Killer of Enemies

by Joseph Bruchac

  Hally starts humming. No, singing. But it is in a language that sounds so strange I have no words to describe it. Yet somehow, strange as it is, I understand it in a way beyond words. I understand what he is doing, what he is saying. I can see—no, more than see, I can feel a glow around him. It’s a living presence that touches everything living around us. Every plant, every animal, every insect, every stone, every molecule in the air seems to be responding to it.

  Then there is a silence, a silence that must have been here when the whole world was about to come into being. I’ve been holding my breath. I let it out and as I do so I feel my breath come.

  I look up at Hally.

  I thought this was my world now, and that you were done helping me.

  He spreads his arms out, shrugs, and holds his palms up in front of him.

  So sue me.

  I look behind him toward the big saguaro.

  Where did Big Boy, that other bad guy, go?

  To a better place.

  Hally rubs his stomach.

  No.

  Hally burps and I notice as he opens his mouth just how long those canine teeth of his really are. Hussein laughs out loud.

  Oh, never mind. But where are Mom and Ana and Victor?

  Sleeping in a cave. Safe. They’ll wake up when you get to them.

  Where?

  Just over there.

  Hally points with his chin toward a part of the cliff face a hundred yards or so beyond the place where I climbed down.

  Both Hussein and I look in that direction. Only for a second, but when we turn back we see just what I expected. No one there. Hally has vanished again.

  This is not a once upon a time story. It’s not ending with everyone living happily ever after. It’s only pausing after a few victories for yours truly and with some uncertainty. I have no idea what is going to happen next other than that I am going to rejoin my family and together we are going to face whatever is ahead of us. And that “us” includes one slightly maimed musical gardener.

  Will we go back to Haven? And will the Dreamer welcome us if we do?

  Will we go to Valley Where First Light Paints the Cliffs, to live there quietly in peace?

  Or will it be necessary for me to keep playing this role that some strange destiny seems to have laid on me, to be a killer of enemies? Do more monsters lie ahead of me on my path?

  I can’t say. All I can do is put one foot in front of the other and see where it leads me. After all, as Uncle Chatto always said, step by step is the only way to climb a mountain.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Killer of Enemies is, first and foremost, a work of speculative fiction. Aside from its several references to Chiricahua Apache history and culture, it’s a product of my imagination. And I had fun writing it.

  The most important connection, perhaps, between this novel and Native American people in the years to come is that it asserts, as I believe, that Indians will be a part of whatever future this continent holds—post-apocalyptic or not. American Indians, and especially the Tinneh (Apache) Nations have shown incredible resiliency throughout five centuries of cultural genocide and colonialism by majority cultures throughout the Americas. Lozen might be seen as an incarnation of that sort of spirit.

  Thinking of spirit, as my main character knows, she’s lightly based on the historical figure of Lozen. That first Lozen was a true warrior woman of the Chiricahuas. She used her mystical power to find enemies as she fought beside her brother Victorio during the long Apache resistance against Mexico and the United States. Born around 1840, the first Lozen never married and died in 1890 in Alabama where the entire Chiricahua nation had been sent into exile by the United States government. Today, her memory is deeply honored and I know of several contemporary Native women who bear her name. My main character’s toughness and determination echo her namesake.

  My Lozen is also a sort of reincarnation of another important being in Tinneh traditions, one whose mission in life—back in the beginning times—was to kill the monsters that threatened human life. Called Killer of Enemies or Child of Water among the Apache nations, this being and his twin brother were born to Changing Woman at a time when terrible giant beings roamed the land. Some of the gemods Lozen terminates, such as the Monster Birds, are based on those awful creatures.

  If you’d like to know more about the Chiricahuas, take a look at a historical novel I spent years writing and researching called Geronimo (Scholastic, 2006). (And let me take this opportunity again to thank the many Apache tradition bearers who were so generous to me over the years with their knowledge and helpful suggestions: Swift Eagle, Michael Lacapa, Michael Darrow, and Harry Mithlo in particular.)

  On the following page is a brief bibliography to provide further insight into the rich oral traditions and histories of the Tinneh nations.

  Ball, Eve. In the Days of Victorio. Tucson: University of Arizona,1970.

  Basso, Keith H. Wisdom Sits in Places. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1996.

  Bray, Dorothy, ed. Western Apache-English Dictionary. Tempe: Bilingual Press, 1998.

  Clarke, Laverne Harrell. They Sang for Horses. Tucson: University of Arizona, 1966.

  Cremony, John. Life Among the Apaches. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1983 (1868).

  Farrer, Claire R. Living Life's Circle: Mescalero Apache Cosmovision. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1991.

  Goddard, Pliny Earle. Myths and Tales from the San Carlos Apache. New York: 1918.

  Golston, Sydele E. Changing Woman of the Apache. New York: Franklin Watts, 1996.

  Goodwin, Grenville. Myths and Tale of the White Mountain Apache. Tucson: University of Arizona, 1994.

  Melody, Michael E. The Apache. New York: Chelsea House, 1989.

  Opler, Morris Edward. An Apache Life-Way. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1966 (1941).

  --------.Myths and Tales of the Chiricahua Apache Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1994 (1942).

  --------.Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians. Mineola: Dover, 1994 (1938).

  Roberts, David. Once They Moved like the Wind. New York: Touchstone, 1994.

  Ortiz, Alfonso, ed. Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1983.