“Grandmother’s gift?” Dale asked. “You’re going to leave it?”
“I don’t know quite how to put it,” Livvy said. “But it never really felt like it was mine.”
Dale nodded slowly.
“Grandmother,” Livvy said. “Celestino called her that too. I didn’t realize you were related.”
“What?” Dale said, looking at her. “Related?” He shook his head and smiled a little. “No, we’re not related. She’s Grandmother, not grandmother.”
It was Livvy’s turn to shake her head. “I’m not following you.”
“She is the Grandmother,” Dale said. He waited for realization to dawn but when it didn’t he continued. “You know.” He gestured around them. “The Grandmother of this world and all the people in it–Spider Woman. She created the first people. She protects us, even now. The first shaman and still the most powerful. Still watching over the ancestors in the Underworld.”
Spider Woman?
Livvy remembered the fine net Coco had woven in the plaza, the spider bite in her kiva–she and SK exchanged looks–the swarm of spiders that had covered them in their shared dream.
The first shaman and the most powerful.
Livvy touched her hip, the one Coco had healed.
SK shivered again, bringing Livvy back to the present. This time, he didn’t hide the fact that he was starting to feel the cold. He put both hands in his jacket pockets. A breeze had come up.
“Dale,” Livvy began.
“You’ve got to go,” he said. “I know.” He hugged her and squeezed tight. “Thank you,” he whispered. He let her go and reached out his hand to SK. “Thank you both,” Dale said as they shook hands.
“We were glad to help,” SK said.
Dale rubbed SK’s hand between both of his before letting go.
“Stay out of the cold,” he said, still grasping SK’s hand. “Stay away from cold places.”
SK cocked his head slightly at Dale. “I’ll do that,” he said.
“Good,” Dale said, letting go. “Good.”
SK gave Livvy a quizzical look but she could only shrug. Dale was staring at the mound again.
“Are you staying?” Livvy asked him quietly.
Dale nodded.
“I’ll be here for a while longer. Besides…” He turned to face the double rainbow. “There’s no better place to see this.”
CHAPTER NINETY-NINE
LIVVY HADN’T HAD to ask twice. With the engine idling and the heat cranked up all the way, SK was okay with waiting in his car. They hadn’t had to talk about her car for very long before deciding to leave it with Marvin. They wouldn’t be needing two.
“Be right back,” she said.
The drive back from the cemetery took them right past the east side of the mesa where Coco lived. There was no way Livvy could leave without seeing her.
Especially now.
Her feet moved quickly though she couldn’t quite remember where to go. Had it really been this far from the road? She spotted the ladder first. Then she saw Coco sitting on the ground next to it. Livvy could make out the glow of a small fire. Now she could see the smoke from it as well. How could she have missed that? The breeze? Coco waved. Livvy waved back as she broke into a run.
“I’m glad you’ve come!” Coco said, smiling up at her. She patted the beautiful rug. “Sit!”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Livvy blurted out.
Coco prodded the fire with a long stick. “It’s warmer by the fire,” she said, still smiling.
Livvy quickly sat.
“You might have said you were Spider Woman.”
“Would it have mattered?”
“Yes!” Livvy nearly yelled. Then she thought about it. “Well, I mean, no. But…”
“Exactly,” said Coco.
Livvy stared at her, at Spider Woman, the first shaman. Though she was sitting right in front of her, she could barely believe it. Then she remembered that Celestino hadn’t known who she was talking about.
“But is Coco really your name then?”
“More a nickname,” Coco said. “You can call me Kookyangwwuuti for long.”
“Oh, wow,” Livvy said, not sure if she could pronounce it.
“Exactly,” Coco said again.
Livvy shook her head. “I can’t believe it,” she said, nearly laughing.
“And yet you do,” said Coco lightly. “You have to believe in the gods to see them.”
Believe? She didn’t have to believe. They were here. They were in the Multiverse. They were–suddenly, she remembered Tawa, of seeing him as well. The thought brought her up short.
“Why did he do that?” Livvy asked.
Coco shrugged. “You might say he saw his chance,” she said. “A Pahaana, the tablets, you–it was all too much. It seemed like the prophecy was being fulfilled.” She prodded the fire and they watched a couple of embers drift upward. “He didn’t create the Fourth World so he didn’t mind seeing it end. The possibility of starting fresh–well, it always has its appeal.”
“Why not show Celestino the tablet? Have him retrieve it?”
Coco looked at her and cocked her head slightly. “Because Celestino doesn’t see him. Only you.”
Livvy’s eyebrows went up as her mind flashed through Tawa’s appearances, from L.A. to the moment on the cliff. Had the tablet he’d shown her ever really held information about her and SK?
“He had the right intention, you know,” Coco said. “He sees more clearly than most what is happening in this world and he has his part to play. Even so, I’m glad to say he’ll think twice before shining the sun on someone again.”
Livvy had wondered if he’d survived but he was a kachina after all. Coco had grown quiet and they both stared into the fire.
“And that’s why I was here,” Livvy said, quietly.
Coco shook her head. “No dear,” she said. “Not at all. You’re here because all dreams spin out from the same web.”
When Livvy only looked at her, Coco set the stick down.
“There and here,” Coco said. “The Multiverse and the real world. Are you so sure they’re different?”
Livvy frowned a little at that. She’d seen that they were different. In fact, they couldn’t be more different.
Coco lightly rested a hand on Livvy’s knee. Livvy looked into her eyes and watched the flames dancing there.
“You’re at the beginning,” she said. “The journey is long because, well, they always are.” She nodded once and smiled to herself. “But you must take that voyage,” she continued. “Beginning to end, because no one can do it for you.”
Then she placed her hand back into her own lap and nodded toward the car. Livvy looked at it, small in the distance. Wisps of white mist came from the tailpipe.
“Have faith in yourselves,” she heard Coco say. “You’ll find your answers. They’re closer than you think. And that’s not hearsay. It’s true.”
Inside the car there was movement. SK was waving at her. She waved back before turning to Coco.
“Coco, at least tell me…”
Livvy stopped. Coco was gone. She looked left and right, even behind her, but she was alone.
“…about the tablet,” Livvy finished.
A few charred stones was all that was left of the fire ring. The rug was gone as well. Instead, Livvy was sitting cross-legged on the sand, among a few scrub bushes. Next to her was a large but shallow depression in the earth. A single rough pole of wood protruded from it. A small cluster of twigs and brown leaves had collected there.
‘There is no shaman at the edge of the mesa,’ Celestino had said.
Livvy looked back to where Coco had been sitting, a rough patch of sand and dirt.
‘Still watching over the ancestors in the Underworld,’ Dale had said.
The breeze had grown into wind. The leaves in the bottom of the depression scuttled dryly in a small circle. Something in their midst glinted in the light. Livvy recognized her phone. She stood,
walked over to it, and picked it up. It was off and the battery was dead. She put it in her jacket pocket as she climbed back out.
As she slowly surveyed the landscape, Livvy paused. The jagged and rocky edge of the mesa was bathed in the faint orange glow of the sun beyond it. The Painted Desert lived up to its name as the banded cinder cones and low tablelands turned luminescent. She glanced once more at where Coco had sat and pulled up her collar against the wind.
The walk back to the car seemed long and cold. When she reached it, she quickly got inside and put her hands to the heater.
“Did you see her?” SK asked.
Livvy paused. So, he hadn’t.
“Yes,” she said. “I did.”
She couldn’t help but look back toward the kiva although she knew no one was there.
SK silently waited.
Livvy finally turned to him.
“She says we’re going to be okay,” she said, smiling.
SK took her hand. “I think I could have told you that,” he said. “Saved you a walk in the cold.”
“Oh no,” she said, shaking her head. “I wouldn’t have missed that for anything.”
He knit his eyebrows together and looked past her out the window for a moment. Then he smiled and put the car into gear.
“Are we ready then?” he asked.
“We are.”
He nodded and turned the car onto the dirt road. It would lead them to the highway, off the mesas, and then south. She glimpsed the last of the double rainbow disappearing as a light rain began to dot the windshield. It was going to be a beautiful drive.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
I hope you enjoyed the first three books in the Olivia Lawson Techno-Shaman Series. The story continues in Book 4 (Shaman, Priestess, Pawn) which will be available in Spring 2014!
If you’d like to know about new releases and only new releases, then the M. Terry Green Newsletter is for you. I loathe spam and will never share your address. Plus, the unsubscribe button is always just a click away.
Books thrive because of readers and word-of-mouth. If you enjoyed this book, please consider sharing it with others who might enjoy it too. A review, even if it’s only a line or two, could make all the difference and I would really appreciate it.
M. Terry Green is a full-time writer, former archaeologist, and budding minimalist. For more information about her and Livvy’s Techno-Shaman Multiverse, please visit mterrygreen.com.
See you on the flip side!
BOOKS BY M. TERRY GREEN
Shaman, Healer, Heretic: Olivia Lawson Techno-Shaman Book One
Shaman, Friend, Enemy: Olivia Lawson Techno-Shaman Book Two
Shaman, Sister, Sorceress: Olivia Lawson Techno-Shaman Book Three
Shaman, Priestess, Pawn: Olivia Lawson Techno-Shaman Book Four - Coming Spring 2014!
DEDICATION
For Cheese.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
SHAMAN, HEALER, HERETIC
Many, many thanks are owed to a few wonderful people.
Jesse Steele at the The Editorial Department annotated the entire manuscript in one of its final stages. Her corrections, suggestions and advice were invaluable in moving the story to the next level and saving me from a gaggle of grammar gaffs–though I’m sure I’ve managed to trip myself up after the fact.
In the first version of this book, artist Jennifer Albright brought Livvy to life in a way that I could never have envisioned. It was simply a delight to watch her apply both talent and imagination to a character that had once only existed in my head.
In the latest version of this book, author and designer Keri Knutson of Alchemy Bookcovers & Design completely re-envisioned the cover concept and artwork for the entire Techno-Shaman series. Her beautiful work is a perfect fit and I’m excited for readers to see it.
Copy editor David Drazul, after lending his talents on the third book in the series, could hardly be left out of the others. From the paragraph down to the comma, there doesn’t seem to be a sentence he can’t improve.
Finally, my husband and the partner of my labors has in turn been beta reader, critique partner, editor, designer, engineer, and support team. In some magical math that I have yet to comprehend, he makes my burdens less than half because he shares them but my happiness is more than doubled.
SHAMAN, FRIEND, ENEMY
It takes so much more than a writer to create a book. Jesse Steele, of The Editorial Department, brought a critical editor's eye to this story. Her sense of reader expectations was crucial in the final stages and allowed me not only to take a more distanced view of the big picture but also a closer look at some of the finer details. Her work was indispensable.
In the latest version of this book, author and designer Keri Knutson of Alchemy Bookcovers & Design completely re-envisioned the cover concept and artwork for the entire Techno-Shaman series. Her beautiful work is a perfect fit and I’m excited for readers to see it.
Copy editor David Drazul, after lending his talents on the third book in the series, could hardly be left out of the others. From the paragraph down to the comma, there doesn’t seem to be a sentence he can’t improve.
My husband and I often call ourselves a team but the word becomes insanely applicable when it comes to this book because he occupies a whole raft of positions: reader, critique partner, editor, engineer, programmer, and designer. He’s also mastered that mysterious math of life that makes my burdens less than half because he shares them but my happiness more than double. Go team.
SHAMAN, SISTER, SORCERESS
The majority of my writing life is solitary but that doesn’t mean I don’t have help. In this book’s penultimate stage, copy editor David Drazul cast his tightly focused eye over each and every word. As though he wielded a laser instead of a red pencil, he made corrections and suggestions with the utmost care and precision. His work improved mine and I am truly grateful.
In the latest version of this book, author and designer Keri Knutson of Alchemy Bookcovers & Design completely re-envisioned the cover concept and artwork for the entire Techno-Shaman series. Her beautiful work is a perfect fit and I’m excited for readers to see it.
However, it takes more than words and covers to create a novel. In the meandering path that leads here, my husband is my partner in all things. He is beta reader, sounding board, and editor from development through final read. The revised manuscripts, blurbs and covers seem endless but he always gives of his time, attention, and honesty. What a thankless job it is–except for moments like these.
Copyright © 2014 M. Terry Green
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, in the real world or the Multiverse, is coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written consent of the copyright owner.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the copyright owner is illegal. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
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