in the fruit rows. But be sure to leave the orchard at the first drops of rain and return to the outpost. I will meet you there, and we will wait until daybreak to return to Wissen-wald.”
Stepping to the edge of the high grundbranch, the Kindar workers launched themselves into space, their empty packs flapping behind them. For a moment, the young Ol-zhaan stood watching, and then moving purposefully and hastily, he began to make his way around the orchard in the direction of Orbora. The forest was dense here, with leafy endbranch thickets and heavy curtains of Vine making gliding impossible. So the traveler made his way on foot, trotting down narrow branches and scrambling through dense thickets of endgrowth. When he reached the outskirts of the city, he began to move slowly and carefully. At last he stopped and, looking carefully all around, pushed his way into a large thicket that concealed a tiny, crudely built chamber constructed of frond and woven tendril.
Except for a sagging overgrown nid, a lopsided
Similar Books
