opens a door half hidden behind the honeysuckle. “Sit still, quieten your heart and mind, and the flask will show you the way to the portal.”
I wave him goodbye and hurry off. Am I too late?
CHAPTER 4
EBBA
He’s gone. My father is gone.
I should have told the old man I couldn’t stay. I should have grabbed Isi and run. My father was going to take me home. I had him for just a few minutes and then I messed it up.
I want to lie down and give up. I can hear Ma Goodson telling me to stop feeling sorry for myself because there are plenty of people worse off than me, but they’re not up here, right now. I wish they were.
Isi licks my hand, gazing at me with her soft amber eyes. She wants me to go on. She keeps turning towards the mountains and then looking back at me, but it’s so far. Maybe I can find my father’s portal. If I run, it might still be open.
But where is it? There are no paths, just sandy dunes and rocks, every way I look.
He told me it lay in the direction he came from. But which way was that? I can’t even see the old man’s white rocks. They’ve disappeared among the high dunes. I bite the inside of my cheek, my insides twirling with growing panic. I keep walking, but it feels like I’m moving in circles. I’m sure I’ve passed this jagged boulder before … Yes, there are my footprints in the sand. I’m going round and round. Whichever way I walk I come back to the same spot. What am I doing wrong? Or is it some kind of trick?
There’s a small outcrop of rocks nearby, so I climb it and peer out over the landscape, looking for any sign of my dad, anything that might show the way to his portal. There is … there is something, so far away that I have to squint to see it.
It’s a tree. A flat-crowned tree as tiny as my finger, but now I see it, I can’t stop staring at it. It’s the same shape as the birthmark on my hand.
It must be a sign. It’s the way home.
I set off at a run. But it’s no good. I can’t get past my own footprints. Whichever way I go, no matter how straight I try and go, I find myself back where I’ve been before.
Isi bounds up to me and stops dead, right in my path.
“What is it, girl?”
She’s not moving, stands as solid as rock, staring at the pocket of my robe.
Of course. The flask. As soon as I take it out and hold the small glass bulb in the palm of my hand she relaxes. She gives me a quick lick and sits down next to me.
What did Francis say? Something like, “If you quieten your heart and look into the stillness of this water it will show you the way forward.”
I try and quieten my heart but the thoughts are pounding and throbbing inside my head. My dad … I’ve felt him hug me and heard him say he’s proud of me, and that he’s going to come home with me and look after me. And I’ve lost him because I spent too much time listening to an old man. Meanwhile, back home there’s chaos and my sabenzis need me, and Micah and Samantha-Lee … For a while the thoughts do drum in my head, but then I become aware of Isi leaning against my shoulder, and her body is still. She’s staring at the water in the flask, and her ribs rise and fall as she breathes, and I begin to focus on her rhythm, and soon I begin to slow down the chaos in my head, and to fall into her pattern of breathing.
Slowly, a picture starts to form in the bowl, misty and vague at first, but then gradually clearing, until I see pictures moving across the surface.
I’m at Greenhaven, in the clearing next to the holy well. I used to think it was so special, but now it’s just a broken garden pond filled with mud and weeds. The necklace is gone from my neck. I’ve given it to my father, to thank him for bringing me home. He’s standing next to me. His birthmark is darker, spreading across half of his face, and his expression … it’s colder, almost sneering.
I’m home, and that’s what matters. We walk through the forest until we reach the ficus tree where Letti’s swing hangs broken. Ponto, the big black horse, is cropping grass in the meadow. He’s already saddled and bridled, and his stirrups fitted to the right length.
“Up you get,” my father says. “You go and tell them what you want. Go on, there’s my girl.”
He gives me a foothold, and I spring into the saddle and grab the reins. I gallop off at full speed along the road to the council offices. A soldier salutes me when I arrive. I dismount, put my chin up and climb the steps, ready to show them the new Ebba.
Major Zungu, Captain Atherton and Micah are having a meeting in the room where once the High Priest interviewed me.
I sweep into the room, and they jump to their feet.
“I demand that you arrest Samantha-Lee,” I announce. “She is the one who concealed weapons on my farm. She is leading the insurrection against the army. Thanks to me the general is dead, and you, Major Zungu, have everything you ever wanted. I’m willing to share the power, but first I want Samantha-Lee dealt with.”
Micah goes pale, but Zungu doesn’t flinch. He gestures to Captain Atherton who salutes me and leaves the room.
Micah takes my hand. Together we look at the view through the huge window over the sea to the mountains and the port of Bellville in the distance. “Soon that will all be ours,” I tell him. The look he gives me as he takes me in his arms is pure love. Pure admiration.
Time passes. A year, two, four. We rebuild Greenhaven with the help of the army. We’re married, children play around our feet. Micah is the ruler of Table Island. I’m there to support him while I raise the children and run the farm. It’s a perfect future, except …
Aunty Figgy is dead, and no one mentions the Goddess anymore.
Ten years pass. Our children are growing. We’re rich. Micah is ruler of the mainland too. But the forest around Greenhaven is gone. We’ve sold the wood, grown rich on the proceeds. People are fighting over food and water. We’re still together, but Micah has a paunch, and he looks shifty, always accusing people of trying to cheat or harm him. I’m older, and there’s a hardness around my face. Leonid and Jasmine rule the city of Bellville. They don’t talk to us anymore; not after the huge fight with Micah. They’re increasing the size of their army, and may be plotting to invade us. Letti and Fez are working in the offices, but they look unhappy and tired. We have everything we could want, except we don’t like ourselves or each other. The world is dry and barren, people are starving, and we don’t really care.
I go cold. Is this what we could turn into? Surely not. But I’ve seen enough this last year to know it’s all possible. More than possible.
Suddenly Isi growls. My father is standing behind me, looking over my shoulder.
“What have you got there?”
His face is nothing like the sneering cold face I saw in the flask, but the traces are there, under the beaming white smile. I shift away, but he leans forward, peering at the image in the flask. What if he sees the image of himself with such an ugly birthmark? I close my fingers around it so the pictures disappear.
“The old man in the rocks gave it to me. It shows you where to go.”
“Oh. That’s interesting, but I know where to go. I’ve got good news. I went off to check the portal and although it was almost closed, I have arranged for it to stay open a little longer. But we need to get going now.”
“Um, Francis told me to go to the mountains. He said the only portal is there.” My voice peters out. But he’s still smiling, reaching out for the flask.
“Did he give you this? May I hold it?”