by Inmon, Shawn
“I have told you that I am in communication with the monks, haven’t I?”
“Yes, but I don’t understand it.”
“Not understanding is different from not believing, but I suspect both are true.”
“You told me once to continue being a non-believer. I have done so.”
“I don’t know how to explain it except to say that I close my eyes and find a place in my mind where everything is quiet. Sometimes when I do that, one or more of the monks is in that same place in his mind and we can see each other. That’s when we communicate.”
“You say communicate, not speak.”
“We speak without making a sound.”
“Let’s say I believe that...”
“...even if you don’t,” Lanta-eh said, smiling. “Luckily, these things don’t require belief from anyone but me and whoever I am speaking to.”
“So why do we need the rocks built into a room?”
“The monks are far away, but I can still reach them. Now I need to communicate with someone who is much farther away.”
“How do the rocks help with that?”
“The monks knew about this kind of rocks. Do you remember how Senta-eh would make the call of her family?”
Alex smiled at the memory. He could picture Senta-eh throwing her head back, cupping her hands around her mouth, and the strange yodeling call that she made.
“Of course. It was a little eerie the way that sound carried.”
“Right. Exactly that. In order to do it, though, she had to tilt her head to open her throat and use her hands to direct the sound. This room that we will build will do the same thing for me. It will make my voice louder to help me reach the one I need to communicate with.”
“Can I ask you what you need to communicate to them?”
“I need to tell them what is happening here, so they can fix it for us. This is what I have known since I can first remember. This is what I was chosen for.”
“To talk to this person? It is a person, right?”
“Yes. It is a person. What else could it be?”
Alex shook his head. “Sorry, my imagination ran away with me for a minute. Let’s just get to work.”
Alex found a stick the length of his arm and whittled it to a sharp point on one end, then drew a rough outline of the walls and door. He turned and looked at the jumbled pile of rocks the tribe had carried up the day before. Everyone had been so happy to get to the top with their load that they had dropped them haphazardly here and there.
“First, we need to separate the rocks into usable piles. Sanda-eh, you find all the smallest rocks and put them over there. Lanta-eh, you take the middle-sized rocks and pile them over here. Meanwhile, I’ll look for the biggest rocks and we’ll use that for the foundation of the walls.
They each set to their tasks, with Sanda-eh sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth as she searched for the smaller stones. When the rocks were separated, Alex had placed the biggest, flattest rocks where he had sketched each wall should be.
He put his hands to his lower back and stretched.
Lanta-eh knelt beside the lowest level of the wall and laid her hand flat on the stones. She smiled up at Alex. “This is exactly what I need. I can feel it already.”
By the end of that first day, they had built the walls to calf-height. Alex was surprised to find that Sanda-eh not only helped, but that she had an excellent eye for where each stone fit the best. She was limited by her height and strength, but not by her natural ability.
Every day, I see more of her mother in her. And that’s a wonderful thing.
It took them three more days to build the walls to Alex’s exacting standards.
The finished walls came to just below Alex’s shoulder.
“What do you think?” he asked Lanta-eh after placing the last stone. “Enough?”
“I think it was enough when the rocks were spread all over. But I wanted to spend more time here with the three of you before I started.”
Alex grinned. “I don’t mind that at all. I couldn’t have stood to just leave them the way they were. It’s kind of beautiful this way. What do you need from me next?”
“Nothing, for a time. I will come up here every day, but I won’t need you for that at first. I know Monda-ak doesn’t like to leave the two of you, but do you think he might come with me?”
“That is up to him. Monda-ak,” Alex called. “Lanta-eh wants you to come here with her for a few days, but Sanda-eh and I won’t be here. Can you do that?”
Monda-ak stood still, his intelligent eyes considering. Finally, he woofed once.
“There you go,” Alex said. “You have a companion.”
Early the next morning, Lanta-eh opened the door to Alex’s house, and Monda-ak bounded out without a word.
They were gone all day, returning just after sunset.
That pattern held for the next few weeks, day after day.
On the fifteenth day, when Lanta-eh returned Monda-ak at the end of the day, Alex had to ask.
“What does he do all day? Run around, chasing rabbits and birds?”
“Oh no. He sits in the doorway and never moves. Well, he might fall asleep occasionally, but that’s to be expected.”
She started to duck away, but Alex stopped her.
“Can you come in for a minute? I’ll get you some water.”
Lanta-eh sat at the small wooden table and Alex poured her a cup of water from the only indoor plumbing in Winten-ah.
“That is still something of a miracle to me.”
Alex sat down opposite her, Sanda-eh climbed up into his lap and both stared at Lanta-eh for long moments without speaking.
“I don’t think you look well. Is it this schedule? Is it too much?”
Lanta-eh glanced down at the table. “It’s not that. It’s not the walk back and forth. It’s just that what I am doing takes a little part of me every day. It is all right, though. I knew this was what it would take.”
“I think I should take you from now on.”
“I don’t want to steal any more of your days. It is quite boring on the mountain. I sit quietly while Monda-ak farts.”
“I won’t need to stay with you. I can have a horse ready first thing every morning. I will ride you to Prata-ah, walk you to the top, then come back and get you just before the sunsets and bring you home.”
Lanta-eh sighed. “I suppose it is time for that. Thank you, Manta-ak, my brother.”
For several more weeks, they kept to that routine. Sanda-eh rode in front, Alex in the middle, and Lanta-eh behind, holding on. At first, Alex made two round trips, but eventually he didn’t feel right leaving Lanta-eh and Monda-ak there alone, so he and Sanda-eh simply stayed and whiled the day away.
One morning, Alex lifted Lanta-eh up and stopped cold. “I know it’s not possible, but it feels like you don’t weigh any more than Sanda-eh does.”
Alex brought progressively more food with him, but while she was on top of Prata-eh, Lanta-eh would not eat. Even when the sun was setting and they were riding back to the cliffside, when Alex tried to get her to eat, she preferred to just lay her head against his back and rest.
Finally, a month after they had finished the walls atop the hill, Alex could not take it anymore. When he walked up to the cave to get her, he saw that two of her sisters were having to help her walk to him. She could not stand upright on her own.
“This is killing you. It’s not worth it.”
“Would it be worth it if our mothers stopped dying? I think it would.”
“I just don’t want to be a part of this. I can’t stand seeing you like this.”
“Today will be the last day, I promise. But, today will also not be as easy as the rest have been. Today, you should leave Sanda-eh with someone.”
Lanta-eh’s sisters rushed forward, saying, “We will watch her until you come back.”
Sanda-eh, who had become a little bored with spending every day, rain or shine on the hilltop sa
id, “Can I Dadda?”
“Of course,” Alex answered and Sanda-eh ran to the two teen girls.
“Do you have your weapons?”
“This is Kragdon-ah. Of course I do. Do you know something? Is someone going to ambush us? I can take more men with me to get us there safely.”
“No ambush. An obstacle. An immovable obstacle. But you will be my unstoppable force.”
“I don’t like the sound of that, but standing here won’t make it any better.”
Alex lifted Lanta-eh onto the back of the horse where she normally rode, but saw that she was not able to hold her balance there. He turned to her sisters. “Do you want me to take her when she is like this?”
“Of course,” they answered as one.
Alex mounted the horse and said, “Then lift her up to me. After today, this will be over, and she can rest.”
Alex kept one gentle arm around Lanta-eh, keeping her on the horse. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against his chest, resting.
It was a quiet ride to Prata-eh, but Alex was on edge, constantly scanning in all directions, waiting for trouble—or an obstacle—to arrive.
When it did, he did not need to seek it out. It was waiting for him.
When his horse cleared the edge of the forest, the path to the top of the hill was blocked.
Godat-ta sat quietly on the trail, looking at him with one good eye.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Godat-ta Redux
Alex sat stock still on his horse, staring at the mountain of a bear.
The bear sat equally still, showing no inclination of moving.
“I can’t kill that. No human can kill a godat-ta. Can we just wait until he moves?”
“We can wait, but he will not move. This is the last challenge we must face to succeed.”
Alex contemplated asking how we were going to be facing the tons of bear that sat in front of him, but again discarded the thought as unworthy. Lanta-eh weighed almost nothing as she sat in front of him. She was making her own sacrifice.
Alex took an inventory of his available weapons. As always, he had his two-bladed axe, the knife he had found in the cave, and Senta-eh’s stabbing sword.
If I had the rifle I was carrying when I passed through the door, I might have a chance. But stone-age weapons? No chance. This is a suicide mission.
Beside him, Monda-ak growled quietly, low in his throat. Alex glanced at him and saw that every hair was standing on end.
And Monda-ak, the greatest warrior on four legs. Still not enough.
Silently, never taking his eyes off godat-ta, Alex slipped off the horse. He took Lanta-eh off and carried her to a spot under a tree. He leaned her against it, as she didn’t even seem to have enough strength to sit up on her own.
This was the third time Alex had found himself face to face with godat-ta. Both previous times, the great bear had been constantly in motion—stretching, standing on his hind legs, simply moving. Now he sat so still Alex might have thought he was dead.
Except for the eye. The single eye followed Alex wherever he went, a malevolent, shining dot in his scarred face.
Alex laid a hand on Monda-ak’s head. He knew there was no way he was going to keep him out of the fight. He was also sure there was no way his best friend could survive a direct conflict with godat-ta.
Alex searched his mind for a strategy to tackle an opponent so overpowering. No matter how many ideas he came up with, they all came down to one thing. That won’t work against something so massive, with so many offensive and defensive advantages.
Alex turned to Lanta-eh. “Have you seen how this turns out?”
“No. But I have seen me on the top of the hill today.”
“Good enough.”
Alex approached godat-ta slowly. There was no need for stealth. Both opponents knew where the other was.
If Senta-eh was here, perhaps she could make another miracle shot and completely blind him, like I did to Grunta-ak.
Alex shook his head to clear it. This was not the time for fantasizing. He would need all his focus just to get close enough to strike a single blow without being killed.
When Alex was still twenty strides away, godat-ta stood suddenly, waved his mighty clawed paws in front of him and roared.
The roar reverberated through the forest and hillside. Birds flew in panic. Monda-ak sidled against Alex’s side.
Alex reached for his shoulder, but Monda-ak bolted forward, closing the gap with the bear in a heartbeat. The giant dog leaped at the last minute, avoided the swipe of the huge paw, and clamped his jaws down on godat-ta’s throat. Monda-ak growled and twisted his head from side to side, trying to rip out godat-ta’s throat.
Godat-ta had too much fur and thick hide for such a direct attack to work. The bear roared again and swiped blindly at the dog. The paw and claws connected and sent Monda-ak tumbling through the air. He landed awkwardly on his side, bleeding from the mouth. He did not get up.
Alex took advantage of the attack to launch one of his own. He remembered that he had badly injured godat-ta’s right foreleg when he dropped the boulder on it, so he ran at his right side. His plan was to attack the rear leg on the same side, hoping to disable the giant.
He ran at top speed, watched Monda-ak fly over his head as he closed, and dove for the leg. As he did, he swung his axe with as much force as he could muster. The axe connected and sank deep into the beast’s back leg.
Godat-ta fell forward onto all fours. Alex pried his axe loose and prepared to take another swing when his world went crazy. Godat-ta swiped him with a giant paw and sent him tumbling away. He found himself face-down, blood, dirt, and explosive lights momentarily blinding him.
He rolled over and jumped to his feet, still nearly blind. Godat-ta charged him with a speed that seemed almost impossible to Alex.
Alex leaped to his left, but it was too late. Godat-ta closed his mouth on Alex’s left side and flung him into the air again.
Alex tried to roll when he hit, but landed awkwardly. He wiped the blood out of his eyes, clearing his vision for a moment. Godat-ta turned, ready to charge again.
Time slowed. Alex remembered Dan Hadaller first describing godat-ta to him.
You can’t outrun him, you can’t outclimb him, and you can’t outswim him. If he wants you dead, you’re dead.
Godat-ta wanted Alex Hawk dead.
Alex looked around desperately.
A few feet away, there were two trees—one thick and easy to climb, one thinner—growing just a few feet apart.
Ignoring the pain in his side, he ran for the thicker of the two trees. He planted his foot on the lowest branch and launched himself upward. He scrambled up as fast as humanly possible. That was fast, but Godat-ta was faster.
The bear was so big and long, he didn’t need to climb initially. He ambled to the tree, put his front paws around it and hoisted himself up. When he did that, his nose was just a few feet below Alex’s feet.
Alex redoubled his efforts, trying to put some space between him and godat-ta.
The bear wasted no time. Seeing that he could not reach Alex from the ground, he climbed.
Alex could hear him coming. The bear’s claws tore into the bark of the tree. Limbs broke, and the entire tree shook so hard Alex nearly lost his grip. He held on and clambered out onto a branch that would never hold godat-ta.
The bear’s arms were long enough that it wouldn’t need to climb onto the branch. It just needed to get high enough and it would easily reach over and claw him or swat him to the ground.
When the bear was close enough that Alex felt like he could smell the fetid breath below him, he measured the distance to the smaller tree. He bunched his muscles and jumped. He landed on a branch that was too thin to hold him and he fell to the next one, which bowed, but held.
With no hesitation, Alex jumped again, this time landing on the shoulders of godat-ta.
The bear screamed its rage and snapped its head left and right trying to rea
ch him. Alex dug the fingers of his left hand into the fur on godat-ta’s left shoulder. He thought he was far enough back with his grip to avoid the snapping jaws.
He was wrong.
Godat-ta strained his neck and snapped. At the last second, Alex saw what was happening and pulled the hand back. That saved most of his fingers.
Godat-ta’s jaws closed on the thumb and index finger, snapping them off in a spray of blood.
Alex loosed his own war cry, pulled Senta-eh’s sword from his belt, and plunged it deep into the back of godat-ta’s neck.
The violent snapping of the bear’s head turned into a hurricane of twisting and rocking. An unearthly shriek unlike anything Alex had ever heard tore through the air.
And then, they were falling.
Godat-ta released his grip on the tree and fell backwards. Alex tried to scramble away, but there was not time.
The bear landed on its back with Alex trapped beneath it. The impact of the fall shook the ground.
Alex saw only darkness for a time as he passed out.
When he came to, he realized that godat-ta had not moved. Almost as important, he could not move either.
The incredible weight of godat-ta was crushing him. He couldn’t draw a breath and couldn’t budge. Alex heard labored breathing to his right and managed to turn his head to see Monda-ak crawling toward him. He couldn’t manage to stand and he was bleeding badly, but he reached Alex, put the scruff of his shirt between his teeth and pulled. And pulled.
And nothing happened.
Monda-ak whined, hurt and helpless.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. We did the hard part. Now we’ve just got to live to tell the story.”
Lifting the bear off him was out of the question. He felt his strength ebbing, but closed his eyes, gathered his focus, and managed to free his right hand. Beneath the weight of the bear, his left hand—or what remained of it—throbbed out waves of nauseating pain to the rhythm of his heartbeat.
Alex twisted his body from side to side, finding a small pocket where he could move.