ICE BURIAL: The Oldest Human Murder Mystery (The Mother People Series Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

arrows before this.
    As he watched, three strangers came into view, a broad man carrying a heavy sack over one shoulder and two women in dark headscarves and long dark cloaks of thick woven fabric. One of the women was unusually tall and sturdy, bigger even than most men. He must be careful.
    The big woman began to stumble, as if no longer able to walk alone. Was she ill? The smaller one quickly came to her aid and held her up. The man took her other arm but he was burdened with the sack and could not be of much aid. Concerned, Lief stepped out to see if he could help .
    I mmediately , he smelled mead . T hese three had been partaking of the barley drink ! Twice in recent days, he had come a cross barrels stashed in the woods where no one was likely to find them except those who had put them there. He smiled to himself. Probably there was an animal in that sack, a deer most likely, and they were celebrating a successful hunt. He was amused but surprised. He had thought only men drank mead during these celebrations, but perhaps in these parts women d id too. If so, the women he had seen in the clearing might have been sharing bowls of mead and that poor girl was moaning because she was not accustomed to strong drink and it made her belly and head ache.
    Lief greeted the three travelers with a friendly gesture. Surely, they were not dangerous, only a little drunk.
    “If you need more help I will be glad to take the legs,” he joked.
    The travelers stopped abruptly. The two women pulled their head coverings closer and the man yanked a bulky fur hood across his face. He seemed to be trying to shrink into his clothing in an effort to avoid the encounter – not an easy task since he was almost as wide as he was tall. Lief suppressed a laugh. With his big stocky body and the heavy hood the man resembled an enormous toad crouching on a boulder. He would also be as strong as a bear, Lief thought. He must take care not to offend.
    “There is no need,” the smaller woman replied in a high voice. “My companion a n d I can manage.” She did not sound drunk at all, Lief thought, surprised.
    The man took a firmer grip on the big woman’s arm, as if confirming his ability to help. As he did so, his hood inadvertently fell away , revealing terrible scar s across one side of his face . Lief’s lips twisted with pity. Rage showed in the man’s eyes when he saw Lief’s involuntary grimace, and he pulled the hood back in place with a savage gesture. Lief did not think he was drunk, either.
    “We thank you,” the small woman added.
    Lief nodded, and stood aside so they could pass. She looked up at him as they went by, and Lief was startled. Her eyes were a strange color, really no color at all. They made him feel uneasy .
    He shivered involuntarily. This place made him uneasy too . It was a forbidding land of steep ridges, gloomy ravines wh ere the sun never penetrate d , and dark caves with mysterious depths. Normally, he enjoyed exploring them , but these made him sh udder , as if something that was not good had happened in them.
    An unusually large cave loomed in front of him, and he spotted a piece of white cloth at its entrance. Too curious to resist, Lief went closer. It was cast-off clothing; other garments lay beside it, and beads glittered in the pale sun. Young girls must have played here and left the clothing behind for some reason. He shivered again. It was not a pleasant place for girls to play, nor was it safe . M ountain lions often lived in caves like these, and he had seen a bear shuffling along the day before . Besides, there was something wrong with this place. He still had no idea what it was, but he no longer doubted his judgment. If he saw the girls, he would warn them.
    To his relief the land soon began to level out, and at the top of the next hill he stopped to take a last look at the high mountains behind him. He would miss living among the peaks. They were his home, far more than any village, and he was not