The Rising Tide

by Helen Brain

  “That’s okay. We all make mistakes. Micah is back safe and sound, and that’s what really matters. And you saved Lucas.” She hugs me, and I hug her back, grateful that we’re friends again.

  “Look at this fat brown hen,” Jasmine says searching under the hedge. “She’s such a pain. She could be laying her eggs in the hen house, but no, she has to crawl in here where no one can find them.”

  I hope Lucas has found a safe place to hide like the brown hen. He didn’t come back to the house last night and I’m worried. I’ll find some blankets and pillows and leave them by the holy well later, in case he decides to stay hiding in the forest for a while.

  “It’s the Festival of the Boats today,” Jasmine says as we walk back to the house for breakfast. “It’s twenty years today since everyone decided to join their rafts together to form Boat Island. There’ll be music and food and dancing. We stop at the water barrel for a drink and she does a little twirl around the bucket, laughing. “Remember in the colony how we used to dream of going to a party? It would be such fun to go.”

  Her excitement infects me. Imagine hearing real music in the open air, and dancing in the sunshine.

  Everyone’s in the kitchen already, and I grab Micah’s hand. “Shall we go to the festival today? Shall we go and dance the day away?”

  He puts his arm around my waist and waltzes me around the kitchen table. “Why not? Let’s celebrate. I can’t wait to see the guards’ faces when they have to let us through the border post.”

  Suddenly I realise what this means. Leonid’s sister – my half-sister, Alexia – lives in Boat City with her mother, Natasja. I can finally meet my only other living relative.

  If she wants to meet me. I stop dancing mid-step.

  “Leonid,” I ask, my throat suddenly dry, “can we visit your family?”

  “I want to meet your family too,” Jasmine laughs, punching him playfully on the shoulder. “Or is it too soon?”

  “It’s not too soon. My mom’s been asking to meet you,” Leonid says, as serious as always.

  She hasn’t been asking to see me, I think and my heart drops. The daughter of her husband’s lover. She probably hates me even more than Leonid does.

  “I think I’ll stay at Greenhaven,” Letti says, glancing at Shorty. “You go, Aunty Figgy. You deserve some fun. Shorty and I can look after the farm.”

  Aunty Figgy pats Letti’s cheek. “You two children be good now,” she says.

  “That’s sorted then,” Micah says. “We should leave soon.”

  Suddenly I’m having doubts.

  What if the Boat Bayers find out that I’m on the council? Maybe I should stay at home.

  But Micah will protect me, I know. I don’t want to spend another moment away from him, so after breakfast I climb into the carriage with the others and we begin the long journey to the Longkloof.

  “AND THERE IT IS,” Aunty Figgy calls as we round the top of the pass and begin the descent through the Longkloof. The road clings to the mountainside like a creeper. Ruined houses litter the slope, doors and windows long stripped away for firewood. Looking over the edge, I see the top of the wall, as thick as the road we’re driving on, and below that flashes of blue sea in a narrow valley with mountains on the far side.

  Fez leans out the window, absorbing the new information. “So this strip of sea is – what did they call them again in the old world – a fjord?”

  “Yes, but it used to be land,” Aunty Figgy says. “Before the Calamity, this was a lush valley with beautiful houses but, as the sea rose, the valley filled with water.”

  “So there are actual houses under the sea?” Fez exclaims. “With furniture and cars and computers and stuff?”

  “People took what they could, but yes, they left a lot behind,” Aunty Figgy explains. “Remember, back then Cape Town was part of the mainland. But as the sea started rising and the storms got fiercer, they had to find new places to live. And then the High Priest built the wall and threw everyone out who wasn’t a citizen. Some people built houses on rafts, but if they weren’t in a sheltered place, they couldn’t survive. Leonid’s father – Leonid and Ebba’s father – came up with the idea of lashing all the rafts together to create an island. Then they negotiated with the fisher folk who had lived here for centuries to bring the floating island into the Longkloof, where it would be sheltered by the mountain. Our people contributed the inventions like the water harvesters and the fisher folk knew how to catch food, so they made an alliance, and Boat Bay was created.”

  We’ve reached the border post. The guards see me inside and wave us through. Word must have got out that I’m on the council.

  Leonid drives the carriage past the harbour, and around the mountainside to the entrance to the fjord. This is the port where the boats berth. Some are dhows, which the fishermen use when they go to sea. We watch a longboat coming into the harbour, rowed by ten men on each side. As it approaches the jetty, six or seven people emerge from a shed. They are carrying brown sacks on their backs.

  “Hey, those sacks come from the colony.” Jasmine is sitting up front with Leonid, but she turns and taps on the window. “See that?” She points to a man heaving a sack into the longboat.

  “Sacks of dehydrated vegetables,” Fez confirms, leaning out of the window. “They’ve got PTIC on the side: Property of Table Island City. I wonder how long they’ll be able to keep that up. They were running out of growing medium last time I looked.”

  “Then it will be up to Greenhaven to grow enough food for everyone,” I say, my stomach tightening into a knot. It seems an impossible task.

  Aunty Figgy is sitting opposite me, and she leans over and pats my hand. “Ebba, the Goddess controls everything that grows and flourishes. Greenhaven is abundant, and since you arrived, the crops have been growing even faster. You’ve got the gift, so just trust her, and it will be alright.”

  “But I don’t have my amulet,” I say. “I’ve lost my powers. I’ve lost Clementine.”

  “There are other amulets. You must find them.”

  I never thought I’d miss Clementine, but without her I’m like a little bird that’s fallen out of its nest. She protected me – I just had to rub my birthmark against the amulet and she’d be there with her little boy, smiling, speaking in my head. Since the amulet disappeared, she’s gone.

  Leonid stops the carriage under a tree near the entrance to the port. “We’ll have to walk from here,” he says, helping Jasmine down.

  A boy comes running up and takes the reins. He pats the horses and ties them to a hitching post. Leonid and Jasmine walk off hand in hand before the rest of us are even out of the carriage. I know what it is. He’s embarrassed to be seen with me. But then a girl comes dancing over to him. She’s got short, curly hair, a turned-up nose and a wide smile. She gives him a big hug, and then runs up to us, throwing her arms around me while I’m still climbing down from the carriage.

  “Ebba,” she laughs, hugging me tight. “My big sister Ebba. I’m Alexia.”

  She lets go and looks up into my face. I see myself in her, in the shape of her eyes, but hers are hazel and sparkling, and her hair is a pretty brown. She takes both my hands in hers and squeezes them. “I have been dying to meet you.”

  She’s the sort of person you like instantly. She’s so sunny and warm, it’s hard to imagine she’s related to Leonid.

  “Come on,” she says, taking my hand. “Let me show you everything.”

  I look back to check with Micah, who smiles and waves. “Off you go,” he says. “I’ll find you later.”

  Alexia leads me up a path, and past the houses that are built into the mountainside. The ugly grey wall looms over us, cutting off Table Island City from everyone who lives in Boat Bay. The houses here have been built out of anything and everything: scraps of wood, shipping containers, old boats.

  “How huge is this house!” I exclaim, as Alexia takes me around a corner.

  “It’s a luxury yacht,” she says. “It must hav
e belonged to one of the super-rich in the old world. My uncle and aunt found it washed up further along the coast. It took them weeks to get it up the hillside and wedged safely here.”

  We peer through one of the windows. It looks so cosy inside, with bunk beds and wooden lockers against the sides. It reminds me of our sleeping cell in the colony.

  “What are these for?” I ask, pointing at the nets that hang between the yacht and the wooden house next door.

  “It’s foggy here in the mornings. The nets trap water in the mist and it runs into rain barrels for storage. Come on,” she says, jumping down onto one of the boardwalks that lead onto the island. “Let’s cross over to the other side.”

  I follow her curiously. Is this island really made out of thousands of plastic barrels lashed together? It doesn’t look like it. A thick layer of soil covers the floating island. Fynbos has sprouted in patches – I can see geraniums and wild rosemary, and there’s even some grass. I bend down at the end of the boardwalk and peer into the water. There they are below us: blue barrels bound together into rows with ropes. “Come on,” Alexia says, pulling me off the walkway and onto the island.

  People are milling around laughing, eating, dancing to the music of a band. The beat and the pounding of feet makes a vibration that rocks the island gently, despite it’s tethering posts. It feels like the island itself is dancing.

  I feel shy, but Alexia is so happy that it’s impossible not to be drawn in. She takes my hand and we weave across the island with the laughing crowd, which is dancing in a huge circle.

  “Come on,” she says as we reach the opposite side. “I’ll take you to meet my mother, Natasja.”

  I take a step back. “Your mother? Surely she doesn’t want to see me. She must hate me.”

  She laughs. “Of course she doesn’t. My mom’s not like that.”

  I’m not so sure. I’m filled with apprehension as she leads me across a walkway and up a steep path to a white-painted house set into the cliff face. I pause to get my breath, looking down over the hundreds of people dancing and singing below me. Maybe I should go back and find Micah. I can meet Alexia’s mom another day.

  But Alexia takes my hand. “Come in,” she says, opening the red front door to a tiny cottage made from two shipping containers.

  The first room is the kitchen. There’s a table and four chairs. Pots and pans hang on hooks on the wall above the wood stove. Through the doorway, I can see a double bed and a small cupboard.

  An older woman drops the clothing she’s washing in a bucket and comes over to greet me, drying her hands on her apron.

  “Ebba,” she says formally, holding out her hand. “I’m pleased to meet you. I am Natasja.”

  I can see Leonid in her – she has the same serious face, the same strong eyebrows. I draw back a little, expecting her to be as critical as he is, but she takes my hand and squeezes it.

  “I can’t thank you enough for employing my son,” she says. “Work is scarce here at the harbour, and it’s such a relief to know he’s got a good job.”

  I feel myself blushing. It’s awkward having her thank me. “Th-thank you,” I stutter, wishing Leonid saw it that way.

  “And Jasmine too,” she says. “They were just here. Such a lovely girl. I’m sure she’s so grateful that you got her out of the colony. It can’t have been easy for you.”

  Tears prick my eyes. Natasja is the first person to appreciate how hard it’s been.

  Alexia tugs my sleeve. “Next time you’re looking for staff, will you consider me? I’m only sixteen, but I can cook and sew, and I can make things out of just about anything.”

  “Alexia, you’re my half-sister – you can’t come to the farm as my servant. Leonid was already working there when I arrived, but you’re different.” Heat is rising in my face and I turn away from her, trying to hide it.

  “It’s the only way I can leave Boat Bay,” she says. “Please. Leonid says Greenhaven is awesome. And it means one less mouth for my mom to feed.”

  Her mother is looking at me expectantly. I glance around the cottage again, at the sparse possessions, her mother’s ragged clothing. There’s clearly not much money coming into this house.

  “Of course,” I say quickly. “You can come with us today if you like?” Then, to cover my embarrassment, I say with a grin. “You can keep an eye on Leonid and Jasmine for me – make sure they don’t get up to mischief.” Then I blush deeply, because I hear myself sounding just as prudish as Aunty Figgy.

  Down on the floating island, a horn blows.

  “Food’s ready,” Natasja says, taking off her apron. “Let’s go and eat.”

  As Natasja and Alexia set off, I pause on the doorstep, searching the crowd below for Micah. He’s not among the group dancing. He’s not standing chatting around the fires, where some men are turning fish on the braais. I scan the whole island from the furthest point of the inlet to the edge where it looks out into the bay.

  Then, suddenly, I see him.

  He’s half hidden behind a rain tank, a little way down the hill below me, and he’s talking to a girl. She’s tall, with a figure like a model from the old world. Her long neck is shown off by the bright cloth she’s wound in a turban around her head. She turns slightly, waving her hand as she makes a point and I see her high cheekbones and dazzling smile.

  A flash of jealousy cuts through me.

  I pause, not sure what to do. I’m scared – she reminds me of Bonita Mentoor, the prettiest girl in the Colony. Bonita had a tongue like a knife and she wasn’t scared to use it. Once, in the recreation room, the girls were all together watching a kinetika about animals; when it was over, she said, “I heard that people with red hair are orang-utans.” Everyone looked at me and laughed, except for Jasmine and Letti.

  “Let’s take her up to Level 1 and lock her in one of the animal cages,” Bonita said.

  I shrieked as she and her friend Vanessa grabbed me, chanting, “’Rang-utang, ’rang-utang.” The guards just stood there grinning as they dragged me almost all the way to the stairwell. Then Rifda, another Year One, shouted, “Leave her! I heard she’s got witch’s powers. She’ll turn us into frogs or something.”

  They paused, then Bonita scoffed, “She’s an ape-witch,” and gave me a shove before she and Vanessa walked off. I heard the others laughing as she said, “She’s not even human. They meant to dump her at the zoo when she was a baby.”

  And now I have to walk right past Micah and this girl I’ve never seen before. Do I pretend I don’t know that they’re there, hidden behind the rain tanks? Should I call Micah? Run down and introduce myself to her?

  I’m dithering, wondering what to do, when she leans forward, puts her arms around Micah’s neck and kisses him on the lips. Not the way he kisses me, but still there’s something intimate about the way they’re standing together, a bit too close.

  I feel like the hillside has dropped away from under me. I don’t stand a chance against her.

  She runs off down the hill, turning to wave as she crosses the boardwalk. Micah looks around quickly like he’s checking if they’ve been spotted. He doesn’t see me in the shadow of the doorway.

  Then Alexia comes running back. “Hey, slowcoach. Come on. Did you get lost?”

  I want to tell her what I’ve seen but I don’t know her well enough, so I fake a smile and fiddle with the strap of my sandal. “Sorry, no. Just taking a stone out of my shoe.”

  Sauntering out from behind the rain tank, Micah sees me and waves. “Come on,” he calls. “I’m starving.”

  As we line up for food, everyone wants to talk to him – but I hover on the edges, smiling at everyone, trying to show that I’m not like the other citizens.

  Still, the people keep their distance.

  They don’t know I’m the illegitimate daughter of Darius Maas, their big hero. As far as they’re concerned, I’m the rich girl with the farm. And I’m on the council, so I’m the enemy.

  “Come on,” Alexia says when we’ve eat
en. “It’s boring here. Let’s go and dance.”

  She leads me to where the band is playing at the far end of the floating island, where the fjord meets the sea. I pause, overawed by the view of the ocean stretching out to the vast, empty horizon.

  I wish Micah and I could sail out of the bay in a yacht like the one Alexia’s aunt and uncle live in. We could sail around the world, just the two of us, with no beautiful girls trying to steal him away from me.

  Alexia takes my hand and I feel awkward as she starts dancing. They’re all going to laugh at me for being so tall and clumsy. But the beat is infectious, and I soon lose my self-consciousness and join in.

  That’s when I notice the girl again. The girl who kissed Micah. She’s dancing in the middle of a ring of people, swaying her hips and moving like a snake to the beat of the music. All the men are watching her, and she’s loving it, tossing back her long, dark curls.

  “Who’s that?” I whisper to Alexia.

  “Oh, her,” she sneers. “That’s Miffy. Well, that’s what we used to call her. Now she’s apparently decided her name is Samantha-Lee. Can’t stand her. She’s so in love with herself. And what kind of a stupid name is that? Samantha-Lee.” She spits out the words.

  She’s in love with my boyfriend too, I think, not daring to tell Alexia what I saw, although I’m desperate to.

  “Where does she live?” I ask instead.

  Alexia points across the island to a faded red wooden house close to the water’s edge. “She lives there with Uncle Chad and his family.”

  “Chad the maintenance worker for the city?”

  “That’s him. He adopted her when she was a baby. Micah lived with them for a long time when he first escaped from the bunker.”

  The music drains out of me and I stop dancing. She looks at least four years older than me, gorgeous and totally self-confident – you can see it in the lift of her chin, the way she stands with her shoulders back. I don’t stand a chance against her.

  CHAPTER 5

  Alexia thinks Greenhaven is perfect. She wants to see everything, so I give her a tour of the house, the jonkershuis where we have the farm office, the barn, the rooms over the coach house where the guys stay, the old slave lodge and even the old wine cellar, which hasn’t been used for years.