It Sleeps in Me Read Free Page B

belonged to the Black Falcon People for generations. Negotiations would be neither easy, nor swift.
    When she turned to head back to Rockfish, she saw War Chief Skinner walking purposefully to Wink, and blood surged so powerfully in her veins, it left her feeling shaky.

    Skinner bowed and pulled Wink aside to speak with her alone. As he talked, Wink’s expression grew increasingly more severe.
    Sora had known Skinner for more than half her life. His gestures, the way he stood, told her he brought dire news.
    The edges of her vision suddenly went gray and sparkling, and an irrational fear possessed her.
    “No,” she whispered, “not now …”
    As she had a thousand times, she spread her legs to brace herself and forced deep breaths into her lungs. All of her life an evil Spirit had tormented her. As her vision went black, it came like a hot glittering torrent, and before she knew it she was lying flat on the ground with her limbs jerking and her teeth gnashing.
    She’d been seven winters old when the first attack came. She didn’t remember it. She never remembered them. She just awoke in a sea of people with a mouthful of blood, feeling exhausted.
    Throughout her childhood, her mother had forced her to see one Healer after another. She’d eaten so many Spirit Plants even the smell of them now sickened her. Nothing had worked. As she aged, the Spirit seemed to come less often, but she still felt him watching her. He was always there, right behind her eyes, ready to leap for her throat when she least suspected it. Stress seemed to bring on his attacks.
    During her tenth winter, she’d named him: the Midnight Fox.
    Sora hurried toward the Chieftess’ Mound.
    As she started up the steps, she couldn’t help it. She looked back.
    Skinner studied her with a predator’s unwavering attention. He’d been her first husband’s best friend—and a good friend to her. She hadn’t seen him in three winters. He wouldn’t be here if it weren’t absolutely necessary.
    Obviously trying to make certain she didn’t miss it, he stepped several paces away from Wink, out into the open, and placed two fingers beneath his nostrils in an eerie gesture of respect. Then he tipped his head slightly to the left. His smile turned seductive, as though they shared something she’d forgotten.

    Sora hesitated, startled. Deep inside her, long-dead fear fluttered its wings.
    She rushed up the steps. Every time her foot landed, she had the overwhelming urge to run. She made it to the top of the mound before her knees started to tremble.
    Torches burned on either side of her doorway, the flames waffling in the cool breeze that swept the lake. Made of logs set into a rectangular wall trench, the house measured fifty paces wide by seventy long. The roof soared four times the height of a man. On the very peak, an enormous wooden carving of Black Falcon perched. His seashell eyes glistened in the morning light.
    “Sora?” Rockfish called as he trotted up the steps behind her. “Are you all right?”
    She sucked in a breath. “Yes, fine.”
    The polished mica birds encircling the collar of his blue shirt flashed as he walked toward her. “I saw you run up the steps. You didn’t look well.”
    She made an airy gesture. “It’s the upcoming negotiations with the Loon People.”
    “We’ll work it out,” he assured her. “We always do. It does no good to worry.”
    She forced a smile. “You are, of course, right.”
    Rockfish tenderly pushed away the sweat-soaked ends of black hair that stuck to her forehead. He looked like he wanted to say something, but didn’t know how.
    Sora said, “What’s wrong?”
    “I don’t know. Something. Matron Wink asked me to tell you that she’ll be up as soon as she can get away. She’s talking with the Loon People’s representative, but she needs to speak with you immediately.”
    As though Sora’s souls knew something her heart couldn’t stand to believe, she stiffened. “What did War Chief