Eva embraced her Grandfather. “I’ve grown too, I’m nine now.” He dropped her back on her feet so he could take a proper look.
“So you have. Goodness it’s been longer than I thought.”
Johan helped him carry the bags into the cabin. They sat out on the porch drinking lemonade. His mom wandered off to the backfield to visit Annike. Johan shoved his hands in his pockets and looked around Hania’s land. Man, it’s so nice here, he thought. He couldn’t get enough of the place. He felt like something drew him here. He wished they could come more often. There was so much to do, hiking with his grandfather, fishing down at the river, helping in the fields. He didn’t even notice Hania’s house was stuck in the Dark Ages, with no TV or stereo.
Johan looked at the distant mountains and wondered where his dad and brothers were now. They would meet them here in a few weeks, and Kjell would have some brilliant hunting stories, though he was sure both his brothers would exaggerate.
He sighed. Despite loving it here, Johan was annoyed at being excluded from the trip. He felt they were treating him like a kid, sending him with the girls. He poked around in the dirt, thinking how that had been happening a lot lately. He was beginning to believe they were hiding a big secret from him. He’d noticed their furtive looks and watched his brothers sneak off with his dad. Johan had even seen Uncle Liam caught up in a huddle with them.
It was not that Johan was jealous, heck, who was he kidding? Of course he was but he wasn’t a kid anymore, not like Eva. They could trust him with secrets and man talk.
Johan immediately felt guilty. He loved his sister, would do anything for her, but surely he should be included in the guy conversations too. Like his grandfather said, he was almost a man.
***
The next morning, Johan felt more content. The sun was shining, and he was excited to go hiking with Hania.
“You ready to leave?” Hania finished packing water and snacks into a backpack.
“Yes, sir.” Johan flung the bag onto his back and they set off.
As they walked, Hania entertained Johan with stories about growing up on the reservation.
“Did you have horses?” Johan found Hania’s life fascinating and loved plying him with questions.
“Well if you could call them that. They were more like mules, though. All the animals were for work or eating. We hunted with the dogs, and farmed chickens, pigs and goats.”
“What about injun stuff? Did you have a feathered headdress and everything?”
Hania laughed. “I see you need some lessons, young man. You’ve been watching too many cowboy films.”
Johan grinned back. “Can I go with you to your powwow next week?”
“Not this time. I have a boring council meeting, but I’ll have a word with your Mom, see if we can arrange something for the next one. I’ll take you to the village with me and show you around, introduce you to some of your relatives.”
“Just me though, not Eva?”
Hania clapped him on his shoulder, “Do you think Eva would want to go?”
Johan kicked dirt around with his foot, he’d like to go with just Hania, but Eva would hate to miss out. He sighed. “Will your warrior friends be there?”
“Warriors friends?” Hania asked.
“The ones from your stories?” Johan winked at his grandfather.
Hania chuckled, “Oh yes, I dare say we might see some of them if they aren’t busy chasing Banshees.”
Johan rolled his eyes and stifled a giggle. “Well, Eva would definitely want to come.”
Hania kissed him on the forehead, “Yes, I guess she would. In that case I’d better organize a trip for three.” Hania threw his arm around Johan’s shoulders and looked up at the sun. “Goodness, look at the time. It’s past noon, we’d better get back to your mother and sister. I bet they have a feast prepared for us.”
After they ate lunch, Johan helped his mom prepare cornmeal to make the mouth-watering Hopi flat breads. Next she taught him how to prepare the goat meat for dinner. Johan lapped it up. They rarely ate traditional foods like this back at home.
Hania sat with Eva at the kitchen table. He showed her how to braid leather thongs into bracelets. They added colorful glass and clay beads into the intricate patterns as they worked. As they created the traditional jewelry, Eva swung her legs back and forth.
“Grandpa tell me a story,” she pleaded.
Johan listened in, not wanting to miss out. Hania was a great storyteller and spent hours weaving these tales. They were brilliant fantasies with exciting adventures and epic battles. They always involved weird monsters and a group of brave Native American characters. They were so good that Johan thought his grandfather should write them down and publish a book.
The reason he liked them so much, was because Hania cast himself as one of the heroes and told the tales as if they were real. In his stories, Hania was a strong warrior with strange magical powers. He could take on the appearance of animals and used his disguises to save the world.
“Okay. Now that you mention it, I do have a new story.” Hania put down the beads and sat back, making himself comfortable, ready to tell his tale.
“Is there a new warrior?” Eva’s eyes twinkled with delight.
“Why yes there is. As you remember, Lars perished in the village in Mexico.”
“The one with the fearsome witch birds? La ch…ch…”
Hania patted his granddaughter’s hand, “La Lechuza. Yes that’s right. So now, the Black Walkers have found a new warrior. Of course, he is handsome and the youngest of them all. His name is Pilan.”
Johan smiled to himself. Eva craved every detail of each hero. It would be a while before Hania got to tell his tale. She would ask him all sorts of questions about what the hero looked like and what his skills were. Johan was amazed at all the background stories that Hania invented to answer Eva. When he’d finished with her questions, these characters always sounded like real people.
“Will this story be about the warriors fighting a den of Basilisk serpents?” Eva asked. It was one of her favorites. She loved how the Black Walkers defeated the Basilisk with a crowing rooster and the scent of a weasel.
“Oh no, this is a new story, they go to Greece to rescue a village from an army of Centaurs.”
Eva’s mouth hung open in anticipation. Johan leaned against the counter, his chores forgotten. Even Kachina pulled up a stool, leaving the rest of the cornmeal unground.
***
Later their grandfather took a nap. Johan sat with his sister and drew a picture of the creatures from Hania’s latest story. Eva advised him on how the Centaurs should look, telling him the exact shape of their cloven hoofs, the type of fur they had. Johan drew what she pictured. Eva then spent ages coloring it with crayons.
When the drawing was complete, Eva showed it to her grandfather. He sat her on his knee while she chatted about it. Johan stood in the doorway watching Hania as he listened. Eva described her reasoning behind the shape of the Centaurs’ horns and why she chose that exact color of blue for their hair. Hania asked questions and nodded in agreement as she rambled on.
After she finished, he praised the accuracy of the depictions. “Johan you are an amazing artist, and Eva your coloring is unbelievable.” Hania winked at Johan then looked back at his granddaughter, “You know. This one has definitely got to go in the gallery.”
Eva clapped her hands. “But Grandpa are you sure it’s good enough? You said only the best can hang there.”
Hania looked at the picture again. He got out his magnifying glass and peered at it for several minutes. “Yes, yes, this definitely has to go in. I think this is the most accurate picture so far.”
Eva beamed, “But what if the gallery gets full?”
“Hmm. We might have to look over some of the others and reassess them. Maybe there was one that was not as good as I first thought and we can remove it.”
Johan didn’t think Hania would ever remove any of the pictures. They’d hung on his bedroom w
alls as long as Johan could remember.
Hania took Eva out to his workshop and they made a frame and after supper, they hung it in his room.
***
A week later, Johan woke late and went in search of his family and breakfast. His mom was out on the porch, the phone to her ear. She was nodding and uh-huhing to someone on the other end. She held up a finger for him to wait. A few minutes later, she ended the call “Okay, I’ll see you then.”
“Was that Dad?”
Kachina shook her head. “No, it was Rune’s mom.”
Rune’s mom? Why was Rune’s mom chatting with Kachina on the phone he wondered, Johan racked his brains to see if he could ever remember anyone talking to her before.
“I…I thought we didn’t know where she was.”
“Well, we didn’t, but I got a letter from her a few weeks ago and it seems she lives about four hours away from here. Her name’s Nea and she was Annike’s best friend. She didn’t know that Annike had died. We wrote back and forth a few times.”
“Does Dad know? Or Rune?”
“No, just me and now you. She wants to come and see Annike’s grave. She is going to get here later this afternoon.”
“Will she stay to see Dad and Rune when they come?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Rune will be so upset, Mom. You have to persuade her to stay.”
“Look, Johan, Nea is risking a lot coming here. The people she lives with, they — I don’t know the details — but there is some sort of feud with your father. She’s married now and her husband and family would be angry if they knew,” Kachina said.
“So you need me and Eva to keep this secret?”
His mom nodded. “I know we don’t keep secrets, Johan, but this is important. We need to keep this from your father and Rune. Nea will be in danger if her family finds out.”
His dad must have done something bad to have Nea’s folks on his back. like…
The penny dropped. Did his dad get her pregnant! Maybe Rune was his real brother after all. How cool would that be? “Okay, Mom, I’ll explain to Eva. She’ll be on board.”
Johan was beside himself with excitement. He was going to meet Rune’s mom. None of the others would know, and he’d have a bigger secret than they did.
28
One Hour Earlier, Cody, Wyoming.
“Hey Lynol, where you at?”
“Up town. Was sup?”
“Nothin’, man. I’m picking up stuff for the commune. You wanna grab a beer?”
“Nah, Mika! Look, I’ll catch you later. I’m just doin’ a little job for my old man, okay?”
Lynol ended the phone call. He pretended to admire some cheap tacky tourist stuff in the window of a shop. To anyone else, he was just hanging out. But Lynol’s perceived nonchalance and casual wanderings, disguised his real purpose. He focused on the reflections of his target through the gallery window. She was definitely up to something. It had been the fifth time she’d stopped and looked around in the last five minutes. In fact, it was also the third time she’d come down this road. Each time she walked past the stores, her pace slowed around about here. Then her furtive glances became more obvious the closer she got to this building.
Lynol glanced at his watch. Enough already, he thought, just get on with it, woman! Even if he weren’t one of Erik’s best trackers, this dumb broad wouldn’t have caused him any problems. She might as well have walked through wet paint. She’d been that easy to follow. He smirked at her attempt at a disguise. Dark glasses and a headscarf, so Hollywood! Did she think it made her unrecognizable? Honestly, she only needed to add a trench coat and turn up the collar to look more conspicuous.
The woman seemed to have trouble making up her mind about going into the hotel across the road. What crime was she attempting to commit?
Erik had been making him follow her for weeks and nothing ever happened. At the commune, she went about her assigned tasks. Talked to only a handful of people, her mate, mother, and some of the other women when she was cooking or cleaning. She only drove into town once a week to buy a few grocery items or mail a letter before returning.
Lynol wasn’t sure why Erik and Dad assigned him this job. Any damn rookie could have followed her. Hell, even a pup could have done it. Maybe it was some sort of pay back or pre-test. He was due to go through his initiation process any time now. His dad had been trying to pull a few strings for him. Maybe this was his initiation! Though he wasn’t sure this ridiculous assignment would be enough to get him into Erik’s select group.
Damn! The woman had disappeared. His lack of concentration had cost him big time. How the hell would he live this one down? Lynol crossed the road, flicking his eyes up and down the street. Where did she go?
Maybe she’d plucked up the courage to enter the hotel. It couldn’t hurt to look inside. After all, what other option did he have? The lobby was busy. It seemed to be check-in time. Lynol worked his way through the crowd of vacationers and began to scan the open areas.
Bloody July! So many stupid, annoying tourists clogging up everywhere. Walking through the reception towards the lifts, her canary colored headscarf caught his eye. Bingo! There she was, over by the pay phones. He laughed out loud. Who the hell disguises themselves in a bright yellow headscarf!
She pulled out a piece of paper from her purse and laid it on the shelf beneath the phone. Lynol slipped behind a marble pillar, so she didn’t catch sight of him. He watched her glance around then pick up the phone. Forty feet in a crowded open area was a stretch, but his acute wolf’s hearing had its uses.
It was a few seconds before someone answered. The woman mumbled into the phone, giving her name and waited for recognition from the other end. There was a short conversation, then a long pause. Lynol’s hearing was good, but there was no way to make out what the other person said. From the tone of voice it sounded like another woman but other than that, he had nothing.
Hmmm, so she wasn’t calling a lover then. Maybe Dad got it wrong. Perhaps she wasn’t having an affair after all. There’d been no evidence of that so far. Over the last month or so, the only male she’d been near was her own mate. Every time Lynol followed her into town, she’d never met anyone male — nor female for that matter.
His ears pricked when she asked for directions. Lynol didn’t catch the address but she mentioned Casper. A few seconds later she ended the call, telling the recipient to expect her around two.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell. Lynol was going to need a car to follow her. It wasn’t practical to drive three hundred miles on his dirt bike. It was okay for the ten miles across country between here and the commune, but his ass would be numb if he drove the thing all the way to Casper. While he phoned, he kept his eye on his target. She was not getting away from him a second time. He didn’t know where she would head once she got there, but Lynol could catch up with her before then. She wasn’t exactly a speed freak.
Nea fiddled around with her purse, then was on the move. She headed across the lobby towards the door. As he prepared to follow, Lynol caught sight of something by the call-phone. Please let that be what he thought it was. He put in a call to his Dad as he made his way over to the phone booth.
“Hey what’s up Lynol?” David said.
“I need a car, we got anything close?”
“Give me a minute.”
The line went dead for a moment. Lynol crossed the foyer hoping to get to the pay phones before Nea remembered what she had left.
“Yep. There is a black truck behind the Bar N Grill that’s ours. Mika has the keys. He’ll meet you there. Give him your bike, so he can get back here.
“Thanks, gotta go.”
Lynol grabbed the piece of paper from under the pay phone. Yeah, this woman was clueless about this cloak and dagger stuff. It was some sort of letter. Lynol scanned through the contents hunting for information as to where Nea was going. He couldn’t believe his luck. There was an address in Casper and a telephone number.
Someone named Kachina had signed the letter. He read back over it, checking it in more detail this time.
Satisfied, Lynol pocketed the note and hurried off to find the truck. This time, he used his personal telepathic frequency to contact his dad, hoping he was in range.
You know a Kachina?
David responded a minute or so later. No. Why?
Lynol sent another thought. Rune?
Maybe! The answer returned immediately this time.
Tore? He replied.
Lynol’s phone rang. “Wait for me at the truck.” Erik said.
Lynol shrugged and jogged down the High Street. Finding the restaurant, he ducked behind it. This must be something big if Erik was getting involved.
It took ten minutes for his dad to arrive. As the red Mustang came to a halt all four doors opened. Henrik and Georg were with David and Erik.
What was this all about?
***
Lynol stood by the SUV looking confused. Erik frowned. The boy was no doubt wondering why he was interested in this. “Lynol.” Erik put out his hand and Lynol hesitated before taking it. The boy needed to man up a bit. He had some serious tracking skills, but he lacked David’s backbone.
“Erik, sir,” Lynol said.
“What have you got?”
“I…I’m not sure.” His eyes flicked over to his father for reassurance.
“Get it out, son,” David said.
“Nea didn’t mail any letters today, but she went to the hotel and used the pay phone. She arranged to meet someone this afternoon in Casper. Left this behind.” He waved the paper he’d found, “I think the woman she talked to, is this Kachina. Her address is in there.”
Lynol held out the letter to Erik. He scanned it.
What! Erik’s heart dropped into his stomach. How could this be? Too shocked to say anything, he passed the letter to David to take a look. If this was true, the kid had more potential than Erik gave him credit for.
The Wolf You Feed Arc Page 20
