then all the way back here just to sketch the totems at dawn. Now that I’ve found a real sketchbook, you can stay a few days longer, can’t you?“ He stopped abruptly. „Unless you have to get back to Masset right away for some reason?“
Janna smoothed her fingers over the sketchbook while happiness made her eyes as luminous as the sea itself. „No,“ she said huskily, „I don’t have to be anywhere at all. I’d like to spend a few more days in Eden. With you, Raven.“
The pleased yet almost shy smile that Janna gave Raven made him reach for her and wrap her warmly in his arms. He inhaled her clean, womanly scent and closed his eyes, hardly able to believe his luck. A few more days in Eden.
And if his conscience gave him hell for taking advantage of Janna’s gratitude, for keeping her away from the civilization that would take her from his arms as surely as night took the sun from the sky, then he would just point out to his conscience that it was only a few days, just a few, and Janna had so many thousands of days left in her life. Surely even after her feeling of gratitude wore off, she wouldn’t look back and regret having spent those few extra days with a lonely raven.
„I found some pencils, too. Funny-looking ones,“ he said huskily. „Angel left them with the sketchbook. Want to see if they’re the kind you need?“
„Sure,“ Janna said, holding Raven’s big body until her arms ached, then reluctantly letting go.
The „funny looking“ pencils turned out to be everything Janna would need to do finished drawings. She examined the pencils reverently, only to look up and see Raven watching her with an intensity that made her breath stop.
„You touch them as though they were magic,“ he said.
„They are,“ Janna said simply. „With them, I can draw. Without them, I’m a nightingale without a love song.“
„In other words, a raven. Ravens sing love songs only in their dreams.“
Janna hesitated, caught by the regret and acceptance that lay beneath Raven’s words. „Then the raven’s love song must be the most beautiful of all,“ she said softly, „for it’s sung in silence.“
Raven looked at her for a long moment before he smiled sadly. „You have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen, Janna. Like the forest veiled in mist. Silver and green and radiant with life.“
Not knowing what to say except
„There used to be paths here,“ Raven said.
He swept his broad hand in an arc across the shoreline. It was overgrown with salt-tolerant plants that crept above the tide line and blended into a mass of cedar, ferns and moss beds deeper than a mattress. After the first few steps Janna understood why the Haidas had depended on canoes rather than their feet for transportation.
Only where the ocean actually washed over the land could rock be seen. The rest of the inlet was covered in a seamless, multihued green blanket of life. If trees didn’t grow in a given place, it was because the earth was too wet to support them. Boggy areas were common. Even in the forest itself it was rare to see bare bark or wood. Moss hung in beards and veils from every surface. Deadfalls were draped in thick blankets of deceptively solid-looking moss, making green traps that waited to be sprung by unwary feet. Often trees grew so close together that nothing could squeeze between. Animal life abounded, but was nearly invisible – and therefore safe from man. It was almost impossible to hunt even something as large as a bear or a deer for the simple reason that the hunter could see only a few feet beyond the barrel of his rifle.
On the other hand, if the land were impenetrable, the sea was not. Steep-sided inlets and deep sounds provided natural shelter from storm and wind. Fish abounded. Shellfish were always within reach. The ancient Haidas had wisely taken the sea’s gifts and used only the narrow margin of land just beyond high tide mark. It was there that they built their cedar lodges and carved totem poles as tall as the tallest cedar trees. The totems stood facing the sea, their weathered faces bathed in the salt-laden wind. Raven identified the highly stylized symbols for Janna, pointing out the killer whale and the frog, the salmon and the eagle and the raven with wings spread on top of the pole.
„What are you going to do while I sketch?“ Janna asked, pencil poised over pad.
„What I came here to do. Think.“
She looked at Raven hastily, feeling guilty for having interrupted him. He cupped his broad palm under her chin and tipped her face up to his.
„I came here because I felt… restless. I don’t feel that way anymore.“ Raven brushed his lips over Janna’s. „If I didn’t want to be here with you, we’d be on our way to Masset right now. Go ahead and sketch all you want. I’ll be nearby if you need me.“ He started to walk away, then turned back. „Don’t go into any of the old lodges. They’re just waiting for an excuse to collapse.“
„I won’t,“ Janna said. She turned to look at the cedar houses slowly dissolving back into the land from which they had come. „The lodges belong to other people. It would be like trespassing.“
„You mean you don’t want to take them apart looking for beads and bones?“ he asked sardonically.
Janna looked at Raven’s impassive face. Slowly she shook her head. „There would be no point. I’m not an archaeologist. I can’t recreate a lost past from a handful of fragments. So I’d rather just sit and sketch and let the ghosts whisper to me across the years.“
Raven looked at Janna for a long moment, a look as consuming as any kiss he had ever given her. Then he touched her mouth with his fingertips, turned away and stepped into the forest.
He vanished.
Janna blinked, unable to believe that a man as big as Raven could disappear so quickly. She took several steps forward and saw the moss springing back into place where Raven’s footsteps had compressed it. She took two more steps and stopped suddenly. Evergreens and moss surrounded her. There was no sky, no sea, no true ground, just the forest primeval enfolding her in a scented embrace. Even as she watched, the last evidence of Raven’s passage vanished, leaving her utterly alone.
For a moment she stood without moving, caught by the elemental stillness of the forest. Then through the trees came the harsh, primitive cry of a raven searching for its mate. In the distance came a sound that could have been an answer. Janna held her breath, listening, but heard no more. The raven called again, farther away now, a shimmering black shadow skimming over endless shades of green.
After a few moments Janna turned and went toward the shore, knowing that if she attempted the forest alone she would be hopelessly lost within a few steps. There were no trails, no piled stones to point the way, no blazes old or new to mark the passage of man. She walked along the margin of land and sea. For a long time she stood wrapped in silence, looking at the massive icons of another time, another race, another culture, another way of looking at the complex mystery of life. She found totems that were canted, on the edge of toppling over, and totems that had fallen long ago. She found totems in which the cedar itself had somehow survived the carving and had taken root once more, sending out fragrant branches. The sight of faces watching her from between the lacy branches made the hair stir on Janna’s neck, as though gods had come and taken root in the Queen Charlottes’ savage Eden.
When Janna knew she could absorb no more of the emotional currents sweeping through and around her, she found a log that was thickly encrusted with moss, sat down and was soon lost in her sketches. Several hours passed before she looked up. Raven was back. She could sense his presence as surely as she had sensed that the Queen Charlottes were islands set apart from time. She looked over her shoulder and smiled. Raven’s black eyes kindled in response.
„How long have you been there?“ she asked.
„Long enough to admire your stillness, your concentration, your elegance,“ he said
