Two Rivers (23 page)

“He threw a stone,” she said proudly. “Hit Yeentso’s head.
Almost made him fall.”

“It was a small stone,” said the boy, apologetic. “I got a
bigger one later.” Suppressing a groan, he bit his lips and stopped talking,
obviously in pain.

“It did the work.” Two Rivers shook his head, admiring them
both. He knew the cub was a resourceful, courageous thing, yet his girl proved
to be as good. She did her best under the circumstances, and her actions saved
her lover a prolonged, painful death. Too bad they were not destined to be
together.

Reaching the path that led toward the wide strip of the shore
with various canoes concealed under the wooden tent, the girl hesitated, but
said nothing until they reached the waterline.

“Why don’t we take him straight away to the town?” she asked,
frowning. “It’s not a long way, and he needs to be treated by a healer.”

“I’ll tell you why if you don’t think about it yourself by the
time his wounds are washed and we are back on the shore,” said Two Rivers,
taking again most of the youth’s weight. “Come. It’s not long now, and you will
be able to rest after we are done.”

Leading the youth into the water, he glanced at the rough
wooden construction not far away to their left. Luckily, in this time of the
year, with the fishing season in its highest, some people were too lazy to drag
their canoes all the way to the safety of the town’s fence. They would have a
chance to pick the best of the vessels.

He let the youth soak in the water for some time, trying to be
as gentle as he could while washing the cuts. Still, by the time they came out,
the boy was half conscious, exhausted from pain.

“Rest now,” said Two Rivers, making his patient as comfortable
as he could upon the sandy strip of the land.

With no mixture of mud and blood, the youth looked somewhat
better, although pale and barely conscious, lying there like a dead creature,
the crusted marks from the bear’s claws and the new cuts making a strange
pattern upon his chest. His face looked bad, swollen and cut and bluish with
bruises, but this would heal, too. The cub was not going to die. That was the
main thing.

The girl waited impatiently. “Will he be well?”

“Yes, he will.” Glancing at her, he paused, taken by
compassion. Another one looking bizarre, disheveled, and pale, the air of
uncertainty surrounding her, untypical for this particular female. “You did a
good thing. You saved him.”

She peered at him with her troubled eyes huge and glittering.
“You are going to leave, aren’t you? You and him?”

“We have no choice.”

“Why?” Her eyes were filling with tears, but her voice did not
shake.

“Do you want us to go back and try to explain the deaths of
four more people?”

“They were the ones to attack us!” she cried out, wringing her
hands. “They were trying to kill us, and then I came to you asking for help.
You had no choice but to kill these people. I’ll tell it over and over, repeat
it as long as I need to in order to make them listen. I’ll talk to the Town’s
and the Clans Councils and all the influential people.”

For her sake, he suppressed his grin. “They won’t listen to
you, not after what happened at the condolence ceremony this morning. We were
told to keep away from the people of your clan, and from this same Yeentso in
particular. We were told to stay in our longhouses and keep quiet. But what we
did was just the opposite. We went out and killed Yeentso. And three more men,
all of them good hunters and warriors, the best of the nation.” He snorted, then
shrugged. There was no point in getting angry because of that. “What do you
think will happen to your pretty boy now? Will the Town Council pat him on his
back and tell him to be more careful next time he wants to love his girl in the
woods?” He shook his head as she tried to protest. “Yes, yes, I know. You two
were just talking. But even this will not predispose them to listen to you more
carefully. Good girls do not spend their time with boys all alone in the woods,
especially not with the boys who are frowned upon. You give too much credit to
your ability to orate and make them listen.” He eyed her thoughtfully, feeling
sorry for her. “He has no choice but to leave. To flee, if you want to name it
for what it is. And if you really care about him, you will help him to do so in
any way you can.”

She dropped her gaze, looking thin and forlorn, just a frail
young girl that she was. “You’ve been thinking about leaving for some time,
haven’t you?”

Surprised by her perception, he hesitated. “Not for a very long
time, but yes, I’ve been thinking about leaving.”

“Where to?”

He eyed her with a growing interest. “To the lands of his
people.”

“Why?” Hugging her arms against the strengthening wind, she
kept peering at the sand, her voice quiet and detached, as though someone else
were asking the probing questions.

“I can’t answer you that. This decision is based on many
factors. It has something to do with certain dreams. And the prophecy.” He
shrugged lightly, grinning. “We have nowhere else to go, anyway.”

“They say you did not believe in the prophecy,” she pressed on,
disregarding his attempt to lighten the conversation. “I heard you saying that,
too. What changed?”

He spread his arms wide, defeated. “I don’t know, Seketa. I
truly don’t know. But yes, something changed, and it has to do with your chosen
mate. He is a part of it, I know it now. An important part, girl, and not just
a tool. He’ll grow into an outstanding man, both of us can see that, but there
is more to it. Much more. He is a part of the change, but only with the passing
of time we will know more, discover what his role in all this is.”

“That’s why you rushed to save him so readily. That’s why you
were prepared to kill your country folk in order to save him.” It came out as a
statement, an open accusation. “You are doing this for you, not for him.”

He suppressed his irritation, seeing her scared but defiant,
trembling with cold, or maybe with desperation. She loved him, this wild,
savage cub, he realized, truly loved him.

“I will try to keep him from harm,” he said quietly, wishing he
knew what to say. “I will not use him in the way you are afraid I would. If
he’ll want to go his own way when we reach his people’s lands, I will let him
go.”

She watched him for a long while, her eyes huge and glittering,
the unshed tears held back, not allowed to roll down her muddied cheeks. A few
more heartbeats passed before she nodded and turned away.

“I will go back to the town now, and I will bring you things,
food and clothes and your weapons. It may take me some time, to sneak around
and gather those things. Will you wait until I come back?” She hesitated. “I
want to say my farewells to him.”

“Yes, I’ll wait.” Suddenly, he found his throat constricted.
“You are a wise woman, wiser than your age warrants. And your courage has no
bounds. He is lucky to have your love, even if you two were not destined to be
together.” He took a deep breath, feeling strange. “And who knows? He is not an
ordinary person. Maybe he’ll find a way to reach you, to make you his despite
all the obstacles. I would bet on this particular stake, as impossible as it
might look now. I would put many of my belongings against this wild bet.”

Something crept into the depths of the bottomless eyes,
something that made the desperate look go away.

“Do you feel it?” she asked in a small voice. “Do you see it in
your mind’s eye?”

He knew what she meant, and for a heartbeat, he hesitated. It
seemed like a certain thing now, he was sure the boy would find the way. Or was
it just wishful thinking, an attempt to make her feel better?  

“I don’t know,” he told her frankly, unwilling to lie. “I think
I can feel it, but I’m not sure. But then, when was I sure of anything
concerning feelings or prophecies? I hope he will find you, that much I can
promise you. I truly believe him capable of this sort of deed.”

Her smile shone at him out of the thickening darkness.

“Thank you,” she said, turning around and beginning to ascend
the path leading back to the town. “I do believe in your prophecy and your
feelings and dreams.”

“We will sail at midnight,” he called after her. “If you don’t
manage to come back by then, I will tell him about this conversation and your
trust and your confidence in his abilities. You are an outstanding woman. If
I’ll have a chance in helping him find you, I will help.”

Alone at long last, he stared at the dark mass of the water,
then shook his head and went to check on the boy, who by now drifted into an
uneasy sleep, spread upon the sand, breathing heavily, jerking every now and
then.

The cub will be all right, he thought, examining the youth more
closely. A few days of rest and the boy would be himself again, more useful
than ever.

In the last of the dim illumination, he eyed the bluish mess of
the youth’s ribs and the way he jerked with every taken breath. Maybe half a
moon, he thought, but he will be all right, eventually.

The task of choosing the best canoe beckoned, and he hurried
toward the wooden tent, deep in thought. If the girl managed to gather a half
of what she intended to bring, they would be off to a passable start. And she
would manage, he knew. This woman was capable of many things, he believed now.
If only they could have brought her along! The wildness of this thought made
him chuckle.

Chapter 19

She watched the sun coming up from behind the trees adorning
the inner side of the palisade, unstoppable and unwelcomed. Narrowing her eyes
against the strengthening glow, she followed its progress, her mind numb.

Too tired to sleep, she had stayed there, near Iraquas’
platform, for the remainder of the night, doing nothing, not even praying but
just sitting there and staring ahead, frozen, dead, turned to stone. The world
as she knew it was gone, but as long as the night was there, sheltering, she
could hide and rest and gather her strength.

The sunrise would put the end to it, she knew, wishing for it
never to come. It would make her face people, talk to them, answer their
questions, maybe. It would force her to pretend, to pretend that nothing
happened, that nothing changed in her life, when everything had changed and
would never be the same.

She shut her eyes, wishing the night to come back.
Please,
not now, not yet
.
Just a few more heartbeats of peace and quiet in the
merciful darkness, that same darkness that still saw them together. Just a
little more time to prolong the night.

Clenching her palms, she remembered how she had run back to the
town, with this same darkness just beginning to descend, limping on her cut,
hurting feet, in a frenzied hurry but trying to be careful, too, to draw as
little attention as possible.

People were still chanting around Iraquas’ platform, dancing
and praying. The rolling of the drums told her that, but this time she gave no
passing thought to her cousin and his departing spirit. She had been too busy.

Luckily, they all were busy too, so no one noticed her sneaking
into the storage room, lingering there for just long enough to stuff a leather
bag with all sorts of foods, dried meat and fish and berries, every piece of
cornbread she could find, and then some more.

She was lucky enough to discover a pottery jar with the
sweetened corn flour the warriors were taking while on the raids, to mix with
some water when the need to eat quickly would arise. She tucked the whole jar
into her bag, caring nothing for the Mothers of her Clan, who would be appalled
to find so many items of precious food missing. There would be an outcry, and
the search for the thief or thieves, but it would happen later, much later,
when Tekeni and Two Rivers would be far away already, facing other dangers and
threats.

The fear was back, clutching her chest in its freezing grip. To
attempt the crossing of the Great Sparkling Water was an act of madness. Two
Rivers was insane. He should have thought of a better solution. And yet…

She remembered going through his belongings, shivering with
fear. To pillage her longhouse’s storage room was one thing. She could always
plead that she had been hungry, or sent by someone to bring the food to the
mourning people, or just cry and demand to be left alone with her grief. She
had every right to be in her own longhouse.

However, to sneak into one of the Turtle Clan’s dwellings was a
wholly different matter. She would have to explain what she had been doing in
Two Rivers’ family compartment, and there was no good explanation to that, not
a single excuse.

So she went through his belongings in a hurry, tossing every
item of clothing she found into her bag without looking, searching frantically
for his bow and the quiver of arrows, finding a bird’s trap in the process and,
on the spur of an inspiration, tossing the intricate thing in, too. They would
need to sustain themselves for quite a while, before reaching their dubious
destination.

Relieved to be outside and inspired by the swiftness of her
progress – it was still so far away from being midnight – she eyed the deserted
alleys of the town, then left her bag beside the tobacco plots and ran as fast
as she could toward the Wolf Clan’s longhouse. He needed to take his belongings
too, his bow and arrows, and most of all – the precious claws of the bear he
slew. He deserved to wear the necklace he had made out of them, for everyone to
see and know how great and fearless he was.

The tears were back, threatening to take her again, to reduce
her into a trembling heap of limbs. She clenched her teeth and looked at the
sun, trying to greet the benevolent deity against her will. The Father Sun was
not to blame.

As it gained power, she watched it, smiling upon her, spreading
its warmth, bring her frozen limbs to life. He would come as he promised, she
told herself, beginning to believe again. Two Rivers maintained most sincerely
that the wild boy was capable of even greater, more impossible deeds, and now,
as the darkness receded, she began to believe in that, too. He was truly an
outstanding man – Tekeni, the wild boy from the lands of the savages, her
chosen mate. He would do this and many more great things. Be the part of Two
Rivers’ mission, but with her by his side.

Smiling now, she remembered coming back to the shore, carrying
the heavy bag and the weapons. It was a miracle that no one had seen her, a
miracle that no one had wandered outside the town’s fence on that particular
night; no grief-stricken people from either of the mourning clans seeking some
privacy, no couples seeking some love, no playful, mischievous children even.

No one was there to see her staggering under her cumbersome
burden, or to find the bodies of four people not far away in the woods. The
town seemed too busy with itself, minding its own business, for a change. Or
maybe those were the Great Spirits, divine powers, or good
uki
, casting
their spell, making everyone blind and deaf for one critical night.
Was Two
Rivers’ mission that important?

She remembered her relief, finding them still on the shore,
with Two Rivers immersed in examining a small, strangely bright canoe he
already had dragged all alone toward the shore line, and Tekeni curled upon the
sand, absorbed in his pain or the ways to deal with it.

She had knelt beside him, dropping her cargo carelessly, making
Two Rivers frown, as Tekeni came back to life, pushing himself into a sitting
position, his face twisting.

“Don’t get up,” she whispered, putting her arms around him,
supporting, but also enjoying the touch, giving him her warmth. “You need to
rest before your journey.”

“I’m not going!” he said sharply, the words slipping with
difficulty through his cut, swollen lips.

“Of course, you are going. You have to.” She peered at him, her
stomach suddenly light, fluttering with anticipation, with the suddenness of her
hope.

“I don’t have to. I’m not leaving you. We’ll find the way to
deal with this.”

Oh, it was music, a wonderful music of the most beautiful
flute!

She took a deep breath. “Do you think we can? How? I’m not sure
there is a way, and Two Rivers said—”

“I don’t care,” called out Two Rivers tersely, turning the
canoe over and examining its bottom. “The moment this thing is ready, I’m
sailing, with or without your gallant warrior.” He spat into the water. “You
can try to talk him out of this madness, but remember that you don’t have much
time.”

She let her breath out, torn. If he left, she would lose him
forever. If he stayed, she may have him for herself for some time, but the
price might be too high, more than she was prepared to pay. Two Rivers was
right. Four people were killed, and he would be blamed for their deaths, no
matter what truly happened. She wouldn’t be able to make them listen.

Heart twisting with pain at the sight of his cut, swollen face,
she leaned closer, to kiss his lips carefully, anxious not to hurt him. The
more passionate kisses would have to live in her memory only now.
Until he
came for her
.

“You won’t break your promise to me,” she whispered, swallowing
the knot in her throat. “We promised, and we sealed our love this afternoon, but
our plan was silly. It would never have worked, anyway, even without the filthy
lowlife Yeentso. My Clan Mothers are stubborn; they would not see the reason.”
Another knot in her throat swallowed, she went on, praying for her voice to
remain firm, not to break. “But it doesn’t matter. We will just have to achieve
our goal differently now. We have to be more cunning, more patient, that’s
all.”

She peered into his eyes, feeling his arms enveloping her,
although his body tensed with an effort, his forehead glittering with sweat.
She pressed closer, taking some of his weight.

“If you stay, you die. If you leave, you do have a chance. And
then, after you have helped Two Rivers, after you two have established
yourselves somewhere, anywhere, come here and take me away, too. I will be
waiting for you. I will not belong to anyone, I promise. I promised you that
already, but I now will be repeating myself. I’ll belong to no one but you, and
if you come and kidnap me back to your lands of the savages, I will come gladly.
Even if it means that I’ll have to cook people for your evening meals and to
kiss you while watching the snakes twisting in your hair.”

She felt his laughter, and the way his body tensed, dealing
with the pain the laughter brought.

“Oh, you would deal with that, would you?” he said, his lips
twisting slightly, but his eyes smiling, happy and unreserved.

“Yes, I would,” she said, satisfied with the effect. “Do your
people’s women work the fields at all?”

“No, they hunt people for meals, instead. And they tend their
husbands’ hair, to make the snakes happy. That’s all they do.”

“Then their life is easy, and I will be happy to lead it, as
long as you make love to me the way you did this afternoon.”

His gaze deepened, glittering, taking her breath away. “I will
come for you. Unless I am dead, and maybe even then. I will not break my
promise. You will be mine, and it won’t take me long summers to come, either. I
will not make you wait, I promise you that.”

And then they sat silent, holding each other, sad and happy at
the same time, until Two Rivers declared that the boat was ready, poring
through the contents of her bag, nodding his approval.

“So many useful things! And my bird’s trap,” he exclaimed, as
happy as a young boy. “You are quite a woman, Seketa!” Straightening up, he
faced her, smiling into her eyes. “I hope to see you again, and soon. This
young man will make it happen, never fear.” He grinned. “I almost wish we could
have taken you along now. You have more common sense than the whole female population
of this town put together. And many males thrown in the pile, as well.”

“Maybe she should come,” said Tekeni, pausing to catch his
balance before attempting to step into the boat.

She felt her heart missing a beat. To leap into their canoe and
sail away? Was it not the best of solutions? And why not? Why couldn’t she come
along, into the wonderful, most exciting of the adventures—

Two Rivers’ snort cut her daydream short.

“You want to drag your girl across the Great Lake and into the
lands of the savages, to an unknown destination, in this small canoe and almost
no supplies? Oh Mighty Spirits, why don’t you think sensibly for once?”

He was right, of course, he was right. She bit her lips,
knowing that had Tekeni been in a better condition he would had argued, quite
forcefully at that. He would have done exactly as he felt fit, refusing to sail
again, maybe. But as it was, he just muttered angrily, hugging her shoulders
with force, promising even with this hug to return for her, no matter what.

She had stood upon the shore for a long time after they
disappeared from her view, reluctant to go back to the town and its people. And
when she came, she didn’t go home, but went to sit under Iraquas’ tree, to wait
for the sunrise, and to think.

She was not in any particular danger, she knew. No one would
think to question her about the death of Yeentso and his friends, when the
bodies would be found. They would scream murder and try to reach the fleeing
culprits, launching an expedition that would fail, of course. Two Rivers was a
resourceful man, with plenty of experience and more clear thinking than any man
she had ever met. And with Tekeni for a partner his chances were even better.
They wouldn’t be caught, and they would manage not to get killed on the other
side of the Great Sparkling Water, too. This town would yet hear about this
pair, she suddenly knew, and only good, outstanding things.

Smiling back at the friendly, shining deity, she felt her tears
drying, going away, for good this time. Oh, those two were destined to make
great things, to stop the war, maybe, yes. And she would be a part of this
happening. She would not let them leave her behind, to come and fetch her when
it all was done and ready. She’d find the way to reach him if he didn’t appear
to kidnap her soon enough.

The end