Star People Legacy Smith, T.L. (e book free reading .TXT) 📖

instead they started to sing our version of the Blessingway, brushing their feathers over his body. White feathers turned blood red, and with each flick of their wrists, Casey’s wounds stopped bleeding.

Casey’s obvious pain eased too, but he still looked exhausted as she brought him into the structure. She instructed him to kneel on the blanket behind me, but to not touch me. She released the end of the rope, then returned to the circle. She collected each feather. When she had them all, she raised the cluster to the moon and the Ci’inkwia all sang again.

She waved the feathers to the southern star. “The chosen mate has passed through the first two tests and is proven pure of Spirit, brave and true.” She carried the feathers in front of her, back into the structure, with two elderly women following her. She laid the feathers in the space between Casey and myself. The two women knelt with the rope and feathers between them. Not looking at anyone or anything, but the feathers.

Mother returned to the place opposite me. “Din’ah. Daughter. This man is accepted by your family and by our tribe, but there is one final test you both must face. He must endure watching you suffer as your Spirit is completely brought to the surface. He must not touch you for any reason. He may only hold onto the rope that will tie you to him.”

The two women behind me started humming a tune and from the corner of my eye, I watched as they tucked the quills of the feathers into the rope, one threading the feathers, the other separating the quill and using beads to bind the feathers to the rope.

Casey watched too, confused with what they were doing as well. He nodded to me and I looked back at my mother. “No touching. We understand.”

“No, you do not. Not yet.” She folded her hands over her chest. “I am of the blood. I am Ci’in, but I am not the Ci’in. That is decided by the Great Mother at the rebirth of every Ci’in. She marks that child and when she enters the Rising, it is of an intensity that some mortal bodies do not survive. There has not been a daughter with the mark for over a hundred years.”

The position of her hands on her chest told me what mark she referred to. A birthmark that somewhat resembled a starburst on my lower sternum.

“From your birth we knew you would face a Maxa’xak.” She waved her arms to the circle around us. “With other Ci’in, we saw signs of the Rising, but it has come on you so quickly that we had no time to help you integrate.”

Her eyes were getting that edge of fear in them again. “You and your Spirit must be integrated before you face battle and time requires we force the process. If your mortal body bears a weakness we have not seen, releasing her so suddenly can kill you.”

I heard Casey let out a gasp, but he didn’t move, as promised. My mother nodded to him, approving his self-control, but warning him too. “In this one night we must integrate you to your true Spirit. If you survive, then we will Bound you to Casey. But your Spirit must accept him too. If the rope is broken…”

“I will go into battle Unbound, and if I kill the Maxa’xak, I will die too.” I couldn’t sense my Spirit’s feelings towards Casey, only my own. “ I looked to Casey. “I will survive this and she will accept you. I promise.”

CHAPTER

24

 

“I’m ready.”

The women behind me stopped their humming and lifted the rope. The blood-soaked feathers hung from it as they lifted the rope over my head.

My mother spoke up for everyone to hear her. “This woman chooses to be Bound by the blood of a mortal. He has sworn to stand with her for all his mortal time.”

The women lowered the feathered rope in front of me, but held an end out to Casey. “Tie the rope strong, but do not touch her.”

The rope settled around my hips. The feathers were still wet, brushing my legs and leaving stains on my skin and on the pearly white leather of my skirt. A flash of memory from my Spirit said this wasn’t the first time.

“This man offers you his blood and pain. He ties the rope, but you will feel the weight of his commitment to you. If your Spirit breaks the rope, the Bounding will end. If your Spirit accepts, you will remain of this earth until your mortal body passes.”

I felt the first twist of the rope. Casey didn’t pull the rope tight, but the feathers grew heavy on my lap. My breath came harder. The second twist pulled the rope against my stomach.

The song began again, but with different verses. They sang of our home, of our free Spirits, of the freedom of the Ci’in and the Kwia. My Spirit drew me into the sway of the song.

I could feel the Rising. I could see who I’d once been. Completely alien, a completely different being. My Spirit ached in this mortal body and was drawn to that southern star. She wanted to look upon it once more. She want to go to that home.

But she had a duty to perform. She and all her brothers and sister. They had to remain here. It was more than an ancient task laid upon her. She had come to love this world, these people, and needed to save them. She needed to Rise and prepare for battle.

I needed to let her. I surrendered myself to the merging and felt the tug of the rope on my physical body as she rose to face that star. No. We were here to hunt down the Maxa’xak, every last one of them.

She turned to the eastern mountains. One existed there. Our mortal being had found it. We would kill it, then I