Veins of Gold by Charlie N. Holmberg

Author:Charlie N. Holmberg [Holmberg, Charlie N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Western, Historical Fiction
Publisher: Mirror Press LLC
Published: 2018-01-17T16:00:00+00:00

The small fox that had trailed Waga around the little village jumped over Gentry’s side of the log, startling her. It landed on noiseless paws and regarded Winn with amber eyes. Yes—there was definitely a shimmer to the creature.

“Seems like Waga wants us,” Winn said.

“Is that his . . . Turkey?” Gentry asked. “He knows about magic too?”

Winn stood and pulled Gentry with him. “They all know about magic, Gentry. It’s no secret, here.” He offered her a lopsided smile. “Few partake in it, though.”

“Only a few?” Gentry asked as the fox skittered away. Winn didn’t seem bothered by its departure, so Gentry wasn’t either. “If I had magic—”

“Anyone can use magic,” Winn interrupted softly, “just like anyone can learn to ride a horse or, I don’t know, milk a cow. Hmmm,” he paused, “let’s go with the horse analogy. Anyone can learn to ride a horse, so say everyone does. They all go out and find horses and break them and ride them, and then there are no horses left in the wild. The environment suffers and the animals forget what it was ever like to be free.”

Gentry mulled the idea for a moment. “You make me feel guilty about Bounder.”

“Don’t be.” He smiled. “That mare was born broken from her magical ties. I’ve never seen a domesticated animal that wasn’t.”

“But we’re born with them? Magical ties, I mean.”

Winn mulled for a moment; Gentry watched his tongue move behind his lips. “Magic exists in and of itself. But when we—humans—try to control it, we become a medium. Like a pump to water. It flows through us the same way it flows through the earth.”

Gentry nodded. Thus the glowing veins.

Tilting his head toward the small village, he asked, “Ready for more?”

She squeezed his hand. “Yes.”

Winn pulled her back over the log and guided her between the wickiups. She spied the fox ahead before it turned a corner. It had waited for them.

Two Hagree women watched Gentry as she passed by and whispered to one another. Gentry tried not to notice.

“Just speak to them in English,” Winn said as they approached Waga and Saleli’s home. “I can always translate.”

Saleli came out of the house and went straight to Winn, speaking to him in quick Hagree before gesturing for them to follow her inside. Gentry let Winn lead the way.

The wickiup was larger inside than Gentry had assumed, about twice the size of the bedroom of her house. There were a few slits to let in light. The walls were brown and stitched together between long, bent branches. Bedrolls lay against the walls, along with sacks, chests, pans, and other knickknacks. One large pole stood in the middle of the space, supporting the wickiup’s center. The space smelled like old sweat and leather and something floral.

Saleli talked for a good long time, Winn responding in turn. She sat at a small stool and took a hammer from her dress pocket to work on something small that Gentry couldn’t make out. At one

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.