The Wind Singer

By WILLIAM NICHOLSON, Illustrator MARK EDWARDS

At the time the strangers came, the Manth people were still living in the low walled shelters that they had carried with them in their hunting days. The huts were clustered around the salt mine that was to become the source of their wealth. This was long before they had built the great city that stands above the salt caverns today.

One high summer afternoon, a band of travellers came striding out of the desert plains and made camp nearby. They wore their hair long and loose, men and women alike, and moved slowly and spoke quietly, when they spoke at all.

They traded a little with the Manth, buying bread and meat and salt, paying with small silver ornaments they themselves had made. They caused no trouble, but their near presence was somehow uncomfortable. Who were they? Where had they come from? Where were they going? Direct questions produced no answers: only a smile, a shrug, a shake of the head.

Publisher: Mammoth, $14.95
Age group: 12-14 years