Page 49 of Moon Chosen

“Xander, this one, and at the Gathering Site below I saw Warren shot and killed as they attacked,” Mari said.

“Warren. I am sorry to hear it. Cyan will be grieving his loss.”

Mari said nothing, though not because she was too callous to let death and the grief that followed it affect her. She simply didn’t understand how a woman could grieve a man who spent so little of his life with her. Xander had been different. He had actually raised Jenna—had been more of a mother than a father to her. But Warren? Mari would have liked to have asked her mother how often he had come to her to be Washed of his madness. Had he bothered to retain his sanity for his mate, or had he, like many of the Earth Walker males, simply given in to Night Fever more often than not?

Mari shook herself mentally and pointed at the holly bush. “Rigel, hide!”

The pup dashed within, spun around, and mouth open in a grin, waited for whatever game would come next.

“We go from here to the creek?” Leda asked.

“Yes, but first I’m going to throw this for him and have him bring it back to me from a bunch of directions.” Mari lifted the last stick she’d picked up. “Here you go, Rigel. Get it!” She tossed the stick and Rigel sprinted after it, happily carrying it back to her. A dozen times Mari threw the stick for Rigel—in a dozen different directions. Finally she nodded at her mother. “I think that’s good. Now to the creek.”

Mari called Rigel to her and the three of them made their way carefully down the steep bank.

“Watch your step, Mari,” Leda said, taking her daughter’s hand. “There are many holes and sharp, broken branches hidden beneath the leaves here. This bank is much more treacherous than it appears, which is why the crossing to the Gathering Site is quite a way downriver.”

Mari squeezed her mother’s hand and helped her pick her way down the steep bank while Rigel careened past them, all oversized legs and paws, making the two women smile.

“I think he’s going to be even bigger than your father’s Orion was,” Leda said, breathing hard as they paused at the bottom of the bank to catch their breath.

“I think Rigel is going to be magnificent! I also think we’re going to be successful today. After what we do, no Companion is going to be able to track Rigel back to our burrow,” Mari said, hoping by saying the words she would make them real. “And I’ll be more careful from today on. I’ll never take a straight path back to our burrow, and I’ll carry him whenever we get close to home.”

Leda raised a brow. “Even when he’s full grown?”

Mari nodded determinedly. “Even when he’s full grown. I’m already strong, and my strength will grow with him.”

Leda smiled at the gangly, frolicking pup and then at her daughter, her expression filled with love and pride. “Sweet girl, I believe you can accomplish anything if you work hard enough at it.”

Holding hands, Mother and daughter slogged through the creek together. The late-night rains had continued to swell the creek and had the already treacherous current sucking at their legs. Mari kept a tight hold on her mother’s slim hand while she glanced at Rigel, who had paused at the edge of the water and was whining piteously.

“Come on, Rigel. You can do it!”

The pup instantly stopped whining, pricked his ears at Mari, and then launched himself into the creek, sputtering and sneezing, but swimming strongly after them. The three of them reached the opposite, gentler bank together, and the women laughed softly as Rigel shook himself vigorously, and then began rolling in the moss in front of the nearest Earth Mother idol.

The women’s laughter stopped abruptly as their gazes went from idol to idol. The Gathering Site was wrecked. The Hunters had taken no notice of the lovingly tended statues, and had trampled anything that had been in their path. Mari watched her mother wander from one desecrated statue to another. At first Leda tried to repair smashed ferns and torn moss, but finding one of the Goddess’s carved sandstone faces that had been knocked from its rightful place and shattered, had her becoming still in her sadness. She sat with the broken rock in her lap, her fingers trailing over the cracked carving as if she could smooth away the damage.

Mari glanced at the sky. To the east of them it had lightened from gray and mauve to the colors of fire mixed with the cerulean of true morning.

“Mama.” She went to Leda and touched her shoulder gently. “Rigel and I have to go upstream, toward the Companions’ forest, and leave false trails. I can do it quickly and then return if you want to stay here and try to fix the Earth Mothers.”

Leda looked up at her daughter, her eyes swimming with unshed tears. “Don’t you need me to help you make the false trails?”

“No, Mama. Actually, I think it would be faster if just Rigel and I went.” Mari paused and added. “There aren’t any burrows upstream, are there?”

“No. There are no burrows in that direction. None would have been built heading toward the Companions’ forest.”

“Then I don’t need to worry about Earth Walkers surprising me with Rigel, right?” Mari asked.

“Right again, sweet girl, which seems the norm these days.” Leda smiled up at her daughter, though Mari thought her expression was shadowed with sadness. “You are growing into a fine woman, Mari. I am so proud of you.”

Mari blinked in surprise. “Well, thank you, Leda,” she said, trying to lighten her mother’s mood.

“You are welcome. You deserve the compliment. And stop calling me Leda.” She began shooing away Mari. “Go on. I’ll stay here and ground myself—find my calm true self in the midst of this chaos. Then I will put to right this desecration.” Leda paused and looked around her, sounding overwhelmed. “Or perhaps I should better use the time to go downstream to the burrows closest to here and warn the Clan that they must move.”

Mari smoothed her mother’s hair back from her face, noticing as she did so that there seemed to be an unusual amount of silver framing her temples. “Mama, weren’t most of the Clanswomen present yesterday?”

“Yes. There had to be a majority present to witness and accept my choice as apprentice. The only people missing were out hunting or gathering,” she said.