When the Wolf Breathes (Madeleine Book 5) by Sadie Conall

Author:Sadie Conall [Conall, Sadie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-11-20T22:00:00+00:00

Five

We rode as hard as we could in the following week, as anyone can do with a small child and five extra horses and our days and nights settled into a different routine now that Deinde'-paggwe and Kimana were with us.

After the dream, the deep wound on my forehead began to heal, even though Deinde'-paggwe insisted on making a new poultice for it each evening when we made camp. Although I had a feeling that by the time we reached the Hŭŋkpapĥa village, the long thin scar would have disappeared completely.

One night I was left alone with Te’tukhe by the fire. Ryder had gone off to check the horses and Deinde'-paggwe had taken Kimana off to a small stream nearby to wash. I was surprised when Te’tukhe leaned towards me, his voice harsh, his eyes fearful.

“I tell you she is a forest witch,” he said, startling me. “For what woman other than you Esa-mogo'ne’ can live out in the wild alone while being hunted by four men, unless she is a forest witch.”

I had heard the words forest witch only once before and that was many years ago when someone in the Bannock village had called me that name. So I knew the meaning well enough. A forest witch was a girl or young woman capable of living alone in the woods without the need of sustenance, the need of a man, or fear of beasts. To hear Te’tukhe call Deinde'-paggwe such a name, was disturbing.

“I ask you this Esa-mogo'ne’, for what strange fate is it that we should all meet like this. So let me say it now and be done with it. I think others beside ourselves have had a hand in this.”

And then I saw the fear and superstition in my brother-in-law’s lovely dark eyes and realized this conversation wasn’t really about Deinde'-paggwe. It was about spirits, of their guiding us. It was about the afterlife.

“Would it be such a bad thing brother, if it were so?” I asked. “Would it matter overly much if we were sent to cross Deinde'-paggwe’s path, so we might help her?” I glanced up as Ryder came to join us. I knew he had heard some of our words. “I think not,” I said. “As for whether she’s a forest witch or not, I can’t say. All I know is that she did everything she could to stay alive, to get back to her daughter and find a way home. If that makes her special, or a forest witch, then so be it.”

Te’tukhe and Ryder both looked at me in surprise, but then Te’tukhe nodded.

“You are right sister and I will not speak of it again,” he said, pushing himself off the log. “She is a survivor, she is clearly someone special and not many girls would have been able to do what she did. I admire her for it.” He turned then and walked away, leaving me and Ryder alone.

I glanced across at him, although Ryder had never been one to believe in ghosts, despite his childhood in the Wazhazhe village.

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