the heart of the Fiery Spiral. You cannot be happy if you ignore that task.”
I’m not going to let this old man push me around. I’ve had a lifetime of my father telling me to grow up, be a man, show some backbone. I’m here to rest now, with no one to bother me.
Celestia is a fine place to stay – teeming with creatures and plants to discover. I’m in the same situation as explorers on Earth were centuries ago when they discovered new lands and could document the species. I’m going to document everything I discover here, and for that process, my heart will not be required.
There’s a shriek and a thud outside. Francis glances towards a second door that faces the rock circle. Recognising Ebba’s voice, I swiftly rise to my feet. “Thank you for your advice. However, I have to move on now.”
He pulls himself up, swaying slightly as he reaches for his canes. “Be careful, Lucas. Without growth there is death. You want to fly, but your feet must learn to love the ground.”
EBBA
A door opens. A shock of white hair appears, then a face looks down at me – a wrinkled face with warm brown eyes. It’s an old man, smiling and saying, “Come in, Ebba. I am Francis, one of your guides.”
Isi nudges me with her nose. I check her over. She’s unhurt, and she’s got that goofy grin she gets when she’s really happy. It’s all okay. You can trust him, she seems to be saying. So when she runs past him through the doorway, I follow. I’m in a room with rock walls, a rock ceiling and floor, like the bunker I grew up in. But light shines through the thin walls, lighting up every vein in the rock, giving the room a gentle glow.
I let out a deep sigh. It’s safe here. It’s simple, but there are sunbirds on the honeysuckle outside, and a dove coos nearby. This is more like the Celestia I imagined.
Francis gestures to a wooden chair next to a small table. “Have a seat, my dear.”
I sit down, and Isi flops onto my feet. My fingers fiddle with my robe as I remember my father outside. He told me the portal would close soon. I chew the inside of my cheek and stare at Francis. He is so old; everything he does is slow. Would it be rude to ask him to hurry up?
He lowers himself into the armchair opposite me, folds his hands in his lap and sits quietly, watching me.
What is he doing? Why doesn’t he say anything? I fondle Isi’s ears, thinking about my father and what it will be like when we go back to Greenhaven together. The first thing I’m going to do is to ask him to get rid of Samantha-Lee. I don’t trust her. She obviously wants Micah for herself.
When I look up Francis is still watching me, and I shift in the chair, wondering what is poking my back. Why isn’t he saying anything? How will Samantha-Lee react when my dad banishes her from the island? Surely he will be the leader of the resistance again as he was seventeen years ago, before he disappeared – he and Micah together, maybe?
“So.” Francis speaks at last. “So, that boy tricked you. He betrayed you.”
Although his voice is kind, the words are like skewers stabbing me. “Micah didn’t betray me. He loves me.”
He raises one white eyebrow. “You believe that, my dear? It wasn’t his voice you heard outside the council chamber?”
“It was Bonita Mentoor. She’s always hated …” but as I say her name I realise there’s no way she could have known about the hair clip. It was definitely Micah’s voice I heard talking to the guards, and whom I saw addressing the crowd.
I can feel my face warming as I look into his clear brown eyes. I’ve been such an idiot. Micah set me up. My father must be mistaken. Maybe he didn’t see the whole thing. It’s going to be terrible going back, though, and facing Micah. Thank the Goddess I’ll have my dad with me to sort him out. The Boat People are going to be so excited when he comes back, and maybe they’ll accept me as one of them. They’ll exile Micah and Samantha-Lee, send them to the mainland – if they allow them to live. My dad will take over, and help me rebuild the farm …
The chair jabs my side. I shift over and it jabs me in the opposite hip.
“Micah said you would be a hero, like your ancestors.” There’s no judgement in his voice, but the heat intensifies in my cheeks until my whole face is burning.
“Yes, sir.”
“So you agreed to assassinate the general to please your boyfriend, to secure his love for you.”
The chair jabs my buttocks.
“Your aim was to save your relationship, not to save the two thousand?”
“Well … it was both,” My voice fades as my shame grows. “Yes, sir.” My words are barely a whisper.
“You opened the portal, but your heart wasn’t pure, so you allowed Prospiroh to gain access. He has taken Theia. He is holding her captive and no god can intervene.”
Everything feels slippery, like it’s sliding away from me, into a black pit. How could I be so stupid?
“You have become the tree that spreads its roots upward, to admire the pretty birds that chatter in its branches. Your roots have forgotten to draw deep into the ground where the nourishment is. Nothing anchors you to the ground. With every windstorm you shake and rock.”
I don’t want to think about it.
“Reopening the portal will make Earth a defenceless target for Prospiroh’s storm bolts. He can destroy every last living thing. You cannot enter the real Celestia because you are still alive in your Earth form. You do not belong here yet. You need to go back and complete your journey through Earth. You will have to journey across Celestia until you reach the second portal that will take you home,” Francis says, leaning forward in his chair. He looks me in the eye, and I wonder if he can read what I’m thinking, if he knows my dad is out there with an alternative way home. “It’s a long way from here, and it will tax you to the end of your spirit. You will be alone for much of the way. You will encounter the angry dragon that lives inside you and tame it. It will give you time to grow and mature so when you return to Earth, as you must, you will be unshaken by the storms of life and the tasks that await you.”
“How do I get to your portal?” My dad’s one sounds so much easier, but Francis is taking so long. It might be closed by the time we reach it.
“You must cross the plain and climb the mountains until you reach the Fiery Spiral.”
“How will I know if I’ve found it?”
“It finds you, when you are ready. Come with me.” He reaches for his sticks and levers himself up. “Let me show you what I mean.”
He takes me into a courtyard garden smelling of jasmine and honeysuckle, and gestures to me to sit on the low wall around the well. He begins to turn a handle, and a bucket descends into the depths on a chain. A flock of white-eyes chatter in a shrub, twittering and jumping from branch to branch, and a chameleon rocks on a twig overhanging the doorway. I want to relax and enjoy it, but I can’t.
Why is it taking so long? My father didn’t want me to rescue Isi because there wasn’t time. What if he goes without me? I pick at the moss squeezing between the stones and
