Elysium – William K Carlson

Then he became more insistent—and found that Marya s ears were far from deaf. But she absolutely refused to allow Tomas to set foot outside the cave except on the darkest of nights, and the boy had become so conditioned to this that it would have been difficult to get him to leave anyway. When Nick saw how it was, he stopped making his hints, and to Tomas’s question, “What would Rebekah do?”

he answered frankly, “I don’t know.” What would she do? The question came to dominate his thinking over the next few weeks. What Marya and Tomas thought she would do was all too clear, but would she really kill a unique and precious young human being whose special talents and abilities might prove ex- tremely useful to Elysium, if only he could become an authorized part of it? And was that really the question, or was there a deeper question underlying it? All Nick knew was that the longer he turned this partic- ular nut around in his mind, the harder it was to crack.

As winter deepened into a bitter, blizzardy February, restricting out- door activities, Nick began to appreciate and enjoy his hours with Tomas more and more. He also found himself better able to detach a part of his mind for speculation as he became more familiar with sew- ing, tanning, pottery making, and their other indoor, aboveground pur- suits.

Unfortunately, the more he thought, the more uncertain and con- fused he became as to what that underlying question might be and as to where his own duty lay. He found his nightly prayers to Talanis becoming more and more perfunctory, and the voice of the goddess just did not seem to be in his heart as it once had been. He was busy, he was happy, he was feeling better and living more fully than he ever had before—and yet somehow he felt that something dangerous was lurking somewhere, like a great predator ready to pounce; but he didn’t know what, and he didn’t know where, and he didn’t know when.

for botany had been carefully nurtured; his animal stirrings had been repressed and rechanneled— the better to serve Talanis, goddess of the planet Elysium in the year 4160 a.d. He loved Talanis and was saturated with her teachings. So it was not unex- pected, though it was a humbling honor, that he should be chosen to search the northern wilderness— alone— for grains whose hardiness would stand up to the impending ice age. To be ripped from the bosom of his family was cruel.

Yet he would bear it. The controllers had chosen him, and their wisdom must be trusted. Had not this once-ravaged planet blossomed under their guidance? One rarely heard dissent. When troubling, heretical thoughts clouded his mind, they were soon expunged by the familiar homily: ‘continued on hack flap) “jvrffi^- a b.1833 lvx f- t^

CARLSON DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK I982 All of the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Carlson, William K. Elysium. I. Tide. PS3553.A735E4 8i 3′.54 AACR2 ISBN: 0-385-17273-7 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 81-43543 Copyright © 1982 by William K.

Carlson All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America First Edition This book is dedicated to Laura and Bill, ELYSIUM CHAPTER 1 Alone again. Nobody seemed to want to sit by him very long, which was just fine. He closed his eyes, leaned his forehead against cool glass, and felt the train’s vibrations conduct from bone to bone right down to his feet. It couldn’t be that he smelled bad—he had taken a bath before leaving this morning—it must be because he couldn’t talk to strangers very well.

Maybe they thought he was rude, but he wasn’t, or at least didn’t mean to be. It was just so difficult to answer all their pointed questions about where he was going and why. And this last man had stared right into his face; his protuberant eyes and intimate questions had seemed to drain something right out of him; he hadn’t been able to say anything except that he belonged to the Ramon family of the vil- lage of Greenneedle in Delta District and that he was going to Plateau District.

The questions had reminded him of all the solid certainties he was leaving behind and of the great unknown ahead, like an emptiness in his belly.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: de548decd21ab07d
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 13,796,859 bytes (13.158 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 0385172737
• Pages: 233
• Language: English (en)

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• Estimated Reading Time: 464.53 minutes
• Total Words: 92,906
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• Average Words per Page: 398.74
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