The Map

The visit by the horsemen left Benjamin in a bind. If he had presented Jeremiah with a docile Checkers, they may have had time to get to the bottom of the mystery of who she really was and what her motives were. She did not react the way that captured harpies were said to act. She did not fight, or insult the dignity of mankind. She appeared to be a naive young girl, but also one who would pitch in and work (as Mary informed him) and who had to be tougher than she looked to make her way across the endless grasslands.

Ian, who had been harassing him since he had finally caught him stealing livestock, had fouled that up, however. He could not easily explain the presence of Checkers, who by all rights should have been killed. "It might be more of a mercy to kill her peacefully, even if her story is true. She is in for a world of pain if she has to continue west." West of the boroughs, as everyone knew, was the great lake. Beyond that no man had any business going -- there were gullies and a savannah, and less rainfall than the boroughs received, until one reached some low but craggy mountains with few good passes. It was a wild land, full of bandits and sorcery, although it was said that there were some fabulously rich caravans that traversed these mountains at some point. The Four Boroughs had been cut off from the outside world for a long time, hemmed in by the harpies to the east and the badlands and bandits to the west.

Benjamin would have to make a decision. Either kill her, or send her west tomorrow. The first choice would break Mary's heart. Checkers looked and acted much like Cecilia, Mary's beloved daughter, who was had died, like so many others in Eastborough, of scarlet fever. Cecilia, out of all their children, was most like Mary, with a sense of adventure and curiosity. Benjamin and the surviving children, he knew, were earthier and matter-of- fact, and though she loved them all, some of the spark went out of her when Cecilia died. With the arrival of this harpy, of all creatures, some of that spark seemed to return.

Benjamin looked through the pouches for clues to find out what Checkers was really about. She could certainly defend herself with the spear and the spare flints. Most of the rest of what she had was simple survival gear, and some silver. "We don't want to get caught with any of it, with the picture of the harpy on the back -- it would raise questions." The green pellets and brown beans were a mystery that Checkers might explain. The two maps, however, were most interesting. He could read them. "Why do the harpies speak our language?" he thought, before dropping the question out of his mind, concentrating on one of the maps. It had a background of all the colours of the rainbow, and he could recognize the geography of the Four Boroughs as Bergerland, and his own town as "Eastburg". This map had to be quite old, then. If this is the best that the harpies had, their information was quite out of date. Perhaps Checkers was a scout, exploring for the harpies or the dragon? The harpy lands to the east were on the map - possibly useful military information for the men of the boroughs, if it were accurate. Benjamin wanted to call in Mary - there were many fantastic lands on this old map.

So far, he could decide nothing conclusively. The idea that she was a spy still made sense, but he had a gut feeling that she was telling the truth. He had to go on more than a gut feeling, however.

1. Benjamin calls in Mary, and they examine the map more closely.
2. Benjamin examines the second map (of the caves).

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