Juno of Taris (27 page)

I leaned against the wall for a moment, trying to steady my heartbeat, trying to think. Footsteps sounded on the path. I eased further back away from the lighted window, away from the path. How could I escape now? I glanced around. It was hard to see through the dark rain, but the garden shed was a solid block amongst the feathery trees. The garden shed. That had to be where they were. I didn’t stop to think about it, just sprinted across the grass and eased the door open. Even so, it creaked.

‘What …?’

It was Paz, and Silvern. Silvern whirled around, her hands over her heart. ‘You want to kill me?’

I swiped rain from my face. ‘Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you, but I need your help. Vima’s on the mountain and she’s hurt. She hasn’t replied, so I don’t even know … I don’t know …’

Paz grabbed my shoulders. ‘Calm down. Tell us what you know.’

I gave the bones of the story.

Silvern broke across, whispering urgently, ‘Hilto’s just arrived. They’re all there now. We’ll have to make sure they don’t see us.’

‘We’re going to need another person,’ Paz said. ‘If she’s hurt – if we have to carry her down, we’ll need four of us.’

‘Oban,’ Silvern said, her eyes still on the house. ‘Let’s go. We’d best go down the side path.’

Silvern was in bossy mode, but she was right, as usual. We crept from the shed and ran bent double past the back door and out onto the pathway. All the time, I expected to hear the shout of a Governance Companion and feet thudding after us. There was nothing.

‘Made it,’ Paz muttered.

We picked up speed and ran back towards Oban’s house.

‘Something’s happening,’ Silvern told me. ‘We’d only just got to the shed when Lenna and Majool turned up. Then Camnoon came and you know about Hilto.’

I didn’t answer. How had Vima been hurt? An accident – or had she been attacked? I couldn’t bear to think about it.

Paz loped ahead of us and vanished into the bushes at the side of Oban’s house. I couldn’t keep still.
Hurry, hurry
. But it can’t have been more than a minute before both of them arrived beside us. ‘Where now?’ was all Oban said. He carried an unlit lantern.

‘Calico Bay,’ I whispered. ‘To the stream that runs out from the gorge. We found a secret path up the mountain. She’ll be up there. We have to walk up the stream. It’s about ten minutes.’

Oban lit the lantern once we were out of sight of the houses. Its light allowed us to run faster. When we reached the bay, he gave me the lantern. ‘Lead the way, Juno.’

It was difficult, wading along the stony stream and I stumbled. Oban grabbed my arm and took the lantern again. ‘You navigate. I’ll steady you.’

We moved faster that way, but it seemed to be hours before we entered the dark reaches of the ravine. Behind us, Silvern muttered, ‘This place is vile – it’s like being at the bottom of a pit.’

But the vertical rock walls meant we were nearly there. We rounded a bend and I saw the marker stones, pale against the water. ‘This is it. The entrance is opposite that middle stone.’

We splashed our way to the rocky face. I swept aside the vines and crawled into the passageway. A moment later, all four of us stood on the path. Without a word, Paz and Oban disappeared upwards, running hard. They took the light with them and Silvern and I struggled onwards in the darkness.

‘Their dumb duathlon training is some use, finally,’ Silvern gasped as we climbed at half their speed. We couldn’t see anything beyond the branches arching around us. We tripped and stumbled up steps, around sharp bends, through runnels filled with flowing water. Our clothes clung to our bodies, heavy with rain. My lungs burned but I was too frightened to stop. Were we being followed? Was Vima still alive?

Visibility decreased further as we climbed up into the mist. In front of me, Silvern stumbled then stopped. I peered over her shoulder. ‘What?’ Our breathing was loud in the eerie night. She put out a hand to touch the rock wall rising in front of us.

‘Paz? Where are you?’

I jumped and clutched at her, but above us, Oban called, ‘To your right. There are footholds cut in the rock.’

‘Vima?’ I shouted, my voice hoarse.

‘She’s still alive. Just.’

It stunned me. I stood, unable to move. Silvern shook my arm. ‘Juno, here. We have to climb this.’ She started up the footholds carved in the face of the rock wall. Her feet kicked as she hauled herself over the lip. I followed and she reached down to help me up the last part.

‘Oban?’

‘Over here. Careful – I’m holding her.’

We felt our way towards him, not even seeing the shape of him and Vima until we were almost falling over them. We collapsed onto the ground beside them. ‘What’s wrong with her?’ I whispered. ‘What’s happened?’

Silvern tensed beside me. ‘Where’s Paz?’

‘He’s okay,’ Oban said. ‘He’s gone up to the building. We need something to bind her arm. She’s been knifed.’

I couldn’t speak and the desperate hope that she’d simply had an accident because of the darkness died. They’d tried to kill her. Silvern stood up and vanished into the dark, calling for Paz and the lantern.

I moved closer to Oban. ‘Will she …’ I couldn’t say the words.

‘She’s bleeding but she’s still alive. She’s tough.’ I heard all sorts of things in his voice – pride, anguish, love.

I put my hand on her arm. She was so cold. I moved closer to give her as much of my body heat as possible. ‘You love her, don’t you?’

He sighed. ‘And she loves Jov.’

I was too scared to ask how he knew, but he answered the unspoken question. ‘She told me. Said it wasn’t fair to me not to know.’ His voice choked. ‘Tell me about this, Juno. Tell me the whole story.’

But the others came back before I could get started. ‘They’ve smashed it!’ Paz shouted. He set the lantern on the ground where it shone on Vima, and lowered his voice. ‘They’ve completely destroyed the equipment up there.’

Silvern said nothing, but she wiped her eyes and held out a bundle of cloth. ‘We found this.’

Paz took his knife from the sheath on his belt and ripped the cloth into strips. I folded one strip into a pad and pressed it onto the jagged wound above her elbow. Blood brimmed as Oban moved his hand. That wound was no accident. She’d been attacked.

We wrapped the pad tight with strips of cloth and made a sling to hold the arm across her chest.

‘We’ll need a stretcher,’ Silvern said. ‘Come on, Paz. Work to be done.’

They took the lantern and vanished into the bush. We heard them call to each other, and we heard the breaking of branches.

‘Are there any other injuries?’ I could hardly bear to ask.

Oban’s voice was tight with rage. ‘A lump on her head. I don’t know whether that’s made her unconscious or whether the blood loss has.’ He drew in a deep breath. ‘I could kill them with my bare hands. There will be a reckoning, Juno. This is the end of their governance. Tell me what you know.’

He said nothing while I talked. ‘Power and evil,’ he said when I’d finished. ‘This will be the end of it. Probably for all of us.’

‘What do you mean?’ But suddenly I knew. The Governance Companions had been in contact with Outside all this time – this was where they’d come to ask for help from Outside, help with how to solve everything from wheat rust to failing atmospheric systems.

Paz and Silvern came back dragging a couple of saplings, roots and all. Oban kept his arms around Vima, trying to warm her while we worked on the stretcher. We tied strips of cloth for her to lie on. While we worked, the rain stopped. Silvern looked up. ‘It must be nearly morning.’

Paz sat back on his heels and considered the stretcher. ‘We’ll need ropes – we’ll have to lower her down the rock face here and haul her over the one at the stream.’

Yes. We’d never be able to pull her through the narrow tunnel.

Silvern got up. ‘Come on. We’d best sort through the rubble up there. There must be something we can use.’

They took the lantern, but the night was lighter now and I could see the shapes of Oban and Vima. I picked up a scrap of cloth and began drying her. ‘She’s so cold.’

Oban didn’t reply.

The other two came back, Paz with his rage stoked to a new fury. He threw down a bundle of cloth. ‘This was a mattress cover. They’d slept up here waiting for messages from Outside.’ He shot us a look. ‘I will kill them.’

Silvern picked up the cloth. ‘That’s for later. We have to hurry.’

While Paz and Silvern tore the cloth into strips and knotted them, Oban and I rolled Vima onto the stretcher. We tied cloth around her to keep her safe if one of us should stumble. ‘It’ll be light by the time we get her down,’ he said. ‘We’ll take her straight to the hospital and then we’ll call a meeting.’

I stopped what I was doing and sat back on my heels. ‘No. We’re not leaving her unguarded anywhere. If we leave her, they’ll kill her. We’ll take her to the arena. Trebe and Creen can work on her there.’

Oban grunted. ‘Of course. I should have thought.’

We tied the ropes to the stretcher, carried it to the edge of the rock face and set it down. Silvern and I climbed down and waited, catching hold of the stretcher when the boys lowered it. Then quickly they were beside us. Oban paused at the bottom. ‘Hurry!’ What was he doing, wasting time like that?

He bent and picked something up – a length of rope. ‘Thought so. It’s been cut but I figured they couldn’t get up there without help.’ He coiled it and lay it on Vima’s feet. It would be useful at the other end where we would need longer rope than here.

We didn’t talk about the rope. Perhaps they were all like me and feeling beyond surprise at yet another betrayal.

Light seeped into our world as we carried Vima down the mountain. We went as fast as we dared, but carefully too, trying to hold her steady and grateful to be able to see.

At the bottom, we set her down on the track. I sat with her while the other three climbed the rock face above the tunnel entrance and trampled the bushes that grew thickly at the top. At last it was done and we hauled her up the rock face. Silvern and I waited in the stream to catch her. We needed the extra length of the rope Oban had found. 

W
e came into town down the path through the orchards.

‘People are about,’ Oban said. ‘They’ll be asking questions.’

‘But not the right ones,’ I muttered.

We heard a shout and the sound of running feet. Biddo arrived, two paces ahead of his parents. They skidded to a halt and stared.

‘Tell Trebe to come to the arena. Tell her Vima needs blood. Tell her we can’t take her to the hospital.’ Oban fired orders at them and they gaped at him. ‘Go now!’

Biddo wheeled around. ‘Got it.’ He took off, his parents falling back to make way.

We plodded onwards. The word of our return spread and all along the pathway people stood silently to let us pass, then they fell in behind us, following us to the arena.

We passed Jov and Sina. ‘Is she dead?’ Jov whispered.

Oban didn’t look at him. ‘Not yet.’

I glimpsed the sudden suspicion in Sina’s face.

We were exhausted, but no one offered to take our place. Perhaps they saw knowledge in our faces and were afraid.

Trebe and Creen had transfusion equipment waiting. We lowered Vima to the hospital stretcher and Paz cut away the saplings. They worked on her as people filed to their seats and the Governance Companions took their places on the stage. The arena buzzed with questions, with speculation. Then above the noise, Majool’s voice shouted out. As always, when a Governance Companion spoke, we fell silent. He stepped forward to the podium. ‘My people, we have reached a decision.’

A hiss washed through us. Somebody – Rofan I think – called, ‘First we need to know what’s happened to Vima. Will she live? How was she hurt?’

Majool ignored her. ‘We, your Governance Companions, have decided that Vima shouldn’t be revived. She’s been sickening for weeks. Her contagion could spread – she’s a danger to us all.’

I leapt to my feet, shouting. Silvern and Paz too were on their feet, so were Vima’s family, Jov, Aspa, my family and many others. Oban didn’t move from her side.

Fisa eyeballed Majool and raised her hand for silence, all the time holding him with her eyes. The shouting died. ‘That is not my decision. Go on with the treatment.’ Majool stepped towards her, but she didn’t flinch.

Our attention swung back to Vima and I almost laughed. Hera had escaped from my parents and was toddling through the children on the floor of the arena. Pel put her arms around her and Hera bellowed. Pel let her go and she bulldozed her way onward. She reached Vima. I stumbled forward to grab her but before I could reach her, she put a chubby hand gently on Vima’s stomach. ‘Baby,’ she said.

The word rose into the silence, taken up by those closest and passed on to those near them.
She
said baby. Does that mean …? Is that what her sickness
is? Whose baby?

For a second, Trebe and Creen stopped working, then their hands were busy again with tubes and needles.

Vima was pregnant. Why hadn’t I guessed?

Majool stalked to the edge of the stage and shook his fist. ‘The girl’s immoral! We don’t need her sort here. Let her die.’

Lenna grabbed the microphone. ‘She’s gone against all our values. Best if she dies.’

Oban leapt onto the stage. ‘Quiet!’ he bellowed. He signalled to his stratum. They came down from the top tier, bounding and jumping. ‘Guard her.’

They formed a circle around the stretcher where Vima lay unmoving. She had to survive.