Read Bone Walker: Book III of the Anasazi Mysteries for Free Online

Ghost’s chin meant.
    “No, the White Moccasins are like a human body,” Stone Ghost insisted. “One mind and heart runs everything else.”
    Cloudblower sat back, eyeing him curiously. “You mean if the heart is cut out the body will wither.”
    “Yes. It is their leader we must destroy, or the madness will go on and on. Not just with the remaining First People, but who do you think is stirring the hatred of the Flute Player’s warriors? Why do you think they have begun killing Katsinas’ People?”
    “You think the poison comes from the White Moccasins?” Cloudblower asked thoughtfully.
    “They have worked from the shadows for many
summers.” Stone Ghost nodded. “Only now are they growing bolder, willing to strike openly. They are driven by the thirst for revenge, and seek only to make Made People kill each other.”
    Wading Bird’s gaze locked on Stone Ghost’s chin. “Why would you care?”
    Browser held his breath, his fist tightening on his war club. His tension had cued Catkin, who rested her slim fingers on the handle of her club.
    Stone Ghost frowned as though weighing his words carefully. “We are like a people bitten by a poisonous serpent. Unless the poison is driven out, we will continue to destroy ourselves until no one is left. Our villages will end up as vacant ruins, crumbling and forgotten. Someday another people will fill this land, and look at the weed-filled rubble and wonder who we were and why we vanished from the face of the earth.”
    “Do you think it will come to that?” Cloudblower asked in a pained voice.
    “Think back, Matron,” Stone Ghost told her. “When the Made People hunted down and killed the First People, it was to make the world better. Over one hundred sun cycles have passed since then. Are things better? Are the fields full of corn? Do our children grow up fat and happy? Are our towns flourishing?”
    “What’s the matter with you?” Crossbill snapped. “Do you want the First People back?”
    Stone Ghost smiled. “What I meant is that we are destroying ourselves, Matron. Killing ourselves off faster than we can starve or die of the coughing disease. Our trade routes are cut and our clans—those that haven’t fled—are dying. Who among you can name more among the living than the dead? At this rate, in another one hundred sun cycles, what will be left for our descendants? Will we have any descendants? It leaves me to wonder: When the last village is abandoned, will our hatred still linger there, tracing patterns in the dust?”
    Browser felt a shiver run up his spine. Catkin swallowed hard and closed her eyes.
    “What do you propose?” Cloudblower asked.
    “As you continue your search for the First People’s kiva, I will take my nephew and a small party and search out Two Hearts. We will destroy the poison that infects our world.”
    “Why you?” Wading Bird demanded suspiciously.
    “It must be me,” Stone Ghost insisted. “I have my reasons.”
    “But I need my War Chief,” Cloudblower said, and gave Browser a worried look. “Browser—”
    “I must go with my uncle,” Browser replied evenly. It all began to make sense. Yes, it had to be him and Stone Ghost. No others would do. Dread gripped his heart with a stony fist.

CHAPTER 4
     
     
    THE ELEVEN TROTTED along the Great North Road, winding down its rain-rutted path to the river. Splashing through, they climbed up the gray, cobble-strewn bank. Their feet rustled through the weeds as they jogged across dry ditches and winter-fallow cornfields. Dust spiraled in their footsteps. Ahead of them, on the higher terrace, stood the cluster of massive buildings, one to either side of the road with the “Kiva of the Worlds” squatting between them like a fat drum. The Great North Road led to its low doorway.
    The huge structure to the west, Dusk House, was reputed to have been built by the First People when they abandoned Straight Path Canyon over one hundred
sun cycles ago. It was said that they