Mary's Journey

Download <Mary's Journey> for free!

DOWNLOAD
Read with BonusRead with Bonus

The ford

The morning came quickly and Mary hurried to eat her porridge and after telling Tariana where she was going, she hurried away to the yellow wagon. Sinhera seemed to have just gotten there.

“Do you need help?” Mary asked.

“If you have the time to spare, I would be grateful,” Sinhera said. Mary nodded and climbed onto the wagon.

“The procedure is reversed from yesterday. We usually put the stars separately from the lines for the sake of simplicity. Make sure all the packs are steady and below the top edge of the wagon” Sinhera said.

“Okay,” Mary said, getting ready. Soon the packs were handed in, Sinhera lifted them up to Mary, who put them in place.

Mary quickly worked out a system that she thought would do. The wagon filled quickly and soon all the packs were in place.

“Thank you” Sinhera said. “If you have time, please give me a hand this afternoon.” Mary promised to come and help unload. She was happy to be useful and she took it as a sign that Sinhera had asked her to help.

In the days that followed, Mary found her way into a new routine. She helped Sinhera load the yellow cart in the morning, then spent the days studying her list, talking to the other women in the carriage, studying the landscape that flowed by.

In the evening she helped Sinhera unload the yellow wagon, then Kopa and her took the round in the camp. She began to recognize most of the men and women and had learned a lot of their names. Kopa helped to question her on Salamis and Mary loved their round.

After that, they ate supper in the tent, Tariana helped Mary write down the new words and phrases for the day and then they went to bed.

Mary found security in her routine. She had even learned to find her way through the tent camp. It felt like being in a small town that was constantly moving.

Soon they would cross the border into Salmisara, and Mary was looking forward to being in a whole new country. The idea was a bit dizzying, not many people traveled this far, she thought.

It was in the afternoon that Mildy tapped Mary on her leg and then pointed out the window.

“That is the river Sadowe” Mildy said. “It’s the border between Domne and Salmisara, once we cross it, we will be home” she continued.

Mary looked at the wide river that flowed through the landscape and tried to see what the other side looked like.

They had left the farming landscape behind a couple of days ago and were now riding through a landscape full of small patches of trees that framed grassy knolls with boulders and rocks scattered around it.

“How do we cross it? Is there a bridge?” Mary asked, trying to look ahead to see for herself.

“No there isn’t a bridge, in about an hour we will come to a ford where we will be able to make it across” Leana explained. Mary frowned at the unknown word.

“What is a ford?” she asked.

“It’s a place where the river is shallow enough so that people and animals can cross. Usually, it is safe. But if there has been a lot of rain or if the snow has just melted in the spring, you need to be really careful when crossing” Leana said and Mildy nodded in agreement.

“Why isn’t there a bridge instead? Wouldn’t that be safer?”

“Once there was. But in one of the great wars, it got destroyed and people started using the ford instead. It can’t be destroyed in the same way. So, people felt safer using it.” Tariana explained.

“There was a war?” Mary said in surprise.

“Several, but that topic is better saved for another day” Tariana said, and Mary nodded.

Instead, Mary concentrated on looking out of the window, trying to see how Salmisara looked like. Her new home.

After a little more than an hour they arrived at a fork in the road. The road continued straight on but also did a bend to the right, towards the river. They started down the road to the right and Mary felt the excitement build in her.

It seemed that it wasn’t just her that was exited, the energy of the whole group was the same. Mary could feel that they wanted to hurry, but the speed remained the same.

Soon the river became visible straight ahead of them. They stopped and Mary could hear Nihal giving orders. She thought it sounded like he sent a couple of riders to check the river. But she wasn’t sure. After a while Nihal opened the door to the carriage.

“The ford is passable, no increase in flow and the riverbed looks good” he said to Tariana. She nodded.

“Then let’s go home” she said with a smile, and everyone else started smiling, including Nihal. He closed the door and Mary could hear him giving out orders and soon they were moving again. Mary looked out of the window and saw the river.

It had become wider and shallower than before. She could she the bottom, it was covered in small pebbles. She could hear the splashes as the horses made their way across the river. Then she felt the carriage shake and the feel of the ride changed, it vibrated more. She realized that they were in the middle of the river.

Then, in a blink of an eye they were up on the other side and she knew that she was no longer in Domne, she was in Salmisara and it dawned on her that she would never set foot in her old country again.

She had known this since she had accepted the offer. But somehow it became a reality to her now. She felt a pinch in her heart, but not as big as she would have thought.

To keep her mind on other things she studied the landscape, hoping to learn what her new home looked like. To her disappointment, it looked exactly the same as it had done on the other side of the river. Nothing had changed. It was anticlimactic and she leant back in her seat with a sigh.

“What’s wrong Mary?” Mildy asked.

“I don’t know, it just looks like before. I thought it would be…” Mary didn’t know how to finish the sentence.

“You thought that everything would look different once we got to Salmisara” Tariana said with a smile. Mary nodded and felt disappointed.

“Borders and countries are manmade Mary, nature doesn’t recognize them. Nature dosen’t care where man draws a line on a map” Tariana explained.

Mary thought about it, and she realized how foolish she had been. She had just felt like something would have changed.

A couple of hours later Mary realized that something had changed. It was not the landscape around them, but the group itself.

Mary hadn’t realized how tense the group had been until they started relaxing. She could feel it in the air, and she could see it in the three aari that she shared the carriage with. The tension leaked out of them, and they relaxed.

Just before they had to stop for the evening Mary could hear the riders stating to sing a song as they moved along the road. A smile formed on her lips as she listened to the happy tune, not understanding most of the words.

The next morning, Mary helped Sinhera with the yellow wagon and then stood by the white carriage, waiting for the aari and Kopa to be ready to go. They had three days left before they would reach Salmis.

As the aari and Kopa came walking she saw that Kopa was leading one of the horses. He walked up to her a smiled down at her.

“I need to ride on ahead, I have some things that needs my attention. I will be waiting for you in Salmis” he said.

Mary felt a little uneasy at the thought of him leaving, but she didn’t want to show it, so she nodded.

“You are safe here Mary, no one will hurt you. You know that don’t you?” he asked her, and she nodded again.

“Good, it won’t be long before we see each other again” he said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Be safe” she said, and it was his turn to nod and then he stepped away and mounted his horse and rode away. Mary stayed in the same spot, looking down the road, until Mildy called for her to take place in the carriage.

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter
Loading