The Trickster

ISBN: 9780002243995

定价: 96.00

内容简介

ALBERTA 1907
SIDING TWENTY-THREE
When he screamed??? his lips slid so far up his teeth that the rarely exposed
gum looked like shiny??? flayed meat. Hunting Wolf s eyes flicked open and
stared. There was a semicircle of faces above him. Silent. Watching.
For a moment he stayed perfectly still??? allowing himself to regain the
feeling of being inside his body??? that dull ache of reality after the lightness
of the spirit s escape. Then the numbing cold of the snow beneath his
naked back stabbed at his skin??? and mocked him with the knowledge that
he was firmly back in the realm of the flesh.
Sweat was still trickling down his breast??? beads of moisture clinging
to his brown nipples like decoration??? and he stared up at the gray??? snow-
laden sky in hot despair.
The faces looked on. They would not step forward to touch him or
help him in this state. The shaman s trance was sacred and they had no
way of knowing when it would be over.
But it was over now. He had looked into the thing s face. Oh??? Great
Spirit??? he had. And the filthy darkness??? the bottomless malice he had seen
there??? had been nearly impossible to bear.
The white men gathered by the mountain were insane. He had seen
that??? too. Their madness??? their folly.
And what could he do?
The shaman got up from the ground with a swiftness that surprised
his audience of watchers??? and walked away. The faces regarded him for a
moment??? and then??? one by one??? followed.
~o