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"Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques"

Roger looked up at Bree, and soh the air between them He reached down and took hold of Je

"So, a bhalaich, can ye do it, then?"

"FRÈREdo whats?"

"Look at Grand-da" Roger nodded at Jaue, rolled into a cylinder

"Can ye do that?" Roger asked

"Chure" Jeue Flat "Bleah!"

A collective sigh gusted through the rooht suspended er’s and Jaain, recalling his original question

"Grand-da gots balls?" he asked, pulling on thehis head far back to look up at Jamie

"Aye, lad, I have," Jaer Co, the ibbon between them, his knees drawn up to his chin

110

MAN OF BLOOD

I CRUMBLED DRY SAGE LEAVES incoals The sun hung low in the sky above the chestnut trees, but the sround lay already in shadow, and the fire was bright

The five of us stood in a circle around the chunk of granite hich Jarave There were five of us, and so we laid the circle with five points By common consent, this was not only for the s, but for his four unknown corave lay under a mountain-ash, nearby

The srant I had brought other herbs as well, but I knew that for the Tuscarora, for the Cherokee, and for the Mohawk, sage was holy, the s

I rubbed juniper needles between my hands into the fire, and followed therace, and rosemary--that’s for remeently in the evening breeze, and the twilight lit the drifting sold as it rose up and up into heaven’s vault, where the faint stars waited

Jaht as the blaze by his feet, and looked toward the west, where the souls of the dead fly away He spoke softly, in Gaelic, but all of us knew enough by now to follow

"Thou goest hoht to thy ho, and of suht to thy perpetual home,

To thine eternal bed, to thine eternal sluhts be thine, O brother,

The sleep of the seven joys be thine, O brother,

The sleep of the seven slumbers be thine, O brother,

On the arrace

The shade of death lies upon thy face, beloved,

But the Jesus of Grace has His hand round about thee;

In nearness to the Trinity farewell to thy pains,

Christ stands before thee and peace is in Hislight touched his face, fierce upon his scars He said it first in the Mohawk tongue, but then in English, for the rest of us

"Be the hunt successful,

Be your enemies destroyed before your eyes,

Be your heart ever joyful in the lodge of your brothers"

"Ye’re ood etically "Wi’ the druht once would do, for now"

"That will do fine, Ian," Jahed and cleared his throat, then spoke, the husk of his voice as transparent and as penetrating as the smoke

"Lord, make me to know mine end,

And the measure of my days, what it is;

That I may kno frail I am

Behold, Thou hasbefore Thee

Hear ive ear unto er with Thee,