Read Along: The Trackway

‘I ain’t afeared of nuthin. I ain’t afeared of nobody.’

Saba and Emmi have set out to follow after Lugh, who has been taken away from their home, Silverlake, by four mysterious black-robed men. However, Saba is set on going alone, and leaving Emmi with a family friend called Mercy in Crosscreek. Emmi is not happy with this decision.

‘I promised him I’d find him an that’s what I’m gonna do’

The relationship between the sisters is choppy in The Trackway. Saba’s temper flares constantly as she has to deal with her younger sister, who isn’t used to such long walks, and Saba herself isn’t used to spending so much time with her; that’s Lugh’s job, ‘It’s all her fault’, ‘I wanna leave her an ferget she ever got born’, ‘I wish she’d disappear’. It seems that Emmi isn’t particularly happy about the arrangement either, ‘I wish they’d killed you instead of Pa!’ Whilst it would then be obvious to believe that Saba is only taking Emmi with her because of her promise to Lugh, ‘I try to think what Lugh would do’, her reasoning probably runs a lot deeper than that. Saba does care for her sister, and through the little details we see this, ‘I hesitate. I stick out my hand. She puts hers in it’, ‘Her heels...they must hurt like nobody’s business but she ain’t made a peep’, ‘I pick her up and carry her’. Emmi appears to be wary of her sister, even when Saba is kind to her, ‘almost like she’s shy of me’, ‘I didn’t want you to yell at me!’. And yet, begrudgingly, but acceptingly nonetheless, Saba realises that Emmi will always be there, ‘Me and Lugh...an you’. There is definitely a development of their relationship in this section of BRR.

‘This place ain’t fit to live in’

Furthermore, Saba shows herself to be very adapted to her world. Her father’s stories explain that the ‘Wreckers’ were buried under the ‘wanderin dunes’ of Sandsea, possibly an effect of climate change in previous eras, and all that’s left of their civilisation now are ‘ruins’. She knows how to track and look after herself and Emmi in the rough landscape, ‘I pile up some rocks. A cairn to mark the spot so’s I can find it agin’, ‘wrap it in a clean bandage first’. As she herself proclaims, Saba is fearless. She ‘ain’t afeared’.

‘A hard land. A land of secrets’

Nero appears again. He is seen ‘flying ahead’; perhaps metaphorical for his intelligence. Is he aware of what is coming for Saba? Does his flight allow him to see into the future? Saba questions the same thing of her father’s star-reading. She begins to harbour doubts, put into her head by Lugh previously, ‘Pa couldn’t read the stars because there ain’t nuthin there to be read’. But she still maintains a little hope and curiosity – how did he know what was coming? How did he know he was to die?

‘Lights in the sky. To show you the way in the dark’

In the end, The Trackway allows for Emmi and Saba’s relationship to be delved into more and for us to observe Saba’s determination and skill.

~Ella