Juno of Taris (25 page)

‘Rosemary, chamomile, aloe vera and a smidgen of soap.’ I’d gone for the ironed flat-on-the-head look.

We turned to greet my grandparents and Vima. Her hair was woven into tiny braids all over her head, and the grandparents had each done something special, although I eyed Danyat’s centre parting and said to Silvern and Vima, ‘You know – shaven heads might not have been such a bad idea.’

He grinned. ‘I’m just so happy to have hair again that I have to do something with it on special occasions.’

It was a happy evening. Even Vima relaxed and appeared carefree.

After we’d waved our guests farewell, Dad hugged me and said, ‘Your fourteenth birthday and you spent an hour fixing your hair. Who could have imagined that a year ago!’

I went to bed, but my mind wasn’t on my hair. I thought instead of secret paths, of communication centres and of how much longer my learning stratum would wait before they demanded I tell them what else I knew.

The answer to the last question arrived promptly.

Silvern and I ran to school swinging Hera between us the next morning. She loved it and it was the quickest way of getting her anywhere. Jerrin stopped us. ‘Have you heard? Heskith is asking to see you after school today, Juno.’

We stopped dead. Hera tugged our hands. ‘School!’

‘No, we hadn’t heard that,’ I said. ‘Are you sure?’

Jerrin smiled at me. ‘That’s what he told Ranu when she took him his breakfast this morning. Actually, what he said was he supposed he’d better see that wretched girl, who apparently is you, Juno.’

We thanked him and moved off.

‘Marba might know why,’ Silvern said.

He probably would, since his family lived next to Heskith.

At break, Marba waited until we were all sitting on the grass before he said to me, ‘You’ve heard the message from Heskith?’

I nodded and hugged my knees. ‘But why?’

He gave me his watching-an-experiment look. ‘Interesting. Why does it upset you?’

I groaned and several of the others shouted, ‘Marba! Tell her why he wants to see her.’

He laughed and held up a hand. ‘Don’t yell at me! I don’t know why. All he said was he wanted to see Juno today.’

Silvern eyeballed me. ‘You have to tell us why. You have to. Understand?’

I nodded. ‘Yes. All right.’ I looked around the circle of faces. ‘I’m frightened. I don’t know why, but I am.’ I wrapped my arms around my body. ‘It’ll be good to tell you.’

‘Everything else, too,’ Paz said.

‘All right. There isn’t much, but yes. I’ll tell you everything.’ I scanned their faces, one after the other.

‘You can trust us,’ Jidda said.

And one by one, they gave me their assurances.

The fear still walked with me.

‘We’ll meet at Calico Bay for the recreation hour today,’ Silvern said. ‘All of us. Vima too.’

It was a relief. It would be good to share the secrets. ‘But what reason will we give?’

It would have to be convincing. No other stratum had ever had an out-of-school meeting, and ours was probably already under suspicion.

Brex said, ‘We’ll say we’re having a post-birthday picnic. It’s a new tradition we’re starting.’

‘We can bring food,’ Shallym said. ‘But we want Vima there and we won’t be able to tell her until after lunch.’

My stomach tightened. Now was the time to begin to tell. But I was terrified.

Wenda reached out and grabbed my hand. ‘What? You can trust us. We swear to help and protect you.’

I let out a breath. ‘Okay.’ I managed to smile at her and she let go of my hand. ‘I’ll send Vima a message. Watch.’ I took out the phone and keyed in:
bring lunch 2 bay. my l s all coming
.’ I pressed ‘send’. ‘There. She probably won’t reply. But I think she’ll be there.’

I slid the phone back into my pocket and kept my eyes on the ground as the silence surged around me.

‘I think,’ Marba said carefully, ‘that you had better tell us things. Now, and quickly.’

Yes. In a few brief sentences I told them how Grif had taught me to read, how Vima had found out, and about the phones and the encyclopedia.

Dreeda got to her feet. ‘Time to go. Justa’s beckoning.’

I stood up. ‘There’s more – something we’ve just discovered.’

Paz shook his head. ‘It’ll have to wait till we go to the bay.’

I nodded, my mind skittering ahead to the meeting with Heskith. ‘People will ask – they’ll want to know why Heskith asked to see me.’

We walked in silence back to our schoolroom, minds busy. At the edge of the courtyard, Marba paused. ‘It depends what he wants. I’ll wait for you. Don’t worry – we’ll think of something credible.’

I hoped so.

After school I went with Marba to his house, then on to the next one where Heskith waited for me. Marba patted my arm. ‘Don’t look so worried. I’ll watch for you and walk home with you when you come out.’

I nodded, took a deep breath and ran up Heskith’s path. Best get it over with.

I found him sitting in his back garden. He grunted when he saw me, and that was it.

‘You wanted to see me?’

He struggled to his feet. ‘Wouldn’t say I
wanted
to see you.’ He jerked his head at me. ‘Come.’

He didn’t walk freely any longer. He tripped in the doorway and had to grab the frame. Another death. His would be the next. He was ready to choose it. I felt cold and insubstantial.

‘Sit’. He pointed to a chair. I complied – the sooner I was out of there, the better. He opened a cupboard, took out something wrapped in cloth, but didn’t give it to me.

I stared at the package. ‘What’s that? I don’t want it.’ I went to get up, to run.

He made a sharp clucking sound. ‘So. He was right. You do have an extra sense. He always said you did.’

I slumped back onto the chair. ‘Irian?’

He rested his twisted fingers on the packet. ‘Irian indeed.’ He leaned forward. ‘Listen well, for I don’t want to tell you, but I promised.’

I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move.

‘Before he died, Irian prepared this. He charged me with the duty of giving it to you.’ He unwrapped the cloth. A folded oblong of the smoothest paper lay inside. Heskith shrugged. ‘I believe his mind was unhinged, but he was my friend and I promised. I am now discharging that promise.’

I stared at the paper, mesmerised. ‘Why now?’

‘Speak up, girl. I can’t hear you.’

I repeated the question. ‘And why me?’

He shot me a look of dislike. ‘How do I know?’

I hesitated and Heskith’s little store of patience vanished. ‘He said:
Give this to Juno if ever you think
she’s in danger. Or else give it to her before you choose
death
.’

I wanted to press my hands over my heart, but I didn’t move. ‘Which reason is it?’

He gave me a sour look. ‘I’ve fulfilled my promise. That’s all you need to know.’

I would have to take it. I stood up and slid it down the front of my tunic where it couldn’t be seen. ‘I thank you, Heskith. I give you my good wishes.’ I managed not to run from the house. The paper was smooth against my skin.

Marba bounded out from his house to join me, a basket of food in his hands. He arrived in a dead heat with Hilto striding ahead of Tonu along the path. She stared after him, puzzlement on her face. Hilto ignored them both. ‘Heskith asked to see you, I hear. What did he want?’

What could I say? I stared at the ground, my mind racing.

‘Well?’ Hilto snarled. ‘It’s a simple enough question, even for you: what did he want?’

Words slipped into my mind:
tell him it’s private
. I didn’t stop to think, just raised my head and said with as much dignity as I could achieve, ‘It was a private matter.’

I sensed Marba’s protection like a shield between me and Hilto, and suddenly I was angry. I looked in his face. ‘It was a private matter,’ I repeated.

Tonu’s eyes widened and she put a hand over her mouth.

Hilto took a step forwards. So did Marba. I didn’t move, not even to drop my gaze. Hilto clenched his fists and glared at me through slitted eyes. Fragments of sentences battered my mind.
Kill her now … she must die … won’t stand for it
… bitch goddess.

I forgot Marba. Ignored Tonu. There was only me and Hilto. I said clearly and without a tremor in my voice, ‘What is a goddess? And why do you call me a bitch?’

Rage and something else chased over his face. He hissed a word I didn’t hear properly, turned and left us.

Tonu shook her head. ‘What on earth was all that about?’

I shrugged. Marba smiled at Tonu. ‘Let us know if you work it out.’ He grabbed my arm and tugged me along the path towards my house. ‘Let’s run.’ I’d forgotten about the meeting and the picnic. And Vima.

We ran till we reached Silvern’s house. ‘You sent me that thought, didn’t you?’

He bounced on his toes as if he were filled with helium. ‘I knew it had to work. Just think what it means, Juno!’

‘Well, I’m not so keen on the other stuff I picked up.’ I started walking again, a fine mix of rage and gratitude stirring around in me.

‘Sorry! I’ve done it again – but you’ve got to see that it’s exciting! And as for Hilto – you scared him.’

Mother smiled when I turned up with Marba, but I had too much on my mind even to glare at her. I told her our plans and she helped me pack some food.

Hera threw her arms around my legs. ‘Hera too! Hera go too!’

I picked her up. ‘You can come, but you have to go in the backpack. No yelling. Promise?’

She patted my face. ‘Hera good.’

When it suited her. I took Marba’s basket and he carried the infant. ‘I’ll piggyback her and we’ll run. Okay, Hera?’

She thumped his shoulders. ‘Run fast!’

Silvern joined us as we ran past her house. ‘Vima coming?’

‘Dunno.’

We passed people on the paths. ‘We’re having a post-birthday picnic,’ we shouted.

The story grew as we ran. People shook their heads but laughed. ‘Oh, the energy of the young,’ Yin’s grandfather said.

Nobody mentioned the confrontation with Hilto, but even as they smiled at us, their eyes asked questions. The news would be all over the island by now.

Vima was already at the bay. She lay on the grass, her hand across her eyes.

‘Vee!’ Hera shouted.

Marba dumped Hera down beside her and Hera threw her arms around her neck. ‘Vee!’ Then she hurtled off into the sea.

Fortun grabbed her. ‘We’re going to build a mountain in the sand. You help dig.’

I was shocked by Vima’s appearance. ‘You okay? You look ghastly.’

She pulled her mouth down. ‘I’m suffering from an overdose of Taris, Hilto and Majool.’

But that wasn’t all. I frowned at her, but she shook her head slightly and smiled.

We sat in a circle around Hera, dodging the sand she flung in all directions. ‘Start talking,’ Vima ordered. ‘It’s about Heskith, I guess?’

‘And Hilto,’ said Marba. He glanced at me and told of how I’d picked up the sentence he’d mentally shouted at me. ‘She picked up his thoughts again.
Kill, die
and
bitch goddess
.’

The others looked at me, their faces wary. I shook my head. ‘Don’t worry. I’ve never picked up anyone else except Marba today.’

He rubbed his hands together. ‘And I was yelling at you.’

I couldn’t laugh, not with the memory of Hilto’s hate in my mind. ‘I think it’s just that Hilto’s thoughts are so strong because he hates me so much.’

‘Well, right now we can’t solve why that is,’ said Vima. ‘So tell us about Heskith. What did he want?’

I pulled out the paper. It was creased now but the wax seal was unbroken. All eyes except Hera’s were glued to it. My heart pounded. I broke the seal before I lost my nerve, and straightened the paper.

‘The old script,’ Brex muttered, disappointed.

‘Read it!’ Paz ordered.

I complied.

I couldn’t read any more. Silvern wrapped an arm around me. Hera howled and threw herself into my lap. Vima reached for the paper and continued reading.

None of us said anything. We sat stunned while Hera’s howls rattled in our heads. Then she sobbed out, ‘Man, Juju. Man coming.’