The stone child, p.1
The Stone Child, page 1
PUFFIN
an imprint of Tundra Book Group, a division of Penguin Random House of Canada Limited
First published 2022
Text copyright © 2022 by David Robertson
Cover art copyright © 2022 by Natasha Donovan
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, 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 permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
The author would like to acknowledge the Canada Council for the Arts for their support.
Publisher’s note: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: The stone child / David A. Robertson.
Names: Robertson, David, 1977- author.
Series: Robertson, David, 1977- Misewa saga ; bk. 3.
Description: Series statement: The Misewa saga ; book three
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 2022016570X | Canadiana (ebook) 20220165726 | ISBN 9780735266162 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780735266179 (EPUB)
Subjects: LCGFT: Novels.
Classification: LCC PS8585.O32115 S76 2022 | DDC jC813/.6—dc23
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022932473
Ebook ISBN 9780735266179
www.penguinrandomhouse.ca
a_prh_6.0_140577848_c0_r0
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Map
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Epilogue
This book is dedicated to Colleen Nelson, because a bet is a bet.
SWAMPY CREE GLOSSARY AND PRONUNcIATION GUIDE
SOUNDS:
É – ay
Í – ee
I – ih
A – ah
O – oh
E – eh
Arikwachas eric-watch-ahs: squirrel
Askí ah-skee: earth, ground
Assini Awasis ah-sin-ih ah-wah-sis: stone child
Atim ah-tim: dog
Ehe eh-heh: yes
Ekosani eh-koh-sah-nih: thank you
Kihiw kih-ewe: eagle
Kisakíhitin kiss-ah-kee-hit-in: I love you
Kiskisitotaso kih-skih-sih-toh-tah-so: don’t forget about who you are
Kókom koo-kuhm: grandmother
Kokoswak co-coss-wack: pigs
Mahihkan mah-hih-kahn: wolf
Mihko mih-koh: blood
Ministik min-iss-tick: island
Misewa miss-ah-waa: all that is
Miskinahk miss-kih-nack: turtle
Mistapew miss-ta-pay-oh: big foot (giant)
Mwach mwa-ch: no
Muskwa muh-skwa: bear
Nikamon nih-kah-mawn: a song
Níwakomakanak nee-wack-oh-mah-kah-nack: my relatives
Nósisim new-sis-ihm: my grandchild
Ochek oh-check: fisher
Ochekatchakosuk oh-check-ah-chack-oh-suhk: the fisher stars
Oho oh-ho: owl
Otakosík oh-tack-oh-seek: yesterday
Pimíhkán pih-mee-kaan: pemmican
Pisiskowak pih-sis-koh-wack: animals
Tansi tan-sih: hello
ONE
“Eli, wake up!”
Morgan looked back and forth between her brother and the enormous footprints in the frosted grass that approached the Great Tree and then retreated into the northern woods. Mistapew. She couldn’t stop imagining the terrible creature taking Eli’s soul and leaving with it. Why? How?
“Eli! Wake! Up!”
Morgan had shouted the same three words at least ten times, but Eli hadn’t moved in any way, not so much as a flickering eyelid, even when Morgan had tried yelling in his ear. She’d also punched him in the arm, wanting him to tell her to quit it, as he always did. Wanting him to rub his arm as though her punch were harder than it actually was. She wanted him to be faking it, for this to be payback for her going through the portal without him. She wanted him to sit up suddenly and scare the living crap out of her—an elaborate prank, right down to the footprints. Morgan had seen videos where people had faked bigfoot tracks, so how hard could it be?
But with each passing second, it became clear that this was no prank. Her brother would not wake up.
The night before, Morgan had learned that her mother was dead. Feeling lost, wanting to escape, she’d snuck into Eli’s room and taken the drawing he’d made of the Barren Grounds. She used it to open the portal and passed through, alone, to find herself at the Great Tree. Eli followed soon after, and, without a word between them, the siblings fell asleep together amidst the thick roots.
At some point during the night, it happened: Mistapew took Eli’s soul.
Now Morgan sat down with her back against the tree trunk. The open portal was just above her head (it was a wonder Katie and James hadn’t heard her shouting), and Eli’s head was in her lap. Why had Mistapew taken Eli’s soul and not hers? Had Eli just been closer to where Mistapew came out of the forest? Was it that simple? What other explanation could there be? Was there something special about Eli?
“Why’d you have to sleep by the stupid Great Tree?” Morgan asked herself, banging the back of her head against the rough bark.
She’d heard the story of the eagle Kihiw many times before, from Elders in Misewa, and from Ochek (both as an older fisher but also when they time-traveled and met the animal being when he was younger). By now, she could tell the story herself, and do at least as good a job as young Ochek. People from the village had planned to hunt in the northern woods and, after crossing the Barren Grounds, decided to rest before going any farther. While they were sleeping, Mistapew came into Kihiw’s teepee and took his soul. Nobody ever discovered where Mistapew put Kihiw’s soul. And because Kihiw could not eat or drink, his body wasted away, and he died.
Immediately after Morgan had recited that last part of the story in her mind, she gasped, looked at her brother, and cradled his head protectively. Eli could not eat or drink either! He would waste away and die, unless she did for him what nobody had managed to do for Kihiw.
“I need to find where that giant took your soul,” she said to her unresponsive brother.
No medicine could bring Eli back. There was nothing she could force down his mouth, as Mihko had done for her when Muskwa had knocked her out. Nothing that would heal him. She could not yell his name loud enough. She could not punch his arm hard enough.
Morgan scanned the area, desperate for help, but there was nobody around. Of course. She and Eli were between the Barren Grounds and the northern woods. The closest people were actually Katie and James, through the portal and down the stairs on the second floor. But Morgan couldn’t ask them for help. They couldn’t know about the portal. And besides, James might be a doctor, but what good would a cardiologist be for a person with a stolen soul? She was pretty sure no doctor could treat something like that. No, the help she needed was in Misewa. If somebody knew what to do, if somebody knew where she could start looking for Eli’s soul in the northern woods, if somebody even knew what a soul looked like or where it might be kept, it would be an animal being.
Eli needed to be left by the Great Tree, where he’d still be experiencing earth time. Bringing him to Misewa would waste time he didn’t have. But she didn’t want him left alone there while she went for help, even if, to him, it would seem as though she’d only been gone a few minutes. A lot could happen in two minutes. Had it taken Mistapew more than two minutes to take Eli’s soul? Morgan realized she needed someone to sit with him, and, in the end, there was only one person she could think to ask: Emily.
Morgan propped Eli up against the Great Tree, then climbed through the portal into their secret room. She snuck to her bedroom and found her phone, which was still on the floor by her bed, where she’d dropped it. She hesitated a moment, staring at it as the conversation with her kókom playe
Sneaking back into the secret room, where she could keep an eye on her brother, she dialed Emily’s number. It rang once. It rang twice. It rang enough times that Morgan feared Emily wouldn’t pick up. But then she did. It was 5:06 a.m.
“Morg, what the heck?” Emily said, half asleep but alert enough to whisper, so as not to wake anybody else in her own home.
“Emily,” Morgan said, matching Emily’s volume to ensure that Katie and James would also stay asleep. “How fast can you get to my house?”
She rattled off her address and waited while Emily plugged it into her phone so that she could get directions from her house to Morgan’s. It felt as though it took forever, and every second mattered.
“Well?” Morgan said.
“Okay, okay, chill out,” Emily said. “It’d take me…nineteen minutes.”
Morgan checked the time: 5:08 a.m. It would take Emily maybe two or three minutes to get ready, nineteen minutes to get there, and another two minutes to sneak up to the attic. That meant when Emily arrived it would be, at worst, 5:32 a.m. Katie and James woke up at 6:00 a.m. Twenty-eight minutes on earth would translate to three days on Askí. Three days to save her brother’s life. She couldn’t even think about failing, of bringing Eli back to earth the way he was. He’d have to be plugged into machines his whole life, fed through a tube.
“You have to come over,” Morgan said.
“You called me at five in the morning to tell me I have to come over after school? I think it could’ve waited, Morg.”
“No, now. You have to come over now.”
Maybe it was the desperation in Morgan’s voice. Maybe it was just that Emily was that good a friend. Whatever the reason, Emily said, “Okay, I’m coming.”
“Em, thank you so much. I’ll be in the attic.”
“In the attic?”
“Yeah, in the attic, to the right, there’s a door. Behind the door, there’s a room. I’ll be in that room.” Morgan was talking so fast it must have sounded as if she’d drunk ten cups of coffee. “I’ll leave the front door open for you.”
“What’s this all about?” Emily asked. “What’s going on?”
Morgan could hear Emily moving around. She must’ve been getting changed while she talked. Good. She wasn’t wasting time. But how to answer her questions?
“You’ll have to see it to believe it,” Morgan said.
“A mystery.” At Emily’s end, Morgan heard a door open and shut; then she heard quick footsteps. Emily was out of the house. “I’ll be there soon.”
“Emily?”
“Yeah?”
“When you get here, climb the stairs on the outside of the steps, not in the middle. They creak in the middle.”
“Pro tip. Thanks.”
“And Emily?”
“Yeah?”
“Run.”
TWO
Fifteen minutes later, Morgan, who’d dizzyingly gone back and forth from Eli’s side to the big attic window that faced the street to keep watch for Emily, saw her running towards the house. She’d gotten there four minutes faster than planned. On earth, four minutes was no big deal, but Morgan knew it would give them precious hours on Askí. She hurried across the attic into the secret room and waited there. Ninety seconds later, she heard Emily climb the last flight of stairs before appearing in the doorway. Morgan gave her an enormous hug—for coming, of course, but also because Morgan needed one.
“Whoa,” Emily whispered. “I’m happy to see you, too.”
“Thank you,” Morgan said, her voice muffled by Emily’s hooded sweatshirt.
After the hug, Morgan led Emily into the secret room, then took her hands, preparing her for the shock.
“You wanted me to come over this early to…” Emily squeezed Morgan’s hands. “To propose?”
They smiled at the same time, as if their reactions had been synchronized. Morgan’s face felt warm. She let go of Emily’s hands and put her hands on her hips, then crossed her arms, then glanced at Emily. Then they looked away from each other. Finally, their eyes met, and they managed to hold each other’s gaze.
There was an awkward moment.
“Can you fill me in now?” Emily asked.
“Oh, right.” Morgan collected herself. “So, we need to go through here,” she said, leading Emily to the portal. Facing it, from their point of view, they could only see the sky. Askí’s sky, not earth’s sky.
“Onto…the roof?” Emily put her hand against the slanted wall the portal was on. “It seems pretty steep to just sit on the roof. Wouldn’t we fall off? Do you go through this skylight all the time? How are you not dead?”
“It’s not a skylight,” Morgan said. “It’s a portal.”
“A…” Emily furrowed her brow. “…Portal?”
“Yes. A portal to another world.”
“Morgan.” For the first time, Emily sounded exasperated with her. Frankly, Morgan was surprised it had taken this long. Over the two weeks of their friendship, all Morgan had been was exasperating. Weird. Detached. Manic—one day sad, another day happy. Emily started towards the door. “You got me up at five in the morning to mess with me? I’m going back to bed.”
But Morgan grabbed Emily’s hand and pulled her back.
“Wait,” she said.
“What?” Emily said. “I’m tired.”
“Look into it.”
“To see your backyard?”
“Just…trust me, okay? Humor me.”
“Fine,” Emily said with a big breath out, “and then I’m going home.”
Emily walked over to the portal. She curled her fingers over the edge, got on her tiptoes, and peered out of the secret room into Askí. As soon as she saw the other world (Morgan knew exactly what Emily saw: the Barren Grounds, the southern woods against the horizon, Misewa), she spun around to face Morgan with a look of confusion and alarm.
“There should be a backyard, and a back lane, and other houses, and the rest of the city,” Emily said. She looked again through the portal, then again at Morgan. “What the heck is going on?”
“I told you: it’s a portal into another world.” Morgan approached the portal and cupped her hands together to give Emily something to step on so that she could climb through. “And we have to go there, like, this minute.”
Emily hesitated. “I left a note for my parents, for when they got up, that I was working out in the gym this morning. Like, at school. Not that I was going to another world. How long are we going to be there? Do you know how crazy this is?”
“Yes,” Morgan said, “I know how crazy it seems. I felt the same way the first time. But time works differently there. If we spend a week on Askí—”
“Askí?”
“That’s what the world is called. It literally means ‘the world’ in Cree. Anyway, if we spend a week there, it’ll only be an hour here. My foster parents will be up in, like, half an hour, so we’re only going for a few days. Like, three days.”
“What?” Emily slapped herself on the cheek. “Am I still dreaming? Can somebody please wake me up?”
Emily was about to slap herself again, but Morgan caught her arm.
“No, you’re not dreaming. This is all real.” Morgan again made a step with her hands. “Now come on. Eli’s in trouble.”
It was very likely Morgan’s tone, desperate but determined, that stopped Emily from asking any more questions. She nodded, and then used Morgan’s hands to climb through the portal. Morgan swiftly followed, entering the portal the way she always did, by grasping the edges of the opening and, bracing her feet against the slanted wall, climbing up and through. On the other side, she found Emily already crouching beside Eli, who was still propped up against the Great Tree. Emily gave him a shake, but he didn’t react. She called his name, but he didn’t answer.
“What’s wrong with him?” she asked.
“Bigfoot took his soul,” Morgan said. “And before you say anything, yes, really bigfoot. It’s happened before, to an Elder. An eagle named Kihiw.”
“Morgan, this is too much. I don’t know. I think I’m going to have a panic attack. We’re in another reality, there’s an Elder eagle, bigfoot, Eli’s soul is gone, I…”
