Wild Thing Read Free Page B

Walks Straight, stood.  The adults didn't smile.  She looked around.  Where were her parents?
    When they stopped, the Chief turned her to each of the four directions, then to the sky, and finally to the earth.  To each he spoke the words that took away her Child name, giving it into the care of those Powers.  When she had no name, he turned the girl child to him.  He looked tired.  Old.
    The girl put one small hand to his cheek, trying to cheer him up.  But the gesture only seemed to make him sadder.
    'You are no longer Happy Mouth.'  The ritual words fell heavily from his lips.  'You are no longer alive to the Sky Corn community.  Your parents are dead to you.'
    Her eyes widened, and her hand fell away.
    'You go now to the white man's lands, so you will take a name for the white man.  You will take the name Sara .'
    She shook her head once, slowly, then stood stunned, shocked into immobility, trying to absorb the meaning of the Chief's words.
    He handed the young hunter a folded white paper and reminded him what to do when they reached the lands of the Wasichus .  Walks Straight nodded curtly, then circled the skiff, checking the brakes and squeezing its tires in a final inspection before leaping up and over the side.  Swinging past the rigging lines, he hoisted the mainsail while the Chief lifted the girl and placed her on a seat.
    'Where's mama?'
    'Your mother is dead to you now, Sara.  We can not have killers here.'
    She struggled to understand.
    Walks Straight checked the reef in the sails.  Releasing the brakes as he eased out the boom, cloth billowed taut as it caught the wind and the skiff pulled away, jolting over the rough ground and quickly gathering speed.
    'I didn't kill anything, grandfather!'  Sara screamed back, her small face straining over the lip of the hull.
    Drops of moonlit silver glistened on suddenly-pale cheeks, sparkling faintly as Night swallowed the land yacht.
    'But you will, Sara.  You will,' he whispered sadly into the wind.
 

PART I
    (Four years later)

Chapter 1 
    Enough , thought Dr Alex Harmon, and draped the spell delicately over the Mother Superior's mind.  Paging through student records in the grim office of the orphanage, he watched from the corner of his eye, amused, as she forced her teeth to unclench – again.  But now, he heard her outraged thoughts as though they echoed in his own mind: «Browsing through my children's files like they're items in a shopping catalog!»
    Dust motes glimmered in the watery sunlight, drifting through the room's still air.  Seated at the other side of her heavy oaken desk, he felt the weight of the nun's stare.
    He looked up, unable to keep the hint of a smile from his lips.  'Really, sister, this would have been so much easier for us both if you kept your records online.'
    'My first concern is caring for my children, Dr Harmon,' she snapped.  With his spell still running, he also picked up the following thought: «Not in making it easy for corporations to examine them . »
    He raised one eyebrow, puzzled by her mis-identification.  But all he said aloud was 'None of your charges seem to have tested positive for any sign of Unfolding.  Statistically, I would-'
    'You won't find anyone with magical potential in the orphanage records.'
    He was no longer amused.  'Sister, I did ask to see the records of all the children here.  If you recheck the papers I presented, you'll see that I have permission-'
    'You won't find anyone with magical potential because there are none, doctor.  Any that test positive are auctioned off to corporations like Asgard or Medigene by the government.  Or taken by the government itself.'
    'Really: auctioned off?'
    'That's what the “normal procedure” amounts to, yes,' she snapped.
    About to reply, a sudden thought made him pause: was this why his research request had been granted – they thought there was nothing to grant?  Still, if his theories were correct, he only needed to find a child with