Chapter 8Night Walk
June 5, 2259, Sunday night
The head bear, the biggest male, had farspoken John-Caleb at dinner:
The loved one well? Yes? We come for you at dark. Crows come. Outside where all last together. We go to place with big fire by falling water…
The place with big fire by falling water, Candida and Zaria had both explained, was the Dancing Meadow, near the top of Alarka Falls. There, the villagers, celebrated the fire festivals of the Old Faith. The last one had been Beltane, a few weeks ago, at midnight on May 1. After dinner, John-Caleb, Coral, and Quentin waited just outside the village’s hidden trap door.
When the first stars appeared, John-Caleb felt the bears coming. “They’re almost here,” he whispered to Quentin and Coral. “Wait here, they want to meet me first.”
Q
