‘I would much rather it had been you who stuck it in,’ she said. ‘Even if it turned out to be a grey baby.’
‘I can’t have babies,’ Daniel said. ‘I’m too little.’
‘Me too!’ Sanna yelled. ‘If I walk as fast as I can, maybe I can shake it loose.’
That afternoon they reached a small town. While Daniel waited behind a barn outside the town, Sanna went in to find them some food. She came back with milk, bread and a fistful of dried fish. When they had eaten, they took a detour around the town. Daniel could feel his fever had come back. He didn’t say anything to Sanna, and tried to keep up with her even though she was almost trotting. When evening fell Sanna still didn’t want to stop. Daniel saw her turn round often and then walk even faster. He could tell that she was very frightened.
That night they crept in under a bridge. Sanna felt that Daniel was feverish.
‘Crawl in here,’ she said, wrapping her shawl around his shoulders. Then she drew him close to her.
‘Can you hear it?’ she asked.
‘What?’
‘The sea.’
Daniel could hear only the fever pounding between his temples.
‘Tomorrow,’ he replied. ‘Tomorrow.’
No woman had held Daniel so tightly since he was with Be.
‘You’ve got a fever,’ she said. ‘But you mustn’t die.’
‘I won’t die. I’m just tired.’
She began to rock him as if he were a little baby.
‘They won’t find us,’ she said. ‘Are there apples in the country you come from?’
Daniel didn’t dare tell her the truth.
‘Yes, there are apples,’ he said. ‘And they’re just as green as the apples you have here.’
‘Then it doesn’t matter if there’s a lot of sand. As long as there are apples.’
Daniel thought that Sanna probably didn’t understand what a long journey they had before them, and how different everything would be. But he also knew that she couldn’t go back. The man who had dragged her by the hair had hurt her and Sanna had stolen his money. There was no going back now. Hallén would nail both of them up on boards.
‘I’m scared,’ Sanna said suddenly, when Daniel was almost asleep. ‘But at the same time I feel happy. For the first time I’m doing something that nobody told me to do.’
She burst out laughing. Daniel woke up. Her happiness made his fever feel lighter to bear for a moment. We’re going to make it, he thought. Tomorrow we’ll find the boat. Then everything that has happened will become a dream, and soon I won’t remember any of it.
‘Tomorrow we’ll reach the sea,’ he said. ‘But there’s still a long way to go. So we have to get some sleep.’
Several times during the night Daniel awoke because Sanna got up and went onto the bridge to look back the way they had come. He understood her fear, but he knew that nobody was there. The people following them would go in the same direction the birds had flown.
They set off at daybreak. They drank their fill from the stream that ran under the bridge and then shared what was left of the bread. The road was narrow and wound through groves of trees and across open fields. Late in the afternoon they reached a hill. On the way up Daniel had to stop and catch his breath. Sanna ran ahead, racing the last bit to the top. Then he heard her shriek and saw her jump up and down as if she had an invisible skipping rope in her hands.
When he rubbed his hand across his mouth he saw that there was blood again. He wiped it on the inside of his coat sleeve before he went up to the hilltop where Sanna was waiting impatiently.
The sea lay at their feet.
‘Is that where we’re going?’ Sanna asked, pointing.
Daniel was worried that it wasn’t the sea but one of the lakes he had seen so many times on his travels with Father. On the other side of the water was a strip of land. But when he followed the line of the land with his eyes he could see that it disappeared in a haze. There the sea continued. Then he knew that they had come the right way.
‘Where’s the boat?’ asked Sanna. She kept looking back over her shoulder.
‘I don’t know,’ Daniel said. ‘We have to find it.’
Sanna looked at him and flew into a rage.
‘If only you weren’t so damn black!’ she shrieked. ‘They’re going to find us.’
‘Not when it’s dark. Then they’ll see me less than they will you.’
Sanna started walking down the slope. Daniel followed her.
Sanna did the same thing she had done the day before: left Daniel and came back later with some food. They hid in a grove of trees and waited for the sun to set. Daniel slept. When he woke up it was already almost dark. Sanna was sleeping by his side. She had stuck her thumb in her mouth like a little baby. Daniel tried to remember what he had dreamed, whether there was any message for him, but his head was silent. He touched the sliver of wood in his pocket.
He woke Sanna cautiously. She gave a start and held her hands in front of her face as if he might hit her.
‘We have to get moving,’ he said.
Sanna shivered. ‘How are we going to find a boat when it’s nearly dark?’
Daniel didn’t know. But somewhere there had to be a boat. If they had reached the sea, they had also reached the boats. The wind had already begun to flutter in the masts that Daniel bore inside him.
They passed through a village that lay silent. A dog barked. Then everything was quiet again. All Daniel knew was that they had to walk straight towards the water. Now he was the one leading the way. Sanna followed close behind, holding onto his coat.
They followed a ridge along the water, which roared in the dark. The wind felt colder now that they were so close to the sea.
‘Where’s the boat?’ Sanna nagged. ‘Where’s the boat?’
Daniel didn’t reply.
They reached some wooden steps that led down to the water. Daniel smelled tar, so there had to be boats nearby. When they got down to the beach they found themselves standing in the midst of some overturned rowing boats. By a little stone wharf lay some bigger boats with sails wrapped around their masts. Daniel was disappointed. The boats were small.
Sanna pinched him anxiously on the arm.
‘What are we going to do now?’
Daniel looked around. He was like Kiko now, on the hunt for prey; not an animal, but a ship.
‘Wait here,’ he said. ‘I have to search.’
‘No,’ she replied, pinching his arm hard. ‘You’re not leaving me.’
She kept holding onto his coat as if she were blind. She stumbled often, and Daniel realised she was really quite clumsy.
Suddenly he noticed the glow from a fire far out on the little wharf. A man was sitting by the fire with a mug in his hands which he lifted to his lips now and then.
He’s waiting for us, Daniel thought. That’s the only reason he would be sitting there.
They walked out onto the stone wharf. Daniel stamped hard with his clogs so that the man wouldn’t be afraid. He looked in their direction with his mug in his hand. They went up to the fire. The man was old. He had a long beard and a worn-out cap on his head.
‘Do I have trolls paying me a visit?’ he said.
‘We need a boat,’ said Sanna, ‘that can take us away from here.’
The man looked them up and down. He wasn’t in the least afraid, Daniel thought. That was the most important thing. Sanna held out the money they had left. The man leaned forward and looked at it. Then he squinted at Daniel’s face.
‘Come closer,’ he said. ‘So I can see you.’
Daniel squatted down by the fire. The man threw a few twigs onto it so that the flames flared up.