Dead Moon Awakens: A tale of Cherokee myth and Celtic magic (Mystic Gates) (13 page)

and truth is what one yearns.

P
iper
got off Aishling and stood, pulling her up with him.

Gunner raised himself in pace with them, keeping
his knife close to her throat.

“Okay, you kids move over to that tree and sit,”
Piper said, still clutching Aishling next to him.

Reacting without thought, Aishling began chanting
a strange, ethereal melody. “Mother Bride, protect me with your fire. Burn away
all that would harm, leaving the light of your desire. Mother Bride, protect me
with your fire. Burn away all that would harm, leaving the light of your
desire.”

Piper wiped sweat from his forehead and harshly
shook Aishling. “Shut up, girl!”

“Mother Bride, protect me with your fire. Burn
away—”

Piper, now panting, slapped her. “I said shut up!”
He shoved her down next to the others. “Are you hot, Gunner?”

When she hit the ground, she stopped chanting.

“Aish?” Morrigan whispered. She lifted Aishling’s
chin and looked into her eyes. “You’re okay. Snap out of it.”

Aishling cleared her throat, sniffed, and wiped
her eyes with her hands. “I’m okay.” She looked at Gunner and Piper and
realized they were taking everything out of their backpacks. “They’re going to
steal our stuff.”

“Shhh …” Lance took Aishling’s hand and whispered,
“Calm down.”

“Hey,” Kelile whispered. “Do your thang, voodoo
queen.” He jerked his head at the two men who were intent on scavenging through
their backpacks, and he exaggeratedly blinked his eyes like a signal light at
Morrigan. Opened them. Closed them. Opened them. Closed them.

Aishling looked at him blankly. Not understanding,
she glanced at Gunner and Piper and realized they had taken Morrigan’s diary
out of her backpack. Her eyes flashed wide open in recognition.

Morrigan nodded at Kelile. “Oh, please!” she said,
looking at the others with a slight grin across her face. “Please
don’t
read my diary. It’s so personal. Please!”

Piper sniggered and set Morrigan’s backpack on the
ground, positioning her diary steady in his hands.

Gunner shuffled close to him while saying, “How
‘bout that, Piper, the little darling doesn’t want us to read her diary.” When
he reached Piper’s side, he watched him flip through it.

After creasing a page open, Piper read, “She doesn’t
know where it is.” He flipped through more pages. “What else is in here?” He
lifted his right hand and rubbed his eyes.

“There.” Gunner reached over and stopped him from
turning any more pages. He read aloud this time, in a mocking tone. “Please
don’t be mad at me. There really is a curse.” He stopped reading and rubbed his
eyes.

Piper turned another page.

They read this time together, “I really do like
him. He’s just perfect.”

Oh!” Piper screeched. “My eyes are burning!”

Almost simultaneously, Gunner moaned and dropped
to the ground on his knees. His knife fell from his hands as he raised them and
covered his eyes. “Mine too!”

Piper dropped the diary and grabbed his eyes,
wailing. Blood seeped down his cheeks.

Morrigan hopped up. She hurried over to the two
men and plucked the knife from the ground while dodging Gunner’s blind attempts
to find it. “Get our stuff and I’ll make sure they don’t follow us.” She bent
down again and picked up her diary.

Kelile and Lance scrambled to the backpacks,
snatching up and cramming their scattered belongings into them. “What are you
gonna do?” Kelile asked, glancing up at her.

Morrigan didn’t respond. Instead, she leaned over
and used Gunner’s knife to draw a circle in the dirt around the two groaning
men, all the while dodging their flailing hands.

Seeing her lips move, Aishling knew she was
chanting a spell. She bounced up, ran to Kelile and Lance, and helped gather
the rest of their things.

“I’m going to see if anyone left any food in the
shelter. Sometimes they do,” Lance said. “Kelile, check their backpacks for
food too.” He ran toward the shelter.

“Okay, that should hold them for awhile,” Morrigan
said.

“What did you do?”

“Don’t worry, Aish,” Morrigan spoke softly. “It’s
just the fire ant spell. If they move out of the circle, they’ll feel like ants
are biting them all over.” Scanning left and right, she said, “Where’s Lance?”

“He’s seein’ if there’s any food around,” Kelile
answered. “Get your backpacks on while I check these ones.”

“My eyes! My eyes! I can’t see!” one of the men
yelled.

“Look what I found,” Kelile said as he stuffed
several energy bars into his backpack.

Moments later, Lance jogged back. He crammed a can
of tuna into his backpack’s side pocket and shifted the pack over his shoulders.
“Ready?”

“Yeah,” the others answered.

“Help us! Please, help us,” Gunner yelled, turning
around within the circle. “We’re sorry. Help us.”

“Oh, God!” Piper yelled when he stepped out of the
circle. He grabbed, pounded, and clawed himself, screaming.

Morrigan smiled. “It’s working.”

“Piper! Where are you?” Gunner splayed his arms
around.

Lance touched his mouth with his right forefinger
and motioned for them to leave.

Once they cleared the shelter grounds and were
back on the A.T., Aishling’s heartbeat slowed, and she stopped panting.

“What are we doing, man?” Kelile asked.

No one said anything.

“Lance! What are we doin’?”

“I don’t know. Let me think!”

Moments lumbered into minutes as they raced along
the trail, and still no answer. Was Lance okay? Did he know where they were
going?

“Morri,” Aishling said, “do you know how long your
spells will last?”

“No.”

She had another thought, “Kelile, what happened
when you went to the hospital?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did they do anything to stop the bleeding? How
long was it before your eyes were okay?”

“I don’t know.”

“That’s it!” Lance stopped and turned. The others
caught up with him. “I’ve been trying to remember where this trail was that
would take us to Highway 19, a few miles above Topton. From there we could
follow the railroad tracks down to Andrews. Kelile could see his mother, and we
could get provisions. Then we could take the old Cherokee Trail of Tears road
up to Robbinsville like you had suggested before, Kelile.”

He took a deep breath. “We’d have to stay on the
A.T. until we got to Wine Spring Bald. I think that’s where we pick up that
other trail. About three or four miles from here. It won’t be an easy route,
and I hope I don’t get us lost.” He kicked at the ground. “I know we wouldn’t
get lost if we used Wayah Road into Andrews, but then we’d be exposed to anyone
driving by. Someone might put two-and-two together.”

“How long will it take us to get to Andrews using
that trail?” Morrigan asked.

He stopped kicking and looked up. “Probably a
couple more days plus today, a couple of nights.”

“That long?” Morrigan whined. “What if we take
Wayah Road?”

“Probably one night. But, I don’t know if it’s
worth the trade off.”

“Why can’t we stick to the original plan?”
Morrigan persisted.

“You said yourself you didn’t know how long your
spells would last. What if those two creeps head to the next shelter north and
catch up with us?”

“Oh, why can’t we just hitchhike to Andrews? How
long would that take?”

“Less than an hour once we get to Wayah Road, but
do you want to take that chance? It would look suspicious for four teens to be
hitchhiking together. And maybe authorities might be checking that road now, anyway.”

“Man, we let it be known that we were goin’ to
Gatlinburg. And maybe they think we wouldn’t be stupid enough to go to
Andrews.”

“I don’t want to take any chances. I can’t go back
to Herald Home, not yet. What do you all want to do?” Lance hesitated, giving
them an impatient look.

Reaching within to her intuition, Aishling
concentrated on how her body and her energy reacted to each route. She was sure
they shouldn’t continue on the A.T. She also felt they shouldn’t walk to
Andrews along Wayah Road. But she wasn’t happy about taking the other trail.
Hitchhiking to Andrews and getting there in an hour sounded great, but it
didn’t feel good.

Aishling sighed. “I wish we could hitchhike, but I
have a feeling we better take the new trail from Wine Spring.”

“What about you, Kelile?” Lance said.

“I
think
our little excursion—” he slapped
his thighs “—has been nothin’ but a pain in my backside.” He puffed. “You’re
the man with the plan.”

“Morrigan?” Lance turned again to her.

She scowled. “Oh … okay.”

Wednesday, May 1 (Beltaine)

“There it is!” Lance pointed to a narrow footbridge
spanning a wide river. They’d been searching for it most of the afternoon. The
train tracks they would follow tomorrow into Andrews were on the other side.

Posted above the bridge was a sign saying there
shouldn’t be more than four people on it at once. Lance stepped on the
wooden-planked bridge first, followed by Morrigan. Kelile walked on behind
them, but jumped off when the bridge began jiggling and swaying. “I ain’t
walkin’ on that!”

“You’re not scared are you?” Morrigan said and
snickered.

“No! Just move along, voodoo queen.”

“Come on, Kelile,” Aishling whispered before
moving around him and onto the bridge. But her heart skipped a couple of beats,
and she understood his hesitation when he followed her and the bouncing
intensified. To balance herself, she grabbed the waist-high chain link fencing
attached on each side of the footbridge. The sound of water raging over the
boulders below added to her tension. She paused.

“See what I mean, girl?” Kelile said from behind.

Trying not to look down, she focused on the other
side and continued walking.

Morrigan began hopping on the bridge and laughing.
“How about now, slave boy?” she said as the bridge bounced and swayed berserkly.

“Stop, Morrigan!” Lance said. “You could cause it
to collapse!”

“Sorry.”

Once they reached the other side, they followed
Lance south along the tracks while he seemed to be searching for something.
Just when she started to ask him what he was looking for, he stopped. “Here’s a
clearing off the tracks that’s big enough. We can set up camp here.”

He and Kelile strung the tent overhead between two
holly trees, fixing it like a canopy. The girls unzipped the sleeping bags and
spread them over the ground underneath. This is what they had done the night
before. The next phase would be refilling their garbage bags with leaves and
moss.

“Let me have your water containers,” Lance said,
taking out his larger, collapsible container.

“Are we going to have a fire tonight so we can
boil more water?” Aishling asked.

“No. I’m going to fill this up at the river and
use pills to make another batch.”

Morrigan huffed and plopped on a sleeping bag.
“I’m hungry. I ate my last snack an hour ago. Don’t we have anything else to eat?”

“Just that can of tuna someone left behind, but
we’ll pass a gas station in the morning,” Lance said. “I have a little money,
and I can get a few things.”

“Too bad it can’t be like last night.” Aishling
handed him her water container. As she sat next to Morrigan, her thoughts
drifted to the previous night. They had found a secluded area by a stream to
set up camp. Using a couple of flat rocks, Lance had dug a pit in the ground
and showed them how to build a fire in it, and they boiled more water. She
smiled, remembering everyone’s excitement when he caught a trout using only a
hook, a few feet of fishing line, and a worm he had found while digging the
fire pit.

Last night’s dream intruded her thoughts, and she
frowned. Certain it had been a premonition, she needed to write it down in her
diary. But something else bothered her. She thought she had dreamed about the
giant snake before. Writing about it might help her remember when.

“What are you thinking about, Aish?” Morrigan
said. “You have such a dreadful look on your face.”

“Oh? … About a dream I had last night.”

Kelile flopped down next to her. “I had a weird
dream last night.”

“Well, mine was a nightmare.” Lance placed his
collapsible water container on the ground and sat cross-legged between Kelile
and Morrigan. “I guess that’s why I was tired today. Sorry about getting us
lost.”

“That’s okay.” Morrigan patted him on his knee.
“Lance, you got us here.”

“She’s right. Sorry I yelled at you earlier. I had
no right, man. There’s no way we would’ve gotten this far without you.” Kelile
hesitated then chuckled. “Man, when you caught that fish last night, I wanted
to plant a big, sloppy kiss on you!”

Turning red-faced, Lance grinned and leaned his
head toward Kelile with his lips puckered. “Oh kiss me, Kelile. Kiss me.”

Morrigan interrupted the laughter. “What did you
three dream about?” She looked at Aishling. “You go first.”

Embarrassed, Aishling hesitated. She hadn’t told
the guys about her gift of prophetic dreaming. Would they understand the
significance of her dream? They might make fun of her.

Kelile tapped her on her arm. “Come on, girl. Tell
yours, and I’ll tell mine.”

Nodding, she studied her left hand as she crinkled
the sleeping bag. “Well, for some reason, we were all in this cave.” Still
playing with the sleeping bag, she hesitated again. “This gigantic snake with
horns was chasing us, trying to bite us. It had a bright light coming out of
the center of its forehead that lit the whole cave ahead of us. And parts of
its body shined like armor. I wasn’t scared in the dream, though, until I heard
it calling for Morri. We were running to where we had entered the cave; but
when I looked back, all of you were gone. I was trying to create this circle of
fire. I knew it would protect us from the serpent. But no matter how hard I
tried, I couldn’t. That’s all I remember.” When she looked up, three faces
stared at her, each with eyebrows arched and mouths opened.

“You’re kiddin’, girl,” Kelile said. “That’s sorta
like my dream.”

“That’s like my nightmare,” Lance said.

“What happened to me?” Morrigan asked.

“I don’t remember.”

“What was your dream?” Lance said, pointing to
Kelile.

“I was runnin’ from that sleazy dragon-snake—tryin’
not to look at it—and this annoying female voice kept yellin’ at me to get some
kind of stone. I kept tryin’ to figure out what she wanted and how to get it.
The dream reminded me of something I’ve heard of before.”

Lance spoke up, “In mine, everyone except Aishling
was running deeper and deeper into the cave, into its den. I kept waking up
before it got us. Every time I went back to sleep, it was chasing us again. It
was the
Uktena
.”

Kelile slapped his thigh with his left hand.
“That’s what it was. I couldn’t remember what that dragon-snake was called.”

“You two dreamed about the same thing I did? That’s
not …” Aishling hugged herself, chills spiking through her body.

“Wait!” Morrigan pressed her hands on either side
of her chin. “All of you dreamed about the
Uktena
and the Suti Stone?”
She dropped her hands. “All of you know what the
Uktena
is?”

“Girl, everyone who’s part Cherokee knows about
it,” Kelile said.

“Right, and you just happen to be an extra
dark
Cherokee,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“I’m a Black Cherokee. Mom traced our lineage back
to the first slave in our family who was adopted into the tribe.”

“You never told me that,” Lance said. “All this
time I’ve talked about being Cherokee and you never said a word.”

“Mom told me to keep my mouth shut about it.” He
nodded once.

“All of you know what the Suti Stone is?” Morrigan
asked.

Lance shook his head.

At the same time, Kelile said, “That’s what that
female voice kept tellin’ me to get. But like I said, I didn’t understand.”

“You know, the crystal in the middle of the
Uktena’s
head.” Morrigan glanced back and forth from Kelile to Lance. “You know. The
all-powerful Suti Stone. If you possess it, you’re all-powerful. You can do
anything with it! You can even bring people back from the dead.”

“You mean the
Ulunsuti
?” Lance said.

Morrigan lifted her hands and dropped them on her
lap. “I guess.”

Aishling gawked at Morrigan, remembering all the
times Morri had pestered her about having the stone. Why? And why hadn’t Morri
mentioned the snake before? Why had Lance and Kelile dreamed about it too? Was
this about their future? “Would someone please tell me about this snake? I
never heard about it.”

Lance said, “There are several myths about the
Uktena
,
but the main one is about the
Uktena
and a Shawano Indian wizard. The
Cherokees had captured the wizard,
Aganunitsi
, during one of their
battles with the Shawano Indians. He bargained with the Cherokee elders to
spare his life if he could kill the
Uktena
and bring the
Ulunsuti
back for the tribe. The Cherokees knew that whoever controlled the
Ulunsuti
would be all-powerful. But I don’t know about raising the dead.” He glanced at
Morrigan.

“My mother told me it could.”

Lance looked back at Aishling and continued, “So,
the Cherokees agreed.
Aganunitsi
searched and searched until he found
the
Uktena
asleep on the side of a mountain. He knew a lot about the
Uktena,
much more than the Cherokees knew. He knew how to hypnotize its all-seeing eye
using quartz crystals.”

“All-seeing eye?” Aishling said.

“The
Ulunsuti
before it’s separated from between
the eyes of its
Uktena
. Anyway, armed with his bow and arrows and a
clear quartz crystal tied above each of his eyes in a way so he could still
see, he snuck up on the sleeping serpent. When the all-seeing eye focused its
killing stare on him, it didn’t work because the crystals reflected the killing
stare back, putting the eye to sleep. This allowed him to shoot an arrow into
the
Uktena’s
heart.

“But, that didn’t kill it. It only made the
serpent angry. It thrust itself down the mountain toward
Aganunitsi
.
Since he’d had many dreams about what would happen when he battled the
Uktena
,
he—”

“He had the gift of prophetic dreaming?” Aishling
asked.

“Yes. So he had already prepared a space for
battle. Once he reached the space, he summoned fire and encircled himself
within its magickal barrier.”

“Like I was trying to do in my dream.” Aishling
didn’t realize she had spoken aloud until he answered her.

“Yes. When the
Uktena
reached
Aganunitsi
,
he shot all his arrows into it. The
Uktena
tried penetrating the fire
but couldn’t get through. It finally died. But
Aganunitsi
wanted to make
sure. He sang out to all the birds from the surrounding woods to come and feed
on it. After seven days, he went searching for the
Ulunsuti
.

“At first he couldn’t find it, and he beckoned a
raven to search for it. The raven agreed, and after an hour or more, it flew
back to him and dropped the stone at his feet. He gathered it up, put it in a
leather pouch, and returned to the Cherokees.

“The Cherokees couldn’t believe it. They wanted
the power and good fortune of the
Ulunsuti
, but they were afraid to handle
it. So, they allowed him to live out the rest of his days there, as long as he
kept it under control, and the tribe continued reaping all of its benefits.”

“Don’t forget about the snake comin’ out of his
head,” Kelile said, grinning.

“What? Oh, yeah. That was another reason the
Cherokees didn’t hurt him and try to take the
Ulunsuti
.
Aganunitsi
had a snake growing out of the top of his head where a small drop of blood from
the
Uktena
had somehow penetrated through the fire barrier.”

“He didn’t know that?” Aishling asked.

“No.”

“Why didn’t they tell him?”

“Because they feared he would become a human
Uktena
and destroy the tribe. So, no one ever told him about the snake. Instead, two
Cherokee women volunteered to stay with him and take care of him while watching
over the
Ulunsuti
. Because of their sacrifice, they became known as
beloved
women
. The beloved women soon learned how to appease and handle the
Ulunsuti
,
too. These were the last three human beings known to have been
Ulunsuti
holders
.”

“Yeah. Good story, man,” Kelile added.

Morrigan said, “Well, my mother told me that the
Suti Stone, or
Ulunsuti
, had actually been passed down through the blood
generations of the original three. Even now, there are holders who keep it
hidden somewhere around Robbinsville or in the Snowbird Mountains.”

“Chill out, voodoo queen. You don’t really believe
all that, do you?” Kelile chuckled.

“Maybe I do. But what I don’t know is how
you
know the story about the
Uktena
.” Morrigan glared at him.

“You’d be surprised the things I know. And I just
told you, I’m a Black Cherokee. You just can’t see past the beautiful color of
my skin.”

“Oh! How could I have possibly forgotten. Not only
are you beautifully black, but you’re a Black Cherokee who’s named after a
Celtic god. Wow!” Morrigan rolled her eyes. “You’re. Just. So. Amazing!”

“You’re nothin’ but a pain in my backside.”

A vision pulled Aishling’s focus away from the
others; she closed her eyes. She saw herself as a little girl, listening to Ma
tell the story of the sacred
Ulunsuti
. Yes, Ma
had
told her that
story! But, something kept blurring out of her memory. Something had been
missing from Lance’s story. Something important. What was it? She had a
fleeting sense now that this myth and whatever she couldn’t remember about it was
tied somehow to the mystery of her mother’s disappearance, maybe even to the
night of the fire. Why couldn’t she remember? She ached to remember. She
yearned
for the truth.

That night, she dreamed of the
Uktena
again.
Dark dreams. Nightmares.