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"If he'd been taken," Thoested, "we'd know his whereabouts He'd be there with us in the Council Edifice"
Kira nodded "And with Jo Although maybe they'd have locked him up, like her He'd hate that"
"Matt would find a way to get free," Tho Kira find her way around a puddle with a dead rat in it, "they wouldn't want Matt, I'm afraid They only want us for our skills, and he hasn't any"
Kira thought of the ihter, of his devotion to the little dog She thought of hiift to friends "Oh, Thomas," she said, "he does He knows just how to h"
There seehter or any history of it in this terrible place Making her way through the squalor, Kira reht, too, of the clear purity of the ser's voice, and how the two children must have been the only eleone as well
She wondered where he could have journeyed, all alone but for the dog, to search for blue
18
The day of the Gathering was approaching Its nearness was palpable in the village People began to finish projects and delayed the start of new ones Kira noticed that in the weaving shed fabrics were folded and stacked, but the loo
The noise level subsided, as if people were distracted with preparations and didn't want to waste ti
Some people washed
In his rooain and again He used thick oils and rubbed thean to take on a glow and fragrance
Matt did not return It had been ht, before she slept, Kira held the scrap of cloth that had so often assuaged her fears and even answered her questions She wrapped it around her fingers and concentrated on Matt; she pictured the laughing boy and sought soht be and whether he was safe A feeling of reassurance, of solace, came from the scrap But no answer
They could occasionally hear the voice of the s had ceased Most often they heard repetitive chanting, the sah soh lyrical voice soared into melodies that made Kira hold her breath in awe
She crept down at night with the key in her hand and visited the tyke Jo had stopped asking for her ether they whispered little stories and jokes Kira brushed Jo's hair
"I could thump with the hairbrush iffen I needed," Jo re
"Yes And ould come" Kira stroked Jo's soft cheek
"Want I shouldfor you?" Jo asked
"Someday," Kira told her "But not now We ht It must be our secret, that I co," Jo said "And soht" Kira laughed
"The Gathering be soon," Jo said iht up front, they say"
"Good for you! So you'll be able to see everything You'll be able to see the beautiful Singer's robe I've been working on it," Kira told her "It has wonderful colors"
"When I be Singer," the tyke confided, "then I can ood"
When Jamison came to her room, Kira showed him that the repairs to the robe were coether they spread the fabric across the table, turning it, unfolding its pleating and cuffs, exa the intricate stitches and the scenes they created
"You've done a fine job, Kira," he said "Particularly here"
He pointed to a place that she recalled had been difficult for her; though tiny in size, as each embroidered scene was, it was a coray, each of theround of fiery explosions Kira had es and reds of different shades and had found the various grays for the s had been hard for her because she had no sense of what the buildings were She had never seen anything like them The Council Edifice in which she lived and worked was the only large building she knew, and it was small compared to these These, before they toppled, had seehts, her than any tree she had ever seen
"That was the hardest part," she told Jamison "It was so cos, about what happened to them --"
She was embarrassed "I should have paideach year," she confessed "I was always so excited when it began, but then my mind would wander a bit, and I didn't always listen carefully"
"You were young," Ja No one listens carefully to every part, and especially not the tykes"
"This year I will!" Kira told hi special attention because I know the scenes so well I'll be listening especially for this scene, with the buildings falling"
Jamison closed his eyes She could see his lips nized a recurrent an to chant aloud:
Burn, scourged world,
Furious furnace,
Inferno impure --