Read Online The Shadow and Night by Chris Walley - Free Book Online Page A

strangely familiar pace.
    â€œIngrida Hallet!” Merral called out.
    The woman spun round smoothly and gave a little cry of recognition. “Why! Merral D’Avanos!”
    They hugged each other affectionately. Ingrida had been a year above Merral at college, but they had been close friends. Separating himself from her embrace, Merral stepped back and they looked at each other.
    â€œI heard you were here,” she said. “I gather you’ve been riding around up north. Going all right?”
    â€œFine, but no room to relax. The winters could be warmer, the summers cooler. But what brings you here?”
    â€œAh.” She smiled brightly. “You don’t know? Of course, you’ve been out of touch and it’s not been posted yet. I’ve been asked to work here. Forestry Assistant and so on. So I decided to come and look round on my Nativity break.”
    â€œOh, but I thought I’d heard that you were going south. That you’d got the rainforest assignment they have been wanting to fill. I was wrong?”
    She shook her head in an amused way and grinned at him mischievously. “Oh, we talked it through. The board thinks this is more suitable. I’m inclined to agree, although this—”she gestured to the farm complex—“will be a bit of a backwater when the enlarged Herrandown village is up and running and the new Northern Forest extension is the front line. No, I think the tropics job requires more than I have got. There’s a better candidate.”
    â€œI’d be surprised; tropical systems are tough. But I’m sure you’ll get on fine here. I like it up north myself.”
    She gave him the grin again, only this time he felt laughter was just below the surface. “Not too much, I hope.”
    â€œSorry, I don’t understand.”
    â€œOh, Merral, you haven’t changed. Not a bit! You are the last person to recognize your gifting. You are the one they want for the tropical assignment.”
    In his astonishment, Merral struggled for words, aware that a man in rust-red overalls was waving at him from the side of the freighter.
    â€œMe? This is all news to me. I’ve always seen it as your job.”
    â€œNo. You are outgrowing here. Ask anybody.” She patted him on the shoulder. “Anyway, take it with my blessing, Merral. Do a really great job. Look, that’s your driver, you’d better go. Swing by sometime. Love. . . .”
    Then Ingrida was gone and the hatch door on the freighter was opening.

    The six-wheeler took four hours to cover the one hundred and eighty kilometers to Ynysmant, slowed down by patches of ice on some of the ridges, a track washout, and a herd of golden deer that refused to move. Merral spent most of the time in conversation with the driver, Arent, who was an enthusiast for this particular Mark Nine Groundfreighter, which he’d driven for thirty years. Merral liked enthusiasts of any sort, even if wheeled, winged, or finned engines of transport were not a personal interest.
    Yet, in a strange way, Merral was glad of being forced to concentrate on Arent’s lengthy discourse on the advantages of the Mark Nine over the old Mark Eight. There was too much crowding into his tired brain now and he was glad of a relatively simple distraction. The prospect of the tropical forestry posting was staggering. When, a few months ago, he had originally heard about it, he had expressed regret that it hadn’t come up two years later when he felt he might have been ready for it. Tropical forestry was held up as the great challenge in his profession, and only those who had proved themselves in temperate or cold realms were asked to serve in it. The saying was that cold or temperate forest work was like juggling with three balls; but with tropical, it was eight. The many more species gave a multitude of interactions, and everything happened so fast. He wondered whether Ingrida had made