He turned and left the tent and minutes later she heard the motor of the truck, as it started and then dwindled away a cross the plain.
She lay in the quiet tent watching the sunrise through the green canvas of the wall. She breathed the flinty desert air that she loved, but it was tainted by the sweet odour of blood, the birth blood of her son, or was it the blood of a little old San woman clotting and congealing in the hot Kalahari sun? The image of H'ani's blood on the rocks changed in her mind's eye, and became dark seething puddles of boiling honey running like water from the sacred places of the San, and the choking sugary smoke blotted out the smell of blood.
Through the smoke she thought she saw H'ani's little heart-shaped face peering sadly out at her.
Shasa, my baby, may you always find good water. But his image smudged also and his dark hair turned to gold. You, too, my little one, I wish you good water also. But it was Lothar's face now, or was it Michael's face - she was no longer certain. f her I'm so alone! she cried into the silent spaces o soul. And I don't want to be alone Then she remembered the words: At this moment, Mrs Courtney, you are probably one of the wealthiest women in the world. She thought, I would give it all, every single diamond in the H'ani Mine, for the right to love a man, and have him love me, for the chance to have both my babies, both my sons, for ever at my side.
She crushed down the thought angrily. Those are the woolly sentimental notions of a weak and cowardly woman. You are sick and weary. You will sleep now, she told herself harshly. And tomorrow- she closed her eyes -you will be brave again, tomorrow.
The End
Wilbur Smith was born in Central Africa in 1933. He was educated at Michaelhouse and Rhodes University. He became a full-time writer in 1964 after the successful publication of When the Lion Feeds, and has since written twenty-four novels, meticulously researched on his numerous expeditions worldwide. His work is now translated into twenty-five languages. He normally travels from November to February, often spending a month skiing in Switzerland, and visiting Australia and New Zealand for sea fishing. During his summer break he visits environments as diverse as Alaska and the dwindling wilderness of the African interior. He has an abiding concern for the peoples and wildlife of his native continent, an interest strongly reflected in his novels.
He is married to Danielle, to whom his last twenty books have been dedicated.
The novels of Wilbur Smith
The Courtney Novels:
When the Lion Feeds
The Sound of Thunder
A Sparrow Falls
The Burning Shore
Power of the Sword
Rage
A Time to Die
The Ballantyne Novels:
A Falcon Flies
Men of Men
The Angels Weep
The Leopard Hunts in Darkness
Also:
The Dark of the Sun
Shout at the Devil
Gold Mine
The Diamond Hunters
The Sunbird
Eagle in the Sky
The Eye of the Tiger
Cry Wolf
Hungry as the Sea
Wild justice
Golden Fox
Elephant Song
River God
Power of the Sword