by Inmon, Shawn
Sekun-ak contemplated the question. They had only returned with eight of the eggs from the last expedition, so losing one would be a substantial portion of the prize. Still, a chance to open a new trading route and get a new trading commodity as well, was irresistible.
“Yes. You have said that Rinta-ah is a good distance away. I’m sure you’ll want to take the horse.”
“Yes. And I will ask Senta-eh to accompany me.”
“Of course,” Sekun-ak said with a smile. “Of course.”
Alex looked a little sheepish. Everyone in the tribe knew how he felt about Senta-eh. What no one understood was why Alex kept those feelings to himself, and why he didn’t act on them.
“We’ll leave before first light tomorrow, then.”
Alex went looking for Senta-eh and found her in the field in front of the caves. She and Noken-ak, the weapons-maker, had crafted half a dozen smaller bows and a few dozen smaller arrows. She was surrounded by boys and girls who had yet to see their tenth solstice.
She knelt behind a tall, reed-thin girl who strained to pull the bowstring back.
“To your ear, then hold it there,” Senta-eh said.
The young girl did so, but the arrow wavered.
“When it settles, release.”
Finally, the arrow came to a momentary stop and the girl let it go. It flew straight at the shield Senta-eh had set up twenty paces away and hit it with a satisfying thunk. The small girl dropped the bow and squealed happily.
Around her, every other child jumped up and down and begged to be next. Senta-eh saw Alex approaching and handed the bow to the tallest girl in the crowd. “Skenda-eh, you are in charge while I am gone. Start with the smallest children but give everyone a turn.”
She smiled at Alex and said, “Manta-ak,” by way of greeting.
Alex returned her smile. It always made him happy to hear his name from her lips.
“I am going on a journey to Rinta-ah tomorrow. I am taking them a karak-ta egg to thank them for the help they gave us. Will you come with me?”
“Yes,” she said, without hesitation. “We will take the horses, then?”
Alex remembered a time when Senta-eh was scared to ride even the docile horses they had been given in Tonton-ah. Now, she was a better horseman than he was. She was one of those people who mastered everything easily.
“Yes. We’ve been here at the cliffside too long. It will be good to see a little more of the world again.”
“Or perhaps you are looking for more giants to kill in a fight to the death?”
“I can easily pass on that part of the trip, thank you.”
“I will meet you at the stables before first light.”
Alex went to prepare his pack for the trip. His steps were light. He loved Winten-ah, but his sense of adventure had always been his driving force. The idea of setting out on a new journey excited him.
He found the pack he had used the year before and took it to Garta-eh, who controlled the supplies for the tribe.
Before he even opened his mouth, she reached for the bag and said, “Sekun-ak said you were leaving. I already have Senta-eh’s bag, too.”
“Wait. What? I just asked her to go with me?”
“Uh-huh. And before you did, she had already asked me to prepare a bag for the same trip.”
Alex’s head was spinning, but he handed the bag over to the older woman and said, “Thank you.”
He walked back out onto the field, still trying to figure out how Senta-eh always seemed to know things before she possibly could. That was a puzzle he could work on for days, but never come up with a solution.
A few hours later, as the sun grew low on the horizon, a guard’s horn sounded—three short blasts and a long—which meant someone who was not a threat was approaching.
Alex looked over his shoulder to see Sekun-ak staring into the forest.
“You just sent the runners out, right?”
“Yes. They could not have reached any village and given them time to send a trader here yet.”
Unannounced company was a rare thing in Kragdon-ah. All members of the tribe found a reason to pause what they were doing and look expectantly at the point where the path emerged from the forest.
The minutes dragged on, but finally two lone people on horseback emerged. Even from a great distance, there was something familiar about them.
Then, it clicked into place. Alex shouted, “Senta-eh! We have company!”
She caught him at the bottom of the cliff, and they strode out toward the oncoming horses. They met them at the edge of the open field. Children surrounded the new arrivals, but the two newcomers smiled, laughed, and pushed their way through to Alex and Senta-eh.
“Harta-ak! Versa-eh! We never thought we would see you again! How did you ever find us?”
“You leave an easy trail to follow,” Versa-eh said with a laugh. “You’re lucky that Lasta-ah was too wounded to send anyone after you. Everywhere we went, the legend of Manta-ak and The Chosen One grew and grew. We inquired at the very first village we came to if they had seen you. A one-handed man spit on the ground and cursed your name. That was when we knew we were going the right way. We got lost a few times, but when you don’t really care where you are going, getting lost can be a pleasure too.”
Harta-ak laid his hands on Alex’s shoulder and said, “Thank you for receiving us. We won’t stay long. We are looking for a place to settle down and call our home.”
“Come, come,” Alex said. “We’ll see what’s in the stewpot for the night, then we’ll find a place for you to rest.”
Alex turned and saw Sekun-ak and a group of tribal elders approaching. He put a hand on both Harta-ak and Versa-eh’s shoulders and introduced them, adding, “Without them, we never would have made it home.”
Sekun-ak stepped forward and offered the formal greeting of Kragdon-ah, putting his right hand on Harta-ak’s left shoulder. “We owe you for the life of three of our most cherished people. That gives us a debt we can never repay, but we will try. Please, stay with us as long as you like.”
The group retired to the room where large council meetings were held, and dinner was brought to the weary travelers.
Alex sat across from them and said, “Tell us what happened in Lasta-ah after we left.”
Harta-ak and Vesta-eh met each other’s eyes, then sighed.
“Manta-ak, with just the three of you, you managed to destroy the greatest city in Kragdon-ah.”
Those who had closed in to hear the story beamed at Alex. They had known he was the mighty warrior who had destroyed Denta-ah, but the story of what happened in Lasta-ah had not been widely shared. The idea that he could destroy an entire city on his own was a new source of pride.
Monda-ak woofed softly—his dignified reminder that there were four attackers on Lasta-ah.
“Sorry,” Harta-ak corrected himself. “The four of you managed to destroy the greatest city in Kragdon-ah. The fire tore through the city and by the next morning, there was nothing but embers and ashes everywhere. Versa-eh and I returned to my barge and left immediately. We sailed upriver to Grinta-ah and made our normal run back down. It took us a full moon-cycle to make the trip. We had hoped that when we returned, the rebuilding would have begun and no one would be any wiser as to the part we played in helping you escape.”
“It didn’t happen that way,” Versa-eh said, picking up the story. “When we came into the port at Lasta-ah, there were armed guards waiting for us. They tried to trap us and hold us there, but Harta-ak pushed off lightning-fast and we ran with the river for hours. We went through the uncharted territories.”
“Uncharted, but not unknown to a river rat like me,” Harta-ak added. “Eventually, we turned around and made our way back upriver. We passed Lasta-ah in deepest night and kept going until we hit Grinta-ah again. I felt like I had put my crew at risk as well, so I gave them my barge as payment. We floated back down the river, selling off everything we carried and used that to trade for horses and e
verything we would need for a fresh start.”
“And now you’re here,” Senta-eh concluded. She looked at Versa-eh with admiration. “Not many would have been able to make that trip safely. You are clever.”
“After we got past the first village, where the people didn’t seem to think too much of you, everyone else was kind to us because we were traveling in the footsteps of the great warrior and The Chosen One. You made our trip easier without even knowing it.”
“What are your plans now?” Alex asked. He couldn’t imagine what a young couple could do, homeless and wandering across Kragdon-ah with only what they could carry.
“To take things as they come,” Harta-ak said. He laid a gentle hand on Versa-eh’s knee. “As long as she is with me, life is good, no matter where I am.”
Alex glanced at Versa-eh and saw she felt the same.
“We are going to a village called Rinta-ah tomorrow,” Alex said with a sudden inspiration. “Would you like to come with us?”
“Of course!” Harta-ak said. Like Alex, he was always up for whatever the next adventure might be. “What is in this village that is worth seeing?”
“Well, they may have a rope bridge that they use to cross a mighty river,” Alex said.
“If they rebuilt it after you tore it down,” Senta-eh reminded him.
“That was two years ago,” Alex chided her. “Surely they would have rebuilt it by now.”
Harta-ak and Versa-eh laughed softly. They were more than aware of how Alex managed to find trouble wherever he went, though he rarely sought it out.
“They know where a large amount of a spice they call danta is located and they offered to share it with us. They said there is enough of it to last us all many generations. We are going to take them a karak-ta egg and they are going to show us where to find the danta.”
“Karak-ta egg?” Versa-eh asked, then waved the question away. It was obvious that there were many things she needed to learn about this new world.
“We will be ready to ride,” Harta-ak said. A small smile played on his lips.
He is smart. Always looking for opportunities wherever he goes. He will not stay a poor wanderer for long.
The four humans, their horses, and Monda-ak set off the next day before dawn. When they reached the path at the edge of the forest and turned right, Alex couldn’t help but remember the same moment when he, Senta-eh, and Werda-ak had crossed the same point.
Werda-ak was so young, but so full of possibilities, all of them lost now.
They made much better time on horseback than they had on foot two years earlier. Alex rode point, but Harta-ak and Versa-eh rode close behind so they could talk. As they rode, the two new arrivals filled Alex in on the many adventures and sights they had seen on their journey. Senta-eh rode behind. As usual, she was content to listen and learn.
When they came to a sharp turn in the path, Alex held his hand up to slow everyone down. He moved his horse just off the path and went around the corner. It was the same spot Werda-ak had nearly fallen in the hole dug by the kidnappers on the first trip.
Alex assumed that the hole might have been filled in, but when he turned the corner, he saw the hole was still there. He swung off his horse and everyone else did the same. He peered into the hole and saw that it had become a burial ground of sorts. When they had last seen it, there had been a lone coyote and an unidentified carcass there. The kidnappers had planted sharp spikes at the bottom of the hole. The first animal had stumbled in and had been killed by the spikes. The grunda-ta—the coyote—had been drawn to the dead animal and fallen in, though not onto the spikes.
Now, on top of those corpses, there were many others. Some had also been spiked, several of which had apparently just starved to death, unable to get up out of the sheer hole.
“Eventually, there will be enough corpses that an animal will be able to climb out on top of them,” Versa-eh observed.
“The way of the world,” Alex agreed. All worlds, apparently.
They reached the spot where they had camped the first night about lunch time. They watered the horses, filled their water bags, and pushed on. They reached their second night’s campsite before dark.
Took us eight days to reach the river last time. With any luck, we’ll make it in half that with the horses.
In the end, they reached it in only three days. Since Alex and Sekun-ak were hoping to be able to make regular trips for the salt the Rinta-ah called danta, it was important to know how long each leg of the journey would be.
They heard the rushing of the Kranda-ah, which Alex had known as The Columbia, when they were still a distance away. They came upon the flat rocks where they had seen the huge skinks the last time. Monda-ak picked up their scents again, but they were well-hidden and safe from being his lunch.
Alex pointed to the rope bridge that once again spanned the river, relieved.
Harta-ak craned his neck to look up at the top span of rope and said, “Wait. Are you saying that you crossed the river by tying yourself to that top rope and then cutting it, so it flung you across the river like a slingshot?”
Senta-eh stepped forward and said, “That’s exactly what he did. Manta-ak flew across the Kranda-ah.”
“And paid the price for it,” Alex said, rubbing his hands across his forehead, which still showed a small crisscross of light scars.
“You may not be smart, but you are brave,” Versa-eh said.
“And you are not the first person to draw that conclusion,” Alex agreed. “Let’s gather up some firewood and build a big, smoky fire. Rinka-ak said he would send the boat over to get us.”
Half an hour later, they had gathered enough dry firewood to start the fire. When it was blazing, they added greenery to make it smoke heavily.
“And now, we wait,” Alex said. “It could be a few hours, or a day or two for them to come and get us.”
Versa-eh touched Senta-eh’s shoulder and said, “Can you teach me how to shoot your bow?”
“Of course!” Senta-eh took her bow off her back and handed it to the younger woman. “Let’s set up a target for you.”
The two went about creating a target by twisting and weaving grass together into a circle then placing it thirty paces away. Senta-eh first showed Versa-eh the proper form, then handed her the bow and corrected her grip.
Versa-eh pulled the string back and released it. Two things happened at once. The bowstring twanged into her left arm, causing the bow to drop to the ground, and the arrow made it about halfway to the target, then fell to the ground.
Versa-eh waved her left arm frantically, trying to get the sting out of it, then glared at the two men by the fire. Both of the men were smart enough to not laugh or even smile, no matter how humorous the shot might have been. If they had so much as a smirk, the next arrow might have launched in their direction.
The hours passed in easy companionship as Versa-eh improved her bow skills and Alex and Harta-ak talked about what could be done with the danta once they found the deposit.
Just before sunset, Alex glanced out at the river and saw the boat was latched on to the lower span of rope and was slowly making its way across the river.
Chapter Four
Rinka-ak
Alex Hawk always hoped for the best but prepared for the rest. Typically, the rest was not the best.
They knew they couldn’t take their horses across in the boat, but they also couldn’t leave them on the shore, where they would be vulnerable to any passing predator. They also didn’t want to leave just one person there to guard the horses, so they decided that Alex and Monda-ak would be their representative with the village of Rinta-ah.
As the boat approached, Alex’s stomach knotted slightly as it always did when he knew trouble might be coming. Just as the sun finally dipped below the horizon, the boat pulled onto the southern shore of the Kranda-ah. There were four warriors in the boat, and although they were armed, they appeared friendly.
Of course, they might appear to be friend
ly so they can ambush us.
One of the men—a tall, athletic specimen like the others—hopped lightly out of the boat and helped guide it up onto the shore. He turned with a beaming smile and said, “The great Manta-ak. We had to outwrestle many other warriors for the honor of escorting you across the river.”
Another warrior added, “We were afraid that if we didn’t get here quickly, you would tie yourself to the bridge and jump again.”
The good-natured ribbing served to put Alex a little more at ease. He introduced Versa-eh and Harta-ak, then inquired as to the well-being of Rinka-ak. Alex knew that if he was no longer chief, their road would be much more difficult.
“The boy Chief is healthy and well, though that cannot be said for everyone in Rinta-ah.” The warrior’s expression darkened. “But I will let him tell you about that.” He glanced at the four horses and the dog who was almost the size of one of them. “Our boat is not big.”
“Everyone but me and the dog shaped like a horse will be staying here. I hope to go to the danta deposits tomorrow, and we can pick up the rest of my friends then.”
The warrior who had done most of the speaking looked at the sky, shot through with pink and purple from the sunset. “If we hope to make the village before dark, we need to leave now.”
No one in Alex’s party was big on formal goodbyes, so Alex simply said, “If I’m not back tomorrow, just know that I am likely dead and return home.”
“If you do not return by tomorrow,” Senta-eh said, looking at each of the four warriors, “they had best fear for their lives. I will burn their village as surely as we did Lasta-ah.”
Senta-eh’s statement of potential revenge wasn’t the typical declaration of love. Nonetheless, it was the precise moment when Alex could no longer deny what he felt. Her simple statement of loyalty and confidence broke through whatever barriers he had attempted to construct.
Good timing as usual, Hawk. Not the perfect time to tell her how you feel.
Instead, Alex didn’t say anything, but grabbed the bag that contained the karak-ta egg and clambered into the boat.
