Free The Last Sin Eater by Francine Rivers

knew. I didn’t want Fagan Kai to think the worst of me. Better he come to his own conclusions. Wrong as they might be, they would be a whole sight better than the whole truth.
    Besides, Fagan was adding to my burdens in other ways. His father had knocked him off his porch on my account, and that smote my conscience something fierce. I wondered what trouble I had brought on Glynnis and Cullen.
    Then I decided it didn’t do any good wondering and worrying. If I was going to change anything, I had to climb Dead Man’s Mountain and find the sin eater. I didn’t have time to sit around thinking on it. Sitting and thinking too long might eat away my nerve. I had to do it while my courage was still with me. I stood up and brushed myself off. “I’m sorry your pa hit ye on my account.”
    “You’re still goin’, ain’t ye? Ye won’t listen to reason.”
    Ignoring him, I kept walking. Jumping up, he caught up. “I’m going with ye.”
    “I dinna ask ye to.”
    “Where’d Miz Elda say he was?”
    “Dead Man’s Mountain,” I said. He turned pale but kept on. Grabbing his shirtsleeve, I pulled him to a stop. “Your pa knocked ye off the porch just for asking about the sin eater. What do ye think he’ll do if he finds out you’re helping me look for him?”
    “He won’t find out.”
    “Your pa knows everything that goes on, Fagan.”
    He knew that was true enough and thought heavy on it as we walked together. “He wouldn’t do nothing to you, Cadi. I’d make sure of that.”
    What could he, a boy of fourteen do? But that wasn’t the worst of it. “He’d do summat to you.”
    Fagan stopped and looked at me. “I’ve got my own reasons for wanting to find the sin eater, Cadi. It’s got nothing to do with you anymore.”
    He set off again in the direction of Dead Man’s Mountain.

F I V E

    For the next week, Fagan and I spent our after-noons on Dead Man’s Mountain. We found no signs of the sin eater. Worse than that, we had barely covered any territory by the time the sun was sinking toward the ridge of the western mountains and we had to come back down again. It would take a lifetime to explore the meadows, forest, thickets, and rocky crags, and we still might never find him.
    “We won’t give up,” Fagan said at my despairing countenance. “We’ll keep on.”
    “What good’s it gonna do? He doesna want to be found.” I sat down and fought back the tears as I stared up at the great mist-shrouded peak. “There must be a thousand places for him to hide up there.”
    “I guess we’ll have to figure out a way to flush him out.”
    “Using your old hound?” I looked doubtfully at the rangy beast with his muzzle fur gone white. He flopped down, lay back, and went to sleep in the grass.
    “No,” Fagan said flatly. “He’s too old.” He sat down and rested his forearms on his raised knees. His face was set in concentration. “A snare, maybe.”
    “The sin eater ain’t as dumb as a rabbit.”
    “Do tell,” he said, in no better humor than I after all our hunting and nothing to show for it. “He’s probably watching us from somewhere up there and keeping a distance between us. Only time he comes down off his mountain is to eat sin.”
    “What about the vittles in the graveyard?” Lilybet said from where she sat in the midst of some ferns a few feet away.
    My head came up. “What’d ye say about vittles?”
    Fagan glanced at me. “I dinna say nothing.”
    “Not you.”
    Lilybet got up and walked over to me. “The sin eater came down off his mountain for the food Granny left for him.”
    “He did, didn’t he?”
    Face pale, Fagan was looking at me funny.
    Jumping up, I laughed. “Remember what Miz Elda said about Granny leaving gifts for the sin eater?We can do that. We can put gifts on Granny’s grave, and he’ll come.”
    Looking around, Fagan gave me a curious stare. “Put out bait, you mean.”
    “Like the rabbit you trapped for Miz Elda.”
    His eyes flickered as he