Silent Skies

Chapter 5

Olive presses her fingers to her temples and sighs.

“This,” she says through gritted teeth, “is nonsense.”

Mamba and Cobra, at least, have the good grace to look embarrassed. Ana just folds her arms and glares.

“Then you carry four tantruming little Whisperers the half-mile to the village!” she snaps. “We’ll stand here and watch while they chase you back again.”

Olive glares but a smile twitches the corner of her mouth. Cobra mumbles something and shuffles over to where the four Whisperer children, now exhausted and spent from crying, are curled up in silence. Amongst them, Warren sits cross-legged with one hand on Taipan’s shoulder watching Cobra warily.

The sight of the smoke two hours previously was enough to send the little ones into a panic, traumatized after fleeing from village after hostile village.

Krait had taken one look at the distant smoke and hid under the cart. Taipan burst into tears and both King and Habu went white faced and silent with shock. Even Ana was shaking as she coaxed Krait from under the cart.

The horses, sensing their humans’ fear, tossed their heads, whinnied, pawed the ground and generally made everything more difficult. Warren refused to leave Taipan’s side, complaining that there were bees nearby and why wasn’t anyone listening?

Solma and Olive had stood there, utterly at a loss for what to do. Luckily, they had Bell and Roseann, both of whom had brought up difficult children (Solma and Olive, for example). Bell’s voice rang over the melee, calling everyone to stand still and be quiet. Roseann collared King and Habu and shoved them onto the back of the cart, followed swiftly by Krait, whom Ana had finally persuaded out. Even Cobra and Mamba had reverted to children in the face of Bell’s authority.

“Nobody speak,” she’d barked. “Everyone in a straight line, we’ll go to the tree-line. Not a word ‘til I say so, clear?”

They’d marched in silence to the designated spot and hunkered down behind a gathering of aspen trees that marked the border to a vast plain. From there, the smudgy silhouette of what can only be a village was just visible on the horizon, close to the snaking tree-line of the forest as it winds away to the west.

Crouched between the trees with the horses finally calm and the little ones whimpering, no one knows what to say.

Bell huffs. “We should ask for help,” she grumbles. “We need food, don’t we?” She thrusts a finger in the direction of the distant village. “There’s food. Right there!”

Mamba scowls at her and finally manages to recover some semblance of his leadership. “Look,” he says, “We’ve all … had a rough run of things.”

Bell raises an eyebrow.

“It’s natural we’d be a bit cautious,” Mamba continues, “but we’ve no food left and the weird signal in the Earth has exhausted all of us—”

Warren leaps to his feet. “It’s—”

Solma grabs his wrist and pulls him down beside her. She tries to look sympathetic when she tells him to hush, but she hears impatience creeping into her voice.

“We don’t know what it is, War,” she says, “and we need to sort out food before we start looking for bees.” Warren growl-screams in frustration and Burdock, affronted by the noise, tosses his head. Cobra frowns.

“It’s something more than bees,” she says. “I can’t feel the bees like Warren can, but something’s nagging at me. It’s … I don’t know. I can’t explain it. It’s like I’ve felt it before but it’s also something totally new.”

Solma frowns. That makes absolutely no sense. “Is it coming from the village?” she asks. Cobra and Mamba glance at each other, then shrug.

“Sort of,” Cobra says.

“Not entirely,” says Mamba at the same time.

Solma throws up her hands in frustration. Olive’s also losing patience with all this mystery. She rolls her eyes.

“How d’you know you ain’t all just dizzy and tired from hunger?” she asks. “It could just be that. Not some weird signal in the dirt. Just hunger.”

All the Whisperers except Mamba glare at her. Mamba holds his hands up, placatingly.

“Look, the children are tired,” he points out. “This winter’s been tough on them.”

Roseann snorts. “Been tough on everyone,” she says. “There’s only so much running away you can do before it gets boring.”

Everyone looks at her. Roseann shrugs.

Ana continues to glare. For a minute—or perhaps forever—no one says anything.

“Ok,” Olive says eventually, “this is getting us nowhere.”

Solma scowls. No kidding. “What d’you suggest, then?” she snaps. Olive’s responding glare could thaw the peaks of the distant mountains and Solma flushes with shame. None of this is Olive’s fault.

Even through that infernal glower, Solma sees a flicker of hurt in Olive’s eyes. She looks away quickly. Why does she always do this to people?

Warren appears at Solma’s side. “Can we talk about my bees now?” he demands.

Solma and Bell hush him at the same time, but he shakes his head. “No!” he says, little fists clenched, a determined look on his face. “It’s important! You’re all arguing over nothing but the bees are here!”

Solma tries to wrap an arm around his shoulder but he shies away, glaring at her.

“You said you’d trust me,” he says, hurt in his voice. “After last year. You promised.”

Solma’s heart constricts. He’s not wrong. She did promise that. But there’s no proof of bees beyond his hope and Solma wishes she could believe him. But …

“Warren,” she tries again. He folds his arms and refuses to look at her.

“Don’t,” he says, his quiet voice full of hurt. “You always treat me like a kid.”

Solma sighs and bites back the urge to snap at him. This is ludicrous. They need food, supplies, water to wash and beds to rest in.

“We should go to the village,” Roseann suggests quietly. “We can send a small group to check they’re friendly. The kids can wait here in safety ‘til it’s done.”

Cobra nods approval, but the younger Whisperers squirm. Solma can’t tell whether it’s tiredness or fear or both, but the idea of being left alone unsettles them. Krait starts to cry, which sets King and Habu off.

“I don’t want anyone to go,” Taipan whimpers. Cobra tries to hug her but is pushed away. Warren rushes to his friends defense, insisting she shouldn’t have to go if she doesn’t want to, and that sets all the children off again, wailing and sobbing.

Solma reels at the chaos. The noise and fear feels volcanic inside her head. It builds and builds until she wants to scream, too.

She reaches for Olive’s hand, for the warmth of the person she knows will comfort her no matter what, but Olive’s hand isn’t there. The other girl gets to her feet without looking at Solma and stalks over to the sobbing boys. She hitches King onto her hip.

Solma stares at her for a moment, then wanders over to the horses to calm Burdock down. She’s no use with the kids anyway. She just gets cross and annoys everyone. She stands with Burdock and Poppy, a tightness in her chest, while Bell, Roseann and Olive try to sort things out. Gradually, the children calm down and Cobra comes to put a hand on Solma’s shoulder.

“You ok?” she asks. Solma turns and searches the Whisperer’s face. A long time ago, this girl had been her best friend. They’d taken care of each other. Solma still sees traces of that bright-eyed little girl—Kobi—in Cobra’s face. But years of a nomadic life and the deep magic of Whispering have changed her, too. Solma barely knows her now, even after six months together. Yet Cobra always seems to sense when Solma’s out of sorts.

Solma nods, then changes her mind and shakes her head.

“Tired and hungry,” she says. “Like everyone. I agree with Roseann. I’ll head to the village and see what’s what. If they’re gonna chase us away, it makes sense that only one of us puts ourselves in danger.”

Cobra smiles, then looks past her shoulder and her eyebrows raise in surprise.

“I don’t think you’ll have to, Sol,” she says, pointing. Solma whirls round, then grabs for her rifle.

“Get everyone outta sight,” she growls. They all blinks at her in astonishment, but Olive has her pistol ready, and is barking orders, ushering the little ones into hiding.

Because on the horizon is a lone figure, head bowed, leaning against a long staff as he trudges towards them.