Helix and the Arrival Read Online Free PDF Page B

stonehacks, Crag and Tor. The stonehacks’ job is to chisel away, night and day, copying Speel’s writings from animal skins, where they are first written, onto stone tablets. Crag and Tor lift their heads and stop chiselling as Ug and I enter. Their arms and shoulders are covered with rivers of veins trying to escape their thick muscles. A life of chiselling has made them like this. I think they resent caveboys like us, who are free to roam the mountain, as opposed to being stuck in a cave all day working for Speel. They go back to work, their facial expressions barely changing.
    â€˜Sit down,’ says Speel, squinting his singular eye at us.
    We take a seat at the fire, opposite him. He stands up. It looks like he’s enjoyed yet another big breakfast of hard-shell – the tender grey meat is still stuck in his beard and the shell of the poor, slow-moving creature sits discarded and empty, beside the fire.
    â€˜Today we will continue with the Learnings. Your Arrival is drawing near. You must fill your minds with the sacred knowledge of our glorious people if you are to become cavemen in our clan.’
    Ug is nodding. He loves any mention of the word ‘glorious’.

    â€˜I trust you have both completed your homework,’ says Speel, picking at the grey meat in his beard.
    Homework? What homework? I didn’t know we had homework …
    Ug pulls a small rock out from under his loincloth and presents it to Speel.
    Thanks for reminding me about the homework, Ug!
    Speel studies the rock, rotating it between his spider-leg fingers. He holds it up to the light of the fire and nods. ‘Very good, Ug. You have chosen well. It is indeed a sacred rock.’
    And then I remember. We were meant to find a sacred rock, a rock from the beginning of time when the mountain was first formed. These rocks are perfectly smooth and round and are hard to get because most of them are in the river, and no one from the mountain would ever dare set foot in there. Speel says that the river is swallowing up the mountain’s sacred rocks, one by one, drawing these precious objects into its dark, bottomless depths. All the more reason not to go looking for sacred rocks, I say!
    â€˜Where did you find this fine rock, Ug?’ asks Speel.
    â€˜Deep in the low woods. Close to the river,’ says Ug.
    Speel nods at Ug in approval. ‘Helix?’ He turns to me with a closed-lip smirk. ‘Let’s see if your sacred rock can rival your friend’s.’
    â€˜My s-s-sacred r-r-rock?’ I stutter.
    â€˜Surely you haven’t forgotten your homework,’ says Speel. He sits back down, settling deeply into his pile of skins and practising his beady-eyed smirk once more.
    â€˜No, of course not. Well, you see, the thing is that I did find a sacred rock, but it was lodged tight in a crevice and I wasn’t able to remove it. It’s very special – glorious, in fact – and of a wonderful colour. I hope to be able to dislodge it soon so that I can impress you with its gloriousness.’ There. That’ll convince him.
    Speel stares at me for a moment with his small brown eye. ‘As you are aware, the task I gave you was not to find a sacred rock stuck in a crevice and report back to me of its existence, but to bring me an example of such a relic. Where, might I ask, is this most glorious of sacred rocks?’
    â€˜W-w-where?’
    â€˜Yes. What is its exact location?’
    Think, Helix, think! I can’t say it’s anywhere in the woods – Speel knows I’m too scared to venture down the mountain on my own. Perhaps …
    â€˜The location of this rock is near Newstone,’ I say, knowing that Speel hates Newstone and never goes there.
    â€˜And what were you doing near Newstone, may I ask?’
    â€˜I was hunting with my father … for geckoes. Yes, we were hunting for geckoes on the rock ledges.’
    Speel considers my story. He breaks his