Rumi's Riddle
Page 20
The friends draw quiet and close, looking out at the sun-dazzled horizon, and all that it might hold in store.
Excerpt from
THE SONG OF THE FIVE
Final Verse
(Translated from the original Ant by Rumi Mosquitoswallow)
And so we ants
Lost our queen first and then the plan she left us.
With no leader to make a new plot
we returned to our old roles,
tending our nests
farming our aphids
grooming our eggs
With barely a thought to the doings of birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals. ^ and Lima the Healing Bat!
But.
One fledging season*
an exhausted young ant arrived from
a distant land, speaking words we only just recognized
as Ant.
She spoke of five young animals who cross the Veil
as ants do,
and of their captive charge,
making a new home across the sea.
Wherever adventure happens,
there will always be ants
to sing its song.*
Acknowledgments
Books are collaborative. I couldn’t have written Rumi’s Riddle without the help of my amazing editors, Ben Rosenthal and Melissa Miller, and to everyone who’s been so helpful at Katherine Tegen Books and HarperCollins: Ro Romanello, Jackie Burke, Mabel Hsu, Tanu Srivastava, Katherine Tegen, Robby Imfeld, Megan Barlog, Meaghan Finnerty, Vaishali Nayak, Laaren Brown, Liz Byer, and many more!
Thanks as always to my agent, Richard Pine, and those who read early manuscript drafts, among them Eric Zahler, Barbara Schrefer, and Daphne Grab.
About the Author
Courtesy Eliot Schrefer
ELIOT SCHREFER is a New York Times bestselling author, has twice been a finalist for the National Book Award in Young People’s Literature, and has won the Green Earth Book Award and the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award for Children’s Literature. His novels include the Lost Rainforest series, Endangered, Threatened, Rescued, and two books in the Spirit Animals series. He lives in New York City, is on the faculty of the Hamline University and Fairleigh Dickinson University MFA in creative writing programs, and is the children’s book reviewer for USA Today. Visit him online at www.eliotschrefer.com.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Books by Eliot Schrefer
The Lost Rainforest #1: Mez’s Magic
The Lost Rainforest #2: Gogi’s Gambit
Copyright
Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
THE LOST RAINFOREST #3: RUMI’S RIDDLE. Copyright © 2020 by HarperCollins. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Cover art © 2020 by Emilia Dziubak
Cover design by David Curtis
* * *
Digital Edition FEBRUARY 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-249121-3
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-249120-6
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1920212223PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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* Translator’s note: This is when young queens grow wings and fly as far as they can in order to form new nests.
* Translator’s note: Translation date changed to “Year One of New Caldera.” Signing off, Rumi Mosquitoswallow. ^ and Lima the Healing Bat!