Read Online The Kin by Peter Dickinson - Free Book Online

Noli.
    â€œI come also,” she said, and passed Otan to Tinu to mind.
    Mosu was in her usual place by the cave, with her back against the cliff. Suth and Noli kneeled before her and pattered their hands on the ground.
    â€œThe boy comes,” said Foia. “The girl also.”
    She moved a short distance away and sat down.
    Mosu gave no sign of having heard, but then she raised her head and said in her croaking voice, “You are children. You have no father and no mother.”
    â€œThe strangers killed our fathers,” said Suth. “They took our mothers.”
    â€œNo mother, no father—the child dies,” said Mosu. “Now I give each of you a mother and a father. They care for you and teach you our ways.”
    For a moment Suth didn’t understand what she meant. Then he realized that she wanted to split the Moonhawks up and give them each to a different family.
    He looked anxiously at Noli. She drew her lower lip into her mouth and let it go. This is not good , she was telling him. He remembered what Mana and Ko had been saying last evening, that he was now their father, and Noli their mother.
    I do not let this happen , he thought. But I must not offend this old woman. She is the leader in this place .
    â€œWe thank,” he said hesitatingly. “But … we are not of this Kin. We are Moonhawk. Our ways are ways of Moonhawk.”
    â€œMoonhawk is dead,” said Mosu. “All those Kins are dead, gone. All your Good Places are taken. There is no Snake, no Fat Pig, no Ant Mother. There is only one Kin, and it is ours. Big Voice sings in the forest. He says this to me.”
    â€œHe is a liar!” said Suth, suddenly too angry to be careful. He felt his scalp move as his hair bushed out in his anger.
    â€œHe is a liar, I say!” he repeated. “Everyone knows this. Moonhawk came to Noli. Last night she came, while we ate. She told whose Kin you are. She is not dead.”
    Mosu merely cackled.
    â€œDo your small ones live many more moons?” she said. “Does your baby live, that cannot walk? Can the girl feed the baby? Has she milk in her breasts?”
    She rocked to and fro, wheezing between her cackles.
    Suth looked at Noli for help, but she didn’t see him. Something was happening to her. Her eyes were wide and blank, and her whole body shuddered.
    â€œMonkey is sick,” she said in a deep, gasping voice. “Moonhawk speaks this. Monkey is sick.”
    She staggered as if she’d been struck, and Suth caught her to stop her falling. He held her while she shuddered once more and gave a slow, exhausted sigh. Then she drew herself clear and stood normally.
    At first Mosu didn’t seem to have heard what she’d said, but her cackling died away and she sat still, wheezing heavily. Suth remembered what Sula had told him last night.
    â€œYour blood is bad,” he said. “Your men have eyes of two colours. Your children have skin between their fingers. Your babies have no arms, no legs. You want our good blood. I, Suth, say this. Moonhawk lives. We are Moonhawk. You take us one from the others. You make Moonhawk die. I say you cannot do it. I say we leave this place and go far and far. You can not have our good blood.”
    Mosu muttered something and seemed to shrink into herself.
    They waited. At length she raised her head and sighed.
    â€œBig Voice is not a liar,” she said quietly. “He is a trickster. His words say this and that. Long, long, he sings to me. Before my sons are born he sings to me. Their sons are soon men. I know the ways of Big Voice. He says this and that.”
    â€œMoonhawk is Moonhawk,” said Suth. “Our Kin lives. We stay one Kin, together.”
    Mosu cackled briefly.
    â€œAre you a man?” she said. “Can you care for four children? Do you make a digging stick? Do you harden it in the fire? Do you fight the leopard when it comes for your small ones? Do you sit with the