Cuckoo's Flight by Wendy Orr

Author:Wendy Orr [Orr, Wendy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2021-01-13T00:00:00+00:00

When Clio’s with the horses, concentrating on figuring out all that she knows and how to share it with someone, there’s no time to think of anything else.

But as she turns homeward on the river road, the sight of the town’s west wall throws her back into the fearful present. The wall is growing, but it’s not as tall as the three other sides. How high does a wall have to be to keep out an enemy? Higher than this, Clio guesses. It’s not much above her head – she could scramble over it herself if she had two good legs.

She’s not surprised to hear there was a new announcement after she left this morning. Work on the wall will be picked up even more – everyone except the metal forgers will give every second day of their labour. The only thing that matters is to have as many people as possible building all the time. The purple slaves will labour at night, every night, lit by torches. They will return to the purple works to sleep when the Lady calls the dawn.

Anyone not fit to work on the wall can collect spring greens and shellfish for the workers to eat. Babies will be cared for in groups, one mother or grandmother looking after several infants so the mothers can work. Petros’s mother and another grandmother, who are keeping the thirty-day vigil with their daughters and newborns, will have other babies brought to their homes each morning.

The town rings with renewed urgency. The hammering of the stone axe makers seems more booming; the hissing of molten bronze being poured into moulds more sinister; even the soft rasp of whet stones sharpening knives and scythes – every sword in the palace has already been sharpened to its finest edge – sounds more harsh and grating than it ever has before. Children cry more and laugh less; dogs are as quarrelsome as their owners, growling and barking for no reason.

‘Aunt Fotia will share the vigil with us again,’ says Selena. ‘She and I will go to the wall on different days so you can still care for your horses.’

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.