Return - Book III of the Five Worlds Trilogy Read Online Free Page A

home.
    Earth.
    That was why, looking out on this tented city spread out in an unnamed valley below him, in a place that had once been called Finland, he could ignore the black stains in the sky above, and the occasional rancid breeze, and the things that bored up through the bland soil and clutched with thin tendrils at his boots. Even here, in this valley, the latest in their migratory encampments, were things they had seen nowhere else. A thin forest whose gray leafless trees turned to dust when touched; a bat with three heads attached to one swiveling nodule; flowers with teeth.
    But still it was Earth.
    “Thinking of something important, Sire?” came a voice; Dalin, stirred from his thoughts, stepped out of the tent opening he had been transfixed in and turned with a smile to greet his second in command.
    “No, Erik. Just thinking about how it’s all worthwhile.”
    Erik Peese spread his hands. “What, this? This lovely dead valley near a desiccated town in a place that not even Prime Cornelian cares about?”
    “Oh, he cares about it, all right. And us,” Dalin answered, growing serious.
    “I’m sure he does,” Erik replied, matching the king’s tone. “But you can’t expect our people to fight for something like this. Something … dead.”
    “It’s dead now. But I have hopes of bringing it back to life.”
    Erik showed surprise. “Sire? Are you sure there wasn’t something amiss in the tea this morning? Perhaps the lingering effects of the medication for your healed eyes has driven you temporarily mad…”
    Dalin laughed and reached out to slap Erik on the shoulder. For the briefest moment, he relished the luxury of blinking his eyes, something which had been denied to him after the insane Wrath-Pei had snipped the lids off. “It’s just a dream, at the moment. But these last months, while we’ve been building our army and on the move, I’ve come to realize that the Lost Lands may not be as lost as we assumed they were. After all, who told us they were dead and forgotten? Our parents. And who told them? Their parents. And so on.” Dalin’s voice filled with passion.
    “But what if they were all wrong, Erik? We’ve seen growth, renewed life, on the edges of the Lost Lands—what if it was possible to bring them all back to life? What if we could make Earth whole again?”
    Erik looked skeptical. “That’s quite a tall order, Sire.”
    “But what if it could be done? Venus is being terraformed—why couldn’t we terraform Earth?”
    Understanding dawned on Erik’s face. “You mean the same type of equipment, oxygen feeders and such—only utilized in the Lost Lands?”
    “Why not the whole planet? How long could it take?”
    “A matter of decades, I suppose …”
    “Exactly!” Dalin laughed, and turned to stare out over the valley below his tent. “You and I would be old men, but we’d live to see it.” He sighed. “It’s a dream, of course, at least for now. But something to look forward to, after we finish with the business at hand.”
    “Yes, the business at hand…”
    Sensing the grim tone of Erik’s voice, the king faced him again. “You have news of Shatz Abel?”
    Erik momentarily brightened. “Not news, really. Leavings, perhaps. It seems that wherever Abel goes he leaves angry bureaucrats behind.”
    King Shar laughed. “But he’s getting the job done, isn’t he?”
    “Oh, yes,” Erik answered. “I’ll wager that before the end of the year we’ll have a united Earth, with even the most recalcitrant of Prime Minister Acron’s surviving governors under one banner, as well as Pluto under our belt. Shatz Abel isn’t the problem. It’s what happens then that worries me.”
    Dalin nodded. “Or before.”
    “Yes. If Prime Cornelian decides that we are a threat, he could wreak havoc on us.”
    “We’ve seen his recent handiwork on Titan. But even though he has his hands full with other matters at the moment, the threat is always there. He is a vicious and