Read Online For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund - Free Book Online Page B

They destroyed technologically backward countries that didn’t have the money for the enhancements. They attacked each other, too, hoping to be the last ones, at least, left standing over a ruined world.” She blew out the final light. Above them, the miracle flickered to life.
    “For years—some say more than a generation—the Luddites lived in the darkness. And then . . .” Tatiana’s voice fell silent, and they all stared up into the vertex of the cavern.
    It was filled with stars. From every corner of the cavern, tiny, twinkling points of light glowed, a green so pale as to be nearly white.
    Olivia began to sing, a soft Luddite hymn they’d all known since childhood. And as her voice grew, the stars glowed brighter, twinkling down on them with promise. As a child, Elliot had been amazed by this—that the stars in the cavern responded to human voices, when the ones in the sky did not. Now, even when she knew the truth, the effect was still quite beautiful.
    “In the old stories,” said Tatiana, “a man built his followers a boat to ride out the flooding of the world. And when the flood was over, God showed him a rainbow to tell him that the worst was over. And after the wars of the Reduction were over, God showed us the stars, and we knew we could come out of the caverns and take our rightful place on the surface of the world.”
    It was more complicated than that, though. When Elliot’s ancestors emerged, it was into an unrecognizable world. A world where even some of the machines the Luddites were willing to use no longer worked. A world where there was no sign of life beyond the islands, where the needles of compasses spun uselessly, where there was no direction at all save the stars. All the Luddites knew was that they were alone, and that they alone bore responsibility for gathering up the shards of humanity.
    “Amazing,” whispered Felicia.
    “Interesting,” said Andromeda, her tone pedestrian.
    “Ann,” Donovan warned under his breath.
    Elliot, standing close to the Phoenixes, heard the girl shift in the darkness. “Miss Grove,” Andromeda said. “That’s a very pretty song. You should hear my brother sing. It would no doubt blow you away.”
    “I would like that,” Olivia replied. “He could sing now. The stars glow brighter with song.”
    “I wonder why that is,” Kai said. “Do you think they suppose their food is closer and they hope to attract it into their webs?”
    Tatiana made a choking sound. “How . . . do you know?”
    Kai sounded bored. “That they’re bugs? I thought it was common knowledge.”
    It wasn’t. Elliot had told Kai herself, years ago, when she’d learned the truth about the glowworm “stars” her family venerated in the sanctuary. They were bugs—tiny, bioluminescent insects that crept into crevices in the rocks and attracted prey through their glowing lights.
    “Really?” asked Olivia sadly. “I was so disappointed when I learned the truth. I was ten years old.”
    “I can imagine,” Kai replied. But he didn’t need to. Elliot had been disappointed back then as well, and so had Kai, though he’d never seen the stars for himself. Still, the knowledge of the truth behind the miracle didn’t take away from the wonder of the sight, nor from the importance—even more so because it was natural and not manmade—that the appearance of the “stars” had held for Elliot’s ancestors.
    “I don’t mean to belittle it,” said Kai. “It’s stunning. Not like the real thing, of course—nothing can compare to when you’re out at sea, nothing around you but stars, shining above, reflected below.” The Phoenixes murmured their agreement. Elliot gazed up at the sanctuary firmament and tried to imagine what it would look like. “These . . . well, they look like bugs.”
    “They look like stars!” Tatiana exclaimed.
    “Not to my eyes,” said Kai.
    “Nor mine,” Andromeda added. “Nor yours, right, Donovan?”
    “I must admit they do