Chapter Eleven

The first man signalled to the others to lower their bows. They did so reluctantly, whilst keeping their eyes fixed on the two girls. Their expressions clearly reflected their distrust, curiosity, and even hatred. Only the boy’s eyes were different; they betrayed his far less hostile attitude towards them. They seemed to flicker with something that could almost have been called sympathy.

The first man began to bark out a series of orders in a language which neither of the girls could understand. In a moment they were surrounded, and the baby was passed to another man as the first brutally pulled the girls to their feet and bound their hands together with rough twine. Realising that she was far too weak to fight back, and suddenly overcome with the pain of in her fatigued muscles, hunger and disappointment, Katrin broke down into tears. Meredith was far too weak to even cry.

The men used the handles of their bows to prod and shove the girls in the direction in which they should walk. Meredith managed several steps before crumpling to the ground. The first man growled angrily, but seeing how pale and weary she looked, he signalled for one of the men to pick her up and carry her over his shoulder. In this way they started on a journey which would take them another full day to complete; a journey which Meredith strongly suspected she would not survive.

**

The journey took them across the plateau, through a small forest and around the edge of a great lake. They moved swiftly, silently. There was no communication between the men and the girls- only the prodding of bows on their backs every so often to remind them to keep up. Katrin secretly wondered why their lives had been spared, and where they were headed. Meredith didn’t care. She hated being carried by strange men, sometimes forced to walk until she felt as though she was going to die with exhaustion, and poked and prodded as though she had no more feeling than a ragdoll. But after several hours, it became apparent that they were finally going to stop for a break.

To the girls’ relief, everyone was provided with a little nourishment. A handful of fruit and nuts, a little cold meat, a mouthful of sweet milk and piece of some kind of dry cake which tasted like sweet bread. Even the baby got a share of the food. Although the portions were very meagre, and although the food proved quite indigestible to their unaccustomed stomachs, the girls found the small meal quite satisfying. They were allowed to rest for half an hour before being roughly pulled to their feet and made to continue on their journey.

Meredith felt a little more refreshed and revived after the nourishment, but her aching muscles still found it difficult to keep up with the pace that the men were setting. Katrin was given charge of the baby. She found peculiar comfort in holding her close and whispering encouragement- although perhaps vain encouragement- into her small ears as she walked behind her sister and between two of the men who kept prodding her on the back with their bows. She longed to get a moment alone with her sister, in order to tell her of the plan that she had been devising in the privacy of her mind.

An opportunity arose for the girls to converse as they came to a halt at the edge of a river, and the majority of the men slipped away to seek out a means of crossing it, leaving the young boy in charge of them. Meredith had not found the energy or the occasion to speak to Katrin about him yet, but Katrin herself could pick up something from his face that told her he was not like the others. She even wondered if he might have been willing to help them escape. As the last man slipped away, the boy sat down on a nearby boulder and crossed his arms, keeping his eyes fixed on his charge. Katrin decided to take the risk and to seize the opportunity to talk to her sister. Much to her relief, the boy never even batted an eyelid as she began to relate her plan to Meredith in hushed undertones.

“As soon as I get the chance, I’m going to run away,” Katrin informed her sister. “I don’t like these men, and they’re leading us away from the mountain.”

“Oh, Katrin, you don’t honestly think you could run away, do you? I’m sure any one of these men could easily outrun you, and I’d hate to think what would happen to you if they caught you again. You saw how close we were to being killed back at the top of that hill...”

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take,” said Katrin, lowering her eyes. “I need to get help for you. You’re too weak to walk, let alone run, so there’s no chance of you getting away. And... and I’m worried where they’re leading us, and why.”

“Oh, Katrin, I’m worried too, but I’d much rather have you with me.”

“But I’ve got this feeling, Meredith, that we’re being led into something... something bad. These men are cruel- you can see it in their eyes. Except from that one, there’s something different about him.” At this point she quickly glanced at the boy who was sitting on the boulder with his head turned away from them, plucking the head off a tall reed as he quietly hummed a tune to himself.

“Oh yes, he’s different,” said Meredith. She grabbed her sister’s hand. “I’ve been meaning to tell you, but I haven’t had the chance yet... Katrin, he’s the boy who saved you from the river!”

“What!” Katrin looked startled and bemused. “But... but why?”

“I don’t know why,” said Meredith, softly. “But he did, so he just can’t be like the others.”

“That’s all very well, but I still plan to run away.” Katrin was struggling to come to terms with what her sister had just told her.

“If you do run away, will you take the baby?” asked Meredith, glancing anxiously at the child in her sister’s arms.

“I... don’t know,” said Matrin, slowly. “She doesn’t look that well, either. I don’t know if I could cope with her on my own, and she’d be a burden to me if I was trying to get away as quickly as possible...”

“If there’s any chance of you getting to safety, then you must take her. Who knows what these men might do. It doesn’t matter so much what happens to me, but the baby... Either you take her with you, or don’t go at all.”

“Then I’ll take her with me,” came Katrin’s decision.