by Sharon Sala
“They didn’t want to touch him because he had a disease they didn’t want to catch,” Evan said.
Tyhen moved to where the little man was sitting, then laid a hand on his shoulder, just to see if her new gift still worked. The moment she touched him, she got more than she bargained for.
“The old man told you to put the stone back, didn’t he?” she asked.
Izel’s eyes widened and then his chin began to quiver. Once again, he feared for his life. “Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?” she asked.
Izel was shaking. “I couldn’t find the grave again, and I thought it would be better to keep it than to mark the wrong place.”
“Do not lie. You thought you could get something in trade for it, didn’t you?” Tyhen said.
Izel put his hands over his head, slid off the bench, and dropped to his knees again. “You have magic! I did not know you had magic!”
“It doesn’t matter,” Singing Bird snapped. “You lied to Cayetano. You lied to me, and you have lied to my daughter.”
Cayetano pointed at the two guards who’d escorted the man into the room. “Take him to the steps of the temple and guard him until sunrise. Once the sun is up, make sure he leaves Naaki Chava.”
Johnston Nantay looked at Singing Bird, and then at Cayetano. “Great Chief, unless you have need of me, I will walk with them through the city. It is not a good place to walk alone after dark.”
“You may go, and we thank you,” Cayetano said.
Nantay nodded, but instead of leaving immediately, he turned to Tyhen. “You will not make your walk alone. We all knew this day would come. The New Ones have talked and many of us will make the walk with you, just like we made the Last Walk with your mother.”
Singing Bird’s eyes welled both with gratitude and added sadness. Once again, she would be losing people she loved, but it was good. The more people accompanying Tyhen, the safer she would be.
Tyhen nodded. “I knew. I have already seen you walking with Yuma in my dreams, and I thank you for the sacrifice you will make to leave your homes.”
Johnston’s smile was gentle, but he shook his head in denial of her words. “We all know that nothing will be the same, but we look at it as going home, not leaving one. When you can, come to my house. I will show you things we have made to prepare for the journey.”
“I will come tomorrow,” she said.
Cayetano glanced at Singing Bird in sudden fear. Would she want to go back, as well?
Singing Bird saw the look on his face and immediately took his hand. “We will miss you, but we understand.”
Cayetano’s panic ended. “This is so,” he said and then shifted focus. “Take the trader to the temple and give Nantay a torch to light his way.”
Moments later they were gone.
Cayetano eyed the people who’d become his family and then his gaze moved to the twins. “Do you go, too?” he asked.
Adam and Evan wouldn’t look at Yuma and Tyhen.
“No, Cayetano. We stay with you until you no longer need us.”
Singing Bird was startled, but relieved.
Cayetano nodded, obviously pleased with their answer.
Yuma was shocked. All they’d ever talked about growing up was protecting Tyhen, and now they were backing out?
“Go to bed! All of you,” Singing Bird said. “There is still time to discuss details in the days to come.”
Tyhen dropped her gaze and stared at the floor all the way out of the room. By the time they reached the hall, tears were running down her face.
Yuma took her hand, but they kept walking.
The twins were right behind them and soon caught up. “There’s something you don’t know,” they said quickly. “We will stay with Singing Bird for a while, but not forever. We will be joining you at a later time.”
“You two can’t find your way through the jungle without someone leading you, and you know it,” Yuma snapped.
Evan’s voice sounded as sad as he looked. “We have a way, and we will find you. Just know that we will never abandon you, Tyhen. Never.”
She couldn’t talk without sobbing aloud, and didn’t want her mother to hear her, so she said nothing.
When they got to her room, she walked inside, leaving Yuma in the hall with the twins.
“What’s going on?” Yuma asked.
Adam put a finger to his lips to indicate quiet. “We’ll tell you everything we know tomorrow, when we can talk beyond these walls.”
He had to be satisfied with that and went in after Tyhen, leaving the twins in the hall.
“This is harder than I thought,” Evan whispered.
“But we have no choice. We owe our lives to Singing Bird. We have to see them to safety first,” Adam said.
“Agreed,” Evan added. “So let’s go to bed. I’m exhausted.”
Adam sighed. “I miss the days when we could watch television in bed.”
“And the cookies and ice cream,” Evan added.
Then they shrugged in unison.
“But there’s no more Landon Prince, so it’s a fair trade,” Evan said.
“A very fair trade,” Adam added.
Although they were satisfied with their lot in life, Tyhen was still trying to come to terms with hers. She turned to Yuma as he closed the door behind him, shutting the torchlight out and leaving the room bathed in moon glow.
Even in the shadows, he saw tears glistening on her cheeks, but when she spoke, her voice was firm, almost commanding.
“Tomorrow I will go to Nantay’s to see what the New Ones have made.”
“We will go,” he said, correcting her.
She nodded, then dropped her shift on the floor and crawled back in her bed, turned her face to the wall and closed her eyes.
Yuma unwound his loincloth and crawled into the bed beside her and then slipped his arm around her body and pulled her close. He could feel the tension in her muscles and thought she was still crying, but he didn’t try to comfort away the tears. Now was time to cry because in the months to come, tears would be a waste of time.
****
It was just after sunup and the twins were in the kitchen, ignoring the giggling servants as they rummaged for food when Yuma came striding into the room.
“We talk now,” he said shortly and led the way out into the early morning.
It had rained during the night and the sound of dripping water was constant. The air was already steaming and insects abounded, feeding off the rotting fruit the monkeys had dropped from the trees above.
They walked in silence all the way past the north end of the palace and out into a clearing before Yuma stopped and turned to face them.
“Is Tyhen all right?” Adam asked.
“Is she mad at us?” Evan added.
Yuma waved away their questions. “What do you know that we don’t? Why are you staying behind? What did you mean when you said, ‘until you don’t need us anymore?’ Are Cayetano and Singing Bird going to die?”
Adam stared intently into Yuma’s eyes without immediately answering.
Yuma glared. It had happened plenty of times before, but he was in no mood for it today and shoved him backward.
“Stop it! I know when you’re reading me. Answer my question.”
“You don’t tell this to Tyhen,” Adam said.
Yuma threw up his hands in frustration. “She touched the trader and knew he’d lied. I keep nothing from her, ever. Whatever it is, she has to know. Her journey is too important to withhold secrets.”
Adam’s shoulders slumped.
Evan put a hand on his brother’s arm in comfort and picked up the conversation. “The mountain that faces the temple is a volcano. It has been asleep for nearly five hundred years, but it is going to wake, and when it does it will spill burning rocks and fire down into Naaki Chava. Many will die, but most will escape because we will be here to give warning. We have to stay or Cayetano and Singing Bird will die, along with everyone else.”
Yuma spun toward the mountain, imagining the horror. When he turned around, his jaw was set.
“How long before this happens?” he asked.
“We can’t be sure, but it will be after Tyhen leaves the city.”
“You can’t wait until the last minute to tell people. They will need time to pack belongings and find a new place to live. They can’t just go running off through the jungle and trade one death for another.”
Evan frowned. “We know this. We are staying behind to handle this in the proper way. Cayetano will know. Singing Bird will know. They will tell the people. But you and a lot of the New Ones will already be gone.”
There was a knot in Yuma’s belly. The knowledge of this was yet another burden to carry. “How will you ever find us?”
“Do you remember how we escaped Firewalker?” Adam asked.
Yuma’s eyes widened. “The spinning cube! It opened a portal!”
“We will find you. That is all you need to know,” Evan said.
Yuma blinked away tears. “You are my brothers. I did not want to lose you.”
“You are our brother, too,” Evan said softly.
“And we won’t lose you,” Adam added.
“Tyhen is looking for you,” Evan said.
Yuma glanced over his shoulder, half-expecting to see her coming toward him.
“I’m telling her what you said.”
“Don’t tell anyone else,” Adam said. “We have to tell Cayetano and Singing Bird first and now is not the time.”
Yuma nodded and headed back to the palace at a lope.
****
Tyhen knew Yuma was talking to the twins. She could have gone, but she didn’t want to. If it was bad, she didn’t want to look weak by crying again.
There was a part of her that was already walling off emotion. It had to happen or she would never be able to make the journey. As she moved about the room, washing the sleep from her face and choosing clothing for the day, she thought of Yuma. The magic of being with a man was new and amazing and even better than her dreams. But crossing that line from childhood into maturity had done more than give her pleasure. She’d felt the shift the moment she’d touched the trader last night and knew it for what it was. The Windwalker had given her more than life and a quest. He’d given her many special gifts to help make it happen, and when she crossed the bridge from child to woman, even more had been activated.
Instead of waiting for Yuma to come back, she went in search of food and was eating a piece of fresh bread and thinking about eating another piece of coconut when Yuma entered the kitchen through the back entrance. She tried to read the expression on his face but couldn’t. And then he smiled and her heart skipped a beat.
“Have you eaten?” she asked.
He shook his head as he wrapped his arms around her. When she offered him a piece of her bread, he opened his mouth like a little bird waiting to be fed.
“Ummm, good, but not as good as you,” he said and then grabbed a handful of nuts and a banana. “I’m ready to go whenever you are.”
“Did you talk to the twins?” she asked.
He nodded. “I will tell you once we’re outside.”
Her eyes widened. “You don’t want others to hear.”
As usual, her perception was on target. “You are right. I don’t want others to hear.”
“I need a drink,” she said, but Yuma was way ahead of her. He dipped a cup into a jug of water and handed it to her.
Her hands were shaking as she took the cup, but her gaze was steady. “Thank you.”
He cupped her cheek then brushed a crumb of coconut from the edge of her lower lip. “You’re welcome,” he said softly.
He waited as she drank, then took her by the hand and walked her through the palace and out into the sunshine.
The streets in the city below were laid out in straight lines that intersected in perfect squares like white ribbons of icing, and the buildings in which the people lived were like the tiers on the birthday cakes from Yuma’s past.
Early sunlight glittered on the river that wound through the valley, and if Yuma squinted just right and let his imagination run free, he could pretend the shining river was the lights from the candles, counting off his years. He’d only had eight years of that life before it had all come to an end. He’d lived here almost twice as long, but the memory kept in his heart was of the home from his past.
This morning, the beauty of the sight before him was gut-wrenching, knowing that it would disappear beneath the fire of burning lava. He looked past the city to the mountain beyond and then pointed.
“When you look at the mountain, what do you see?”
She frowned. “I don’t understand.”
He took her by the hand and the moment they touched, she saw the top blow off the mountain, sending huge chunks of rock in all directions as a great cloud of ash began spreading across the sky. Below the cloud, a river of fire spilled out from the rim of the new crater, eating its way down the mountain toward Naaki Chava.
She yanked away from his grasp as if she’d been physically burned, then fell to her knees and covered her face. But the image was still there, seared into her mind. Even worse, it was the same vision she’d had, only she had not known it was Naaki Chava.
Yuma knelt beside her. “This is why the twins stay behind. They can’t save the city, but they can help save the people including Cayetano and Singing Bird.”
“What will happen to everyone? Where will they go?” Tyhen whispered.
“I think that is not for us to worry. We go one way before it happens. They will go another way in time to survive. Once everyone is safe, Adam said they will join us.”
She shook her head. “That’s impossible. They will never, never be able to find where we are.”
“He says they can. Remember they were not on the Last Walk with your mother, but they found her anyway. They’ll find us the same way they got here. What you need to know is all of this is not our concern. It can’t be. Do you understand?”
She lifted her head and stared down into the city, staying silent for so long Yuma didn’t know what to think, and then she turned to face him. When he saw that fierce expression on her face, he knew she would be okay.
“I am ready to go to Nantay’s.”
He pulled her to her feet, but when she started down the street alone, he let her go. She needed to pull herself together so he followed a couple of steps behind.
Chapter Eight
Tyhen was numb. She knew Yuma was behind her. She could hear his footsteps, but she wouldn’t look back, couldn’t look back and see the sympathy on his face. Even though she wasn’t leaving today, the cord had been cut from all she’d known. Pain would come, but not now. Not when everything for which she’d been born was at stake.
She looked out across the valley at the river and the houses to the jungle beyond, then up at the mountain behind it.
It was the enemy and it would prevail.
A bright green bird with a red breast and a long flowing tail flew across her line of sight. She could hear the shrill shriek of a child’s laughter and ached at the thought of what was to come. She wondered if the guards had escorted the trader, Izel, away from the city. She hoped he was gone. She didn’t want to look upon his face again.
About halfway down the hill, she began hearing drums. At first she thought it was a message from the Old Ones and then realized they were real. Their rhythm was her heartbeat, marking the stride of her steps, and when the drums beat faster, she lengthened her stride. When she began hearing the chanting, she knew they were singing her to them. The louder they sang, the faster she walked until finally she was running.
Yuma had been focusing on the dark fall of her hair and the gentle sway of her hips, so when the drumbeat began, it didn’t actually register until she began to run. Then it was like a slap in the face as the sound ripped through his senses, sending a cold chill up his spine.
He knew this! He’d heard this same dru
mming and the same chant when he was eight years old and waiting on the Navajo reservation for Layla Birdsong to come out of the desert. She came riding that dusty black motorcycle into their midst like a bat out of hell. They had drummed Layla to them, and now they were calling Tyhen. He didn’t know what was going to happen, but whatever it was, she wouldn’t face it alone.
He started running to catch up.
****
Singing Bird hadn’t slept well. She got up before sunrise and went down into Naaki Chava without her guards, and then out into the fields in the valley beyond, pulling weeds and thinning the overgrowth with the other women. It wasn’t something a chief’s wife would normally do, but there was too much of Layla Birdsong left in her to sit idly by while others toiled.
She was on her knees with sweat running down the middle of her back when she heard the first drumbeat. She stopped what she was doing and stood and then looked at the other women who were doing the same. It wasn’t a festival day and there was no more warring for the people of Naaki Chava. She wondered if someone was sick or dying. Was there a crisis of which she was unaware?
She wiped her hands on the sides of her shift and pushed the hair from her eyes as the drumming grew louder. She was debating with herself as to what she should do when she realized what she was hearing, and as she did, a cold chill ran up her spine. She’d heard that same drumbeat and the same chanting when she’d ridden Windwalker’s motorcycle up out of the canyons. She took a step forward, and then another when it hit her. They weren’t calling her. They were calling Tyhen!
Her mother’s heart wanted to run to her child, but there was nothing more she could give her daughter that would take her where she needed to go. There was only one thing she could do for Tyhen. She dropped to her knees and began to pray.
****
The drum held the rhythm; the singers’ words held the power, and the closer she got, the louder they sang. When she came around the corner of Johnston Nantay’s house and the people gathered there saw her, the drumbeat stopped so quickly she felt her heart stop with it. What followed as they erupted into one loud continuous war cry tore away the last vestiges of who she’d been.
