Her eyes made great pools of water that rained down her cheeks and fell upon his lips.
“Do not fear me.” He tried to move away from her. “I will not kill you. I will not take your soul.”
She clung to him, pressing her wet face against his neck. “I am not afraid. My eyes wash away the memories of the Bad Ones so I may live in peace.”
Her lack of fear, her willing touch, astonished him.
He named her Fearless, and she called him Bear for his great size and ferocity in protecting her. She soothed his loneliness by her presence. And she found joy for the first time. No longer under the control of the Bad Ones, she smiled and laughed when she never had before.
Bear suspected the Bad Ones were trying to reclaim Fearless and moved them constantly. Sometimes his senses tingled, and in those moments, they would do as they had done at the first. Run hand in hand through the forest.
Bear and Fearless grew closer and closer until Bear began to worry over his feelings for her.
His fear came to life when Fearless was struck with a deep affliction. She needed the medicine of a powerful healer to save her. For weeks Bear traveled, carrying her to the wisest medicine woman.
He was not permitted in villages or near dwellings. It was feared the Bad Spirit would claim a soul in each dwelling he passed, unless he himself offered his life. And he would, for he valued Fearless’s life above his own.
He carried her to the village center, the location of the tribe’s power. The tribe’s men surrounded him, brandishing their knives and hatchets, waiting for the wise woman’s command.
In the light of the fading sun, the wise woman cried a keening wail that hushed the people. She examined Fearless’s wrist, spit on the star-shaped mark, and rubbed her tunic over the spot. Then she raised Fearless’s wrist up for the tribe to witness. The people whooped and yelled, welcoming Fearless to the tribe.
The wise woman would care for her now. Bear laid Fearless down gently and tucked the heavy robes around her.
“You.” The wise woman pointed her gnarled finger at him.
He stepped back from his only love, his head held high, and waited for death.
“You are the answer to my prayers. My enemies had sought to destroy my power by stealing my babe. Every day I have chanted a spell of protection for her and prayed for her return. You are marked, yet nothing can destroy your bond. You are my prayers come to life. You are her protector.”
“She is afflicted and needs strong medicine,” Bear said.
“I do not have the power. She is with the ancestors.”
Bear dropped to his knees beside Fearless. The light had faded from her, and he witnessed the truth of the woman’s words. He lifted his head and howled. The sound roared through the village, startling all who heard.
When he quieted, the medicine woman placed his hand over Fearless’s forehead. “I do not possess the power to call her soul back, but you are her destined one. You alone have the power to heal her.”
“I do not know the way.”
“The Spirit inside will guide you.”
Bear stilled, but the Spirit did not speak. The only thing in his mind was Fearless. He closed his eyes and chanted her name, remembered her laugh, her face, the soft sounds of her breathing as he lay with her.
Bear did not stop chanting until Fearless touched his hand. He opened his eyes. The light had returned to Fearless, the affliction gone.
The wise woman knelt next to them. “Daughter, you are returned to me a woman, but I love you as I loved the babe inside me.” She grasped both their hands. “Together you create a shield stronger than the oak. No harm will come to either of you while touching the other. As long as light shines in one of you, the other will live.”
At the wise woman’s welcome, the tribe accepted Fearless and Bear. The wise woman taught Fearless her healing skills. Fearless’s night sight—seeing in her dreams that which she couldn’t see during the day—grew until she became the wisest woman of the region.
A time of great peace and prosperity settled over the land. From many moons away, people sought Fearless’s healing and counsel.
The Bad Ones tried three times to kill Fearless, but they did not succeed. Nothing ever harmed Fearless and Bear, for they remained always together. Their bond, stronger than the hills, kept them from harm.
As they approached the end of their earthly lives, Bear carved a totem on the crest of the highest hill to remind all in the region that good always triumphed over evil, for he would protect Fearless into eternity.
They went to the ancestors together. The tribe built a great funeral pyre in honor of them and anointed their bodies in bear grease before setting the blaze. Every village in the region witnessed the black smoke burning in the sky.
A week later, after the fire cooled, the tribe gathered the ash and rubbed it over Bear’s totem to seal their power together inside the carving for eternity.
Keep reading for an excerpt from
SAVING MERCY
Book 1 in Abbie Roads’s new Fatal Truth series
Chapter 1
It’s a sad testament to the state of humanity that we elevate serial killers to the level of mega-celebrity.
—Ellsworth Garyington, MD, Journal of Human and Philosophical Studies
The air reeked of dirty pennies and death. The bodies had been removed days ago, but Cain Killion could still feel the desperate energy of the dying and almost—almost—hear the echoes of their screams imprinted on the bones of the house. He abhorred the sight of blood, and yet here he was, standing in another murder house in front of another wall smeared, splattered, and sprayed with gore.