Apache by Tanya Landman

Author:Tanya Landman [Landman, Tanya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 9781406339468
Publisher: Walker Books Ltd
Published: 2011-12-30T13:00:00+00:00

I lived, but barely. The medicine man made many chants over me, and dressed my wounds with herbs that Ussen placed upon our land, but of this I knew nothing. It was not only the injuries to my legs that rendered me insensible – in firing my gun so poorly I had been hit by its recoil. The weapon had cracked against my skull, splitting the skin and driving me into darkness. I was carried to our camp on the back of Golahka, and now Hosidah – who could not tend Dahtet – cared for me with great skill, as lovingly as if I were her daughter.

In the days and nights that followed, I felt my own mother lingering at the doorway to the afterlife, as though she waited to take my hand and welcome me into the Happy Place. It was a sore temptation to cease my struggle, to step willingly into her fond embrace, and leave hatred and enmity far behind.

But on the fourth night that followed Keste’s ambush I heard someone call my name.

“Siki!”

Four times.

And then the voice of Ussen whispered in my ear.

“You will not die here, Siki, and you will not die now. You will live to be a warrior. Your people have need of you.”

And with those words Ussen unrolled a vision before me. A vision whose meaning I did not comprehend, but which filled me with wondering awe. The red and black animals painted upon the tepee wall danced in the firelight; I watched them leap and spin. And then they gathered together as they had once before into the shape of a child – an infant whose skin was pale as the waxing moon. This time the image did not dissolve, but grew and spread in its intensity.

The child wept. It sat alone and helpless in the dust, its face pinched with hunger. There came a woman – an Apache – who fed the child with strips of meat from her pouch. She gave freely, for all will give of their best to strangers who come upon our land – this is the rule of hospitality – and besides, who could not aid a child?

The babe ate greedily, but was not satisfied. It begged for more, more, more, its cries rising to hideous, demanding shrieks of command. No matter how quickly the woman fed the infant, she could not quell its hunger. And now it began to grow and swell until it stood tall as a pine. This monstrous infant stamped its foot until the ground beneath it shook.

Casting its eyes about our land, the child’s gaze at last settled on the distant hills. There amongst the trees stood a dark-haired man. One hand shaded his eyes from the sun so that his face was obscured. He beckoned and the child walked towards the mountains.

The mountains of our home.

The vision’s meaning was beyond my fevered comprehension. Sorely troubled, I fell into an uneasy, restless sleep.

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