by Helen Brain
“It’s just Leonid,” Aunty Figgy says smoothly. “He’s weeding outside the window. He’s caught a cold.”
Fez coughs again.
Victor’s eyes dart to the floor. “Miss, there’s someone under the house,” he says. “Do you want me to check? It could be someone coming to attack you.”
My head is throbbing. I can’t think. Has Leonid found the amulet? Please, Goddess, let him find it. Don’t let the High Priest have it.
“It’s no trouble, miss,” he says. “Let me go into the cellars and see if there’s someone hiding there.”
“Victor, it’s probably a squirrel or something,” I snap. “Isi would be barking if it was a stranger. Now go and do your work.”
“Yes, miss.” He scurries off.
Aunty Figgy goes to the window and watches him leave. “He’s going to the pigeon coop,” she mutters. “Why’s he going there?”
Then I get it.
I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut. We’ve been such idiots, focusing on Shorty, thinking Victor was too bland to be of any interest.
“He’s the spy,” I gasp. “He’s been sending messages to the High Priest with the pigeons.”
Aunty Figgy’s eyes narrow. “I’ll sort him out,” she says. “Stinking little runt. I’ll cook him a special mushroom omelette.”
Then Leonid and Jasmine come thundering down the passage. “Couldn’t find the amulet,” Leonid says, panting. “Searched everywhere.”
“The coachman’s dead,” Jasmine says, “and one of the horses.”
“Did you see Major Zungu?” I ask. I’m hoping I broke his jaw.
“He’s gone,” she says. “He and Mr Frye both. They must have taken the other horse.”
They’ll be heading back to the shrine to report back to the general.
“Drink your potion,” Aunty Figgy says, lifting the cup to my lips. “There’s nothing you can do right now. You should get some rest.”
She’s right. They’ll be back, and next time I may not be so lucky. I drink the tea and fall into a deep sleep.
IT’S LATE AFTERNOON when I wake. My head aches, my shoulder is killing me.
The heat is oppressive. It’s pushing down on me, on all of Greenhaven. I can’t breathe, so I go outside to get some air. Strange clouds hover above the forest. Isi won’t leave my side. She keeps nudging me with her nose, wanting to keep me away from the house.
It feels like all the forces of the universe are gathering above Greenhaven, ready to make war. I pace up and down, wondering what to do. The horses whinny as they canter around the meadow, running to and fro. They can’t keep still either.
I feel so alone. So unprotected without the amulet. Without Micah. There’s only one place I can think of to go – the holy well. The presence of the Goddess is strong there. She will protect me.
Isi runs next to me down the path. Her muzzle presses into my hand, pushing me forward until I reach the pond and sink down onto the stone wall.
“Please, Goddess, bring back my amulet,” I pray. “Show me what to do. Keep Micah safe.” Yesterday the water was clear. Today it’s muddy. Frogs are jumping out of the reeds. A small buck comes running past, wild-eyed. It doesn’t even notice me and Isi.
Then suddenly Isi begins to snarl. The High Priest is walking through the trees heading straight for me.
“Stay away,” I shout, getting up. “This is holy ground.”
“Ebba, Ebba, Ebba,” he chuckles. “Don’t be so dramatic.”
He keeps coming closer and closer. I’m distracted. Something weird is happening to the water. It’s draining out. The bees are flying above it in a spiral formation, swirling and rising and swirling down again. Isi is snarling and growling.
“Sit, my girl,” the High Priest says, pointing to the wall. “Control your dog.”
He’s staring at me with his hooded eyes and I can’t look away. I grab Isi’s collar but she slips out of it and runs off into the forest. Now I’ve got nothing. No amulet, no Micah, no Isi. I’m alone.
I sit down as he demands and try not to look back into his eyes, but it’s hard.
“That’s better,” he says brightly. “Now, where’s the entrance to the bunker? I know you’ve hidden your friends there.”
The bees are buzzing around above our heads. Without breaking his stare, he swats at them.
“I’m not telling you,” I say. My voice sounds very small. Goddess, help me. Where is Isi? Her collar is in my hand, but she’s gone. How can she have run off when I need her most?
“So you’re not going to tell me? Oh dear. I’ll have to think of something else to persuade you.” He smiles. I can’t take my eyes off his shining white teeth. “I’ve got your boyfriend, you know.”
Micah? Oh please, not Micah. “No, you haven’t,” I say. My mouth is dry.
“Yes, I have. We caught him on the mountain. He’s been talking – telling us all sorts of interesting things about you …”
Micah wouldn’t tell the High Priest anything. He’s lying. At least I think he’s lying. He’s staring into my eyes, and I can’t look away … He’s telling the truth. He must be. He always tells the truth. He’s an honourable man. He’s a good man and an outstanding leader. He saved us on the day of Purification …
The buzzing becomes more frantic. The bees are hovering above my head like a cloud. He doesn’t seem to be afraid of them.
He peers into my face. “It’s your choice, Ebba, my dear. You can have him back in your bed by suppertime, if you tell us where to find the twins.”
Who do I choose?
Micah, who I love with all my heart? Or Fez and Letti, my best friends, my sabenzis.
“Why do you care so much about the twins?” I ask, trying to steady my voice.
“I don’t,” he sneers. “But I care that you think you can defy me. I know the stories in the Book of the Goddess. You think you’re special. That you’re going to save the world. And I’m going to show you that you’re not more powerful than me. You aren’t now, and you never will be.”
I want to spit in his face, but I don’t dare.
He’s getting impatient and he grabs my sore shoulder. “I haven’t got all day,” he snarls. “Tell me where they are or I’ll haul you into the shrine and have you executed.”
“You need me alive. You know you do. You can’t get the amulets without me.”
His face darkens. “You stupid, stupid girl,” he says, pushing me backwards. I lose my balance and fall back into the well, sprawling there in the mud. I can’t move. Not until the pain in my shoulder eases.
“Hurry up and make up your mind,” he bellows, towering above me. “Where are the twins?”
A wave of anger surges through me. My hand has landed in the last puddle of water. My birthmark is burning. I scramble to my knees, holding my left hand in the air.
“I’ll never tell you!” I scream, and I bring my hand down hard on the wall.
The bees stop buzzing.
They hang in mid-air.
The world stops.
There’s a rumble – a growing, building, shaking, and then the well cracks and splits. I’m thrown back into the mud. The rumbling is still growing. I clamber up, my head spinning – or is it the ground that’s moving? The sky is black. There’s no air.
I flinch as the earth gashes open, cutting a wide chasm through the forest.
Trees crash down. The noise is terrifying.
The High Priest doesn’t move.
“Who will it be, Ebba?” he booms. “Your sabenzis or your precious Micah?”
Something flashes between the trees. It’s Isi. The High Priest sees my eyes flicker. He turns, takes the amulet from his pocket and points it at her. A beam of light shoots out, bouncing off the trees. They burst into flame.
Isi falters.
“Theia!” I scream. “Help us.”
The High Priest glances at me, just for a moment. Isi leaps at him, snarling, and clamps her teeth around his arm. He screams, and the amulet
drops into the broken well. This is my chance. I can get it if I’m quick.
Gunfire!
Oh, Theia, Major Zungu must be back. They’ll shoot Isi.
“Isi! Leave him!” I yell, scrambling for the amulet. My feet slip in a puddle and I fall sideways onto my sore shoulder. I try to get up but I fall again. The High Priest leaps into the well, dragging Isi with him. He’s going straight for the amulet.
More shots. Flames are leaping into the air.
“Isi!” I look up.
It’s not soldiers shooting. The big milkwood is splitting with a noise like gunshots.
The bees are swarming out, buzzing furiously as they spiral above the High Priest and then descend in a black stinging mass onto his head. He screams in agony.
Just three more steps and I’ll have the amulet. But Isi is in the way. She’s grabbed my robe and is pulling me towards the wall.
“Leave me, girl!” I yell.
The milkwood has split. It’s falling. Straight for me.
It’s too late to run. I throw myself onto my stomach and bury my head in my arms. The tree crashes down.
I cross over into darkness.
COMING SOON!
ELEVATION
BOOK 2
THE RISING TIDE
CHAPTER 1
I’m sitting on the stoep waiting for Shrine Guards to come and arrest me. I’m too miserable to work, too heartsore to talk to anyone.
It’s been two weeks since Micah kissed me goodbye. My heart and stomach are clenching like fists. He’s not coming back. He’s dead, lying somewhere on the mountain, with a bullet through his chest.
I can’t even be happy that our sabenzi group is together again.
Everything has changed.
Shorty and Letti are laughing in the garden. They’re in love and she’s glowing. Fez is sitting on the step near me, his head stuck in a book. It’s like he’s been hungry all his life, and at last he’s reached a banquet.
Jasmine is back to her old self, sweet and feisty and hard at work. She and Leonid are mixing mud and straw, trampling it with their feet so they can use it to mend the gable that fell down in the earthquake. They’re laughing and throwing mud at each other.
I thought it would be like the old days in the colony, when we were a team. But Letti and Jasmine are caught up with their boyfriends, and Fez never gets his head out of his book.
Even Clementine has abandoned me.
I keep seeing the hatred in the High Priest’s face as the bees attacked him. I was about to grab the amulet he had dropped when the falling tree knocked me out. When Aunty Figgy found me, Major Zungu had already taken his body and there was no sign of the amulet. We’ve searched and searched for it, but it’s gone.
I wish I could go and beg Hal to tell me if they’ve got Micah. But I know him too well. He won’t let me get away with humiliating him in front of the whole Shrine by refusing to marry him. He’s probably got Micah in a prison cell, being tortured right this moment. I’m sure he’s the new High Priest – he’s much stronger than Lucas.
Or maybe the rumours are true. Maybe there’s been a military coup and General de Groot has taken charge. He’ll be even worse than Hal.
I tear away the skin on the side of my nail with my teeth. It’s my fault. I should never have let Micah act as a decoy to draw the soldiers away from the cave. If he stayed with us he’d be home safe right now.
I remember how he sat with his arm around me as we watched the sun rise that last morning. “Whatever happens,” he said, “remember I’ll always love you.”
A tear trickles down my cheek and I wipe it away with the back of my hand. Isi sighs and rests her head on my foot. I fondle her ears. She’s the best dog ever. She’ll never leave me, or fall in love with someone else.
Aunty Figgy comes bustling out with her broom and dustpan. “No good sitting here moping, Ebba,” she says firmly. “You’ve got work to do.”
I ignore her. An ant is crawling across the floor and I watch it. I wish I had a crack in the wall to hide in, where no one could bother me.
“I know you can hear me,” she says. “You need to get up and start looking for the amulets.”
I finger the empty chain around my neck. There are four clasps, each for an amulet, and all four are gone.
She tucks my hair back and lifts my chin. “Ebba, don’t give up hope. Micah will come back. Get up and do something. Search for the amulets.” She points to the storm clouds building up in the north. “Look, the rains are coming. It’s less than two months till the winter solstice. Remember the prophecy? You have to find all four amulets before the solstice, so that the portal to Celestia can be opened. We’re all depending on you.”
I bite the corner of my lip. It’s not fair. Back in the colony Ma Goodson used to read us a fairy tale about a miller’s daughter. Her father owed the king a lot of money, so he told the king, “My daughter can spin straw into gold.” The king took the girl into the palace, shut her up in a room filled with straw, gave her a spinning wheel and said he’d be back in the morning to check. If there wasn’t any gold, she would die.
That’s how I feel, except if I don’t spin it into gold, the whole planet will die, and it makes me really angry that I’ve got this whole burden to carry, all by myself.
Leonid is up the ladder plastering the gable. Suddenly he shouts, “Someone’s coming! It’s an army carriage.”
“Quick, Letti,” Shorty calls, grabbing her hand. “Follow me, Fez.”
They disappear round the side of the house. He’s set up a hiding place in the forest, deep in a thicket where the soldiers will never find them.
Aunty Figgy gathers up Fez’s book and gives it to me. “Pretend to be reading,” she says. “Stay calm.”
I clench the chain in my fist, holding it to my lips. I need Clementine. But she’s gone, and so is Micah. I have to face the authorities on my own.
Someday I’ll see the sky.
I’ll climb the thousand steps.
The gates will open and my family will be waiting,
ready to take me home.
Sixteen-year-old Ebba has never experienced life outside the underground bunker deep inside Table Mountain, known as the colony. But in a sudden twist of fate she is Elevated to join the elite living on the surface in a post-apocalyptic world.
Was she saved because of the mysterious birthmark on her hand?
The High Priest and his handsome son Hal are especially keen to keep her close, but can she trust them? When Ebba learns she has a sacred task to find three lost amulets to save the earth from a second and final Calamity, it is clear that her life will change forever.
Helen Brain was born in 1960 in Australia, and grew up in Durban, South Africa. She has published over 50 books for children and young adults, as well as a memoir. She has worked as a crafter, school teacher and freelance journalist. She now teaches creative writing through an international online writing college. She lives in Cape Town, in a house overlooking a vlei, with her husband and their three dogs and in her spare time plays the piano, sings and makes toys out of old socks.
More Books by Helen Brain
Who’s Afraid of Spiders?
Tamara
Fly Cemetery and Other Juicy Stories
Noem my Kat
Carmen Tutuka and the Curse of Isis House
Carmen Tutuka en die vloek van Isis huis
Van spoke gepraat (compiled by Charles Fryer)
Will & Joe and the Great Pirate Rescue
Len & Ben en die groot seerower-redding
Princess Talia and the dragon
Prinses Talia en die draak
My hart klop muffins
Liefde is nie tjoklits nie
Vets & Pets: Jamie and the Magic Whistle (with Nicky Webb)
Veearts-vriende: Tania en die towerfluitjie (with Nicky Webb)
Vets & Pets: Jamie and the Horse Show (with Nicky Webb)
Veearts-vriende: Tania en die perdry-kompetisie (with Nicky Webb)
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First edition in 2016 by Human & Rousseau,
an imprint of NB Publishers,
a division of Media24 Boeke (Pty) Ltd,
40 Heerengracht, Cape Town 8001
www.humanrousseau.com
Copyright © 2016 in text by Helen Brain
All rights reserved.
No part of this electronic book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying and recording, or by any other information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
Cover design by Damonza
E-book design: Purple Pocket Solutions
Available in print:
First edition in 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7981-7225-7
Epub edition:
First edition in 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7981-7226-4 (epub)
Mobi edition:
First edition in 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7981-7227-1 (mobi)
