Wolf Shadow Read Online Free PDF Page B

her again.

Chapter Four
     
    Mountain Sage frowned as she studied her daughter’s face. Winter
Rain, who was usually lighthearted and smiling, seemed distracted and subdued.
    “Daughter?” Mountain Sage tapped Winter Rain on the
shoulder. “Are you feeling well?”
    Winter Rain looked up, surprised by the question.
    “Is something troubling you? Has Strong Elk done something
to upset you?”
    “No, nothing.” Winter Rain hesitated a moment. “Do you know
the stranger who came to the village yesterday?”
    “Wolf Shadow? Yes. He is cousin to Kills-Like-a-Hawk.”
Mountain Sage laid the shirt she had been mending aside. “Did he hurt you in
some way?”
    “No. No, nothing like that. But he…”
    “Should I call your father?”
    “No!”
    “My daughter, if you do not tell me what is bothering you, I
cannot help.”
    Winter Rain folded her hands in her lap, the doubts that had
haunted her the night before running through her mind. Should she confide in
her mother? Should she ask the questions that had kept her tossing and turning
all through the night?
    “Winter Rain?”
    “Are you my mother? Is Eagle Lance my father? Was I born
here?”
    Mountain Sage sat back on her heels. A sigh that seemed to
come from the very depths of her soul slowly escaped her lips.
    Seeing the expression on her mother’s face, Winter Rain felt
a sudden coldness in the pit of her stomach. “It is true then, what he told me?
You are not my true mother, are you?”
    “Winter Rain…”
    “How did I get here? Who brought me?”
    “Eagle Lance brought you to me. Our daughter had died only a
few moons before he found you. She was our fourth child. The first three had
been born dead. After our daughter died, I wanted to die, too. I could not
sleep or eat. I was sick,” Mountain Sage tapped her breast over her heart, “in
here. Your father…” She paused and looked away. “Eagle Lance was worried about
me. He went on a raid with some of the other warriors. They attacked some white
men and stole their horses. Eagle Lance brought you home to me.”
    “How old was I?”
    “You were seven summers. The same age as the daughter we had
lost.”
    Winter Rain shook her head. Why didn’t she remember? Ten
years was a long time but even so, she should be able to remember something. Had
the attack been so awful she had somehow blocked it from her mind? Perhaps, at
first, she had hated living with her wasichu parents and that was why
she could not recall her past.
    “I welcomed you into our lodge,” Mountain Sage said. “You
have been my daughter ever since that day.”
    Wordlessly, Winter Rain rose to her feet and left the lodge.
Standing outside, she looked around the village. There was old Three Crows
nodding in the shade. Children and dogs chased each other through the camp. A
group of little girls were playing with dolls. In the distance, she saw a
handful of elders watching a group of young boys shoot arrows at a target. The
horse herd grazed across the river. Women were caring for their children,
tanning hides, drying meat, laughing together as they watched White Doe’s baby
take its first steps. Men were gambling, or dozing in the sun, or repairing
their weapons. They were sights she had seen a hundred times, a thousand, and
yet, on this day, she felt as though she were seeing it all for the first time.
    With a shake of her head, she walked down to the river,
nodding to those who called her name.
    At the water’s edge, she walked along the shore until she
came to her favorite place and then she dropped down to her hands and knees and
studied her reflection. Wolf Shadow had said she looked like her mother. Her wasichu mother.
    Leaning forward, she stirred the water with her hand,
shattering her reflection.
    Who was she? If she was not the daughter of Mountain Sage
and Eagle Lance, then who was she? Would Strong Elk still wish to marry her if
he knew she was not Lakota? But he must know. Everyone must know. Why had no
one ever told