And All Between Read Free Page B

whistle he returned obediently. With her pet back in the shoulder pack, Teera moved on down the abandoned tunnel.
    Now that she no longer had to keep on the lookout for people who might see and remember her, Teera was free to watch for other things. Her plan was to look for air tunnels that were wide and gradual enough to climb. Although primarily dug for ventilation, many air tunnels were constructed at a shallow pitch so that it was possible to climb up them to the forest floor. Such tunnels were dug in places where the barrier of Root lay close to the surface. From the ends of such air shafts, it was possible to dig for roots and mushrooms, and even, by reaching out between the branches of Root to pick sweet grasses, or set traps for plak and lapan. And it was from these vantage points in the areas that lay beneath the Kindar cities, that lookouts were posted to keep watch for fallen Kindar infants.
    The first three tunnels that Teera climbed were profitless. Lying so close to the inhabited areas, they had obviously been visited often, and every root and mushroom had been harvested. Reaching out between the cold gnarled arms of Root, Teera found that even the grasses of the forest floor had been carefully plucked. Her groping fingers found only a few stubs of grass, which Haba swallowed greedily. At the end of the fourth fruitless climb, Teera decided to stop for a while to rest. The air shaft she had just climbed was particularly wide and shallow, and it ended in a sizable chamber. A nid-shaped indentation hollowed into the chamber floor and several alcoves such as might have been used for lanterns or supplies, indicated that it had once been used by a hunter or lookout. Overhead the Root wove in and out in a pattern that left several sizable openings through which came warmth and light and a fresh, clean fragrance. Extinguishing her lantern, Teera curled up in a small ball and with Haba cradled in her arms, she quickly fell asleep.
    Some time later she awoke feeling sick and weak from hunger. She lit her lantern, replaced Haba in her pack, and then continued to sit, wondering if she would have the strength to get to her feet and go on. Now that it was too late, she thought of all the things she should have done. She should have tried to take some food from the cavern larder, or at least to have waited until after the morning food-taking, before she made her escape. Except that it might then have been too late. Perhaps by then her father would have already taken Haba away to the food-wardens. No, she had had to leave quickly. And now, she would die quickly of starvation, and someday searchers would find her bones with those of Haba, and then her father and mother, and even the wissener Councilors, would be sad for what they had done.
    Tears rolled down Teera’s cheeks and sank into the soft fur of her tunic. Her sobs became rhythmical, reminding her of a chant, the first chant in the Ceremony of Weeping. She began to sing a song, making up new words to go with the slow, sad music of the chant. The song was beautiful and very sad—about a poor, unfortunate girl and her beloved pet lapan and how they died a tragic death. The song went on and on, and without realizing how she had started, Teera found that she was going on, also. Somehow she had managed to get to her feet and make her way down the shaft of the air tunnel, and now she was once again moving southward along the half-buried railway.
    That day, Teera wandered down many miles of deserted Erdling tunnels, and through long stretches of natural grottos and caverns. She climbed dozens of air shafts, to the place where each ended at the Root, and once or twice her climb was rewarded. She found two small tarbo roots, and once even a sizable earth mushroom. She drank often from springs and rivulets that trickled from the grotto’s walls, trying to ease the pain of her empty stomach by filling it with water. As the time passed, she stopped to rest more and more often,