Gunshot maddened the dogs. They barked and strained at their tethers as Daniel ran through the quarters. Most of the crudely built shacks were already deserted, their plank doors swinging wide to reveal tiny cramped spaces. Some stragglers remained—mainly the old, the lame and the sick. A woman limped past carrying a crying baby in her arms, and a young man, his body twisted beyond use by Kemp's punishment, was slumped in a doorway.
Daniel ran on, hardening his eyes and his heart to the tragedies unfurling around him.
Think of the future, not the past.
Jon was right. He had to make sure that Pearl and his mother were safe. Moonlight cast a sickly glow over the dusty path and the shabby abandoned cabins. The crack of gunshot was nearer now and lights bloomed overhead, blanching everything to bone. In one of the sudden flashes, Daniel saw a brother and sister just a little older than Pearl outlined at a doorway. They didn't know what to do or where to go. When another flare went off, they cowered into the shadow.
He paused. 'Do you know the way to the bay through the fields?' The boy nodded, his eyes huge with fear. Daniel knelt, awakening new pain from the deep gash in his knee. He tried to smile.
'Clever lad. Now, take your sister's hand and run. When you get to the bay there will be people ready to help you. Give the boatmen this.' He pressed one of the earrings into the boy's palm and folded his little fingers tight about it.
'Will Father be there?' The girl stared at him.
'Yes.' Daniel hoped that the doubt didn't show on his face. 'He's waiting for you. Go!'
Gripping his sister's hand, the boy began to walk. After a few faltering steps, the pair broke into a run. Neither looked back. Daniel loped on until he reached a shack at the furthest end of the row. Relieved to find it deserted, he wheeled about determined to go straight to the bay. Surely his mother and Pearl were there already? The workers of the Garnett Plantation knew exactly what to do and where to go if the rising came.
It wasn't you I didn't trust.
What did Jon mean by that? As Daniel ran, he realised with a furious conviction that his brother must have been talking of Adanna. But she would never betray them. The only person who had committed an act of betrayal was him. Finally, the grief he had stoppered inside since parting with Jon burst through. He halted on the track leading to the cane fields as a choking sob wracked his body.
A small hand crept into his. The tiny girl looked up and the light of another flare revealed her face. He was torn between relief and anxiety. Why was Pearl here and not at the bay?
Tugging hard, she led him into the overgrown thicket beside the path. In the milky light Daniel made out a shape huddled at the foot of a dogwood tree.
'Ah! You found him. Good girl.' It was his mother's voice. She looked up and he saw that her lean face was tight with pain.
Immediately he felt a pang of guilt. At thirty-seven, Sarah was old for a field labourer and a wound on her leg, caused by Riley's baton, had made her lame. His brother was right. They needed him.
'Where's Jon?' It was as if she heard his thoughts. Her eyes strayed past him into the gloom.
'He's gone to the house. He said he'd meet us at the bay,' Daniel replied, with a certainty he did not feel.
'And Adanna? Did you—' His mother's question was cut short by a new volley of shot.
'There's no time.' He held out a hand. 'The Maroons won't wait. We have to go.'
Sarah struggled to rise, gasping with pain at the effort. It was over a mile through the cane fields to the bay and then a scramble down the cliff to the sands. Daniel swallowed and turned to Pearl. 'Can you walk very fast?'
When she nodded, he forced a smile. 'That's good. I want you to follow me and stay close. Don't let me out of your sight, do you understand?'
Pearl nodded again. Daniel looked anxiously at his mother, who was supporting herself against the tree.
'I'll carry you on my back.'
Sarah snorted. 'You will not. I'll shift for myself, child. You'll take Pearl, not me.'
He knew her too well to argue. Instead, he took her hand and drew her from the tree.
'Can you do this?'
'Until I have a choice.' Sarah winced as she took a hesitant step. She met his eyes and he saw the truth.
Green-tinged flames flickered at the edge of the field ahead. The escaped workers had set light to the cane to destroy the crop and to block the way of the militia. Daniel looked back. Lanterns bobbed like fireflies through the rows.
