A Solitary Journey

by Tony Shillitoe

  ‘Where?’ Cutter asked.

  ‘Less than a quarter, beyond the second ridge.’

  ‘How many?’

  ‘A hundred—perhaps a handful more.’

  Cutter motioned to Leader Bolt and the wiry brown-haired man trotted his horse to the Marchlord’s side. ‘Spread the word that we will be attacking an enemy camp. Odds are initially two to one,’ Cutter told him. Bolt smiled and wheeled his bay horse to deliver the information to the rest of the Group, while Cutter settled in his saddle and unclasped his sword. There was still time to play the soldier before the old order dissolved.

  People pressed against one another, jostling for a brief glimpse of the prince who was soon to be transformed into the king. The constant soft chatter and bickering made hearing the Holy Seer’s words impossible in the rear ranks and many poorer folk were becoming irritated, their mood further dampened by a light misty rain carried by sea breezes from the Great Ocean. Rain in the cycle of Sun was unusual, prompting the rumour-mongers and soothsayers to spread disconcerting news among the people. ‘It’s Jarudha’s sign that this prince is not the rightful heir,’ some whispered.

  ‘No,’ others countered. ‘He brings rain in a time of need. It’s a good sign. Jarudha is pleased.’

  So uncertainty of the Prince’s right to ascend to the throne wrestled with acceptance of his victory throughout the crowd outside the palace walls, while the Royal Elite Guards kept a watchful eye on everyone to deter would-be troublemakers.

  On a wide and solid wooden dais constructed for the coronation outside the Royal palace gates, Seer Diamond was regaled in the blue, black and white robes worn only for the coronation and burial rituals, a yellow sash around his waist. The colours represented the interaction and unity between the Seers and the King as servants and disciples of Jarudha—blue for the Seers, black for the Royals, white for purity in a new beginning and the yellow to remind everyone of the acolytes who are always the first to begin the holy journey towards Paradise on earth. With Diamond were Seers Onyx, Gold, Weaver, Vale, Hope and Emerald, whose roles were to administer specific aspects of the coronation while Diamond sang the litany. The Prince wore the Royal black, but around his waist the blue, white and yellow sash mirrored Diamond’s colours. With him was the Royal Intermediary as his personal attendant, also in black. Neither wore the serpent emblem on their garments. Each new monarch had the right to choose their emblem at their coronation. Sunset had kept the golden serpent that her grandfather used, but its absence from the ceremonial clothing hinted that the new King would choose his own heraldic symbol.

  Prayers and blessings completed to open the ceremony, Diamond spread his arms, the long sleeves drooping to the decking. ‘People of the kingdom,’ he began, ‘I call upon you all to witness the most holy of blessings that mighty Jarudha is bestowing upon this man whom you have known as Prince Future. Jarudha has seen his works, and looked into his heart, and He has seen that this man is good and just and courageous. These are the qualities of all great kings. But Jarudha has seen more. This man, this prince among men, is also a disciple of our Holy Lord and Saviour—a man whose heart is committed not only to keeping your earthly world safe and productive but to saving your souls. He is a true king among kings!’

  Those who could hear Diamond’s speech cheered, while at the back of the crowd people asking what had been said were abused for making too much noise. Diamond beckoned to the Prince who came forward to kneel before the Seer. The Seer placed one hand on Future’s damp hair and gave a blessing, which he ended with, ‘Jarudha has given you a great earthly gift in making you a king. Remember this in all that you do hereafter and you will be forever blessed in this life and in eternal life in Paradise.’ He unwrapped his sash and placed it over the Prince’s head. ‘With the bounty of great Jarudha’s awesome blessing, and with your right as successor to Queen Sunset Royal, arise to your duties and your kingdom, King Future Royal the First!’ At the pronouncement’s conclusion, Future stood and turned to face the assembled multitude, hearing the cheers and applause of those who were now his loyal subjects. He was the king. The Royal line was again led by a man and he would father more boys to ensure that the Royal line was eternal in Western Shess.

  Cleaver Broadback was irritated by the soft rain that formed into larger drops on the top of his shoulders and dribbled inside his leather armour, but he was angrier because he and his men—and the entire Kerwyn army—were waiting on the east bank of the river, a short day’s march from the capital city. The barbarians were broken and defeated so there would be no resistance, and the capital was within reach, yet they halted because Bloodsword had received word that the southern prince was being crowned so all hostilities were halted as a mark of respect.

  ‘So we have a new king.’

  ‘The celebrations will continue for two more days,’ said Onyx in response to Diamond’s statement. ‘The people are happy to have a king again.’

  ‘The people are happy to have a celebration and the end to war,’ said Vale. ‘I don’t think it matters to them about the king.’

  ‘Why didn’t King Ironfist attend the ceremonies?’ asked Gold.

  ‘You might be better to ask why the Kerwyn army is still camped on the banks of the River of Kings.’

  The five Seers turned to Weaver. ‘Resting, I would hope,’ said Diamond. ‘They have a long journey home.’

  ‘I have informants in the navy who say that the Kerwyn king promised his soldiers Shessian land,’ said Weaver.

  ‘Future bought an agreement with King Ironfist,’ Diamond confirmed. ‘We all know that. Losing some land in the north is a small price to restore the kingdom and put a man on the throne who follows Jarudha.’

  Weaver shook his head slowly. ‘I think you’ll find that the Kerwyn king wants a much larger slice of the kingdom than Prince Future intended.’

  ‘King Future,’ Onyx corrected.

  ‘Who is with the Kerwyn Warlord?’ Diamond asked.

  ‘Silverlight and a handful of disciples,’ Gold informed him.

  ‘Then we’d better get word from Silverlight about what’s going on,’ said Diamond. He looked at Weaver. ‘Can you deal with this matter?’

  Weaver smiled as he replied, ‘Jarudha willing, I will find out what I can.’

  Diamond and Vale followed the disciple with the candle down the narrow stairs into the long stone corridor deep in the bedrock beneath the temple. A second disciple, an older man, bowed as they entered and lifted a lantern from its hook. The candle-bearing disciple silently withdrew up the steps, while the older man led the Seers along the corridor. They reached a junction with a dark wooden door recessed into the wall directly ahead and corridors leading left and right. The disciple produced a key and unlocked the door, and bowed as the Seers entered. He closed the door behind them, locked it again, and returned along the corridor to his watch post.

  The chamber was large and lit by a row of lanterns suspended from a beam below the roof. The walls were lined with shelves and the shelves filled with books and scrolls and objects. Tables filled the centre of the chamber, covered with a litter of objects and papers and jars and phials. Seven disciples in their yellow robes lifted their pale faces to see who had entered, and all respectfully bowed. ‘Where is Seer Reason?’ Diamond asked.

  ‘Your Eminence, he is in the Reading Room,’ a pasty-faced disciple replied.

  Diamond nodded and led Vale through the chamber to a partially open door. Peering in, he saw Reason’s blue robes bent over a document spread across a table. ‘What new spell are you working on?’ Diamond asked, entering.

  Reason turned, his greying beard neatly trimmed short and his hair tied back. On his nose, attached with wire, were two glass discs. ‘Diamond. And Vale. Jarudha’s blessing upon you both,’ he said, and chuckled warmly as he beckoned them to approach. ‘What do you think?’ he said, indicating the object on his face.

  ‘You look ridiculous,’ said Diamond abruptly.

  ‘What is it for?’ V
ale asked.

  Reason unhooked the contraption from his face and handed it to Vale. ‘Look through it at the paper,’ he urged.

  Vale held the glass discs before his eyes. ‘It makes everything go blurry,’ he said.

  ‘Because you don’t know the magic of it,’ Reason remonstrated. ‘You don’t have the Blessing.’

  ‘For what?’ Diamond asked.

  Reason took the contraption back from Vale. ‘Near-seeing, ’ he said, readjusting it on his face. ‘This lets me read these tiny scripts,’ 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 two days 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.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘What 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 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 soldi
er 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 share their stories, not just of the barbarian attack but of their lives, and it reminded her of how her family often spent evenings telling stories. But did she have a family? Where were they? Cold horror flowed through her veins, remembering the corpses she buried before leaving the village. Who were they? Her family? Is that why she felt so much sorrow when she buried them? Why couldn’t she remember anyone? Who was Emma?

  After people settled into their sleeping spaces against trees and under bushes, some spreading sheets of cloth for shelter or to lie upon, and Magpie was curled asleep beside Eager, Meg crept out of the camp. Everyone needed water so she would find it for them. She checked the position of the full moon between the trees against the camp as she climbed a rise. No, she imagined a voice inside her head saying, that won’t work. The moon moves. Use the stars. Use the Great Star. It stays constant in the sky and points the way to the west. She knew that. Someone taught her this when she was a child—her father. His name was Jon. That explained why the name was familiar. It was her father’s name. She looked for the bright star in the west and pinpointed its position in relation to the camp before she descended into the shallow forest valley.

  Using the Great Star as reference, she climbed and descended hills, pushing through the thicker vegetation on her quest for water. At times the moon’s brilliance vanished under the forest’s canopy, but she never felt lost in the dark and by the time the moon was at its zenith she found a meandering stream in a shallow valley. Startled nocturnal creatures shifted through the surrounding undergrowth, too quick for her to identify. She knelt to drink, the liquid chill thrilling her lips and cheek, and refilled her makeshift waterbag before she checked her position against the Great Star to begin her return journey. Because she reached the stream circuitously, by her estimation, she took a directly westward route towards the camp.