Heartfire by Kate A. Boorman

Author:Kate A. Boorman [Kate A. Boorman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571313778
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2016-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

17

I’ve been in this place before. This roaring hollow of black. This endless torrent of ice and pain and deafening sound.

This time, there are no Lost People to save me. I am rolled and turned and torn apart. The river is in my ears and lungs, and there is nothing I can do but let it have its way, let it carry me in its crushing embrace, race me towards my death.

And now, stillness. Like I’m floating just below the surface of this raging, wild water, and everything else moves around me: the sky and trees race past above, while branches and boulders rush by on either side.

A face appears above me, peering into the water. Her features are blurry, but her snow-white hair gives her away.

Soeur Manon.

The old healer woman, dead a season already, reaching one frail hand into the water, her brittle fingers grasping for me. They trail through my hair in a slow, sweeping motion and catch hold. She pulls me up, up, towards her. I reach for her, my body drifting slow, like a reluctant seedpod caught on a breeze.

Her hand lets go.

The violent water rushes over me. Sky and clouds and trees blur into one.

Something bites my face and squeezes the air from my chest, and I am rolled back under, rushed along the riverbed.

But deep inside I feel my heart beating out a rhythm, and I hear voices high and plaintive, lifting in song. They swirl around me, pierce straight through me. Fill me with a fire.

I strain and push and kick for the surface of the water, clawing my way to air. I’m fighting towards no one now, but the song lifts me high, and the beat of my heart is strong.

Telling me I’m not alone.

These are not my Cleansing Waters.

And this watery grave can’t have me.

*

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