The Unfinished Song (Book 5): Wing by Tara Maya Read Free Book Online Page B

purpose,” he said, “To prevent you from defending yourself—from
me. But if anyone else tries to touch you, they will answer to
me.”
     
     

Chapter Two
Tracks
Finnadro
    Other men hunt deer. I hunt wolves.
    My father taught me the heart is a tree that will
grow as tall as we allow; but in the roots of every heart lives a
beast. The beast cannot be killed, but neither can it be freed. It
must live in the heart; and the heart must grow past it, to the
sky.
    When I turned seven, my father told me to follow him
into the woods. For three days we walked without stopping except
for water and sleep. When all I could think of was my hunger, he
finally paused in a wild glen. He always wore a belt with a
satchel, made from deerskin dyed deep burgundy like a pomegranate.
An ancient, musty smell, which brought to mind old men smoking corn
pipes, imbued the leather. He never let me touch it, and never
opened it.
    That day he opened it. A pile of scalps fell
out.
    “Count them,” he told me.
    Forty-seven. Almost higher than I could count at
that age.
    “All for her,” he said. “All to protect your ma, and
you, for she already carried you. Forty-six men died so you could
live, Finnadro. Never forget that.”
    “Were they bad men, pa?”
    “Some were bad men. Some were good men who served a
bad man. You know that the Bone Whistler tried to conquer the
Hidden Forest. His War Leader, the Skull Stomper, led an army of
Rainbow Labyrinth warriors here, a thousand men, the largest army
in all of Faearth! But had they been but a quarter that number,
they would still have been unstoppable, for they were hungry,
hungrier than you are now, hungry for man-meat. Even the Blood
Spears warriors are not as crazed as the fanatic cannibals who
danced to the Bone Flute.
    “We did not have the strength to fight them, and had
to agree to give tribute. They wanted furs, arrow shafts…and women.
Each clan had to give up a daughter, chosen by a drawing of tokens.
Your ma was one of the maidens whose token was drawn. But she was
my betrothed and I would not surrender her to the thugs of Rainbow
Labyrinth. We had not been able to marry yet, because we waited on
Midwinter, but I knew she already carried my seed. Your ma’s
brother, my best friend, Cullo, felt just as strong. He was a
wolfling. He’d always resisted his power before, but now he vowed
he’d take his wolf form and not change back until we rescued
her.
    “With the Singing Bow to guide me and Cullo’s nose
to guide him, we hunted the men who took her halfway across
Faearth, and we killed them one by one.
    “One man, though, we could not kill. The Skull
Stomper. He eluded every arrow of mine. He and the Blood Drinker
led the attack on Green Woods tribe, with the Skull Stomper
directing the battles and the Blood Drinker slaughtering the
prisoners.
    “I was captured, caged and tortured. They tied me to
a spit over a fire, like roast pork. Ratho Blood Drinker himself
cut off slices of my flesh and ate it in front of me. I’m not
ashamed to say I wept. I expected to sing my last song over that
fire pit. But that night, a masked man released me from the spit.
It was the Maze Zavaedi. He was a Rainbow Labyrinth tribesman, but
he hated the Bone Whistler even more than I.”
    I knew this part. “You helped him overthrow the Bone
Whistler!”
    “Eventually. Yeah. None of us would have succeeded
without the help of the White Lady. You owe her your life. A
lifedebt is the most precious debt of all. You must never rest
until you have paid it.”
    “Yes, pa!” I knew that too. Something bothered me,
though. “Pa, you said forty-six men died so I could be born, but
you’ve got forty-seven scalps.”
    Pa nodded. I never saw my father cry, but that day
his eyes moistened when he held up one scalp marked with a leather
ribbon.
    “The worst thing the Bone Whistler did to us was
unleash the beasts inside us. Not everyone in the Green Woods tribe
agreed we should have surrendered and paid