* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Akiva ran back toward the ruins. The ground burned his feet. Already people were running out of the flame-pit that had been the festival ground, their hair and clothes on fire. Someone shouted his name and Verloringers, naked as he, clustered around him. He pointed toward the Lir. They took to their heels. A bolt of flame knocked him down as he tried to run in the mud and rubble, and he fell into a mat of vines. The dead ones underneath were smoldering. He shuddered and rolled off them.

As he got to his feet he saw Neshar, floating above the smoke on what at first looked like a cloud. The boy's face was expressionless, his little stock of emotions overwhelmed. He began to float away. Rising, Akiva saw that the boy sat not on a cloud but on the shoulders of a white-garbed ghost.

"Neshar!" Akiva called. The dusty air lashed his burns as he ran.

Neshar shrieked, "Akiva!"

The ruin exploded, flinging stones as far as the Lir, and every individual wisp of flame poured its strength into the fiery column that rose from the center of the festival ground as the dead generations of vines and twigs and their shroud of dust ignited. The ghost ran.

Akiva ran also. When he stumbled, Neshar screamed, "Akiva!" The one who carried him paused. In the brilliant light Akiva saw the white-clad figure's face and read there such grief that he knew everyone had been mistaken. This is neither a ghost nor a demigod, he thought. It is a living man.

Both staggered, and had they not clasped hands both would have fallen. They stared at one another. Thus did Rani meet Zatoye and learn what we are, Akiva thought.

They guided one another through the unplowed field by the garish light of the fires, running with hands sometimes joined and sometimes free. When they came to the riverbank, Akiva tripped and fell headlong into the water. He saw the boy float away a little distance, then drift safely to earth as he was put down. Hands grasped Akiva and dragged him from the Lir.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
CONTINUE

..................... BEFORE THE BOMBING - DAYBREAKERS

..................... BEFORE THE BOMBING - AKIVA

.....................

Go to Chapter: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
INDEX