Qaletaqa (35 page)

My head hurt. Deep down, what she was saying
resonated with me, as if it was something a deeper part of my mind
understood. She was speaking the truth. I would have hours yet to
dredge up the understanding from the depths of my soul. What I knew
I wouldn’t figure out was how to break the bond when…if, I got the
power I needed. When I asked Quaile how to break the bond
completely her answer surprised me.

“Sacrifice worthy of the gods notice,” she
said.

I wanted to ask her what she meant by that,
but I couldn’t. I was too scared to mouth the words. What if she
meant Claire? Whatever pull I felt toward Melody, Claire was the
most precious thing in this world to me. I would die, let others
die, before I let her life wink out.

“You must make the sacrifice, taking in the
power gained from it as you do. It is the only way to defeat the
Matwau,” Quaile said quietly.

“What about…what about what my dad taught me,
was supposed to teach me?” I asked.

“I don’t know what you mean. Your father
taught you about fighting just like he was meant to do. What more
was there supposed to be?”

I was reluctant, but I needed answers, so I
told Quaile about Ahiga and what he told me. Even for someone who
claimed to believe in the old stories she was shocked by my
experience. She kept trying to ask questions. I had to cut her off
and for once she didn’t snap at me for doing it. When she stopped
talking I told her about finding my dad and not being able to
remember.

“What was he supposed to teach me, Quaile? I
can’t remember.”

“I…have no idea,” Quaile admitted. “All I
knew was that your father was supposed to teach you to fight the
Matwau. Whatever knowledge he had about what he was supposed to
teach you came straight for the gods. I can’t help you with
this.”

“Can’t you unlock my memories, or
something?”

“No. A shaman’s power doesn’t work like that.
It can heal, see, and hear, but not force. You have to remember on
your own,” she said.

“What if I can’t do it in time?”

“Then you will fail.”

If there was one good thing about Quaile, she
didn’t sugarcoat things. “I’ll find a way, then.”

“I’m sure you will,” Quaile said, the honest
belief in her voice surprising me. “First you must deal with the
bond. It will take great strength to cast off a promise bound by
gods…”

“Probably about as difficult as killing
something made by the gods,” I grumbled.

“But you can do this, Uriah. Whatever I
failed to teach you, whatever is locked in your mind, you will make
up for it with your natural strength and intelligence. I have
always had every faith in you.”

“Do you think it’s really possible, then, to
kill the Matwau?”

“Being a shaman makes seeing anything as
impossible very difficult. I have seen too many incredible things
in my life to say anything is impossible,” Quaile said. “You are
not a god, but you are the gods’ warrior, a mortal blessed with
their power. It flows through your veins. It will take a god’s
power to kill something like that.”

A god’s power. She said the bond was a
promise bound by the gods, by their power.

An idea began forming in my mind, but I felt
something that distracted me and sent it flitting away. The bond to
Melody felt different. There was no more or less pain and fear than
before, but it felt quieter somehow, as if Melody had just fallen
asleep. Suddenly I realized I had felt the bond change like this
before. At night. Melody was asleep.

I needed to speak to her. The idea Quaile’s
words had inspired just a moment ago came back full force and I
needed Melody to help me with it. I wasn’t the only one who had
been given gifts from the gods. It was time for her to use hers for
something other than trying to hold us together. I needed to fall
asleep.

“Thank you for the help, Quaile,” I said,
suddenly eager to be off the phone.

“Good luck, Uriah,” Quaile said.

“Thank you,” I said honestly. She wasn’t
always my favorite person, but she had said what I’d needed to hear
right now. Maybe it wasn’t her fault she never saw our powers or
the signs she was waiting for. We did a pretty good job of
hiding.

“Call me if you need anything else, Uriah,”
Quaile said. “I’ll do my best to help.”

“I know you will.” And I actually meant
it.

Closing the phone, I steered the truck
farther off the road. That quieter level of fear continued to
resonate through the bond. Melody was still asleep. Now all I had
to do was make myself fall asleep, too. Luckily I hadn’t had a good
night’s sleep in weeks. I had also watched Claire yesterday as she
practiced her concentration exercises with Kaya. I didn’t hear the
detailed instructions, but the general idea was hard to miss. It
seemed very similar to creating the shield around my thoughts.
Breathing slowly and deeply, I forced my racing mind into
submission.

The strange blackness crept toward me slowly,
but eventually it came. As soon as I felt myself come firmly into
the blackness, I scanned the empty space for Melody. She sprang up,
clearly not expecting me to appear. She opened her mouth about to
say something, but she never got the chance.

“Melody,” I said, “I need you to do something
for me.”

31: The Trap

My claws had dug multiple sets of fresh holes
in the already battered seat, but I considered it repayment for
Harvey’s wild driving that kept tossing me back and forth across
the seat. The drive that should have taken more than five hours
took less than four. I was used to running fast to chase down my
prey, but after riding with Harvey and Claire, I never wanted to
set paw in a car again. Uriah had urged Harvey to drive fast, but
cautioned him to avoid any police. I was not sure what a police
was, but it hadn’t take long before I had been hoping one of these
police would indeed stop Harvey.

The car finally rolled to a halt when the
buildings that made up Taos came into view. Harvey and Claire
started speaking with each other. I waited patiently for them to
finish. At first my inability to speak directly to either Claire or
Harvey caused me no end of frustration. Luckily Claire realized I
was being left out of the majority of their conversations, since my
being able to hear Claire’s thoughts didn’t always translate to
what she was saying, and she began repeating everything to me.

Eventually Claire turned to me, and thought,
“We’ve reached Taos, Talon. We can either head up to the ski resort
where Uriah will first meet the Matwau’s creatures, or we can go
down toward Pueblo de Taos where the final fight will take place.
Harvey and I think we should check the ski resort first for any
traps, then head down to the pueblo. Does that sound alright to
you?”

I nodded my agreement.

Thankful Harvey was finally driving slowly
enough for me to move around, I crouched close to the window and
watch the landscape. I did not often come this far away from my
usual hunting grounds, but the familiarity of it made me feel as if
I had not truly left. Only the monstrous mountain ahead of us gave
me cause for nervousness.

My eyes were trained for picking out prey in
the colorless desert, not amid the green trees and bushes which
could hide so much. My skills for tracking and attacking my prey
were also more suited to the open desert than the close fitting
mountain trees. The mountains made my skin crawl beneath my fur. My
body shook in response to the irritating sensation. Uriah was
counting on me to be his eyes here. I was going to have to
adapt.

Harvey’s climb up the mountain brought new
scents into the car. The pungent mountain trees tickled my
sensitive nose. The earth smelled different here. As I took in the
scents I realized something was missing. Animals. I could not smell
the usual birds and rabbits that seemed to exist everywhere else.
The mountain smelled still, incomplete. It was waiting.

We rose higher and higher. I began to wonder
whether we would ever stop when Claire leaned back and looked at
me. “We’re here,” she said. And right on cue, the car came to a
jarring stop. Claire and Harvey got out of the car and surveyed the
area. Scratching on the window to draw their attention, I reminded
them to let me out as well. Claire opened the door with a quick
apology. I missed Uriah’s truck. It was easy to simply jump in and
out of the truck bed.

Glancing about, I saw several small buildings
in a large open area. Uriah had described the sport of skiing to me
and told me what to expect at the ski resort, but the whole idea of
sliding down the icy mountain on bits of tree branches still
baffled me. Claire and Harvey began walking toward the mountain.
Jumping in front of them, I blocked their path with a vigorous
shake of my head. Scouting was not for them.

“Talon,” Claire said, “we’re coming too. We
can help.”

I shook my head again and let out a low
growl. My job was to find the traps and protect Claire. And Harvey.
Their job was to avoid being killed by a rogue monstrosity.

“Stop it, Talon. We’re coming,” Claire
argued.

My snarling sent Harvey back several steps,
but Claire held her ground.

Tensing my hind legs, I jumped to the side
then swept around to knock Claire’s legs out from under her. She
landed in the grass with a thud. Giving her no time to recover, I
rounded on her again and planted my front paws on her chest. The
breath rushed out of her, but that didn’t stop her from scowling at
me. Baring my teeth at her, I waited.

“Fine,” she said angrily.

I wanted to warn her not to follow me, but
once again my limited connection with her prevented such a message.
My own anger slipped out in a harsh growl. Harvey looked ready to
run, but Claire only sulked even more.

“I won’t follow you, either,” she said.

Surprised, but pleased, I released my hold on
her and let her sit back up. I held my glare on the pair of them
for a few more seconds, just to make sure their promise would be
kept, and then leapt into the trees.

The summer sun was filtered through the thick
trees, leaving the ground much cooler and speckled with light. The
dancing bits of light played with my vision. Every time a breeze
rustled a tree the light moved, drawing my attention and
distracting me. There was no dancing light in the open desert, and
barely any shadows.

Standing very still, I watched the light. I
studied the different movements it made, the slight shifting back
and forth. I saw how the wind changed the arrangement of dots.
Occasionally the light might disappear when branches crossed, but
it was a brief loss. Only a large animal or a human would cause the
light to change more dramatically than that. As long as Claire kept
her promise, and with the animals driven away, the only human-like
creature or animal I would see would be either the Matwau or his
allies. Having studied the light specks, I could now see someone’s
approach.

Feeling somewhat more confident, I began
stalking forward, down low as I took in the details of the forest
floor. It did not take long to catch the scent of something that
didn’t belong. It smelled of decay and corruption. This scent had
not accompanied the Matwau when I last faced him, so I assumed it
must belong to his creatures instead. The scent was old, at least
by a full day. I followed it.

Traveling south around the peaks of the
mountains, I drew closer to the desert I knew was waiting below.
The faint scent strengthened as I moved toward the desert floor. It
became much stronger. I suspected that more of the creatures had
been through this area, but the corruption and decay masked any
individual scent. Irritation at that fact hovered in the back of my
mind. I had no way of knowing whether or not that would make a
difference.

I wondered exactly how long I had been
traveling as I continued my search. The sun had moved almost a full
length across the sky, but I was not sure how that translated to
the way the humans gauged time. It was a significant amount of time
by my reckoning. Suddenly the scent lost its faded quality and
intensified, signaling that some of the creatures were close by. My
claws eased out of my paws in preparation, although I had no
intention of engaging these creatures if I could help it. Crouching
down to the earth, I made my way closer to the stifling smell.

Two of the misshapen animals held their guard
in a small clearing. I was careful to stay upwind so they would not
catch my scent. I had always been able to connect with other
cougars in the same way I spoke with Uriah. Being able to
communicate with animals outside my own species had blossomed only
after coming in contact with my new friend. When Kaya showed Uriah
the vision of his meeting with the Matwau, Uriah told her that he
could hear the Matwau’s creatures speaking just as he heard me. I
found it odd that I could not do the same.

I watched the grotesque forms that were once
true wolves and heard only the rustling crunch of dried pine
needles and twigs under their feet. The pair often glanced at each
other and moved in ways that suggested they were communicating, but
I heard nothing. Annoyed by my limitations, I hoped Uriah hearing
the creatures’ thoughts in the vision carried over to reality.

My next task was to figure out whether these
beasts were merely sentries or were lying in wait with the first
trap. They stood in a small clearing that did not seem to hold any
traps, but the Matwau was cunning. I could not pass this pair off
too quickly. Beginning a careful survey of the area, the answer
soon became clear. They were not simply keeping a look out for
Uriah, they were there to bait him a little further down the
trail.

Lying in the middle of the trail was a piece
of clothing, a light weight button up shirt that was streaked with
scarlet slashes. The smell of the blood made my fur rise in
agitation. It had to be a simple ploy to keep Uriah headed in the
right direction. Uriah had not mentioned Melody being harmed, which
he definitely would have felt. Although, these injuries could have
happened after I was separated from Uriah. Still, I told myself
that the girl remained unharmed. At the worst, the Matwau had only
injured her enough to draw out the needed blood.