Cry of the Wind Read Free

shoulders and crept to Night Man. Chakliux shook him until he was awake. “Your wife’s child is trying to be born,” Chakliux said. “I will go get my aunt.”
    The pain eased, and Aqamdax was able to speak. “It is early. The baby should not come for more than a moon,” she said.
    “Go to your birth lodge. I will bring Ligige’,” said Chakliux.
    “I have no birth lodge.”
    What woman would prepare her lodge a full moon before delivery? Why tempt a child to come into the world when he is not strong enough to survive?
    “Go to Red Leaf’s. Hers is ready, is it not?”
    Aqamdax nodded. Another pain took her, and she squeezed her eyes shut until it passed. She did not want to go to Red Leaf’s lodge, but how could she object? She could not stay here, cursing the men and their weapons, and perhaps Star’s unborn baby. Red Leaf had killed Aqamdax’s mother and Chakliux’s grandfather. She had tried to kill Ghaden. How could Aqamdax use a birth lodge made by a woman whose heart was stained with blood?
    With Yaa’s help, Aqamdax managed to stumble from the lodge, but just outside the entrance tunnel, she felt the beginning of another pain. She squatted on her haunches, and before the pain tore away her breath, told Yaa to go back and get the cradleboard she had made and the hare furs she had prepared.
    Yaa left her, and just as the pain eased, she returned with the cradleboard and furs. She helped Aqamdax to her feet, then they walked to the edge of the village.
    When they reached the isolated place where Red Leaf had made her birth lodge, Aqamdax could see it was lit from within. Chakliux must have already brought Ligige’ to the lodge, but how could the old woman have started a fire so quickly?
    Someone called. Chakliux, Aqamdax thought, and she was surprised. Most men stayed as far as possible from a woman about to deliver a child. A woman’s power was great at such times, and even though she meant no harm, that power could destroy a man’s hunting luck.
    “I cannot find Ligige’,” Chakliux said.
    The old woman popped her head out of the birth lodge. “Someone else wants me?” she asked. Then, seeing Aqamdax, she frowned. “You, too?”
    A pain took her, so Aqamdax could do no more than crouch and brace herself, but she listened as Yaa and Ligige’ spoke.
    “I have Red Leaf here,” Ligige’ said. “It will be some time before her baby is born. When did Aqamdax’s pains begin?”
    “Only a little while ago,” Yaa said, “but they are close together, one pain chasing another.”
    “That happens sometimes when a baby comes early,” Ligige’ told her. “We cannot have both women in the same lodge. One child’s death could curse the other’s birth.”
    Ligige’’s words pierced Aqamdax’s heart. How could the woman speak so lightly of the child Aqamdax had grown to love more than her own life?
    “Take her to my lodge,” Ligige’ said. “I will come as soon as I can.” She ducked her head back inside, but then she peeked out again. “On your way, wake Day Woman and tell her to come here. She will not want to, but remind her that Red Leaf’s child also belongs to her son Sok.”
    Chakliux saw Yaa leave his mother’s lodge, saw his mother walk the path to the birth hut. Aqamdax stopped once, stooped over in pain, then continued to Ligige’’s lodge and slipped inside. Light from the hearth fire soon glowed through the lodge walls, and Chakliux’s thoughts turned to his first wife, Gguzaakk.
    For a long time after her death, Chakliux could find no reason to live save his duties as Dzuuggi and his desire to keep peace between the Cousin and Near River Peoples, but then he had decided to live in the Near River Village and Aqamdax had come into his life.
    She was a storyteller, trained in the traditions of the First Men, and Chakliux had grown to love her, had decided to ask her to be his wife. What could be better than two storytellers living together, learning from one another? But