According to Legend

by Gerri Brousseau

  The drive to the falls held the vista of a pewter sky. The dark fingers of barren tree branches reached up into the sky. The only color was that of the deep green pine trees swaying in the breeze. A storm was approaching.

  The granite rocks of the falls seemed to melt into the deep gray of the clouds and as I headed up the unmarked trail gentle snow began falling. I had never been here in the winter. It wasn’t pleasant. I shivered as a cold dampness chilled me to the bone.

  Half-Breed, you must relay a message to Moheeladeck. Tell him that we are here near the entrance to the cave.

  Yes, Princess, as you command.

  Make sure he and the warriors are on alert to be summoned in case we have been followed.

  I have told him.

  Half-Breed, I’m afraid of what my heart may find here today.

  Trust in your love for Moheeladeck but mostly, trust in yourself. You have the courage of a lion, my daughter, and your heart is pure.

  Right now I don’t feel like a lion. I’m scared.

  Take courage, my daughter.

  I took a deep breath and prepared to perform my ritual. I removed my backpack, and, in spite of the cold, removed my shoes. Beneath my bare feet the soil was damp and cold from the snow, and the spray of the waterfall and its icy mist covered my face. Closing my eyes, I took another deep breath and was filled with a peaceful oneness with the earth. An inner peace filled me and knew that this was exactly where I needed to be. I sat on the ledge and calmness fell over me.

  Closing my eyes, I let my mind wander. Then things slowly came into focus. In my mind, I saw the image of the doe, my Spirit Guide. She gently bowed her head to greet me and I did the same.

  You have come here to seek answers but the answers are already within you.

  Her mind spoke to mine and I answered her only with my thoughts. I have come to find answers and peace in all this madness.

  You have been followed.

  I feared I would be. Who has followed me?

  The fair one who seeks to capture your heart, the one you call David. But beware, others follow close behind him.

  Others?

  Yes, others who like you have had a spirit reborn in them. They seek to do evil.

  I was afraid that would be so. I don’t know how to stop all of this.

  Lead them into the cave. Let them find what they seek. They want to find eternity. Use your powers to give it to them, she said.

  You want me to lead my enemies into the cave?

  Yes, it is there that your enemies will at last enter your inner circle and you will face the final confrontation. It is there that good will battle evil. Your enemies must know that when they seek to take that which is not rightfully theirs, the price is a steep one to pay.

  Those are harsh words to be spoken so gently, Shaweetoo.

  Their ways are harsh and so harsh ways will come back to them. Child, if you plant corn, do you expect to harvest beans? No. You can only harvest what you have planted. They have planted lies, deceit, hate, murder, and greed. Therefore, those are the only things that can come back to them. They have used harshness to try to take a harvest that is not theirs to take. Therefore, their harvest can only be delivered to them in harshness. This is not my law, but the law of the Great Spirit . . . the universe.

  I understand.

  Of the other matter with which you struggle . . . follow your heart and trust in the love that lives and grows within you. She took a step backward, before vaporizing into the mist of the falls.

  I slowly opened my eyes. I had come here to find answers and to find peace and at last I had. I knew what I had to do.

  I wasn’t surprised when I turned to find David standing there just watching me.

  “So, you are following me.”

  “I only want to keep you safe, Pam.”

  “As you can see, I was in no danger.”

  “What I saw, well, it was amazing,” he said.

  “Amazing?” I asked, trying not to sound alarmed.

  “You sat there totally relaxed and suddenly a look of complete peace came over you.”

  “I come here to think and to find answers to things that trouble me.”

  “After all the tales I have heard about the powers of those stones, I sort of expected to see some flashing lights or something.”

  “You actually sound disappointed, David. You should know that all power comes from within you, from your spirit. You don’t need anything else to give you power.”

  Now I’m starting to sound like Half-Breed, I thought.

  Thank you, Princess. I’ll take that as a compliment.

  Half-Breed, I need you to relay a message to Moheeladeck. My Spirit Guide has told me enemies have followed and I am to lead them into the cave.

  I will tell him you ask that he and the warriors stand ready to be called to our aid.

  Yes. We’ll need as much help as we can get.

  The wolf nodded.

  The exchange was not lost on David.

  “Are you having some sort of conversation with the wolf?” David asked.

  “Don’t be silly. I was merely thinking about how peaceful it is here.”

  David came to stand near the ledge and peered down over the pools below. “You’re right, this really is a beautiful place.” He turned to face me. “Did you find the answers you were looking for?” he asked, placing his hand upon my arm.

  “I think so.”

  “If you don’t mind my asking, does any of it concern me?”

  I was about to answer him when Half-Breed’s thoughts flooded my mind. Others are approaching.

  I scanned the area and my body stiffened.

  Where? I asked Half-Breed.

  Behind us.

  “What’s wrong?” David asked.

  Before I could answer him, the smell of overpowering cologne drifted to me as Mr. Harvey and Officer Williamson stepped out from between the rocks. They both had guns in their hands, and they were pointed at David and me. In all the times I had been here, I had never noticed a tunnel there. I simply thought it was shadows between some boulders.

  “You stupid whelp,” Mr. Harvey said to David, disgust written on his face. “I couldn’t be more disappointed in you.”

  “I told you she leads him around by his dick,” Williamson snarled.

  Half-Breed growled fiercely and the fur on his back stood from head to tail.

  “If you have any control at all over that animal, you better tell it to back off before I shoot it between the eyes, and David will tell you, I’ll enjoy doing it,” Williamson said.

  Half-Breed, please. Let’s not be hasty. Our opportunity will come. Then I spoke to him for the sake of the crowd. “Half-Breed. Stand down.”

  The wolf obeyed, although he continued to growl softly and bare his teeth to the intruders.

  “Well, Ms. Hastings,” Mr. Harvey said. “I think you will be taking us into the cave now.”

  “Please, Harvey, don’t hurt her,” David pleaded.

  Mr. Harvey shook his head in disgust, “I’m ashamed of you boy, ashamed to even think that you could possibly be a product of my loins.”

  “What?” David’s jaw dropped.

  It was then that Mrs. Warren stepped from the entrance of the tunnel, only she wasn’t walking like an old woman. My mind raced back to that day she rescued me from Mr. Harvey at the museum. I remembered thinking then that she moved too quickly for an old lady. Was she here to rescue us, or was she in on this plot, too? Then I saw the gun in her hand and the hair on the back of my neck rose. My heart was hammering so loudly, I feared everyone would hear it.

  “Yes, David, you are my son and although I’m ashamed to admit it, he is your father,” she said.

  “So it’s true,” David uttered in a barely audible voice.

  “Yes. The woman you knew as your mother was my sister. I allowed her raise you as her son only to protect you from those who would have done you harm because of who you are, the son of the Tribal Princess, and right
ful heir to the Aloscotay land, and the treasure. But my sister was weak. She threatened to tell you who you really are. She allowed you to go off to college, against my wishes. She wanted you to fall in love and have a normal life. Ha! What did she know of love? You have a duty, a destiny. Falling in love would have opened your mind to who you really are. I couldn’t allow that until everything was in place. My sister was going to expose everything to you.”

  “Is that the secret she was going to tell me the night she died?”

  “Yes, she was going to expose the secret and we would have lost it all. She had to be silenced.”

  I was stunned by her confession, but the crazed glint in her eyes was even more frightening.

  “Then you did kill her,” David said.

  “Of course I did. She left me no choice. I poisoned her slowly with the honey in her tea. Honey made by my bees that strictly fed from the pollen of foxglove. Thanks to our nephew, the good Doctor Benjamin Harvey, we found the poison is deadly and undetectable. I couldn’t risk losing these lands and the treasure, and I had to protect you. So, you could take your rightful place and I will take mine.”

  Before my eyes, age seemed to melt away from the face of sweet, old Mrs. Warren and before me stood a young, vibrant Indian maiden. What the heck is going on? I looked from her to Mr. Harvey, who was now a young Indian warrior.

  I recalled the words of my spirit guide “. . . others who like you have had a spirit reborn in them.”

  Williamson appeared just as stunned as I was because his jaw dropped opened. “They told me all this and I believed them, but seeing it, well, that’s another story. This is wild.” He shook his head in astonishment, but still didn’t lower the gun.

  Mrs. Warren spoke again. “I am Niviktay, the daughter of your mother’s sister, Teelaktay, and the one who should have been named as Tribal Princess. I am the rightful princess by birthright and the one who was supposed to be the bride of Moheeladeck. I am the one who was supposed to control the power of the stones and my son is the first born heir of the tribe,” she said, her voice dripping with venom.

  “But because of you, I was forced to marry of a lesser status.” She looked over at Mr. Harvey with hate in her eyes. “I married the son of Malsumsis, Noeetu, this poor excuse for a man who stands before you,” she said, as if the mere sight of him sickened her.

  “I have waited a long time for this day, the day that I will take back what was stolen from me by your mother, what is rightfully mine. The day of my vengeance has arrived at last,” she said, her eyes glazed over by madness.

  “Need I remind you, we must first get into the cave?” Noeetu said. And then, turning to me, he shoved the gun into my ribs. “Move it.”

  Half-Breed, tell Moheeladeck what is happening.

  David came to my side. “I won’t let them hurt you.”

  “You are powerless to stop us, you stupid whelp,” Noeetu said as he slapped David across the face with the back of his hand.

  Blood trickled from David’s lip and he toppled a few steps backward, but did not fall.

  I suppressed the urge to go to his side and my thoughts shifted to Half-Breed. I am sure that they know David holds the spirit of Divakar, the brother of Moheeladeck, but do you think they realize that he, like his brother, is charmed?

  Let us hope that they are ignorant of these things, the wolf thought. We can use all the help we can get.

  “What are you waiting for?” Noeetu said and poked me in the ribs again.

  “Maybe she’ll move faster if you threaten her lover boy here,” Williamson said.

  “Good thinking,” Niviktay said as she pointed her gun at David’s chest.

  Good God, David’s her son! How can a mother kill her own son? Then I remembered the story Weekatay had told me of the son who killed his own mother. That son was Noeetu’s father. The cold hand of fear gripped my heart to think that this was the blood running through their veins. They truly would stop at nothing in their greed and jealousy.

  I was so afraid that my legs were shaking, but I had to force myself to move.

  “No need for threats. I will take you to the cave,” I said as I strode past Niviktay to take the lead. When I stood at the front of the line with everyone behind me, I placed my hand over the catcher and thought, I summon Moheeladeck and the warriors to the inside of the cave.

  “I told you she knew the location of the cave,” Noeetu said to his wife.

  “Yes, and soon the treasure and the power of the stones will be mine,” she said with lusty greed.

  We inched our way down the narrow path along the slippery stones beside the falls. The spray of the water was ice cold on my face as we passed under the rushing water.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” Williamson said. “The cave was here all along, behind the falls.”

  For a moment, the darkness made it difficult to see but my eyes soon adjusted to the dim light. It was damp and cold beneath the falls but the chill of fear that ran down my spine was like icy death. I took the catcher in my hands.

  “No tricks now,” Noeetu said as he held the gun to my head.

  “I must use the stones. They are the key to enter the cave,” I said.

  “Let me do it,” Niviktay said as she shoved her husband aside. “It’s my right as the true Tribal Princess.”

  I took the catcher from around my neck and handed it to her. It was a gamble giving up control of the stones, but it was a gamble I felt I had to take.

  An evil smile curled her lips as she finally held the long coveted stones in her hand.

  “Tell me what to do,” she shouted.

  “The stones will not work for you,” I said calmly.

  “Why not?”

  “Because they will only work for the true Tribal Princess.”

  “Ha! You stupid girl. That’s how much you know. I AM the true Tribal Princess. Now tell me how to use these stones to get into the cave or I’ll have these men shoot you.”

  “If they shoot me, you will never get into the cave. I am the only one who possesses the ability to control the power of the stones. If you doubt me, go ahead and try to use them.”

  “At last,” she said, laughing hysterically with madness. Then turning to me she ordered. “Tell me what to do—NOW!”

  “Place the stones into the hole carved for them here in the center of this larger circular stone.” I indicated where she should place the stones and then turning to David I said, “When she does this, you must turn the round stone and the door to the cave should open, that is, unless she is not the true Tribal Princess.”

  All eyes were on Niviktay. She did as I instructed and David tried to turn the round stone, but it wouldn’t move.

  “Step aside, wimp,” Williamson said as he shoved his gun into the holster and pushed David out of the way. “Let a real man put some muscle behind it.” But, of course, he could not budge the stone either.

  “What evil trick is this? Why isn’t it working?” Niviktay shrieked.

  “I suggest you give the stones back to the girl. Perhaps you have not done it correctly. Let her show you how to do it,” Noeetu said.

  Niviktay’s face was white with rage as she turned and shoved the catcher into my hands.

  “I told you, you are not the true Tribal Princess,” I said calmly as I took the catcher from her hand and slipped it back around my neck. I was relieved my gamble had paid off.

  “OPEN THAT DOOR. NOW!” she shrieked again.

  I calmly moved past her. Energy tingled on my fingertips and heat crept up my hand when I place the stones into the hole carved in the center of the large circular stone. I faced David. “Now if you turn the round stone, the door to the cave will open.”

  He stepped past Williamson, and with the ease of a child turned the circular stone in his hand. The grinding sound of stone against stone could be heard even above the thundering falls as the door to the cave slid opened before us.

  “Amazing!” he murmured.

  “Yes, it is amazin
g what can be done when you are the one destined to do the job,” I said.

  We entered and once on the inside performed a similar task to close the door behind us.

  As I remembered, the interior of the cave was not dark. The light from the underground lake cast a glow that gave a dream-like light to the cave. Even the air was alive and vibrant with an energy that reflected a golden glow of its own. We proceeded to the underground lake where the canoes rested upon the bank.

  “On the other side of this lake you will find the treasures you seek,” I said.

  Hearing that, Niviktay scrambled into one of the canoes, “Hurry! Hurry!” she commanded.

  It was a difficult fit, but we managed to squeeze into two canoes. David and Williamson rowed to the opposite shore. Once we had arrived on the opposite banks, I led them up the twisted path between the great boulders that rose from the floor of the cave and stood as silent sentinels to guard to its riches.

  I slowed my pace as we approached the treasures.

  “Why are we stopping? Where is the treasure?” Niviktay screamed.

  “It is here before you.”

  “There is nothing here but piles of rock,” she said.

  As we approached the mountains of stones, I said, “These are not rocks, but gems, amethyst, aquamarine, emeralds, topaz, and over there you will find gold and silver. Have you ever seen anything like this?”

  They rushed to the mounds of gems and greedily picked up handfuls of the stones, stuffing them into leather pouches that hung at their waists. The sight of their greedy display made my stomach turn.

  “Up there, beyond these gems, is a bubbling spring. It is said to drink from it will bring eternal life.” I told them.

  “We no longer need her,” Niviktay said. Still stuffing gems into her tunic, she turned to her husband and said, “Kill her. NOW!”

  “Let’s not be so hasty. We will use her. Let us go up to the spring and see if its waters bring her eternal life,” Noeetu said as he shoved his gun into my back.

  Even though I knew Moheeladeck and the warriors were here, somewhere hidden in the shadows, fear gripped me when the cold, hard barrel of the gun pressed into my back.