It Dreams in Me Read Online Free PDF

telling you anything. I’m not the one who’s sick. She is.”
    Strongheart inhaled a deep breath and exhaled the words, “All right. There’s only one thing I ask of you: please help me to find a safe place where I can work.”
    “There’s a war going on out there, Priest. There is no safe place.”
    “The war is between the Black Falcon Nation and the Loon Nation … your people and mine. The Sandhill Crane People have not yet taken sides. Nor have the Lily People.”
    Flint grimaced as though Strongheart were a fool. “But they will, Priest. Soon. And they will side with the Black Falcon Nation. The Lily People will be first; they are the most vulnerable. And the Sandhill Crane territory won’t be safe for more than a
few days. Here, we are two days from my village, Oak Leaf Village. If we need help, I can go find it. We need to stay where we are.”
    “I’m taking the chieftess away, Flint. You can accompany us, or not.”
    Strongheart rose to his feet and walked across the clearing. As he knelt at Sora’s side, he gently drew the hide up around her throat. “I think I know a place. Do you feel strong enough to travel? We should leave soon.”
    She gazed up into his dark eyes. “Yes.”
    Flint glowered at Strongheart’s back and demanded, “Where is this place?”
    “There’s an ancient village, Forbidden Village, on the shore of Sassafras Lake, north of Minnow Village. It used to be a gathering place for Healers from every nation, but almost no one goes there now.” Strongheart helped Sora to her feet. She felt weak, her knees shaky. “It’s a Power place, but I believe we’ll be safe there.”
    Flint called, “What makes you think we’ll be safe? If it’s an old gathering place, everyone knows about it.”
    Strongheart nodded. “Yes, but only Healers and desperately ill people are brave enough to set foot upon that sacred ground.”
    “Why?”
    He turned to Flint. “It’s dangerous to those who do not know its Spirits. After my parents were killed, I spent part of my youth there, studying with an old Healer named Juggler.”
    Uneasy, Flint said, “Is the old man still there?”
    Strongheart shrugged and bent to gather Sora’s few belongings, placing them, one by one, into her heavy belt pouch. “I don’t even know if he’s still alive.”

6

    AT DUSK, THEY CAMPED NEAR A SMALL CYPRESS POND SURROUNDED by gigantic hackberry trees—one day’s walk from Oak Leaf Village. The three of them sat around the fire, silently eating bowls of fish soup.
    Strongheart kept a close eye on Flint. He didn’t know what Flint expected, but the warrior kept gazing westward, toward Oak Leaf village, as though he desperately needed to run home.
    Was he homesick? Or was it something more urgent?
    Sora set her bowl down and walked away toward the shore of the pond.
    Strongheart gave her some time to be alone, finishing his soup before he followed her.
    He found her leaning against the trunk of a hackberry tree, her eyes focused on the sparkflies that blinked amid the branches. Croaking frogs serenaded the night.
    “Are you all right?” he asked.
    Over her shoulder, she said, “You should be a warrior instead
of a priest. You have the skills for it. I didn’t hear you approach.”
    “I think you were occupied with other thoughts.”
    The tall grass whispered against his leggings as he walked to stand beside her and watch the ducks that silently paddled across the pond in the distance. Silver chevrons bobbed out behind them.
    Softly, he reminded, “I asked if you were all right.”
    She took a deep shaky breath. “I feel broken.”
    “You will feel that way for a time, until we’ve found all the pieces.”
    “Pieces? What pieces?”
    “The pieces of your shattered reflection-soul. We’ve just begun, Sora. For a time, you’ll feel like you’re looking at yourself in a pool of water.”
    “Do you truly believe the image will ever be whole again?”
    “As we find more and more of the pieces, the