Stolen Away by Christopher Dinsdale Read Free Book Online Page B

the language of the Vikings. She switched over to a language she hadn't used in nine years.
    â€œYou rescued me!” she said in her Celtic mother tongue.
    â€œYes,” he replied.
    â€œHow is it possible that you know the language of my ancestors?”
    He shook his head. “Story long. You sleep two days. Tired. Hungry. Must eat.”
    The spoken words were choppy, and the skraeling seemed to struggle to find the right words, but his voice was one of the sweetest things she had ever heard. She stared at him in amazement. Was she dreaming all of this? This was impossible! How could she be speaking Celtic to a skraeling who was living an ocean away from her home?
    He cautiously moved to the fire and lifted a stick of fish. Then he turned and called into the woods using a strange language. The woman whom Kiera had seen when she had first wakened reappeared with another wooden bowl. She approached, her eyes fixed suspiciously on Kiera. Kiera noticed that above her left eye was a pattern of three black triangles that together looked something like half a flower.
    â€œPlease,” Kiera said, soothingly. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you.”
    The man spoke to Kiera. “She not know.”
    He turned and spoke to the woman. She seemed to relax slightly. She then examined Kiera as if she was the strangest creature she had ever seen. Carefully, she set the bowl of water by Kiera's side, then backed away.
    The man pointed at the water, then passed her a cooked fish. He also passed a small birch dish filled with a selection of wild berries.
    â€œEat. Drink.”
    Kiera held the fish. Her stomach rumbled at the thought of sinking her teeth into some food, but she hesitated and watched her visitors. She observed the two strangers as they removed the fish from the stick, then pulled the meat from the bones with their fingers. His mouth full, the man gestured again for Kiera to join them. Kiera could no longer resist. She attacked the food ravenously. The fish was delicious. She then realized how long it must have been since she had had her last meal. The food also seemed to help clear her thoughts. She looked again at her wrapped leg. She tried to move it, but a sharp pain fired up through her body and took her breath away.
    The man seemed startled by her action. “No move!” he commanded.
    He said things that she did not understand. Kiera, confused and in pain, shook her head. The man looked around and found a twig. He pointed to his shin, then took the twig and bent it until it cracked, then pointed at her, trying to tell her that her leg was fractured. Kiera eased herself backwards and stared up into the speckled sky. This was what she had suspected.
    She was helpless. She could not move, let alone get home. What was she going to do? She was now at the mercy of these strange skraelings. It took a minute for her to recover from the shock. Her thoughts quickly returned to the fact that the man knew Celtic. Perhaps this was a key to another way home! The skraelings were still sitting across from her, staring, eating their fish in silence.
    â€œTell me,” she asked, “how is it that you know Celtic?”
    He thought for a moment, then shook his head. An answer to such a complex question was too much to expect. Better to step back a bit. After all, she wasn't going anywhere. She pointed to herself and smiled. “Kiera. My name is Kiera.”
    He smiled and pointed to himself. “Chocan. She Sooleawaa. We Beothuck.”
    â€œChocan. Sooleawaa. Thank you for saving my life.”
    Kiera bowed her head in respect. Chocan stood up, approached her and knelt down in the ditch beside her. He reached out and reverently lifted up the Celtic cross that hung around her neck. He rubbed the intricately carved grooves with his thumb and smiled.
    â€œNo. Thank you, Teacher.”

S EVEN
    K iera lowered the needle, held up the fine leather garment and examined it in the glowing radiance