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"What are your parents’ names?" she asked

"I don’t remember I was found in the woods near the Old Nation I was hoping" Impossible hope burbled up with memories, the need of all orphans, to discover their blood kin

"You hoped I could tell you?" she guessed "Send you to your clan, your people?" I nodded "I will help if I can If you are of The People," she said gently "But from your eyes, I see that you are not full-blooded Cherokee What are you?" Aggie asked

I stood so quickly her eyes didn’t follow She tensed Half rose I forced h on the ja, suspended over a fire, froh the flesh of ie flattened her hands on the table, her pal the surface She relaxed one joint at a ti, and reht, close to the surface Claws flexed Ready

"Forgive ie said, controlled, subdued, motionless as the air before winter snows "I didn’t wish, didn’t intend, to cause you pain"

"Why did you ask rowled, and I saw her flinch, the reaction ie shrugged, a slight lifting of narrow shoulders "Your eyes proclai in you, a shadow of soold" She pointed to my stomach, between my ribs "There Like two souls in one flesh They do not battle, but live in uneasy har, when the moment stretched into discomfort even for a shaman, she blew out a breath and took a cookie, ate it Visibly gathered herself and her thoughts "To answer your first question, the liver-eater is a skinwalker"

Breath caught inI don’t knohat she saw on ht I ht speak I looked Cherokee Had spoken a Cherokee word In the years in the children’s hoh the old writings of Ja that correlated withI read had sounded like what I was I found estured for her to continue

"It is also called skinchanger There are several tribal stories about liver-eater In one, she is ferandmother and so is respected and trusted for reed for youth and power overtake her, she seeks to replace what she has lost and tees her skin for another huic

"Our stories tell us that when she gives over to evil, the skinwalker has one long fingernail that she can insert into a child and reie went on "Another skinwalker is Callanu Ayiliski, the Raven, Moker He likes to steal hearts" Her eyes studied

"The liver-eater is usually referred to as a skinwalker who has gone mad Skinwalkers can be a nasty bunch," she said "However, in distant times, before the white man came, with his lusts to always have more, before the Spaniards in metal helmets came to enslave us, skinwalkers were the protectors of The People, keeping our ancestors safe froic Only when they became old, and after the white man came, did ic" Her voice fell silent

Aggie watcheder U’tlun’ta" She pronounced it like hut luna, which was a different pronunciation from the word in ends in Mooney’s books Aggie ser"

I nodded "Is there any chance the liver-eater is a van They came with the Spaniards, the first white h it didn’tof fan blades, the sound of the erator ticked, popped, and an automatic ice maker dumped ice cubes with a clatter I moved back to the table and sat in the chair "The words between an elder or shaman, and a seeker in pain, are protected, aren’t they?" I asked "Like discussions between a psychologist and patient?"

Aggie inclined her head "So to kill someone, I will put the needs of The People, and even the white man, before yours But if you come for counsel, I will help as I may, and retain your confidence" She tilted her head, like a bird studying the ground fro to kill anyone, are you?"

"Yes I am" She twitched, a faint moveoing to kill the thing I followed here It’s an old rogue vampire, a male I’m sure of it But my sourcemy source says it’s a liver-eater, not a vaie said, "Skinwalkers, before they turned to evil, were of The People They lived a us fro our history" Aggie shrugged "When the white ed I have heard it said: The skinwalkers shared the blood of The People The liver-eaters stole it"

Beast’s focus sharpened Blood And the strange scents caught in the bit of fabric that carried the rogue’s saliva and the blood of his victims, and the stink of rot Beast went still, as if she understood, but if she did, she didn’t explain it to et back to the house and take another sniff of the bloody cloth