The Great and The Small
A.T. Balsara
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Common Deer Press
Date of Publication: October 31, 2017
ASIN: B07543NL6H
Number of pages: 292 pages
Cover Artist: Ellie Sipila of Move to the Write
Book Description:
Deep below the market, in the dark tunnels no human knows exist, a war has begun. Lead by the charismatic Beloved Chairman, a colony of rats plots to exterminate the ugly two-legs who have tortured them in labs, crushed them with boots, and looked at them with disgust for as long as anyone can remember.
When the Chairman’s nephew is injured and a young two-leg nurses him back to health, however, doubt about the war creeps in. Now the colony is split—obey the Chairman and infect the two-legs with the ancient sickness passed down from the Old Ones, or do the unthinkable...
Rebel.
Excerpt
from The Great & the Small: War
is coming
Papa
hushed the crowd, then nodded to Julian. Councillor Julian stepped forward,
clearing his throat. Leering at the gathering, he smiled, showing his long,
yellow teeth. “Every rat is equal! Every nest for all!”
The
gathering answered, “Every rat is equal! Every nest for all!”
“Dark
days lie ahead, good Tunnel Rats!” cried Julian. “Wreckers will batter against
us from within! Two-legs will fight us from without!”
Councillor
Tiv stepped forward and cried, “Sacrifice, good Tunnel Rats! Sacrifice!
Wreckers must be rooted out, traitors brought to justice. I am a good Tunnel
Rat, and I am also a mother,” she stared out at the rats, “but I would turn in
my own pup if it betrayed the Common Good!”
The
cheering crowd went silent.
Papa
smiled, gazing out over the assemblage. Tiv looked at him then raised her paw
and shouted, “Sacrifice! Sacrifice for the Common Good!”
Sergo
strode up beside her and, shaking his clenched paw in the air, bellowed, “The
Common Good! Sacrifice!”
“The
Common Good!” cried Bothwell, stamping his feet. “The Common Good! The Common
Good!” Like an orchestra conductor, he waved at ARM patrol members, who took up
the chant. ARM members wove through the crowds. “The Common Good! The Common
Good! The Common Good!”
The
excitement was infectious. Rats shrieked and stamped their feet. Fin shouted
and stamped his feet too. Behind him Scratch’s piercing squeal could be heard
over all. Papa walked back and forth on the bench, listening, smiling. Then, he
turned to the gathering, arms open, and waited.
The
crowd settled into a mumbled hush. Still, the Chairman stood, silent, his arms
outstretched.
In
the distance, a seagull squawked, its voice growing faint. A salty gust from
the harbour tousled the trees rimming the garden. Water gurgled from the
fountain where Fin and Zumi had swum not too long ago. Every rat in the
Forbidden Garden leaned forward, their eyes riveted on their Beloved Chairman.
He
spoke. “Good Tunnel Rats. The history of our beloved Tunnels would make a stone
weep. We all know this history. It is whispered to pups as they play, sung in their
lullabies as they sleep; it is fed to them in their mother’s milk so that in
the very marrow of our bones we may never forget what the two-legs have done to
us. They have trapped us, poisoned us, tortured us, reviled us.”
With each word, Papa’s arms jerked wider, as if he himself were experiencing
all of those things in front of them. At the end he pulled his fists into
himself and hunched over them, his breath ragged.
Sobs
broke out in the gathering. A few pups began to wail. Someone shouted, “Those ugly, ugly two-legs!”
Papa
slowly pulled himself upright. “Yes, friend, they are indeed ugly.”
He
began to pace again. “But there is an older story—much older—that is our
history too; a time when rats ruled the earth and the two-legs were cut down
like sheaves of wheat in a field. The Old Ones called it ‘the Great Dying.’”
About the Author:
Website: http://www.torreybalsara.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/torreybalsara
Thanks for hosting A.T. Balsara and The Great & the Small!
ReplyDeleteJenn
Common Deer Press