It didn’t take long for Mother and me to pack our few belongings, despite Hera’s help. Then we roasted chicken and made a plum and apple cake to take with us on our journey.
We kept an eye on Hera as we worked, but still somehow she managed to disappear.
‘Hera! Where are you? Don’t hide, darling.’ Mother shouted, raw panic in her voice. I ran to check the back garden. Mother tore out the front. ‘Wait, Hera! Come back here.’
I got there in time to see Mother about fifty metres down the road, with Hera wriggling and yelling in her arms. ‘Put me down. I’m big, I’m walking to meet Dad and Danyat and Bazin.’
Mother put her down but kept hold of her. ‘No, Hera. Don’t you ever, ever run away again. Do you hear me? It’s dangerous.’
Hera kept struggling. ‘I didn’t run. I walked. Let me go.’
But before she could yell again, I said, ‘I think it’s all right just now, Mother.’ I paused to look deep into my mind. ‘The time hasn’t come.’ I took her free hand. ‘Shut your eyes. See if you can sense it too.’
But she couldn’t, she was too frightened.
‘I want to go and meet Dad,’ Hera said. ‘Right now.’
‘That’s a good idea. Let’s all go,’ I said.
She heaved a dramatic sigh, as if the suggestion was totally unreasonable.
We arrived at the gardens just as Dad and the grandfathers were packing up. Dad took one look at Mother’s face. ‘Sheen! What is it? What’s wrong?’
She kept her voice steady, but we all saw the effort it cost. ‘Hera says she’s going away soon. And Willem says the best thing is for us all to live in New Plymouth. At Fairlands.’
‘You’ve agreed?’ Bazin asked.
Mother nodded. ‘The girls and I will go tomorrow. Willem says for the rest of you to come when you can.’
Danyat came over to put his arm around Mother. ‘I’ll be on that train with you tomorrow, my daughter.’
She rested her head on his shoulder. ‘Thank you.’
Dad locked the tool shed, his actions on automatic. He would have to arrange for somebody to replace him – his Taris apprentice Erse probably. Which would mean Erse, Roop and their daughter Merith would live in the home prepared for us. Roop wouldn’t like living in a house where Hera had been, even for such a short time. She seemed to fear Hera’s uncanny ability to predict the future – maybe she thought that somehow it would contaminate her own daughter. She was scared of me too, had called me dangerous. It was her so-called evidence that had ended up being brought against me in the recent trial.
We were quiet as we walked home with Hera, the only one who seemed unaffected by the upheaval she’d brought upon us. Leebar was waiting for us.
‘Do you think,’ she asked when we’d told her the story, ‘that this journey to New Plymouth might be what she foresaw?’
For a moment Mother’s face cleared, but I said, ‘No, I wish it was, but it isn’t. I don’t know why I think that, but I know for certain that this isn’t what she spoke of.’
Leebar and Bazin didn’t say Rubbish, but their faces shrieked their scepticism. Grif would have believed me.
Dad was frowning. ‘How am I to explain this sudden change of plan to the people here? I gave them my word I’d stay until the gardens were back to normal. They desperately need somebody who knows what they’re doing.’
Mother sighed. ‘I think you’ll have to tell them the truth. Enough of it, anyway.’
And so it was arranged, and not one of us protested, not even me – at least not out loud. I didn’t want to go to Fairlands. The thought of being in the same school as Thomas, son of the evil Hilto who had betrayed the position of trust he’d held on Taris, brought sickness to my stomach. No matter how much I tried to tell myself that Thomas was just a kid, a ten-year-old kid, I couldn’t get beyond the fact that he was also Hilto’s son.
The same old argument kept repeating itself in my mind: Hilto’s dead, he can’t influence Thomas any more.
But he filled Thomas’s head with ideas of power before he died. That’s a lot of years in the life of a young boy.
Thomas didn’t like his father any more than you did.
He only started to hate him in the last few months. The damage to Thomas’s mind had been done by then.
Maybe it’s up to you to change him.
Thanks very much. I don’t think so! I don’t even want to look at him.
I wished I could shut my mind off. All the arguments in the universe weren’t going to alter the fact that we were going to Fairlands, or that we were wise to go.
But right after that thought came another, just as unwelcome: what if we were taking Hera into danger, rather than protecting her from it?
I was frightened enough by that to still my mind, to search for a sense of whether we were doing the right thing. Nothing. I got no feeling, no inkling of right or wrong.
I needed my learning stratum. Without them I felt exposed and alone. But I had to wait until Dad had finished with the mini-comp before I could try to call any of them.
I tried Silvern first. She was online but wouldn’t take my call. Which meant she’d be talking to Paz. Right, I’d try him. But he ignored me too. I went back to Silvern. It took me six attempts before she finally answered.
‘This had better be good,’ she said, her furious face scowling from the tiny screen.
I gulped. ‘Can you tell Paz to talk too. I …’
‘You’re crying? What … hang on, I’ll connect Paz.’
I waited, wiping my eyes and sniffing.
She came back online. ‘Tell. What’s happened?’
Fear crashed at me but I managed to get the words out. ‘It’s Hera. She says she’s going away soon. She doesn’t like the people and none of us are with her. Willem says we have to go to Fairlands. Mother, Hera and I are going tomorrow. On the train.’
Paz whistled. ‘Sheesh! You’ll be at school with Thomas.’
‘And Ivor the Gorgeous,’ Silvern said. ‘Get over it, Juno. Thomas is just a kid. He’s okay. It’s Hera you should be worrying about.’
‘I am!’ I snapped. ‘Why else d’you think I’m going? I haven’t even thought about Ivor being there.’
‘Well, your parents are going, so you’ve got no choice,’ she said.
Why did I miss Silvern so much? She was infuriating.
Paz said, ‘You know, I reckon we should have a catch-up every night now. To make sure Hera’s okay.’
Silvern went right back to snappy. ‘And just how can we help? We’re stuck miles away from Hera and miles away from each other.’
‘Please,’ I said. ‘Can we do it? It helps to talk. I mean, we all know each other …’
Silvern laughed. ‘And you were so keen to get to Outside where you could leave Taris in your dust.’ Then she relented. ‘Yeah, okay. I agree. We’ll arrange it Sunday night.’
That had gone out of my head too – Marba’s command to have a stratum meeting via mini-comp every Sunday evening at nine.
‘Have you tried calling Marba?’ Paz asked. ‘In your head, I mean.’
‘No, of course not,’ I said. ‘Dunedin’s miles away.’
‘Try,’ said Silvern, once again in snippy mode. ‘He’ll love it even if it doesn’t work.’
Yeah, he would. Marba loved experiments, science and anything except emotions, which he just didn’t compute. But I didn’t want to try the mind call. It scared me, that power I didn’t understand.
‘Try it, Juno,’ Paz said. ‘It could be useful to know the range.’
I couldn’t argue with that. ‘All right,’ I said. ‘Hang about.’
I turned away from the screen, stilled my mind, summoned up the fear I felt for my sister. That wasn’t difficult: it was there with every breath I took. Then I focused on Marba and sent with all the strength of that fear: Get online.
The message was strong enough, because I felt the usual draining of energy that happened when the process worked. I turned back to the mini-comp. ‘Done.’ But it wouldn’t work – Otaki to Dunedin would be much too far.
Silvern, though, had the glint of mischief in her eyes. ‘Can’t you just see old Marba hopping around? He’ll be out of his skull with excitement.’
Yes, he would be. Marba could do excitement, and recognise it in others. But sadness he had no idea of. ‘D’you reckon he’s missing us yet?’ I asked.
And right then his icon popped up. ‘I guess we’re about to find out,’ said Silvern, clicking on it.
I couldn’t speak. The mind call had worked? I shook my head and tuned in to Marba. He was excited all right.
‘Juno! It works, even at that distance! How brilliant is that!’
Paz cut through his bubbling words. ‘Marba, listen! This is an emergency.’
It wasn’t really, not yet, but that was enough to shut Marba up so that I could tell him about Hera. ‘And we want to have a stratum meeting every night at nine,’ I finished.
‘Excellent idea,’ he said. ‘We might be able to help. Search the net, for example. Come up with ideas.’
Silvern asked, ‘Are you missing us yet, Marba?’
He frowned, his mind diverted to the new topic, and as always he gave it his full attention. ‘You know, I think I am. It feels quite lonely here with none of you to talk to.’
‘To order around, you mean,’ Silvern said.
The three of us laughed at him, but I wondered too if understanding loneliness would wake up his other emotions. I tried to imagine him being in love, but I couldn’t. He was too analytical and any girl he might fancy would go screaming mad with his logical approach when all she wanted was a hug.
We talked for ages, and I felt much less alone when I went to bed that night. My stratum were still my friends, still around to help if I called. I refused to think about the fact that, in reality, the fourteen of us were spread between Invercargill and Whangarei.
In the morning, Dad, Leebar and Bazin came with us to the station. ‘We’ll be with you soon. Stay safe,’ they said as they hugged us close.
Mother, Hera, Danyat and I boarded the train, and waved till we could see them no longer. I wanted to get off and run back, go to my school, laugh with those who were becoming my friends. All I could do was lift my hand in farewell.
It seemed to me that Outside was the Land of Goodbyes.
Have you heard? Jov fears that the threat to Hera is linked to the pandemic in some way. He says he hopes little Jovan doesn’t have the same strange abilities that Hera has. He says it makes life too uncomfortable.
Have you heard? Roop cried when she heard she has to live in the house where Hera was living.
Have you heard? Oban is pleased Juno and her family are moving to New Plymouth. He says he’ll be glad to have Taris people to hang out with.