by Annie Bellet
With Wolf as my crutch, I stumbled my way out of the cave, blinking in the bright sunlight. One foot in front of another, we made our way across the ravine and back toward camp. Despite Shishishiel closing Wolf’s wound, my guardian was still limping, and I wasn’t sure I had the strength to stay on her back. So we walked. Or shambled. Shuffled. Stumbled. One foot in front of the other. Over and over.
I don’t know how far I got. A mile? Less, probably. There were lots of trees still. And sword ferns which rose up to catch me as I slumped into them.
The next thing I knew, Alek was bending over me.
“Is it over?” he asked. Not, “Are you all right?” or another expression of concern. He didn’t try to touch me, either. That worried me but I shoved it aside.
“Yes,” I croaked. “He’s dead.”
It wasn’t over, however. I had a feeling this was just Samir’s opening salvo. His shot across my bow.
“Good,” Alek said. Then his voice softened, and he added, “Rest, I’ve got you.” He picked me up gently in his warm arms.
“We have to stop meeting like this,” I said. Then red-tinged darkness roared up and pulled me under.
Either I had made it further than I thought or I stayed passed out for a lot longer than it felt like, because it seemed like barely any time had gone by before we emerged from the forest and into the camp.
The People were gathered again, standing in loose rows, filling the open space in front of the big house. Pearl stood over the two bodies. Both had been wrapped now with indigo burial sheets. No one said a word. They watched us pass in eerie silence as Alek carried me toward where his truck was parked. It appeared we were going to get the hell out of Dodge.
“Wait,” I said, my throat still feeling like I’d swallowed gravel and my chest still on fire with every breath. “Put me down.”
“I don’t think that is a good idea,” Alek said.
I started to struggle and he had no choice. I stumbled, grabbing his arm to steady myself. Wolf was nowhere in sight.
“You must go,” Pearl said. She seemed less angry now, but there was a hard finality in her words that allowed no argument.
“What will happen to Em?” I asked, gesturing at the angry girl standing near Pearl. My half sister had shifted, but not into a crow. I wanted to believe that my mother wouldn’t throw her off a cliff at least, but this was the same woman who had sent me away to live with an abusive couple.
I thought about what Sky Heart had said about wanting to kill me young. I thought about the bones beneath the cliff. Perhaps my mother had known, had suspected. She had tried to save me. I pushed that thought aside.
“Em is staying with us,” Pearl said. “We must change to survive. Sky Heart’s ways brought evil to the People. We will not send our children away. Never again.”
“Send them away? He was killing them.” I couldn’t believe she was still talking around his crimes.
“Enough. What is done is done. This is not for you to know, not for you to be a part of anymore. We cannot forgive you, but for your atonement in killing Not Afraid, we will allow you to leave.” As she spoke, the shadow of wings unfurled at the corners of my vision and I knew that Shishishiel was with her. My mother, the new Sky Heart. I hoped she would be a gentler dictator.
“What about my father?” I asked. I didn’t need to clarify I wasn’t talking about Jasper.
“His secrets are not mine to reveal. If he wants you to know him, he will find you.” She came toward me, the mantle of Shishishiel’s power fading back, leaving only my mother’s familiar form behind.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“Go,” she said, but this time the words were a plea more than a command. “We must take care of our own.”
I had no strength left to argue. Emerald would get to stay in her home. That was something at least. I wanted to warn Pearl about Samir, but realized that Shishishiel had likely already done so. There was nothing here for me.
“Goodbye, mother,” I said.
I used Alek’s sink to wipe the worst of the blood off my chest and changed my shirt. The wound was closed already, but I knew I wouldn’t be eating delicious pork products with quite the same gusto for a long while. Black and purple bruising were already spreading over my whole chest, creating a nebulae pattern that would make Hubble fanatics jealous.
Then I climbed into the truck and Alek drove us away from Three Feathers. We were silent until we had made it well out of sight of the camp.
“Where is Carlos?” I asked to break the tension.
“They had hidden his car when he disappeared. He went to retrieve it after Pearl said that Not Afraid was dead. She said you were hurt. That was when I went to find you.”
“Ah,” I said. The long night, the longer day, and sheer exhaustion slammed into me. My father, the man I had thought was my father, was dead. Samir had tried to wipe out my entire bloodline.
I had almost played right into his hands. I had maybe almost died.
I had let a man be murdered. A terrible man, true, but his blood was as much on my hands as on Not Afraid’s.
I started shaking and curled up in the seat, wrapping my arms around myself and taking quick, shallow breaths. Deep ones still hurt too much to manage. Fat tears leaked down my cheeks.
Alek looked over at me but said nothing.
“Aren’t you going to ask if I’m okay,” I stuttered through my tears, trying to crack a smile. I feared it looked more like a grimace.
“No,” he said with a look that made it clear he knew I wasn’t okay. A look that said we weren’t okay.
We left it at that. I turned my head and stared out the window, watching the land go by in a green blur through my tears.
I had stopped Not Afraid and Blood Mother. I had even mostly thwarted Samir’s plan to wipe out the People.
I didn’t know the cost yet, not fully. I had only learned how little I really knew about my past and my heritage, about how the world really worked. This was a Pyrrhic victory, at best.
But one truth I did know was that there was no going back. Eventually the tears dried up and I faced forward. Toward the future. Toward home.
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Author’s Note:
This book is wholly a work of fiction. However, I did borrow a little from the language and traditions of the Apsaalooké, or Crow, people who are alive and well today in the United States. Jade’s Crow people are quite different and I took many fictional liberties, of course, but I wanted a foundation in reality since sometimes the best fantasy stems from the world we already know.
If you are interested in learning more about the actual Apsaalooké and the modern Crow Nation, please visit their website as a starting point: http://www.crow-nsn.gov/
Also by Annie Bellet:
The Gryphonpike Chronicles:
Witch Hunt
Twice Drowned Dragon
A Stone’s Throw
Dead of Knight
The Barrows (Omnibus Vol.1)
Chwedl Duology:
A Heart in Sun and Shadow
The Raven King
Pyrrh Considerable Crimes Division Series:
Avarice
Short Story Collections:
Till Human Voices Wake Us
Dusk and Shiver
Forgotten Tigers and Other Stories
About the Author:
Annie Bellet
lives and writes in the Pacific NW. She is the author of the Gryphonpike Chronicles and the Twenty-Sided Sorceress series, and her short stories have appeared in over two dozen magazines and anthologies. Follow her at her website at “A Little Imagination” (http://overactive.wordpress.com/)
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Author’s Note:
Also by Annie Bellet:
About the Author:
