17 Stones

by Paul Telegdi

  It was with these thoughts that while walking through the crowd, he noticed Tarue in conversation with another man. Just the man, Chaiko thought, they could perhaps compare family history. He went to Tarue, who looked up and frowned deeply on seeing him approach.

  “Tarue,” Chaiko called to him cheerily, “how goes it?”

  “What do you want?” he said sourly, his brows knotted in considerable distaste.

  What was wrong with the man? Chaiko wondered but aloud he said only, “I was afraid I would not see you again before the Gathering breaks up.”

  “Why would you want to?” he asked rudely almost to the point of insult. His demeanor clearly said I have no use for you.

  “Well we are family,” Chaiko said taken aback. His father’s brother’s son.

  “We are not!” the other snapped out emphatically. “I am my mother’s son, but my real father was not your father’s brother. Thus we share nothing, you and I. We are family in name only but not of the same blood line.” Tarue spat on the ground pointedly. “Father could not father a child; it was not in him. His seed pod was empty. My mother had to look elsewhere.” The eyes narrowed more and his face blazed with hate. “I have no reason in the world to claim kinship with you! I have no use for your kind at all. You and your brother sit on the backs of people telling them what they must do and how and why. Well your opinions are not welcome with me. I make no friends with parasites!” The face was contorted, dark and ugly. Tarue spun on his heels, leaving Chaiko flabbergasted and with heart hammering.

  Later still, Chaiko related this encounter to Baer. Baer scratched his head. “I have heard it told variously that our male line was suspect for of six brothers, the only issue was us and Tarue.” He screwed up his face in concentration. “Now we find out there is only you and me? I do not know what to think.”

  “Neither do I,” Chaiko muttered highly unsettled.

  Chaiko sought out Tomakon’s opinion on the matter. But the old man only hummed and hawed, strangely reticent to entertain possibilities. Lefay seemed even less interested in helping. Was he making too much of this? Chaiko wondered, shaking his head, but it ate at his guts like hunger, with a need to know insistently growing.

  Chaiko had noted that events sometimes occur quite spontaneously, events of some significance that uncover themselves just at the right time to answer some need. Still he was often not ready for it when it happened and could only figure out the significance afterwards. He was standing at the edge of a crowd, too deeply engrossed in his thoughts to really notice what was happening around him when he was accosted by a young woman about his age. Her eyes were big with excitement as she pointed a shaking hand at Chaiko and stammered, “You!! I have found you! Finally found you!”

  Chaiko was taken aback. He had never seen this woman but there she was in front of him, claiming some connection. “Who are you?” he asked reasonably.

  “I am Leah,” she said breathlessly, “and you were given to me!”

  “Given?” Chaiko was struck speechless with astonishment.

  “Yes! Given!” she declared with great certainty, her face shining. “I have been looking for you all my life.”

  “Pardon me?” was all Chaiko could think to say and took an involuntary step back. But she followed. She was on the small side but she radiated strength and energy, fairly vibrating with obvious excitement.

  “I have found you!” Then the sparkle began to fade from her eyes and her mouth turned down in dismay. “But it is too late now...” she started to cry.

  Chaiko took one more step back and stammered, “I don’t know you...” but again she followed him. She took something from around her neck and waved it in his face. “See? See? This will prove it.”

  “Prove what?” he asked, stepping back again trying to look at whatever she was brandishing. She pressed it into his hands. It was a stone on a leather thong, oddly familiar... just like his! Bogan’s tell mark! He blinked at it uncomprehendingly.

  “We were intended for one another!” Leah called out triumphantly.

  “Intended?” Would he ever be able to figure this out?

  “Yes, intended. I was supposed to mate the one who wore that!” and she pointed to the tell mark around Chaiko’s neck.

  “Mate-e?!” Chaiko was totally confused.

  “Yes! Bogan himself gave that to my mother to give to me. I was to mate the man who wore the matching half. You are that matching half.”

  Chaiko mated the stones and they fit perfectly. There could be no question that the stone was once one. He looked at it befuddled, his thoughts stumbling over each other. Bogan’s stone? Bogan gave this stone to the girl? As a token of intention? That they should be mated? If it was so predestined, why did it not happen? Why was his life intersecting with Bogan again?

  “You said it was... too late? Too late for what?” Chaiko remembered the one way out she gave.

  “I was supposed to mate you. So it was told to me. But I did not know who or where you were. I only had the stone and I was looking and looking. Last Gathering I looked but I could not find you all these years. Finally I thought you did not exist anymore. And then I... I found someone. I was mated with him. So it is too late, you see?” Tears were still streaming down her face.

  “Yes, it is really too late for that. For I also have a mate already,” he said looking at the “mated” stone. He frowned in a deep concentration. Had Bogan really expected him to mate this girl? It was the second time that Bogan has pointed to him, indirectly. Tomakon had said something years before that Bogan knew of them, of Chaiko and Baer. But how did he know?

  “I was not at the last Gathering,” he said thinking aloud, “for I was hurt and injured.” He showed the girl his wooden leg. Leah looked, her sobs stopping momentarily, but then she resumed her crying. She was a good looking young woman, healthy and strong. There was a certain intensity about her, a vibrant personality, no doubt. Even as sad as she was, she had a vivacious sparkle. Immediately he felt attracted to her. From such a brief look, she would have been a good choice for him, he realized... if it were not for Dawn. But she must have been a very young girl when Bogan... this made so little sense. “If you are mated... happily, why are you so sad?”

  “Yes, I am happy with my man. And now, I would not have it any other way. He is wonderful to me.” She stilled her crying. “But you must understand. All my life I had been looking for you, wondering who you were and what you looked like. I was looking for you in every stranger. All I knew was that you had a stone just like mine. And that it had been Bogan’s wish. I do not know or understand why, but it had been his wish. I thought it was my destiny as promised to me by Bogan.” Her face clouded. “My mother wished it, having known the great man... but then she died, and her dream and mine with her. I thought you must be dead and I would never find you. So when Salle... my man... came along... I grabbed onto him.” She made a motion of holding on with both her hands. “But I still watched every stranger, afraid almost that I would find you...” she looked at the ground and then up at him again, her eyes brilliant with a strange light. “And here you are. To remind me of a promise my mother made to Bogan himself. I believed in that promise.” She did not ask where were you, but her eyes did.

  It took a while for the two of them to sort things out. It seemed that shortly before his death Bogan had given Leah’s mother the stone with the instruction that Leah, then just an infant, should mate with whomever wore the other half. More was not said or understood.

  “Why me?” Chaiko wondered. The stone had been given to his mother, and she gave it to him without telling him why. Was this a prophecy of sorts? That the two stones should eventually find each other? But both he and Leah were just infants when this all took place. What was the meaning of this? Had Bogan seen something special in the mothers and sensed it in their children? Must have, for why else had he gone to all this trouble? Had he gone to the last Gathering, Leah would have found him and doubtless be mated with him now. Who could resist suc
h a prophecy? The River of Rocks rumbled in the past yet again. But the future that River closed to him gave him another. It gave him Dawn and three wonderful children.

  He handed her stone back to her. “Here, this belongs to you. A piece of Bogan.”

  But she pressed it into his hand, “It was my stone of promise, but the promise failed. It was really intended for you.” She sashayed coyly as if to show him what he had missed. His heart beat just a little quicker at her little play and intrigued he looked into her eyes, sensing the liveliness and joy that lay underneath. If Bogan saw that quality in the mother than perhaps he could understand Bogan’s choice. But why did it have to be him? the question came at him again.

  Leah looked Chaiko over again with an openly calculating look. Her voice was steady again and melodious. “I am happy with the choice I made. I do not regret it. But it is very nice to have met you and now I can stop wondering who was intended for me. I think we would have been good for each other.” She again swayed from side to side, her mouth generously provocative. “But we both had to make other choices.” She regarded him pensively, considering, and he could see she was an intelligent girl. “Bogan’s stone you should keep. It was really intended for you, I think. I was just the present that went along with it. Give it to your mate. Good bye Chaiko of Standing-Rock. I will see you again and own just a little piece of you as I live out the promise I have chosen.” She turned, not waiting for his reply, and skipped away with an exuberant energy that must have pleased Bogan himself.

  “Leah!” Chaiko called after her. She turned and looked at him archly as he said, “You would make a very, very fine present for anyone... both on the inside and the outside.” She again gave a generous, uninhibited laugh and disappeared in the crowd.

  Chaiko looked after her still dazed by how quickly the past and the present linked up. He looked at the mated-stone, disturbed. His mother, her mother, Bogan and the two of them. It made so little sense. To his surprise he found himself at his campsite, not knowing how he had gotten there. Out of habit he sat by the fire and mused. Dawn and the children were not there; only a few people were about. He soon got deep into his thoughts again.

  Bogan, Bogan. Just who were you? What kind of a man? Why did you make such promises? You were a poor prophet if you could not foresee it would fail. Why did you choose me? There was some pressure in his head and he recognized from experience that something was impending, some conclusion or recognition slowly emerging. He was impatient to bring it to light. But it hovered in the background, like a stalled storm that waits to unleash its fury on the countryside. The whole world waited hushed for the storm to break.

  Laughter, strange but compellingly familiar, pulled him from his preoccupation. He looked up and noted in some surprise that more people were present, and fires were being fed. Then he had another shock, for the source of the laughter was Nebu herself. Her face glowed and there was a pleasing flush to her skin. Nebu laughing? When had he heard it last? He looked around with intense curiosity but found nothing to account for it. He shook his head; today had been such a strange day. He watched Nebu. She was not the same woman he knew. There was a lightness to her movements, a buoyancy that must be coming from the inside. Ork came with some firewood that he dropped by the fire. When Nebu beamed at him and called something cheerfully to him, he flipped something sunny back. Chaiko shook himself: where had this transformation come from?

  Chaiko heard her laughter again but saw only Ushi bringing an armful of wood to her. Ushi said something, and her responding laughter rang with sheer pleasure. Why was she so happy? It was kind of Ushi to cheer her so. Then Ushi wrapped an arm possessively around her waist and pulled her to him; she yielded readily, melting into him. In the fluid familiarity of the movement Chaiko realized that they had slept together and had some understanding between them. Quite a lot of understanding it would appear. But Nebu and Ushi? Could anything good come of another dalliance by the trader? Nebu needed reliability not the frivolity of a predator moth. He frowned. It was true that he had commended Nebu to Ushi, thinking of solving two problems, but now that it was happening right before his eyes, he suddenly had second thoughts. Ushi must have sensed Chaiko’s disapproval for he came over to the shaman. “It is not what you think,” he protested before he even sat down. “She is a wonderful woman. Soft, tender yet passionate. Understanding too. I have never met a woman who knew so quickly what I thought or wished for. She knows it even before I do. Now is that not a surprise? It was to me! Even after you aimed me at her.”

  There was a deep sense of wonder in his voice, but still Chaiko regarded him suspiciously. The trader turned more serious then. “I am mindful of what you told me, that I needed to make a nest. And I have been looking with that intent. I was looking far but I should have looked closer, I suppose, for in front of my very eyes was the woman I needed.” He was silent for a moment, pensive. “With all other women I eventually lost interest, but Nebu is so companionable that I feel comfortable with the idea of spending my whole life with her. She is very considerate of my feelings and reads my wishes, as I said, before I am aware of them. It is time I traded the brief thrill of lying with a woman with sharing my entire life with one.” He looked at the shaman searchingly, for approval no doubt, but found some well earned skepticism there. “I know, I know what you are thinking. Will it last? I ask myself, but tell myself that I am determined that it will… this time.”

  “Make sure that you do!” Chaiko commanded in the full imperative. “Nebu is not a toy for you. She is a deep feeling woman.” Ushi nodded in agreement and Chaiko eased up. “Well then go and play. She has lot of catching up to do.” A big grin spread across the trader’s face; he would give her all the catching up she needed and more. Ushi rose and as he returned to Nebu, she looked searchingly at him, some misgivings melting from her face, her mouth brightening with undisguised joy. Chaiko was warmed by the sight of them. If the union worked out, two of his worries were solved. But will it work? One can but try, he said to himself wearily.

  Nearby laughter again intruded upon Chaiko. He glanced in its direction and saw Cora laughing and teasing Ruba. They had become very friendly very suddenly, Chaiko thought, and his heart rejoiced. Ruba and Cora also settled, taken care of. Now if he could only learn something about spirits, this Gathering would be a huge success. Cora laughed again, the sound ringing with rich overtones that cut through everything else.

  When Ruba and Cora were alone, he gave her another bone plate, anxiously awaiting her reaction. Cora’s eyes widened in surprise as she beheld the exquisitely rendered two birds in flight. The delicate lines were filled with red ochre. Both birds had their wings spread, flying in perfect symmetry, the smaller bird leading the way, upward to the left.

  When she found her voice, she whispered in Tolmec, “Oh, this is so beautiful!” Then she switched into clan, “But should not the male bird be leading?” He had not thought of that aspect. It had been a subconscious expression of his feelings.

  “I do not know. Lately I have been following more than leading.”

  Yes, she could see that; he had shadowed her, then echoed her, not even realizing what a beautiful voice he had. And now this! A perfect composition of an accomplished artist. And he was in love with her, her heart trilled.

  Ruba did not tell her that he had also thought of the shaman who had taught him to see, and of Tusk who believed he could draw and create. In the work and the working of it, Ruba, for the first time in his life, felt close to his father. He understood what his father had felt and the need that drove him to express. A tenderness for his father welled up in him and sympathy for the underlying frustration that hid behind every artist’s work. Cora sensed the shift in him, perhaps from his tone.

  Dawn, Fire-Dancer and Hollow-Tree came back to camp with the children, then bustled about the campfire, preparing a meal.

  “People are getting tired of camping,” Dawn said conversationally. “There is little food left, mostly of poor quality. Firewo
od is so hard to find and everywhere there is garbage overflowing, stinking up the air.” She cast a sideways look at Chaiko, recognizing a peculiar look about him and asked concerned, “What is the matter?”

  “There is nothing the matter,” he stated flatly but then motioned her close. “Here, this is for you,” and he hung a talisman around her neck. Intrigued she looked at the piece of stone, just like his, somehow. Where had this tell-mark come from? She peered at Bogan’s tell-mark around his neck. Her face was a question in itself.

  “We are mated as these stones are mated,” he said with strange huskiness in his voice; then pulling her close, he showed her how the stones fit perfectly together. “Just like you and me,” he said, his face calm, hiding great emotion. Dawn looked at the stone and at him, back and forth and did not know what to say. There was a lump in her throat that no words could pass by. Inside she was melting, resistance and reservation letting go, one by one. There was no need for words, for it was one of those rare instances when words would just get in the way. It was rare for Chaiko to give her such moments so she treasured them all the more. They sat in silence a long while, neither wanting to let go. But then Yael ran to his mother and claimed her attention. Chaiko slipped back into his thoughts, searching and sorting through his memories. Had he not been here before?

  The mated stones were where they belonged, one his and one Dawn’s, but only if they had been meant for him. The stones of promise? But what if they had really been intended for Leah? Chaiko and Leah had thus become Chaiko or Leah. One or the other, but not both. The stones came through the mothers; did that have any significance?

  Dawn saw Chaiko struggling with something very deep. He was truly wrestling with some thoughts for his posture was tense and occasionally a sound would escape his lips or some violent gesture would follow. What was causing her mate such concern? Where had this stone come from? From Bogan too? Suddenly she saw Chaiko jump up as if a lightning bolt had hit him. For a moment he stood stock still than he ran toward the main compound. What did that mean? Dawn called to Ushi, pointing after Chaiko. She was tied down by the children but Ushi quickly followed the shaman, having observed such uncharacteristic behavior.