Maddigan's Fantasia Read Online Free PDF Page A

means we must press on to Gramth and stock up on food, which is what we were going to do anyway, and then on to Newton.’
    ‘We’ll need to stock up on food before that,’ said Yves.
    ‘Right!’ said Maddie. ‘So we’ll have to call in on one of thoselittle communities and trade what we can. Where’s Bannister? Bannister! You must be our mapmaster until Bailey gets better.’
    ‘If he does get better,’ said Yves. ‘Goneril says …’
    ‘I say, and I
know
,’ said Goneril, interrupting him. ‘I’ve seen it all before. For years now I’ve been loaded with the sick ones and the babies … for years my van’s been treated as a dumping ground for people who can’t look after themselves. And I’ve kept quiet about it for years, but …’
    ‘Kept quiet? You’re always on about it,’ cried Nye. ‘Moan! Moan! Moan!’
    ‘Shut up, Nye,’ said Tane. ‘A woman’s got a right to express herself.’ He sounded rather sarcastic though.
    ‘Well – we’ll see about all that,’ Yves was saying, ‘the thing is, I know the way to the nearest community. At least I think I do. No one can be sure of anything in this neck of the woods but they may have a bit of spare food to trade. It’s worth a try. So! Let’s go!’
    ‘Let’s go!’ said a piping voice – his bossy little daughter Lilith, her looped pigtails sticking out like handles. She would be delighted to see her father there in the centre of the circle, telling everyone else what to do.
    These voices chased after Garland like hunting hounds as she moved quietly away. She had to break away from all the discussion and argument. Garland thought she had heard enough. She loved the Fantasia but she needed space … she needed silence.
    However, she was only a few steps away from the parley circle when strangeness seized her. The air in front of her billowed and twisted as if something were trying to break through from the other side. At first Garland thought her tears were changing the shape of the world, as tears do. Then she saw – there was no doubt about it – those silver marks on the air once more, but this time they were taking on a definite shape … somethingthat could be recognized. Suddenly Garland was looking at a silver girl, a girl round about her own age, who seemed to be looking straight back at her and beckoning her forward.
    Garland stared. The silver lines moved, as if, like smoke in the wind, the girl might break up and vanish. But it wasn’t just the air that was moving. That silver girl was beckoning and pointing to the right. Her lips were moving, though no sound, no silver voice, came through them.
    All the same there
was
a sound. Somewhere a baby had begun to cry and Garland now saw, a little to the right of the silver girl (the
fading
silver girl for the shape was already trembling and dissolving as if, having given some message, it was free to fade), the shapes of two boys, advancing out of the wild scrub, one of them strung with mysterious boxes, the other one (the bigger one … the one with the golden hair) carrying a crying baby in front of him.
    ‘Friends!’ cried the smaller boy, waving at her over his boxes. And then he added, ‘Are you Garland?’
    The bigger boy nudged him as if he were commanding him to be quiet.
    ‘Who are you?’ Garland asked. ‘How do you know my name?’
    ‘Guessing. Only guessing,’ the younger boy said quickly.
    But how could anyone just guess a name like ‘Garland’?
    ‘Go on guessing!’ Garland shouted. ‘And leave me alone. We’ve just buried my father and nobody really cares but me.’
    Then she wheeled around and ran back towards the parley she had just left. It seemed so unfair that she should be so unhappy and frightened at the same time. It seemed unfair that she should have to cope with strangers, and such
strange
strangers too. Her mother saw her darting for cover, and moved quickly to cut her off.
    ‘Garland!’ shouted Maddie. ‘None of your runaway games. We’re on