The Witch Woman's Prophecy

9 | The Nineh |

Early the next morning, Brandis sent me to collect camel dung for making a fire. I thought that he was joking and stared at him, open-mouthed. He shouted at me and I scurried off to pick up the dry lumps. He told me how to use them to make a fire. I was amazed that they burned so well and I boiled water for mint tea, however I did not enjoy drinking it knowing how it had been heated.

Brandis sat with his head resting on his hands, as though it was painful. He was very quiet while he ate and did not look at me. Once he had finished, he bade me get the camels loaded ready for the day's travel. His face was pale and I wondered if he was ill, but I did not want to trouble him with further questions.

The first camel was called Leader, the second one had never been given the dignity of a name. Once Brandis was mounted I led them down the rocky slope of the hill until we came to the Nineh, where we paused to look for a safe way across its deep, dry channel. The sand at the bottom was finer and lighter in colour than the sand of the dunes and was studded with rounded stones. The trunks and branches of dead trees had washed up along its banks in some distant time. I tried to imagine what the channel must have looked like when it was full of water.

We crossed the pale sand in silence and I felt awed to be walking where so much water had flowed. I stooped down and picked up a stone from the bottom of the river and held it in my hand, it was smooth, shaped almost like an egg and was already warm from the heat of the sun. It felt just right in the palm of my hand and I slipped it into my robe, wanting something to remember this journey by.

It had been less than a cycle of the moon since the bandits had attacked Halash's farm and I had changed much in that time. I had been to Merthgem, discovered what had happened to Monila and found myself employment. I had left the farm and seen new things that I had never expected to see, met more people than I had ever realised existed.

What would my family think of my life now if they could see me? Realising they would not be waiting to hear about my travels when I got home made tears prickle my eyes. I would never know what they thought. I sniffed, straightened up and walked on beside Brandis who was dozing on Leader, telling myself it was the glare of the sun in my eyes that was making them water.

As I plodded on in the direction that Brandis had pointed out, my thoughts turned back to Yardin's foretelling. Was it the charm that had caused the pain in my head? Could it really help her to see a person's future? She had seemed so confident about what it showed her. Tasmi had believed in her power and of course all the people who stoned Monila and me had believed in her too, but I did not know what to think.

I thought about the life she had foretold for me; I would either kill a lot of people or I would be hated by everybody. It wasn't much of a choice. My mind's eye brought back the hideous lump that had been the bandit's shattered remains in the metal building on the farm. Even though he had been involved in the deaths of my family, I had seen the reality of taking a life and vowed that I would never kill anybody ever again.

The desert around me began to worry me. It was all so big, so empty, so unlike the farm where I had always been surrounded by trees up on the hillside. Here I felt as tiny and insignificant as an ant. Nobody knew where I was or was expecting me to come back. Nobody would miss me if I disappeared into the desert. Despite the heat, I shivered.

Brandis' silence began to wear me down. I was desperate to hear another voice.

'What are we going to dig for out here in the desert?'

'It is no concern of yours,' Brandis said, his voice tight with irritation. 'All I hired you to do is to help me dig, not to waste time in idle discussions.'

I shrugged and carried on leading the camels. I decided not to ask him anything else for fear of upsetting him.

It was hard going, the sand clung to my feet and every step was a battle against it. When we were walking up the side of a dune my feet slid backwards down the slope; it was slow going and the effort made the fronts of my thighs burn. When we came down the other side, I had to dig my heels into the sand to stop myself sliding down. I paused often while we were doing this as it made the backs of my legs ache. We walked on until it was too hot to go any further. We hobbled the camels, then built a shelter from some cloth propped up by sticks and weighted down by some packs, crawled beneath it and slept away the hottest part of the day. Brandis fell asleep almost at once. He had barely spoken a word to me since I had asked him what we were looking for. What he was thinking about during his long silences?