Sacred Is the Wind by Kerry Newcomb

Author:Kerry Newcomb
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media

Dark clouds churning. A sky like a witches’ brew. Thunder in the hills. A place for killing. And being killed.

Panther Burn had chosen a broad open grassy expanse of ground near a clear running creek whose black water mirrored the grim heavens. With the sun hidden, an unsettling illumination bathed the valley, hiding the distant mountains, hills, trees, creek, and meadow trapped in twilight. Ignoring the elements, Panther Burn finished his preparations. In a circle around him, he placed a spear made from a strong young pine sapling, a war club, a tomahawk, and ammunition for the Hawken, powder and shot. Two knives he kept on his person, one in a sheath sewn on the inside of his calf-high moccasins, the other scabbarded at his waist. His chest was naked save for a quill breastplate, and muscles rippled beneath his coppery flesh. One last item he drew from his belongings, a ten-foot length of rope with a loop at one end and a four-inch wooden spike at the other. He slid the loop over his head and tightened it around his waist, then walked into the center of the circle and drove the spike into the ground.

“I regret, All-Father, I do not have a proper ho-tamtsit. This dog rope is of my own making and will have to do.” Using a rock for a hammer, he struck the spike one last time. “This stick will sooner leave than I.”

“No!”

Panther Burn whirled around to see Rebecca standing a few yards away.

“Woman, you have no place here,” he said gruffly, hoping to hide the way his heart leaped into his throat. She threatened his courage. It had been easier to think of dying without her around.

Rebecca refused to be put off by his hostile front. “I dreamt, last night, and saw you bind yourself with the dog rope. Only another born to the Morning Star can free one who binds himself with the dog rope.” Rebecca started across the circle. Panther Burn moved to block her path, his hands outstretched to stop her.

“You must leave this place. The soldiers will be here soon.”

“I cannot let you do this,” Rebecca said. Was it because of her? Because of her accusations spoken in her moment of pain?

She lunged for the stake. Panther Burn was too quick for her. His hands closed about her and spun her into his arms. It was neither the time nor the place for such an embrace, but as they closed with one another, their bodies pressed like hands joined in prayer. The tears from her eyes moistened his jaw and neck.

“You are not a Dog Soldier,” she said in a trembling voice.

“Before the night falls, I will be.” He tilted her head, the better to lose himself in the earth-brown depths of her eyes. “Aatome. Listen to me. The soldiers think I killed the brother of Jubal Bragg. I am the reason they burned your village. And I am the reason they continue to follow you and the others. Once Jubal Bragg finds—”

“My words were like … a blind man shooting arrows.

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