Free The Book of Sight by Deborah Dunlevy

A startling change had come over the Dund’s face. Whereas before his expression had been somewhat blank and his eyes unreadable, now he had the look of dawning discovery and a little flicker of memory in the brown depths of his eyes. Glancing around, Eve saw that Alex had gotten out her own book and was apparently reading along, Adam was staring at the ground, but Logan was studying the Dund’s face intently, watching the same transformation that Eve had noticed.
    As Eve’s pause lengthened, Alex looked up. “Do you recognize that?” she asked the Dund.
    “Of course, of course,” he almost squeaked, a little shiver going over his whole trunk. “’It’s as plain as the nose on your face.’ Everyone knows the language of awakening.”
    “So it
is
a language!” exclaimed Adam wonderingly. “And you speak it? But then how did we understand it when none of us has ever learned it?”
    “Hold your horses, there, young man. Don’t put words in my mouth. I never said I
speak
the language of awakening. I said I know it. Everyone knows it. You know it. Though you didn’t know you knew it, as you say. But ‘the proof of the pudding is in the tasting,’ as I said, and you understood this book, so it is clear that you know the language.”
    “And do you know what this book is called?” asked Alex.
    “You’ve put your finger on it there,” said the Dund. “You have hit the nail on the head. It may be that I do know its name, but can’t be sure. ‘Don’t jump to conclusions’ is my motto. So don’t get your hopes up. Better to keep all hopes down. Still, wait just a bit (patience is a virtue, you know) and I will tell you something I heard once.”
    He paused for a moment as if trying to remember each detail of his story. Eve waited, fascinated.
    “It was late in the afternoon,” he continued in such a different tone that they all stared, “must have been many years ago now. A young man, older than you children but still quite young with brown hair and brown skin (lovely skin, I thought at the time), was walking through this field. He would have passed right by me, I think, but just as he arrived at this spot, another man, older and fairer, came dashing towards him from the opposite direction. The young man stopped and waited. When the older man reached us, he was panting from his sprint and it was several moments before he could speak. When he had caught his breath, he said to the young man, ‘They found it. Cristina said to tell you right away.’ And the young man said, ‘Are you sure it’s the one we’re looking for?’ ‘Yes,’ replied his friend, ‘it has all the signs.’ The young man began to look excited. ‘We should all meet tonight then.’ ‘So soon?’ asked the other, frightened. ‘There is no time to lose,’ responded the young man. ‘We have to get back what he took from us. We have to find the Book of Sight. Without it the language of awakening is lost to us.’ ‘But we still don’t know what this pilpi creature may be capable of!’ argued the older man. ‘Gendel sea, Harold,’ whispered the young man. And he repeated, ‘gendel sea.’ And then the two walked away together.”
    There was a silence as the kids each tried to digest this new information.
    “Gendel sea,” said Eve after a moment. They all nodded.
Gendel sea
, part of the prophecy from the story. Just saying the words out loud again made Eve’s heart swell.
    “Do you think they were talking about this book?” said Adam. “The Book of Sight?”
    “The name does fit,” Alex said.
    “But who were those men? If they live around here, they could answer a lot of our questions.”
    Turning to the Dund, Adam demanded, “Is that all you remember? Did you ever see them again?”
    “I only saw them that one time. I thought at the time it was very interesting, and I waited to see if they would come back. But ‘the watched pot never boils,’ you know, and they never returned. After a while I forgot about it.