Read Online The Chieftain’s Daughter by Leia Rice - Free Book Online

long and was soon a pile of bones. Ishara hissed at the pack, tore a branch off the tree, and speared it down at what appeared to be the alpha male.
    The branch hit the dirty canine and it whimpered, snarled, and then started its retreat in the direction of the dry lands. The rest of the pack followed after him. Ishara knew the dangers of walking across the arid earth alone, and she heard of the desert dogs that roamed in packs and viciously killed anything that they could eat, but she never expected to have to actually deal with them. Not by herself, at least, and definitely not when she had much farther to go before she even reached the edge of the dry lands.
    Now stranded in a tree, Ishara climbed up farther to see if she could scout out a reasonable route to the springs and fruit trees. The sun heated her skin, and it quickly dried up the forest ground from the previous days of rain. She gathered her dreadlocks off her neck and held them in her hand as she peered across the treetops. “I will never make it home.”
    Convinced that the dogs were gone, Ishara carefully climbed back down the tree until her toes met the ground. She brushed the blood off her shins from the climb up, and turned to set out on her way back home.
    The sounds of forest birds echoed through the trees. Ishara watched above her and caught flashes of rainbow-colored parrot wings as they flew back and forth from tree-to-tree. She put a hand to her necklace and a pang of guilt radiated through her body. She thought of Mechan back at his tent and saw him stepping out to go to the river, only to find the slave pen empty—abandoned. Would he even care?
    “Stubborn old man. He should have known that a chieftain’s daughter isn’t someone’s pet anyway.” Ishara navigated her way over an old, fallen tree. She stepped away from the tree, and when she looked over her shoulder to study it, she realized it was an elder tree. Like so many of the elder trees, this one had fallen, marking the end of its life. Still, its branches were strong and sturdy, not yet permeated with the dampness of the forest ground.
    “Stupid old man and your stupid dress…and your stupid elder tree.” Ishara yanked on a branch until it snapped off the trunk. Her fingers traced the lines of the bark, which reminded her of facial wrinkles on an old man. She smiled and decided to use the branch to aid her walk through the forest.
    The snap of a twig behind her stopped her pace. Ishara spun on a heel, holding the branch in one hand, and her stone dagger in the other. With prey-like instinct, she backed up toward a tree, keeping her back safe. She could see everything in front of her. Ishara scanned the brush for any movement. Only the wind rustled the leaves on the trees. Another parrot screeched by overhead, its long tail a blur of reds and blues. It only took a second to look up at it, but in that second, an arrow whizzed by her ear and stuck in the wood behind her head.
    “By the Spirits!” Ishara rolled around to the back of the tree, seeking cover. By the angle of the arrow, she knew someone shot it from above. She scanned the trees again, but all she could see were the hundreds of multi-colored birds, all strangely quiet and staring.
    Another arrow hit the trunk, digging itself into the bark. This time, Ishara caught movement in a tall tree to her left. Ishara stepped beside her cover and into a beam of light peeking through the treetops. Ishara did not fear her predator, for she knew she was not prey. At least, she wasn’t going to be made prey anytime soon.
    “Show yourself!” She yelled up into the trees, only to receive a hundred parrot calls in response. The calls gave way to social chattering, the noise almost deafening.
    Barely heard over the parrots, a voice called back in reply, “Tell me who you are, first.”
    “Why? Will my name protect you somehow?” The predator had a woman’s voice, though that was not reason enough to let her guard down. Women were