A Solitary Journey (5 page)

‘I have no time to see one of them,’ Queen Sunset replied. ‘I’m about to negotiate new terms with the Coalition of Chiefs’ representative.’

‘But, Your Majesty,’ Goodman begged, ‘this one is
insistent. He claims to have the latest news about Prince Future.’

The mention of her rebellious son’s name stopped the Queen. ‘Is this true?’

Goodman nodded. ‘Yes, Your Majesty, I believe so.’

‘Should I know him?’

‘His name is Seer Vision, Your Majesty, the son of Seer Truth.’

Sunset’s face blanched and she glared in disbelief. ‘Truth was a Rebel!’ she snapped. ‘He killed Lady Amber. How could I trust his son?’

Goodman nodded as he said, ‘True, Your Majesty, but Vision has been tutored by Seer Diamond and Diamond said to assure you that the son is nothing like the father.’

‘Then bring him in,’ Sunset instructed, ‘but see that the Elite Guards are alert.’

‘Yes, Your Majesty,’ Goodman replied. He signalled to an Elite Guard to escort the visitor into the chamber, before he motioned to the remaining seven guards to stand at the ready. The door opened and the blue-robed Seer entered, his long auburn hair bouncing on his shoulders as he approached, and he bowed respectfully before the Queen.

‘I’m pleased to see that at least one Seer knows protocol,’ Sunset said in greeting. ‘You are the son of Seer Truth?’

The young man raised his eyes. ‘Seer Truth was my father, Your Majesty, yes.’

‘Is it true that sons are like their fathers?’

Vision smiled sweetly. ‘Is your son like his father, Your Majesty?’

Sunset heard the mild impertinence, but she expected that tone from the Seers who set Jarudha higher than herself. ‘My son is like neither of his parents. He wasn’t raised to forsake the love for his parents for the love of a god.’

‘Jarudha isn’t any god, Your Majesty. He
is
God.’

Sunset laughed politely. ‘If I wanted spiritual advice, young man, I would seek it from your master.’

Vision bowed his head again, saying, ‘As would I, Your Majesty. His wisdom far exceeds mine.’

‘My time is precious. What news do you have of my son?’ Sunset demanded.

Vision straightened and met the Queen’s blue-eyed gaze. ‘Prince Future will be in Port of Joy within four days.’

Sunset’s eyes widened. ‘Here?’ She looked at Kneel Goodman who shrugged to show his ignorance of the news. To Vision she said, ‘How did you come by this knowledge?’

‘A colleague sent word.’

‘That’s all you have?’

‘It is enough. My colleague is Seer Weaver and he sails with your son. Their ship will be in Port of Joy within four days.’

‘But my Royal fleet is already intercepting the Kerwyn ships. They will be captured and brought here in chains.’

‘Perhaps that is how it is meant to be,’ Vision conceded. ‘If I may be excused, Your Majesty?’

Sunset studied the young man. He had an intelligent face, but there was steeliness to his eyes and a surly edge to his thin mouth that she knew she couldn’t trust. ‘You are excused. I have an important meeting.’

Vision bowed and retreated, but after he had covered ten paces and was within reach of the door he slipped his right hand inside his robe and turned, calling, ‘Your Majesty?’ Sunset, who’d issued an instruction to Goodman and was about to leave the chamber, stopped to look at the Seer. ‘The real news is that your Royal fleet is nothing but wrecked hulks on the sea floor and my colleagues have this gift for you,’ Vision announced.
He flicked a spherical object that bounced along the tiled floor to rest at the Queen’s feet and, before Goodman or the Elite Guards could react, the object exploded and engulfed the Queen in a vicious fireball. Vision lunged for the door.

‘
B
lossom Beekeeper,’ the woman with the greying hair tied back said. ‘And you?’

She gazed at Blossom blankly. ‘I—I don’t know.’

‘You don’t know your name?’ Blossom asked.

She shrugged. ‘No.’ Water lapped against the side of the boat. She was conscious that the women and children closest to her were staring. The grey-green eucalypts on the river bank were crowding in like the people.

‘Well, where are you from?’

She pointed north. ‘I think that way.’

‘What village?’

‘I don’t know. I woke up and everyone was dead.’

The boat people nodded and sighed. ‘We know what that’s like,’ said an older woman with her hair under a ragged blue shawl. ‘The barbarians attacked my village at night.’

‘You don’t look like you were hurt,’ Blossom said. ‘You must have been lucky.’

‘I guess,’ she said. ‘Where are we headed?’

‘As far as we can go upriver,’ Blossom told her. ‘You really can’t remember your name?’

She shook her head despondently. ‘No.’

‘Call her Found,’ a wizened older woman suggested.

Blossom smiled. ‘Is that all right by you?’

‘I guess,’ she said.

‘Found it is,’ Blossom said, pleased with the idea.

Found was glad when the questions stopped. Squeezed between two other women and with three children pressing against her legs she sat in the boat’s leaking hull and watched the panoply of gum trees drift past. Black cormorants and black-and-white pelicans glided across air and water, dipping and diving for fish. She closed her eyes and let the dappled light play across her eyelids as they passed under overhanging boughs. It was good to be among people.

The man in the blue robes was laughing at her. In his arms he held a bundle and she felt fear for what he held. He pointed at a group of people to her right. There were two women, one much older, and several men and children, and there was also a dingo and a rat at their feet. They were all looking at her as if they knew her. And then they vanished. The man in the blue robes threw the bundle into the air, holding one end of the cloth wrapping, and the bundle also vanished as it unravelled.

She was woken by cries and shifting bodies. ‘Oh Jarudha!’ a woman screamed beside her. Found twisted to see what was happening ahead. The leading vessel in their river party, the sailboat, was burning and people were struggling in the water. The people on the raft following it were also falling and leaping into the river. Thin, dark arrows flitted across the space from the northern bank and buried into victims. A boy flipped backwards into the river, two shafts jutting from his body, and then the raft exploded in flame. On the northern bank a man in blue robes was pointing at the raft.

‘Magic!’ a woman screamed.

‘Get to the bank!’ Blossom yelled. ‘Hurry!’ The two rowers turned the boat towards the southern bank and pulled furiously on the oars. A woman leapt into the water, followed by three children, and they started swimming to escape. The second raft was heading for the south bank as well, but already it was under the archers’ fire.

‘They’ll never make it!’ someone screamed.

‘As long as we do!’ Blossom yelled. ‘Row!’

As the boat crunched into the muddy bank under a towering gum tree the passengers scrambled out of the boat and fell into the water. ‘Come on!’ Blossom yelled, ‘Run!’ and she wrenched Found’s arm, pushing her after the receding backs of the women and children. ‘Run!’

Found ran from the cries of the dying men, women and children caught in the river. Her mad scramble into the bush dwindled into a trot and then quick walking, as she pushed through mallee and skirted banksias to climb a gentle slope. As she paused on the ridge to catch her breath a little dark-haired boy stopped beside her and grabbed her hand, an unexpected contact that sparked her memory.
Jon,
she thought. The name was very special.

‘Keep going,’ Blossom wheezed as she clambered up the slope with two more women in tow and two men trailing. ‘They mightn’t cross over, but we can’t risk it,’ she said as she reached the crest.

‘Come on,’ the little boy urged, tugging at Found’s hand. She looked down at the child’s upturned face and let him lead her down the slope, deeper into the bush.

‘The Whispering Forest will be our saviour,’ argued the man named Hoe as they crouched in the shade of a
white gum. ‘It’s dark and it’s vast. The barbarians won’t come in there and if they did we’d be too hard to find.’

‘Who’s been there?’ Blossom asked, looking around at the survivors. No one replied.

‘It’s the only place we’ve got,’ said the second man, Brace. ‘But it’s three days hard walking.’

‘What about the children?’ a thin-faced woman asked. Three children huddled at her feet. ‘They won’t be able to keep up.’

‘They’ll have to,’ Hoe replied. ‘It’s keep up or be taken by the barbarians.’

‘That’s if they’re chasing us,’ another woman interrupted.

‘You can be sure they’ll come after us, Cream,’ Blossom said. ‘If not straightaway, then soon.’

‘How do you know?’ Cream asked.

‘You’ve seen for yourself,’ Brace replied. ‘The kingdom is falling apart. Who’s going to stop them?’

‘The Queen,’ Cream stated.

‘If the Queen’s army was going to stop them, why are the barbarians already beyond Quick Crossing?’ Brace asked.

Found listened to the conversation and the planning, but she was flicking through memories that were tracing her mind. She knew the Whispering Forest. She’d been there, a long time ago, although she hadn’t been inside of it. When? Why had she been there?
Who is Jon?
she wondered. The little boy leaning against her was named Magpie and he had adopted her.

‘His mother was on the first raft,’ Blossom explained, as they made camp. ‘We had to get out of Quick Crossing as quickly as we could. Magpie was separated from his mother and his sisters. When we were far enough along the river to swap passengers, he wanted to stay on our boat so he did. He’s seven, I think. He obviously likes you.’

Why did he make Found think of that other name? She was distracted by a flock of chattering brown-and-gold honeyeaters in the trees, trilling their excitement at the sinking of the sun, and she watched them dance and flit between the branches. The sky was dissolving into lighter shades of blue and pink and amber. She instinctively touched her chest.
I should know something about amber,
she mused.

‘I wish we had a fire,’ Magpie muttered, pressing closer to her side.

‘Not tonight,’ Hoe said across the circle, overhearing the boy’s wish. ‘Tomorrow night we might be able to make a small one, but if we make one tonight the barbarians might see it.’

‘Is that true?’ Magpie looked up at Found for his answer.

‘It’s true,’ she confirmed. ‘But I’ll make you a fire tomorrow night.’

‘Promise?’

She smiled. ‘I promise.’ The boy snuggled against her, as if acknowledging her promise as true, and she ran her fingers through his tangled dark locks.
Does he know that his mother died today?
she wondered. And then she wondered why she felt so confident that she could keep her promise about lighting a fire. How did she know what to do?

Except for the vague grey moonlight, it was dark, but Magpie was still shaking her arm. ‘What?’ she whispered.

‘You were talking. It was scary,’ he whispered.

‘Was I?’

‘Yes.’

‘I thought I was asleep?’

‘You were, but you were talking.’

‘What did I say?’

‘I don’t know. It didn’t make any sense.’

She cuddled the boy against her, whispering, ‘I’m sorry. You go to sleep now,’ and listened to the sounds of the night as Magpie shuffled to get comfortable. The men were snoring. So were some of the women.
Someone should have taken watch,
she considered,
but no one here knows anything about the army.
She paused.
How do I know?
And then out of the depths her dream took shape as she remembered what she’d seen.

A man in a blue robe came to her, but he was old and he said that his name was Samuel. ‘You will die and come back to life,’ he told her. ‘You will slay your lover, Treasure Overbrook, son of Queen Sunset,’ he said. ‘Your firstborn Jon will also be your secondborn when your firstborn dies.’ He threw off his blue robe and took the form of a soldier, a young man with one leg. ‘Don’t forget me, Meg. I will always love you. Don’t forget me.’

‘My name is Meg,’ she whispered.

‘You’re talking again,’ a tiny plaintive voice said in her embrace.

‘Sorry,’ she whispered. She held Magpie closer and felt gladness seep through her heart.
My name is Meg,
she reminded herself.

‘Who is Queen Sunset?’ she asked as the line of people straggled across the open plain of yellow grass.

Blossom Beekeeper stopped and stared at her as if the question didn’t make sense. ‘Are you serious?’

She stopped as well and hesitated, thinking that her dream had somehow been crazy after all. ‘I know my name,’ she said, hoping to retrieve the moment.

‘And?’

‘It’s Meg.’

‘Meg who?’

She was embarrassed again. ‘Just Meg.’

Blossom smiled, saying reassuringly, ‘That’s a start, at least. The rest will come back then.’ She started walking again, concentrating on tying her hair into order.

Meg followed, with Magpie a few paces ahead. ‘Is there a Queen Sunset?’ she asked.

Blossom laughed. ‘Yes. She is the queen of our kingdom.’

‘Where is she?’

‘A long way in that direction,’ Blossom said, pointing south-west without breaking stride. ‘Do you know her?’

Blossom laughed again, and when she caught her breath she said, ‘I don’t even know anyone who’s seen the Queen.’

‘What about Treasure Overbrook?’

‘Now I think you’re remembering an old ballad,’ Blossom said. ‘Marchlord Overbrook was rumoured to be the Queen’s bastard son. He was slain at the Battle of the Whispering Forest by a girl named Lady Amber. The ballad’s called
The Blue Knight and the Red Lady
I think.’

‘How does it go?’

‘Good Jarudha! I can’t sing.’

‘Just a little bit,’ Meg begged. ‘Please?’

Blossom grunted and chuckled quietly. ‘I can’t believe anyone would ask me to sing,’ she protested, but seeing the desperate appeal in Meg’s green eyes she acquiesced. ‘All right, I’ll sing a little bit—at least what I can remember. And I won’t sing it loud either.’ She cast a forlorn glance at Magpie, before she drew her breath and sang:

‘A bolder knight ne’er there was in all of Sunset’s kingdom,

Than brave Marchlord Overbrook, the Blue Knight named was he,

For he wore spell-charmed armour, the Rebel’s hope and light,

Protected by the Seers, he slew his enemy.

‘Twas said he came of Royal blood, a prince without a father,

‘Twas said he had no equal, no peer to match his arm,

But never did he reckon with the power of a woman

Whose cunning and whose magic would penetrate his charm.’

Blossom looked at the line of women and children winding ahead and behind. There were twenty-seven survivors and they were heading into foreign land, and they needed to find fresh water. The sun was hot.

‘Go on,’ Meg begged. ‘You
can
sing.’

‘You have a strange idea of what is good singing.’

‘I was a minstrel, once.’ Only as she finished the statement did Meg realise what she’d said.

‘Were you?’ Blossom asked, stopping Meg with her outstretched arm.

She blushed. ‘I don’t know,’ she said quietly. ‘I mean, I don’t even know why I said that.’

‘More memory coming back,’ said Blossom. She peered into Meg’s filthy face. ‘Perhaps you were. Cleaned up and in better finery I think you’d be a very pretty woman.’

Her observation made Meg blush again. ‘Please sing the rest,’ she asked.

‘I’ll save it until we make camp,’ said Blossom, walking on.

‘Just one more verse,’ Meg pleaded.

‘Jarudha! You are impatient,’ Blossom complained—but she sighed and sang:

‘Now Sunset’s troops had fought and won and drove the Rebels east,

And trapped them on the verges of the Whispering Forest green,

And there it was the famed Blue Knight his nemesis was facing,

A red-haired girl in soldier’s garb, and barely yet sixteen.

‘Enough,’ Blossom said. ‘I don’t know it all, anyway. I think I skipped some verses to get to that point.’

‘But what happened? At least tell me the story.’

Blossom kept walking. ‘The story is that Lady Amber disguised herself as a soldier and found a weak link in Marchlord Treasure’s magical armour and brought him down single-handedly when a thousand men couldn’t. The Queen made her a Marchlord and a Seer for saving her kingdom.’

‘Is Lady Amber fighting the barbarians now?’

Blossom stopped again, hands on her hips. ‘Meg, I don’t know where you’ve been or who you really are, but you sure don’t know much. Lady Amber was killed fighting the Rebels a decade ago.’

‘How?’

‘So many questions!’ Blossom snapped.

Meg dropped her gaze and lowered her head. ‘I’m sorry,’ she murmured. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up.

‘They say,’ said Blossom kindly, ‘that she called down the Demon Horsemen on her enemies and everyone was consumed in fire, even her.’ Blossom chuckled. ‘I’ll tell you a secret, though. I don’t believe there ever was a Lady Amber, not like the one in the
ballads. She’s just another heroic character. And there’s certainly no Demon Horsemen.’ She patted Meg’s shoulder. ‘Come on. We’ve a long walk. Too much talking just makes us more tired.’

Meg fell into step with Blossom and Magpie took her hand. As the words of the ballad repeated in her mind, she felt as if the story and the people were familiar. The face of a handsome young man lingered at the margins of her memory and she noted the curious feature that he had one blue eye and one grey eye. Why did she see him like that?