Chapter 41
Lina’s time of solitude was spent enjoying the warmth of the sun, the comfort of Arabel’s touch, and ruminating on the fate of her colony. If what her visions told her was true, the old queen was dead, probably killed in a rebel bombing. And Mentor and the twirling woman were part of the rebellion, Lina was sure of it. Why?
Deep down Lina knew why. The same way that Lina automatically knew the path home, or how the music of the amphitheater was linked to the Great Tree and transmitted to her very core by way of the soles of her feet. She knew what had transpired in her colony. She knew it was the queen’s refusal to step down, to pass the crown, that led to the rise of the rebellion by those who demanded change.
And now the queen was dead, and with her the colony’s Tree. Lina had seen it in every vision she had experienced. All of them, though different in the details, revolved around that one single fact. The Tree was dead. The colony was in ruin because of it.