<- Chapter 50 Chapter 52 -> “Two weeks.”  Lissie’s voice squeaked as she raised it to answer their question. The Dust Women knew how long she’d been training.  They knew she’d spent two weeks without shoes, with no sleep.  Chasing the Wind was like learning to dream while awake. They knew how little it meant. …

<- Chapter 49 Chapter 51 -> “I don’t have enough tea to share.”  The inside of the cabin was scantily furnished.  There was only one stool, and one cot.  The Dust Woman sat on the seat, sipping from a metal cup.   Riley felt like the supplicants who stood before her mother asking for judgment.  Alexander…

<- Chapter 48 Chapter 50 -> The sun passed and set.  Riley slept easily, until Ruskin jumped on her chest.  She yelped, and felt his wet nose burrowing into her chin.  She shoved him off her bandage, then gave him a pet.  “Time to move, huh?”   Tlaso became subdued the further they rode.  His rhymes…

<- Chapter 47 Chapter 49 -> Riley would have stayed here forever.  The Plains were green and vibrant, Sugarsnap beneath her, and friends on all sides, the moon and stars above lighting the grass swaying in the wind.  The smell of her horse thick on her fingers and in her hair. Ahead of her, Tlaso…

<- Chapter 46 Chapter 48 -> Gavin stood at the podium once more.  His tooth hurt, and he ignored it.  Everything else was perfect.  Everything was his.  He surveyed his assembled army. The women were in his front now.  They stood behind his generals.  Gavin looked past them.  The plumes rose like stairs.  Only the…

<- Chapter 45 Chapter 47 -> Riley followed Lissie and said nothing.  She refused to break the silence.  The tears were hot on her cheeks.  Her arm burned and her side throbbed.  Her vision swam under the hood.   The smell of horses blew warm on the wind.  Riley breathed deep.  This seemed to be a…

<- Chapter 44 Chapter 46 -> Riley slept through the night and the next day.  She woke only to relieve herself and sip water.  She dreamt of trampling hooves. The drums woke her, but it was the haunting music that dragged her out of her cot.  It sounded like a cello, but wavering, and a…

<- Chapter 43 Chapter 45 -> Riley didn’t think that either of them were comfortable.  They refused to sit on the cot with her and crouched instead.  Lissie’s heels were on the ground, but Cora was perched on the balls of her feet. “You get used to it.  They don’t make chairs.”  Cora said, sounding…

<- Chapter 42 Chapter 44 -> The smoke tent was well-named.  It was the only building Riley had seen so far made with black cloth instead of white.  Cora opened the flap and blue smoke billowed out.  She coughed once and yelled inside, “Riley’s awake!  I have her here!”  A whooping, punctuated by coughs, issued…

<- Chapter 41 Chapter 43 -> Riley’s heartbeat pulsed through her side.  She didn’t want to wake up.  But she needed to relieve herself.  That pulled her back into her body. She opened her eyes to see torchlight.  She was on a cot.  Riley turned her head, and her vision swam.  Then she saw grass…