The Track of the Wind. Jamila Gavin

      

      The poem here is by Mir Taqil Mir translated by D. J. Matthews in 1995 in Urdu Literature published by Third World Foundation copyright © 1995 D. J. Matthews Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holder

      First published in Great Britain 1997 by Methuen Children’s Books

       Paperback edition first published 1995 by Egmont UK Limited

       This edition published 2018 by Egmont UK Limited

       The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN

      Text copyright © 1997 Jamila Gavin

      The moral rights of the author have been asserted

      First e-book edition 2018

      ISBN 978 0 749 74742 8

       Ebook ISBN 978 1 4052 9280 1

       www.egmont.co.uk

      A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

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       Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Epigraph

Prologue

1. The letter

2. Secret love

3. The dividing sword

4. The sparrow meets the hawk

5. The whispering stones

       6. The drum beats again

       7. Jungli’s gift

       8. The nihang

       9. Commitments

       10. Last star

       11. Wishes like wild flowers

       12. Knowing your enemies

       13. Knowing your friends

       14. The first circle

       15. The second circle

       16. The third circle

       17. The fourth circle

       18. Truth

       19. Farewells

       20. The track of the wind

       21. The lesson to be learned

       22. The beast lay dying

       23. The second daughter: Beryl’s story

       24. Of flesh and blood

       25. Sisters

       26. On living and dying

       27. Letters from across the ocean

       28. The first principal’s wife

       Epilogue

       About the Author

       By means of waking and sleeping, the Imperishable One brings to life this whole universe, moving and unmoving, and tirelessly destroys it. Manu’s Law

Prologue

      In this age of darkness

      Men have become as dogs. Rag Sarang

      A man came to Deri. The few people who glimpsed him on the way said he was a monster. He had been beaten till his bones were shattered and he had been so badly burned that his face was nothing but a smudge – with eyes that could not close, a nose reduced to two holes and a mouth which was merely a slit. He looked like a badly made rag doll. So he draped himself with a shawl – even when the sun was at its hottest – and wound the loose end of his turban round his face.

      He