A Solitary Journey (21 page)

Meg stooped beside him and felt his hand. It was icy. His lips trembled and he whispered to her. ‘Don’t talk,’ she urged. ‘I’ll warm you.’

He whispered again, the words clearer. ‘My Ki,’ he rasped. ‘I’ve lost my Ki.’

G
etting the man back down from the hillside took all of her energy. Despite the warming stone she created and the additional heat generated from her body, he struggled and collapsed countless times, muttering that he couldn’t go on, and she was tempted to let him stay in the slush, but she persisted, determined to get him inside the shelter. The brief snowfall ended, the melting flakes making the sloping ground wet and treacherous, and as she descended she became aware that the village’s celebratory dancing and singing were over. Whisper ran ahead.

She had to carry A Ahmud Ki the last steps to the edge of the village. Knowing that there was a chance her light might be seen, she dispelled it and hoisted her burden under the armpits to her shoulder. The challenge from the dark almost made her drop him. ‘Who is that?’ Magpie emerged from the shadow of the side of the house.

‘He’s—hurt,’ she said. ‘Help me to get him into the shelter.’

‘I’ll get Chi-hway to help,’ Magpie suggested and turned.

‘No!’ she snapped. Magpie turned back, staring. ‘Just help me to get him into the shelter. Then we’ll talk.’

Magpie took an arm of the semi-conscious A Ahmud Ki and helped her carry him to the door of the shelter. ‘What happened to your light?’ he asked.

‘Light?’

‘The one you had coming through the trees. That’s how I saw you.’

‘It went out,’ she lied.

‘Was it magic light like you made in the mountains?’

She’d forgotten that the boy knew what she could do. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘but I don’t want anyone else in the village to know about it please. All right? I’ll make it again when we’re safe inside the shelter.’

‘I haven’t told anyone,’ he reassured her, but she knew that the only reason he hadn’t told Chi-hway was because he couldn’t communicate. It wasn’t the boy’s loyalty to her that she doubted—it was his expanding respect for the man who’d adopted him that was her greatest threat.

They hefted A Ahmud Ki inside and with a new light sphere Magpie helped her to arrange the stranger on the straw bed. As Magpie squatted on the straw near the mumbling stranger he flinched and stood again. ‘There’s a rat!’

‘It’s Whisper,’ Meg said, spotting the black bush rat nestled in the corner ignoring the intrusion.

‘What?’ Magpie asked, still looking as though he wanted to chase the animal. She explained her relationship with the rat superficially while she checked that A Ahmud Ki was warm and resting. ‘I thought bush rats were brown,’ Magpie said, studying the little animal as he crept closer. Whisper was in a deep sleep.

‘Don’t disturb her,’ Meg warned.

He retreated and looked at A Ahmud Ki in the light. ‘He’s weird-looking,’ he announced. ‘Look at his face. It’s all thin and his eyes are like the rat’s eyes.’

‘Everyone is different,’ she told him. ‘Chi-hway doesn’t look like anyone you’ve seen before.’

‘Why is he brown?’

‘I don’t know,’ Meg replied. ‘Why are you white?’

‘Because Jarudha made me like this,’ the boy replied.

‘Then Jarudha made Chi-hway brown.’

‘Why? That doesn’t make sense. Chi-hway doesn’t believe in Jarudha anyway.’

‘How do you know that?’ she challenged.

‘It’s obvious in what they do. There’s no praying or anything.’

‘Did your parents pray?’

‘My mother did. I don’t know about Dad. What about you?’

‘No.’ Meg held up her hand before Magpie could say anything more because A Ahmud Ki was mumbling in a strange language, one she hadn’t heard him use. She concentrated on the sibilant, lilting sounds until the words took form.

‘Na, Mareg, Ic eom aefter-fylgend. Ic eom draca-baldor too. Gie nyllan sigor-faest be. Gie nyllan sigor-faest be. Ic wyllan abidan!
’ Then he fell silent.

‘What was
that
?’ Magpie asked, staring wide-eyed at the sleeping stranger.

‘Nothing,’ she told him. ‘It didn’t make sense,’ but she had translated A Ahmud Ki’s desperate anger and vow to survive against the enemy that he called Mareg.

‘Should I get Chi-hway now?’

Meg grabbed the boy’s arm. ‘No. I’ll talk to him in the morning. I need you to get me some dry clothes for this man. Chi-hway mustn’t know. Promise me you won’t say anything about him being here.’

Magpie pulled his arm away, but he grinned and said, ‘I promise, Meg.’

‘Good. Bring back some clothes straightaway. Then we can all sleep.’ She held out her arms to hug him and
the boy happily accepted the embrace. ‘I am proud of you,’ she said as she released him. ‘Chi-hway is proud of you too, I saw.’

‘I like it here,’ he said, echoing his earlier sentiment. ‘I’m glad we came.’

‘So am I,’ she told him, but in her heart she was lying.

The familiar dream of walking east into the sunrise came in a fitful sleep and left her wondering where she was meant to go. Between bouts of sleeping, she checked that A Ahmud Ki was recovering from his exposure to the cold and listened to the rain drumming on the roof, the irony of the village celebration of the turning point in the weather not lost on her. She had no idea how she would explain A Ahmud Ki’s presence to Chi-hway or what Chi-hway would do as a result, although Magpie’s inadvertent discovery of her returning from the forest with the man gave her a plausible story with which to begin. She trusted Magpie, and the boy had shown his trustworthiness by bringing the dry clothes before retiring for the night, but the nagging fear that he would tell Chi-hway eventually didn’t dissipate. The boy was accepted by the villagers—becoming one of them—and that could only lead to divided loyalties.

Before dawn, she sat in the straw beside A Ahmud Ki in the dark. The rain was steady, although it had lost its earlier intensity, but the air was still bitterly cold so she retrieved the warming stone created for A Ahmud Ki and increased its generation of heat. Whisper climbed onto her lap and curled up. The pressure and warmth of the little animal was comforting, but it provoked a memory of a red-haired girl arguing with her mother.
I never believed in magic,
she mused, stroking Whisper. ‘You are an enigma,’ she whispered to the rat. ‘How did
you follow me across the land, across the mountains?’ A Ahmud Ki stirred. She looked down in the dull orange light of the warming stone and saw him staring up at her. ‘It’s all right,’ she crooned. ‘You’re safe and warm.’ His pale face showed confusion. ‘I’m Meg,’ she said.

‘Woroldbuend?’
he asked weakly.

She shook her head, remembering that his language was not her native Shessian tongue, and focussed on recalling the language of communication in her dreams—his language. ‘I’m Meg,’ she repeated, ‘and you are A Ahmud Ki. You spoke to me in my dreams.’

‘I know you,’ he replied. ‘But you’re human. How did you find me?’

‘You found me first,’ she said.

‘But you made a portal to Se’Treya. Humans can’t do that.’

‘I don’t understand it any more than you.’

‘But the Ki—you must know the Ki.’

His obsession with keys puzzled her, but then a memory stirred—of a book. ‘I read about the Ki, a long time ago. I read a book by someone called Lady Tarnyss.’

‘She’s dead,’ A Ahmud Ki said bluntly. ‘Mareg killed her.’

‘Who is Mareg?’

A Ahmud Ki’s eyes widened and Meg was struck by their feline shape. ‘You don’t know Mareg?’ he asked. ‘No.’

He tried to sit up, but he couldn’t rise without her assistance. ‘Where are we?’ he asked, as she propped him against the wall.

‘The people call it Shesskar-sharel.’

‘I’ve never heard of it. Is it in Ranu Ka Shehaala?’

‘I don’t know,’ she replied. ‘I’ve come from Western Shess, west of here, over the mountains. The Kerwyn have taken my land.’

A Ahmud Ki was staring. ‘There’s a rat on your lap.’

‘Whisper,’ she explained.

‘Why?’

‘It’s her name,’ she told him, suppressing a grin.

‘Oh,’ he murmured, the humour misunderstood. ‘Is she a pet?’

‘A companion.’

‘You created this warming stone?’ She smiled. ‘Yes.’

‘What are the words for the spell?’

‘I don’t use words. I just think and it happens.’

‘Leoht,’
said A Ahmud Ki, his hand opening. Meg waited, but nothing happened. ‘Leoht,’ he repeated. His shoulders drooped and he closed his eyes. ‘Mareg destroyed my Ki.’

‘You had a Conduit?’ she asked.

He opened his eyes and they glowed orange in the warming stone’s light. ‘A what?’

‘A Conduit—a part of the Genesis Stone?’

‘You know about the Genesis Stone?’

‘I was told about it.’

‘Then you are someone very special,’ he said, studying her as if he still did not believe her. ‘The Aelendyell Ieldran only share that knowledge with the Chosen Lore Bearers.’

‘I don’t understand,’ she admitted. ‘Who are the Aelendyell?’

The door latch rattled and Whisper leapt from Meg’s lap as she doused the warming stone. The door scraped open and a dark figure entered. ‘It’s me,’ Magpie whispered. ‘Can you make some light?’

‘Where’s Chi-hway?’ Meg asked cautiously.

‘He’s in the kitchen. He sent me to wake you to begin breakfast.’

‘It’s still dark and raining,’ she said, conjuring a tiny light sphere.

Magpie stared at A Ahmud Ki who was sitting against the wall. ‘He’s got grey eyes.’

Meg saw A Ahmud Ki’s eye colour for the first time. ‘He doesn’t understand you. Why is Chi-hway up so early?’

‘Wombat and some of the others tried to escape during the celebrations. Chi-hway’s angry because Wombat hurt one of the men.’

‘Badly?’

‘No—just broke his arm.’ Magpie explained. ‘You’d better come now because Chi-hway wants his breakfast.’

Meg turned to A Ahmud Ki and said, in his language, ‘Wait here for me. I’ll bring some warm food.’ A Ahmud Ki blinked but stayed silent.

As she followed Magpie outside, the boy asked, ‘What did you say to him?’ so she explained as they trotted through the rain to the kitchen door. ‘How can you speak so many languages?’ Magpie asked.

‘It’s a Blessing I have,’ she replied, an answer that only made the boy more confused.

The kitchen was glowing with a warm fire and Chi-hway was already cooking eggs and a slab of goat’s meat in a skillet. He grinned as Meg and Magpie entered. ‘I am your servant,’ he said to Meg, before he stood aside to let her continue the process. ‘Your big friend chose well to try to escape when he did,’ he continued as he sat at the table. ‘The rain would have masked his tracks if he’d gotten away.’

‘He isn’t a slave,’ she said as she flipped the eggs. ‘He won’t stay here if you try to keep him as one.’

‘Then I admire him,’ said Chi-hway, ‘and I will honour him when I see him.’

‘Where is he?’ she asked.

‘Locked in Ka-sa-tem’s hut.’

‘Is he hurt?’

Chi-hway smiled. ‘He’s a very strong man. A few bruises. Ka-sa-tem’s arm and pride are hurt more.’ He pulled out a chair and sat at the table, indicating for Magpie to take his seat. ‘This morning I’m travelling to the next village—Etna-sa-lin. There is a meeting of the village leaders.’

Meg served the breakfast to Chi-hway and Magpie. ‘Are you taking Magpie with you?’

Chi-hway smiled and scruffed Magpie’s dark shock of hair. ‘He is my son, now. He will go wherever I go.’

Magpie grinned, although Meg knew he didn’t fully understand what was being said. ‘Take a meal this evening to Ah-tee-wana-see,’ Chi-hway said. ‘My grandmother speaks highly of you, so you should spend time with her when I am not here to get to know her and to learn about our life in Ha-chet-shu.’

Place-by-the-river,
thought Meg, hearing the village’s name for the first time.
And the village where the meeting is being held is Hills-of-joy.
She busied herself with preparing provisions for Chi-hway and Magpie while they ate, packing the supplies into a green leather bag that Chi-hway always carried on hunting trips. When Chi-hway was ready, he collected his bag, his bow and quiver, a staff, and ushered Magpie out of the door.

She watched the two figures disappear into the grey pre-dawn light and rain.
I don’t know anything of these people or their world,
she thought before she closed the door. She cooked two more serves of eggs and meat—for herself and for A Ahmud Ki. Chi-hway’s day journey gave her some respite to rekindle A Ahmud Ki’s energy, and if she was expected to eat with Ah-tee- wana-see in the evening then it meant Chi-hway was not expecting to return until the following day. She picked up the pottery bowls with the breakfasts and headed out of the house to the shelter.

As she turned the corner of the building in the light rain her heart skipped a beat. The shelter door was open and Magpie, his back to her, was staring inside. Something moved in the shadowy interior and A Ahmud Ki’s thin frame suddenly burst through the entrance to sprawl in the mud. Chi-hway appeared in the doorway, bow still slung across his shoulder, his staff in his hands. ‘No!’ Meg screamed and dropped the bowls as she ran. A Ahmud Ki scrambled to his feet, his oversized clothes muddied and wet, but as Chi-hway stepped into the rain, his staff ready for combat against the strange pale-skinned man with the braided silver hair, Meg pushed between them. ‘Stop it! Chi-hway, no!’ she cried in Shesskar and then saw A Ahmud Ki weaving his hands as if conjuring. ‘Stop!’ she screamed in his Aelendyell language. A Ahmud Ki thrust his hands out to release the spell and an instant later Chi- hway’s staff cracked across A Ahmud Ki’s face, shattering his nose and sending him backwards into the mud. Meg whirled on Chi-hway. ‘Leave him alone! He’s sick!’

‘Who is this creature?’ he demanded.

‘I found him in the forest last night,’ she replied. ‘I couldn’t leave him there.’

‘Then why didn’t you tell me?’

‘I—I wasn’t sure what you would do.’

Chi-hway’s eyes widened and he pushed her aside. She spun to see A Ahmud Ki on his knees trying to conjure another spell, but Chi-hway’s staff smashed across his left shoulder, and as A Ahmud Ki lurched sideways the staff slammed across his back. Anger and desperate fear exploding, Meg cast a pushing spell that hit Chi-hway in the back and sent him tumbling across the wet earth. He rolled to his feet, his eyes wide in surprise. ‘Leave him alone,’ Meg warned. As she finished speaking, Whisper appeared from within the
shelter and ran to stand between Meg’s feet. She glanced down at the little animal.