Salt Read Online Free Page B

Hari felt tears on his cheeks. ‘That is all.’
    ‘But you know there must be other ways.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘And I’ve told you how things came to be.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Tell me, before you go.’
    Hari swallowed. He did not want to go over the story again: the invasion, the defeats, the years of slavery. He wanted Lo to tell him how to find Deep Salt and free his father. But he knew the old man never asked for anything without a reason, so he wet his lips and began: ‘There were centuries, long centuries, before Company came. Life was good. Our city was Belong and our name The Belongers. Our ships went out from Freeport, far into the west and north, to harvest the seas. Our lands stretched south and west, grain fields and farms, as far as men had ever travelled – to the jungles and the deserts that lie beyond. Men came from distant countries, came with their caravans and ships, to trade with us, bringing goods we needed and taking goods away. And we, the Belongers, were happy. And then one day a black ship came. We had not known there were lands beyond the lands we knew. A black ship with white sails and a red open hand marked on the flag. Its name was Open Hand and it came from a place called Company.’
    Hari felt his tongue grow thick and refuse to talk. That day when the black ship – bigger than any that had ever been seen before – sailed into Freeport was the day slavery began, although all was calm at first, and friendly at first, open handed, and years went by and trade went on and many ships came from Company. But somehow those who had been young when the first ship, Open Hand , arrived found that as old men and women they were citizens of Belong no longer but had become servants of Company.
    ‘They took small steps and we were greedy. They brought so many good things. Our city grew. Company set up warehouses and granaries and factories and our rulers said it was good, it brought more wealth. And then Company must have barracks too, for its soldiers, who were needed to protect its property – and we allowed it. They became our army and police. And soon our ships were not allowed to sail, they must be Company ships. Our farms were Company farms. And managers and clerks from Company ran everything. Our whole city. Our government. Everything. Their families settled our lands, and the ones who grew rich built mansions on the cliffs and put up walls and called it Compound, and we, the Belongers, were the servants there, and workers in their factories and on their ships and farms. So it went on, until we must sell ourselves to them and be slaves. Ourselves were all we had to sell. So we belonged to Company.’
    ‘Yes, boy,’ Lo said, ‘you know the tale. Don’t wipe your eyes. It’s no shame to cry.’
    Hari’s tears had been silent. Had the old man known he wept because he too was weeping quietly from his blind eyes? He sat down beside Lo and went on with the story:
    ‘Then one day in the city a Company dray with goods from the port ran over a woman selling trinkets and crushed her beneath its wheels, and the driver would not stop. He cried that he was late with his delivery and would be whipped if he delayed, and anyway the woman had not moved quickly enough, people must make way for Company, and the guard who rode with him uncurled his whip and struck the woman’s children out of the way – and that was the moment the great rebellion started. Cowl the Liberator killed the guard with his knife.’
    ‘Yes, boy, I saw it. Cowl was an honest sailor, a friend of my father, and I was riding on my father’s back. Cowl jumped on the dray and killed the guard, and the driver fled. Then Cowl discovered he had a voice and he called on the people to rise against Company and take back our land, and our sea, for ourselves. Tell the tale . . .’
    ‘It was like a tide. A great tide rising everywhere, and everyone heard the voice, in the city, on the ships, and soon in the countryside. Every man and woman found