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eBook Category: Science Fiction/Fantasy
eBook Description: Haunted by her astronaut husband's tragic death, Marianne continues her archeological work in the Canadian Pacific Northwest. Paul's spacecraft was to intercept Halley's comet in 2062, but exploded during a test flight. She misses him terribly, and his spirit troubles her night and day. On the anniversary of her husband's death, the 76th return of Halley's Comet near earth's orbit, Marianne finds rock carvings deep in the cave walls. While rubbing a charcoal impression of the carving, Marianne hears the Bear Man speak, a figure of primordial Haida mythology. She finds an ancient tomb, and learns the legends connected with a murder of 7,600 years ago. Marianne learns of a prophecy that she can right that hideous crime of long ago, and perhaps salvage something from the tragedy in her own life.

eBook Publisher: Clocktower Books and Far Sector SFFH (magazine), Published: Far Sector SFFH, 2003
Fictionwise Release Date: October 2003

30 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [23 KB] , ePub (EPUB) [39 KB] , Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [11 KB] , Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [168 KB] , Palm Doc (PDB) [11 KB] , Microsoft Reader (LIT) [83 KB] , Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [83 KB] , hiebook (KML) [70 KB] , Sony Reader (LRF) [57 KB] , iSilo (PDB) [9 KB] , Mobipocket (PRC) [12 KB] , Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [45 KB] , OEBFF Format (IMP) [19 KB]
Words: 3200
Reading time: 9-12 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

Lines and circles. Ancient petroglyphs. A shiver ran through my body as I stared at the images again. Like the skeletons of fossils embedded in the stone. Only these weren't natural; someone had carved them.

I stopped, though I had wanted to run, wanted to bang my head against the wall out of frustration. No one would believe me; no one saw what I saw. No one understood. They thought I was crazy. Despairing. I could hear their gossipy voices whispering, accusing--Not over his death. Not yet.

One scene stopped my rant. A human female, with long hair, caressed a pendant around her neck. Below her, huddled a small creature with round ears and a snub nose. The twin faces of another figure watched nearby. One side of him was tall like a man. The other side was more like a bear.

The cave led to a tunnel and there, I fled. On the walls of the inner cavern was more of the myth engraved in stone.

I stared at my left hand. With this ring, I pledge my love, my life, my faith...for all eternity. Until death...In this cave, Paul's ancestors had made the very same promise.

Was it true? Was death not an end, but a beginning? There comes a time in the life of all things when the past meets the future. Yes. Paul's words finally made sense.

The burial was as I had left it, the rim of a woman's pelvic bone jutting out of the earth. I crouched, but did not touch the bone.

I drove back to the camp. "Hurry, hurry," I whispered as though the car could hear me. Soon it would be dark.

Across the inlet, daylight faded over Haida Gwaii. The Queen Charlotte Islands. Scarred and nearly barren after a hundred and sixty years of logging, they had not been called by their Haida name in over fifty years. With each generation more of the language had been lost. Along with the old stories.

Inside my trailer I sought the large iron mallet I knew would be there. I took my voice recorder from the open cardboard box, and returned to the jeep. I left the camp, swerved up the abandoned logging road to Mount de la Touche.

Twelve hours had passed.

I geared down, and pressed the recorder switch to ON.