Heart of Danger Read Free

darling.’
    ‘I don’t want to go,’ Hera said.
    No! This couldn’t be one of Hera’s predictions, it just couldn’t be.
    Mother’s hand flew to her mouth. I shook my head. I tried pushing Hera’s words away, tried to deny the truth of them. But all the bright joy of the week was gone. I had a sense of events hurtling through the air, waiting to dive on us. They were malign – there was darkness in the atmosphere, disturbance and dread.
    ‘What do you mean, Hera?’ Mother asked, her voice carefully calm.
    Hera frowned. ‘I have to ask Willem. I don’t know all by myself.’
    Mother reached for her, dragging her into her arms. ‘We’ll go in now and call him.’
    Hera wriggled away. ‘I will plant my strawberry first.’
    I wiped the soil off the spade and set it on the grass. ‘I’ll try and get hold of him.’
    Mother just nodded.
    Back in the house, I switched on the mini-comp and clicked the Fairlands School icon. Let Willem be there. Please .
    Christina, one of the teachers, answered, her face lighting up when she saw it was me. ‘Juno! How delightful to see you. But you are troubled. What can I do for you?’ I should have known she’d pick up on the trouble; it was what that whole school was about – training people to use their minds to see beyond the obvious. ‘It’s Hera,’ I said. ‘She’s said something we don’t understand. Is Willem around?’ He had to be. He just had to be.
    Christina didn’t waste time with idle questions. ‘Wait there. I’ll go and find him.’
    I called Mother and Hera in from the garden. Hera, as ever, argued. But this time Mother was firm. ‘You will come right now, Hera. Do you hear me?’
    Hera did her usual trick of sizing up whether Mother meant business. It was clear she did. Hera got to her feet and clomped off to the house, muttering all the way. It would have been funny if we hadn’t been so worried.
    At last Willem’s lined face came up on our television screen.
    He talked to my sister, keeping his voice even and friendly, but the questions he asked her were chilling. ‘When you go away, Hera, do you want to go?’
    She frowned, thinking hard. ‘I want my Mother and Juno and Dad and Leebar and Bazin and Danyat.’
    ‘Are you frightened?’
    She was quiet, a grubby bundle of concentration. ‘I don’t like the people. They’re silly.’
    ‘Do they ask you lots of questions?’
    ‘I don’t know that, Willem. I just know they’re silly.’
    ‘Are they nice to you?’
    ‘They’re silly and they’re not nice.’ She smiled at him. ‘You’re nice, Willem. You’re not silly.’
    He said, ‘Thank you, Hera. You’ve done very well.’
    She jumped up. ‘I’ll plant my other strawberry now.’
    ‘No,’ Mother said, her voice on the edge of panic. ‘Not by yourself. Wait for me or Juno.’
    She ran off but I grabbed her. ‘Wait!’ I put all the fear I was feeling into the command.
    ‘You’re a mean, grumpy Juno,’ she said, but she waited.
    Mother said, ‘Willem – what can we do? How can we keep her safe?’
    He thought for a second, then said, ‘I think you should come to New Plymouth. You and the girls should come immediately, Sheen. The grandparents too, if they will. And Zanin will need to follow as soon as he’s arranged for somebody else to take his place.’
    Mother didn’t hesitate. ‘We’ll come tomorrow. On the train.’
    Willem’s face relaxed into a smile. ‘Good. I’ll organise travel passes for you and have someone meet you.’
    And so it was arranged, just like that. We were to go to the one place in the country I most wanted to avoid: New Plymouth – and, specifically, Fairlands School where Thomas, son of Hilto the dictator of Taris, was a pupil.
    Have you heard? Marba says he wants to study at the uni in Dunedin when he’s done his compulsory service year. He’s going to do psychology.
     
     
Have you heard? Vima says she’s learning to cook Outside food. She says she can see the sea from their