| Author: | Pamela Lamb | ISBN: | 9780958048989 |
| Publisher: | Pamela Lamb | Publication: | May 20, 2011 |
| Imprint: | Smashwords Edition | Language: | English |
| Author: | Pamela Lamb |
| ISBN: | 9780958048989 |
| Publisher: | Pamela Lamb |
| Publication: | May 20, 2011 |
| Imprint: | Smashwords Edition |
| Language: | English |
What if an act of terrorism destroys most of the population of the world, leaving behind just a few people living in isolated pockets amongst the ruins of a vast and visible civilization? What sort of lives would these people create for themselves? What would they make of the things that are left behind – things they have no idea how to use or make? What stories would they tell to make sense of what happened to the people who died in such huge numbers?
Tez, his girl friend, Mig, and her brother, Jaf, live in a settlement of patchwork shacks at Currimundi Lake in what used to be SE Queensland. Each of the three has a good reason to escape the settlement and venture south, first to the City of Light and then to the territory of the Horse people whose exploits are known only by the stories brought by the Traveller on his annual trading visit to the Lake. Tez is fascinated by the Traveller’s stories of the power that makes the City light up at night. Jaf wants to see the legendary Horse people for himself. Mig just wants to be with Tez and away from her grandfather, the Old Man of the Lake settlement.
The three learn quickly that the world outside the settlement is a dangerous place and that a young girl without protection is vulnerable to attack. They lose all their possessions when they are chased from a derelict shopping centre by vicious store vermin. Chel, son of Caradoc One-Leg, the leader of the Horse tribe, discovers them in the forest and takes Mig captive. Left to die, Tez and Jaf are found by Jay and Mel of the Hill folk. Mel tells Tez that the Horse people use young Hill children as slaves in the camp. He makes a bargain with Tez: his help to rescue Mig in exchange for Tez’s skill with a sling shot. An ex-slave himself, he hates the Horse people and wants to destroy their camp.
The Horse camp seems impregnable but their wise man, Nestor, has foretold its downfall at the hands of a black haired stranger with a magic rock. Tez is the black haired stranger but what is the magic rock that will destroy the Horse? Is it the sling shot pebble he teaches the Hill tribes to use in their attack against the camp? Or is it the magic rock of legend which Tez believes is the source of the City’s power and which he uses to kill his enemy, Chel?
With Mig rescued from the Horse camp and the City of Light city burned to the ground it is time for Tez, Mig and Jaf to create their own settlement and for their adventures to become new stories for the Traveller to tell. What if the stories of Tez, Mig and Jaf are passed from mouth to mouth down the ages until they are finally written down at some time far into the future? What will these new people make of them? Within the legends of Tez, Mig and Jaf remain the remnants of the older stories of our own civilization and how it was destroyed. Old bones, old buildings, old stories. Is this our destiny?
What if an act of terrorism destroys most of the population of the world, leaving behind just a few people living in isolated pockets amongst the ruins of a vast and visible civilization? What sort of lives would these people create for themselves? What would they make of the things that are left behind – things they have no idea how to use or make? What stories would they tell to make sense of what happened to the people who died in such huge numbers?
Tez, his girl friend, Mig, and her brother, Jaf, live in a settlement of patchwork shacks at Currimundi Lake in what used to be SE Queensland. Each of the three has a good reason to escape the settlement and venture south, first to the City of Light and then to the territory of the Horse people whose exploits are known only by the stories brought by the Traveller on his annual trading visit to the Lake. Tez is fascinated by the Traveller’s stories of the power that makes the City light up at night. Jaf wants to see the legendary Horse people for himself. Mig just wants to be with Tez and away from her grandfather, the Old Man of the Lake settlement.
The three learn quickly that the world outside the settlement is a dangerous place and that a young girl without protection is vulnerable to attack. They lose all their possessions when they are chased from a derelict shopping centre by vicious store vermin. Chel, son of Caradoc One-Leg, the leader of the Horse tribe, discovers them in the forest and takes Mig captive. Left to die, Tez and Jaf are found by Jay and Mel of the Hill folk. Mel tells Tez that the Horse people use young Hill children as slaves in the camp. He makes a bargain with Tez: his help to rescue Mig in exchange for Tez’s skill with a sling shot. An ex-slave himself, he hates the Horse people and wants to destroy their camp.
The Horse camp seems impregnable but their wise man, Nestor, has foretold its downfall at the hands of a black haired stranger with a magic rock. Tez is the black haired stranger but what is the magic rock that will destroy the Horse? Is it the sling shot pebble he teaches the Hill tribes to use in their attack against the camp? Or is it the magic rock of legend which Tez believes is the source of the City’s power and which he uses to kill his enemy, Chel?
With Mig rescued from the Horse camp and the City of Light city burned to the ground it is time for Tez, Mig and Jaf to create their own settlement and for their adventures to become new stories for the Traveller to tell. What if the stories of Tez, Mig and Jaf are passed from mouth to mouth down the ages until they are finally written down at some time far into the future? What will these new people make of them? Within the legends of Tez, Mig and Jaf remain the remnants of the older stories of our own civilization and how it was destroyed. Old bones, old buildings, old stories. Is this our destiny?
