Aliens In The Family by Margaret Mahy

Author:Margaret Mahy [Margaret Mahy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-07-25T04:00:00+00:00

Eleven - A Valley of Ghosts

At first the horses moved in single file, zigzagging backwards and forwards along a track which looked like a thin thread cobbling the cleft hillside together. Divided by a gully of dense native bush, the hill looked as if it had once been struck by the wand of a powerful magician and had never recovered from the blow. The riders were surrounded by trees and ferns. Unexpected clearings showed ranks of trees climbing up and down the slopes, uneven drifts of their own fallen leaves spread across their twisted, mossy toes. The path ahead was wide enough for a horse to travel comfortably as the low branches had been trimmed back, but the bright, sharp sunlight of the world beyond the living canopy became softer by the time it reached the forest floor.

Not very far behind them were the paved yards of Rackham Rides, the office with its filing cabinets, the Range Rover and all the things that clearly proved that humankind controlled the world. And further beyond was the city, and in the city the new house which now seemed like a memory of long ago, though they had left it only that morning. The bush closed densely around them as if it must stretch out for miles, and it was easy to believe that they had passed into a world with no other people but themselves.

Philippa sat astride a solid, black gelding called Blackberry, who would sometimes kick out if he sensed another horse close behind him on the track. A slight distance back rode David, who was mounted on a large, hairy, good-natured horse called Enchanter; and Lewis on Tommy, a round, greedy pony which moved busily down the track, looking yearningly from side to side at the grass rather as if he was shopping in a supermarket. Lewis smiled as he rode, entirely wrapped in his own thoughts. Every so often he turned to check that Bond was still safely behind him riding Scoot, while beside Bond rode Dora, wearing her best blue shirt and corduroy trousers, on a horse called Prince. At the end of the line in a position she had chosen for herself, came Jake, hunched and silent, looking strangely vulnerable and small without her cowboy hat. Her horse, a pretty chestnut named Cooney, looked particularly large and powerful in contrast with Jake, who looked unexpectedly defenceless in her black riding cap.

"Are you all right, Lewis?" Philippa called back a little anxiously. "You're unusually quiet this morning."

"I'm just thinking," said Lewis in an injured tone. "I'm allowed to."

Spread out like this it was easy to ride in silence, and Lewis was not the only one who was thinking private thoughts. David was still a little suspicious about the sudden decision to come on the trek, and wondered whether Dora and Jake were enjoying themselves. He wondered too about the mysterious Bond who had appeared so very early this morning, resplendent in his clothes of patches and pockets, with

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