Cry of the Wind

Read Online Cry of the Wind by Sue Harrison - Free Book Online Page A

Book: Cry of the Wind by Sue Harrison Read Free Book Online
Authors: Sue Harrison
Tags: Historical fiction, Native American
Ads: Link
cache,” Yaa said.
    “Get it for me. I will take it to her when I go.”
    Yaa returned quickly with a woven grass bag. Ligige’ set down her empty bowl and opened the bag, pawed through the contents.
    “You cannot let a woman who has just given birth eat any fresh meat,” she told Yaa. “Smoked fish is good. This”—she pulled out several sticks of dried meat—“is it from last year? Didn’t this village lose all last year’s meat in the fighting?”
    “I gave it to her,” Chakliux said. “It is some I brought with me when I left the Near River Village.”
    “From Near River hunters?” Night Man asked.
    “It is seal meat from the First Men. I spent last winter in their village.”
    Night Man frowned. “You are sure it is not Near River?”
    “It is not.”
    Anger tightened Chakliux’s chest, and he turned away. Who did not know a woman needed meat after giving birth? Yet this man would sacrifice his wife’s strength over his hatred for the Near River People. He almost reminded Night Man who had begun the fighting, who had struck first, but he did not allow the words to move from his heart to his mouth.
    Instead he stood, said, “I must find my wife, tell her that she has a nephew.” He left the lodge, glad to get away from Night Man’s smoldering anger.
    “Is the baby my brother?” Ghaden asked Yaa. He stroked Biter’s back with his fingertips, leaving tracks like small valleys in the dog’s brown fur.
    “Star’s baby will be your brother or sister,” Yaa told him, “and that makes Aqamdax’s baby your cousin.” She paused. “Well, no. Aqamdax is your sister, so you are his uncle. At least, I think you are his uncle. And I am kind of an aunt.”
    Ghaden puffed up his chest. “I will have to take care of him. I will have to show him how to hunt.” He went to the weapons area where Night Man and Chakliux kept their spears and throwers, their darts and lances. He had a bola there and a small thrusting lance. The lance was really only a toy, even though the wooden shaft had been sharpened into a point and hardened in fire. But the bola was a true weapon. Chakliux had made it for him and was teaching him how to swing it so he didn’t hit himself with the sharp stones. He hadn’t got a bird yet, but soon he would. Then he would give the new baby one of the feathers, something Aqamdax could put in his amulet. He picked up his bola, ran his hands from the braided handle to the stones. Each stone was tied securely to the end of one of the bola’s rawhide strings.
    He wanted to take the weapon over to where Yaa sat, to hold it in his lap and think about the birds he would kill, the praise Yaa and Aqamdax would give him when they added the meat and bones from those birds to their cooking bags, or roasted them on a stick, but Yaa was a girl. She might pull away some of the bola’s power. So he hung it again from its wooden hook on one of the lodge poles, then went and sat down beside Biter.
    Suddenly the doorflap opened and Star came in. “You are a lazy one,” she said to Yaa. “Have you checked the traplines? And you, you could bring wood,” she said to Ghaden.
    Ghaden knew Yaa was tired from being up early with Aqamdax and helping Ligige’, but he was glad to have something to do. It was boring in the lodge. He slipped on his summer boots, then followed Yaa and Biter. He heard Star speak to Night Man while he was still in the entrance tunnel: “She had a son, I am told.”
    Ghaden stopped for a moment so he could hear Night Man’s reply, but he could not make out the mumbled words.
    Star’s voice lifted in laughter, then Ghaden heard Long Eyes also laugh, the sound like a weak and fading echo.
    “You think it is yours?” Star said. “With all the men K’os brought into her lodge, you truly think Aqamdax’s son is yours?” Again she laughed.
    For some reason the sound made Ghaden shiver.
    That evening, after Ligige’ had left her for the night, Aqamdax still could not sleep. The

Similar Books

This Boy's Life

Tobias Wolff

Copperhead

Tina Connolly

The Photographer

Barbara Steiner