Mara and Dann (18 page)

And now he pulled out the knotted cord of coins from the bottom of his sack, and in a moment had untied a coin and pushed the cord back, all the time glancing over his shoulders in case someone was watching. The slim, bright gold circle lay on the old grey rock. They sighed, both of them, at the same time. How long ago had that coin been made? And here it lay: the brightest, freshest, prettiest thing for miles around.

‘If we can change even this one coin, then …' He put it down the long tube of cloth inside his robe that held the knife. ‘I'll say you're my brother,' he said.

‘So what's my name?' she whispered, and her mind was full of that scene where Gorda had told her to forget her name. And she had: she had no idea what it was. She was going farther away from her real name now, when she said, ‘Maro. Dann and Maro.'

They set off downhill, united by the carrying pole where the water cans swung. The trees here were not all dead. Some must have roots down into deep-running water, for they stood strong and green among the tree corpses. There was a bad smell, sweet and disgusting, as they came to where the hill flattened into another plain. That smell … She knew it, but not as strong. Dann said, ‘They made a big grave over there.' He pointed. ‘Hundreds of people.'

‘Was it the water sickness?'

‘No, there was a war.'

‘What about?'

‘Water. Who was to control the water from the spring that makes the stream that feeds the lake we were on.'

‘Who won?'

‘Who cares? It is all drying up anyway.'

As they walked away from the hill, the smell lessened and then it had gone.

Dann walked lightly, warily, his eyes always turning this way and that, his head sometimes jerking around so fast because of a sudden noise, or even a gust of wind, that she thought his neck must ache. She tried to walk as he did, his feet seeming to see by themselves where there was thick, soft dust or some rocky ground where they would make no sound. She knew they were nearing a place where people were, and when she saw his eyes she felt she ought to be afraid of him, they were so hard and cold. Ahead was a town, and these houses were bigger than any she had seen, though she seemed to remember her own home had been built high, windows above windows, and these were like that, of brick, but nothing like as graceful and delightful. They were walking along a street between ugly houses. There had been gardens, but in them now were only scorpions and big yellow spiders that coated every dead bush or tree with webs as thick as the material her robe was made of. Some spiders were the size of a child – of Dann, when she first had charge of him. She was afraid, seeing their glittering eyes watching them go past. There seemed to be no people.

‘Did they all die in the war?' she asked, in a whisper, afraid the spiders would catch the sound, and a web near them began vibrating and jerking as the spider climbed to see what had made the noise. He nodded, watching the spider. No people, nobody. Then she saw sitting in the open door of a house an old woman, all bones and eyes, staring out at them, and in the path between her and them were clustering scorpions, and she was flicking them away from her with a stick. But as they landed on the earth, they scuttled back to where they had been, their pincers all held out towards her. Quite soon she would not care: she would let that tired old wrist of hers rest, with the stick lying in front of her, and would wait for the scorpions.

‘I don't like this place,' Mara whispered. ‘Please, let's go.'

‘Wait. There's a market here. If it is still here.'

They came into an open place of dull, yellowish dust, with some trestle-tables
in the middle, and one man guarding them all. Around the edges of this space, along the walls of the houses, were scorpions. On the two dead trees were the spiders' webs, and there was a big dragon, lying out in the sun as once dogs had done.

Her brother was standing in front of the man, staring hard at him, and the handle of his knife was showing: his right hand was held ready near it. On the wooden slats of the trestle were a few of the big roots Mara had not seen for a long time now, bags of dried leaf, a few pieces of flat bread, a bowl of flour, and strips of dried meat. What meat? It did not smell: it was too dry.

Dann took out the brown garment they had examined on the hill that morning, and she saw the man's eyes narrow as he peered at it.

‘Haven't seen one of those for a bit,' he said. ‘Have you come from the Rock Village? I didn't know anyone was still alive.'

‘There isn't now,' said Dann. ‘So this is the last of these you'll be seeing.'

‘You aren't Rock People,' the man said. What he was really saying was, You are Mahondis.

Dann ignored that and asked, ‘What will you give me for this?' He held tight to one end of the tunic.

The man looked steadily into Dann's face, his teeth bared, and put on the board, one after another in front of Dann, six of the food fruits. He added a bag of dried leaf, but Dann shook his head and the bag was put back beside the other bags. A pile of the flat bread – Dann nodded. And waited. The two men stood glaring at each other. Mara thought they were like two animals about to attack each other. Past the man's shoulder lay the dragon, apparently asleep. It was only a few paces away.

‘Water,' said Dann.

The man lifted on to the board a jar of yellowish water. Dann slid their two cans off the pole, and was topping them up with water from the jar when the man said, ‘I'll take those cans.' Dann did not respond, went on pouring. ‘I'll give you these dried fruits for them.'

Under the trestle was a sack full of dried fruits. Dann shook his head, put the cans back on the pole, where they swung between him and his sister.

‘We need more for this tunic,' he said. ‘Matches?'

The man sneered, then laughed. ‘I'll give you a bundle of matches for the two cans.'

‘Forget it,' said Dann. ‘Have you got candles?'

The man produced some stumps of candle. At Dann's nod, he laid them beside the big fruits and the bread.

The two glared at each other again. Mara thought that if it came to a fight Dann would win, because this man was as thin as a sick lizard and his hair had the flattened, lifeless look – pale, fuzzy hair. Starving children's hair sometimes looked like that.

‘More bread,' said Dann.

The man counted out from his pile one, two, three, four, five, six pieces of bread and pushed them forward.

And to Mara's surprise, Dann let go the end of the garment and the man snatched it up, held it up, gloated. Mara thought, Something I've worn for years and years – it is worth some food fruits, a little water, and some bread. And stumps of candle.

‘Have you got another?' asked the man, carefully pushing the garment into a sack and tying it tight.

Dann shook his head. Then – and Mara could feel Dann's trembling, in the stick that lay from shoulder to shoulder – he said, ‘I want to change a gold fifty.'

At this the man's face came to life in an ugly laugh. ‘Oh you do? And what do you want to buy with that? You can have one of the houses here for a few matches.'

‘Are you going to change it?'

‘Let me see it.'

Again the precious, shining gold piece seemed like a message from another time, or place. Dann held tight to one edge while the other stared at it. He sighed. Dann sighed. So did Mara.

The man's eyes were glittering and he was very angry. ‘You could try your friends up there in that house. Wait till dark. You don't want to be seen.'

Dann quickly put the bread, fruit, candles into Mara's sack, and the two went away, as quickly as they could, and as far from the fat dragon as they could.

Dann began peering into the doorways of houses, but from each room came hissing, the sound of scales on dust or stone, the clattering of scorpions. Then there was a room that seemed to have nothing in it. The two went in, and Dann's eyes were moving everywhere: up in the rafters, in the corners, behind the door. Was that a sound above them, in the room over this? There was something up there. Mara was frightened, but
Dann took a big stone and jammed the door that led from this room into the rest of the house. He said, ‘Nothing can get in here.' In the middle of the room, their eyes always on the door out into the market place, they squatted and drank water from a can, and ate two pieces of bread each. It was after midday, and the afternoon heat was yellowing the sky. Mara wanted to sleep, but Dann's eyes were restless and suspicious: he was afraid. Several times people went past, stopped to glance in, and then went on. Then Mara did sleep, for she woke to see Dann at the door, watching some scorpions. It was getting dark.

Dann took one of the stumps of candle and fitted it into a hole in the wall. Mara was thinking, But we have no matches, when he pulled from the pocket that held the knife a single long match, and slid it back. ‘Last one,' he said. ‘We mustn't waste it.' She had not known he still had a match. He hides things from me, she thought. Why does he? Doesn't he trust me? Dann saw the look on her face and said, ‘Suppose someone said to you, “What does Dann have in his sack?” Well, if you didn't know, you couldn't tell them, could you?' He laughed. And now what he saw on her face seemed to disturb him, for he said, ‘Oh come on, Mara. You don't understand.' There it was again, and she had no answer to it. He waited, watching her until she smiled, and then he gestured her to the door, and they went out, carefully, and stepped quickly past the scorpions.

They walked in the dusk up a path towards the lights of the house they had been shown. It was a house like the one she remembered from long ago: a tall, light, pretty house, and there had been a garden and trees.

They went up stone steps, and were outside a room that was lit by tall floor candles. Mara remembered furniture like these chairs and tables. A man came forward, smiling. Mara thought, He knew we were coming. And then, Of course, in a place where there are only a few people, everyone knows everything.

He was a Mahondi. The three of them were alike: tall, slim people with black, smooth, long hair. But he could not know that Mara's black, fuzzy stubble was really hair like his.

‘I have a fifty gold,' said Dann.

The man nodded, and Dann took out the coin. He gripped an edge tight, and held it out.

‘You'll have to let me see it properly.'

That voice: waves of remembering went through Mara. She had
become used to the heavy, rough voices of the Rock People. Dann let go of the coin. The Mahondi took it to a candle, turned it over and over, and bent to bite it. He straightened and nodded. Dann was trembling again. The man handed him back the coin and said, ‘What do you want for it?'

Dann had expected to change it, but now it was evident there would be no change. ‘We want to go North,' he said. The Mahondi smiled: You don't say! ‘How far could we go for that?'

‘Your brother and yourself? A long way.'

Mara could feel the carrying pole trembling again: Dann was full of fear, frustration and anger. It was because he did not know how much to ask, was afraid of being cheated. He asked, ‘Do you have transport? Can you arrange it?'

On the wall was an enormous coloured picture. Mara remembered it. It was a map. It was like the one she remembered from the classroom long ago. And it was the same shape as the one Dann had drawn in the dust for her. The Mahondi stepped to the map and pointed to a place in the middle. He meant: we are here. Then he pointed farther up the picture, to a black spot that said MAJAB, in large letters. It was a span of about three fingers' breadth.

‘When can we go?' asked Dann.

‘Tomorrow morning.'

‘We'll come back here,' said Dann.

‘You'd do better to stay here. We'll give you a room.'

Who was
we?

‘How are we going to get to Majab?' asked Mara. Dann and this Mahondi both looked impatiently at her for asking the question.

‘Well, of course,' said Dann, ‘sky skimmer.'

Mara had not known they still existed.

The man said again, ‘You'll be safe here.' All of Mara longed to say, Yes, yes, yes, thank you; but Dann shook his head and then jerked it towards Mara – Come.

‘Then be here just after sunrise.' And then they heard, ‘You shouldn't go back into the town with that on you.' Dann was walking away, not replying. ‘They know you've got gold. It's dangerous.'

The last light was in the dark of the sky, a red flush. The two could hardly see the path. The man was watching them go. ‘He thinks we won't be coming back,' said Mara. ‘He thinks they'll kill us down there.' Dann said nothing. At least he didn't say, You don't understand – when
Mara understood very well. It's a funny thing, she thought, knowing something about someone, like why Dann is afraid of that Mahondi, but he doesn't know. I don't think I can explain it to him, either.

She could hardly bear to walk down into that town. In the market place the stallholder and some other people stood around the trestles eating. There was some bread and fruit there. All of them turned to watch Dann and Mara go past. Their faces were hard and cold. They had not expected to see the two again.

A woman said loudly, ‘Their own kind won't have them.'

Those faces:
Mara was looking at a hatred worse than anything she had known, even in the Rock Village. She whispered to Dann, ‘It's not too late, we could go back up there.' He shook his head. ‘These people want to kill us.' But she could see he knew that.

They were returning to the house where they had been. The door was open on to the square: it had been closed when they left. Inside the main room some light came in from the twilight, not much. ‘The moon will be up later,' he said.

‘It's going to be quite dark until then,' she pleaded, expecting him to ignore her; but he looked at her – that long, intent look – and took out the precious match, rubbed it on the wall, lit the candle stub. A thin light wavered over the dark room. Now he went to the inner door and pulled aside the stone that held it. They heard hissing. It was a lizard's hiss. She was frantically trying to pull Dann towards the door into the square, but he said, ‘Wait. We must look.' He pushed open the inner door and beckoned. There was another room, and along a wall a half-grown lizard was dying, and hissing at them, but only feebly. Stairs went up. Dann leaped up the stairs and nodded at her to come too. There was a big empty room up there. Beyond it another room. Dann opened that door and quickly stood back. She went to be with him, thinking this was the same as when he was small, when he would jump off a rock or into a pool hardly looking to see if there was danger. There was a great hole in the roof here, and the sky showed a couple of still pale stars. This room was full of spiders: not the yellow and black ones but enormous, brown spiders that were everywhere on the walls and the floor. What did they eat? – she was wondering, and at once knew the answer: they were eating each other, for as she looked a great brown spider, the size of a big dog, leaped on a smaller one and began crunching it up, while the victim squeaked and squirmed, and others came scrambling to join in the feast.