Children of the Dawn by Patricia Rowe Read Free Book Online

brought their people. He was far above the world at sunrise when the tribes saw each other for
     the first time; missed the ritual of finding stones as morning became day. Even when the spell around the two tribes broke,
     Tor’s mind still did not come back to the riverbank.
    It took his son’s howls.
    “Adah!”
    Tor shook off the remains of the trance, glanced around; Saw Ashan, sleeping in a circle of stones; Tenka hunched over her—
    “Ahhh-dahhh!”
    Kai El! Tor looked for his spear, but it wasn’t there. He stood, and found himself between two tribes facing each other like
     bristling cougars.
    The Tlikit crone, Euda, was holding two children by the hair, beating them with a stick—Elia—and Kai El!
    “Stop!” Tor shouted. Then in Tlikit: “Yah kuut!”
    Euda looked up. The two boys broke loose and ran.
    Struck silent, the Tlikit people gaped at Tor.
    What were they thinking? If they saw Tor,
the man,
their former slave, they might attack him. But if they saw Wahaw-kin,
the god
they’d once believed him to be…
    “Wahawkin the Water Giver returns!” he boomed—surprised at how their language came back after so long. “Sahalie the Creator
     sent me to give you one more chance!”
    Euda jabbed her stick in the air. Her ugly flesh shook.
    “We know who you are, Tor! You’re nothing but a man! Go away! And take these people who hide under animal skins!”
    Tor wished he had his spear—he would smash her head. He clenched his fists and took a menacing step forward.
    “Stinking woman! I found this place! If anyone leaves, it will be you!”
    The crone did not back down. “This is our home, not yours! We will keep what is ours!”
    Tor! He’d been there all that time, and Tsilka hadn’t known it! It felt like a bird was loose in her chest; her ears buzzed;
     her head was light. Some old part of her hated the man, but she’d already forgotten that—the greater part had never stopped
     wanting him.
    Tsilka bit her lip—this was no time for passion. The world was coming apart around her like a spiderweb in a windstorm. She
     had to get control—now. The intruders were too many. If fighting broke out, it would be a massacre.
    Tsilka elbowed her way through the snarling mob. She gripped Euda’s shoulder, digging her fingernails into fat flesh.
    “Do you forget the man-god’s power?”
    “Man-god!” Euda said, and spat.
    Tsilka raised her hand to strike the witch. Euda’s chin jutted out and her eyes challenged, but she backed away.
    Tsilka looked at Tor again and sighed. Everything else faded from sight but the magnificent creature who stood there looking
     at her, with long legs spread, hands on hips. A shaggy bison robe made him seem like a powerful, very
male
animal. His flowing black hair gleamed in the sun. His proud face was lean, high-cheeked, and sharp-jawed; with knowing,
     demanding eyes; long nose with arrogant nostrils; full lipsdrawn in a faint smile. To see him after so long took her breath away. She imagined his broad chest under the bison robe,
     his shoulders, his arms; imagined hard flesh under deerskin leggings; her fingernails scratching his back; his arrogance turned
     to desire.
    Forgotten longings shivered inside her. Breathing deep, she went to him. Instead of taking her outstretched hands, Tor held
     one of his up, palm outward as if to greet a brother. Tsilka bit her lip and lowered her arms. She gazed into his shining
     black eyes in a way that made men want women. She licked her lips.
    “I thought I’d never see you again,” she said, and was surprised that her tongue still knew Shahala words.
    Frowning, Tor crossed his arms over his chest.
    “I told you I would bring my people.”
    She laughed softly. “We never believed you.”
    “As you see, I spoke the truth.”
    “So you did,” she said, nodding, then shaking her head. “But I think bringing them was a mistake.”
    She pointed, first at her tribe, then at his. They were silent now, trying to hear the words