Shared+Book+-+Secret+Sacrament

Terrified, a Navaron child watches helplessly from his hiding place as a Shinali woman is beaten and abused by a group of drunken Navaron men. Too frightened to answer her pleas the child runs away taking with him the sacred bone carving of the Shinali people and in doing so binds his fate to them.

http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Kids/ChildrensAuthors/SherrylJordan.asp

http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/jordansherryl.html

Gabriel stirred in his sleep, the tumultuous events of the day replaying in his mind. Through the haze of the space created between sleep and awake Gabriel's mind drifted through the events chronologically. How was it that he had been chosen to care for the old woman? What made him drawn to her like a bee to nectar? She certainly wasn't the most appealing or grateful looking patient in the infirmary that day, so what was it that led him to her.

As he entered her space in his thoughts, the area surrounding her bed, he felt his chest tighten and his breathing became more rapid. What mysteries did the woman possess that were hidden from view. What was the almost tactile link that bonded him to this seemingly poor and helpless woman. He let out an audible groan in his sleep at he stood at the foot of her bed. Sweat began to break on his forehead and his breathing took on short gasps.

Gabriels mum had heard her son's stirrings and the restless breathing and walked along the narrow marbled corridor to his room. The door was slightly ajar as she peered around the door, he brow furrowed in concern for her son's troubled dreams. Mr L