Elevation 3: The Fiery Spiral. Helen Brain

      Her fingers are undoing the clasp of the necklace around my neck, her face inches from mine. Her eyes are green and mysterious and her shining pupils hold a story, the story of humankind, of the world, of things too vast for me to understand.

      “That’s what you want? Are you sure?” Her voice ripples, winding and flowing like rivulets of rain.

      Am I sure? I close my eyes and I see them … all the people I love. I want Letti to be happy again, and her baby safe. I want Shorty to be alive again. Could I ask for my mother and father to come back to Greenhaven with me, so we can be a family?

      Her hands are cool against my skin as she lifts the necklace off. Then suddenly her hands jerk away and she coughs. Fog floods in from all sides. I can’t see my fingers, I can’t breathe … The fog sucks up the green light, dragging her, pulling her away from me, away from the portal.

      “Here!” she shouts, flinging the necklace at me. It’s just a glimmer in the grey but I catch it with shaking hands. “Don’t take it off.”

      I tie it around my neck as her voice fades, thickening until it drops like stone. The cloud swirls around me, sucking and tugging at the necklace so it cuts into my neck. I grab onto it, trying to cover it with my arms and hands. It’s going to break. I’m going to be ripped off the portal. I grab the rope of light, hanging on, too scared to do anything but clutch tightly and keep my head down.

      “Get off the portal!” It’s Lucas, rising up the shaft of light below me. “Can’t you see Prospiroh is throwing meteorites at Earth?”

      Trembling, I peer down the shaft. I can’t see what he’s pointing at, though the fear on his face is clear. I can barely see Earth through the fog. But I have to go back. Surely he can’t hurt Earth if the necklace is there.

      “I must go back to Greenhaven.”

      “You can’t,” he pants, right below me now, pushing me upward. “He’s taken Theia. You have to close the portal.”

      “I can’t leave my sabenzis. What if he harms them?”

      “Look at that one.” He points down the portal. “It only just missed.”

      “I can’t see anything.”

      He stares at me, then gives me another shove. “Just believe me. Go. Go.”

      Then Isi is above me, grabbing the shoulder of my robe in her teeth.

      “Isi?” I gasp. “What are you doing here?”

      “There’s no time to talk. Just go!” Lucas shouts. Together they force me through the fog, away from Earth, from everyone I love … until suddenly I’m on solid ground.

      I sink onto sand, and Isi drops next to me, panting. A moment later Lucas appears. The bloodstains have vanished from his robe, and there is no sign of the gunshot wounds.

      The fog begins to swirl and then to drift away. The portal clicks shut. Am I in Celestia? Am I dead? Is Celestia like paradise?

      Will everyone be happy and content, humans and animals living together in peace? Will my mother hold me in her arms, and will I see her face and know her at last?

      But when the mist clears, my heart drops.

      It’s a desert. It’s just sand the colour of dried blood, rocks and an endless orange sky pressing down on me. No life, nothing growing or moving. Just Lucas, Isi and me. “What are we going to do …” I start to say. But then I see Lucas’s face. He’s gazing around him in amazement. Amazement and joy.

      CHAPTER 2

      LUCAS

      I’m sitting on the softest grass and a flock of purple and green birds squawk from the branches of a spreading tree with spotted leaves. No earthly bird, even in the days before mankind began to destroy the planet, ever looked like these long-legged creatures gobbling berries and shrieking raucously.

      Ebba is gaping too, but not with delight. Why does she look so disappointed? Is this not good enough for her?

      I can’t think what to say, and she looks as though she requires a hug or some other consolation. I break off a sprig of a plant and the fragrance of lemon fills the air. I rub it between my fingers and wait, wondering what I should do next. The sun catches her hair and the curls shine like copper. Her face is very lovely, even though it is dirty, and the hem of her robe is torn.

      She looks up and catches me watching her. “What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you grinning like that?”

      Isi scuttles behind a rock with her tail down.

      “Er … I’m smiling because this world is so extraordinary.”

      “You’re joking, right?” She points – to the sky, the tree, the shrubs that smell so wonderful and are covered in small multi-coloured flowers. “Seriously? How can this be Celestia? There’s nothing here.”

      I scratch my head. Is she trying to annoy me?

      Then I realise what is happening. She genuinely can’t see anything. “You were intended to go back to Earth with the Goddess, so you shouldn’t be here. You aren’t dead yet, so you can’t see the real Celestia.”

      She stares, then gets on her hands and knees, crawling frantically across the grass, patting the ground.

      “What are you doing?”

      “Looking for the portal. My friends … they’ll be looking for me. Where is it? Help me find it.”

      She’s in such a panic that without thinking, I crouch next to her and pat her shoulder. “It’s alright. It will be alright. Just stay calm.”

      She throws herself against my chest and begins to sob. “What am I going to do? What am I going to do? Micah told the guards about the plan. He wanted me dead.”

      I pat her back tentatively. Her hair smells warm and earthy. I have never touched her before and her soft shape is beguiling, unlike her torrent of emotion, which I find utterly repellent.

      “It was so terrible,” she sobs. “And then they shot you, and you were only trying to help me. Not like Micah. Why did he do it? Why did he do it? He said he loved me.” Her voice cracks, and I take a step back, letting her go.

      “Sit down. Come, sit down.” I point to a flat rock and she sinks onto it, dropping her head into her hands. I knew he was a fraud from the day I saw him, but I can’t disclose that. I don’t have anything to say that could possibly help, so I sit opposite her on the ground, and listen while she pours it all out – her pain, her rage, her disappointment.

      “All men are the same.” She stops crying at last, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. She’s left another streak of dirt across her cheek. Hal would have called it adorable.

      “All men are the same. They always let you down. They screw you over and then they leave.”

      I don’t have anything to say to that. My father was a reprobate and a bully, and Hal wasn’t much better – he just had a charming persona. There are very few men on Table Island for whom I have any respect – had, I correct myself. I’m free of them now. Free of the citizens, the army, the misery and despair that humans cause one another, and free at last to explore this new world. I stretch my legs, eager to get up and begin.

      She sniffs, watching me. “Where are you going?”

      “Er …” I stop, feeling guilty. I should be listening to her problems, even though she’s on her third explanation now of how Micah and Samantha-Lee plotted the whole thing. I should be kind, and show her that not all men are the same. However, I’ve spent my whole life listening to my mother talking about her hard life. I’ve sat there patiently