Morrighan - Mary E. Pearson Page 0,13

from her grinding and looked at me. Studied me.

“I’m only curious,” I said and ground at my seed more earnestly.

“I don’t know all their names,” she answered. “One he called a tiger. It was smaller than a horse, but with the teeth of a wolf and the strength of a bull. He watched one of the creatures drag a man away by the leg, and there was nothing they could do to stop it. The animals were hungry too.”

“If the Ancients were like gods and built towers to the sky and flew among the stars, why did they have such dangerous animals that couldn’t be controlled? Weren’t they afraid?”

Ama’s gray eyes turned to steel. Her head turned slightly to the side. “What did you just say?”

I looked at her, wondering what caused the sudden sternness in her voice.

“You called them Ancients,” she said. “Where did you learn that term?”

I swallowed. It was the word Jafir used. “I’m not sure. I think I heard it from Pata. Or maybe it was Oni? It’s a good description, isn’t it? They are a people from a time long past.”

I could see her turning my explanation over in her head. Her eyes warmed again, and she nodded. “Sometimes I forget how long past.”

I was more careful with my words after that, realizing there were many terms I had learned from Jafir. It was not just I who had taught him. Arroyo, mesa, palisades, savanna. His were the words of a wide open world. I had watched him come alive in new ways as we raced across a lowland or when he expertly guided his horse up a rocky hillside. This was his world, and he was confident, no longer the sometimes awkward boy who kissed me in a cramped box canyon.

I came alive with him, allowing myself to believe, however briefly, that it was my world too, that our dreams lay just over the next hill, or the next, and we had wings to take us there. But I always watched over my shoulder, always remembered who I was, and where I was destined to return, a hidden world where he would never fit in.

There is no future for us, Morrighan. There can never be.

Jafir had a knowing about him too. It was a knowing I didn’t want to think about.

Chapter Twelve

Jafir

“You are a lone wolf, always going off by yourself.” Fergus threw a blanket onto the back of his horse. “You’ll ride with us today.”

I had already promised Morrighan I would meet her early and we would ride to the falls where the knotweed grew. She had spotted it on one of our rides. If I was lucky, I might spear a fish in the pools of water there too.

Fergus hit me with the back of his hand, sending me stumbling into my horse. I regained my footing and tasted blood in my mouth. My fingers curled to fists, but I knew better than to strike the leader of the clan.

“What’s the matter with you?” he yelled. “Are you listening to me?”

“There is nothing wrong with hunting alone. I always bring back game to feed everyone.”

“Rabbits!” Steffan sneered, readying his own horse. “He’s not a lone wolf! He’s nothing more than a duck. Always preening in the water.”

“It is called bathing!” Laurida yelled from where she stood by the ovens with Glynis and Tory. “It would do all our noses some good if you followed Jafir’s example.”

The rest of the clan, who were also saddling up, laughed. Fergus ignored Laurida, eyeing me instead, a dark scowl on his brow. “We do not hunt today. We take. Liam spotted a tribe yesterday.”

“A tribe? Where?” I asked.

He mistook my quick reply for eagerness and smiled. It was a rare sight on his face, especially if it was directed at me. “An hour’s ride north,” he answered. “Their bellies were fat, and their baskets full.”

I breathed relief. Morrighan’s tribe was south and to the west. Our clan hadn’t raided a camp since last spring. The tribes had either become better at hiding or had moved far from us.

“You don’t need me,” I said, looking at Piers, Liam, and the rest. “You have enough—”

Fergus grabbed me by my shirt, jerking me close, his expression a threatening storm. “You ride with us. You are my son.”

There would be no dissuading him. I nodded, and he released his grip. I stared after him as he mounted his horse, wondering what ate through him. It was not like him to