Free A Solitary Journey by Tony Shillitoe Page A

grasslands.
    ‘Barbarians?’ Hoe asked.
    ‘Can’t tell,’ said Brace. ‘No riders.’
    ‘More of us,’ said Blossom.
    ‘I hope so,’ Hoe said, ‘or else we’re done for.’
    ‘We can’t risk it,’ said Brace. ‘We’ll have to hide up here until it’s safer.’
    Meg stared across the distance at the moving line, wishing she could see them more clearly, willing her eyes to make out details, and her spine tingled. She shivered at the unexpected sensation, but the distant people seemed to snap into focus and she could see men, women and children straggling across the plain. ‘They’re people like us,’ she said.
    Brace turned sharply. ‘How do you know?’
    ‘I can see them.’
    ‘How many?’
    ‘Can’t tell. A lot more than we are.’
    Hoe whistled. ‘You must have keen eyes to see that far.’
    ‘Are you sure?’ Blossom asked.
    ‘I can see them,’ Meg repeated.
    Hoe and Brace spread the word and the party headed down the hill and onto the grassy plain. Magpie walked beside Meg. ‘How can you see that far?’ the boy asked. ‘I tried and I couldn’t see anything.’
    ‘I don’t know,’ said Meg. ‘Just lucky,’ but she was unnerved and exhilarated by the experience and walked silently while she wondered at the event.
    The two groups met at sunset on the forest verge. The second group numbered almost a hundred women, with a sprinkling of children and nine men. Some were escapees from Quick Crossing who knew Hoe and Blossom, but most came from villages south and west of Quick Crossing. Agreeing to travel together, they headed a short distance into the forest and set up a makeshift camp as the darkness closed in.
    ‘Can we have a fire tonight?’ Magpie asked as Meg chose a place for them to rest.
    Meg shook her head. ‘I don’t know. I’ll ask.’ She approached Blossom and Hoe who were talking to two men from the larger group.
    ‘The barbarians attacked a village we were at yesterday morning,’ said Hoe, ‘north of here.’
    ‘North?’ a dark bearded man asked rhetorically. ‘They should have still been going south.’
    ‘Looks like they’re going south and east,’ the other stranger said.
    ‘Then they’ll come here,’ said Blossom.
    ‘Perhaps,’ said the bearded man. ‘No fires tonight. We’ll have to make do.’
    Meg took the news back to Magpie who complained bitterly. ‘You said when we get to the forest there’d be fires and water and food, but there’s nothing except cold old scary trees.’
    She had no answers for the boy. The forest trees weren’t the friendly and familiar gum trees or mallee, but taller and thicker with branches that stuck straight out in regimental rows, and they filled the air with a different tang than the eucalypt that she knew. Memories stirred of standing at the verge of the forest another time, staring at a dead man who wore a bloodied blue robe. There had been a battle. But who had fought? And why?
    She shared the remnants of roots and nuts that they had gathered the previous evening with Magpie, and they received a mouthful of water each from a woman who said that her name was Eager Goldwheat, and that she’d known Magpie’s mother in Quick Crossing. ‘She was good woman, your mother,’ Eager told Magpie.
    ‘And the boy’s father? What about him?’ Meg asked.
    Eager snorted. ‘Went to be a soldier six cycles back. Never seen him since.’
    The fate of Magpie’s father stirred more memories for Meg. Her father was a soldier. He died in a battle. She knew that because Emma told her and she’d seen it in her dreams. Who is Emma? she wondered.
    ‘Water is the biggest problem,’ Eager said. ‘People are already suffering badly. Some folk haven’t tasted it for two days now. I gave you my last.’
    ‘Sorry,’ Meg apologised. ‘We didn’t mean—’
    ‘Hush, Meg—I wouldn’t have given it if I didn’t want to. This boy is the son of a very dear friend. It’s the least I could do.’
    Meg listened to Eager and others