Great Sky Woman by Steven Barnes Read Free Book Online

perfume from the morning glories as they opened, feel the cool sand crunching beneath her naked feet as she walked.
    Two guardians following respectfully behind her, Stillshadow sought the herbs, barks and six-legged creatures she smoked or ate or drank to elevate her mind. Some might be dangerous, but it was her place to lead the way in all things. These plants she dug herself, or were dug by her students, scraped from the walls of the sacred caves or bartered for at Spring Gathering when the bhan entered their circle and danced the dream alive for another year.
    Eventually, Stillshadow would dance with her ancestors atop Great Sky, and in that mighty time the clouds would part and all would be known. On that day, she hoped to tell those wise and mighty grandmothers that she, too, had faced the mystery with courage.
    Suddenly, at the very edge of her vision a small, soft shape appeared, forcing her to stop and look again.
    Laid out beneath the red flowers and spiky branches of a fever-bush was the scraped reverse of a zebra skin. And in the precise middle of the skin, an infant lay on its back. The soothing eddies of its bluish
num
-fire proclaimed the infant a girl, but there was something oddly intense about that first impression that took Stillshadow aback. The child’s little body was wrapped in a soft, beaten antelope skin, the small dark head poking out. The face was of extraordinary sweetness, displaying an uncommon calm. The unblinking eyes stared up at Stillshadow almost as if the old woman had been expected.
    The crone crept closer, holding her breath. Was this a bhan child, an infant from the outer bomas, parents slain or impoverished? Could this possibly be a trap of some kind? A snare, perhaps a disguised hunting pit?
    But who might want to hurt her? And what demon or witch would bait a trap with a
child
?
    Even more strangely, why did the infant make so little fuss? She couldn’t imagine it. The girl should be howling.
    Whoever had left the child here, southeast of Great Earth’s foothills, had abandoned her within the shadows of a fever-bush. Stillshadow came closer, less afraid now, more fascinated. The old woman lifted the child to her eye level. The infant’s lips were dry, but there were no other signs of dehydration such as sunken eyes or rapid breathing; she checked the soft spot at the top of the skull and was relieved to find it unsunken. Good, but when the sun blazed at its full power the precious remaining shadow would disappear. By night, the little one would be dead.
    The infant’s lips curled up. That smile was like the birth of a second sun, pure and broad enough to rock the old woman back on her heels. When the baby’s eyes slid past her, Stillshadow realized that the foundling wasn’t really looking directly at her. More…
through
her. What in Great Mother’s shadow was this?
    She unwrapped the antelope hide, confirming her intuition that the child was female. Well…
    She waved her fingers before the infant’s face, watching to see if the face-eyes would focus. They did not. But they did
follow.
The attention was directed not on the fleshly fingers but rather the
num
-fire surrounding Stillshadow’s body. Never had the old woman seen the like.
    Stillshadow examined the infant’s stubby feet. She gazed at them with her eyes wide and focused tightly, and then rolled her eyes up in her head until all went dim, except a glowing after-image.
    The girl’s foot-eyes were bright: this one would walk far. Stillshadow went through the same process with the infant’s hands. Not surprisingly, her hand-eyes glowed even more brightly.
    Who was this child?
    Stillshadow’s hunt chief escorts stood respectfully away from her, shifting uneasily.
    Nothing…then, after a moment, the girl gurgled. Stillshadow squinted and sat,
whuff
ing down next to the scraped zebra skin. The old woman reached into the deerhide pouch at her waist. Extracting the leaf-wrapped medicines, humming a recipe song, she