Free A Solitary Journey by Tony Shillitoe

he explained, pointing to the spidery letters on the scroll. ‘I couldn’t read these before, but with Jarudha’s blessing and the nearseer I can read these things easily.’
    ‘Then it is a Blessing,’ Vale agreed.
    ‘Let me try,’ Diamond insisted, but when he looked through the discs he repeated Vale’s disappointment. ‘Blurry. I do not have this Blessing,’ he complained and handed the nearseer back to Reason. ‘How is your apprentice progressing?’
    ‘Ah,’ Reason said, nodding, ‘he is a true disciple. He has the Blessing many times over. Had we a Conduit for him he would bring Jarudha’s Paradise to being today.’
    ‘Can he walk yet?’ Diamond asked.
    ‘Much better than that, my brothers. In the past twodays he has gone from lying inert to moving like a normal man.’
    ‘Good news,’ Diamond commended. ‘The Kerwyn are threatening to be troublesome and we might need him to be ready earlier than we anticipated.’
    Reason scratched his beard with both hands, a habitual sign of nervousness that Diamond recognised. ‘It would be foolish to be hasty.’
    ‘Haste and necessity are intimate friends,’ Diamond remarked. ‘If we need to use him before planned then you will make sure that he is ready, won’t you?’
    Reason raised an eyebrow. ‘Jarudha willing,’ he said.

C HAPTER S EVEN
    ‘ W hat did he say?’ Hoe’s disappointed expression carried the answer to Blossom’s question. ‘They don’t want us anywhere near their village,’ he said. ‘They’ve had others here already and can’t spare any more food.’
    Blossom looked over Hoe’s shoulder at the men standing on the road leading into the village and saw that several held spears and pitchforks. To Hoe she asked, ‘So are we meant to starve?’
    ‘They said there’s plenty of game and food around in the bush. They said they don’t want any trouble.’
    Blossom snorted and turned away. ‘No stopping here!’ she yelled to the waiting group. Then she wheeled and yelled ‘Bastards!’ at the men on the road. The man at the head of the group waved.
    ‘Aren’t we visiting?’ Magpie asked Meg as they traipsed off the road with the group and headed crosscountry.
    ‘They haven’t got enough food for all of us,’ she replied, ‘but that’s fine because we’ll find some. We just need to go over these hills and find a stream.’
    ‘They could have given us some water,’ Magpie complained. ‘I’m thirsty.’
    Meg licked her parched lips. ‘We’re all thirsty,’ she said, ‘but we’ll find water soon.’
    ‘How do you know?’
    She smiled vaguely. ‘Because there will be some.’ She took Magpie’s hand to reassure the boy and they walked on through the mallee as the sun crept lower.
    ‘Why doesn’t anyone let us stay at their village?’ Magpie asked.
    ‘Because they don’t have any spare food probably,’ said Meg.
    ‘But we can get our own. We have been,’ Magpie argued.
    ‘I know, but maybe it’s because they’re scared that we will bring the barbarians to them,’ she told the boy. ‘How?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I don’t even know why the barbarians came in the first place.’
    ‘Because they don’t like us?’
    ‘Who knows?’ she said. ‘Save your questions. We’ll stop soon and go looking for food. You’ll need your energy for that.’
    Late the following afternoon, the mallee thinned as the land levelled and the horizon was filled with a long dark shadow. Mountains rose behind the shadow. ‘The Whispering Forest,’ said Blossom as Meg stopped beside her. ‘We’ll be at the edge by nightfall, if we push on.’
    ‘Look.’
    Everyone followed Hoe’s pointing finger to a column of dark smoke spiralling skywards. ‘It’s the village we left yesterday,’ said Blossom. ‘The barbarians are still coming.’
    ‘And we’d better keep moving,’ said Hoe.
    ‘Look over there,’ Brace said, pointing westwards where a dark line was moving on the dry