The Legend of Tyoga Weathersby (31 page)

It was a beautiful bright autumn day. Running water gurgled in a nearby stream, and chirping songbirds hidden in the tall trees seemed to safeguard the dark, cool cabin nestled in the recesses of the quiet glade.

Sitting up, she stretched and drew a deep breath to fill her lungs with the newness of the day. Throwing the red blanket over her shoulders, she got up and walked tentatively to the open door.

Peeking outside, she saw that the cabin was in a deep, green hollow surrounded by circular earthen ramparts. It was constructed into the side of a mountain. Towering over her head, enormous ancient trees appeared remarkably statuesque for she had to look up about thirty feet to see the rooted origins of the enormous trunks.

It was a beautiful, peaceful setting. She liked it very much.

The magic of the moment vanished when the blanket rubbing against her lacerated back forced her to recall the horrific realities of the last day. The memory of nearly being raped by Seven Arrows sent a shiver up her spine. She covered her mouth with her hand when she recalled the horror of being drenched in his blood while he knelt so close behind her. She remembered fleeing from the lean-to and running as fast as she could to catch up to whoever had slit Seven Arrows’ throat. She covered her ears while the pounding of the Cherokee brave’s moccasined feet echoed in her brain, and tears spilled from her eyes when she recalled the vision of Wahaya-Wacon standing majestically in the middle of the trail.

Her last memory was of how Tyoga had found her and rescued her in the night.

Inquisitively, and quietly at first, she called out, “Ty?”

When there was no answer, she cried out with more urgency, “Tyoga.”

She began to fear that she had imagined her rescue when Tyoga crested the west ridge with an armful of firewood. Seeing Sunlei in the doorway, he dropped the wood and ran to the cabin door.

She threw open the blanket that was covering her nakedness to welcome him into her arms. He picked her up and held her close while she clung to his neck with a grip that wouldn’t permit him to breathe. Tears poured from her beautiful black eyes.

She was unable to utter a sound. When she was able to breathe, her screams stilled the valley.

Tyoga held her close. “Shhh … Sunlei. You’re safe. I’m here and no one can harm you.”

Releasing his neck, she wrapped her arms around his waist, buried her head in his chest and continued to weep.

They stood together for a very long time.

After gathering herself, she dried her eyes and face with the red blanket. “Is he dead?”

“I don’t know for sure, Sunlei, but I think so,” Tyoga said. “Leastwise that’s what his men were saying when they were chasing you through the woods.”

“Tyoga, it wasn’t … Did you cut his throat?”

“No,” he said. “If I had slit his throat there wouldn’t be any question about him being dead, and I sure wouldn’t have left you behind, now would I? Someone beat me to it. I was on my way to get you and to kill Seven Arrows and all of his men, but someone got there first.”

“So you weren’t going to let them take me,” Sunlei said in a tone of voice reflecting vindication of her belief that she had never been abandoned.

“No, my little one.” Tyoga said as he gently folded her back into his arms. “From the moment he took you from me, he was living on borrowed time. You were being led through the woods by a dead man.”

Sunlei pressed her face against his chest, and pulled the blanket tight around her shoulders.

He kissed the top of her head over and over again.

“But, Ty, if you were going to kill him, why did you let him take me from you? Why did you let him treat me so cruelly if you were going to kill him all along?”

“Don’t you see, Sunlei? I had to allow him to take you. It ripped out my heart standing there a short run away, watching him tear you away from your family and from me, but there was no other way. The demand that Chief Yellow Robe made of the Ani-Unwiya had to be fulfilled. Seven Arrows arrived in Tuckareegee, Silver Cloud turned you over to him as promised, and he and his men were allowed to leave in peace. I could not interfere. Everyone had to believe that I left the Appalachians like I announced at council. That way, when I killed Seven Arrows, there would be no way for me or the wolf to be suspect.”

“Now that his last son has been killed, Yellow Robe will demand more or make war,” Sunlei said. “The six braves the Shawnee have lost because of Wahaya-Wacon will not be replaced. He will make war on us.”

“If that is the way he chooses, Sunlei, our hands are no longer bound by decree. Now, we can fight. Our debt has been paid. We kept our part of the bargain. Whatever happened to Seven Arrows and his men after you were turned over to them is out of our hands. I did not kill Seven Arrows. Wahaya-Wacon did not kill him, nor did he harm his men. Only you saw Wahaya on the trail. Only you know that he was there. It is Yellow Robe’s decision to choose peace or war. But if it is war that he wants, we will not stand by and allow him to butcher us without a fight.”

“I knew that you would not let me go,” Sunlei said. “I knew that I would not live the rest of my life as the wife of that Shawnee dog. I would have killed him myself, even if it meant my own torture and death.”

The sun peaked over the eastern rampart to flood the hollow with the warmth of the new day. In silence, they held each as if they would never let go.

After the sun had risen to the treetops, Sunlei asked, “Ty, what are we going to do now?”

He was quiet for a long moment, thinking of what—and how—to say what needed to be said. Sunlei had been through so much, he did not want to burden her with the harsh realities of what was to come. As gently as he could, he said, “What we must do next will be even harder than what we have already been through. The important thing is that we will someday be together.”

“What do you mean ‘someday’ be together. We are together now. I won’t ever let you go.” She pulled herself even closer to him.

He closed his eyes and breathed in her scent. He sighed. “You must be starving. I have much food inside. Let’s get something to eat.”

“A gi yo si.”

As they both turned to step into the cabin, Sunlie stopped and looked up at him. “Ty, how did you know that I saw Wahaya on the trail? I didn’t tell you that.”

Tyoga kissed her on the head, put his arm around her waist, and led her into the cabin.

Chapter 35

Half a Man

T
he sun was setting. An early fall chill was in the air. The warmth of the cozy fire was made all the more welcome by a slight breeze out of the north, a harbinger of the winter weather soon to come.

Sunlei and Tyoga had eaten a large mid-day meal of fish and squash and bread. She had spent the remainder of the afternoon sleeping. She was still tired and her back was red and raw from the beating she had received at the cruel hands of Seven Arrows. Tyoga had anointed the wounds with a salve of bear fat and willow sap to numb the pain.

With the man she loved, she was warm and safe. Sitting side by side, they stared into the flames when the long shadows gave way to the descending darkness of the night.

It was the quiet time that Tyoga so relished. It was the time of day that the promise spoke most clearly.

This evening, it was silent. It had made the path clear long before this night.

Tyoga knew what he had to do.

“Sunlei.”

She could tell by the tone of his voice that he had something to say and that there was no need to acknowledge her name.

“Y a to la gowi eh a lo. Tesa e ta leawo.”

Lifting her head from his shoulder, she pierced him with incredulous eyes that rejected what he had said out of hand. “Why? Why must we part? I don’t want to go away.” Her eyes were already filling with tears. “I want to go back home. I don’t understand.”

“Sunlei, you’ve got to go away from here. You’ve got to go where you cannot be found.”

The pitiful look of desperate confusion dulled the natural shine of her eyes.

Reaching out he enveloped Sunlie’s tiny shoulders in his powerful hands and tried to explain, “Don’t ya see, darlin’? You were the only one with Seven Arrows when his throat was cut. His men were right there when it happened. They will tell Yellow Robe that it was you for certain—sure. If I had gotten there before whoever beat me to it, no one would have been left to tell the tale. As it stands now, if you go back to Tuckareegee, the Shawnee will come for you and demand justice.”

Uncharacteristically, Sunlie interrupted him. “Yellow Robe will demand justice whether I am there or not. He will kill my family and all of the People for an act committed by another. Tyoga, we cannot allow that to happen. No matter what becomes of us, we cannot allow others to die for what has been done.”

“I know, Sunlie, but that won’t happen.” Tyoga turned away from her so that his eyes would not betray his tenuous resolve. “If you aren’t at the village, then the Shawnee will start looking for you. But Yellow Robe will not order his braves to wipe out the village.”

She pressed him further. “How can you be so sure that he will not order the massacre of our people?”

“Because, Sunlie, Yellow Robe is not a vengeful man. He is not a reckless chief. He knows that a massacre of Tuckareegee would bring the entire Cherokee nation to our defense. It would mean war for years. Besides, he would never risk the lives of his grandchildren.”

“His grandchildren?” she asked.

“Yes, Sunlei. Are you forgetting the union of his daughter, Winged Woman to Gray Owl? Their two sons are Cherokee of the Mountain Creek Clan. To war with the Cherokee is to break the sacred bonds that were created at the union of his daughter and Gray Owl. Their bond protects the peace for all time. His hands are tied.”

“But, Ty, won’t they suspect that it was you who killed Seven Arrows to save me? They will be looking for you, not for me.” She was searching for any way out of having to be parted from him.

“They may suspect me, but my tracks don’t lead away from the lean-to where Seven Arrows was murdered. My tracks are no where to be found. Even if they look, they will not find them.”

Tyoga got up and walked over to the pile of wood. He threw some large logs on the fire that would burn for a long time.

“Besides, I told everyone that I would leave Tuckareegee and that is exactly what I did. No one knows where I have been, or where I am now.” He watched the newly ignited flames leap into the chilly evening air. “It is as if I melted into the Appalachians with Wahaya.”

For a long time, Sunlei thought about what Tyoga had said. It all made sense. Her departure seemed the only way to proceed without bloodshed. The tears streamed from her tired, red eyes while she contemplated the journey that lay ahead for them.

With every fiber of her being she wanted to go home to be in her family’s lodge, help her mother prepare corn meal, and sew seasoned leather into warm garments to protect against the coming winter chill. She wanted to be present at the birth of Lone Dove’s baby. She had promised Takes Too Long, the old one, that she would help her with the winter wheat.

None of this was to be.

Staring into the fire, she wiped her eyes and mustered the courage to whisper, “Where will I go?”

“You are going to the Chickamauga Cherokee to the southwest.”

“Will I be staying with my uncle and his family?”

“Yes. Lone Bear has promised to take care of you. He will keep you safe. You must listen to Lone Bear and do as he says.”

“You will take me to Chickamaugua?”

“No, Sunlei. Your cousin, Walks Alone, has agreed to take you. He will meet me tonight at Kansaki Ridge. We’ll be back here tomorrow morning. You must be ready to travel at dawn.”

Sunlei could not hold the tears back any longer. She cried not the tears of fear or pain; but the quiet tears of promises unfulfilled, hopes and dreams unrealized, and the agony of a broken heart. Her eyes stared blankly through lifeless lenses submersed in pools of despair, want, and loneliness. A gentle blink of each tender eye freed the emotions in dewy pearls that breached her lower lids and coursed along each delicate cheek.

She made no sound.

Tyoga took her in his arms and rocked her gently. Staring into the flames, she said, “You have been planning this for sometime then?”

“Yes.”

“Does Tes A know?”

“No,” Tyoga said. “I thought it best to make the arrangements without his help. The less he knows, the less chance of harm coming to him and your family. Everyone had to believe that I was miles away. My Cherokee brothers must think me a yellow-bellied coward for not standing by you, but that is okay. All that mattered to me was getting you away from the Shawnee and Seven Arrows. I knew that he would not take you back to the Shawnee village through Cormack’s Pass, so I circled in front and planned to ambush them in the night. I was about a mile off in my figurin’ ‘cause Seven Arrows’ men stopped to make camp just short of where I thought they would be. I was on my way to kill them all when I heard them chasing you. Wahaya ran to you as fast as he could. It was hard for him not to attack and kill the Shawnee. He stayed in the shadows because if he had been seen, it would have ruined everything. If there was any trace of the wolf, then Yellow Robe would have had evidence that would have pointed right at me. As it stands now, we are free and clear of the whole thing.”

“He did find me, Ty, and he protected me,” Sunlie said in a tired voice. “He led me off the trail and into the woods without making a sound. He covered me with his body so that they would not see me when they passed by.” She paused to listen for a moment to the gentle sounds of the night. “He knew not to show himself. Is that how you found me in the dark, Ty? Did he call to you and tell you where to find me?”

He did not reply.

She let it go.

“Then you will leave me alone here tonight? What if I am found before you get back?”

“Don’t be afraid, my little one. No one knows of this place except your brother. Tes A and I found this spot when we were ten years old. The entrance to the hollow is through a cave along the north wall over there. We have never found any evidence of any other people being here, or even finding the mouth of the cave. You will be safe. Besides, you won’t be alone.”