Heart of Danger Read Free Page A

kitchen window. She says she’s happy. She never speaks of Jov, even though he’s in the same city.
     
     
Have you heard? Sina says she’s happy in Wellington too. She says it’s good to have her parents so close, and Jov’s are near enough to visit as well. They all adore Jovan.
     

02
     

LEAVING
     
     
    I t 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