The Island (3 page)

My lip trembles. “Well, you don’t get it either. Why do you think I always wear this?” My hand closes around the pendant on
mother’s necklace.

With a sigh,
Colin walks around the kitchen table and pulls me into a rough embrace. “Come with me,” he mumbles in my hair. “When I go back to Newexter. Don’t stay behind without me. Let’s take care of mother together.”

Take care of
mother. The world upside down.

“I can’t,” I object. “Not yet. I don’t have a boyfriend.
If I go now, I’ll never be able to get married. I’ll be alone for the rest of my life.”

“What about
Andy?”

“He’s dating
Mara.”

“
Right.” Thankfully, he leaves it at that.

I actually came in here to tell
Colin about Andy and what he said about The Book, but my brother is so upset right now. I’d better go and find Andy first. “Listen up, I’ll talk to you again at dinner. I still have some things I need to do,” I quickly end the conversation.

I don’t look back when
Colin calls after me. I don’t want to hear the note of sadness in his voice, his evident pain upon learning that father has died. It will only make me waver and doubt myself. Because deep down, I am just as upset as my brother.

***

Mara is still in the laundry house, stuck up to her elbows in drab, soapy water. She’s washing out a pair of brown pants. The smell of wet wool and lavender soap pervades the room.

“Hey,” I say, casting a pitying look at the enormous pile of laundry still waiting for her.
“You know where Andy is?”

Mara
wipes her forehead. “He mouthed off to Ben because of me. And with consequences, I might add. He has to fight Max and Cal tonight.”

I blink in disbelief. “
You mean both at the same time?”

“Yes.”
Mara’s bottom lip starts to quiver and she bursts out in tears when I put my arm around her shoulders. “It’s not fair.”

My stomach turns. We
really
have to get out of this place. Saul is destroying everyone with a soul. But where should we go? Should we seek refuge with the parents?

“Come on,” I comfort her.
“I’ll help you out.”

I work hard, pushing t
houghts about confronting Saul to the back of my mind. Once Cal and Max have knocked Andy around tonight, the last thing on
his
mind will be talking to me about The Book, Saul and his lies.

We rinse all the clothes and blankets thorou
ghly and hang them on the line without speaking.

At last,
Mara breaks the silence. “I wonder where Andy went.”

I shrug. “I don’t know. Gathering strength, I guess?”

“So it’ll take them a bit longer to beat him to a pulp?”

I nod hesitantly. “
Yes. Something like that.”

My best friend bites her lip. “Leia...
something’s wrong with this place. It makes me scared.”

I
think of my encounter with Saul and nod quietly. I know exactly what she means.

-5-

IN OUR
camp, bedtime is when the sun sets.

Sometimes I stay up after dark. I
’ll sit in the library and read books by candlelight, but not often. By now, I know the few books we have by heart, and it’s nothing to write home about. Some volumes about edible plants, hunting tactics, how to sheer the sheep and ways to build huts and catch fish. In front of me right now is a different kind of book that I’ve read many times as well. A book containing imaginative stories called ‘fairytales’. Even in a fantasy world, parents are not to be trusted – the stories of Snow White and Cinderella make that perfectly clear. The mothers in those tales didn’t love their children either.

I close the fairytale book with a sigh and stare at the
flickering candle in front of me. Real reading is out of the question. I can’t get the images of the fight earlier this evening out of my head. Of Andy taking a beating by Cal while Max was holding him from behind. Of the youngsters who were all forced to watch. Some of them had averted their eyes. Some of them had seemed relieved that it wasn’t their turn this time.

Some had enjoyed the spectacle.

Mara
’s right. This truly is a place to be scared of.

My gaze drifts across the room toward the
door in the back of the library. That’s the room where Saul keeps The Book. Every week, he takes it out to read to us during assembly on the lawn in front of the manor house.

Saul
always tells us how each and every one of us has to feel the Force within and shouldn’t be dependent on anyone. The Fools, separated from us by a Wall, believe that help will come from afar. That salvation lies beyond the horizon, away from our island. That’s why they put so much energy into building ships, and that’s why they sail so far away that they never return. But we don’t. We are strong – and stand alone.

When I look around me, I suddenly notice I am the only one left in the library. But I can still hear noise. Downstairs, in the hallway, I hear raised voices.

Curious, I tiptoe through the hall and down the stairs. I can make out more now: Saul is shouting something, addressing his brother.”Hold him, Ben.” It’s followed by a grunt, like Ben has to restrain or lift someone. Shuffling of feet and muttered cursing.

Oh no. Haven’t they brutalized
Andy enough for today? I thought they’d frogmarched him to his hut after the fight, covered in abrasions and sporting a black eye. Mara had even told me she’d bring him some medicinal ointment later on.

No, I don’t
think this is Andy. The person they’re trying to hold down is grumbling in a voice that sounds older than the ones belonging to the youngsters in the manor house.

A shiver runs down my spine when I freeze on the stairs. I am not allowed to see this – I can
sense
it. But still, I want to look.

Quiet as a mouse, I sneak down the last few steps and cautiously look around the corner. This part of the house is illuminated by torches lining the walls so visitors can see where they’re going.
Saul allegedly has nocturnal visitors sometimes – girls, according to Colin, but I’ve never heard any of the girls mentioning it.

All the way in the back of the hallway is a beer cellar. It’s always locked, because
Saul says beer should be under lock and key. We only pour alcohol on special occasions – weddings and such. It’s quite a chore to make.

Saul
and Ben are standing by the beer cellar door, Ben supporting a man with blood running down his right temple. He’s hanging limply in Ben’s arms.

Who is he? One thing is certain:
he’s not from the village. I’ve never seen him before, and I’m sure I know all the people in Newexter. That rules out the possibility of him being a spy for the Eldest as part of the intervention my mother mentioned. The only thing I can think of is that he might be a Fool. But why would they knock one unconscious and confine him to a cellar?

Then again, he may have already been hurt. Perhaps they found him
like this. Perhaps they’re going to help him.

Saul
opens the door with a tiny, silver key on his keychain. Ben pushes the wounded man over the threshold, making him trip on his way into the dark beer cellar. Without another word, Saul slams the door shut and turns the key.

Looks like they’re not going to help him.

“Let’s go get Max,” Saul tells his brother. “I want to discuss things with you two.”

When they turn around, I dodge away, heart hammering in my throat. Please, please don’t let them come up the stairs. I have no idea where Max is.

Fortunately, I can hear the door to Saul’s room close with a thud. The hall is silent. I carefully glance around the corner again, my eyes landing on the cellar door.

My jaw drops.
Saul’s keys are still in the door. My mouth turns dry when I spot the ancient, intricately-decorated key that fits the lock of the library room upstairs – the room hosting The Book. My heart speeds up. This is the only chance I will ever have if I want to know what exactly Saul has kept from us.

I dash forward, take the entire set of keys in one hand to prevent them from jangling together, and use the other hand to take the library key off the chain. Sweat is pooling in my palms.

The sound of voices makes me jump. Not on the stairs, but behind one of the doors. Fragments of sentences, Saul’s loud and annoyed voice. “… does he think he is… not crazy… nobody on the island…”

As quickly and quietly as I can, I sprint toward the stairs, taking two, three steps at a time on my way up to the library.

How long will it take Saul to discover the key to The Book Room is missing?

I don’t have much time.

-
6-

THE FLICKERING
candle in my hand casts eerie shadows on the wall. I bite my lip as the door to the little room squeaks on its hinges. Very slowly, I push it open and slip inside.

The Book is on the table.
It has a hardcover, a spiral binding at the side, and an image of Luke on the front. He is our ancestor, one of the first men to have lived on the island. He’s wearing a white outfit and he’s holding some sort of weapon that doesn’t exist anymore. Next to him is his sister Leia, who I’m named after. Her sword emits light because she’s a firm believer in the Force, so the story goes. On the other side of Luke is his friend Han. He also has a luminous sword, wielding it to protect the twins. Too bad Saul – derived from Han’s second name Solo – isn’t exactly living up to his ancestor’s good name.

And all the way at the top is a man wearing a bl
ack mask - Dark Father, who betrayed his children and used his powers to do evil.

I shiver and reverently touch The Book, running a hand over its cover. This is the only book on the island with a
different kind of cover – glossy and smooth. All the books in the library are bound with raw threads and have softcovers made out of bark, paper or leather, and this feels so different. This is the first time I’m actually touching The Book. Of course I’ve seen the front of this book many times, because Saul always parades down the rows of people listening to his speeches while he’s reading from it. He carries it around like a symbol of his power.

I have always been proud of having been named after
one of the legendary twins who once lived on this island, but at the moment, I feel anything but brave and strong. My heart still slams against my ribcage, causing me to put down the candlestick with a trembling hand.

I open The Book.

My eyes take in the words on the very first page. They were written by Luke.

“They have abandoned us,” I
quietly read out. “My mom and dad said they’d come for us, but they lied. Most children are still waiting at the dock. Night and day. They are stupid. They are fools. Our parents will never come back. We have to save ourselves.”

His
full name is written underneath. Luke Skywalker. There are lines around it, like he wanted to draw a radiant sun around the letters.

The next page features a drawing of the manor house. All white and shiny, no ivy covering the walls. New and clean. Luke’s story continues underneath, but I
can’t risk reading everything. It would take me hours – time I don’t have. I skim through the pages, looking at drawings of primitive bows and arrows, weapons, a spinning wheel.

A picture of the sea catches my eye. Dark, ominous clouds at the horizon. The clouds we still fear today. But these clouds have a peculiar shape I have never seen before. They look a little bit like mushrooms. One single
word is written underneath.

“Poison,” I whisper.

Suddenly, I hear voices echoing in the corridor next to the library. “How the hell should I know who has the damn key?” Ben shouts, sounding frustrated. “
You
left your key ring in the door, not me.”

They’ve already found out. I quickly slip The Book into th
e waistband of my pants. There’s no time to tear out pages of incriminating evidence – besides, I haven’t found any yet. I storm out of the door, looking frantically around me. The library has two exits, but they both lead to the corridor where Saul and Ben are currently biting each other’s heads off. The only other way to get out of here is the window.

I reach the window in three giant steps, crawling onto the windowsill and opening the window as fast as I can.
I have to jump down two floors if I want to get away without being seen. And I have to make absolutely sure I won’t be seen – if Saul finds out I’ve been reading The Book, I’ll be locked up in the beer cellar for all eternity, just like that Fool.

There’
s no time to waste. I close the window behind me, push off and try to bend my knees at the right moment to absorb the shock of hitting the lawn. Pain shoots through my calves, but I have to ignore it if I want to keep going. I stagger away and hide behind a bush a few steps away from the house.