Free The Storyteller Trilogy by Sue Harrison Page B

living in other lodges, Ghaden was also his favorite, but that did not bother Yaa. She was her mother’s favorite. Ghaden’s mother, Daes, though she fed Ghaden and sewed his clothing, did not want to hold him or spend time singing to him or telling stories. It was good their father loved him best.
    Yaa knelt beside the old man. He raised himself up on one elbow and looked toward the door. “What has happened?” he asked again. “Where is everyone?”
    “They are outside,” Yaa said, “but I am here with you. I will not leave you. Do not worry.”
    Summer Face squinted and peered around the lodge. The bedding where Happy Mouth and Brown Water had slept was crumpled, but Daes’s sleeping furs had not been unrolled. “Daes, my wife,” the old man whispered, and he raised his voice to ask, “Where is Daes, daughter?”
    “Outside with my mother,” Yaa answered and held her breath. Her heart pounded in her chest as loud as a drum. “Would you like water or food?” she asked, speaking over its loudness. “I can get you something.”
    “Yes,” her father said, and relaxed back into his sleeping furs. “Water. Daes will bring me food later.”
    Yaa left her father and stood on her toes to reach for one of the caribou bladder water bags hanging from the lodge poles. She hoped her father’s eyes were dim enough that he could not see her hands shake. She carried the water to him and waited as he raised himself to drink from the carved wooden mouthpiece. When he had finished, he lay back and closed his eyes.
    Yaa wondered what she should do next. It was strange, she thought, how in some ways her father reminded her of Ghaden—not so much Ghaden now, but Ghaden as a baby, the care he required and how often he slept. Thoughts of Ghaden brought a sting to her eyes, and she turned away. Her father did not need to see her cry, but how could she hold in her tears? Her brother was hurt, and Daes was dead.
    There had been blood, so much blood … and Ghaden had looked so little and white. The Cousin River man had him. Some of the other children said the Cousin River man was cursed. Perhaps he had killed Daes and hurt Ghaden. But no, probably not. Why would he call for help if he had been the one to hurt them?
    She pressed her eyes with her fingertips and tried to push the tears back under her lids. How would Ghaden feel when he found out his mother was dead? He might decide to die himself.
    Yaa remembered the times she had taken the best pieces of meat before Ghaden, with his slower baby hands, could reach them. She remembered yelling at him when she was playing with her cousins. She had not always been the best sister, but she would be. From now on, she would be….
    Brown Water tried to take the boy away from Chakliux, but he tightened his arms and turned his upper body. “I will carry him to the shaman,” he said.
    Brown Water bumped against Chakliux’s weak leg, using the bulk of her body to threaten his balance.
    “If you make me fall, the boy’s wound may start to bleed again,” he said in a quiet voice, though he wanted to yell at the woman for her stupidity.
    “Take out the knife,” she hissed at him. “Take out the knife.”
    “The knife may be holding in the blood. I will take him to the shaman. Is he a healer? Or is there someone else?”
    The question seemed to calm Brown Water, and she backed away, considering. “Wolf-and-Raven knows prayers,” she said. “Yes, take the boy to his lodge, but I will get old Ligige’. She is a healer with plant medicines. She might know something Wolf-and-Raven does not.”
    “Good,” Chakliux said, and turned toward the shaman’s lodge, taking slow steps on the icy path. He saw Brown Water kneel again beside Daes and then with harsh gestures say something to her sister-wife. Happy Mouth went into the lodge. Chakliux supposed she had been given the task of telling the old man about the death.
    Daes had been killed. The thought brought fear. During the short time