The Last Sundancer

by Quinney, Karah

  Amara stood though the effort cost her the last reserves of her strength. She raised her palms high to the sky just as Kaichen had done when he stood upon the rise that looked down upon his village. “Hear me, I am Cloud Bringing Woman, Amara the daughter of Leija. My song is my only gift and in return I ask for life-giving rain.”

  Amara closed her eyes and leaned back against the steady embrace of the rock behind her. She called upon the strength inherent within her body, even as she prayed that she would remain alive long enough for Kaichen to find her.

  Tamol groaned as his surroundings came into focus. He had never been flung over a horse like so much refuse before and anger gave him strength. The warrior that held him captive glanced back over his shoulder and grimaced when he saw that Tamol was awake. With every step taken by the horse his chest was set on fire with flames of pain.

  “If not for the wound in your thigh, I would make you walk, but you would only slow me down.” The warrior grunted in the guttural tongue of Ni’zin’s band of raiders.

  Tamol understood the man’s words perfectly for he had learned the language long ago and never forgotten. Other than the blow to his eye and the wound to his leg, Tamol was well.

  The blows he had taken when he tried to go after Denoa were superficial. They would leave bruises and scrapes upon his flesh but he was a battle-hardened warrior and his threshold for pain was extremely high thanks to his father.

  It worried him that the raiders had left him alive. Killing an enemy was always better than leaving one alive.

  Tamol studied the man that had essentially taken him captive. He sought any sign of weakness as the man turned his attention back to the path that he followed.

  The feeling in Tamol’s hands had disappeared and he grunted as he worked his fingers in an effort to restore the blood to them. His hands were bound and he lay sprawled over the horse’s hindquarters. He was almost helpless. Almost.

  The warrior’s weakness came to him in an instant. He had not bound Tamol to his own body to ensure that if Tamol fell he would die a gruesome death by being dragged behind the horse. This warrior feared death and Tamol had no such fear. To some it would seem a small thing, but the man’s mistake would cost him his life.

  Tamol waited until the raider was forced to slow his horse to a walk. He could not risk a fall from a fast moving horse but he would do it if forced.

  As the animal slowed, Tamol thought of Denoa. He had never known a stronger woman and even though she could never return his regard, he knew in his heart that he loved her. Perhaps the love he felt for her was his penance for past sins.

  One of the raiders had harmed Denoa and he had been unable to help her. With strength born of anger and rage, Tamol rose up and swung his legs around so that they clasped the warrior sitting in front of him. The man tried to cling to his horse’s mane but Tamol’s strength was too much. He crashed his forehead into the base of the man’s skull and with one twist of his body, he unseated the man separating him from his horse. Tamol braced himself for the fall that would send them both crashing to the ground.

  When the dust settled, Tamol forced himself to his feet. The warrior’s frightened horse had reared and when they fell, Tamol managed to kick his enemy under the horse’s hooves. The animal whinnied in fear and terror as the smell of blood filled the air.

  Tamol grabbed the warrior’s hunting knife though he had to contort his body uncomfortably to do and he sawed through the rope binding his hands. When the horse was calm once more Tamol led the animal away but not before spitting upon the crushed face of his enemy.

  He looked back the way that they had come and saw that the sun was well past the time of midday. Darkness came more quickly as the cold season drew near.

  He could return to the place where he had last seen Denoa or he could go forward and see if Kaichen still lived. Making a decision quickly was paramount, but Tamol hesitated.

  In his mind, he saw the crushed and broken body of the woman that he loved. The raider that had taken her would not have left her alive. He suddenly remembered Amara.

  She had been left to die somewhere near the cliff that climbed into the heavens. Tamol had not caught sight of Amara but his warrior’s instinct told him that she had been nearby.

  Denoa would want him to rescue her son. Kaichen would want him to save his wife. What then was he to do?

  Gray tinged the edges of his vision and it was only then that Tamol realized the wound to his thigh bled freely. The bandage had been ripped away during his fall, taking a patch of skin with it. Tamol had the presence of mind to tie himself to the horse before the beckoning darkness closed around him, blocking out the sun.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Kaichen fared better than Antuk. It was due to Azin’s teaching that Kaichen still clung to life. Antuk had stopped talking soon after the sun reached its full height. The scorching heat was relentless and inescapable. Kaichen saw red fire behind his eyelids every time that he closed his eyes.

  The sound of a horse’s hooves caught Kaichen’s attention. He did not open his eyes. If the raiders had returned, he did not want to see. He had lain helpless under the heat of the sun and his thoughts had been full of sorrow. Amara could not survive without water.

  A sound told Kaichen that someone was nearby but he refused to open his eyes. He looked inward instead and the dreams of his childhood overtook him.

  He stood in a tall field of grass overlooking the canyons below and his father stood with him. Siada was there just as he had always been. All was well. Their mother was not quiet and stern, nor had her laughter faded away. The light in her eyes always was evident as she embraced her husband and walked to join the other women of their band. All was exactly as it should be.

  “Is this the real world?” Kaichen asked as Shale turned his full attention to his son.

  Kaichen was humbled to be the sole focus of his father’s stare. He was a boy again and his father was alive, whole and healthy.

  “This is the world between worlds. It is the world that you wish for but cannot have.” Shale’s voice was wise and it was eerily similar to Kaichen’s.

  “I have wished to know you my entire life. I knew you only through the stories of our mother.” Kaichen saw Siada laugh and run to catch up with the other boys his age. His brother tossed a glance over his shoulder and then ran onward, fearless. “Siada is so much like you. He is the one that should have followed in your footsteps.”

  “In this world Siada walks by my side, but you are my first born son and my legacy is your birthright.” Shale bent to one knee and peered into Kaichen’s eyes. “Be brave my son, promise me.”

  “I have only your stories as told to me by my mother. They were not enough. I am not the Sundancer. I am powerless.” Kaichen felt the dream world fading away and he heard Siada’s clear laughter. His father turned away, distracted for a moment and then he turned back to face his son.

  “You are the man that I always thought you would be. You have my blessing and the blessing of your mother. I can only set you on the right path and you must place one foot in front of the other.” Shale’s dark eyes grew sad and tired as he gazed at his son.

  “I will make you proud father.” Kaichen spoke bravely certain of his place in the world, buoyed by his father’s faith in him.

  “You already have.” Shale’s image faded from his mind as blinding pain stole Kaichen’s breath. He opened his eyes and his father stood over him with a knife held in his hand.

  Kaichen blinked, the image blurred, and he saw that it was not Shale standing above him but Tamol. The man leaned toward him with his knife poised to strike and Kaichen roared with fury. His raw throat ached from lack of water but the sound stopped Tamol’s forward motion.

  “Do you wish to get us killed?” Tamol’s voice was mildly amused and full of disdain. “We are not far from those that seek your death. I am certain that they left more men behind to watch over their valuable things. But call out to them again if you have a wish fo
r more torture. Who am I to care?”

  “What are you doing here?” Kaichen thirstily drank the water that Tamol pressed against his dry mouth as he watched the man forcibly saw through his bonds. Tamol moved to examine Antuk and he sighed heavily as he stared at the larger man. Kaichen’s heart clenched but he forced himself to look at his friend and to his surprise, Antuk stared back at him.

  “Antuk!” Kaichen was startled to see that despite the blinding sun and their torturous position, Antuk appeared well. “Why did you remain silent for so long? I thought the worst had happened?”

  “You did not speak, so I did not speak.” Antuk would have shrugged his shoulders but his arms were still numb. Tamol poured water over Antuk’s head and then did the same to Kaichen.

  “Come, we must go before we are discovered. Can you walk?” Tamol spared Kaichen a glance as he rolled to his knees.

  “Of course I can walk!” Kaichen responded with a grunt. He blinked as the world swayed around him. The pain in his head had never faded completely and now that he was moving about he struggled against dizziness.

  “How is it that you came to be here?” Kaichen was worried. Tamol had shown no mercy to him in the past and he did not believe that a sudden change of heart had brought Tamol running to his rescue.

  “Your mother would have wanted me to come.” Tamol shook his head sadly.

  “Why do you speak of my mother as if she is no longer alive?” Worry caused Kaichen’s eyes to narrow as he anticipated Tamol’s words.

  “I fear that she is dead. One of the raiders captured her and when he took her away I could not stop him, there were too many of them. Your mother was not with him when he returned.”

  Kaichen thought of the dream that he had awakened from and he grew still. His mother had been in the dream but she was younger and more alive than he had ever seen her. Her eyes had come alive as she looked upon her husband and her sons. Both sons.

  Kaichen could only wonder if his mother was still alive. Sorrow found a place within Kaichen’s battered heart and a deep groan came forth from his throat. His mother had wanted to make amends and he had foolishly turned away from her.

  “Why did you come here?” Kaichen watched Tamol carefully.

  Tamol’s shoulders slumped with fatigue and an overwhelming sense of failure. “Why not?”

  Kaichen raised his eyes to see Tamol staring at his wounded thigh. “Are you well enough to travel?”

  “My leg is fine. Perhaps you should ask yourself the same question. You are baked by the sun and your voice sounds like rocks crashing together. Your friend does not appear to be any better.”

  Kaichen did not bother to respond to the man’s words as he took several steps forward in the direction of his mother’s village. “His name is Antuk.”

  Tamol hesitated as he stepped forward. Instead of a smile of greeting, Antuk bared all of his teeth at the battered warrior.

  “Where are we?” Kaichen’s voice was as dry as sagebrush but he forced the words from his parched throat.

  “I rode the horse overland to reach you. There is a canyon that would have brought me directly here had I been familiar with it but I thought it was safer to travel around it than to risk entering an unknown canyon. Even the raiders do not travel that way, their horses cannot take the steep rocks and sudden overhangs. No man is fool enough to risk a horse’s life unnecessarily.”

  Kaichen swallowed more of the water after seeing to Antuk’s thirst first. His friend smiled in appreciation as he listened to Tamol.

  “We will return through the canyon. We are already on borrowed time.” Kaichen’s jaw was firmly set as he made the decision for them. There was no time to waste and the raiders had the advantage in all ways, except this one.

  “You plan to journey through the canyon? It is death to any man to enter a canyon without knowing the way out.” Tamol’s voice was the voice of reason, but Kaichen moved forward without speaking.

  Silently, Kaichen pressed his smallest finger back into place and then bound the finger against the next with a strip of Antuk’s parka. His friend handed him the cloth as he watched Kaichen with great interest.

  Kaichen gathered the rope that had been used to tie them to the stakes in the ground. With effort he removed four of the stakes and inspected them, they were made of hollowed bone. He tied these together and knotted the rope which he wrapped from shoulder to elbow until he created a coil of useful length.

  “We will walk until our strength returns and then we will run.” Kaichen’s voice went unchallenged. All three men felt a shared sense of urgency, for varying reasons.

  Tamol’s sole focus was upon Denoa. Images of her bruised and battered body tormented him along with his failure at being unable to protect her from harm. He also felt Kaichen’s anger over his words and he felt the younger man’s unspoken words of blame. If Denoa was dead it would be his fault.

  Kaichen’s every footstep was for Amara. He had promised to return to her and even though he could not have imagined the delay in his return, he could not fathom a world in which Amara no longer existed. It would be a world without music, a world without joy.

  Antuk for his part, considered the enormity of the tasks facing them and he kept his silence. He would walk by Kaichen’s side as his friend, just as he always had and he would watch and remember the story of their people. He had finally found his purpose and nothing except death would keep him from his goal.

  Tamol allowed his horse to drink the last of their water and then he led the animal forward. The silence was thick between the men as they walked without speaking. Kaichen knew the dangers just as well as Tamol. Lightning storms and ground fires were common during the time of the warm season. Dust storms were to be expected.

  Flash floods were common occurrences and to be caught in an unknown canyon with water rising swiftly all around them was to welcome death. Rattlesnakes, scorpions and worse hid in the shadowed places waiting to strike. Excessive heat and strong winds could cause injury or loss of life. Water was only a dream born of wishful thinking.

  With a deep breath Kaichen fell freely into the familiar rhythms of the warrior’s way. The teachings of Azin were all that he had left to aid him. He allowed the warrior’s way to fall over him like a cloak and it owned him, sifting between the place where soul and spirit collide. He became the embodiment of all that Azin had taught him. He moved forward with a predatory strength that possessed him and urged him forward. He did not look at his companions as each man focused upon the beckoning canyon and the dangers inherent within.

  Kaichen’s thoughts spiraled back to the night when he had sat with Amara and Antuk, teaching them both the warrior’s way.

  “Have you ever tried to talk to the sky people?” Amara was with Kaichen as they both welcomed the warmth of the fire. Kaichen’s voice was a soft murmur, it was filled with soothing tones of friendship.

  “I have never heard of the sky people.” Amara was intrigued by Kaichen’s storytelling. He told a story the way that others spoke of times long ago. Antuk sat nearby listening in but he did not shift or move even a muscle. Without speaking it was obvious that Antuk wished to hear Kaichen continue.

  “Ah, then this is a story that you will enjoy.” Kaichen shifted forward so that he could place more sticks, twigs and branches upon the fire. “Even with so great a fire as this you have only to look up at the heavens and see the sky people looking down.”

  Amara instinctively lifted her face to the glorious canopy of stars overhead. “The luminaries?”

  Her words were softly spoken so as not to interrupt the cadence of the story. Kaichen simply smiled and Amara’s heart was captured. She had rarely seen him smile and never had she heard his laughter, although she yearned to hear the joyful sound.

  Would it be a soft chuckle, welling up from the depths of his belly or would he let out a boisterous chorus of amusement that was infectious to the listener? Amara did not know. It was this that drew her to Kaichen. The mysteries within the ma
n before her were many and rare. She only wished that she could be certain he felt the same.

  “There is a world that exists beyond ours where the sky people live. Their worries are not our worries and their burdens are not our burdens. It is said that each light that graces the night sky is born on the day of their birth, it shines on their behalf in tribute.”

  Kaichen saw the excitement of a newly spoken story shimmering in Amara’s dark eyes and he held on to the words that would quench her thirst for more.

  “I first learned of the sky people when I was just a boy. My mother told me all the stories of my father and this was simply one of many that I was to learn and remember. The telling of it came on a night like this one and the sky appeared much like this, although I was seated upon a high rise deep in the canyons and my brother was with me. We were children unafraid and my mother explained that the sky people took interest in our world and those that walked upon it.”

  “They can see us clearly though to us they appear far away. When the storms come and the thunder rumbles across the sky, it is a dark utterance from the sky people about the goings on in our world. We have been remiss in the keeping of balance in the world that we live in and it must be restored. Floods, lightening strikes and dust storms remind us that there are powers greater than ours at work. Man lacks humility more so than any other trait and the sky people wish to remind us of our lowly place in the existence of all things.”

  “Why does a hunter allow his arrow to pierce the heart of a second animal, when he has already taken the first? How much meat does one man need to feed his family and what will he do if there is waste? These are the questions that young boys must learn to answer before they attempt their first hunt. Even when a child sets his first trap he must ask that he only snare one animal, enough to fill his mother’s stewpot and nothing more. When a hunter walks the land, buffalo and deer will come to the call of his arrow, if he is worthy.”