“Our purpose is restored!” boomed Bison.
“How did you find the Sharan?” asked Fang.
“Oh …” Pan’s lips curved in a secret smile. “I cast around, you know. I sent out a few mental feelers. It wasn’t difficult—I’m used to communicating with the Sharan.”
“But you could have done that at any time!”
“Well, maybe. But I have to feel like it, don’t you know. And the Sharan was on a different happentrack, after all.”
“You bastard,” snapped the Miggot.
“Don’t try me, gnome.” And suddenly the Sharan’s head lifted and she snorted, a look of fear in her beautiful eyes.
“Time to go,” said Fang hastily.
“Go where?”
“Back to gnomedom.”
“But gnomedom is gone!” wailed Clubfoot, coming down to earth with a bump.
Fang said quietly, “The place is still there. The rocks and the paths are there. The trees may be a bit different, but who cares? They’re still trees. Just two of us have lost our homes under the sea, but the Princess will be living with me, and as for my father, it’s about time he moved out of that swamp anyhow. So the rest of us can go back to where our homes used to be and start digging new ones. We’ll all help one another. By the time summer is here we’ll have gnomedom rebuilt!”
It was an inspiring speech. Lady Duck pounded Fang on the back. “Give us the cry!” she commanded.
“But …” Fang looked around, embarrassed. “My rabbit’s back somewhere in the forest.”
“Bugger the rabbit. Give us the cry!”
“Away, Thunderer!” shouted Fang.
“Away, Thunderer, away!” yelled the gnomes.
“Bloody nonsense, if you ask me,” said the Gooligog.
“It doesn’t have to mean anything,” said Spector.
Laughing, chattering, arguing, they set off in search of the new gnomedom.
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Also by Michael G. Coney
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Michael G. Coney (1932 – 2005)
Michael G. Coney is the award-winning author of such novels as Syzygy, Monitor Found In Orbit, Brontomek!, Cat Karina, and The Celestial Steam Locomotive. His short stories have appeared in magazines the world over and are frequently included in anthologies.
Copyright
A Gollancz eBook
Copyright © The Estate of Michael G Coney 1988
All rights reserved.
The right of Michael G Coney to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This eBook first published in Great Britain in 2013 by Gollancz
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 0 575 12944 3
All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
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Fang, the Gnome (Song of Earth) Page 36
