Below the Root (novel)

Below the Root is a science fiction/fantasy novel by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, and it opens the Green Sky Trilogy. The story centers on Raamo D’ok, a 12-year-old Kindar boy living in a society that appears perfect.

He is chosen to join the Ol-zhaan, the elite rulers of Green-sky. Raamo possesses moderate versions of three rare "spirit-skills": telepathy, telekinesis, and the ability to influence plants. He connects with another Chosen, a child named Genaa, and starts receiving cryptic telepathic messages from a hidden figure who claims to have also selected him.

Plot summary

The Kindar are unaware that they descend from colonists who fled a war-torn world. Their society is engineered to suppress all "unjoyful" emotions, using mind-blocking techniques and Wissenberries to enforce this. Raamo learns that Genaa’s father was captured by the Pash-shan, the Erdlings living below the forest floor.

The Kindar are forbidden to even look at or think about the forest floor, which is separated from their world by a psychically reinforced root system. Raamo’s sister Pomma is gravely ill, and Ol-zhaan D’ol Neric has tried healing her without success. Neric later reveals himself as the one who called Raamo "twice chosen."

Neric secretly brings Raamo to a meeting. He has overheard a covert Ol-zhaan group called the Geets-kel. The Ol-zhaan have lost their spirit-skills and are hiding that the root system is weakening and the barrier is failing, threatening to release the Pash-shan. On a forbidden trip to the forest floor, they find a dark-skinned child named Teera, whom they assume is a kidnapped Kindar.

They hide her with Raamo’s family, where she befriends Pomma. Raamo and Neric then discover that Teera is actually an Erdling from an underground community, not a monster. Teera tells Genaa that her father is alive below. Genaa reunites with her father, Hiro D’anhk, through the vines; he explains that he and other Kindar were drugged and imprisoned by the Ol-zhaan.

Genaa, Raamo, and Neric commit to exposing the Geets-kel and freeing the prisoners. They are unexpectedly joined by the highest Ol-zhaan, D’ol Falla, who is herself a Geets-kel member.

She believes the spirit-skills are fading because of the separation between the two peoples. She warns them that spies have tracked their actions and will soon reveal their plans. The book ends with the group discussing what comes next.