The Ghosts of Strangers Page 7

  At last she laid her chin on the ground. Her waving whiskers stilled. "On my island that is no more, taking in another's ghost is a large thing. It is a promise to carry forward a life, to nurture it and pass it on to another body when mine breaks, to weave it in with all the other lives I cherish and host. Man, I do not want you inside me, but I see now that I will have you. Come to me if you still will it."

  Smudu turned back to Elexa. She took a deep breath and translated for him.

  The ghost walked to Elexa and kissed her forehead, a touch of chill. He turned and strode toward the dragon's mouth, shrugging off Elexa's net as he went. When he stood just in front of the dragon, she lifted her head a little and opened her mouth. Each of her wavy teeth was outlined in mother-of-pearl, and her tongue had three tips. Smudu stepped over the fence of her teeth and settled on her tongue. She closed her mouth, lifted her head, and swallowed.

  She froze, head pointed toward the stars. Father held Elexa's shoulders as she leaned against him. An age of silence went by, and then the dragon's head lowered. "I understand," she said, in her own voice, in the language of humans.

  #

  There were four human skulls among the bones at the mouth of the wild dragons' cave. Father laid his cloak on the ground. He and Elexa worked the skulls free of the other bones and set them on the cloak. Each skull had a tooth-shaped hole in the back.

  "My sister liked the brains best," said the dragon Smudu had joined. Her name was Nasra. "She said they tasted like stories."

  Father stumbled down the mountain in the dark of morning, Elexa on his back and the cloak of skulls bunched in his hands. They went home and slept until the middle of the following afternoon, then took the skulls to the temple of the mountain god. Someone in the center ground rang the village bell in the pattern to share sorrow, and everyone who could set a job aside for an hour came to the temple to see the skulls, lined up atop the wooden bones of their funeral fire.

  Nasra, Maia, and Birta landed in the center ground near the temple midway through the death songs. Yan, never anxious to take on god duties, had let Father take charge of this ceremony and farewell. When the dragons arrived, Yan glared at them, especially at Nasra. Some of the other villagers hid.

  Elexa felt as though she were in a strange country where all the colors were gray and all the edges soft. She had touched the skulls as she set them on their pyres. One was smoother than the others, with faint patterns across it in the shape of scales. She knew it had belonged to her brother. A dragon bond changed you from skin to bones.

  She prayed for all four of the dead, that they were happy in their next lives, and after she had set the fires to consume what they had left behind and watched the bones scorch, she turned and saw the dragons, next lives to Kindal and Pewet and Smudu.

  Nasra rested her forehand on a cloth-wrapped bundle. "Elexa," she said.

  Elexa walked through the crowd, saw faces of people she had known all her life, locked in the quiet of sorrow. Tira, kneeling near the back, watched Elexa as she passed. Tira did not smile, but she didn't frown, either. She looked pale.

  "I have collected what belonged to my man," Nasra said when Elexa reached her. She shook the bundle and it clinked with coin. "We want to take it back to his family, but I cannot give it to them directly; the city will shoot me. Will you come with me, and walk it to them?"

  "Now you can leave your sister?" Elexa asked.

  Nasra dipped her head, glanced toward Birta and Maia. "I understand she won't be alone or abandoned. I am coming to appreciate the advantages of this life."

  "I'll come," Elexa whispered.

  Father headed for the house. Yan strode to Elexa. "You can't leave. You're the village deadspeaker. You have no right to risk yourself on a journey with a known killer of humans," he said.

  Suddenly she had status, after all the years she had done the job alone? She didn't want a job if it meant Yan could order her around. "My father can be the village deadspeaker," Elexa said. "I need to take care of my ghosts."

  Father returned with the leather saddle Kindal had used when he rode Maia, a hide coat, gloves, helmet, and a pouch of food. He went to Nasra and strapped the saddle on her over a dragonhide pad to protect Elexa from the dragon's heat. Elexa put on the leather clothes. They were all too big for her and smelled of Kindal. Her eyes swam. She looked at Maia.

  "Go," said Maia in Kindal's voice. "Go and come back, little sister."

  There were stirrups for her toes, and straps on the saddle she could cling to. Nasra wasn't as hot as other dragons — still not healthy yet. Elexa strapped the food pouch across her chest and took the treasure out from under Nasra's forefoot. Her father helped her tie it to the back of the saddle with leather strings, then boosted her into the saddle just in back of Nasra's first pair of arms and the bunched muscles that powered her wings.

  Elexa clutched the straps and glanced around at her village. She suspected it would never look the same to her again.

  Someone tugged on her boot. She looked down into Tira's face. Tira stretched up a closed hand. When Elexa opened her gloved hand, Tira dropped the beer-colored gem into it. "Maybe you'll find a good place to sell it in the city," she said.

  "I'll look."

  "I'm still mad that you get to fly first."

  Elexa laughed, wiped her eyes, watched the smoke rising from the farewell fires. Nasra gathered herself and leapt into the air.

  =End=

  About the Author

  Over the past thirty years, Nina Kiriki Hoffman has sold adult and YA novels and more than 250 short stories. Her works have been finalists for the World Fantasy, Mythopoeic, Sturgeon, Philip K. Dick, and Endeavour awards. Her fiction has won a Stoker and a Nebula Award.

  A collection of her short stories, Permeable Borders, was published in 2012 by Fairwood Press.

  Nina does production work for the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. She also works with teen writers. She lives in Eugene, Oregon.

  For a list of Nina's publications, go to: http://ofearna.us/books/hoffman.html.

  Connect with the Author

  You can connect directly with the Nina Kiriki Hoffman through Facebook.

  Other Nina Kiriki Hoffman Titles

  You can find the following titles online. The links below will allow you to purchase directly from Amazon or read free fiction online.

  Short Fiction:

  "Escapes," by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

  "Trophy Wives," by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

  "Family Tree" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

  "Ghost Hedgehog" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

  "How I Came to Marry a Herpetologist" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

  "The Weight of Wishes" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

  "Key Signatures" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman