Read Darkthaw for Free Online Page B

a delighted Daniel, setting the little boy before him on the horse’s dappled-gray back. He wheels the horse in an about-face.
    â€œLook, Em!” Daniel calls in glee as they trot past. He’s beside himself with the excitement of being out here. His older brother Nico is another story, more wary, but right now his eyes, too, are wide with wonder.
    I follow after them,
les trembles
—the tall poplar trees—yawning and rustling above us. I press into the brush, stepping on springy new moss, tiny green shoots of horsetail. As I clamber over a log crusted with moss, my good foot lands on something hard—like stone. I hear a clink as my foot grinds down. The new ferns I push aside to get a look at the source are feathery soft. But my fingers touch something cold and solid.
    Bones.
    I recoil. Looks like a deer, picked clean long ago, washed white with the wind and snow. I step around it careful, wondering how it died. Predator or old age? Or mayhap the winter was that harsh.
    I have a sudden thought for the Jameson family, who passed this way months back, with no weapons but a bow and their few belongings in packs on their backs, right after the first snow-bitten winds coursed through the coulees and around the fortification.
    No way they survived.
    I swallow. It was the settlement’s decision to cast them out like that. Brother Jameson killed Pa. He would’ve killed me, and Kane, and anyone else who stood in his way if Kane hadn’t brought him down with his knife. None of the settlement wanted to trust his kin after that. And I didn’t think too much on it when they left, neither.
    But I know what it’s like to feel cast out; I’ve enduredplenty-enough wary stares in my day. Imagine that feeling being the one you take with you to your grave?
    â€œWhat is it?” Matisa has appeared at my elbow, silent as frost.
    I start and look around, confused that she’s here beside me, off her beast.
    She throws her head to indicate behind her. “I gave my horse to Sister Violet for a little while. Nishwa can scout behind.”
    I look back. Frère Andre is now leading Dottie, with Sister Violet and Nico perched atop. Kane walks beside them.
    Guilt floods over me again. “I’m sorry,” I say. She frowns in confusion. “About this morning,” I say. “Had no idea they’d want to come. I’m sorry for putting this on you.”
    She waves me off. “Refusing them did not feel right.”
    â€œBut it’ll take us near twice as long to get to your home, now.”
    â€œWe have time.”
    She sounds like she means it. I raise my eyebrows.
    â€œIf we start to lose too much time,” she says. “I can send Nishwa and Isi on ahead.”
    I study her. Only half a day from the settlement and she already looks happier—like a weight has been lifted. “Are you sure you’re all right?” I ask. “This morning . . .”
    Her cheeks color a mite. “This morning I was a bit frenzied,” she admits. “The mapmaker’s news unsettled me. And Kane’s request was one more surprise. But we are on our way now. And we will reach my people in time.”
    I step over the bones and we continue walking. “Isi doesn’t seem to think so.”
    â€œIs that what’s bothering you?” she asks, keeping pace with me. “He has always been impatient to get home.”
    â€œIt’s the fact we’re here at all. You teaching me to ride didn’t sit too well, remember.” Matisa spent several days getting Kane and me comfortable on her horse while we waited on Soeur Manon. Isi had watched us circle the sheep paddock, his face a thundercloud.
    She sighs. “I know.” She gets a sly smile on her face. “But maybe it was because you took so long to learn.”
    â€œI did not!” I protest. Except she’s right; I don’t ride very well.
    â€œYour boy, though, he’s