Page 21 of Wind Rider

River nodded. “As my mother before me.”

“But your mother before you knew when to listen to the Elders and to the voice of the Great Mother Mare found within the whispers of the prairie grasses.”

“Who makes decisions for you, Mother?” River asked pointedly.

Her mother was surprised by the question, but she answered withouthesitation. “I make my own decisions, though I do weigh the opinions of others, especially Echo’s. You know that.”

“Yes, I do. What I am asking you for is no different from how you live and have lived for as long as I have memory of you.” River touched her mother’s arm gently. “Trust that you have raised me to think before I act, and to consider more than one side of any situation. Let me grow up, Mother. I cannot do that if you smother me.”

Dawn sighed. “It seems that unless I care to become a benevolent jailor I have little choice but to concede to your will.” Then she added, “But give me your word on something.”

“That depends on the something.”

Her mother smiled seraphically before untying one of the waistbelts that draped just above her hips. This particular strand of faceted blue stones was the delicate blue of a winter sky just before snow turns it gray. Dawn wrapped the strand around her daughter’s waist and then stepped back, studying her and nodding.

“Yes, you should have it. The stones look right on you.”

River stared in shock at the waistbelt—the first one of her life. Waistbelts were unique to Herd Magenti Riders. Each belt of precious stones proclaimed to the world that the Rider wearing it was also a Crystal Seer and had the ability to awaken the sleeping properties within them.

“But Mother, I’m not a Seer! I have only begun my training.”

Dawn pointed to the belt that now hung low around her daughter’s slim waist. “What stone is that?”

“Chalcedony,” River said.

“And its major properties are?”

River answered with no hesitation. “Chalcedony’s major properties are that it encourages peace and brotherhood. It is a stone that nurtures, and when awakened it repels hostilities, anger, and melancholy. It draws feelings of generosity, responsiveness, openness, and a willingness to please.”

“Very good. And has it warmed to you?”

River paused, concentrating on the unaccustomed weight around herhips, realizing it was, indeed, warm and pulsing faintly in time with her heartbeat.

“It has.”

“Then I would ask that you give me your word that you wear it whenever you and your Anjo ride out—openly and alone—to experience life and grow into a wise leader.”

River met her mother’s gaze. “I give you my word that I will proudly wear it always as a gift from my mother, whom the Great Mother Mare has blessed with the wisdom to allow her daughter the freedom—”

“To learn and grow and eventually to lead her Herd wisely,” Dawn finished for her.

“One step at a time, Mother,” River said as she hugged Dawn.

“Tell yourself whatever you wish, but remember that the Rider of the Lead Mare is always…” Dawn paused, prompting River to speak the traditional words with her.

“One step ahead of the Herd,”the two women intoned together.

River closed her eyes, relaxing in the familiar embrace of her mother as“one step at time… one step at a time…”played around and around in her mind in time with the heartbeat pulse of the stones around her waist.

CHAPTER 5

PRESENT DAY—UMBRIA RIVER

Drawing down the moon awakened the night sky, and the sleepy clouds cleared a little, allowing Mari enough light to do a decent job of cleaning and dressing Nik’s wounds while Sora passed her clean bandages and antiseptic salve made from boiled goldenseal root. She would’ve liked to have sewn closed a few of the deepest wounds—the ones on Nik’s shoulder and thigh in particular—but the lack of light coupled with the rocking of their little boat had Mari quickly deciding he’d be better off with a few nasty scars than the damage she could do poking around at him in the dark.

“It looks like the bleeding has completely stopped,” Sora said, peering at Nik from her boat.

“It has. For right now.” Mari frowned at the last wound she was dressing. “But I don’t like that he’s going to have to paddle for the next several hours.”