Read Him Standing for Free Online Page B

on the ice was loosening.
    â€œThen die and have no world,” Otter Tail said.
    Him Standing bobbed under. He flailed in the water. He got a grip on the edge of the ice again. His head was barely above the surface.
    â€œYes. All right. I will take your deal.”
    With that, Otter Tail took a turtle-shell rattle from his robes. He shook it in a wide circle around Him Standing. He spoke in words they didn’t understand. The people on the shore watched in amazement as the wizard was lifted from the water. He spun rapidly in the air. Then he vanished.
    Sally paused and looked at me steadily. “He went to the dream world. He has lived there ever since. His followers have tried to bring him back many times. But they needed a source of pure magic.”
    â€œMe?” I asked.
    â€œYes,” Sally said. “Your grandfather shared his gift with you. But you had it in you already. That is why you create so easily. That is why you do what you do without study. It is pure magic.”
    â€œGareth Knight saw that on the boardwalk that day,” Amy said.
    â€œYes. He recognized it. Lucas is Ojibway. So was Him Standing. It must have seemed too good to be true for him,” Sally said.
    â€œKnight is a dark shaman?” I asked.
    â€œYes. But not one with true power. Not yet. He needs the mask.”
    â€œWhat about the mask?” Amy asked. “Why did Lucas carve his own face and not Him Standing’s?”
    â€œHim Standing lives in the dream world. Otter Tail did not tell him that the dream world and our world exist in the same time and place but do not meet. There is no doorway,” Sally said.
    â€œBut that’s what he said. The doorway is open ,” Amy said. “I heard Lucas say that.”
    â€œLucas has changed, hasn’t he?” Sally asked.
    â€œYes,” Amy said. “It scares me.”
    â€œHe goes to the dream world. There he is under the power of Him Standing. The dark shaman becomes real through Lucas. The more he dreams, the more he carves. More dark magic goes into the mask.”
    â€œI am the doorway,” I said. “When it’s finished, it will hold the spirit of Him Standing.”
    â€œAnd all of his power,” Amy whispered.
    â€œYes,” Sally said. “He is coming through you and into the mask.”
    â€œA spirit mask,” I said quietly.
    â€œThere are good and bad spirits,” Sally said. “Your grandfather did not teach you this. It is the weakness they looked for.”
    â€œThis is really freaking me out,” I said. “How are we supposed to fight something like this?”
    Sally reached over and took my hand. “Finish the mask,” she said.
    â€œWhat if I can’t?”
    â€œWhat do you think might prevent you from finishing?”
    â€œFear,” I said quietly.
    â€œFear is a magic of its own, Lucas.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    She smiled. “Fear is a power that we all have. Except we are never taught to accept it as a power. We get taught that it is a weakness. We are ashamed of it. We think it makes us less. But in fact it makes us more.
    â€œIt’s only when we walk fully into it that fear shows its powerful side. The darkness isn’t the absence of light. It’s the threshold of light. When you are courageous enough to stand in your fear, you are learning how to step forward into the light.”
    I looked at the floor and considered what she’d said. “Are you telling me that if I finish the mask, even though it terrifies me to think about it, everything will be okay?
    â€œNo,” she said. “I’m telling you that you will be okay. That’s what is certain.”
    â€œI still don’t understand.”
    She took my hands in hers. “Walking through your fear makes you stronger. It makes you able to walk through other fears. It gives you courage. It gives you faith that there are bigger powers in the world than