Shaxoa's Gift

by Gladden, DelSheree

  Kaya broke into my thoughts as she pulled into Samantha’s driveway and turned off the engine. “Sam has a pretty good sized library herself. If she doesn’t need me for anything I’ll spend some time searching her books while we’re here. I’m sure we’ll find something.”

  “Thanks for all your help, Kaya,” I said.

  Kaya laughed. “Not at all. Like I said, this is the most exciting thing I’ve done all summer,” she said. “I should thank you.”

  I knew she was only partially serious. Her curiosity was amazing, but she was also very worried about me. I followed her into the house. This time Kaya didn’t bother to knock. We stepped into the little stucco home where Samantha was waiting for us. The home looked exactly the same as it had the day before, the same calming yellow paint and woven rug, but the atmosphere brought goose bumps to my arms. Even Kaya glanced around warily.

  If the atmosphere had simply changed, Samantha was practically a different person. Strong and confident the day before, Samantha greeted us with her face twisted in worry, her hands twitching constantly. Kaya was the first to recover from the change in her sister, wrapping Samantha in her arms for a brief, but strong hug.

  Samantha took my hands in hers. Her eyes closing, her breathing seemed to calm as if she needed to touch me to remind her of the reason she was delving into things she had never meant to practice. “Let’s come into the kitchen,” Samantha said. Her steps were quick, and I had to hurry to keep up with her.

  The kitchen table was piled with books and scribbled notes. The counter tops were lined with clear mason jars, each one filled with a different herb or ingredient. Judging by the dark circles under her eyes, Samantha had been up late preparing for the day. These sisters barely knew me, but already they had done so much to help. I wished that I had some way to repay even a small part for what they had done.

  “So where do we start,” Kaya asked, breaking the silence.

  “Well,” Samantha said, “I gathered everything we need, but that’s all I can do. Uriah will have to be the one preparing the herbs. The preparation isn’t very complex, but I think it will take most of the day. Then it will need to be left overnight. Uriah’s blood will be added tomorrow morning. And then it will be finished.” Samantha whispered the last words, her voice begging to reach that end quickly.

  I could see how hard this was for her. Yes, she had spent her life studying the dark lore, but she had promised herself that she would never put a single bit of it into actual use. Her curiosity had drawn her to explore what she believed to be pure at one time, twisted into evil over centuries. The thought of actually harming any living creature made her cringe. Only her belief that I was truly seeking her help out of love, and not a desire to hurt Claire, was keeping her from throwing away everything she had gathered.

  “Okay, let’s get started, Uriah,” Samantha said. She grabbed my hand and pulled me closer to the stove. “Kaya, I pulled out the books you wanted, too. They’re on the table there. I’ll help you in a few minutes.”

  Kaya nodded and set to work on the books. Samantha turned her attention back to me. At first glance, the jars on the tiled counter top looked to have been placed haphazardly, but Samantha placed her hands on the first three jars and pushed them toward me.

  “We will start with these three, or you will, actually,” she said. Samantha pointed to each of the jars as she spoke. They were filled with dried yellow flowers, wrinkled green leaves, and leaf-covered twigs. “These are arnica flowers, chamomile, and creosote bush. You need to crush the leaves and grind them into a fine powder.” Reaching for an oblong stone with an oval shaped rock resting on it, Samantha continued her instructions. “Use this to grind the leaves. When you finish those let me know and I’ll tell you what to do next. I’m going to help Kaya while you work.”

  Glad that I was not being asked to do anything more difficult than crushing and grinding leaves, I settled into the work. I was more accustomed to handling sheep or a rifle than the delicate work of preparing herbs, but I trusted my need would balance out any of my shortcomings. As my fingers began their work, Kaya and Samantha began theirs.

  Their discussion started off quiet as Kaya reported what she had learned the night before, then receded into silence as the women set to searching out more answers. I had no worry in my mind that Kaya would hide anything from me, so I turned my attention back to the herbs. I grabbed a handful of the little yellow blossoms and minced them between my palms before letting the remnants fall onto the stone.

  The grating noise was soothing as I ran the smaller rock back and forth across the flat stone. Samantha had not given me a specific amount to crush so I quickly emptied the first jar. Moving on to the chamomile leaves, I repeated the sequence again and again until that jar was completely emptied as well.

  The creosote took a little longer because I had to pick the dried leaves off individual twigs before moving on to the grinding. I thought I had been working fast, but when I turned to ask Samantha for the next step, I saw that crushing the leaves had taken more than an hour. Glancing at the counter full of jars still waiting to be prepared I groaned inwardly. I had to move faster.

  “Samantha, I’ve finished with these,” I said. “What should I do next?”

  Leaving the table, Samantha came to inspect my work. After nodding her approval she motion to a small cooking pot. “Fill that with water and set it to boil,” she instructed. “When it starts to boil, turn the heat down low and put in one scoop of the herbs you just crushed.” Stepping back to the counter, she pushed the next set of jars away from the others.

  Handing me something that looked like a cheese grater with very tiny holes, Samantha pointed to the ingredients. The jars I was supposed to work on next held varying sizes of colored lumps. One I recognized as ginger, but the others were a mystery to me.

  “Oh and this one too,” Samantha said adding a jar to the bunch. “This is yerba mansa. Just run each of these down the grater until you have enough to fill one of these cups.”

  I was relieved to see the small cup she held up. I had been afraid that she would ask me to empty the jar. That would have taken me the rest of the day. I was already annoyed with myself that I had most likely wasted time crushing too much of the first set of ingredients.

  “Do I put them in the water when I’m finished with them?” I asked.

  “Yes. Fill the measuring cup and go ahead and add it to the water. Let me know when you’re done,” Samantha said. She went back to the table, her mind already back on her research.

  Grating the small knobs and roots proved more difficult than I expected. After scraping my knuckles a few times I started to get the hang of the rhythmic work. Samantha and Kaya continued their own work quietly, jotting down notes in their matching yellow notepads. I wondered what they were writing, but the watery popping of boiling water drew my attention away.

  Picking up the plastic scoop Samantha had given me, I filled it three times, once with arnica, once with chamomile, and once with creosote leaves. The ground up herbs swirled in the water, calming only once I remembered to lower the heat. Glancing at the still busy sisters, I went back to work.

  By the time I finished grating enough of the four hard lumps to fill the smaller cup once for each ingredient, the sisters were getting up from the table and rummaging in the fridge. Staring at the remaining ingredients, I wasn’t sure how to proceed with them. I turned to find Kaya right behind me.

  “We’re going to break for lunch, Uriah. Will you help Sam clear the table?” Kaya asked.

  “I can keep working,” I said. I didn’t want to waste any more time.

  “Uriah, you need to rest your hands before they cramp up. You won’t finish this today if you can’t move your fingers in half an hour,” she said.

  I stretched my fingers. My red knuckles cracked. My cramped muscles ached. Looking at the myriad of seeds and berries still in the jars, my hands ached even more. There was plenty of time to finish the rest. I was almost halfway throug
h the jars, and the mixture still had to be left overnight.

  “I’ll help with the table then,” I said.

  The books and notes were set carefully to the side. Samantha made sure I kept the piles just as they had been on the table so they didn’t end up rereading a book they had already checked. Kaya had lunch ready by the time we finished. The cold roast beef sandwiches were piled high with vegetables grown in Samantha’s garden. I wondered to myself if there was anything these two women couldn’t do.

  “You’ve done a very good job so far, Uriah,” Samantha said. “I’m sorry I can’t help you.”

  “It’s okay. I understand. I just wish it didn’t take me so long,” I said. My fingers were already itching to get back to work.

  “You’re doing fine,” Kaya said. “Remember patience. You wouldn’t want to start over because rushing caused a mistake.” Samantha nodded in agreement. I realized my hands were balled into tight fists and my legs were shaking impatiently. It took considerable effort to relax my hands and calm my bouncing knees.

  “Did you two find anything interesting in the books?” I asked. The sisters glanced at each other eagerly. My next question would have to be whether their discoveries had anything to do with me. Certainly the ridiculous amount of notes they had taken had not all been regarding the Matwau, or every question I had would now have an answer.

  “We found quite a few interesting things actually,” Kaya said.

  “Did any of them have anything to do with the Matwau or the dreams?” I asked.

  Kaya dropped her eyes guiltily. Her curiosity must have let her investigation wander, even if only slightly. I knew she was committed to helping me.

  Samantha cleared her throat. “We did find a few things, Uriah. I’m confident we’ll find more before you finish.”

  “What did you learn?”

  “Kaya found another story that confirmed the laws binding the Matwau,” Samantha said. “This story specifically mentioned that the Matwau cannot harm any person until they’ve been struck with the pull of the Twin Soul bond.”

  It was good to have Kaya and Talon’s theory confirmed, but I needed more. Thinking of Talon, I wondered where he was. Not feeling his calming presence, I reached out to him. “Where are you?”

  “Checking the lines.”

  “I thought you weren’t worried he would come after me yet.”

  “That was before. Kaya is trying to tell you what else they found. Listen.”

  Pulling away from Talon, I realized that Kaya was indeed trying to talk to me.

  “Uriah, are you alright?” she asked.

  “Yeah, sorry, I was talking to Talon. I didn’t hear you,” I said. “Did you find something else?”

  “Yes, we found one other thing,” Kaya said. “In a personal journal from a shaman in the nineteen thirties we found one other story. It was not pleasant.”

  “Just tell it.” There was little that would surprise me at this point, and I felt sure I could handle any gory details.

  “Normally the Matwau doesn’t become aware of who Twin Souls belong to until the pull of the bond begins to draw them together,” Samantha began, “but in this journal we have reason to believe that the Matwau has other ways of finding out who a person’s Twin Soul is. And while he is still bound to the laws, he can seek them out and wait for the pull to begin. Once he feels the pull, he will claim his prey.”

  “How can he find out?” I asked. I didn’t really want to hear the answer.

  “Physical contact,” Kaya said.

  I sucked in a sharp breath. Everyone at the table was aware of the fact that I had been touched by the Matwau multiple times. Even thinking of it made my skin burn again.

  “The Matwau already knows who she is,” I said. It wasn’t a question, but a statement. That was why he hadn’t attacked me again. He was searching for her. But had he found her yet? “Does he know where she is?”

  “There’s no way to know for sure,” Kaya said.

  “Tell me what happened in the story,” I demanded. There was little chance that I could glean anything from it that Kaya and Samantha had not, but I needed to hear it.

  Kaya was the one to speak up. “The shaman recounts that a strange man came into their village one day. He seemed to have a strange air about him that made all the townspeople take to him immediately. One young man in particular was very taken with him. The shaman watched them shake hands, and when they did, the stranger’s face lit up, a wild emotion in his eyes. He left very soon afterward.

  “She said that the young man drove off with some friends and did not return until later that night. When she saw him the next morning there was something changed about him. When the shaman approached him, she felt the beginnings of the Twin Soul bond. Right away she knew that the man had seen the same thing, somehow. Quickly she took his hands and read his future. He would meet his Twin Soul in a matter of hours.

  “Frantically she tried to find the woman, but could not. The next day, two women were talking about a poor girl that had been mauled by a rabid wolf in the next village. She sought out the young man again and found him sitting alone under a tree, feeling a deep sadness he couldn’t explain. She could no longer feel the pull of the bond surrounding him. She went to the town and confirmed that it was the boy’s Twin Soul.”

  I sighed. The Matwau may have known exactly where to find her, or knowing the two would meet very soon, he may have simply stuck around the village until he also felt the bond beginning to form. There was no way for him to know for sure.

  “We don’t think the Matwau has found her yet,” Kaya said.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “You will most likely know as soon as he finds her. You’ll feel it,” Samantha said. “Most of the precious few that find their Twin Souls meet when their paths cross, but a select few begin to feel the pull of the bond because the other person is in some kind of danger. Those are the stories children hear about most often.”

  I had heard many such stories as a child. Those were the stories that made me wonder how the Matwau had never been mentioned to me before. If two people were searching over great distances or periods of times, how had the Matwau not gotten to them before they found each other? A sad thought crossed my mind as I wondered if any of those stories actually ended as happily in real life. Not every ending was suitable to tell small children.

  That story was the reason Talon had strengthened his efforts to protect me. “Was there anything else?” I asked.

  Both women shook their heads.

  “You didn’t find any reason why the Matwau’s touch burns me or why I’m not affected by his charm like everyone else?” I asked.

  “Nothing yet,” Samantha said, “but we’ll keep looking.”

  “Anything about the stuff with Claire?” It was a long shot, but I hoped. Kaya and Sam both shook their heads. “Well, I’ll get back to work then.”

  Samantha was beside me at the kitchen counter in a moment, instructing me on how to pull apart the yucca leaves and reach the desired white substance inside. The juniper berries were easy to recognize and would be even easier to crush. The sunflower oil would take much too long to extract from the tiny kernels. I threw myself into the repetitive motions, urging my fingers and hands to work faster while Kaya and Samantha went back to their work amid the stacks of books.

  I was itching to delve into the books with them. I needed answers so badly. First things first, though. I couldn’t expect Claire to hold out against the bond forever. I needed to fulfill my promise to her first. I would worry about my Twin Soul when the time came to do so. I felt a pang in my heart at the thought. I have no idea where she is, I told myself. There was nothing I could do for her until I felt the pull of the bond. Until the Matwau had already found her.

  19: Confession

  Uriah’s mother had already eaten, and Sophia had gone to visit some of her other patients by the time I made it back to the house for lunch. I had spent the morning working with Hale again, up before b
reakfast as Sophia had requested. Feeding and checking the sheep, brushing the horses, and watering the alfalfa fields left me physically drained.

  Emotionally, I was holding my ground. The demanding work kept me focused on what I was doing, leaving me no time to consider what was lurking just below the surface. I ate my bowl of chili alone. Each bite unwound my focus. Hurrying through the meal, I was rinsing the bowl, and dropping it in the sink only a few minutes after sitting down to eat.

  The unyielding string of the Twin Soul bond began pulling at me the longer I stood unoccupied. Thinking that I would bury myself in Uriah’s room until I was called to help Hale with the evening chores, I hurried across the living room. I was only halfway across the wood floor before Lina looked up from her book at me.

  “Claire, would you mind doing something for me?” she asked.

  Grateful for any distraction, I was quick to reply. “Sure, Lina, what do you need?”

  “Sophia won’t be back until this evening, and I need a few things for dinner. Would you mind running down to the store for me?” Lina asked.

  The store? I had been hoping for something that wouldn’t require me to leave the house. I had no idea what, if anything, the rest of the community knew about what was happening between me and Uriah. At the very least, I was sure people would have heard of the Elders denying our marriage request. That alone would spark a million questions I didn’t want to answer. Still, I had promised to help however I was needed.

  “No problem. What did you need?” I asked.

  Lifting a piece of paper from the table next to her, Lina handed me her shopping list. “It’s just a few things. Sophia’s cooking is wonderful, but I have been itching to get back in the kitchen. She wants me to stay in bed for another week, but I’m perfectly capable of making dinner tonight.”

  I laughed silently to myself. If Sophia were here, Lina wouldn’t be quite so confident about what she could and could not do. I could sympathize with her frustration, though. “I’ll be back in a little while. Is it okay if I take Uriah’s truck?”