We're delighted to present an extract from The Light Thieves, the new eco-adventure for younger readers by Helena Duggan, author of A Place Called Perfect.
Who would you trust to save the world... a boy or a billionaire? The earth has shifted on its axis and a mysterious dark mark has appeared on the sun - the whole world is in peril! But billionaire tech genius Howard Hansom has a plan...When Grian's sister goes missing he's convinced she has run off to Hansom's new city to help save the world. But when Grian and his two friends Jeffrey and Shelli track her there, they find that nothing is quite as it seems. Why is everything so secret? Where is the mysterious Area 13? What does Howard Hansom want with all the people he has enticed to live in his city? The days are getting darker - but what's really happening to the sun?
Prologue
Grian Woods stared out the classroom window at the rapidly swaying treetops in the distant forest that surrounded his hometown of Tallystick. Because it was a sweltering summer's morning, the sun high in the bright blue sky, the window beside him was open, but there wasn’t even the slightest of breezes passing inside. The morning had been eerily still, so still he’d pointed it out to his sister as they got on the school bus only an hour ago.
So, if it wasn’t windy outside, what was making the trees dance?
It was the last day of school and his teacher was busy handing out small tasks to set up for their end-of-year party. Everyone was in great form, and giddy laughter swept the classroom. Grian wasn’t giddy though – he didn’t like parties, especially school ones. Parties meant he’d have to make up random stuff to say to the people in his class, almost none of whom he’d really call friends.
"Bob," he whispered to his Hansom watch, "are there any weather warnings for this morning?"
Bob, his watch avatar, opened its eyes and smiled out at him from the watch face – Hansom’s latest update meant the avatars were almost lifelike. Some people in his class had designed their avatars to look like famous singers or film stars or football players, while others
had modelled them on what they wanted to be when they grew up.
One girl had even made hers look like her dog, because she said it was her favourite thing in the world. Grian had left Bob’s avatar at the default setting, which looked a little like Howard Hansom, the owner of the Hansom company, because he didn’t know what he wanted to be when he grew up.
"That’s a negative, Grian," the watch replied. "The weather will be hot with prolonged sunny spells. Although some summer showers are expected in south-western Babbage, where there is also a risk of thunderstorms..."
Grian gasped, as a small hairline crack spontaneously darted down the centre of the windowpane beside him. He muted his hEarPods so he couldn’t hear his watch and was leaning in for a closer look when the benches and bins in the yard outside rocked, then fell over.
He stood up in shock, knocking his chair back, as the crack suddenly dispersed across the glass like a spider’s web. There was a faint splintering sound before Grian roared "DUCK!" and jumped under his desk, just as the window burst inwards. Terrified screams filled the air as glass smithereens flew through the classroom.
Grian covered his ears, pushing his palms into the side of his head. Everything in the room rattled as if a giant had suddenly grabbed hold of the school and was shaking it like a money box. Books, pencils and hTablets flew through the air like missiles as the rest of the class now cowered, terrified, under their desks too.
Everything happened so fast and so slow all at once. Grian’s thoughts scrambled as he tried to figure out what to do. He closed his eyes for a moment and breathed deeply through his nose until the chaos dulled to background noise, leaving only the sound of his heart thumping wildly in his ears.
He swiped at his Hansom, but the screen was blank. Bob wasn’t working. Grian’s chest tightened.
Mrs Norman, his teacher, was shouting something and beckoning everyone to follow her. Her usually perfectly pinned hair had fallen loose from its bun and she only wore one shoe, her other sandal lost somewhere in the mess of stationery, desks and broken glass.
Grian followed the rest of his class as they all climbed out over the jumble of stuff that blocked the door his teacher had shouldered open.
The school corridor looked like it had been looted by an angry mob – fallen lockers, broken hTablets and books were strewn across the floor. He scrambled through the wreckage, joining the masses of petrified children who screamed and jostled each other to escape out the main door.
Once in the yard, Grian followed instructions and raced into the middle of the playground where teachers roared at their students, herding them away from falling debris. He looked around for Solas but couldn’t see his sister anywhere. He swiped Bob again, hoping it would locate her, but his watch was still dead.
Grian shivered uncontrollably, as though he’d been dipped in a bath of ice-cold water. What had happened? How would he contact his parents? Were they okay? Where was Solas?
A girl nearby screamed, pointing skywards. The day suddenly darkened like storm clouds had just rolled in.
Grian looked up, but there wasn’t a single cloud in the clear blue sky.
"The sun…the sun," Mrs Norman stuttered, her voice a whimper.
Grian couldn’t understand what his eyes were showing him. He rubbed them, afraid the dust and dirt might have caused damage, but it didn’t make a difference.
A black shadow had formed on the bottom right-hand quarter of the sun. Almost as if that same giant he’d imagined rattling the school earlier had taken a juicy bite from the orange circle in the sky.
He wheezed in air as the thumping in his chest beat harder. Stunned silence wrapped the school yard.
"It’s the end of the world!" someone cried.
The Light Thieves is published by Usborne
