Excerpt of Seekers by William Nicholson

Sunrise

Seeker woke earlier than usual, long before dawn, and lay
in the darkness thinking about the day ahead. It was high
summer, with less than a week to go before the longest day
of the year. In school it was the day of the monthly test.

And it was his sixteenth birthday.

Unable to sleep, he rose and dressed quietly so as not to
wake his parents, and went out into the silent street. By
the light of the stars, he made his way to the steps that
zigzagged up the steep hillside, and began to climb. As he
did so he watched the eastern sky, and saw there the first
pale silver gleams on the horizon that heralded the coming
dawn.

He had decided to watch the sun rise.

At the top of the steps the path flattened out and led
into the stone-flagged Nom square. To his right rose the
great dark mass of the Nom, the castle-monastery that
dominated the island; to his left, the avenue of old
stormblasted pine trees that led to the overlook. He knew
these trees well; they were his friends. He came to this
place often, to be alone and to look out over the
boundless ocean to the very farthest edges of the world.

There was a wooden railing at the far end of the avenue,
to warn those who walked here to go no further. Beyond the
railing the land fell away, at first at a steep slope, and
then in a sheer vertical cliff. Hundreds of feet below,
past nesting falcons and the circling flight of gulls, the
waves broke against dark rocks. This was the most
southerly face of the island. From here there was nothing
but sea and sky.

Seeker stood by the railing and watched the light trickle
into the sky and shivered. The band of gold now glowing on
the horizon seemed to promise change: a future in which
everything would be different. With this dawn he was
sixteen years old, a child no longer. His real life, the
life for which he had been waiting so long, was about to
begin.

The gold light was now turning red. All across the eastern
sky the stars were fading into the light, and the feathery
bands of cloud were rimmed with scarlet. Any moment now
the sun itself would break the line of the horizon.

How can a new day begin like this, he thought, and nothing
change?

Then there it was, a blazing crimson ball bursting the
band of sea and sky, hurling beams of brilliance across
the water. He looked away, dazzled, and saw the red light
on the trunks of the pine trees and on the high stone
walls of the Nom. His own hand too, held up before him,
was bathed in the rays of the rising sun, familiar but
transformed. Moving slowly, he raised both his arms above
his head and pointed his forefingers skyward, and touched
them together. This was the Nomana salute.

Those who wished to become Noble Warriors entered the Nom
at the age of sixteen.

He heard a soft sound behind him. Turning, startled, he
saw a figure standing in the avenue. He flushed and
lowered his arms. Then he gave a respectful bow of his
head, because the watcher was a Noma.

“You’re up early.”

A woman. Her voice sounded warm and friendly.

“I wanted to see the dawn.”

Seeker was embarrassed that she had seen him making the
salute to which he was not entitled; but she did not
reprimand him. He bowed again, and headed down the avenue,
now flooded by the brilliant light of the rising sun. As
he passed the Noma, she said, “It’s not necessary to be
unhappy.”

He stopped and turned back to look at her. Like all the
Nomana, she wore a badan over her head, which shadowed her
face. But he sensed that she was half smiling as she met
his gaze.

“I am unhappy.”

The Noma went on gazing at him with her gentle smile.

“Who are you?”

He gave his full name, the name his father had chosen for
him, the name he hated. “Seeker after Truth.”

“Ah, yes. The schoolteacher’s son.”

His father was the headmaster of the island’s only school.
He was raising Seeker to be a teacher like him.

“Your life is your own,” said the Noma. “If it’s not the
life you want, only you can change it.”

Seeker made his way slowly back to the steps, and down the
steps home, his mind filled by the Noma’s words. All his
life he had done what his father had asked of him. He had
always been top of his class, and was now top of the
school. He knew his father was proud of him. But he did
not want to live his father’s life.

Seeker wanted to be a Noble Warrior.

Copyright © 2006 William Nicholson

William Nicholson is the author of the acclaimed Win on
Fire trilogy as well as the screenplays for Gladiator and
Shadowlands, both of which were nominated for Academy
Awards. He lives in Sussex, England, with his wife and
their three children.