The Power of One Read Online Free Page A

meeting mat. From an old leather bag he produced the twelve magic shinbones from the great white ox. Then, squatting on his haunches as he prepared to throw the bones, he commenced a deep, rumbling incantation that sounded like distant thunder.
    The strange bone-yellow dice that would solve my bedwetting habit briefly clicked together in his hands and then fell onto the ground in front of him. Inkosi-Inkosikazi flicked at them with his forefinger, and as he did so, tiny rolls of thunder came from his throat. With a final grunt he gathered them up and tossed them back into his ancient leather satchel.
    Inkosi-Inkosikazi’s eyes, sharp pins of light in his incredibly wrinkled face, seemed to look right into me. “I visited you in your dreams, and we came to a place of three waterfalls and ten stones across the river. The shinbones of the great white ox say I must take you back so that you can jump the three waterfalls and cross the river, stepping from stone to stone without falling into the rushing torrent. If you can do this, then the unfortunate business of the night water will be over.”
    I nodded, not knowing what to say. After all, five-year-old kids are pretty rotten at riddles. His face became even more simianlike as he chuckled, “When you have learned this lesson I will show you the trick of the chicken sleep.”
    I had seen the faint marks of last night’s circles, but no chickens. I guessed that they had been consigned to the communal tummy. I only hope he doesn’t use one of Granpa’s black Orpingtons, what a kerfuffle that would be, I thought.
    â€œNow listen to me carefully, boy. Watch and listen. Watch and listen,” he repeated. “When I tell you to close your eyes, you will do so. Do you understand?”
    Anxious to please him, I shut my eyes tightly. “Not now! Only when I tell you. Not tight, but as you do when your eyes are heavy from the long day and it is time to sleep.”
    I opened my eyes to see him crouched directly in front of me, his beautiful fly switch suspended slightly above my normal sightline. The fall of horsehair swayed gently before my eyes.
    â€œWatch the tail of the horse.” My eyes followed the switch as it moved to and fro. “It is time to close your eyes but not your ears. You must listen well, for the roaring of water is great.”
    A sudden roar of water filled my head and then I saw the three waterfalls. I was standing on an outcrop of rock directly above the highest one. Far below me the river rushed away, tumbling and boiling into a narrow gorge. Just before the water entered the gorge and churned white, I noted the ten stepping stones, like ten anthracite teeth strung across its mouth.
    Inkosi-Inkosikazi spoke to me, his voice soft, almost gentle. “It is late. The bush doves, anticipating nightfall, are already silent. It is the time of day when the white waters roar most mightily, as water does when it is cast in shadow.
    â€œYou are standing on a rock above the highest waterfall, a young warrior who has killed his first lion and is worthy now to fight in the legion of Dingaan, the great impi that destroys all before it. Worthy even to fight in the impi of Shaka, the greatest warrior king of all.
    â€œYou are wearing the skirt of lion tail as you face into the setting sun. Now the sun has passed beyond Zululand, even past the land of the Swazi, and now it leaves the Shangaan and the royal kraal of Modjadji, the rain queen, to be cooled in the great, dark water beyond.
    â€œYou can see the moon rising over Africa and you are at peace with the night, unafraid of the great demon Skokijaan, who comes to feed on the dark night, tearing its black flesh until, at last, it is finished and the new light comes to stir the sleeping herd boys and send them out to mind the lowing cattle.”
    As I stood on the great rock waiting to jump into the water, I could see the new moon rising, bright as a new florin above the