Siberia by Ann Halam

Author:Ann Halam
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307433763
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2007-12-17T16:00:00+00:00

* 7 *

Lagomorpha

I Stayed in my packing case because I had no choice. When I crawled back in there after I’d seen Yagin, soaked and frozen and black with soot from the railway line, I really thought I would be dead before morning. I’d be chewed up by the dogs, the Lindquist kits would be in a tank in the fur-bearers shed, and Nosey might escape but she would be left all alone. . . . But nothing happened.

After two days, I had to believe that Yagin—if I had really seen him, if I hadn’t dreamed the whole thing—must have convinced Mr. Ismail to forget the mystery fur-bearers, and pretend he’d never seen the runaway girl in strange uniform. But why would Yagin do that? If he was chasing me, didn’t that mean he wanted to catch me? If he had tracked me down to the fur farm, didn’t that mean he knew about Mama’s treasure, and he wanted to take it from me, the same as the bandits who had burned our hut down? He knew I had the Lindquists, Mr. Ismail had told him. But how much did he know? Did he know more than I did? I lay in my stinking nest, listening for the dogs, putting together what I knew, and trying to make sense of it all.

The way they changed and grew was so strange I had to call it magic. But I thought I understood what the Lindquists were, now. I had remembered the names of the orders. I remembered how my mama had told me that Nivvy was a real wild animal. So . . . there were no wild animals left (or hardly any), but there were these kits, that could grow into wild animals, the way fur-bearer kits grew into huge sheets of fur. But if that was what the Lindquists were, why were they a secret? Why shouldn’t I take them to the Fitness Police—who were supposed to kill muties, but look after the true wild creatures? I could say, You think my mama was a criminal, you think she did something terrible, but she’s not. Look! Here’s the marvel that she’s been keeping safely, after she was dumped in the wilderness; all these years.

I thought about it, and I thought about it. But I knew there was something wrong. It couldn’t be that simple. Mama had said, “When you have no one to turn to, look deep into your own heart.” So I looked, and I found that though I longed to trust someone, I did not trust Yagin. No matter what he’d done for me I didn’t trust him. I would keep faith with my mama. I would do what she had planned to do. Somehow, all by myself, I would get the kits across the frozen sea, to the city where the sun always shines, and until then I would tell nobody, nobody.

Nosey foraged for herself; there were plenty of bugs. The kits did not need anything. Luckily it wasn’t very cold, even at night, because I didn’t dare to light a candle.

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