Doublesight (10 page)

She awoke to the sound of birds chirping. Her head and neck ached with the stiffness of a tense sleep. Prior to opening her eyes, Zimp checked her thoughts for a dream, but remembered nothing more than her last conversation with Brok. Everyone appeared to be against her, even Oro. Arren thought her weak; other clan members felt she didn't adhere to tradition. Even Oro asked that she make decisions that Zimp felt were beyond her ability. Zora may have loved the chance for all the attention, but Zimp did not. She had her difficulty with Arren, but he was a trained soldier—better trained than she was. So, why wouldn't he make a better leader than her? He wanted the post. Let him have it.

She rolled to her side. “Did you sleep well?”

Oro sat with her legs on the floor. “I feel rejuvenated.”

“That's better than how I feel.” Zimp stretched her arms. “That thylacine slept under the wagon all night.”

Oro smiled. “What a comfort.”

Voices that were at a distance and lost amidst the morning chirping came closer. Zimp recognized Brok's thick whisper. He and Breel appeared at the wagon's rear opening.

“You're up,” Brok said. He did not wait for a response. “That favor. We are not far from our home. We would like to enact our own tradition and, while there, pick up some supplies and weapons. Can your clan guard the area while we are there?”

Zimp looked to Oro who did not return her gaze. “Well, Grandmother?” Zimp said, urging a response.

“I sense that you already have the answer to that question rising inside you, my dear.”

Defiantly, Zimp turned to Brok and said, “No.”

Brok raised his chin to let her know that he'd obey her words. He took a deep breath and swiveled on his heels to leave.

“Wait,” Zimp yelled. She crawled to the rear of the wagon and swung out. She reached back and gripped her cloak. It fluttered almost weightless above the ground. “Your request is granted.” She felt her face redden. She didn't want to disappoint Oro. She glanced at her grandmother, who nodded approval. “I will let the camp know of my decision.”

“Thank you,” Breel said. Brok took his sister's hand and led her away. Therin squeezed under the rear axle and followed them.

Zimp turned to Oro. “This means that I've altered the plans for the entire clan. What will they think of such a decision?”

“Your first answer to young Brok was weighted with the fear of change. How will the clan feel about you if you change their plans for the day? Your second answer bore the fruit of a true decision.” Oro reached for Zimp's help. “This morning we must perform an opening ceremony.”

Zimp helped Oro from the wagon, then excused herself to find Noot. She decided to make him her personal courier.

Breezes swept toward Brendern Eastlake as the sun pushed shadows across the dew-wet plain. “I am honored, my cousin,” Noot said after Zimp made her offer, “but shouldn't one of Arren's brothers be asked before me? Might they be angered by such a decision?”

She wanted to wave his worries away with a sweep of her hand, tell him just to announce the new plan; but first she stopped, looked him square in the eye, and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I need someone I can trust. You are the one I choose.”

It was obvious to Zimp that Noot was surprised by her strength and conviction. She alone knew how difficult those words were to force out. “Now, let each wagon know that we will perform a daybreak ceremony before we leave. Breakfast is to be eaten while we travel to
the thylacine home, where we wait until the children of Fremlin perform a death ceremony for their family. Afterwards, we go to the conference grounds to arrive in early evening, if we are lucky.”

“Some of the clan won't want to wait for the thylacines. Whether prejudice or hatred, grudges are still held from the time the doublesight fought one another. There are those who hold that thylacines are not to be trusted. Can those clan members go on ahead?”

“That would be Arren's choice, regardless of the reasoning.” Zimp focused on the pressure she felt building inside her. She closed her eyes and willed the tingling in her face and ears to stop. “We act together. And we shall travel together. Oro must be the first to enter the conference grounds. We will need a driver for the remainder of the trip. You, Noot, after the thylacine ritual. Will your family be all right without you for the last hour or so of travel?”

“It will be an honor to escort Oronice to The Few,” he said. With a shaky snicker and smile, Noot said, “I will break the news to the others.”

The daybreak ceremony could be long or short, and often no one knew until Oro got started. She appeared near the edge of Brendern Forest. The entire clan except for scouts and guards stood before her. She motioned for the drums to begin, then one member of each of the seven wagons and one member of each of the walking clans began to chant a low mantra of their own. The combined sound could frighten wild animals with its low and scratchy resonance. The words, undecipherable and repeated, sounded like an incantation from a body of witches. Oro lifted her hands and each clan member sang out an individual mantra, raising the incantation to a dangerous level. Zimp spoke her own words and turned to face the sunrise. Oro chose not to speak that morning. The sound of voices rose, drowning out all other sound including that of the wind through the trees, the distant snort of buffalo, the chirping of birds. At a natural and familiar peak to the harmony all went silent, and the outer sounds rushed in with magical clarity. Zimp rose with the ceremony like never before and now felt the power that it created, felt the strength in their numbers.

Oro's voice and movements appeared to be stronger this morning.

The clan members rushed back to their wagons talking among themselves.

Arren stood outside the ring of sound and glared at Zimp. He stood, an arrogant pillar, in her peripheral vision. She turned away and held Oro's arm to help her return to the wagon. Zimp twisted around and looked to see if Arren had left, but he stood firm. He waved and smiled when she looked at him. The sneer on his face was gone, but she still saw it in her memory.

11

THE WAGONS STAYED TO THE WIDER ROAD through the forest. Some of the walking clans spread to parallel paths worn visible by animals or hunters. Once the caravan got close to the thylacines’ home, Brok indicated a place where the crow clan might wait. He heard Zimp speaking with one of the scouts who brought news of strange happenings in some of the smaller villages. Bands of assassins were on the move. Some appeared to look like soldiers from various borderlands.

“I do not wish to place your clan in any danger,” Brok told Zimp. “We can do this alone if you would like to continue toward the council grounds. We can easily catch up.”

“You make this very difficult for me,” she said. “Oro is right. The decision has already been made and it is the right one. I can't leave you three here and vulnerable. Five of us will go with you so that you can perform your tradition in peace. The others will wait with Noot and Oro.”

Noot stood by her side. “I'll sit with Oro in my family's wagon.”

“You may not wish to watch our ceremony,” Brok said.

Zimp told Noot to gather Arren and two of his brothers, Dail and Felter. Arren's other brother, Kal, could stay with their families. The fifth member of Zimp's troop would be Storret, the scout who had brought the warnings.

Brok led his sister and brother into a dense part of the woods. A narrow path opened up and the three of them moved along it single file, followed closely by the five crow clan members.

No one spoke. A few hundred yards down the path, Brok turned to Therin and bent down to receive a wet nuzzle from his brother. “Hey, Therin, listen.” Brok held his brother's head between his hands. “Go see if it's safe. Let me know, all right, Therin? Let me know.” He released his brother to run ahead.

“I hate that we have to talk with him that way,” Breel said.

“So do I, but I don't know how conscious his human mind is. Until we settle into camp at the council grounds, it will be difficult to test.”

“He's better than we think,” Breel said.

Brok accepted her assurance. “I believe you.”

The party took a few more steps before they heard the terrible sound of growling and barking. Brok recognized Therin's cough-like bark and leaped into action. He made a quick turn off the path to be out of view. Several strides and he slipped into the mindset of a thylacine. Several more and his body tumbled onto the ground partially shifted and uncoordinated at first, but soon he ran like a cat. Brok burst onto the scene just behind Therin.

A female cougar squealed out its wild cry, standing near the bodies of Fremlin, Lina, Keena, and Rem. Two younger cougars flanked the first.

Brok noticed that part of his mother's leg had been eaten. The bodies had been dragged closer together. His father's head appeared to be missing, but as soon as Brok noticed, he immediately pushed the thought aside. He could smell that the cougars were afraid. He and his brother curved their bodies away from one another and stepped around the dead at an angle. The two smaller cougars retreated closer to the female, their mother. Breel, now in thylacine-image, broke through the underbrush, growled from deep in her throat, and crouched on her legs ready to attack.

The mother cougar fought against her fear. The scent of open flesh appeared to strengthen her commitment. Blood stained her muzzle and the muzzles of her young.

Brok waited for the mother's tense and ready muscles to relax.

There.

He leapt over the human bodies as if they were not present. The mother cougar toppled backwards from his weight as he bit deeply into her shoulder. The mother rolled and tucked her legs under her and propelled Brok off her. He righted himself, created powerful
springs from his bent legs and leaped back onto her before she could gain balance. Another bite, this time closer to her neck. His wide jowls and enormous gape were almost lethal as they closed down. The cat let out a squeal and scratched at his belly and foreleg. Claws penetrated his skin, but he held on. The weight of another thylacine landed on the cougar and she went down. Brok let go of her neck and backed away. Breel had severed the cougar's backbone just behind the neck. Therin appeared next to his sister and helped her drag the animal into the woods and out of sight. They then returned for the smaller cougars.

Brok bled from the shoulder. The wound was tender when he walked, but he regrouped with his siblings nose to nose. Immediately they rotated around, stepping sidewise in one direction for a complete revolution, then in the other direction for a complete revolution. At the finish, the three of them backed away. The two larger thylacines then crouched down as though they wished not to be seen.

*   *   *

Zimp had never witnessed thylacines in battle. It was as if they had no fear of death. The cougars didn't have a chance. An unbelievable power overcame the three doublesight and that power increased tenfold as they attacked simultaneously.

She stood with her mouth open, and her arms crossed over her chest for protection. The almost audible pounding of her heart was noticeable in the pulsing veins of her neck. She wanted to, but could not, turn away.

When Brok and his sister kneeled close to the ground, Zimp did the same. She motioned for the other crow clan to respect their privacy as well. Arren and his brothers turned their heads away. Storret looked at his own feet. Zimp could not see totally over the bodies that lay between her and the thylacines. She could not turn away. What she could see was a head lift up, and the ectoplasmic collapse of a thylacine nose, the clay-like flexibility of the reshaping of that material into a human face. She heard one of them cry out as
the reshaping took place. When they rose from the ground, red soaked Brok's shirt, which hung in tatters along his side. He favored his left arm.

Breel reached for him, but Brok stopped her. He whispered something that Zimp could not hear. The two of them entered the small cabin.

Therin stayed behind. He sniffed around the bodies. He nuzzled his mother's cheek. He sat back and just stared at his dead family, his head turning back and forth as though he tried to remember them as human, and perhaps remember himself as human.

There was something about the way in which Therin stared at his parents’ bodies that caused Zimp to want to cry. She could never understand what it must be like to be shocked into a permanent image.

Brok and Breel came from the cabin with loaded packs. They dragged swords with them and their clothes bulged with additional items. They let all their items drop to the ground, and Breel stepped back inside and came out with a large carving knife in her hand. She approached the corpses and kneeled next to Fremlin's headless body, a grimace across her pale face.

Brok reached inside the doorway and brought out a painted staff of many colors. On either end of the staff hung a strip of pelt that looked like it came from a thylacine. It was the same dark brown color with black stripes. In the center of the staff a silver-colored metal had been wrapped around the smooth wood. At either end of the silver ring, leather strips dangled down, bearing several blue and yellow beads knotted in place. Tied at the ends of each strip were feathers: hawk, owl, and crow. As Brok walked over to stand behind Breel, the beads attached to the leather strips clacked together.

Therin sat upright next to Breel. Brok began to shake the sacred staff. He and Breel hummed and produced nonsensical sounds. “Na-na-nu-we. Lo-si-wa.”

Zimp did not understand the words, but thought they may be from an older language. She could see that Brok's wounds seeped steadily as he shook the staff with both hands firmly clasped over the silver center. What she did not expect was when Breel placed the carving knife over her father's chest and dug it into the flesh, dragging it down as though she were going to gut him like a wild animal.

Another cut across the corpse's chest and Breel set the knife aside, reached down with both hands, and separated the skin. She pulled out Fremlin's heart, which glistened in its own blood and juice whenever the sunlight fell on it directly.