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Overview
Rook and Gage live worlds apart — but somehow they must find a way to help one another survive.
Trapped in a life she didn’t choose, Rook struggles to find meaning in her appointed role as an apprentice Keeper of ArHK. Even though her mam soothes her with legends of the Outside and her da assures her there are many interesting facts to discover in the Archives, Rook sees only endless years of tracking useless information. Then one day Rook discovers historic footage of the Chosen Ones arriving in ArHK, and she begins to realize her mam’s legends are more than bedtime stories. That’s when Rook begins her perilous and heartbreaking search for the limitless sky.
Gage is also trapped. Living on the frontier line with his family, his is a life of endless moving and constant danger. As he works with the other scouts, Gage searches for the Ship of Knowledge to help his society regain the wonders of the long distant past, when machines transported people across the land, illnesses could be cured, and human structures rose high into the sky.
Will Rook and Gage escape the traps and perils that await them in order to save each other’s worlds? If they don’t, it could very well mean the end of humanity.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781459748897 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Dundurn Press |
| Publication date: | 05/10/2022 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 384 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
| Age Range: | 12 - 15 Years |
About the Author
Christina Kilbourne is an award-winning author of young adult fiction, most recently Safe Harbour. Her writing has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Slovenian, and Ukrainian. Christina lives in Muskoka, Ontario, where, when not writing, she spends as much time as possible outdoors.
Read an Excerpt
Rook
From down the street, I can see the Fixers set up outside our door, repairing the sky.
“It’s about time,” I complain.
“Are they finally replacing the piece that hit Sparrow?” Ruby asks.
I nod and we stop at her corner to watch the figures working in the distance. One of them is at the top of the scaffolding with a trowel. Two others are on the ground bent over buckets, mixing plasterflex and paint.
“When was that? Two weeks ago and they still haven’t fixed it?” I hear the outrage in Ruby’s voice.
“The Fixers didn’t even contact us to apologize for almost killing a seven-year-old.
You should have seen the bruise on her back.”
“It’s inexcusable, Rook! They shouldn’t have let it get to that point of disrepair. What if other pieces started falling off? Your mam should submit a formal complaint. That’s the only way to get things done.”
Her face is flushed with indignation, and I can tell by the way she’s twirling the strap of her personal messenger that she’s ready for a fight. She loves rules and to make sure people follow them. She’ll be a perfect Governor one day.
I shrug but don’t commit either way. Even though Ruby has been my best friend since before I can remember, I’m more of a live-and-let-live kind of girl. Sure, they should have noticed the crack in the sky before it became dangerous. But I know the Fixers are busy. They have a lot of repairs to keep up with and complaining just makes everyone miserable. Ruby says my complacency drives her mad, but I call it patience.
Before she heads home she straightens her vest and pats down her hair. Hers is a very proper family — they have to be as Governors — and perfectionists to boot.
“Message me later?”
“Of course,” I say. “With so much excitement in the Keeper household, I’ll be bursting to tell someone.”
Ruby ignores my sarcasm and bounces off down her street. Even though it can be hard to take sometimes, I admire her energy. It was no accident that she was a three-time recipient of the ArHK Apprentice School Spirit Award.
When I get to our pod, I pause. The Fixers have spread a drop cloth in front of our door.
“Uh, is it okay if I go inside?” I ask, and point at the 78 on the arch above our pod.
“Sure thing,” one of the Fixers says. “The cloth’s still clean. You won’t track any mess inside.”
Although I know Mam and Sparrow must be home, the pod is quiet when I step inside, that is, until I close the door and the latch clicks into place. Then Sparrow rushes from the kitchen and just about knocks me off my feet.
“Rook! Rook! Can you take me outside to watch the Fixers?”
She’s jumping up and down and clapping her hands, as if she needs to release some of the excitement stored in her wiry little body.
“Why don’t you watch out the window?”
“I tried that but I can’t see past that scaffold stuff.”
“I just got home.”
Sparrow stops jumping and crosses her arms. She lowers her head and scowls at me from behind a veil of dark hair.
Beyond the noise of the Fixers, I can hear Mam chopping vegetables. The tap is running, and the radio is playing a new release by the Entertainers.
“Mam! Sparrow wants to go outside and watch the Fixers,” I call out.
“I know, but I’m in the middle of making dinner, and I don’t want her to go out alone. She’ll get in the way,” Mam defends herself from the kitchen. I have to admit that Mam has a point. Sparrow is very curious.
“What about Da? Can’t he take her?”
“He’s still at the Archives. Finishing a report for Governor Hawk.”
Sparrow crinkles her nose at the mention of Governor Hawk, and I shiver in response. Neither of us are fans. He has a way of lurking around corners and appearing out of thin air. I’ve always imagined he’s hollow inside, like if he ever took off his robes you’d find out he’s just a head hanging on a long hook. One time, when Ruby and I were Sparrow’s age, we set up a pretend school outside with our dolls. He stood across the street and watched for so long we ended up going back inside. When I complained to Da and Mam, they said he didn’t have a family of his own and was just lonely, that he enjoyed watching us play. But it felt like he was waiting to catch us breaking a rule so he could tell Ruby’s parents that I was a bad influence. He’s never liked me for some reason, or my family come to think of it. It’s nothing I can put my finger on, but it’s like there’s some weird history there.
“Please, please, please will you take me out? Just for ten minutes?” Sparrow pleads. “I’ll do whatever you say.”
I smile down at Sparrow. I knew the minute I walked inside that I’d take her out to see the Fixers at work. After all, it’s not every day they repair the part of the sky that almost killed you.
“Okay, come on. I’ll stand out there with you for a few minutes if you promise not to touch anything and not to ask the Fixers any questions.”
Sparrow squirms with excitement and slips on her walking shoes. I take her hand and we ease ourselves through the front door. Then we join the growing crowd on the opposite side of the street to watch the Fixers repair the sky.
Sparrow manages to stay in one spot, but she doesn’t stop talking.
“Mam told me there was a time when people lived in a limitless world. It was before she was born though. It was before her grandmam was born. Even before her grandmam’s grandmam was born. The sky went on forever, she says, and it was blue, just like our sky, but it didn’t stop. Mam says back then you could throw a ball as high as you wanted and it didn’t bounce back.”
I know exactly what Mam has been telling Sparrow. She told me the same Creationist stories at bedtime when I was little. I used to believe Mam’s stories, but now I know they are exactly that — stories, like the fairy tales our ancestors brought with them to ArHK.
“Mam says the outer edges went on forever too. I don’t know how that could be, though. Nothing goes on forever,” Sparrow muses as she watches the Fixers smearing blue plasterflex over the hole in the sky, hiding the dull grey subsurface.
“What about time?” I suggest. “Time goes on forever.”
Sparrow thinks for a moment, then says brightly, “I guess you’re right!”
“Did Da ever tell you how water used to fall from the sky, back when it used to be limitless? The Outsiders called it rain. And sometimes frozen water fell that they called snow,” I say.
“Would it hurt when the rain fell from the sky? The way it hurt when the sky fell on me? Did the Fixers have to come and repair the sky after the rain fell?” Sparrow asks.
“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask Da when he gets home.”
“We sure are lucky to live in ArHK, aren’t we, Rook? We’re lucky to be descendants of the Chosen Ones.”