HarperVoyager
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First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2015
Copyright © Gerrard Cowan 2015
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015. Cover image © Shutterstock.com
Gerrard Cowan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Ebook Edition © September 2015 ISBN: 978-0-00-810354-5
Version: 2015-08-10
I am breaking, the Machinery said.
Alexander had not heard it for days.
I am breaking.
It sounded different tonight: like a child.
âAgain,â said Amile. The tutorâs voice seemed distant, as if it came from another room. âRecite it again.â
Alexander looked to the window. His sister was below, playing with marbles in the courtyard. Iâll try to speak to father again tonight. He knew he would be called a liar. But there was no other choice; he had to make them understand.
The boy turned to face Amile, and started over again.
âOn the third day, the tribe gathered on the Primary Hill, to be entertained by the madman.
ââThis is when all shall change,â the madman said. But the people did not believe him, and laughed in their ignorance.
ââYou will be punished,â said one.
ââPunished by the Gods,â said another.â
I am breaking.
Alexander paused, and looked to the ceiling. There was nothing there.
Ruin will come with the One. You know who it is.
âContinue.â Amileâs hooked nose twitched. âAnd mean it; as things stand, you are lying to us both.â
Alexander looked once more to the window. Clack, clack, clack, went the marbles.
âThe prophet Arandel lifted a stone. He held it before his people and said: âThis is matter; it too has energy. It too is understood by the Machinery, which knows the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea, the rocks at the core and the reptiles of the South. These words have been spoken by the Operator.â
âThe people laughed again. âIf he told you all this, Arandel â where is he?â Arandel dropped the stone and looked to the sky.
ââHe is here.ââ
Amile was smiling.
âIn the centre of the ground, at the peak of the hill, ten paces from where they sat, a fire had started to burn, as if of its own accord.
ââArandel, what have you done?â
ââWhat witchcraft is this?â But their talking ceased, for they had seen something in the fire. A man stepped forth from the blaze, his cloak burning with flames of its own, dark and cold. The people wept, for they saw in this cloak the reflections of their own souls.
ââHe has come from the ground itself,â said Arandel. âFrom the ground and into flame, to the salvation of us all.â
âThis man came amid them and, as the tribe fell back and cowered before him, opened his arms. âIt is your first Selection year,â he said. âYou have been chosen. Nothing will be the same for you now.â
âHe walked among them.
ââI have come from the Underland. I have come to save the Plateau.ââ
Amile clapped his hands. âIn seven years, Paprissi, that is the best that you have read.â
Alexander bowed.
âWhat happened next?â
The boy cleared his throat.
âAnd so the tribe received the Machinery, the power of the Underland. It would choose the greatest leaders of the Overland, its Tacticians and Strategists, from now until the end of time, be they bakers or butchers, merchants or artists, boys or girls, men or women. And thus, the Overland would grow under their wisdom, to become the envy of all the great Plateau.