Authors: Kathleen O'Neal Gear
It Dreams in Me (23 page)
WINK SAT ON A MAT IN SORA’S BEDCHAMBER AND WATCHED the woman who had been her best friend for more than twenty-five winters. Sora knelt in front of the fire adding branches to the blaze. She had slept, bathed, and pinned her long black hair back with tortoiseshell combs. The style made her pointed nose seem longer, her high cheekbones more severe. Worse, her black eyes looked huge and empty. As though sick to her stomach, she kept wiping her hands on her purple dress and swallowing.
Wink had seen her enraged, in despair, and broken-hearted, but this was something different. Sora was alien in a way Wink couldn’t yet define.
Her gaze scanned the room, moving over the two copper-covered wooden celts, ceremonial clubs, that hung side by side over the hide-covered sleeping bench. They had belonged to Sora’s mother. Beneath the sleeping bench, she saw the corner of the wooden box where Sora kept her ritual jewels, and to
the left of the bench stood Sora’s clothing basket. Everything looked exactly as she remembered.
the left of the bench stood Sora’s clothing basket. Everything looked exactly as she remembered.
But a somber, frightening wrongness lived and breathed in the walls. Wink could feel it lurking there, waiting for something, but she did not know what. No matter how she tried to shake it, that eerie sensation of disaster to come persisted.
Wink tried to shake if off. She said, “I have something for you,” and smiled as she pulled the pendant from around her own throat.
“What is it?”
Wink walked over to where Sora knelt on the mat by the fire and extended the gorget, the necklace. “The little boy, Touches Clouds, asked me to give this to you. He said he was cured, and wanted you to have it back.”
Sora had given it to the sick boy just before Flint had taken her to Eagle Flute Village.
Sora took the large circular rattlesnake pendant and stared down into its one huge eye. Carved from a conch shell, the stylized serpent coiled back and forth, forming spirals around its central eye. “Brilliant lookers,” they were called, because their bright unblinking eyes had the power to kill. Priests coiled enormous spiritual snakes around the houses of sick people to keep away Raven Mockers, the most dangerous witches, leaving only a narrow space between the head and tail for relatives to enter and exit.
Priest Teal had given this Brilliant Looker to Sora three winters ago, right after Flint divorced her. He’d told Sora it would protect her against Flint’s witchcraft.
She should never have taken it off.
“You know, I almost didn’t recognize you when I saw you this morning,” Wink said.
“Lean Elk led me down some tortuous trails to get home.
There were warriors everywhere. We had to run almost straight through.”
There were warriors everywhere. We had to run almost straight through.”
Wink reached out to touch her hand, and softly said, “I missed you very much.”
Sora took her hand and held it tightly. “As I missed you. How is everything in Blackbird Town?”
“Oh, I think that for now, we’re all right. Over the next few days, I’ll explain all of the political details to you.”
“Good. I want to know everything. Especially everything about Tern. I understand she attended her first council meeting as matron of the Water Hickory Clan. How did she do?”
Wink gestured awkwardly. “Better than I’d expected. I think she genuinely understands the errors made by the former clan leaders.”
Sora nodded. “She’d better.”
Her voice had an edge to it that Wink had never heard before.
She changed the subject. “Rockfish was so relieved when he saw you, I thought he might faint.”
Almost no expression crossed Sora’s face. Her eyes tightened the slightest bit.
Wink continued, “I’m glad you’re home. You have saved me from having to make a difficult decision.”
“What decision?”
“I wasn’t sure you were alive. And with the death of—of Long Fin”—she paused to gather her strength—“a gap opened in the government. I’ve been worried about whom to appoint to replace him. Now I don’t have to make that decision.”
Sora said, “This past half moon has been excruciating for everyone, hasn’t it?”
“Especially you.” Wink patted her hand and released it. “You’ve told me almost nothing about what happened in Eagle Flute Village, or afterward in Forbidden Village.”
“I will. I just need more time to—to patch myself back together first. Then I’ll tell you everything.”
“It must have been terrible.”
Sora blinked, and a stony expression came over her face. “Rockfish has informed me that he wishes to go back to his own people.”
Wink’s mouth dropped open. “Why? Did he give you any reason?”
Sora drew a spiral on her purple dress with her fingertip. “Perhaps I gave him one,” she said cryptically. Then she asked,
“How is Feather Dancer?”
“He’s well. Why?”
“Oh, I don’t know what to say to him. I’ll never be able to repay him, Wink. When we were being held captive in Eagle Flute Village, he fought to protect me. He tried to kill Flint. Other than you, he’s the only person in my life who has ever truly believed in me.”
Wink watched the thoughts swimming behind Sora’s eyes as those eyes filled with tears. Was she thinking about the priest? Suddenly, Sora lurched forward, onto her hands and knees, and vomited on the floor.
Wink rose and ran for a bowl. She put it in Sora’s hands and sank down beside her to comfortingly pat her back.
When she’d finished retching, Sora said, “Forgive me, it’s been happening the past two days. Usually in the mornings. I don’t know what’s wrong.”
Wink frowned. A single thought formed behind Sora’s eyes, and Wink read it as though it were written in stone. “Sora … are you pregnant?”
She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and stared at the dancing flames. Finally, she whispered, “I may be.”
“But I didn’t think that was possible. I thought you were—”
“So did I.”
They stared at each other.
Sora had been a captive in an enemy village. She had undoubtedly been raped. Perhaps many times. Had she told Rockfish it wasn’t his child? Was that the reason he wanted to go home to his own people?
Gently, Wink said, “Do you know who the father is?”
Sora exhaled hard and looked away. “Not for certain.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter. You know that. The child will belong to our clan. In fact …”
Blessed gods, this can’t be happening. It’s too good to be true.
“Sora, I—I thought, after the death of Long Fin, that Shadow Rock Clan was doomed to lose the rulership of the Black Falcon Nation. But if you’re carrying a girl—”
Blessed gods, this can’t be happening. It’s too good to be true.
“Sora, I—I thought, after the death of Long Fin, that Shadow Rock Clan was doomed to lose the rulership of the Black Falcon Nation. But if you’re carrying a girl—”
“I’m not.” She tenderly put a hand to her abdomen, and some of the pain in her eyes eased.
“How do you know it’s not a girl?”
“I just know.”
The strange statement left Wink floundering, wondering what had happened that would convince Sora the child was male. “Sora, what happened with Priest Strongheart? Please, tell me. Are you well? Did he cure you?”
Grief tightened her face, and Wink could see in her eyes that she had loved the man. Which meant the child was probably Strongheart’s.
Sora said, “He told me I am cured.”
It started to rain again; soft drops pattered on the roof and glistened as they fell through the smokehole onto the flames.
“Do you feel cured?”
Sora lifted a shoulder, but said, “Yes.”
“What about the Midnight Fox? Is it dead?”
As though Wink wasn’t meant to hear the answer, Sora murmured, “For many winters, the Midnight Fox kept a child alive inside him. It was his sole purpose. Now …”
When her voice trailed away, Wink asked, “What? Now, what?”
Sora took a deep breath. “I don’t think the Midnight Fox is dead. I still feel it there, curled up deep inside me. But it’s Dreaming. I—I catch glimpses. Sometimes.”
“Glimpses?”
Sora tilted her head, as though trying to decide how to describe them. “Splinters of light falling through utter darkness … tears the color of jade … and I hear howls so beautiful they make me weep.” She gazed at Wink with dark quiet eyes. “I think they’re happy dreams.”
Wink didn’t say anything.
“I’m tired, Wink. Very, very tired.”
“I’m sure you are.” Wink got to her feet. “I’ll go and let you sleep.
“But tomorrow, I want to hear more.”
“Of course.”
As Wink walked toward the door curtain, she heard Sora rise and go to her sleeping bench.
Wink walked down the corridor, toward the front entrance where Feather Dancer stood guard.
As she ducked beneath the curtain, he swiftly turned and asked, “Is the chieftess well?”
Their gazes held.
“She told me that she doesn’t know what to say to you, that you are the only person in her life who has ever truly believed in her, and she’ll never be able to repay you for that devotion.”
His jaw clenched with emotion. He bowed his head for a long time. “She has already repaid me, Matron, by coming home. That’s all I require.”
Wink’s lips quirked into a smile. “I suspect, in the end, she will find a way to do more, Feather Dancer.”
He gave her a curious look, but Wink walked away, heading toward the steps cut into the front of the Chieftess’ Mound.
In the distance, gauzy clouds clung to the tops of the trees, and she could see raindrops stippling the surface of Persimmon Lake.
As she walked out into the plaza, streaks of sunlight broke through the storm. They shone down into the plaza like the golden lances of the gods … .
THE BLANKETS WERE SO WARM, THE HOUSE SO QUIET, IT took only heartbeats for Sora’s shadow-soul to drift away from her body and begin the long agonizing walk up the Red Hill … .
I WRAP THE CLEANED BONES OF MY STILLBORN CHILD IN A blanket and carry him up the steep trail to the top of the Red Hill, where a ladder leans against the ramada. It’s awkward, carrying the baby while climbing the ladder to the roof, but I make it, and step out onto the thatch. A scatter of bones already covers the roof.
I hug the bundle and rock back and forth, begging Skyholder to give me the strength to perform my sacred duty.
Bones clack together as I clutch the baby to my breast one last time.
When I start to unfold the blanket, a strange numbing palsy possesses my hands. My fingers won’t grasp the fabric.
“Flint?” I call into the gale. “Flint, where are you?”
Nearby, dry leaves crunch underfoot, and a deep familiar voice soothes, “I’ve been waiting for you. I knew you’d come.”
I turn to look down the trail, and the ache in my chest becomes almost unbearable. The blue light of dawn gleams from Strongheart’s luminous eyes. I can’t stop looking at him. He’s tall and skinny, and whole. The wounds in his chest are gone.
He climbs the ladder to the roof and holds out his hands. “Let me help you.”
I extend the bundle, and he takes it.
“Are you all right?” he asks as he peels back the layers of fabric.
“I miss you.”
He smiles and tenderly touches my cheek. “I’m right here, Sora. I’ll always be here.”
As he opens the bundle, he lifts his voice in the Death Song. He places the first bone on the roof with the others, then holds out the bundle for me to take one. Together we place all the tiny white bones on the roof.
When it is done, we stand up, and Strongheart wraps his arms around me. I am aware of his body against mine, holding me up as my knees shake, of the smoky scent of his shirt. I press my face to his shoulder and weep.
“Don’t cry.” His hand, large but very light of touch, smooths my hair. “Everything is all right. He has a body, Sora. At last, he’s safe.”
I feel him lean down and kiss my hair; then he whispers in my ear … .
“You are both safe now.”
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