-2-
WHEN I return at our camp after the downpour passing over the island, only Mara is still there waiting for me, a bag of camping gear at her feet.
“Oh, good, there you are,” she exclaims in relief. “What happened to you?” Her hand reaches for my jet-black hair, all matted with sea salt and tangled up because of the wind.
I shrug. “Nothing much. I ran until I hit the beach. Stayed there for a while to unwind. I really had to get away from Ben.”
“Yeah, who doesn’t?” Mara sighs. “He should be called to order, but who’s going to do it?”
“You,” I tease her. “I bet his nose still hurts.”
Mara stares hard at her feet. “Yes, about that – I’m not looking forward to getting back to the house. Saul will probably give me the shittiest job imaginable for giving his brother a left hook. I bet I’ll be scrubbing filthy bed sheets in the laundry house for the next three weeks.”
Together, we pack my tent and hit the road home, Mara walking silently beside me. “I really have to get out of here,” she breaks the silence after a while. “For all I know, Saul will marry me off to his brother, just to stop him from always harping on about me.”
“An arranged marriage?” I gape at her. “Come on, that never happens anymore! We have freedom of choice.”
“Yeah… in case you hadn’t noticed: Saul’s not freedom’s biggest fan. That guy is nuts. You think he comes from a line of Fools?”
I chuckle. “Did you cross the Wall and fall off? Nobody here is descended from Fools.”
Mara averts her eyes. “Aren’t you ever curious, Leia? About the people on the other side of the Wall?”
“No, of course not,” I deflect quickly. “We know how it is with those people.”
“Why? Because Saul says so?”
“No, because the parents taught us that way. And they were taught by theirs. Besides, it’s also written in The Book.”
“Yes, the part we’re allowed to read,” Mara mutters.
I come to a stop in the middle of the trail and stare at my best friend. “Mara, what are you talking about? Who told you these things?”
“Andy did,” Mara admits. “He says…”
“He says what?” I press on, when Mara bites her lip and stares at the ground. My best friend starts to blush under my inquiring gaze.
“I went on a date with Andy,” she stutters. “Right before we had to go on this hike. We were together all evening. And he told me a secret. About The Book. He says Saul is keeping things from us.”
Andy and Mara? My heart cracks a little. Admittedly, I don’t really like anyone, but if I had to choose, it would be Andy. Eighteen-year-old Andy with his kind, brown eyes, black hair and broad shoulders. But he likes Mara. My best friend with her slender, willowy body, chestnut hair and her fifteen years. For just a split second, I taste the bitter flavor of jealousy on my tongue, but then I see the look of insecurity in Mara’s eyes. She doesn’t want to lose me over this.
“So what did Andy say exactly?” I ask, not digging deeper about the date.
“That Saul knows things he doesn’t share with us. Important things.”
“And how does Andy get so smart?”
Mara’s voice drops to a whisper. “He saw it in The Book.”
“When?”
“He couldn’t read for long. Saul had left The Book on the table after one of his speeches, that evening we had to watch the fight between Max and your brother. Andy couldn’t resist sneaking a peek.”
“Really.” I give her a baffled look. And here I was, thinking Saul only had a say in the choice of particular chapters for certain days. Apparently, some chapters are never chosen.
What is he afraid of?
“The Book says that collaboration is the most crucial survival tactic,” Mara continues. “When you work together, you have the best access to the Force. We don’t need a leader at all.”
“But - but that’s not right,” I stutter. “It’s the law of the fittest that counts.”
“No, it’s not. A group is the strongest if we all contribute. Someone wanting to draw all power of the Force to himself will turn evil. And all who follow such a leader will lose the light themselves.”
“In that case, we have to do something!” I hiss softly, even though there’s no one around to eavesdrop on us. “If Saul’s been lying about this…”
Mara sighs dejectedly. “The burden of proof is on us. And we can’t prove anything. Andy only had a glance at that page – he couldn’t tear it out to show it around.”
The rest of the journey home has me dazedly putting one foot in front of the other without even looking. I can’t get Mara’s story off my mind. It would mean that we’ve been lied to by a power-hungry guy who sends us off into the wild looking for the Force that he himself is stealing from us. Maybe I should tell Colin about it.
***
Waiting at the gate of the fence surrounding the manor grounds is a woman. Someone from the village. Perhaps she’s here to bring us news from Newexter or to collect a letter from Saul.
It’s only when she turns around that I recognize her. Brown hair. Tired, blue eyes staring at me. Six years ago, those eyes wouldn’t look at me when I left my parents’ house.
It’s my mother.