My Mother Divinity [Unedited]

Chapter Five

When I unzip the door of the tent, I expect to see the calming expanse of the beach, for the tide to have changed, the sun to be looming gloriously over the horizon. I expect it to be just the three of us on the outskirts of the woods, black scorched twigs left smoking from the fire.

Something disturbs the peace: the sight of horses cantering across the sand. I retreat back into the tent and shake Amon and Brodie to get their attention. "People are coming," I say.

Amon sits upright immediately and scrambles to look out of the door. He curses under his breath and starts gathering his belongings to put into his backpack and even Brodie knows to get up and start helping his uncle.

"We won't have time to collapse the bloody tent," Amon huffs. He's stuffing his sleeping bag clumsily into its holder and struggling to keep it in. I peek outside the tent again and see they're getting closer, and they don't just look like the type of people to have a jolly ride across the beach for no reason. Are they the ones looking for us? Surely if they had horses, they would have used them before when they chased us at the beginning?

"Amon," I start, frozen in place when the rider at the front spots our tent. They encourage the horses into a gallop.

"We'll buy another one," he goes on, "by some miracle I haven't run out of cash already." He helps Brodie crawl out of the tent. "Breakfast will have to wait, son."

He should be panicking a lot more than he is but maybe he wants to keep Brodie calm. There's no way we're going to outrun them on foot. Amon seems to realise this as a conflicted expression passes through his face. He turns to me and says: "They'll be after you primarily - will you be okay to divert them while I take care of Brodie?"

"What's your plan?" I demand. My heart-rate picks up at the thought of being left behind and lost without supplies.

"We'll go back to the village and you'll meet us within the hour, at the east side of the square. Fuck it, I'm buying passage on a ship."

"A ship? A ship to where?"

"That remains to be seen." He's zipping up his backpack after shoving the rest of the essentials back in. "If you book a day or two in advance, there's space on the boats from Scrabster, in Thurso, and we can get to Orkney."

"Do you have money for that?"

"Never mind about that." He swings the bag over his shoulder and takes Brodie's hand, giving me a determined glance-over. "You'll be fine. Look, this was the backup plan and it's not a great one, I won't lie - it'll take us a couple days to get to Thurso in the northwest, which is completely not the direction I wanted us to take, but it's the only way I see us getting a decent lead on them since the ships only dock at Stromness once a week."

"HEY!" A man's voice is screaming in our vicinity. I clam up like a cat thrown into rain.

"Go!" Amon all but pushes me back before he takes off with Brodie. It's lucky we all know the way back to the village from here since it's pretty much a straight path. I pick up the book he gave me as a last resort and start running in the opposite direction, having to abandon the tent.

I didn't see how many horses or men there were approaching us but I would assume any amount I can drag away from Amon will be of much help. When I turn back into the thick of the woods, I don't dare look back until I'm off the beaten track, and when I do glance behind me I see two horses trailing me.

They're going to catch me - there's no way they won't. The panic swells up in my blood like I'm about to drop dead, but they must not carry guns otherwise I would have heard them go off by now. I trip over a tree foot and fall on my face like one of those clumsy idiots you'd see in a horror film. The two horses circle me.