Читать книгу Elevation 3: The Fiery Spiral - Helen Brain - Страница 12

CHAPTER 5

EBBA

I don’t get hungry or thirsty here, and it seems I don’t need to sleep. I’ve been trudging for hours, days, over dune after dune, Isi running by my side, and nothing changes. It never gets dark because there’s no sun, and there are no shadows to lengthen and show me the day is drawing to a close. Am I really going forward? I check for footprints. It’s the only way I have of seeing if this is fresh ground I’m covering. I’m still aiming for the mountains, but are they the right mountains? If Micah were here, he’d know. He spent all that time hiding out in the mountains – both when he was thrown out of the bunker and lay for weeks injured in a cave, and later when we escaped from the dungeon, and the soldiers were searching for us. He acted as a scapegoat and led them away so we could escape.

I trusted him with all my heart then, but I will never trust him again. He told me he loved me, and he only truly loved Samantha-Lee. Everything we had between us was a fraud. He was just pretending so he could get the farm and the power that went with being able to grow so much food. That’s what Francis says, anyway.

But that’s not like the Micah I’ve known all my life. He looked out for me when I was the youngest person in the colony, one who hadn’t been selected by the authorities to be in there because of my parents’ achievements. When I was teased and bullied and called names because of my red hair, he defended me.

He loved me when I had nothing, when I was nothing. Maybe what I saw in the flask was only a fantasy of all my darkest fears. Maybe Francis was wrong about him. How could an old man living inside a rock know what happened in the council chamber inside a mountain, far away on Earth?

But that man pretending to be my father – whoever he was – he might have made it all up to trick me out of the necklace. I don’t know whom to believe. It seems that everybody is out to get what I have: my farm, my necklace, my wealth. I have no idea if Micah truly betrayed me, or if he came to the council chamber to save me. I’ll have to check the flask again and see for myself.

As soon as I take it out of my pocket, Isi begins to whimper and pace around me, nudging my hand. I hold the flask by the neck and begin to swirl it. She whines louder.

“Be quiet, Isi,” I snap. “I’m trying to concentrate.”

She gives two sharp barks and then backs off. I keep whirling, trying to get the exact movement of the wrist my not-father used. And then, suddenly, I’m at Greenhaven.

There’s a crowd of people on the beach. Twenty, thirty long boats are pulled up into the sand. I recognise some of the people. They’re from Boat Bay. They’ve brought hammers and crowbars, and are bashing away at the culvert in the wall, enlarging it so they can rip out the grid and get onto my property. Samantha-Lee is standing there, hands on her hips, and people scurry around her.

“Carry on,” she calls to them. “No slacking.” She turns back into the forest and heads up towards the ruins of my house.

How dare she just take over and break down my wall? Greenhaven still belongs to me, but she’s taken it over as though she is the owner. I need to know if my sabenzis are safe. I move my wrist faster, tilting the flask. The water swirls and I find what I’m looking for: Aunty Figgy’s room in the old slave lodge.

“Why isn’t she back? Why isn’t she back?” Alexia says again and again, twisting her hands as she paces the tiny space between the bed and wardrobe.

Aunty Figgy’s voice is bitter as she stares out of the small window. “I knew that boy was up to something. I just knew it. But she would not listen. Now who knows where she is?”

Letti and Fez sit side by side on the bed, saying nothing, but Fez is chewing his lip, and Letti has picked away her cuticles until they’re raw.

I need to let them know I’m safe. I focus on them, on the room, trying to channel my thoughts to them. “I’m alive. I’m not injured. I’m just far away in Celestia, and I’m trying to get back to you.”

Alexia lifts her head as though she’s listening. She’s getting it. She’s hearing me. But then the others hear it too … Footsteps outside and a knock on the door. Alexia opens the door. Micah is there, with Samantha-Lee.

“I’m very sad to tell you, I have tragic news,” Micah says. His face is pale and drawn. He seems genuinely heartbroken. “As you know, I had a bad feeling about Ebba and the council meeting this morning. Just after she left this morning we got intelligence that the general was planning to kill her.”

Aunty Figgy’s face is ashen. “I knew it. I knew it. I knew it,” she mutters. She grips Letti’s hand.

“I immediately saddled Ponto and rode off after the carriage, hoping to get there in time to warn her. Unfortunately, I got there too late. They defended themselves bravely, but in the conflict that ensued …” He pauses as his voice breaks, “Ebba and Lucas tragically gave up their lives. She will always be our hero and she will live on, forever, in our hearts.”

There’s a shocked silence. Letti gives a cold, sharp wail. Micah wipes his eyes on his sleeve. Next to him Samantha-Lee bows her head so her long curls fall over her face. It feels like someone has taken a hot iron straight from the fire and branded her name across my stomach. With me out of the way, she’s all his. And now I know the truth. He set me up to kill the general, and then he betrayed me. I trusted him. I gave him everything. He never loved me after all.

Aunty Figgy stares at them both for a moment, and then she grabs the neck of Micah’s robe, yanks him towards her and slaps his face so hard that the sound rings in the small room. “You did this. You did this,” she screams and slaps him again. “You killed her.”

“Come, Aunty Figgy.” Alexia tugs her away. “This isn’t helping.”

She breaks free. In two strides she’s in front of Samantha-Lee. She sucks in her cheeks and spits in her face. “May the Goddess curse you,” Aunty Figgy screams. “May you two suffer for this, for now and all eternity. I curse you. I curse you until the end of time.”

“You will pay for this, old lady,” Samantha-Lee growls, wiping her face with her sleeve. For once she’s not looking beautiful, but ugly and twisted. She gestures to Micah. “Come on.”

The moment they’re gone Aunty Figgy bursts into tears. “I knew it. I told her not to go.” Alexia takes her in her arms and rocks her. “I tried to warn her. She wouldn’t listen.”

“Shh. There now,” Alexia murmurs. “Shh.” And she rubs her back like a baby, although tears are running down her own face.

I focus all my energy on her crumpled body. “Aunty Figgy, I’m here. Don’t cry. They didn’t kill me. Lucas had the last amulet. We succeeded. We opened the portal …”

But the room becomes less distinct, as though it’s covered with grey film, and their faces disintegrate into water again. I’m back in Celestia, too stunned to do anything but stare at the flask.

You can’t trust men, I decide. They’re all just out to screw you over. I’m never falling in love ever again.

LUCAS

Sadly, although I am in paradise, with beauty, with animals and plant life to discover, with nobody to torment me, with all the time alone I have ever wanted, I am restless. Isi hasn’t come back and I’m uncharacteristically pained by her absence.

The restlessness builds until I am forced to run to escape it. But no matter how far I run, how hard my feet pound the rich, crumbling soil, no matter how many shrubs and succulents and trees laden with strange and delicious fruit I pass, the restlessness chases me like a looming shadow intent on consuming me.

It feels so real that I find myself repeatedly glancing over my shoulder, hoping to see whatever is casting this ominous shadow.

Finally, I quickly slip behind a tree, hoping to catch sight of the spectre, but no monster emerges from the bushes. The birds stop singing as I pass, and looking back on the path I have come, the colours are a little more faded and the light dimmer, as though a cloud has passed over the sun. There is no cloud; the sky is as vividly blue as ever.

The more convinced I become that something is pursuing me, the more deeply I am concerned that it may also be pursuing Ebba. I must find her to check on her wellbeing. I need to. I do not wish to. But it is my duty to ensure that she is safe.

So turning back, I run towards the shadow, trying to contain the anxiety encroaching into my chest. But oddly, as I run towards the place where I saw her last, the pressure of the shadow begins to dissipate. I wonder if Francis knows what I am doing. If so, I hope he’s pleased to see me attempting to care about another human being.

I find her sitting alone on a rock, half hidden behind a shrub that looks like buchu. Her auburn hair falls over her face, her big toe scratching in the dirt. She looks extremely unhappy.

I am uncertain how to proceed. The shadow that pursued me has disappeared, to my relief. I have checked that she is safe. I should go. But – does this qualify as engaging with another person? Or do I actually have to speak to her?

Dawdling there, undecided, I recall another time she looked equally unhappy. Up until that point she had not registered much in my consciousness. I knew she had inherited everything from old Ms Den Eeden, but Hal had claimed her as his, and I considered that anyone interested in my brother must be as vacuous as he.

The morning of the Shrine service when my father announced she and Hal would be getting married, I presumed she would be delighted. I watched with interest as her expression changed to one of horror and she was taken against her will into the antechamber to be prepared for the ceremony. When Ma Evelyn came rushing out, bleeding from a stab wound, I had to work hard to hide my delight. Perhaps Ebba showed some of Ms Den Eeden’s determination and spirit after all.

My father would not allow her to get away with publicly humiliating him. After a night in the dungeon he would almost certainly execute her friends and force an immediate marriage to Haldus.

Greenhaven needed her. If she married Hal, my father would gain control over it. I bribed my way into the dungeon by bringing the guards wine, dosed with an infusion of herbs from a recipe I’d found in the Book of the Goddess. I located her cell, and found her as sad and pensive as she looks now. I sat quietly with her, relishing the company of a young female who didn’t feel the need to chatter like my sister and her friends. When the wine had taken effect, I left, dropping a map of the dungeon and leaving the gate unlocked. Would she be brave enough to attempt an escape? The next day she was back at Greenhaven.

She has not noticed me watching her, she is too intent on staring at something in the palm of her hand. At last she looks up, gives a sigh and her shoulders droop.

She turns towards me, still not seeing me, and before I am able to control myself, I call her name.

She jumps up, relief flooding her face. She holds her arms out to me. Oh, sweet Goddess, she’s going to hug me and I don’t know how to hold a girl – a woman. I might do it wrong. I’m not like Micah and Hal who knew all the right moves, and put them to good use.

But I am spared. She stops suddenly mid-stride, and her face closes. “Oh … it’s you … Hello.”

Her voice is cold and I’m overcome by a curious mingling of relief that she doesn’t greet me with more enthusiasm, and pain.

I cannot think of the right thing to say beyond “hello”. I stand there awkwardly, wishing I had my brother’s silver tongue.

“I’m enjoying my journey,” she says, though even a blind man would see this is a blatant lie. “I’m on my way to the mountains. I’ve got a long way to go.”

What have I done to offend her?

“I have to be off,” she says. “Good to see you again.”

I stare after her as she strides off, Isi close at her heels. Why can’t I find the right words? Why, when confronted by people, am I struck dumb? Isi didn’t come up to me either, and that oddly pains me too.

This is enough. I have done what Francis demanded. I have opened my heart and, like the rest of humanity, she finds me repulsive.

So I go back to my studies, spending my days observing the peaceful way the creatures coexist in this world. The plants are more beautiful, the birdsong more exquisite, the strength and agility and diversity of animals more marvellous than I could have imagined. And yet … something is missing. There is too much beauty and harmony. There is nothing to counterbalance it. Nothing except the growing sense that darkness looms over my shoulder, becoming more ominous the further I walk away from Ebba.