Galax-Arena by Gillian Rubinstein

Author:Gillian Rubinstein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ligature Pty Ltd
Published: 2012-12-05T00:00:00+00:00

ten

Now my story changes again. What follows is partly what Mariam told me in the days that we sat together in the tank, and she sobbed and talked and sobbed again, and I held her hand, wiped away her tears, and listened.

The rest of the story is made up from what the others told me afterward and from my own inner eye. I watch it unfold inside my head as if it’s on film. I don’t know if it’s true or not. The story is only the way I see it and it’s coloured by what I am.

Sometimes I think it’s too hard—too hard to relive all that nightmare and terror. Tell your own stories, I say angrily to the spirits that come to me in the night and don’t let me rest. Why should I put myself into danger for you? But, they answer me, they have no voice. The dead are silenced and the living are speechless. Who’s going to tell their stories if I don’t?

Even the ones I hated and feared—Allyman and Ashmaq—Presh, even Hythe himself, the evil as well as the good, the selfish and the kind—and not the least the ones I loved, my brother and sister—they all deserve the same treatment. Their stories must be told, by whatever means I can find, and as best I can.

When Liane comes back into the living quarters and finds me gone, she does not cry. If she feels any sorrow she hides it. She has just had an exhilarating workout with Fenja and has been extravagantly praised by Hythe. And Presh almost smiled at her, and said, ‘Na bad!’

Fenja has already become more important to her than I was. Liane has never had a friend like Fenja. Fenja can do all the same tricks Liane can, and teach her new ones. She also knows interesting games and chants and she keeps Liane from being lonely and bored. Fenja is tough and mercurial. She isn’t afraid of anyone, not the big boys, not even Hythe. Fenja looks like Liane, with her high cheekbones and long, dark eyes. Only the hair is different. Fenja’s is silvery fawn, but that means she and Liane look really striking together. Only Fenja understands about Bro Rabbit, and Fenja is the only other person Bro Rabbit speaks for.

Bro Rabbit stays close to Liane all the time. When she is practising in the Gymna, Bro Rabbit sits on the end of a pole where he can watch the peb with his bright blue eyes. When she goes back to the living quarters he is on her hand, even when she is sleeping. But sometimes, because she likes Fenja so much, she lets her hold him.

In the morning she reports what Bro Rabbit has told her during the night, and the peb are both alarmed and fascinated.

‘Dat rabbit sab tings,’ Mariam said. ‘It sab tings bout we all, dat we never tol no wan. He never tell good tings, ony de bad wans. De peb, dey skeerd by he.

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