Free Edgewise by Graham Masterton Page A

was burning and her hair was frizzing. And she didn’t want to imagine what harm could be done to lost and defenseless children—especially children who had been snatched out of their beds in the middle of the night, and didn’t know how to get home.
    â€œYou okay?” asked Shooks.
    At last they came to the top of a rise, and saw below them a low single-story house with a verandah running all the way around it. It had a single brick chimney, which was sullenly smoking into the falling snow. To one side of the house stood a rust-colored stable, with three pickup trucks parked around it, as well as a newish blue Subaru Forester.
    Shooks circled the car around in front of the house and blew a loud, dirge-like blast on his horn. Almost at once the front door opened and a tall man in a red checkered shirt and jeans appeared. He came bounding down the steps and opened Lily’s door for her.
    â€œWelcome to Black Crow Valley,” he said, holding out his hand. “My name’s George.”
    â€œGlad to know you, George,” said Lily, looking up at him and blinking against the snow. “I’m Lily.”
    As she climbed out of the car, she realized how tall George actually was—at least six feet four. He was also strikingly handsome, with short-cropped hair, a broad forehead, and a firmly defined jaw. His eyes had that knowing, confident twinkle that she had always liked in good-looking men, even though she would never have admitted it.
    Around his tree trunk of a neck he wore several tight silver necklaces and a dangling arrangement of feathers and bones and beads that looked like a dreamcatcher.
    â€œCome inside,” he said. He took hold of her elbow so that she wouldn’t slip on the steps. “You couldn’t have picked a worse day to visit me, weatherwise. Forecast says it’s going to snow all night, and most of tomorrow, too.”
    â€œThose Canucks have a lot to answer for,” said John Shooks.
    â€œDon’t be too hard on them.” George Iron Walker smiled at him. “They don’t only give us their crappy weather. They come down here to gamble in their thousands, and they give us all of their crappy money, too.”
    He led Lily into his living room. It was wide and low and very warm, with a huge log fire blazing. The walls were hung with multicolored Native blankets, and with old framed photographs of notable Mdewakanton chiefs, and famous Sioux encampments. The furniture was antique, in the overweight Sears Roebuck style of the early 1900s, and every armchair and couch was heaped up with huge tapestry cushions.
    Next to the fire a girl was kneeling. She had high cheekbones and glossy black hair, which was beaded and braided all the way down her back. She was wearing a dark-red polo-neck sweater and tight jeans, and even though she was kneeling, Lily could see that she was very tall and long-legged.
    â€œHazawin,” said George, and the girl turned toward them. She was almost beautiful, although Lily thought that her features were a little too asymmetric and a little too sharp. What was most striking about her, though, was her eyes, which were misty purple, and completely blind.
    â€œHazawin, this is Lily. John Shooks you’ve met before.”
    The girl smiled sympathetically in Lily’s direction. “Glad to meet you, Lily. Sorry about the circumstances.”
    â€œI told her why you were coming,” George explained. “Hazawin can help us. She has a very close affinity to the spirit world.”
    â€œThe
spirit
world?” asked Lily.
    Shooks said, hurriedly, “I haven’t really filled her in yet, George—not on the spirit stuff. I was hoping that you could do that.” He turned to Lily and said, “I’m not too good at this one-with-nature malarkey. Like I said, I’m only one-eighth Mdewakanton. Voices, yes. Weather forecasts, yes. Spirits, only so-so.”
    â€œPlease,” said