Two Rivers Read Online Free PDF Page A

abandoned. She
didn’t want to spend her time in this way too, gossiping and laughing and
talking about boys and men. And although today was different, and they would
be, probably, talking about what happened at the game, she still didn’t feel
like joining this sort of gathering. She needed to think it over, all by
herself. That’s why she went to see how the wounded was doing. She wanted to
know if he was going to die or not.
    Why? she asked herself uneasily. Why should she care?
    Yeentso was her cousin’s husband, not even a person of her
clan. And her cousin was much older, a nice woman, but not a friend. So why
should she care? If Yeentso died, the wild boy who hit him would die too, and
then it would end, and her cousin would find another husband after the
appropriate mourning period. The end of the story.
    Washing the bowl in the shallow spring that ran along the
elevated part of the town, she frowned, remembering the foreign boy. What a
wild thing! To try to kill someone in the middle of the sacred ball game? It
was inconceivable. Only a savage mind from across the Great Sparkling Water
would think of something like this. But the boy was adopted to become one of
them. More than two summers he'd lived in their town, treated fairly. Or was
he?
    She shook her head. Of course he was! He could have been
executed along with his people that were caught raiding this side of the Great
Lake, but he was not. Instead, he was given food and shelter, and a family to
adopt. He was offered everything, wasn’t he? Who would expect him to revert to
the ways of the savages?
    Carrying the heavy bowl, she turned toward the Wolf Clan’s
longhouse, wondering. He might be there now, huddled in his family compartment.
He would surely not be allowed to wander free until the councils decided his
fate. Her stomach twisted with anticipation.
    “What are you doing here?”
    Tindee and another girl sprang from the sheltered
façade, laughing.
    “Nothing,” said Seketa, uncomfortable, as though caught doing
something wrong. “They sent me to call for the medicine man. Where are you
going?”
    “Just walking around, nothing special.” Tindee’s giggle was
accompanied by conspiratorial glances exchanged with her friend. “Come with
us.”
    Seketa hesitated. “I need to bring this bowl back, along with
the medicine man.” She frowned. “It will not take me long to do that. Wait for
me.”
     “Find us behind the tobacco plots.” Tindee stifled another
giggle. “But hurry, or you’ll miss it all.”
    Clutching onto a small leather bag and another suspicious
looking package, both girls scampered away, still laughing. Shrugging, Seketa
went in. She knew what they were up to, no one better. Smoking the old,
cracked, badly clogged pipe of Tindee’s father was entertaining from time to
time, even if it made them dizzy, coughing and choking. Tindee’s brother’s
tobacco was strong, of the best quality. He had grown it himself, lovingly at
that.
    The Wolf Clan’s longhouse greeted her coldly, its corridor
almost deserted, with some fires not flickering at all. She looked around,
puzzled. Where did everyone go? Passing through the compartments, she saw a few
sleeping figures, and a young woman stirring a pot above one of the fires.
    “Greetings,” she said, knowing the woman well. The Wolf Clan’s
field was right next to the field of her clan.
    The woman smiled. “They are all at the council meeting,” she
related, not looking up from her stew. A delicious aroma came out of the pot,
and Seketa’s stomach twisted again, this time with hunger.
    “Ah, oh, well,” she muttered. “I suppose I should go back,
then.” She frowned. “I was sent to fetch the Honorable Healer.”
    A flicker of an interest passed through the woman’s eyes. “How
is Yeentso?”
    “He is… well, he is not dead. Not yet.”
    The woman nodded, pressing her lips. “I hope he survives. It
would be a horrible loss for our town.”
    “Yes. And your