by Aimée Thurlo
Gabriel took the bowl and his Jeep’s keys from inside Ted’s half-zipped jacket. The second he touched the bowl, a fiery blast of pain shot up his arm. Weakened, he rolled to his side, cursing himself for forgetting that the maker of the bowl had protected his creation from those of Gabriel’s clan.
Lanie rushed up and scooped the bowl from the ground. “Come on, let’s go!” she said, pulling Gabriel’s arm.
Ted’s eyes opened, and he staggered to his feet. Gabriel reached out for him, but two quick rifle shots from the sniper forced him back. As they ducked behind the cover of a pine, a bullet grazed his cheek.
Gabriel heard Lanie gasp and felt the warm stream that ran down his face. “I’m okay. Stay down! Whoever’s shooting can’t keep missing at this range with a rifle. Stay here and keep the bowl safe. Ted was barely able to run. I think I can still catch him.”
He’d sprinted only about fifty feet when an explosion hurled him to the ground. The roof of the barn rose twenty feet into the air, then fell back, shaking the structure. Flames appeared among the dust and debris.
Gabriel stayed down until all the flying lumber had settled to earth, then heard a vehicle speeding away. The explosion had been a diversion, but a good one. “Come on,” he said, scrambling back up. “We’ve got to keep the fire from spreading to the wooded area.”
Lanie ran up after him. “What fire?”
Gabriel saw that the explosion had smothered the fire, partially collapsing the barn. The ground was still damp enough from recent rains to prevent any spark that remained from catching. Gabriel hurried with Lanie back to his vehicle, retrieving his shotgun along the way. “Let’s go. We still have the bowl to deal with.”
Lanie brushed her palms against the sides of the bowl. “We finally got this beauty back, and for the first time in a long while, I feel completely well again.”
“It has to be destroyed, my love. I don’t want you to become dependent on that thing.” He took one of her hands away from the bowl and pressed his lips to the center of her palm. “Depend on me. I won’t let you down.”
“I do depend on you.” Her body shook with a fierce yearning. “I know what we have to do, but we still have a major problem. We don’t know where the skinwalker was killed. I’d suggest researching that question in the library, but…”
“There’s still the newspaper office.”
Gabriel pressed down hard on the accelerator, and they arrived at Ralph’s a short time later. The color had indeed come back into Lanie’s face. She looked as beautiful as she had when she’d first come to Four Winds. He stole a furtive glance at the bowl in her hand. Suddenly, destroying it seemed foolish.
He shook free of the thought. Maybe the bowl was more dangerous than he’d given it credit for. He had thought himself above being influenced, but now he’d seen it wasn’t so. “I’ll sure be glad when that blasted thing is out of our lives,” he said, mostly to himself.
As LANIE WALKED into the newspaper office, she felt decidedly awkward. She met Ralph’s gaze and somehow sensed that he really had only been pretending to be asleep when she’d made her search.
Ralph listened to Gabriel’s request. “I have a morgue,
sure, but I’m not sure if it’ll go back as far as you need.”
He led the way to a small adobe hut at the rear of the main building. “There are some wooden trunks in there that go back to the 1800s. I’ve never had time to search through everything, but if we have any newspapers that go back that far, that’s where they’ll be.”
“Let’s go check it out.”
Gabriel followed Ralph inside the small building. Gabriel’s gaze swept the room. More than a dozen wooden cartons filled the place. “This could take a while.”
“They’re stored by year, about a decade per carton. I can tell you it won’t be in any of the boxes to the left of us. They only cover about the last fifty years. The oldest issues are on the right and in the back.” Gabriel spotted a large green wooden box in the far corner. It was layered with generations of cobwebs. “Let’s start with that one, then.”
As Lanie looked at the box, she felt as if a cold hand were squeezing her heart. She touched the bowl and noticed it was icy cold.
“Why bother?” Ralph said. “Nothing could have survived inside there. It’s got a big hole in its side.”
“Let’s check it anyway,” Gabriel said. Crouching down, he pulled the unlocked lid open. As light streamed inside the box, a rattler reared its head, its coils shaking in a death song.
Face-to-face with the pit viper, Gabriel froze. If he ever needed the flint hawk to work, it was now. Curiously he felt the medicine bag at his belt almost vibrate, as if raw power had suddenly been called to life.
“You’d better not reach for your handgun,” Ralph said quietly. “It’s too close to the rattler. But my shotgun is inside the office. Don’t move.”
As Ralph left, Gabriel’s eyes darted around the room. “There’s a rake over there, to my left,” Gabriel said to Lanie, his voice whisper soft. “Gently push the snake out of the box and away from me. Don’t try to kill it—just get it out of striking range.”
Lanie picked up the rake. As she drew close, the snake struck at the tongs. Taking advantage of the moment, Gabriel jumped clear.
Lanie breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped back, and the snake slithered sideways toward the door. “Let it go. It’s over.” Gabriel took the rake from Lanie’s hands. “You okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine, but how about you?”
He smiled reassuringly, wishing for the day when he’d no longer see the taint of fear in her eyes. “I’m all right, though I have to tell you, Navajo and snakes don’t mix. Some of the dineh, the people, even wipe out any tracks snakes leave behind.”
“Why didn’t you kill it, then?”
“Our tradition says that snakes are linked to the Lightning People. To kill them without reason would drive away the rain. But it’s more than that. We’re taught not to kill unless we’re forced to, because everything is interrelated.” He waited until he could no longer see any sign of the snake. “I appreciate your help, though. It had me dead to rights for disturbing its sleep.”
Ralph came rushing in. “Where did it go?” Ralph asked quickly, lowering his shotgun.
“Outside,” Gabriel answered.
“Let’s take the box and go back inside the main building,” Ralph suggested quickly. “Watch your step, though.”
Once in the newspaper office, they went through the contents of the box. Newspapers, most of them in bad condition, crumbled as soon as they were handled. But near the middle of one stack, they found a headline that captured their attention instantly.
“Lynching Averted,” Gabriel read. “Medicine Man Calls For A Blessing On Four Winds.”
Lanie peered over his shoulder and read the story. “The skinwalker Flinthawk fought was found dead at a ranch house outside town, by the well. But what ranch?”
“There is only one out in that area. We were just there. That barn Ted blew up was constructed on the site of an earlier one by neighboring farmers who needed to store extra hay. The well must still be there near it. I hope it wasn’t buried in the barn rubble.”
“Let’s go out there and see,” Lanie said.
After thanking Ralph, Gabriel and Lanie drove back toward the abandoned ranch. “Are you truly ready for what you’ll have to do?” The hard lines of his mouth softened as he gazed at Lanie for a moment before focusing back on the road.
“Yes. Let’s just finish it.”
“Take it one step at a time, and stay alert,” he warned. “That bowl, and the chindi it contains, has already done much harm, to our town and to you and me. I have a feeling this final step isn’t going to be easy.”
Gabriel parked some distance from the old barn, then gave her hand a squeeze. “No matter what happens, remember I’ll be by your side.” He listened to the wind. But right now, it told him nothing.
“I can’t see even a hint of
movement out there,” Lanie whispered. “It’s so quiet. I think we’re alone.”
“Nature is rarely this silent,” he mused, glancing around.
“Do you see any sign of a well?”
“No, but it should have been about halfway between the old ranch house and the barn.”
“I bet that was the ranch house.” Lanie pointed to a ruined stone foundation about a hundred yards away in a field.
Gabriel nodded and led the way, watching for signs of trouble.
Lanie reached in her bag and touched the bowl. It felt neither cold nor hot, almost as if it had given up and accepted its fate.
They reached a clearing between the ruined house and the barn and found a circle of stones nearly two feet above ground level, covered by some boards.
“This is it,” Gabriel said. Pistol now in hand, he stood beside her.
Lanie reached into her tote bag and brought out the bowl. As she raised it, ready to smash it against the stones, Ted threw the boards aside and stood up, moving away from what remained of the well. His rifle was trained on Lanie. “I figured you’d come back here.”
“How did you know?”
“My partner researched the history of that bowl. She was way ahead of you all along.”
As Gabriel moved with lightning speed and kicked the rifle out of Ted’s grip, Lanie drew back, ready to smash the bowl against the well. Suddenly the sharp crack of a rifle blast made her freeze in midmotion. The bullet impacted inches from her leg, spraying her with stinging sand.
“Don’t even breathe, Lanie.”
Lanie recognized the voice, and sorrow rippled through her as she turned to face Alma. “Why?” she asked in a strangled voice.
Alma stepped out of the shadows, a rifle in her hands. “That bowl is my ticket out of Four Winds for good. Don’t you understand that it was meant for me all along? This town has always managed to make things work out for people, and now it’s my turn. I spent years living out my sister’s dreams. There was never a chance for me. After Emily died, I thought it was too late for me, that I was trapped. Then the bowl surfaced, and I knew I’d been given one last chance. I needed a stake in order to start anew elsewhere, and the bowl was my means to get it. I spent time getting the word out, making people think it would bring bad luck to anyone who didn’t understand its magic. The incident with the paint barrels was designed to rattle you so you’d part with it and, at the same time, spread the word about its being a jinx.
“Then buyers began to contact me,” she continued. “The chance to own a bowl that might have hidden powers was a powerful temptation to collectors. I knew Four Winds was finally going to make my dreams come true.”
“You’re wrong. Your research is incomplete,” Gabriel said. “Things work out in Four Winds only for those whose motives are right and true. If the bowl had been meant for you, the peddler would have given it to you instead of Lanie.”
“Alma, think about what you’re doing,” Lanie begged. “You’ll spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder. The bowl only corrupts. Look at yourself now. Nothing good ever comes of it.”
“With what I’m going to make from its sale, I can go anywhere, and even reinvent myself,” she said. “It’s my last chance and I intend to take it. Give the bowl to Ted and step back.”
Lanie saw Ted had retrieved his rifle and had it aimed at Gabriel’s chest. “If I hand it over, then what?” Lanie pressed.
“If you don’t, Ted will shoot Gabriel and I will shoot you,” Alma replied. “Do as we say, and we’ll all walk away from this.”
Lanie reluctantly gave Ted the bowl. He handled it confidently, and even when his hand brushed against the roughened spot, the bowl did not injure him.
“You have what you wanted, now go,” Gabriel said.
“Bring the bowl over here to me, Ted,” Alma said sharply.
Ted stood rock still, holding the bowl in one hand and the rifle in the other. He moved his thumb in a caressing gesture over the smooth exterior of the bowl, as if entranced. Instead of coming toward Alma, he took a step back and swung his rifle barrel toward her. “I don’t think so.”
“Don’t be a fool. You can’t sell it on your own—you don’t have the contacts.”
“This shouldn’t go to you,” he said dully, his eyes on the bowl. “I took it from Lanie. You had me keeping an eye on the house, particularly in the morning, and it paid off. I saw Marlee pick up the paper after the sheriff left, and when I checked the door, it was unlocked. Nobody knew I was there. I was quiet, and careful. I was just outside the sheriff’s door when I saw Lanie hide it in the closet. It was meant to be, don’t you see? I’m the only one here who really understands, not just what it is, but what it can do.”
“You’re talking nonsense,” Alma snarled. “Bring it to. me, now.”
Ted spun and ran as fast as he could toward the tree line. Alma fired off a shot, hitting Ted in the back.
Ted crumpled to his knees, still clutching the bowl. Then, crying out in anguish, he fell to the ground.
Alma stared at Ted’s lifeless body, tears streaming down her face. “I didn’t want to do that! He forced me!”
As Gabriel grabbed the rifle from Alma’s stunned hands, Lanie ran to where Ted lay. She crouched by him, and touched the pulse point at his neck. Sadness filled her as she stared at the body. Ted had only been in his twenties, an adult with his whole life ahead of him. He’d chosen the wrong path long before now, but then the bowl had come into his life and given him the final push that had led to his downfall.
Lanie picked up the bowl, tears of anger and frustration stinging her eyes, and hurled it against the stones at the base of the well, smashing it into pieces.
Alma wrestled free from Gabriel’s grasp and ran to where the shards lay scattered. Crying, she began to gather them up.
“No, don’t touch those!” Gabriel ordered, his voice filled with alarm.
“What have you done?” Alma sobbed. “This was mine!”
As she held the clay fragments in her hand, a thin black cloud rose from the shards. Gabriel pulled Lanie to him, holding her close to his side. “The chindi,” he said quietly, aware of the pulsing of the flint hawk inside his medicine pouch.
The smoke seemed to engulf Alma, then continued upward, swirling, into the air.
Gabriel’s arm was wrapped securely around Lanie’s waist. “It can’t hurt us, not while I’m wearing the flint hawk and you’re with me.”
As they watched, the black smoke reversed directions, drifting downward into the ground where Alma knelt, sobbing.
As the last wisp disappeared, Alma looked up at them, her face contorted with anger and fear. “You will not win!” Her voice was deep, filled with a rage that hadcrossed the barriers of time.
Alma jumped to her feet and sprinted across the field with an agility that took Gabriel and Lanie by surprise. They gave chase, trying to head her off. Forced straight ahead, Alma entered the wreckage of the barn. As they reached the entrance, Lanie heard beams overhead giving way. “Alma, get out!”
Lanie sprang toward the door, but Gabriel caught her in midair, pulling her clear of the barn. As they scrambled back, the structure collapsed completely.
Lanie tried to push Gabriel away and move toward the rubble, but he held on to her. “No, she’s gone. You can’t help her now,” he said. “Look.” He gestured toward the. ruins. Black smoke lifted from a single source, then dissipated into the air.
“The chindi is gone,” she whispered.
“Yes,” Gabriel said. “Now one more duty remains.”
Together they walked back to the well. Lanie’s skin prickled as she gathered up what was left of the shards, but they no longer gave off the magic that had so drawn her. These pieces were now only a symbol of death and greed.
Gabriel dug a deep hole with his hands, then held open his medicine pouch as Lanie placed the shards inside with the flint hawk and sacred pollen. Tying the bag securely, Gabriel placed it deep into the hole.<
br />
The air was curiously silent as he finished the task. The breeze was still and the birds had stopped singing.
As he patted the last bit of dirt into place, the field came alive with the gentle chirping of birds and the breeze rustled through the nearby pines as if sharing their victory.
“It’s finished for now,” Gabriel said.
“For now?” Lanie repeated aghast.
“We have destroyed the bowl, but the peddler will be back. He’s part of Four Winds.”
Like she was. In thoughtful silence, Lanie walked with Gabriel back to his vehicle. Two lives had been lost to greed, but perhaps in death their troubled souls would finally find peace. Flinthawk’s blessing on the town of Four Winds had stood true, and helped them defeat evil and restore harmony once more.
And now, as they headed back into town, she knew that it was time for her to either accept the gifts Four Winds offered her, or walk away forever. Lanie looked over at Gabriel, her heart telling her what she already knew. She loved this man more than she’d ever dreamed possible.
Gabriel drove to the top of the hill then, suddenly, he pulled to the side and stopped. “Come on. I want to show you something.” Taking her hand, he led her out of the car and into the clearing that overlooked the town. As twilight settled onto the valley below, faint streamers of fading light fell over the houses and buildings, giving them a warm, welcoming glow. “Four Winds is calling out to you. You’re needed here…I need you.”
She smiled, and pressing his hand to her face, burrowed against it. “The past is behind me now. I want to find a place to call home. And I do have something to offer Four Winds. I’m going to apply for that teaching job that’s open.”
“There’s a more important opening and it’s one only you can fill.” He tilted her chin upward, and captured her gaze. “I want you to be my wife.”
A sense of destiny swept over her. She belonged here, with him. It was so right between them! She saw the love reflected in his gaze and knew it matched her own. “This is the way it was meant to be.”
