Free Green Monkey Dreams by Isobelle Carmody Page B

him.’
    â€˜But if he is afraid he will run faster . . .’
    â€˜No,’ Kora said sternly, and Lekkie fell silent.
    Sorah stumbled, and, reaching to steady him, Sim noted with a pang that the limp had grown worse. ‘We ought to stop so that you can rest that for a bit.’
    Sorah shook his head, not saying what they both knew. No one rested until the road reached up and touched the Great Blue. The stragglers had fallen behind in a little clump, and there was a widening gap between them and the tail end of the main group. The road was completely covered by the swarm of pilgrims. So many millions of them – a stream of life running ahead as far as the eye could see, all grown out of those few left behind.
    â€˜ May the Piper pipe forever ,’ Sim whispered reverently.
    By the time night fell, Sorah’s limp had grown much worse, and two others had fallen back with them. Liff, and his mate, fat jolly Wirun who had lived in a burrow near Sim’s mam and da for as long as he could recall. In his youth, Liff had been one of the elite frontrunners. But now the endless running and the steep hills were taking their toll.
    â€˜Is the Great Blue the sky?’ inquisitive Mif asked Kora, again calling Sim’s eyes to her.
    â€˜It is, but when the road brings us to it, it will be more than that too,’ she said. ‘The Great Blue is where this world dissolves and becomes something new. It is where all dreams come from, and beyond the dreams is Evermore.’
    â€˜Mila told me that there was no such thing as Evermore,’ Mif said.
    â€˜Mila said there was no Piper either, a little while ago. And now she runs as eagerly as any other.’
    So do I , Sim thought wryly.
    Sorah stumbled and righted himself again before Sim could help. He felt guilty because he ought to have been watching instead of dreaming.
    â€˜We must go faster,’ Liff wheezed. ‘The song grows fainter.’
    In the moonlight, Sim saw Kora exchange a look with Wirun.
    â€˜As the Piper wills, so plays the song,’ Wirun said at last. ‘The run is a test and maybe getting to the end first is not the main thing.’
    Liff gave her a disgusted look.
    â€˜Did the Piper make the road?’ Rill asked, his eyes as dark and shiny as wet black stones.
    â€˜I do not know,’ Kora said shortly.
    â€˜The Piper made everything,’ Liff said sternly. ‘He is all powerful.’
    â€˜Then why didn’t he take everyone the first time? Why didn’t he just wait?’ Lekkie asked, shifting his pace so that he could trot along beside Liff and Wirun.
    â€˜The Piper plays as long as he can and it is up to us to hear and run the best we can,’ Wirun said. ‘If you run your best, no matter how slow, the song will not end until the road does. But the Piper knows what is in your heart. If you do not give your best the road will never end, though the song will.’
    â€˜Why can’t we just rest a little?’ Mif whined.
    â€˜We must run when the Piper calls,’ Kora said in a tone of voice that wanted an end to the conversation if nothing else.
    Sim’s lips twitched but his amusement evaporated when Kora gave him a hard stare, almost as if she had felt his thoughts.
    â€˜How much longer?’ Rill asked as the long night wore on. Now the land either side of the road fell into deep misty hollows, rocky and steepsided. The air felt clear and thin, and it seemed they were climbing steadily.
    Liff hissed in disapproval and increased his pace.
    â€˜You must not ask that,’ said Kora.
    â€˜Now the Piper will punish all of us!’ Mif wailed, sounding on the edge of hysteria. ‘The music will stop.’
    â€˜At least we would be able to stop if the music did,’ Lekkie said with some asperity.
    â€˜Kora!’ Mif shrieked. ‘Make them stop.’
    â€˜Shh,’ Kora said. ‘Shh. Crying out like that is sure to make the Piper stop if