Waking Dead Mountain E-Book

Felicity Banks

• Herausgeber: Odyssey Books
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Serie: The Rahana Trilogy
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 147

Beschreibung

Dance’s daughter, Traveller, is a feelsmith and her monster friends, the heest, need her help, but to do so she has to sail on the ship of a murderous pirate.

The mission: find a mountain that is dead and has to be brought back to life.

But standing in her way is her best friend’s grandmother who just happens to want to kill her.

Leseprobe

WAKING DEAD MOUNTAIN

THE RAHANA TRILOGY

BOOK 3

FELICITY BANKS

Published by Odyssey Books in 2022

Copyright © Felicity Banks 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the AustralianCopyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher.

www.odysseybooks.com.au

National Library of Australia

Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Author: Banks, Felicity

Title: Waking Dead Mountain / Felicity Banks

ISBN: 978-1922311542 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1922311559 (ebook)

Target Audience: For primary school age

Dewey Number: A823.4

Cover designed by Owen Gibbons

Illustrations by Lucie Mammone

CONTENTS

Also by Felicity Banks

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

About the Author

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Follow Odyssey Books

ALSO BY FELICITY BANKS

The Rahana Trilogy

The Monster Apprentice

The Princess and the Pirate

Waking Dead Mountain

The Antipodean Queen

Heart of Brass

Silver and Stone

Iron Lights

A Bloody Birthday

To Dad, who chose me when I was a child and has loved me wholeheartedly ever since. Everything good in my life is better because of you.

CHAPTERONE

I slowed my steps as I walked down the icy slope from my village to the harbour. Mum’s grip tightened on my hand. A ship waited to take me away—not just from Mum, but from the only home I’d ever known. And it was a pirate ship.

The frozen ground burned my bare feet. I’d left my shoes at home since I knew none of the pirates wore shoes.

There beneath my feet, as always, were the monsters—swimming in the ice like normal fish swim in water. Except normal fish weren’t covered with unpredictable lumps and spikes—and normal fish weren’t the size of houses. I focused the pleasure of a smile in my mind and sent the emotion beaming down into the ice.

Hi boys. You’re looking especially spectacular today. Spike, is that another new growth on your side? That shade of puce really catches the eye. Now be good this time and don’t scare the pirates. It’s not nice to pick on people when they’re so much littler than you.

The monsters were heest: wild, bulky creatures with giant red eyes and glowing purple heartbeats pulsing through their skin. They followed me wherever I went, spinning in delighted circles when I laughed and nudging dangerously at the surface of the ice whenever I felt sad.

I could feel their thoughts floating through the ice, warming me as I tried not to think about what I was doing. Despite everything, I didn’t blame them for making me leave home to fix someone else’s problem half a world away. I didn’t even blame them for choosing a pirate ship. It wasn’t like they’d had many options on the far southern edge of the world.

Someone had to go. I chose not to think about whether I wished it was someone else—someone who wasn’t me. There wasn’t anyone else, so that was that.

The heests’ ‘friend’ needed help. He—or she, or it—was either sick, broken, or dead. The heest had melted half my island in their distress as they tried to explain.If I didn’t stay calm, they’d do it again.

‘One more thing,’ Mum said as we continued carefully down the icy hill. ‘It might sound silly, but it isn’t.’

‘What’s wrong, Mum?’ I tried to meet her eye, but one of them always pointed off in odd directions, and it was impossible to catch her expression from that angle. I was willing to bet she was walking on that side on purpose. What was she hiding from me?

‘Nothing’s wrong.’ She laid one hand on my tightly plaited black hair. ‘As long as you make absolutely sure not to bother the captain.’

‘Ana’s grandma?’

‘That’d be the one.’

‘Why?’ I asked, pausing. The morning mist coiled around my legs, making me feel taller than I was. ‘Are you sure nothing’s wrong?’

Mum pushed back her own white hair, which only made it spring out from her dark face in more directions than before. ‘Remember last time they came, when I made sure you and Captain Sol never met? You and Ana never understood why I was so concerned.’

‘But—’

‘Everyone likes Ana, of course! We always knew she’d visit you again somehow. It’s even good timing—sort of. But surely you’ve heard the stories Captain Sol spreads around? About her pirating days?’

‘But she’s different now that she’s old,’ I said. ‘Isn’t she? Ana said she was.’

Mum glanced back over her shoulder at the village. ‘I’ve asked a few questions and found out Captain Sol prefers to work on the night shift. That means she’ll be asleep every morning, which is handy to know for starters. I’m trusting you to figure out how to keep out of her way the rest of the time. And to never, ever let her find out you’re a feelsmith.’

‘But I’ll be getting directions from the heest every day, so won’t she reali—’

‘Or that you’re talking to the heest.’

The pirate ship tipped to one side gently, and its furled sails shrugged their sympathy.

Ana leant over the port side railing of the ship. Suddenly, I missed her brilliant smile.

‘Sure Mum,’ I said, standing on my toes to wave. Anyone related to Ana couldn’t be all bad.‘I promise.’

I ran down the white hill until I fell over, sliding onto the beach with my bare brown legs in a tangle. Grains of ice, not sand, crumbled beneath my palms as I got up. Mum sighed loudly from the hillside behind me. Why couldn’t she understand that not everyone can keep to their feet every moment of every day? We were living on an iceberg, for telk’s sake!

Ana waved frantically and twisted one of her black ringlets around a single brown finger. I sprang to my feet and ran straight into the sea, smiling at the whisper of waves against my legs. Even when I sailed away from home, I would never be far from the ice, far below everything, where the heest fluttered their ragged fins in echoed excitement. I’d never be alone.

Ana yelled a greeting. She vaulted the ship’s railing and landed in a rowboat that hung suspended from the ship’s side. It swayed at the impact of her small weight.

She hung dangerously far over the side as the crew lowered it into the water. One of them was missing an arm. He slithered down a rope into the boat with Ana and wrestled an oar off her, laughing as she squealed in fake rage.

I took a breath and dived through a wave. The water rushed past my face, and I opened my eyes to see bright bubbles in the green. They turned dark as the boat drew closer. I surfaced and grabbed Ana’s outstretched hand. The one-armed man clasped my elbow and helped lift me aboard.

I grinned at him and noticed he had one blue eye and one brown. His face was darkened by the sun to a rich brown that was almost black.

‘This is Mayanam,’ said Ana. ‘He’s our navigator, and he’s good at standing up to Sol if she gives you any trouble.’

I felt the heest shy away at the mention of Sol’s name.

Mayanam looked at me closely. ‘What’s wrong, little one?’

Focusing on the heest, I blinked back tears at an upsurge of grief. I clasped my hands to stop them shaking. ‘Can we go now? Please?’

Ana ignored the note of panic in my voice. ‘How do we find the heests’ friend?’

I looked at her oddly. ‘They’ll come with us, of course.’

‘How?’ She looked back at the ship in confusion.

I giggled despite myself as I imagined the heest perched on the ship like giant blobs of lumpy compost. They’d crush it to matchsticks. ‘Three of the heest will guide us from under the ocean—hidden from Sol. Everything’s ice if you go deep enough, so they’ll be fine. Plus, they can come up into the water if they need to—for half a minute or so. I’m enough of a feelsmith to sense them from up here, and to tell them to go back under the ice when they need to.’

Ana gasped. ‘Of course you’re a feelsmith! You look like one.’

‘What do you mean?’ I asked. Not everyone was born with the skill to touch another person and see their emotions, but I wasn’t a freak. At least I hoped I wasn’t. And I hoped Captain Sol couldn’t tell just by looking at me.

‘It’s nothing bad,’ Ana said hastily. ‘It’s just that your eyes look so old. Not tired or grumpy, but … smart. They’re so dark they’re hard to read. You always look like you know heaps of secrets. And like most of them are funny.’

‘Can you sense the heest right now?’ Mayanam asked, scanning the shallow water with a hint of nervousness.

‘I can do better than that,’ I said, and pointed ahead to the beach. ‘Once we’re at sea, they’ll stay hidden, so enjoy it while you can.’

Mum reached the broken-up ice of the shore and turned in slow circles. Behind her in the white hillside, three great heest copied her movements. Their fins stretched out to either side in clashing orange and green, and they were as misshapen as wind-carved rocks.

The middle heest was Patchy. I recognised him both from the cheerful silliness flowing into my mind and from the orange growth looming over his left eye.

As always, he was one step behind the others. When Mum stood on her toes, the other two heest glided up the hillside. Patchy’s wide eyes turned from one side to the other, and his pupils contracted to smaller black circles within the red bands of his irises. He caught up a moment later and hastily propelled himself upward, but by then the dance had moved on without him.

‘Ohhhh,’ said Ana.

‘Want to see one closer?’

Ana leaned forward at once, stretching out on her belly toward the water.

I focused my imagination on Patchy’s view of Ana and Mayanam and me in the boat, and on making him want to come to us. When I had the feeling just right, I released part of the boundary on my mind and sent the emotion into the water. Unlike humans, the heest were sensitive to my feelsmithing without needing physical touch.

I opened my eyes and saw Patchy swing around as he sensed my invitation. He immediately dropped from view, then reappeared just under the ice’s surface at the sugary edge of the beach. His eyes were bigger than the boat.

‘Is that thing safe?’ Mayanam asked.

‘Oh, yes,’ I lied. ‘Patchy’s a dancer, not a fighter, aren’t you, my gorgeous boy?’

‘He’s a bit … large, isn’t he?’ said Mayanam, scratching the stump of his missing arm.

‘Not compared to the adults. But it’s all right. Heest are very sensitive to human emotions, so if they hurt us they’d only be hurting themselves. They can’t shut out emotion like you two can.’

Ana stopped reaching for the water and glanced at me thoughtfully.

Uh-oh. ‘I mean, like we can. All of us. We humans can all shut out emotions when we need to. Is it time to go yet?’

Ana and Mayanam concentrated on getting the boat to shore without capsizing. Mum stopped entertaining the heest and hugged Ana as she emerged from the water. I smiled to myself as I saw two of the heest collide with one another, their fins outstretched.

Don’t worry, boys—in another hundred years you’ll start to grow brains.

Ana helped Mayanam pull up the boat and presented him to Mum with a formality that didn’t suit her sea-worn sailing clothes. She gently pulled him out of the way so Mum and I could say goodbye. I sent a mental thank you before remembering Ana was a person, not a heest. She couldn’t hear my thoughts. Which was good, because it kept her optimistic about this journey.

Mum turned her back on the sea to gaze at the watching heest. Her hands twitched as if she wanted to dance the pain away. ‘I’ll come,’ she said suddenly. ‘Maybe the Luar-dwelling heest have matured enough to cope without me—just for a while. They started this whole thing, anyway. It’s not like it’s a human friend they’re so worried about.’

‘Mum,’ I said, and kept my gaze steady as the heest swirled around in sympathy.

‘Don’t talk like that. You’re the one that named me “Traveller”. Did you expect me to go against the name you chose?’

‘I didn’t mean for you to start travelling so young,’ Mum said, holding herself very still. ‘And I thought I’d be able to come with you.’

She’s really worried. Why is she so worried?

It’s nothing, Traveller. Shut up.

Mum squeezed her eyes shut. ‘I don’t want you out there alone.’

‘Patchy will be there.’ He had better come, since it was his friend in trouble in the first place. ‘And Ana. You’re the one who says it’s so important to be responsible. You’re the one who made Dad stay at home today, so it was easier for you and me to hold ourselves together.’ I sighed. ‘We both know the heest won’t let you leave. Not unless you’ve become a feelsmith in the last five minutes—and a better one than me.’

Mum blinked, and a tear escaped from her skewed eye.

‘Stop it.’ I kept my voice level with an effort.

Too much emotion. It’s getting dangerous now. Hold it together, Traveller, come on.

I felt the heests’ pain and confusion and knew the pain belonged to Mum. They were feeling her emotions and passing her worry on to me. Uh-oh.

The heest swirled faster, making an oily spiral under my feet. They were too close, and coming closer. The ice didn’t feel as hard as usual. That was never a good sign.

Not now, please, not now. No melting the ice. No swallowing things. Not today.

‘Mum, stop it. We promised not to cry.’

‘I know.’ Mum took a deep breath. ‘Sometimes I wish the heest would let you and I have our own feelings.’

Without thinking, I stepped forward to hug her. My foot smashed through the ice and I fell into the ground.

CHAPTERTWO

My island opened up and swallowed me. All the toes of my right foot burned as they touched something that shouldn’t have been there.

‘Patchy, no!’ Mum screamed.

‘Get away!’ I yelled.

Mum only hesitated for a second. She fled toward Ana and Mayanam at the sea’s edge.

I realised with some surprise that I was still above the ice. Or at least, my head was.

I tried to move my arms and couldn’t. The ice reached my armpits. It was already refrozen around me. Little wonder no one but Mum had left their home to see me off.

Where were my stupid monsters now? And how would I get out?

My feet and legs felt like they were on fire, which meant Patchy was still close. I bit my lip until I tasted blood and focused on the inconvenience instead of the deadly danger. Patchy was never good at boundaries, and Mum was never good at staying calm. I should have known this would happen.

If only I knew how to deal with it.

At least I could breathe. I practised breathing for a while, and let the back of my mind work on coming up with an idea for getting free. If the heest sensed my private terror, I was dead. They’d copy it for sure. And that’d be the end of Luar—and everyone on it.

I was never alone. Not even inside my own head. Not even when my monstrous friends put my life in danger.

I tried to look in control. Mayanam didn’t act reassured. He grabbed Ana and held her above the ground in his one thickly muscled arm. Ana wrapped her arms around his neck, but kept her eyes on me.

Mum had tears on her face, but her eyes were dry. I could see the effort it cost her to stay calm. And I could feel it, too. The heest weren’t convinced.

‘Get in the boat.’ My voice struggled past the ice pressing on my chest. The sea would dull their emotions—at least as far as the heest could feel. And they would be safe if Luar Island melted. Oops—shouldn’t have let myself think that. ‘All of you—go on.’

Mayanam put Ana in the boat and helped Mum inside. Mum moved as if she was in a dream. Her sister had been killed by heest when they were kids, and she’d only just gotten over the nightmares. Mum knew this was her fault. She knew Luar itself was in danger—and Dad was sitting quietly at home waiting for her. Poor Mum.

Mayanam took a step toward me, clenching his fist as if he was prepared to fight the heest single-handedly.

I felt fear and determination coming off him in waves. That meant the heest were feeling it—and getting more panicked by the second. He couldn’t abandon anyone, let alone a girl under his care. I hoped his concern didn’t get me killed.

‘The boat,’ I said, putting all my strength into my voice. ‘Now!’

He jumped into the boat with Mum and Ana.