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led to the secret communication centre.
    We weren’t out of danger yet, judging by the way the ship was still suffering under the onslaught of the storm. But Hera leaned against me, relaxed. ‘Taris broken,’ she murmured. ‘Peoples not mean now.’
    I wriggled back down into the hammock. So she’d picked up the same thoughts I had. Great. I didn’t want to be able to hear people’s thoughts, I had enough trouble with their spoken words. For a moment I considered tuning in again, just to see. Then I shivered. I didn’t want to practise thought transference. If I couldn’t avoid it, then so be it, but I wasn’t going to go prying into private thoughts. 
    Have you heard …

    Go away. I just wanna die.
    www.warningtheworld.blogspot.com
    Warning Signs
    www.bobbingontheocean.blogspot.com
    We are the Heroes!

CALMER WATER
    W E CONTINUED TO ENDURE THE tempest, but Hera no longer wept and loud thoughts no longer battered my mind. Fergus walked among us, cheerful and calm. ‘No,’ he would say, ‘we’re not out of danger yet. But we’re still afloat and that’s good.’
    Shallym brought water for my family and said to me, ‘How does he do that? Tell us we still might die but leave us feeling we won’t?’
    I pressed the button to adjust my hammock so that I was more sitting than lying. ‘I think he’s a pixie.’
    She shook her head. ‘He doesn’t look like one.’ We’d seen movies in which pixies, fairies and goblins created magic and wonder. ‘But I think he might be a bit magic all the same.’
    I whispered, ‘You could marry him – had you thought of that?’ Where had that thought come from? I blamed the seasickness.
    Shallym laughed. ‘Grab the first Outside man I see? But what if there are a million hunks out there?’
    I gaped at her. ‘You don’t want to marry one of our stratum?’ I’d thought she and Yin would marry, for sure.
    She lifted her arms in a stretch ‘Maybe, maybe not.’ She leaned towards me. ‘But don’t you feel it, Juno? The excitement? Everything’s going to be different. We’re going to have more of everything to choose from.’
    I lowered my hammock again and clutched my gut. ‘All I feel is sick. Tell this rotten ship to stay still, why can’t you?’
    She laughed at me. ‘Still, like on the bottom of the ocean, for example?’
    I managed a smile. I must have been feeling slightly better – I was no longer hoping we would sink and drown.
    For three days the storm battered us, but at last I woke up in the early morning darkness to find we weren’t wallowing with the same intensity. I lay still for a moment, simply enjoying the fact my hammock was no longer swinging wildly and the sickness had gone. I sat up and my stomach didn’t protest, so I swung my feet over the edge and eased myself upright. My legs wobbled but it was bliss to feel well again. The trips to the bathroom over the past few days were not memories to treasure.
    I was hungry. Where had Shallym put the snacks? I was sure she’d left a small bag somewhere. Not on the floor because nothing would stay put that wasn’t anchored. Then where? Ah! That’s right – she’d tied it to the hammock. Seconds later I had what felt like a hard, square biscuit in my hand. It was sweet and crunchy with nuts. I ate it slowly, my mind on what Shallym had said about things being different, about us having more choices Outside. It would be better for Vima – of that I was sure. She might find another man to love – a man she could marry. Or she might see Oban differently when she could compare him with Outside men. She might see that he was a man worthy of her love.
    Dreams and wishes. Vima wouldn’t ever love Oban, not the way he wanted her to. In my heart I knew that. I wondered if he knew it too.
    I climbed back in my hammock to wait for daylight. What of me? What would I do Outside? Who would I marry? A thought hit me – would I have to marry at all? Now that was an interesting notion to consider. Would