The Summoning God: A Native American Historical Mystery Series (The Anasazi Mysteries Book 3) by W. Michael Gear & Kathleen O'Neal Gear

Author:W. Michael Gear & Kathleen O'Neal Gear [Gear, W. Michael]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781639778300
Publisher: Wolfpack Publishing
Published: 2023-11-07T00:00:00+00:00

Catkin watched Browser, Redcrop, and three warriors carry the litter with Flame Carrier’s body along the brush-choked trail that led back to Longtail village. Redcrop trotted beside Flame Carrier, holding the dead Matron’s limp hand. The sight wrenched Catkin’s heart.

Straighthorn and Jackrabbit stood beside Catkin. Barely fifteen summers old, lines already incised Jackrabbit’s forehead. He had a pug nose and wide mouth. “I pray that Redcrop has the strength to stand it,” he said. “The Matron meant everything to her.”

“She has the strength,” Straighthorn answered softly. “She just doesn’t know it yet.”

Straighthorn frowned at the blood-streaked rocks at his feet. Long black hair fluttered around his braided leather headband and stuck to the sweat that beaded his long hooked nose. “Catkin? Forgive me, but I heard you say something to the War Chief that I did not understand.”

“What was that, warrior?”

“The Two. Who are they?”

Jackrabbit clenched his fists. Straighthorn noticed, and tensed.

Catkin considered not answering out of fear that he might panic, but he would hear the story soon enough. Better that it come from her than someone who might embellish for effect. “Nine moons ago in Talon Town a woman named Hophorn was struck in the head and then one of our warriors, Whiproot, was murdered. We think they were killed by the witch, Two Hearts.”

“I remember as if it were yesterday,” Jackrabbit said and kicked at a rock.

Straighthorn glanced between them. “But you said there were two of them.”

“Yes.”

Catkin studied the footprints. A man and a woman had walked around the pool, their feet slipping off the dew-slick river cobbles and into the sand. She put her hand over them, measuring their sizes. “A woman helped Two Hearts with the murders. Hophorn saw them, but the blows to her head had damaged her ability to speak. All she could say was that ‘The Two’ had done it. Then, when old Stone Ghost examined Whiproot’s body, he found evidence that one person had held Whiproot while another stabbed him.”

Straighthorn wet his lips. “Stone Ghost thinks those same people are here? That they killed your Matron?”

“It would seem so.”

Catkin moved around the pool, separating Browser’s and Redcrop’s tracks from those of the killers. She glimpsed her reflection in the water. Faint lines zigzagged across her forehead and etched the corners of her eyes. A slash of dirt smudged her turned-up nose. She had seen twenty-seven summers. Most of them had been happy. She had been married once to a man she’d loved deeply. She’d lost him to the coughing sickness over two sun cycles ago. Since that time, she’d only loved one man. Her eyes lifted to the burial party on the trail in the distance. Shadows dappled Browser’s tall body. He had barely looked at a woman since the death of his wife, though she had let him know she was there if he needed her.

Jackrabbit followed Catkin as she searched the pool area, his steps calculated to stay on the rocks so he didn’t disturb any of the sign.

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