The Wolf Tree (21 page)

Water Spider seemed to already know what was asked. He exchanged a glance with Little Grass, who dipped her eyes. Redfeather spoke in Cherokee before turning back to Ray.

“Little Grass does not like the idea, but Water Spider has a reason for wanting me to go.”

“What’s that?”

“To find the
Wa-ya Tlu-gv …
I’ll let him explain. He said he will talk to us later. First he wants to remove that bullet from your shoulder.”

Ray put down his spoon, his appetite gone.

*   *   *

Ray bathed first in the large basin in the backyard. B’hoy watched from the eaves of the cabin. “We’ll be here a while,” Ray said. “You’re on your own for meals.” The crow cawed several times, and Ray said, “Because you’re getting too tame, that’s why.” The crow landed on the edge of the tub to peck Ray’s hand sharply, before taking flight. “Ingrate!” Ray called.

Ray stepped back inside wearing a clean union suit and feeling too nervous to be modest. Marisol was helping Little Grass clean the dishes on the porch. Water Spider and Redfeather stood by the fireplace, where a single chair was waiting for Ray.

“Come over,” Redfeather said. “Have a seat.”

Water Spider smiled reassuringly and motioned for Ray to unbutton the top of his union suit. Ray sat stiffly and slipped his arms from the gray sleeves. Ray looked around for a knife or surgical instruments, but there were none. Water Spider held a long piece of red string. He tied it around Ray’s wrist and slid his fingers along the string, from the knot to the loose end, muttering softly as he went.

Ray turned to Redfeather, who nodded at him and said, “Go ahead and close your eyes. Just relax.”

Ray glanced once more at Water Spider, who seemed to be in a trance, and then closed his eyes. Water Spider continued whispering. What sort of spell was this? The bullet was lodged deep in his shoulder. Although the wound had closed and the infection was gone, he could feel the dull ache where the muscle was still injured.

The string grew taut. Ray felt Water Spider’s fingers clasp
about his wrist. A tingling began, first in his hand, moving its way up his arm with a strange hot-cold sensation. Ray became dizzy. His thoughts quieted.

An intense pressure squeezed at his shoulder. Ray jerked forward and found hands over his eyes and Redfeather whispering, “Be still!”

Water Spider began chanting loudly, almost as if he were singing. Redfeather had to brace Ray as the pressure on his shoulder grew unbearable. Ray shouted, but just at that moment, the pressure ceased. The hot-cold tingling moved back down his arm, to his wrist, his hand, and finally became just little prickles at his fingertips.

The room was quiet. Redfeather released his grip. Ray slumped back against the chair, drained of all his energy. Water Spider breathed heavily as he mumbled something to Redfeather. “Are you okay, Ray?” Redfeather asked.

Ray opened his eyes. Perspiration dripped from Water Spider’s forehead as he rolled up the red string, no longer on Ray’s wrist. “What happened?” Ray asked.

Water Spider nodded to Ray’s hand. Ray realized it was closed in a tight fist. He felt something hard pressing into his palm. He uncurled his fingers to expose a small piece of mashed lead. Bits of blood still clung to it.

“Is … this is the bullet?” Ray gasped.

“It’s out.” Redfeather grinned. “I told you he was powerful.”

Ray looked up at Water Spider with amazement and gratitude.
“Wa-do,”
Ray thanked him.

“Gv-li-e-li-ga,”
Water Spider answered.

*   *   *

Marisol and Ray lodged in vacant cabins that had once belonged to Water Spider’s children. Ray was so exhausted from the night’s events, he slept until nearly noon the following day and spent the afternoon helping Marisol and Little Grass in the garden. Redfeather was away with Water Spider attending to a family with sick children. They did not return until evening. After they ate, Water Spider motioned for Ray, Marisol, and Redfeather to follow him outside.

They walked together in the dusk until they came to a bluff overlooking a creek. Beyond, the patchwork forest extending to the north was illuminated by the falling yellow light. Water Spider watched the distance for a time before speaking to them in Cherokee. Redfeather translated for Water Spider.

“He says it was long ago when he was taken from the place of his ancestors out to this dry land. He has made it his home. He has had many wives, outliving each of them … but thinks Little Grass might beat him yet. He’s traveled among the other tribes of the Indian Territory—Arapaho, Kickapoo, Apache, and Comanche. He has tried to learn their ways.

“He’s also met people from the tribes of the High Plains—Lakota and Blackfeet. They have taught him much and he has listened. He kept up with the struggles of the various people to hold on to their homelands in the face of the White Man’s unquenchable desires. The Ghost Dance failed to bring peace to the tribes. It failed to renew the Earth as the Paiute holy man Wovoka had preached. Lakota men, women,
and children were massacred trying to hold on to the old ways.”

Water Spider quietly collected his thoughts before speaking again and then allowed Redfeather to translate. “There was once a time when men spoke with great spirits and some men were able to cross into the spirit world. Water Spider met some of these spirits long ago out on the open prairie. They were guardians over a pathway to the next world.”

“What does he mean, the next world?” Ray interrupted.

Redfeather asked Water Spider. “He says he has not been there, although he hopes to one day. But it is a wondrous place. A place where the old ways are still followed and respected.”

“Is it the Gloaming?” Ray asked.

“I’m not sure,” Redfeather said, and then spoke with Water Spider. “He does not know what the Gloaming is, but maybe it is the same.”

“Who were these spirits?” Marisol asked. “Are they like ghosts?”

“No!” Redfeather scowled. “These aren’t wicked or scary. They aren’t the dead. Spirits are protectors.”

“But are they like men?” she asked.

Water Spider said something that caused Redfeather to wrinkle his brow in confusion. They spoke back and forth for a time before Redfeather explained. “He says these spirits he met were rougarou.”

“What’s a rougarou?” Ray asked.

“I’m not sure. I don’t know how to translate it; it’s not a
Cherokee word. But they seem to be some sort of wolf and not a wolf at the same time. They’re spirits and something altogether more powerful than any creature of this world.”

“Why is he telling us this?” Marisol asked. “These are just old stories and superstitions.”

Redfeather’s cheeks reddened defensively. “They’re not! If you’re going to insult Water Spider—”

“I’m not insulting him. I just don’t see what this has to do with us.”

Before Redfeather could continue arguing, Water Spider held up his large hands and spoke. Redfeather kept his eyes from Marisol as he translated. “First White Men came on wagons to the west. Then soldiers and then the trains. More and more White Men came, until the tribes were driven onto the reservations. Water Spider thought he had seen and heard of the worst of it. But now a great Darkness has fallen.

“Some say it is a punishment for the crimes of the White Men. But Water Spider does not believe this. The Darkness sickens the hearts and the bodies of all who are in it—white, red, black, everyone.”

“What does he think has brought this Darkness?” Ray asked.

Redfeather asked and then replied, “The rougarou once guarded a pathway to the next world. A sort of tree.” Redfeather broke into Cherokee to get further explanation. “He says this tree—that some call
Wa-ya Tlu-gv
, the Wolf Tree—was once of great importance and only the most powerful warriors and medicine men could find it. Those that did spoke in wonder of the tree’s size: its roots were larger than a
mountain, and it extended up beyond the clouds. Only those blessed by the rougarou could see it, but the Tree was what connected men to their true selves. It gave us our hearts, our goodness, our spirit. Now the Wolf Tree is lost. The Darkness has driven it away.”

The last rays of color lingered only on high clouds in the west. A cool wind blew across the bluff. Water Spider looked at each of them. He spoke.

Redfeather said, “Mankind is suffering. The Wolf Tree and its stewards, the rougarou, have gone missing. Water Spider says he has been waiting for you.”

Ray startled. “For us! Why?”

“You’re a Rambler. You can help return the Wolf Tree.”

“How?” Ray asked. “I can’t go looking for this Wolf Tree. We’ve got to go to Omphalosa—”

Water Spider then spoke, stilted at first, but in English. “Yes … go to Darkness. Drive it away. If Wolf Tree … not found. Man … will be lost.”

Ray looked up into Water Spider’s creased and worn face, his eyes black and boundless. “We don’t know how to end the Darkness.”

“To end Darkness,” Water Spider said. “Face Darkness. Out there.” He pointed a finger out at the horizon and then approached Ray, planting his large hand on Ray’s chest. “And face Darkness in here.”

14
OMPHALOSA

“I
DON’T SEE THE POINT,”
R
EDFEATHER ARGUED
.
“Besides, it sounds dangerous.”

Ray licked the end of the string and threaded it through a needle to finish sewing the last of two pouches. “We can handle ourselves. I’m not planning on drawing a lot of attention in Omphalosa. We just need to look around.”

A lantern cast warm yellow light around Redfeather’s small cabin. Javidos was coiled in Marisol’s lap. She stroked his thick back and shifted uncomfortably.

“But you heard Water Spider,” Redfeather said. “It’s not the town that’s causing the Darkness, but the fact that the Wolf Tree has disappeared.”

“We can’t go looking for this Tree,” Ray asked.

“We have to, Ray! Didn’t you hear Water Spider? The Wolf Tree can help the Cherokee. It can help all the tribes.
These rougarou can lead people to a world where the old ways are respected. I want to help them. I want to help them reach this place of peace.”

Marisol leaned forward. “Look, I made a promise to Nel. Ray and I are supposed to investigate Omphalosa and return to Shuckstack to tell him what we’ve discovered. Not solve lost Indian legends.”

“This is no legend!” Redfeather shouted. “You don’t believe Water Spider.”

Javidos hissed from her lap, but Redfeather ignored his threats.

“I believe he met these rougarou,” she said. “But that was a long time ago. There could be a million other reasons they’ve disappeared. And how do we know they have anything to do with the Darkness?”

Redfeather said, “Because Water Spider said—”

“Look,” Ray interrupted. “Water Spider might be right. There might be a connection. Let’s go to Omphalosa first. It might help us understand what’s happened to the Wolf Tree.”

“But Nel said for us to return afterward,” Marisol argued.

Ray frowned as he tied off the last stitch. He tossed the small pouch—no bigger than a coin purse—to Marisol. It had a long cord for her to wear Nel’s protective charm as a necklace. Ray gave the second to Redfeather, and slipped the last back into his red flannel toby.

Redfeather leaned forward, speaking urgently to Ray. “If we don’t discover the source of the Darkness in Omphalosa, will you go with me?”

“We promised Nel,” Marisol said.

Redfeather snapped at her, “You go back to Shuckstack! We don’t need you.” And then he said to Ray, “Why did you bring her anyway?”

Marisol flung Javidos onto her shoulder and stormed out of the cabin. Ray watched the door slam. “What’s the problem with you two?”

“There’s no problem.”

Ray raised his eyebrows.

“You know how she is,” Redfeather said. “She’s spoiled. She thinks everyone is beneath her.”

“She’s not like that … not anymore. We have to work together.”

Redfeather rolled his eyes. “If I try to be nice to her, will you help me find the Wolf Tree?”

Ray looked down at his toby. It felt so empty without the weight of the rabbit’s foot. He had to find the source of the Darkness if he was going to at last track down the Gog’s Machine.