Soul of the World by David Mealing

Author:David Mealing
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction / Action & Adventure, Fiction / Fantasy / Epic, Fiction / Fantasy / Historical
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2017-06-27T04:00:00+00:00

35

ARAK’JUR

Wilderness

Jintani Land

He turned to the gift of the ipek’a to procure the evening meal. Soaring through the air, propelled on hind legs capable of crushing a man in the blink of an eye, he remembered what it was to inspire fear in his prey. The moment of pride when a kill showed through in his feathers, painting him the color of fresh blood. A warning to all who beheld his glory: Here was a predator without peer, victorious and triumphant.

Today he bestowed death on a fine specimen of bird, the largest male in a flock of turkey he’d caught rooting around a running stream. The bird was larger than he and Corenna could eat in one meal, but the pride of the ipek’a spirit demanded he choose the largest and strongest of the flock. Ipek’a was no scavenger to pick off the weak and sickly, and the female he’d slain to earn the spirit’s blessing was an exemplar of her kind. Such was how he honored her memory, by hunting as she would have done, providing food for those under his protection.

The stream proved a fine stopping place for the day’s travel. Corenna had built a fire, hobbling their horses and refilling their waterskins by the time he returned.

“Do you suppose we have crossed into Jintani lands?” Corenna asked as she stoked the fire.

He grunted, half in response to her question and half for a stubborn patch of feathers pulled from the hide of the turkey. “It may be so,” he said. “We are far from the lands I know well. I do not have a feeling for the sacred places of the northerly tribes.”

“I came along the coast when I traveled north,” she said, casting a fond glance to the east. “I do not know the Jintani well.”

“They cannot be less hospitable than the Uktani.”

“Yes,” she said with an apologetic tone.

The Uktani were the northern neighbors of Corenna’s people. Corenna had assured him she knew Ka’Ureh, their shaman, and they could expect a warm reception in the Uktani village. She’d been hopeful they might plant the seeds of peace, if the signs were favorable. Instead their approach had been rebuffed by a patrol of armed warriors, wielding long muskets traded for from the fair-skins. It had not come to violence, but it had been a near thing.

“You’ve traveled with the Jintani guardian?” she asked.

He nodded. “I have. Arak’Atan was a young man, barely more than an apprentice when he came south. I mourned the passing of his master. They say a valak’ar visited the Jintani, soon after I met him.”

“I recall hearing of it when I was a girl. Arak’Doren frightened me half to death with stories of the wraith-snake.”

“A well-placed fear.” Rhealla. Kar’Elek. He stripped the last of the feathers from the bird, trying to suppress the memories.

“Arak’Doren was always envious of you. That you’d slain a valak’ar, earned the gift of their spirit.”

He regarded her with a sharp look, from which she did not flinch.

He sighed. “I suppose you and I are past the point of speaking of that which should be forbidden.

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