Forbidden Land - First Americans 3

Informationen zum Autor Joan Hamilton Cline is the real name of William Sarabande, author of the internationally bestselling First Americans series. She was born in Hollywood, California, and started writing when she was seventeen. First published in 1979, Joan has been writing as William Sarabande for eleven years. She lives with her husband in Fawnskin, California. Klappentext The spellbinding epic adventure of a time when mankind took its first steps and the icy wilds claimed the earth. Breathtaking, vivid, unforgettable-here is the third volume of the panoramic new series The First Americans which began with Beyond The Sea Of Ice and continued with Corridor Of Storms. In this untamed prehistoric time, the great hunter Torka has led a group of survivors across a frozen sea. Now he is their proud headman, a leader who defies the old ways. For this, the will of the tribe turns against him-and he must act quickly to save his children from those who would see them killed. Together with his family and a small band of faithful followers, Torka and his wife Lonit strike out a dangerous journey to an unknown land feared by all men . . . the forbidden land. With supreme courage they will struggle against its savagery, its strange creatures and ancient mystical beliefs to build a future worthy of a noble people . . . worthy of Americans. Leseprobe 1 "Now!" The old woman's voice was as sharp as the ancient, taloned hands that pressed hard against the young woman's belly. "Bear down! Now!" In the shadowed darkness of the hut of blood, Lonit obeyed. The child was coming, coming on a tide of blood and pain. She would not be here to greet it. She was too tired. Even though the midwives were holding her upright, she felt herself slipping away, drifting into delirium. The two women who held her by her upper arms shook her. Jarred her. She was annoyed with them. The pain was passing. The tide of blood had brought no child after all. Why did they not allow her to lie down? Her blood ran down her legs and was seeping into the thick layer of grasses and lichens covering the floor. How she hated the sweet smell of blood and the rank, moldering scent of winter dark that filled the little hut. Just thinking of them sickened her, and she wished that the midwives would clear the soiled floor covering away and bring in fresh, which, unstained, would smell of the summer sun. Summer! How she longed for summer! The gray lichens and golden grasses pricked the soles of her feet. She was too weak to stand, but perhaps it would not be so good to lie down. The floor covering had been spread to absorb blood and birth debris, not to provide comfort. That would come later, after the child was born. If it was ever born! Woman of the West, bear down, I say!" Who spoke? Old, talon-fingered Zhoonali? Wallah? Iana? Kimm or Xhan? Lonit could not tell. Around her, the overcrowded confines of the circular hut were a blur of sweating, watching women, as naked and painted with ash and rancid oil as she. Above her, the interior framework of mammoth and camel ribs arched upward toward the hide-covered vault of the unvented roof. A jumble of thong-joined caribou antlers supported the ceiling. How she wished that one of the midwives would fold back a portion of the hides, allowing the smoke to vent and fresh, cold air to enter. It was so close, so dark--and so smoky that she could barely breathe. Her eyes rolled back in her head. The ceiling appeared to float, high . . . so high. The racks of antlers seemed to move through mist, as though the spirits of the caribou were taking them up again and forming an invisible migration into the night. Lonit wondered if her spirit would follow. It would not be such a bad thing to die . . . to join her ancestors . . . to be away from pain, away from the probing eyes and hands of the midwives. She would follow the spirit caribou herds as he...

Product details

• Authors: William Sarabande
• Publisher: Bantam Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 01.08.1989
• EAN: 9780553282061
• ISBN: 978-0-553-28206-1
• No. of pages: 448
• Dimensions: 107 mm x 173 mm x 29 mm
• Series: FIRST AMERICANS; First Americans Saga; First Americans
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature