Osiris Read Online Free PDF

thick, salty batter. Mikkeli gave Vikram most of the kelp squares. She pointed outwards.
    “Look over there,” she said. “See them towers?”
    “Yeah. They’re all silver.” That was his first impression of the City. Silver and glorious, like the morning sun on the waves.
    “We can’t go there,” said Mikkeli. Her voice sounded strange. Vikram could not work out if she was cross or if she might actually cry. He thought about what Mikkeli had said and decided that there must be a reason for it.
    “Why can’t we go there?”
    “’Cause we’re westerners, that’s why. We’re not allowed.”
    “Why not?”
    “’Cause it’s the rules. The Council’s rules.” Mikkeli spat over the balcony rail. Vikram leaned forward to see the gob of spit fly and Mikkeli grabbed his collar and pulled him back.
    “Who’s the Council, Keli?”
    “Stupid old gulls, Naala says. Stupid gulls who make stupid rules. You see, Vik, our mum’s and dad’s folks, they weren’t born here. They came from some place else.”
    “I know that. I’m not an idiot.”
    “No, you’re clever, that’s why I’m telling you this. “’Cause it’s important. And it’s not fair. Why do we get left in this dump and them Citizens got heating and ’lectricity that works all the time and you know what else they’ve got? They’ve got the o’vis .” The yearning in Mikkeli’s voice reminded Vikram of hours spent waiting outside the fry-boats, smelling the smell of hot squid, knowing that it would be long past twilight before leftovers. “Naala actually saw an o’vis once. She said it’s amazing. You can watch ancient filmreels the Neons made; the newsreel and animés and everything .”
    “What’s the newsreel?”
    “This announcer thing they got, tells you information and stuff, like if someone dies, everyone knows ’cause it’s on the feed…”
    Mikkeli talked on. She told him weird and wonderful stories of a fabulous world where people went to parties and wore beautiful clothes and watched acrobats and then stuffed themselves with weqa and fish until they vomited.
    People didn’t get sick in the City, she said. They didn’t get horrible coughs and die in the night.
    The Citizens did peculiar things. They kept animals in their rooms—as pets. They wore coats with bird feathers inside. They had gliders.
    If they wanted to come to west Osiris, which they didn’t, they were allowed to whenever they liked.
    Vikram listened. He looked at the sleek, silver towers. The shuttle lines looked like jets of blue fire leaping from one gigantic cone to the next. Fire was one of Vikram’s favourite things in his limited world.
    “Can’t we just go to look around?” he asked.
    “No. Look down there—careful! Naala’d murder me… See that net coming out the water? Goes down as far as the sea mud. People say the Tellers tied it, right at the centre of the earth. But that’s all lies. The Council wanted to keep us out so the skadi put it there.”
    “We can’t go ever? Not when we’re older?” Vikram wanted to be sure.
    “Did you listen to what I said? Never ever. You try and cross that waterway down there without a tag that says you’re a Citizen, the skadi shoot you— zap! Just like that. They hate us, they call us dogs. Look, look, there’s a boat of ’em going past right there, that dirty black speeder. Naala told me it all. I wasn’t even meant to bring you with me, it’s that dangerous.”
    Vikram saw a gull fly past the nearest tower on the other side. The light, reflected from a window, turned the bird for a second into living gold. Everything that was beautiful belonged to the Citizens.
    “Then why did you?” he said angrily. “Why did you bring me?”
    It seemed like the most unfair thing that Mikkeli had ever done. But Mikkeli was unimpressed at his outburst.
    “Because Vik, one day someone’s got to do something about it, and it might as well be us. Right?”
    He looked from the waterway, where the