TERRA HEXA
(Wela, 2004 (Swedish only)) - a novel by A.R.Yngve - Sample Chapters of the unpublished English version
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Chapter 3
The next day, when Henna visited the university library, someone was waiting for her there. But she did not know it.
The university library was the largest one in the known world, and was housed in an old brick building near the main auditorium. Inside the halls of red bricks, one could walk past several hundred meters of bookshelves stuffed with old hand-written volumes, and one could also find the latest editions from the printing presses of Northtown.
The books that interested Henna the most, though, dealt with legends and tales from the mythical Old World that might or might not have existed. Henna understood now, that if she was ever accepted into the next expedition to the far south, she had to look up every scrap of previous knowledge about where they were headed. Some of the old books, she reckoned, had to contain a few clues to what lay in the Outlands. And the modern schoolbooks simply did not bother with the world outside the wilderness.
Henna dug out the oldest geography volume she could find - a heavy, 200-year-old leather-bound book, wide as a small table - and carried it to the nearest reading window. The sunlight that never ceased shone through the aged glass panes and illuminated the book's pages for her. Henna leafed through the crisp pages as fast as she could without damaging them, and finally she stopped at a particular text section.
She read to herself: "The Terra Hexan soil is poor in fine metals such as copper, silver and gold. Without fine metals, the machines of the Old World could not be recreated, and most of that knowledge was forgotten or lost. Far worse is the fact that Terra Hexa does not have the mythical substance called 'oil', which was said to pour out of the ground of the Old World."
A shadow fell over Henna, and she gasped in surprise. As she spun around in her chair, she saw a bearded man standing close, and he was grinning at her. Henna blinked several times, not sure if she recognized him. Was it really - could he be...?
"Uncle Ingo?" she asked, and when she looked into his sad brown eyes she knew for certain.
"Hello, Henna - you've grown, just like I knew you would," he said.
She stood up and they hugged each other hard. They laughed and cried a little. Then they moved slightly apart so they could see each other better.
"Uncle," said a red-eyed Henna, "where have you been all these years? All the time at the university, I was waiting for a visit or a letter."
"I'm so sorry, Henna, but I couldn't write… for the same reason that I couldn't be at that university lecture the other day... yes, I heard about your volunteering for the expedition... I'm wanted by the police."
"What?"
"I've spent quite some time hiding out at a friend's place, while I was resting after the last expedition. There is so much to tell, but your teacher had to be careful what he told the students, what with the police watching over his every word… did anyone follow you here?"
Henna looked around her, and said, "Wait, let's not talk here, someone might see you."
She took them to a corner room of the library, to which she had a key, and they went inside. They found themselves in a narrow storage room where boxes and cartons stood on crude wooden shelves. A small window-shaft provided enough sunlight for them to see with. They took two chairs and sat down to talk.
"If only my sister could see you now," said Henna. She took his hand, and felt how much older and wrinkled it had become. "Gala's grown too, and she's going to be an express rider…"
"I know," said Ingo with a broad, proud smile. "I've kept track of you two, even as I left Northtown. Gala doesn't know I'm here - not yet. I don't know if it's safe for her to be seen with me."
Henna shook her head in disbelief, and asked Uncle Ingo why the police was looking for him. He explained the problem the best he could, even though even he didn't know all there was to know about police and government.
He said, "To put it simply: the people who think the world is a flat disc have taken over the government of Northtown. It happened in the recent elections. The men who took over don't want anything to exist but this world, this sun, this country. When they hear about 'the stars' and 'the Old World' they get scared. So naturally, when our expedition came back from the Outlands and showed proof of an undiscovered land, it posed a threat to the government's ideas. You saw the police at the lecture - that's just the beginning. Soon, the police will be ordered to arrest teachers and students who express 'dangerous' opinions, even satirical artists like Mick, or even you. So I shouldn't get your sister Gala involved in this, too."
Henna realized how foolish she and her friends had been, volunteering openly in front of the police.
She said, "Uncle, I haven't seen very much of Gala these past few years. But every time she did write to me or visit me, she wanted to know if I had heard anything from you. Can't you understand? You've been like a distant father to us, all these years. I must tell her you're here now, police or no police."
"Are you serious about volunteering for the next expedition, then?"
"Yes. Don't try to make me change my mind."
"It's very dangerous," Ingo warned. "Several men, friends of mine, died out there."
"But even so, you're going there again?"
"Of course. Nothing could hold me back." He held out his arms in the cramped, dusty, dimly lit room. "There must be more to the world than... just this tiny corner! And I want to see the rest of the world before I get too old, or arrested."
Henna said, "Then give my sister one last chance to see you."
Uncle Ingo nodded, and said, "You're right. I'm so proud of you, you know... you're the child I never had."
They made up a plan for how to secretly meet up with Gala. "Your two male friends, can they be trusted?" asked Ingo.
That was a good question. Henna had known them for at least two years, but never intimately. She didn't get out very much, but she used to meet them and talk to them at the university practically every day. Henna knew that Mick loved to brag, and that Rydel liked her - perhaps very much.
"Rydel would never betray me," she said. "And he's an apprentice express rider, just like my sister. They must see each other sometimes, at least."
"Good. Now, tell Rydel to find Gala and do this..."
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