by C Lee Tocci
Cohanna looked like she would have asked more questions, but Gil-Salla shook her head slightly, silencing her. With a tiny sniff, Cohanna leaned back, but her eyes stayed on Lilibit.
“Lilibit,” said Gil-Salla. “I would prefer, for the time being, that you refrain from bestowing stones on any of your fellow neophytes.”
Panic made Lilibit cry out without thinking, “No! I can’t!”
Gil-Salla raised a disapproving eyebrow. Cohanna’s eyes narrowed and Keotak-se glared. She knew she had sounded less respectful than she meant, but she didn’t know what to do. She knew how angry Gil-Salla could get if you didn’t do exactly what she “preferred” and she didn’t want to defy her, but she didn’t know if she could obey either. She took a deep breath and tried to explain.
“I mean, I didn’t actually give the stone to Garen,” she said earnestly. “I just let Swoop go where he wanted to. I can’t stop a stone from going where he wants to go. It hurts!”
“It causes you pain?” Gil-Salla frowned.
“No, not me!” Lilibit was almost in tears. “The stone. He’ll cry if I don’t let him go. They make a horrible noise if they don’t get their way. Please don’t make me try to stop them. They go where they want to go. It’s not my fault.”
The three elders turned to look at each other. Lilibit wondered if they could talk without their mouths, like Marla and Ulex, because their faces had that same kind of look, like they were saying something, even though they weren’t.
“We will discuss this further in council,” Gil-Salla stated at last. “Until we reach our decision, if you become aware of any stone that desires to be granted to another neophyte, please bring them to me first.”
Lilibit stared at her feet, feeling miserable.
“Do you understand?” asked Gil-Salla.
“Yes, ma’am,” Lilibit answered with a whisper.
“Will you promise?” asked Cohanna.
“No, ma’am.”
In the silence that followed, the hearth flared and the flame crackled angrily.
“I can promise to try,” Lilibit offered, “but sometimes stones can get pretty emphatic.”
Lilibit looked up expectantly. She liked the word “emphatic”. It was a new word to her and she hoped that it impressed them.
No such luck.
Gil-Salla stood up. Her face was grim as she grasped Lilibit’s shoulders, holding her tightly enough to be painful. Lilibit winced and tried to pull away but Gil-Salla held firm.
“Lilibit, a Stone Warrior must control their stones. You saw what happened to Garen when he allowed his stone to rule him. You must be able to focus the power of the stones to serve you.”
Lilibit was confused. She looked up at Gil-Salla anxiously. “But you said Stone Warriors are supposed to serve the Stone, not that the stones are supposed to serve us.”
A puff of sound escaped Cohanna, but when Lilibit glanced over, she was staring down into her lap with Keotak-se glaring at her. She looked back up to Gil-Salla.
Gil-Salla’s face was dark and Lilibit was worried she was going to burst into flames again. For a very long moment, the only sound was the crackle of the hearth. Finally, Gil-Salla spoke.
“We shall discuss this in council,” Gil-Salla nodded dismissal. “I shall let you know the decision. Return to your hogan and join your fellow neophytes in their studies.”
“Yes ma’am.” Lilibit’s relief at escaping was less than her anxiety at what the council might decide. She trudged out of the hall, her feet dragging on the dirt floor, not even bothering to wave goodbye to Garen who still sat in the corner, scribbling away.
Todd had worried away the entire morning over Lilibit’s latest disappearance, so when he first caught a glimpse of her on the Crescent Courtyard, his first urge was to chase her down and shake her. But then he realized that she had just left Gil-Salla’s hall and was headed for the Raven hogan, walking like a whipped puppy. He scrambled down the gravelly slope of the hill.
By the time he reached the courtyard, Lilibit had disappeared into the hogan. He wavered on the cobblestones, unable to decide whether or not he should follow her. He looked over at the Hall of the Flame Voice.
For the past few weeks, he’d been wondering how much Rodent had been able to hear when he’d eavesdropped on Gil-Salla chewing him out. On impulse, he turned from the hogan’s entrance and darted down the path that ran behind Gil-Salla’s hall.
A tall scraggly elm rose along one side of the path, its branches hanging over the adobe dome. Leaving his staff at its trunk, Todd pulled himself into the tree, climbed out onto one of the limbs and silently lowered himself onto the roof of the hall. As quietly as he could manage, he inched his way over to the hearth vent.
Laying flat on his stomach, he listened.
To nothing.
Not a sound could be heard from below. At first he was relieved, because he thought that Rodent couldn’t have heard what Gil-Salla had said to him. He was inching his way off the dome when a ribbon of purple smoke rose from the chimney hole. A small breeze sent it toward him and as it passed his ears, he caught a sound.
Cohanna chuckled.
At least that’s what it sounded like. He squirmed closer to where the haze drifted in the wind and placed his head in its path.
“You find this amusing?” Gil-Salla’s voice could be heard as clearly as if she were sitting next to him; the sound seemed to resonate from the smoke.
“She hands back your own words to you.” Cohanna’s voice quivered with laughter. “You would twist your words to push her where you would like her to go, but she defeats you with logic. She is strongminded and clever. Good traits for a Stone Voice.”
“She is undisciplined, unruly and insubordinate.” Keotak-se sounded furious. “She will not focus on her lessons and is truant more often than attentive.”
“She is still very young.” Gil-Salla said quietly. “And she is still healing.”
“Healing?” Cohanna asked. “She seems fine to me.”
“Her body has healed, this is true,” answered Gil-Salla. “And the vacuum of her mind, she feeds daily. Intellectually, she is recouping many of her lost years, but emotionally…”
Todd couldn’t tell if Gil-Salla had left that sentence unfinished or if the shifting wind that carried the smoke the other away had carried her words as well. The breeze turned again, the purple smoke drifted towards him and he heard Keotak-se fuming.
“How long do you intend to continue this farce?” said Keotak-se. “She needs to be told the truth. She needs to train. She needs to prepare for Klamareath.”
Todd racked his memory. He knew he had heard the term “Klamareath” before, but it was a moment before he recalled it from the Legend of Witanya. It was the ritual battle between an old Stone Voice and a new one. For the first time, Todd realized that just keeping Lilibit safe in Kiva would not be enough. The time would come when she would need to fight the old Stone Voice, Korap. A tiny waif like Lilibit who could barely wield her quaybo would stand little chance against a determined opponent.
Yet Korap was supposed to be a thousand years old. Maybe she was old and decrepit.
Like Keotak-se? Keotak-se was said to be that old as well, and there was nothing weak or feeble about him. Todd understood Keotak-se’s worry.
“I would not rush to that moment,” Gil-Salla said. “The day she learns the truth and accepts her destiny is the last day of her infancy. She is very young and I would not steal what little childhood she has left. The Enemy has stolen more than the last five years from her. It has stripped her of the memories of her earliest days. To let her run free for a few more months will have little consequence in the end.”
“We hope,” said Cohanna quietly.
“You weave a twisted web,” Keotak-se ranted. “At some point, you must cut through the veils and expose the truth.”
“She needs time,” is all that Gil-Salla said.
It was quiet for several minutes and Todd thought they were finished
. He began edging away, but Cohanna’s voice drew him back.
“I am amazed that she grants stones at her age,” said Cohanna. “I have not studied the annals, but I do not recall hearing of a Stone Voice granting stones of power so young.”
“She was but six years old when she gifted her first stone,” Keotak-se stated flatly.
“Six?” Cohanna sounded amazed. “Impossible! To whom?”
“To me,” Keotak-se said quietly. There was a rustling of leather before he spoke again. “His name is Branken, and he is quite an unusual stone.”
There was a stunned silence before Cohanna said in a hushed voice, “You have two stones of power?”
Keotak-se must have nodded for Cohanna spoke again with much more passion. “You can’t have two stones! To whom do you pledge your allegiance? Korap or Lilibit?”
There was another pause, but Keotak-se did not answer.
“How can this be?” There was a tight edge to Cohanna’s voice. “What do the chronicles say? Has there ever been a warrior pledged to two Stone Voices?”
“It appears to be a first,” said Gil-Salla.
A sniff from Cohanna sounded angry and disapproving.
“The first of many firsts,” Gil-Salla continued. “I have searched the archives. I can find no record of any Infant Stone Voice granting Stones of Power so young, nor can I find evidence of any stone warriors manifesting powers that have not first been mastered by the Stone Voice. And yet, both events have occurred in this generation.”
“The boy Donnie,” Cohanna said. “I have noticed his ability to speak to animals. That is unusual, but the gift of animal tongue is not necessarily a power granted by the stone.”
“There is also Marla and Ulex and their ability to communicate through their stones,” said Gil-Salla, “Nita’s gift of healing, and while I do not understand the power of Jeff’s stone, I suspect it might be quite potent and certainly unique.”
“And do not overlook the Raven,” said Keotak-se. “He unleashed Ajila to defeat the demon Syxx.”
“Untrained? Pledged to an unrisen Stone Voice?” Cohanna sounded skeptical. “Can you be sure? Ajila can maim even seasoned Stone Warriors. Channeling Ajila could be fatal for a neophyte.”
Todd was puzzled until he realized they were talking about him. They called him “the Raven?” He kind of like that. The Raven. Like his father.
“There can be no other explanation,” Gil-Salla said. “It was certainly Ajila that drove off the demon that night. I felt its echo in the soil. It was not Keotak-se, and the boy’s description of the event is too specific to be coincidental.”
“Hmm,” Cohanna sniffed. “Remarkable. Certainly worthy of the archives.”
“Hildoo has noted,” Gil-Salla said cryptically.
On the roof, Todd’s head swam from trying to figure out all the new words. Ajila must be what they call that blast of light and power that came out of his staff when he’d fought that demon, but what, or who, was Hildoo?
“So we do nothing?” There was a ring of impatience in Keotak-se’s voice. “Garen has been granted a stone of power. Do you think that the other neophytes will fail to notice?”
“If they do, let them speculate.” Gil-Salla spoke calmly.
“And if they guess correctly?” asked Cohanna.
“Then we shall deal with it at that time.” There was a note of dismissal in Gil-Salla’s voice.
The others must have heard it as well, for there were the sounds of people rising and farewells mumbled. Silently, Todd crept away from the chimney hole and back to the tree.
At the base of the tree, he stopped to pick up his staff. He agreed with Gil-Salla, but not for the same reasons. Lilibit as the smallest neophyte was tough enough to handle. If everyone started making a big deal over her because she was the Infant Stone Voice, she’d be impossible.
As he jogged back to their hogan, his mind buzzed with the latest problem. If Lilibit was going to start giving out stones again, how long could they keep it secret?
Chapter Twenty-Six
Twenty Pieces of Silver
“There’s a bird in the rafters again.”
“How do they get in?”
“Leave him. The players think it’s lucky.”
“They won’t be feeling that lucky when they get crap on their heads.”
Grey Feather flicked back his wings as he settled on a black ceiling joist. He ignored the handful of casino workers who stared up at him, watching instead the two men who sat at the hall’s only roulette wheel.
The alcove that held the roulette table wasn’t as garish as the rest of the hall, but Duke Dauntry and Syxx still looked conspicuously out of place in this shabby backwoods casino. They played their stacks of silver chips with a casualness that shocked those nearby. Each chip was worth a thousand dollars, but they paid little attention to their wins and none to their losses.
The casino was a squat ugly building on the most southeastern corner of the reservation, a three hour drive from the nearest city. It was seldom that there were more than a handful of gamblers in the hall. Rarer still were players who bet more than a dollar or two at a time.
The locals might have been curious about the strangers, but Grey Feather knew exactly who they were. And, while he didn’t know what they were doing here, he knew it wasn’t the roulette wheel that brought them.
The tension of the air changed, alerting Grey Feather to a new arrival. The slot machines still clanged and binged, but the babble of the gamblers seemed to hush slightly as the Hihomay chieftain, Leot-kay walked into the smoky hall. He stood glaring as several of his tribesmen slunk out the exits.
But Leot-kay wasn’t interested in the comings and goings of the regulars. He spotted the strangers a moment after they had noticed him. He walked up to them as if he was expected.
If they spoke to each other at all, Grey Feather couldn’t hear their words above the clamor, but when Leot-kay turned and walked up a set of stairs into an upper office, the two men rose and followed, scooping up their chips and sliding them into their pocket.
Black wings against the black painted rafters, Grey Feather flittered unseen outside the walls of the office. A small gap where the wall met the roof might be a comfortable opening for a mouse, but it was a tight fit for a large raven. Grey Feather lost a few moments and a feather or two squeezing into the crawl space above the office, but he landed gently on the ceiling tiles and stepped his way over to a grate that looked down into the office below.
Duke Dauntry was looking distastefully up at the ceiling. They no doubt heard Grey Feather’s rustling about and figured it to be rats. When Leot-kay spoke, the Duke turned back to the conversation.
“Seventy-five, twenty-five,” Leot-kay said.
“Sixty-five, thirty-five.” Like a gunshot, the Duke barked back a counter-offer.
Leot-kay didn’t appear rattled. “Seventy, thirty,” he said after a moment, sitting straight as a rod in his chair.
The Duke shot a glance over at Syxx, who nodded.
“Agreed.” Dauntry flashed a wide blinding smile at Leot-kay.
Leot-kay leaned back in his chair and stared at his visitors. “Endrune will ‘gift’ one hundred acres of real estate near the interstate in exchange for the contract to operate a casino. The Hidotomay get seventy percent of the profits, and Endrune gets thirty.”
“Correct,” answered Dauntry.
“And Endrune will acquire all the permits and financing?” Leot-kay sounded skeptical.
“No problem.” Dauntry beamed.
“But there is one thing that you could do to help.” Syxx spoke casually, but Leot-kay stiffened. “We still need the approval of the Board of the Directors. Normally, that wouldn’t be a obstacle, but some of our shareholders might need persuading.”
“You would like me to speak to them?” Leot-kay asked, his brow furrowed.
“No, no,” Syxx said soothingly. “It’s just that two of our major stockholders, two sweet maiden aunts, have lost t
heir neice. She wandered away from home a few months ago and they hired detectives who tracked her as far as Alamos Tierra.”
At the mention of the town, Leot-kay froze.
“The detectives could find little trace of her after Alamos Tierra, but they heard rumors of some young people living up in the mountains.” Syxx leaned in, looking pensive and concerned. “Now this child is much too young to be on her own. She’s a tiny black haired girl with almond eyes. Her name is Lilibit.”
Even from the rafters, Grey Feather could see the chieftain tense at the name.
Syxx saw this as well and smiled comfortingly. “We both know she doesn’t belong there,” he whispered. “If you could help us locate her, her aunts would be so grateful.”
Dauntry twitched with poorly concealed greed, but Leot-kay looked only at Syxx, who nodded like a concerned uncle.
“Yes, I might be able to help you there.” Leot-kay smirked. “Not all who wander into the mountains are lost, yet not all belong there, either.”
“Excellent.” Syxx pulled out an embossed business card. “Endrune has recently opened a small satellite office in Alamos Tierra. Either Mr. Dauntry or myself will be working in there for the next few months, so if you should happen upon any information, we would be most grateful if you could relay it to us.”
They stood to leave. Grey Feather heard their footsteps on the stairs as he again squeezed out through the gap. From his perch, he ruffled his wings and watched several more feathers shake free and float slowly to the casino floor. But the three men below did not notice. As they started for the door, Syxx paused before the roulette wheel. Taking a tall stack of silver chips out of his pocket, he placed it on the board. The croupier started to protest; the bet was over the table limit, but Leot-kay silenced him with a nod.
The ball rattled to a stop and a hush fell over the table as it settled into a pocket.
The black six.
But the strangers had already left the building.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
As the Bird Flies
The three commandos worked their way up the rocky slope. Their bellies scraped over gravel as they pulled themselves along on their elbows, their faces darkened with mud, their bodies hidden by the layer of shrubs and the early dusk of winter. They paused as they crested the hill. Below them in a secluded gully, their victims sat, oblivious to their impending doom.
