Below the Root (novel)

Below the Root is a science fiction/fantasy novel by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, the first book in the Green Sky Trilogy.

Plot summary

Raamo D’ok, a 13-year old Kindar boy, has just learned that he has been Chosen, meaning he will be joining the ranks of the Ol-zhaan, Green-sky’s elite ruling class. He is greatly surprised, as he has always seen himself as a below-average student. He returns home to tell his family, who are equally surprised and shocked, knowing that their lives will soon change as they will be moving to a new house and living somewhat in the spotlight along with Raamo. They reveal to Raamo that most other Kindar children in Raamo’s class have been using tricks and illusions to feign Spirit-force while he has been able to use it properly, possibly explaining why he has been Chosen.

The next day, Raamo returns to the temple as instructed where he meets the other Chosen, Genaa. They are introduced to each Ol-zhaan and given further instructions pertaining to the upcoming public ceremony presenting the Chosen ones to the public. As he begins to leave, Raamo receives a pense from a shadowy figure who is glad to see his strong Spirit-powers, cryptically announcing that he has also chosen Raamo. A week later the ceremony is held, he once again receives penses from the unknown Ol-zhaan.

The year between the Ceremony of the Choosing and Raamo’s Elevation is known as the Year of Honor. Accompanied by Ol-zhaan, the two Chosen march in processions to the various cities in Green-sky where they are enthusiastically greeted by the public. During the journey to Genaa’s home city of Farvald, Raamo learns that her father is dead, captured by the Pan-shan, feared creatures that live trapped below the ground. Meanwhile, Raamo’s family has moved into their new home but his sister Pomma has been ill, possibly with a disease called “the wasting.” She has participated in healing ceremonies with an Ol-zhaan called D’ol Neric, to little avail. When Raamo sees Neric walking one day he tries to talk to him, but receives a pense telling him to stay back, revealing it was D’ol Neric who had pensed him before. During the Ceremony of Elevation, D’ol Neric again penses Raamo, telling him to return to the great hall after dark. At their secret meeting, Neric tells Raamo that the Ol-zhaan are hiding secrets about their loss of Spirit-skills, the health of the roots that secure Green-sky, and the nature of the Pash-shan. He learned this by overhearing a conversation of a secret society within the Ol-zhaan, who call themselves the “Geets-kel.” The two make plans to learn more through Raamo’s pensing of Ol-zhaan and Neric pledges to do all he can to help heal Pomma.

The next day, Raamo and Genaa begin intensive classes on the Ol-zhaan ways. In one session, they are told the secret story of how the Kindar civilization began—that they arrived in a spaceship from another planet that was consumed by war. They are told how the original Ol-zhaan created their utopian society, planted trees from their old planet for food, and used grunspreking to create the Holy Vine that protects them from the evil Pash-shan. Finally, they are told how the Spirit-skills were depleting and the Holy Vine withering, somehow because of the Pash-shan.

After class, Neric and Raamo have another private conference wherein they make plans for a clandestine trip to the forbidden forest floor. They soon make their descent and, once there, find a young weeping dark-skinned girl named Teera, apparently a kidnapped Kindar child. Raamo and Neric take the frightened Teera back up to the trees and hide her with Raamo’s family.

As the timid Teera befriends Pomma, Neric makes several visits to the D’ok household to learn more about the Pash-shan, while simultaneously Raamo attempts to learn about them through pensing Ol-zhann in his classes, including history lessons with high priestess D’ol Falla. Neric and Raamo exchange findings in secret meetings until Raamo has a free day to return to his family’s house to see Teera himself. Just as he is about to talk privately with the child, Genaa bursts in, having observed their meetings and spied on them. Hungry for information on the Pash-shan, she aggressively interrogates Teera, who shrinks back and refuses to answer questions. After sending Teera to bed, Raamo and Neric confess to Genaa their activities and the knowledge they have gained. Genaa agrees to keep their secret if she is allowed to join them, with her ultimate goal being the destruction of the Pash-shan. It is then that Pomma reveals that Teera is not a captured Kindar, but in fact a Pash-shan herself.

The news comes as a shock. Pomma reveals more, about how the Pash-shan (who refer to themselves as Erdlings) live in caverns under the ground, cook meat with the use of fire, wear animal skins, and catch food fallen from the Kindar’s orchard. They do not kidnap fallen Kindar children, but rescue them when they would otherwise starve. Neric deduces that the Ol-zhaan have trapped Kindar ancestors below the root and created an elaborate web of lies to hide this truth. Genaa is unconvinced but confirms that she will keep their secret so long as she is included in their plans.

Raamo, Neric, and Genaa make plans to return to the forest floor, but Genaa has skipped ahead to get an audience with Teera by herself. After hurrying to catch up with her, they arrive at the D’ok house to find that she has taken Teera to the forest floor alone. They eventually catch up, finding them kneeling on the ground with Teera calling for help into the caves below. Teera has told Genaa that her father is alive and has been living among the Pash-shan. Eventually an Erdling named Tocar appears at the entry of the cave, impassible due to the cage-like vines covering it. He knows of Genaa’s father and leaves to tell him his daughter is above the root, waiting to see him.

After a joyful reunion through the vines, Genaa’s father, Hiro D’anhk, tells how he was once a professor among the Kindar who started to do his own research into the nature of the Pash-shan, ruffling the feathers of the Ol-zhaan. He was surreptitiously down on the forest floor when he ran into some Geets-kel members who drugged him and deposited him below the root through a secret entryway, after which he wandered in a daze throughout the caves before being discovered by the Erdlings, who took him in. On hearing this, Genaa is on board with Raamo and Neric to expose the Geets-kel and work toward freeing the Pash-shan and her father.

The three conspirators plan to confront the highest member of the Ol-zhaan, D’ol Falla. They are not sure what her reaction will be, as Neric also knows her to be a member of the Geets-kel. The night before their planned confrontation, Raamo receives a Pense from D’ol Falla calling him to her chambers, to which he complies. She leads Raamo to a hidden room containing history books and relics from a more violent Kindar past, including metal weapons. She tells Raamo that after colonizing their new planet, Kindar society was split into two factions. One group, the followers of D’ol Wissen, wanted to forget all about the violence and negative emotions of the past and hide them from future generations to make a pure society. The other group, led by D’ol Nesh-om, wanted to retain their history. Eventually the first group prevailed and imprisoned the second beneath the roots of the trees, grown into an elaborate cage using the Spirit-power of grunspreking.

Gripping an ancient metal weapon, D’ol Falla tells Raamo that he is threatening to reveal the secrets they have protected for so long, and motions to attack him. Old and frail, she collapses to the floor as Raamo sits frozen. Fearing she may be dead, Raamo goes to lift her when D’ol Falla awakens and tells him her attack was feigned in an experiment to see if Raamo would instinctively attack her in return. Seeing that he is truly peaceful, she tells him her own story as Neric and Genaa listen in, having snuck into the doorway behind her. She admits participating in processions to the forest floor to take drugged Kindar to be trapped below the root. She has come to the conclusion that the Spirit-powers in Green-sky are vanishing because of the separation of the Kindar population. She describes a vision she had where a gifted child and two co-conspirators would save Green-sky. Eventually calling on Genaa and Neric to reveal themselves, D’ol Falla says she has been made aware of their activities by Ol-zhaan spies and that their purposes will soon be exposed. The four of them begin to discuss plans for reuniting the Kinder and Pash-shan.

External links

• Below the Root on Zilpha Keatley Snyder's website