Read Young Bleys - Childe Cycle 09 for Free Online Page A

reply tailored to what was said.
    "What was her church?" demanded Henry, suddenly.
    "Her church?" said Bleys. "Oh, you mean Laura? I can't remember."
    "What were some of the prophets she taught you the names of?" demanded Henry.
    "Moses and Isaiah, Daniel, Obadiah, Malachi, John and Jesus—" On sudden impulse, on the chance that Henry's church had other prophets, Bleys threw in a couple of extra names—" 'Ali and Mohammed Ahmad—" .
    "I knew it!" Henry interrupted him fiercely, striking his fist on his knee. "She was of a Bridging church!"
    "I don't know what a Bridging church is," Bleys said. "She never mentioned anything like that."
    "Well," Henry's voice had dropped to a satisfied mutter, "it will have been one like it, it will be one of them. She taught you wrongly, boy! 'Ali and Mohammed Ahmad are not among the prophets. They are false, and those are false who name them so!"
    He sat back in the cart, m ore relaxed than Bleys had seen him since Bleys had first used the phrase in which he thanked God for Henry's kindness.
    "I'm glad you told me, Uncle," he said. "I wouldn't have known if you hadn't."
    Henry threw an approving glance at him.
    "Yes," he said, "you're young. But you'll learn. Though it's surprising you memorized so much from the Bible. Bleys . . . what else from that Book can you tell me?"
    "There's Moses and The Ten Commandments—" Bleys began.
    "Yes," interrupted Henry, "recite that to me." Bleys took a deep breath.
    "And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them.
    "The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb ..."
    Bleys went on reciting Chapter Five of Deuteronomy. Henry listened. His face seemed incapable of smiling, but there was a satisfied look on his face, as if he was someone listening to music well known and loved.
    While Bleys was still talking, the first few drops of rain began to strike the windscreen before them and ran down it, like drops of oil. Henry ignored it, and Bleys went on talking, even as the rain increased and thunder crackled overhead while occasionally flashes of lightning could be seen off toward the right horizon.
    Henry was no longer watching Bleys. His attention was all concentrated on what Bleys was saying. Bleys allowed himself to twitch and move on the seat, which had become very hard with its thin covering of straw and tarpaulin.
    At Henry's urging Bleys went forward from the Ten Commandments, to recite part of Chapter Thirty-eight of the Book of Job, where the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind; and from there to the Psalms. He was still reciting Psalms—in fact he was on Psalm One Hundred and Twenty, when he felt the cart lurch, and realized they had turned off the road onto a dirt track which led them off among the trees.
    The dirt road led them only a short way before coming out in the open farmyard before a one-story building of logs and a few outbuildings, also made of logs.
    "Here we are," said Henry, interrupting the Psalm.
    The rain was now coming down heavily. Through its curtain and the windscreen Bleys saw a boy a little younger than himself who ran out ahead of the goats and took hold of their reins. Meanwhile the door on Henry's side was opened and a boy a year or two older than Bleys, more heavily built and looking a great deal stronger, jerked it open.
    "Father—" he began, and then stopped, seeing Bleys beyond him.
    "This is your cousin Bleys, Joshua," said Henry stepping out into the rain as if it did not exist at all. He looked back into the cab. "Bleys, you'll have to make a run for the front door."
    Bleys stared at Joshua keenly for a second. An older, larger boy like this might offer physical aggression. Then he opened his door and stepped out into a veritable downpour of cold rain. The jacket Henry had given him seemed to be waterproof, but the rest of his clothing was soaked in an instant. Dimly he saw that,