Daywards

by Anthony Eaton

  That’s the Darkedge. That’s where I come from.

  It’s hollow.

  It ’ent. Just trapped land. That’s why we gotta go back. Time to free up the Earthmother, once and for all.

  Abruptly, the sensation fled and Dara felt her awareness shrink back into herself again. Her mind felt tiny and confining, her body an insignificant trap, lost against a vaster energy.

  Ma Saria’s hand dropped from her neck.

  ‘You okay, girl?’

  ‘Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just … so … big.’

  The old woman smiled.

  ‘Sure is. I remember the first time I found the Earthmother properly, like that. Jus’ about made me cry, eh?’

  They sat in companionable silence while Ma Saria allowed Dara to shake off that odd, confining feeling, then she spoke again. A single question.

  ‘You see why we gotta go back?’

  ‘I … think so. We have to fix things.’

  ‘That’s right. That land out there is the last of the Nightpeople. Once we get that down, then the Earthmother can really start healing herself.’

  ‘How will we do it?’

  Ma Saria shrugged. ‘Gotta get there first. Then we’ll work it out. Before that, though, we have to tell the rest of the clan that it’s time to be movin’ on.’

  ‘They won’t like it.’

  ‘True. But it’s the way things are. Nothin’ more.’

  ‘What if they refuse?’

  ‘Then I go on my own. Or with whoever’ll agree to come along.’

  The old woman climbed back to her feet and Dara did likewise. Once upright, Ma Saria swayed slightly and Dara had to steady her.

  ‘Thanks, child. Haven’t reached like that for a lotta years now. Takes it outa you.’

  Dara couldn’t begin to imagine what it must be like to have that kind of power. The old woman let go of her arm and started back along the clifftop path.

  ‘Let’s get back below, eh?’

  A last, lingering glance out towards the daywards horizon and Dara followed.

  After the evening meal a sombre atmosphere settled around the clan fire. Usually, this was the time for relaxation, for stories and singing and laughter. That night, though, people drifted into small groups and conversations were whispered. At the first opportunity, Eyna pulled Dara off to one side.

  ‘What did Ma want?’

  Dara considered her response carefully. ‘Just to talk, mainly.’

  ‘About what?’

  Dara glanced around, making certain that nobody was listening.

  ‘She wants us to move.’

  ‘Move?’ Eyna tilted her head to one side, a habitual gesture whenever she didn’t understand something. ‘Move what?’

  ‘Us. The clan. Now that Da Janil’s gone, Ma wants us all to move daywards, back to the Darklands.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because …’ Dara searched for a way to describe what she’d felt during that incredible reaching, but it was too big, too vast and sensory to explain in words, and all she could do was shrug. ‘It’s complicated.’

  Dara studied her cousin’s face while Eyna digested this. The younger girl was about to say something when Xani, who’d been quietly chatting with a bunch of other uncles, stepped up to stand beside the firepit.

  ‘You lot all listen up, eh?’

  The low babble died away and all eyes turned to Uncle Xani. He stood there looking slowly around, meeting the eyes of almost every person there, though he skipped past Dara quickly and she noticed that he didn’t so much as glance in Ma Saria’s direction.

  ‘It’s been a long day and a pretty difficult one for most of us, and we all got a lot to think and talk about, but I just wanted to let you know about some decisions we’ve made, so that tomorrow we don’t find ourselves working at cross-purposes to one another.’

  He paused and Dara scanned the people’s faces. Most of the clan looked blankly confused, though a couple of the uncles and Jaran were nodding. Alone among them, Ma Saria wore an expression of faint amusement, which Uncle Xani appeared not to notice.

  ‘Now, you all know that today was supposed to be the first day of the salvaging, and obviously we’ve had to put that on hold, but we’ve decided that tomorrow me, Uncle Dariand, Uncle Clinil and young Jaran will be heading off to the city …’

  A wave of indignant anger swept over Dara and she began to rise to her feet, but a sharp glance from Ma Saria and a squeeze on her arm from Eyna was enough to make her bite her tongue.

  ‘The rest of you will stay here. There’ll be plenty to get done before we get back – all the usual hunting and cooking. You all know the food supply tends to slow down in the second half of the dry season, so I’d like to get a good amount laid into stores, an’ also start putting down firewood. That should keep most of you occupied.’

  On the other side of the firepit, a couple of the aunties began whispering and Xani glared at them until they slipped back into sullen silence.

  ‘Another thing I want to make clear right away – the others an’ I have talked about this, and we reckon it’s a good idea if we go back to the old rules regarding the Eye. Until we decide differently, it’s still out of bounds for everyone, okay?’

  ‘Including you, Xani?’ The voice came from somewhere in the shadows near the cavemouth. Dara couldn’t make out the speaker.

  ‘I’ll be takin’ over where Da left off, obviously. So no. But the rest of you should keep your distance, jus’ like we’ve always done.’

  ‘Why you, eh?’

  ‘Somebody’s gotta make the decisions around here and someone’s gotta monitor the Eye. Up until yesterday, these things were always Da’s business, but now he’s gone and someone needs to take his place.’

  While he’d been speaking, a small knot of uncles had gradually formed behind him – probably fifteen men, most of them big, and a couple with hunting spears held loosely between their fingers. The threat was not at all subtle. Xani nodded at them.

  ‘We all agree that this is the best way to run things, at least for the moment, so that’s how it’s gonna be.’

  There was a challenge in his words and in the flash of his eyes as he held the stares of the rest of the clan. He stood there, rock still, illuminated by the firepit in an attitude of somebody who expects to be obeyed. After a couple of moments of strained silence, a dozen heated discussions broke out in all corners of the cave. Dara, furious, turned to Eyna.

  ‘Who put him in charge?’

  ‘They must have taken a vote or something.’

  ‘Shi! Nobody asked me for my opinion. He’s got no right to …’

  ‘Hey, sis!’ Jaran sauntered over, his face a smirk. ‘What do you think of that? Looks like it’ll be me off on the salvage after all, while you stay here and do women’s work.’

  Dara’s hand clenched into a fist and only Eyna’s firm grip stopped her from punching her brother. She wasn’t the only one being restrained, either. All around the cave people were shouting and yelling. Uncle Rada had grabbed Uncle Dariand by the front of his shirt and looked as though he was about to throw him into the firepit. Women were shouting at men, men at each other, and a couple of scuffles broke out so that their instigators had to be quickly separated.

  ‘Right then!’ Ma Saria didn’t raise her voice, but, even with all the shouting, it somehow echoed around the cave and created an instant hush. The old woman rose from the spot where she’d watched the unfolding riot. She yawned, stretching her arms wide and looking as though she’d just risen from an afternoon nap.

  ‘I don’t know ’bout you lot,’ she said, ‘but I’m done. Reckon I’ll head up the hill and catch some sleep. Busy day tomorrow for all of us, eh?’Night everyone. Thanks for the show, Xani. Very entertaining.’

  The old woman wandered towards the entrance and it looked as though she’d leave without anybody stopping her, but then Xani stepped in her way.

  ‘Ma Saria …’

  She regarded him with a blank express
ion.

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘I’m dead serious. We all are. Somebody’s gotta take charge now that Da’s gone, and the feeling is that that person should be me.’

  Ma Saria’s eyes narrowed slightly and she reached out and rested her fingers lightly against Xani’s neck.

  ‘Funny thing, Xani.’ Her eyes closed. ‘I don’t know what feeling you’re talking about, but it sure isn’t something I can pick up, an’ you know I’m usually pretty good at that sort of thing.’

  A glazed expression flitted across Xani’s face and when Ma withdrew her hand he shook his head a couple of times as though trying to clear it.

  ‘What …’ he began, but Ma Saria turned her back on him and faced the rest of the clan.

  ‘Now, I appreciate that you’re only trying to do what’s best for us all here, okay? But you need to understand a couple of things and the sooner you get your heads around them the better. All the years we been living here on this bit of country, that’s the first time anybody’s ever thought they had the right to make decisions on behalf of the rest of us. You can’t treat people like you own ’em. Might as well go out there an’ boss the Earthmother and the Skyfather around, for all the good it’ll do you in the end. Da Janil knew that, even though it went’gainst a lot of what he’d been taught to believe. Only two places I’ve ever known where someone thought they had that sort of power over other people were the skycity an’ the Darklands. Neither of those turned out so healthy, as I recall.’

  Now she returned her attention to Uncle Xani and looked him straight in the eye.

  ‘So here’s something for you lot to think about. I don’t mind if you wanna go off salvaging, even though there’s not a lotta point, so far as I can see. But in a day or two me an’ Dara and a few of the others’ll be heading daywards, and anyone who wants to come with us’ll be more than welcome, obviously. So if you wanna go and dig around in the ruins of the old city, that’s fine, but don’t expect us all to be here when you get back.’

  Xani’s befuddled expression cleared, giving way to suspicion.

  ‘Daywards where? For how long?’

  ‘Darklands. We’re goin’ home. An’ we’ll be gone for as long as it takes us. Chances are you won’t see us again for a very long time.’

  Xani shook his head emphatically.

  ‘That’s not acceptable, Ma. Dara’s the best hunter in the clan, and her place is here, providing for the rest of us.’

  ‘You weren’t listenin’, Xani. Her place is wherever she decides she wants to be.’

  ‘If Dara’s going, I’m going too.’ Eyna stood up, and her announcement rang around the gathering. Instantly several others rose to their feet and expressed their intentions to leave with Ma Saria.

  Xani tried to control his anger.

  ‘This is shi! You can’t expect to just head off into the middle of nowhere with our most viable kids and our best hunters. What do you think will happen to the rest of us?’

  ‘You can always come too,’ Ma said. ‘Like I said, everyone’s welcome. Otherwise there’s plenty of food an’ water ’round here. We’ve lived comfortably here for a long time now, an’ there’s no reason those who choose to stay can’t continue to do so. It’d jus’ mean you might have to do a bit of real work for a change, Xani.’

  That comment raised a chuckle from quite a few of the clan and caused a deep red flush to spread across Xani’s face. He struggled to find a suitable reply, but then he simply threw up his hands in disgust.

  ‘If none of you lot are gonna see reason tonight, then we’ll just have to talk this out tomorrow, eh?’

  Ma Saria looked unperturbed. ‘If that’s what you want, Xani. At least talkin’ is better than you tryin’ to boss everyone around. It won’t change anything, though.’

  Xani turned and stormed from the cave, followed by his group of supporters, plus a few others.

  Dara elbowed her brother, who had stood motionless beside her through the entire exchange. ‘Who’s laughing now?’

  ‘Shut up,’ he growled, then he scurried off after the men.

  Somebody was moving.

  Lying wide awake on her sleeping mat, Dara sat up slowly, blinking in the heavy darkness of the sleeping cave and turning her head to pinpoint the source of the faint scuffling.

  The last three days had been awful, the whole camp sunk in an atmosphere of strained tension. Every time she entered the main cave there were whispered conversations and suspicious glances. More than once she’d thanked the sky and the earth that she was viable and could escape with Eyna during the days, which they spent wandering and hunting in the cool, sun-dappled forest below the escarpment.

  Nights, though, were a whole other story. Tension was high around the firepit and, though nobody had mentioned the argument out loud, several of the aunts and uncles had made it widely known that if Ma Saria left they’d be going, too.

  Ma Saria herself hadn’t said another word about moving, and nobody had gone off to salvage, either. Occasionally, Dara found herself wishing the whole fuss would just blow over, and things return to normal, but then she remembered that distant, life-blocking chill of the Darklands and she knew that until something had been done to repair it none of them would ever be truly peaceful.

  And at nights, after the meetings around the firepit had broken up and everyone had made their way up the hill, Dara lay wide awake in the dark, her mind alert and whirling, while the rest of the clan slumbered around her.

  Tonight, though, she wasn’t the only one. Somebody was moving as quietly as possible through the darkness on the other side of the cave. Then the woven curtain that hung across the cavemouth during the evenings, keeping the insects out and the warmth in, twitched aside slightly, admitting a slither of starlight and briefly silhouetting a familiar figure against it.

  Jaran.

  Without hesitation, Dara slid out from under her blanket, pulled her clothes on as quickly and silently as she could, slipped into her soft, hopper-hide moccasins and crept after her brother, wondering what in the sky he was up to.

  Outside, a cold wind moaned gently up the escarpment. After the warmth of her blanket, it raised gooseflesh on her bare arms and legs, but, not wanting to lose track of Jaran, Dara gritted her teeth against it. Already he was well ahead, picking his way carefully up the track towards the sentries.

  At the top he stopped, and Dara froze, completely still. She wasn’t worried about him discovering her following him, but she knew that if he did she had no chance of finding out his real intentions. After a moment he set off between the sentries, along the track to the Eye.

  Once safely enclosed by the darkness of the forest, Jaran appeared to forget all about stealth and instead set a quick pace, his passage marked by the occasional crackle of twigs and leaves underfoot and the odd muttered curse as a branch or spider-web caught him across the face. It was a simple matter for Dara to track him, keeping her own footsteps stealthy and her breathing steady, as though she were trailing a rockhopper.

  It seemed a much quicker walk than last time. She was concentrating hard on not making any sound, and was startled to look up and find the gloomy orange lights of the Eye already looming over her. She stopped, crouching in the shadows of a bush off to the side of the path and giving her brother a chance to move out into the light.

  Ahead, Jaran walked confidently into the middle of the clearing and stood waiting beside the remains of the fire they’d built on the night Da had been found.

  ‘What are you up to, bro?’ Dara whispered.

  Somewhere in the forest a nightbird hooted softly, its cry echoing, unanswered, between the trees. Then Dara’s sensitive hearing picked up the pad of footsteps behind her, back up the path and moving in her direction.

  Once again she froze and a moment later Uncle Xani walked quietly past, a metre from her hiding place and completely unaware of her presence. He stepped out into the clearing.

  Neither Xani nor Jaran seemed surprised to see the other.


  ‘You’re here. Good lad. No problems getting out?’

  ‘Nah. They’re all asleep. Nobody’s got any idea.’

  Xani turned and crossed to the door of the Eye, Jaran following. There, the older man removed an object from a pocket, and Dara caught a brief glimpse of something metallic flashing dully in the orange lights of the clearing.

  Uncle Xani waved it over a small panel set into the wall and silently the door slid open, bright light spilling out onto the dusty earth. Dara realised what the object was, and a hot flush of anger swept through her.

  Da Janil’s wristband. For as long as Dara could remember, the slim metal band had been fixed to the old man’s wrist, as much a part of him as his arms and legs. But now, here was Uncle Xani waving it around as though he owned it.

  Xani and Jaran vanished into the Eye. From her hiding place Dara strained to hear their conversation, but the walls of the blockhouse were too thick; only the low and indistinct murmur of their discussion escaped through the narrow doorway. She moved across the open space as quickly as she dared and into the shadows of the walls, close to the door.

  The solar lights cast their glare evenly over the clearing and her hiding place was far from ideal, but she banked on the fact that, after being inside in that harsh white light, Xani and Jaran would not have much in the way of night vision when they emerged.

  Inside, Uncle Xani was speaking.

  ‘… obviously can’t allow that to happen. If Ma takes even a small number of the viable kids, then the repercussions will be far-reaching for everyone. Da Janil knew this, which is why he put these measures in place. You understand why he needed to keep this to himself, don’t you, Jaran?’

  ‘Yeah, of course.’

  ‘Good. I knew we’d be able to rely on you.’

  ‘But what if they go? I mean, I’ll be as fast as I can, but what if Ma Saria decides to take off …’

  ‘I’ll deal with Ma.’ Uncle Xani cut him off. ‘When all is said and done, she’s just an old woman with some strange beliefs. I can keep her occupied. Anyway, if tonight goes the way I’m expecting Ma Saria won’t budge.’