Read Online Tribe: The Red Hand (Tribe Series Book 1) by Kaelyn Ross - Free Book Online Page B

wilt under the sun’s first rays. When she gave a command, there was no defying it. Kestrel was sure that if her mother had chosen to become a warrior, she would have succeeded. But Tessa had always quietly disapproved of the needed brutality of a Red Hand’s life. It was one thing for the son or daughter of some other villager to become a Red Hand, but quite another for her own children—especially Kestrel—to choose that path.
    Tessa pulled the blankets back under Kestrel’s chin. “You did not fail,” she said firmly. “Nor did you bring shame to our family,”
    “A Potential can have no help,” Kestrel said woodenly.
    “You didn’t have any help to do … what you did.”
    Kestrel laughed bitterly, knowing now that Tessa was only trying to protect her, as she always had. “If Aiden didn’t help me, then I must’ve lost my mind somewhere up in the mountains.” She glanced sharply at her mother. “Maybe I’m still there, and you are not real?”
    “I’m as real as you are.” Tessa pulled a stool closer to the bed and sat down. She smoothed her earth-colored roughspun dress with the hands of a much older woman. A lifetime of working the fields had left her fingers cracked and calloused. They looked hard, tough as old leather—far more so than Kestrel’s. When Tessa spoke again, she did so in a lowered voice.
    “None of the Elders believed you needed an observer, but after scouts reported finding signs of a raiding party, I convinced them, with One-Ear Tom’s help, to send Aiden. He told us that by the time he reached your chosen battleground, you had already come and gone. He found the evidence of the Kill, and trailed you to the village. He almost caught up with you, but the guards found you first, after you staggered up to the River Gate.”
    Kestrel lay there, hearing Aiden speak in her mind. Once you hang the bones of your Kill around your neck, Aiden spoke from within her mind, you’ll be counted as a Red Hand. And if there’s one thing all Red Hands are expected to do, it is to fight our enemies. When your first battle comes, and you begin weeping and shaking like you did over that lion, everyone will know that you are not a true Red Hand, and never were.…”
    So he had kept his word after all, but that did not keep a wave of anger from washing over Kestrel. I will prove him wrong!
    Only if you go along with his lies, a different voice countered. And if you do so, you will become a liar, the same as him.
    Guilt replaced anger, but she promptly crushed it down. She had made a blood sacrifice to the Ancestors, and they had responded by putting the lion into her hands for the Kill. If they had done that much, why would they have taken it all back by letting the Stone Dogs capture her?
    They wouldn’t have, she thought, growing more sure of that the longer she mulled it over. The Ancestors would’ve given me a way to escape my enemies, or they would’ve helped me overcome them .
    In that light, Aiden’s meddling did not matter. Considering it all together, Kestrel found only one conclusion: I am a Red Hand, and soon everyone will know it—even Aiden!
    Filled with a new sense of determination, Kestrel once more flung her blankets aside.
    “What are you doing?” her mother demanded.
    Kestrel dropped her feet to the floor. “I must prepare for the Bone Tree ceremony.”
    Tessa pushed her back. “You’re not strong enough to endure the trials of the ceremony.” What she did not say was plainly reflected in her gaze. Moreover, you cannot even remember what happened to you.
    “I feel fine,” Kestrel said. And while her wounds were still tender, she felt strong and alert. Besides all the rest, the worst part of the Bone Tree ceremony had nothing to do with strength of body, only of the mind. Just thinking about that part sent a shudder through her, and heated her cheeks.
    Tessa, still holding Kestrel’s shoulders, abruptly flinched back and clutched her hands together in her lap, that