They walked on silently for a long time. Eventually, Seltie said, “Your baby doesn’t have a name yet. Isn’t it about time you gave her one?”
“It is,” Vetta replied. “I just have to think of something suitable. Any ideas?”
“Not really. Maybe something in your old Torph language?”
The baby seemed to know that the women were talking about her. She roused from sleep, yawned, and began searching for a nipple.
Seltie reached over and tickled her cheek. “How’re you doing, little one?” The baby smiled briefly, then went back to her rightful duty. “She’s looking good, Vett, considering that her first day in this world involved a boat ride in a storm, a dip in the sea, and a night under the stars.”
“She’s all right now,” Vetta said with a smile. “A good night’s sleep did wonders for us both. But I’ll feel a lot better when we get to Feyar City, and I’m sure that Noddak fellow isn’t right on our heels.”
“I guess Noddak isn’t subject to the travel restrictions,” Seltie said. “Not that we ever paid much attention to them, anyway. We always went where we pleased—just had to be careful not to get caught by a patrol. Speaking of travel restrictions, Vett, how did you manage to get permission to go to Lone Island?”
“There were no travel restrictions in Fellstone City, only routine checkpoints. I never even heard of them until after we got to Lone Island. We just paid our fares and got on the freighter.”
“Well, Vett, we’re under travel restrictions right here and right now. Have been ever since I was a little girl. Whenever we came here to pick fruit, like I was saying, we had to keep a close eye out for soldiers. And it’s the same now: if we run into soldiers, just run into the woods as fast and far as you can. If they catch us, they have the right to execute us, though they mostly don’t. Mostly.”
Vetta’s face fell. “Travel restrictions—all new to me, Tee. Soldiers ahead of us, Noddak behind—the sooner we get to Feyar City, the better. What will I do about travel restrictions in Feyar City? They’ll know I’m not from there. Won’t there be birth records or something?”
“Didn’t you say that you knew someone there? Likely he’ll know what to do. Anyway, there’s only one way to find out.”
“I suppose.”
For a while they walked without conversation, enjoying the sights and sounds of the mostly—so far—uninhabited country. The ancient road followed the contour of the gently rolling hills that were, in spots, covered by stands of ancient trees. In other places, the hills ended, and the country opened out into wide sea-like prairies of tall yellow grass. And everywhere some streams and creeks cut and flowed across the road.
Stone bridges had once spanned some of the wider creeks, but these were all reduced to rubble now. There had been wooden bridges for the smaller streams, and these too had worn away to mere traces of timber by many years of sun, wind, and rain. The travelers had to wade or swim across these streams, swollen by the recent storm.
The old road was partially obscured by a century’s growth of grass and brush. In places, the trees blocked the roadway altogether, and the travelers had to skirt around through the woods, then find the road again.
Eventually, they rounded a stony hill where they came to the junction of a road that turned off to the east. “If we were to turn eastward here, in a couple of hundred miles we’d join up with the Old Imperial Highway, the one that goes across the desert all the way to Fellstone City. Or so my Cal tells me. I’ve never been out that way, myself.”
Vetta poked at a clump of overgrowth with her walking stick, exposing a stone pillar with writing on it. “Look, Tee. Is it some kind of marker?”
Seltie used her stick to tear at the moss and lichen on the pillar to reveal characters cut into the stone. “I don’t read too good. Can you make out the words, Vett?”
Vetta brushed the stone a little more and read the words:
Southport 12 Miles South
Fellstone City 897 Miles East
Feyar City 255 Miles North
“Oh, no!” Vetta cried. “So far to go! How will we ever get there?”