by Helen Brain
“Ebba,” Jasmine snaps. “You can’t carry me.”
“Shut up and get on my back.” She makes her way back past the twins. I crouch down and she climbs up and holds me around my neck. “Please, Goddess,” I beg. “Please, Clementine – beg Theia to have mercy on us.”
The water’s rising. It sounds like two streams are converging. Fez stops dead. “It’s up to my chin,” he says.
“And mine,” Letti says. “I’m so tired. I don’t know if I can go much further.” Their voices quaver, barely audible above the rushing water.
I can’t carry all of them. I’m also tired. Already I’ve lost my footing twice in the current. What are we going to do? Then I hear Clementine’s voice in my head. “Let go. Trust.”
“We’ll have to lie down and let the water carry us,” I say.
“We’ll drown.” Jasmine is adamant.
“We can float on our backs – if we don’t panic. If we stay calm, our faces will be above the surface.”
“I don’t want to,” Letti whimpers. “I’m scared.”
“We don’t have any choice,” Fez says. “Let’s just lie back and pretend we’re in our bunks, dreaming of how the world used to be.”
“I wish I was still in the colony,” Letti says. “I wish we’d never tried to escape.”
Jasmine’s voice is firm. “I don’t. One day in the world above is worth a lifetime below.”
I think of her and Leonid laughing together as they washed the dishes in the kitchen of Greenhaven. I think of Micah. My love.
“One day,” I say, “we’ll have a beautiful new world. Everything will be green and fresh. The birds will sing. We’ll all live together on Greenhaven. We’ll be able to marry whoever we want and our children will play together, climbing the trees and swimming in the pond. We’ll pull down the wall and let everyone onto the island who wants to be here. We’ll find the amulets and the Goddess will heal the earth …”
Standing behind Letti, I hold her shoulders. “Just lean back,” I say gently. “Trust the Goddess. She’ll keep you safe.”
Her body is so tense. “Relax,” I whisper. “Pretend you’re falling asleep.”
She lies back in my arms and I lower her into the water. She struggles a bit, but my arm is still around her. “Go safely,” I whisper, and let her go. Then it’s Fez’s turn. “Breathe deeply,” I say as he lies back in the water. “Hold your arms out to the side.”
Then it’s Jasmine’s turn. She gasps as the back of her head hits the water.
There’s no one left. I’m alone in the dark. “Into your arms,” I pray, and the current carries me away.
CHAPTER 13
Is the river carrying us to our deaths ? It’s so dark. So cold.
How much longer?
Goddess, how much longer?
I hear Jasmine’s voice from further downstream. She’s still counting as she floats, but I know she’s just doing it to fill the emptiness of the dark tunnel. “Six hundred and forty-six, six hundred and forty-seven, six hundred and …”
When will we reach the surface? What if we come out in the sea? Or too close to the shrine?
Is Fez alright? He’s been coughing so badly.
How will the twins survive on Silvermine Island? It will be night when we reach the surface, if we ever reach it. Fez won’t survive a night in wet clothes. No one in the settlement will help us. They’ll take us straight back to the shrine.
Think calm thoughts. Keep calm. It will all be alright.
The rush is getting louder. There’s less air. I put my hand up – my fingers brush the top of the tunnel.
“Hey?” Letti squeals. “Hey …” Her voice disappears.
“Letti?” I call. “Letti?” I take a deep breath as my forehead scrapes the ceiling. Goddess. Help us.
MY LUNGS ARE bursting.
It’s the end. After all this. The end. The water pushes forward, faster and faster.
Then suddenly the pressure releases. I open my eyes. There’s light. I’m moving upwards. I burst out into fresh air. Letti is hugging Jasmine. Fez is gazing around him, his mouth open. They’re standing. We’re standing. We’ve all survived.
“Where are we?”
Jasmine is grinning from ear to ear. “You’ll never guess.”
The first stars are twinkling in the evening sky. Trees surround us. A frog croaks in the reeds. My heart sings.
We’re in the holy well on Greenhaven. And Isi is waiting for me, wagging her tail.
The Goddess has brought us home.
AUNTY FIGGY DISSOLVES into tears when we creep through the front door. We’ve had to wait in the cold for Shorty and Victor to go to bed and we’re freezing. She grabs towels and builds up the fire in the kitchen stove. She finds us clean clothes and oohs and aahs over Letti and Fez. Her face lights up when Fez tells her he’s hungry.
“You need feeding up,” she says, feeling his scrawny arms.
I ask her if there’s news of Micah, but she tells me she has heard nothing.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Jasmine says, patting my shoulder. “If anyone knows how to survive, it’s Micah.”
Aunty Figgy feeds us scrambled eggs on toast, and sweet tea. “So where’s the famous malva pudding?” Fez asks with a grin.
“Tomorrow, tomorrow,” she laughs.
Our tummies are full and the twins are almost asleep on their feet. I show them to my room and they collapse onto the bed and are asleep almost at once.
Jasmine sneaks down to call Leonid and they return to the kitchen. “I knew you’d make it,” he says, almost smiling at me. “Atherton and his soldiers were here this afternoon, pulling the place apart, so we knew you’d escaped.”
I shudder. Thank God we didn’t come back here right away. “What do we do next?” I say. “We’re fugitives.”
“We can’t stay here,” Jasmine says. “Not even you, Ebba. You attacked the High Priest’s wife. They could exile you.”
“They need your produce,” Leonid says. “When you’re here the farm produces ten times as much. So as long as you stay on Greenhaven and deliver your taxes, there’s a good chance he’ll leave you alone.”
Aunty Figgy nods. “You’re right. He needs Ebba to find the missing amulets.”
Leonid shrugs. “Whatever. So Ebba should stay. But the rest of you …” His eyes fall on Jasmine, and his face softens. “It’s not safe for you here. We’ll have to get you to Silvermine Island somehow.”
“I’m staying,” Jasmine says. “I’ll put on my ordinary clothes. They won’t recognise me.”
“But your hair?” Leonid says.
“Wait,” I say. I run to the cupboard with the hats and find the wig Pamza was playing with. “Here,” I say, putting it on her head. “It looks like it could be your own hair. We just need to trim it a bit and clip it back.”
Leonid looks relieved. He takes Jasmine’s hand and squeezes it.
“That leaves the twins,” Aunty Figgy says. “We won’t be able to get them out yet. The soldiers will be searching every buggy entering the harbour and every boat leaving too. They’ll be on high alert. We’ve got to find somewhere to hide them.”
“Somewhere where Shorty won’t find them,” Jasmine says bitterly.
“Come with me,” Aunty Figgy says, getting up from the table.
She takes us into the study and points to the ceiling-high mahogany bookcase. “Push this to the right,” she orders.
We put our shoulders to the bookcase and shove as hard as we can. Just as it feels like my head is going to burst, the bookcase shifts an inch, and then it slides away from the wall, revealing a trapdoor in the floor.
Jasmine is already in the gap, and she grips the iron ring recessed into the trapdoor and tugs. It lifts up. Inside is a musty, pitch-black hole.
“What’s down there?” I ask. It looks terrifying. Far worse than the watercourse.
“It’s the farm’s bunker,” Aunty Figgy says. “It’s where we went during the Calamity.”
&
nbsp; Aunty Figgy hands us two oil lamps, and Jasmine climbs down the ladder into the darkness. Leonid and I follow.
The bunker must have been part of the cellar once. It smells like soil, and the air is cold. Aunty Figgy passes down brooms and dustpan brushes.
“Sweep up the worst of the dust,” she calls.
The floor is made of earth, so I can’t see the point of sweeping it, but I attack the spiderwebs that hang from the ceiling beams. There’s a living area, with a small kitchen to one side. The second room is a bedroom, with eight bunk beds in a row. We focus on this room, brushing the dust off the mattresses. Jasmine goes back up the ladder, and fetches bed linen. We get to work making up two beds.
There are packets of candles in the storeroom, and I place a candle into each of the sconces that are set into the walls.
We go through the third door into a bathroom. Here, huge rain barrels loom in the semi-darkness. There’s a pair of basins, and behind a door I see a toilet.
“It’s weird down here,” Jasmine says as we wipe down the bathroom. “It’s like being back in the colony. I can’t believe we spent sixteen years living like this, never breathing fresh air.”
When we’re done, Aunty Figgy wakes Fez and Letti and they climb down into the bunker. I can see how disappointed they are to be back underground.
“It won’t be for long,” I promise them. “You’ve just got to stay here until the High Priest stops searching. He’ll never find you here, not ever.”
I kiss them goodnight. “Thank the Goddess we’re all safe,” I say. “I’ll bring you some hot food tomorrow morning.”
We go back up the ladder, close the trapdoor and push the bookcase into place. I’m exhausted and nothing has ever felt as good as my soft bed.
CHAPTER 14
The next morning Shorty greets me with a huge smile.
“Praise Prospiroh you’re home, Miss Ebba,” he says. “We were so worried about you. Weren’t we, Victor? We’ve been so unwell, but I was just saying to Aunty Figgy last night that if you weren’t home today I was going to go to Mr Frye and beg him to speak to the High Priest.
“We heard all about the wedding of course, and I must say I don’t approve. I mean you’re just a young girl. What are you, fourteen, fifteen? You can’t be expected to make grown-up decisions, and surely you’re too young to get married.
“Not that Haldus isn’t a charming young man, but you’re just too young. Isn’t she, Aunty Figgy?
“I mean, what’s the rush? You can wait a year or two, surely?”
I want to hit him.
“Where’s Mike this morning?” he continues, buttering his toast. “Is he alright? I thought I was going to die I got so nauseous. I hope he’s feeling better.”
“Mike’s still unwell,” Aunty Figgy says calmly. “I’m going to take some mint tea and dry toast to him.” She points to the tray laid ready on the counter. I realise she’s been pretending to feed and nurse him for days to put Shorty off the scent.
Victor, as usual, says nothing.
I need a break from Shorty’s incessant chattering so I tell him to go with Victor and Leonid to clear weeds in the cabbage patch.
He looks surprised. “But I’ve got to do the books, miss,” he says.
“Shorty, just do as I say,” I snap, and his big eyes open wide with surprise.
“Yes, yes, at once, miss,” he says jumping up and pushing back his chair.
I’m worried sick about Micah. Has he escaped? Or is he lying dead on the mountain side? Perhaps they shot him and left him there, and he’s too badly injured to reach help. I’m torturing myself thinking of the worst possible outcomes. Jasmine sees me picking at my cuticles.
“You need some really hard work to make you sweat and get your mind off him,” she says. “Come and work in the kitchen garden. You can turn over the compost heap.”
I get a pitchfork and jab it into the steaming compost heap, imagining that it’s the High Priest I’m stabbing. Jasmine works on the seedlings in the greenhouse. She comes out to check on me every now and then, and I’m grateful. This is the old Jas who has my back. At around eleven o’clock we hear horses on the driveway. Jasmine runs to check who it is. But I already know – it’s got to be Captain Atherton.
I keep digging, though my stomach is knotting. Then Aunty Figgy opens the kitchen door and calls, “Miss Ebba! Miss Ebba!”
But it’s not Captain Atherton. Major Zungu is storming down the pathway, followed by Mr Frye, red-faced and flustered as he tries to keep up.
“How can I help you, Major?” I say coldly, ramming the pitchfork into the ground and resting my foot on it.
“You’re under arrest,” he snaps, grabbing my arm.
I try to pull away but his grip is like a handcuff.
“Please, Ebba,” Mr Frye says, flapping his arms like a frantic chicken. “Just do as he says. Please. It will be better in the long run.”
They propel me to the carriage and force me inside. Mr Frye sits between me and the door. Major Zungu takes the seat opposite, where he can watch every move I make.
The driver whips up the horses and without another word we set off at a smart gallop.
Isi runs after the carriage, barking wildly. The coachman flicks her with his whip. “Don’t you dare touch my dog again!” I yell, banging on the window.
We reach the gates of Greenhaven. As we turn into the road, Major Zungu reaches forward and grips my amulet. “What’s so special about this?” he says, leering at me.
“Nothing,” I say, grabbing the chain. “It’s just an old necklace from my mother.”
He pulls harder. “The High Priest might decide to forget about your indiscretion if you present this to him,” he says coldly.
“Leave it. It’s mine.”
He tugs again. The clasp breaks and the amulet falls off the chain. He shoves it into his pocket. “Where are your friends?” he snarls, jabbing his finger into my chest.
“My friends?” I clutch the empty chain. It’s hot in my fingers.
“The prisoners. Where are they?”
“I haven’t seen anyone,” I snap. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Give me back my amulet.”
“If you tell us what we need to know.”
Rage engulfs me. I leap on him, scratching his eyes. “The Goddess is with me!” I yell. “Give me my amulet.”
He punches me in my stomach, but I’m exploding with anger. I smash the heel of my hand into his nose.
“The Goddess is with me!” I scream again. I grab his robe, reaching for the pocket. “Give it back!”
He throws me against the window. The glass breaks and a shard slices my scalp. The horses whinny, tossing their heads.
“Control the bloody horses!” Mr Frye yells to the coachman.
I attack again. I want to rip out his windpipe, but Major Zungu blocks me, so I sink my teeth into his bicep.
“You little bitch!” he yells. He grabs my arm and twists it behind my back. “Where are they?” he yells. “Where are your friends?”
“Don’t harm her,” Mr Frye screeches. “Don’t harm her.”
The horses break into a full gallop. The carriage is rocking as they careen down the road. The major jerks my arm upwards, dislocating it. I’m forced forward, bent over. Blood drips onto the floor from my head wound.
Despite the pain, I stamp my foot on his sandal.
“Bitch!” he yells, slapping me across the head.
We hit a pothole with a jolt that almost breaks my arm. The carriage rocks to one side and he loosens his grip. I’m propelled against the door and it bursts open.
I hit the road, grazing the skin off my arms and legs. The impact rolls me onto my aching shoulder, then over again, into a ditch.
“Stop! Stop!” Mr Frye is screaming.
The coachman is standing up, trying to control the horses. They hit another pothole and the carriage jolts to the left, then rights itself. The coachman goes flying into the road. The horses snort, their
necks arched, their tails flying behind them. They misjudge the bend in the road. The carriage hits the white farm wall and flips over.
The amulet. I have to get the amulet.
A horse is screaming. Major Zungu is crawling out of the carriage window. He sees me and gets to his feet. I turn and run for the farm wall. I’ve got to get back onto Greenhaven. Can I get over? The wall’s only chest-high, but my injured shoulder can’t take my weight. I jump as high as I can and grip the top, hanging on, gasping from pain. The major is right behind me.
“Get away,” I snarl, kicking out at him. I hear his nose crack and he yells.
I take the gap, dragging myself up and over.
I land with a thud. I stagger up and run, clutching my shoulder. Blood is running into my eyes. I wipe it away and keep running, through the furrowed new lands, through the gate, into the orchard. My breath is jagged but I’m bolting like the horses. When Leonid reaches me, I’m ready to collapse. He throws me over his shoulder and carries me to the house.
CHAPTER 15
Aunty Figgy is beside herself when she sees the amulet is gone. She cleans up the blood and stitches my wound closed. She and Leonid force my shoulder back into its socket and strap it in a sling.
“The amulet,” she keeps muttering. “Her blood has been spilt. Dear Goddess, protect us all.” She sends Leonid and Jasmine to the carriage wreck to see if they can find it.
“What does the Book of the Goddess mean about the dark forces being released?” I ask when she brings me a cup of herbal tea to help with the pain. I’m terrified to hear the answer, but I’m more scared of facing it unprepared. “What are dark forces?”
She tightens her lips. “I don’t know. Just be very vigilant,” she says, checking my head wound to see if it’s stopped bleeding. “Hopefully they didn’t spill too much of your blood.”
Victor knocks on my bedroom door. “Miss Ebba, I heard you were in an accident,” he says, peering in at me. “I hope everything is alright?”
I’m about to answer him when there’s a noise from beneath the floor. It’s Fez coughing.
“What was that?” Victor says, looking around the room. “Did you hear that?”
