Brother Wind Read Online Free PDF

know and I will not tell her, even if Raven blames us for Takha’s death. I know what it is to have a son. I hold no anger toward you.”
    Kiin’s hands clasped over her suk, but her suk was empty, no baby suckling her breasts.
    “He is not the one,” Woman of the Sun said, and gestured toward Kiin’s suk as though Shuku were tucked inside. “He holds no curse. It is the other, Takha, but perhaps he is far enough away for us to be safe.”
    For a moment, Kiin saw Takha, cradled in Three Fish’s arms, and Kiin’s need for him was like a point of ice piercing through skin and muscle to lodge itself at the center of her heart.
    “You are wrong, Aunt,” Kiin said. “I gave him to the wind spirits. He is dead.” And Kiin turned away, walked back to the Raven’s lodge.

CHAPTER 5
    L EMMING TAIL SQUATTED AND DUG her fingers into the bowl of meat. She looked up at Raven and spoke through the food in her mouth. “It is good, husband. Did you bring me gifts?”
    Raven frowned. “The meat is not gift enough?” he asked, but as Lemming Tail pinched her mouth into a frown, Raven squatted beside one of his trade packs and loosened the strings. He pulled out a necklace, something strung with beads of birdbone and shells. He tossed the necklace to Lemming Tail, then reached again into his pack for a second necklace.
    “For you,” he said to Kiin and carried it to her, dropping it over her head. It glistened against the bare skin of her chest, drooping into a long loop between her breasts.
    Kiin lifted the necklace and studied the beads. Each was a circle cut from whale jawbone. Each circle was drilled with a hole and etched with fine lines. It was beautiful, almost as beautiful as the shell bead necklace Samiq had made her, but the Raven’s necklace felt cold and heavy against her skin.
    “Thank you,” she said.
    “I see you no longer have your other necklaces,” he said.
    “I gave them as gifts.”
    The Raven’s eyes hardened. “You should have kept the carving,” he said.
    No, Kiin thought, though she did not answer him. I am glad I gave it to Three Fish. It will give her power to be a good mother to Takha.
    “That carving could bring us enough meat for the whole winter,” the Raven said.
    Kiin lowered her head, and the Raven turned away. She went to the sealskin boiling bag that hung above the oil lamp and dipped out a bowlful of meat. She handed the bowl to the Raven, then filled one for herself and went back to squat beside her sleeping platform. Lemming Tail slid over to sit beside Kiin. She studied her own necklace, then looked over at Kiin’s, and her bottom lip thrust out into a pout.
    Kiin did not look at the woman, but suddenly the Raven was standing beside them, a sealskin sewing case in his hands. He gave the case to Lemming Tail and said to her, “Another gift. Keep it or trade it. Perhaps Shale Thrower has a necklace she will give you for it.”
    Lemming Tail smiled and, looking at Kiin from the sides of her eyes, slid her tongue over her teeth.
    “We brought back other trade goods,” the Raven said to Lemming Tail. “If you go now, you will be first to see what other wives have. You will get the best trades.”
    Lemming Tail scooped the rest of her food into her mouth and scurried into the basket corner. She set the sewing case in the bottom of a large basket, then covered it with several fox pelts and a grass mat. She pulled on her parka and, with another smile at Kiin, left the lodge.
    The Raven finished eating, then held his bowl out toward Kiin. He looked at her through slitted eyes, and Kiin’s heart hammered in her chest. She knew he wanted something more than food, but she took his bowl, started toward the boiling bag.
    The Raven caught the back panel of Kiin’s woven grass apron. “Not yet,” he said and pulled her toward him.
    Kiin set the bowls on the floor and waited as the Raven stood and stretched his arms over his head. He pulled off his parka and caribou skin leggings, then