Mother River

By Kate Macleod

Sarsuti is more than a river, she is a goddess with her hair in the mountains among the herders and her feet in the sea that carries the merchants far and wide, but it is the farmers in the vast plains who are her People.

Prithvi has always felt a special connection with her goddess but now her city is dying and she doesn’t know why. The river that is its lifeblood is drying up, the farmers have abandoned them, and now foreign raiders are at their gates, looking to loot what little they have left. Soon her child will be born, one she prays will be the first son to break a decades-long chain of only daughters.

Can Prithvi call on the goddess that seems to have abandoned them and mend the broken relationship between the goddess and her People, or is it too late?

“Mother River” is a fantasy set in a lost city in the distant past, where the gods are real but may not be all-powerful.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ratatoskr Press
• Release date: Sep 12, 2018
• ISBN: 9781946552143

Kate Macleod

Dr. Kate MacLeod is an innovative inclusive educator, researcher, and author. She began her career as a high school special education teacher in New York City and now works as faculty in the college of education at the University of Maine Farmington and as an education consultant with Inclusive Schooling. She has spent 15 years studying inclusive practices and supporting school leaders and educators to feel prepared and inspired to include all learners.

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Mother River

MOTHER RIVER

KATE MACLEOD

Ratatoskr Press

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Mother River

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MOTHER RIVER

"W here is he, where is he?"

Mara's constantly repeated question irritated Prithvi. They were meant to cover all the men of the People, not just each their own beloved. But Prithvi held her tongue. She knew the real source of her foul mood was the long day of being heavily pregnant under a hot sun, up on the mud brick wall where the dusty wind could easily find her and scour her sweaty skin with grit. The last hour with the setting sun in their eyes had been particularly tortuous. But she also knew that while the murmuring was a distraction to her, it slowed Mara down not at all. She fired arrow after arrow with scarcely a pause between, and she very rarely missed.

I see him, Prithvi said, and turned to fire her next arrow to their left, well outside of the area they were meant to be covering and nearly out of her own range. Mara fired her own after it, and the nomad that was their target fell from his horse, giving their husband Mrugesh a little more breathing space.

He'll be fine, Prithvi said, returning her attention to the more immediate battle. Daksha is with him.

There are more enemies than yesterday, Mara said.

Yes, but they're falling back all the same. The nomads had turned about and were falling back to their encampment on the banks of the river. The low hills hid the camp and water both from view. Prithvi didn't know if her grandmother's stories were true, that once the Sarsuti River had flowed right up to the city walls and had spread just as far beyond the other bank, but she could remember being able to see the river from the tops of the walls when she was a girl. Now Sarsuti hunkered down low and out of sight, and the nomads hunkered down with her.

They weren't retreating, they were just breaking off for dinner and sleep, scarcely bothering to cover their withdrawal. They knew the People were too few to pursue them.

The sun had still been high in the sky when the nomads had started their attack. Now the stars were starting to come out and Prithvi's arms were shaky from all the aiming and firing.