Book Title: CALL OF THE OWL WOMAN – A Novel of Ancient Peru
Character Name: Yantu
Q: So, Yantu. Everyone’s been talking about Patya stopping Achiq from sacrificing her little brother. According to what we’ve heard, you were there when it happened. Is that correct?
A: Yes. Her family was doing a ritual before Achiq arrived. I was with my uncle, helping him repair his house after the earthquake when he got the news, so we all went to support the family.
Q: And you were one of the drummers who played for the ceremony?
A: Yes.
Q: How do you know Patya?
A: My cousin Faruka is her best friend.
Q: But you live in different valleys?
A: I am from the Palpa Valley, but my mother was from the Nasca Valley. We live about two days away from her brother, but we go there for special occasions. You know, solstice gatherings, weddings, funerals, the usual stuff. So, I guess you could say that we’ve been friends since we were small.
Q: Rumor has it that you are more than just friends.
A: (hesitates) Really?
Q: Come on. You must know what people are saying.
A: …I drum, she dances.
Q: Yes, we do know that. And we’ve also heard how shy you are. But everyone knows you two have a special connection. Tell us a little.
A: I don’t know. She’s an amazing dancer. She inspires me.
Q: Apparently, according to Patya, you are the one who inspires her. How did she put it? “…I trust his music. I trust his instincts.”
A: I did not know she said that. …I guess you could say I trust her instincts, too.
Q: Well, when I asked her what it was like to dance with you at the last solstice festival, she said, “Yantu was whirling across the plaza with his hand drum, and I was pulled into his orbit, drawn toward him.” (You know, her eyes actually glazed over as she was talking.) “…I was gliding, following the flow of music, until I found myself dancing so close I could have touched him. We circled together in the center, connected, like one being, yet our eyes never met.” I can just picture it. You are both so shy, yet so …connected!
A: I, I don’t know. The music takes us… it’s hard to describe.
Q: The word she used was “magic.” She calls your playing “magic.”
A: (Silence)
Q: Okay. I won’t press you on your maybe-relationship with Patya. Why don’t you tell me more about yourself? Where you were born, what your life is like, what you dream of doing in the future.
A: I live in the Palpa Valley, a couple days walk from the Nasca Valley. There’s another valley between ours, but much smaller. Everything else is just dry desert and rocks. It’s been especially hard lately because of the drought.
Q: It has been bad—the worst anyone can remember. How do you manage?
A: We do what we can. We share what we have. We ration our water. It helps to do the ceremony together, to feed our prayers to the earth with our dance.
Q: Do you mean out on the plains?
A: The plains are nice because we can spread out on the big paths. But that’s a day’s walk from Palpa, so that’s usually just during special times of year. But we also dance and perform rituals in our plazas, and in our empty fields. There’s not enough water to grow crops for trading anymore. We keep praying for rains to return to the mountains to feed the rivers that have run dry. Until they do, we dance in the fields to keep the memory of water alive so it will find its way back to us.
Q: It is a hard life.
A: It has been hard for a long time. Every season, the hunters have to go farther to find game, and even then, there’s not much to hunt that the mountain people haven’t already taken. They even come into our territory. Sometimes it gets violent.
Q: How do you keep your spirits up?
A: Music and dance make it more bearable.
Q: Do you make your own drums?
A: The ones I like best are ceramic. My cousin is a potter and makes the bases for me, but I like to soften and cure the hides myself to make the surfaces.
Q: I was admiring the drum that you brought with you. Is there a special meaning to the symbols painted on the sides?
A: The largest figure, the one at the base, is the Spirit of Creation. You can see the wings of a bird, the face of a feline, the legs of a human and the tail of a fish. The snakes rising from the ground are winding like rivers, and the heads decorating their backs represent the umanqas of our ancestors. They are bringing them into our rituals to remember and honor them. The drum is a sacred, an instrument that helps us travel between worlds, the world we live in and the worlds of spirit.
Q: How do you imagine yourself in the future when you are older?
A: I dream of our valleys being green again. Of having good harvests. Of having more time to make music. But right now, it is very difficult to imagine that….
Q: We will be talking to Patya at the next solstice. Since it seems that you two don’t really actually talk to each other much, let me offer you a challenge. If you could ask her any question, any question at all, what would you ask her?
A: That’s easy. I’d say, “Would you like to dance?”
Q: You’re right, that’s too easy! Come on, think of something you wish you knew about her. I’m sure you must have something you would ask.
A: (long pause) Okay. I would ask her what really happened when she fell from that cliff, and why no one could visit her while she was healing. I never believed the story that she slipped.
A Novel of Ancient Peru
In a tale inspired by Peru’s Andean cosmovision and earth-centered spirituality, Call of the Owl Woman is a gripping coming-of-age story for people who like to immerse themselves in other times, places, and cultures, people who love adventure, and those who are drawn to the mystical and magical.
In sixth-century Peru, the Nasca people have flourished for centuries, their faith and ingenuity keeping the desert valleys green in a land where water is scarce. But a prolonged drought now fuels dangerous unrest. Cunning sorcerers and brutal priests vie for control, and Water Guardians like Patya’s father, who refuse to favor the powerful, are under attack.
Devastated by her grandmother’s sudden death, fifteen-year-old Patya retreats into dance and music. She does not want to become a healer like the long lineage of women in her family before her. Even her grandmother had hinted she was born for something else. But, in the wake of a deadly earthquake, Patya must not only help the healers, she must do things she never thought possible. As she begins to conquer her self-doubts and trust her own sense of justice, she will also have to outwit men of power to keep her little brother from being sacrificed by religious extremists at the coming solstice.
As Patya begins to realize and grow into her own power, she also discovers her grandmother’s secret legacy and prepares to step into an unexpected destiny.
Fantasy Magical Realism | Young Adult [Spark Press, On Sale: May 12, 2025, Paperback / e-Book , ISBN: 9781684633043 / eISBN: 9781684633050]
K. M. Huber grew up in the Pacific Northwest climbing trees, wandering in the mountains, wondering about the world, and writing poems. Unforeseen winds carried her to a new life in New York City, chance introduced her to her future husband, and before long another wind blew them together to the stark desert coast of his homeland, Peru. There, she fell under the enchantment of mystical inland Andean peaks, magical valleys, timeless tales and colorful traditions. She currently resides in Maryville, Tennessee with her husband and dog, still zooms with her Lima writer’s group, and enjoys being close to mountains again.
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