by Pedro Urvi
“Is that all the spirits told you about my brother?” said Unco Lake Owl.
“There is something more…” began the spiritual leader doubtfully.
“What is it? We have to know everything the spirits told you,” said Unco Lake Owl.
“As you wish… At the end of the vision, Bear Spirit showed me Vulture Spirit flying in circles over our sacred lake. The Blue Clouds were not in their tents. The village was deserted…” said the Shaman.
“How can we interpret this last vision?” said Unco, hanging his head.
Oni Black Cloud took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, as if with it he could allow the vision to issue from his body.
“If the Crow gets his remains, the Vulture will follow. And the Vulture will feed on the remains of all the Blue Clouds.
“Do you mean to say that in your vision you’ve seen our whole tribe, all the Blue Clouds dying?” asked Unco Lake Owl, deeply upset.
“It is what the spirits have shown me in my vision. But the world of the spirits is whimsical, and it might be that this vision is just a warning. Or even that it might be seeking to confuse our hearts.”
“What is your belief?”
“This time, I believe the vision is true. That is how my soul feels it, and my spirit too. If we do not act and change the course of the vision, the Vulture Spirit will feed on our bodies.”
“We must isolate Kaune Eagle Warrior’s tent right away, to prevent the contagion spreading to others,” said the Healer Woman. “If the disease spreads, then Mother Nature will demand that our bodies return to her womb.”
“And Oni Black Cloud’s vision of the spirits’ warning will come true.” Iruki could not hold back her tears.
“I must take my brother to the other side of the sacred lake and camp there,” said her uncle.
The Healer Woman looked towards the great mountain. “The members of his hunting party must accompany the Great Chief,” she said. “Two other warriors are beginning to show signs of the Prairie fever, so the whole party must be isolated.”
Unco Lake Owl crossed his hands behind him and looked thoughtfully at the lake.
“This is terrible news,” he said after a moment, “Mother Nature tests her children’s temper, but we are Masig, children of the steppes, and once again we’ll overcome whatever test the evil spirits throw at us. I’ll take my brother and his hunting party with me and see that nothing happens to them.”
“I am sorry, Lake Owl,” said Oni Black Cloud, “but that is not a wise course to follow. Your heart is noble and the good spirits recognize it as such, but you cannot go with your brother on this journey. He must take this path alone, for if you both share the same path and die in the struggle, the tribe will be lost.”
Unco looked at him, his brow furrowed. He did not seem convinced.
“Our wise Shaman is right,” Ilua Hidden Path told him. “As long as our great leader is fighting for his life, your place is here leading the Blue Clouds. These are difficult times, and our people need an experienced leader with a noble heart. They need you, Unco Lake Owl.”
Iruki was left with a divided heart. On the one hand she wanted her uncle to help her father survive, and yet on the other she knew that the best thing for the tribe was for Unco to lead them.
Unco himself was annoyed. His parched reddish face showed deep worry. He was weighing the decision he had to make. It was a difficult one between his responsibility towards the tribe and his love for his brother.
Finally, he made his decision. With a voice steeped in wisdom, he said:
“I’ll lead the tribe. It’s my duty and I owe it to my brother. We’ll take Kaune Eagle Warrior and his hunting party to the other side of the lake and set up a camp for the sick there. Oni Black Cloud, pray to the good spirits so they may protect them.”
The Shaman nodded in acceptance.
“I shall prepare a ritual of safekeeping and perform it tonight. The moon will be full, and that will make its power greater. Let us hope that the spirits and our Mother Steppe are favorable to us.”
“If any of the sick should die, we won’t be able to give them back to Mother Steppe,” warned the Healer Woman. “They’ll have to burn in a funerary pyre to avoid contagion.”
“In that way their spirit will be purged,” the Shaman said.
“So it shall be done,” said Unco.
Iruki looked at the Healer, full of concern. “What else can we do to save him? What can we do to stop the disease spreading and killing the whole tribe? I can’t let him die, I can’t! Is there no cure?”
“I’m sorry, child… We Masig, don’t know of any way to cure the Prairie Fever.”
Iruki put her hands to her eyes and wept.
Oni Black Cloud stepped forward with his hands behind his back. “Perhaps the Masig do not,” he said, “but other peoples must have suffered from the same illness.”
“What do you mean, wise Shaman?” said the Healer Woman.
“Several years ago a foreign soldier from the East was brought to me. Our warriors had captured him on the eastern steppes, near the Thousand Lakes. He was completely lost. He was questioned, but said nothing, so they brought him to me: I used some herbs whose effects produce truth and speech,” the Shaman explained as a smile began to appear on his face. “What the soldier told me was hard to believe, but today it takes on a special relevance. He spoke of how he had been sent not on a scouting mission but in order to collect certain water-plants in the Thousand Lakes. Looking for those plants, he had become separated from his column and found himself lost. It was then that he ran into our hunting party and was captured.”
“What has that got to do with the Prairie Fever?” Iruki asked impatiently.
“Let him finish, child. I feel that what he’s telling us is of great importance.”
“I appreciate that, Healer.”
The Shaman looked at the sacred lake and went on with the story:
“He told me he had been sent by a great surgeon of his kingdom to gather some very rare water-plants. These lilies had very specific medicinal properties, and were needed to put an end to a terrible outbreak of a very contagious disease. He described it as a fever which turned people’s skin the color of hay and which killed them in a matter of days amid vomiting of blood…”
“The Prairie Fever!” burst out Iruki.
“It could be,” said the Healer. “The symptoms are similar and this evil illness could affect other realms…”
“In that case, we have to go in search of those plants at once!” said Iruki.
“It’s very dangerous territory,” said Unco. “Several kingdoms are disputing the Thousand Lakes.”
“I don’t care, I have to go! I won’t let my father die without doing anything, I wouldn’t be worthy of his blood. If there’s any hope, I have to hold on to it.”
“I’ll go with her,” said the Healer.
“No, I’m sorry,” said Unco. “You have to stay to take care of the sick. We have nobody else with a knowledge of healing.”
“You must stay, Healer Woman,” agreed the Shaman. “The situation will only get worse, and we shall need your help and all your experience. Fortunately, or perhaps by the will of the spirits you took a gifted apprentice and have taught her well. This will allow her to go and to recognize those plants with the medicinal effects. In truth I do believe the spirits are lending a hand here. This is no mere coincidence… The good spirits meant you to take an apprentice, so that she can save the tribe from a death which is already very near us.”
“Let’s hope it is so,” said the Healer.
“Did the soldier describe the lilies he was looking for?” said Iruki. “How will I recognize them?”
“He called it Sky Weed. He said it could be recognized because when squeezed, the extract obtained was pale blue. He said it had the shape of a star and that it floated in small bunches on lakes and marshes. That’s all I can remember of what he told me. Unfortunately this was several years ago, and at the time I
did not consider it so important.”
“I’ll go to the Thousand Lakes and find the Sky Weed!” said Iruki with determination.
“You will take a group of our best warriors with you so that you come to no harm,” said her uncle, Unco Lake Owl.
“We’ll leave at dawn,” said Iruki and with that she went into her father’s tent to take her leave.
Two weeks later Iruki was crouching by the shore of a great lake, very carefully gathering several of the lilies which grow on the bank. They were a yellowish-green, and of a variety she had never seen before. This was a good sign, although she had so little experience that almost all the varieties she was finding were totally unknown to her. She had been Ilua’s apprentice for too short a time, and she rued the fact bitterly.
“Any luck?” Asur White Wolf said. He was the chief of the war party which was protecting her in hostile territory.
Iruki looked carefully at him. He was a true Masig warrior. His face had an untamed beauty, and his dark hair and red skin gave him a powerfully masculine air. His eyes shone with the unmistakable light of leadership, revealing honesty to whoever looked into them. He was also strong, tall, with wide shoulders and a well-honed physique. He was well respected, and it was said that there was no better warrior in all the Masig tribes. He had yet to be beaten in combat, competition or fight.
But Iruki felt nervous in the company of the magnificent Masig warrior. Asur White Wolf had been the first to ask for Iruki’s hand when she returned from the Ilenian Temple of Water. She had rejected him, and her father, greatly disappointed, had been obliged to send the suitor away. Iruki knew that Asur was her father’s favorite, and that she should wed him to ensure a strong leader for the tribe. But because of her refusal, Asur had had to step back. Her father had been so upset she hardly expected him to forgive her…
Those memories reawakened her yearning for Yakumo, the man her heart loved. Would he still be alive, or would he have perished under the inhuman torture of the Norghanians? Her mind insisted on the impossibility of Yakumo being alive, but her heart kept the flame of hope burning bright. She would never let that flame die as long as she was alive. Probably a barren hope, but hope after all, and one which she would cling to forever. Yakumo had promised he would stay alive and return for her one day, and that meant the world to Iruki. Every new day was an opportunity for her dream to come true, and Iruki faced every morning filled with new hope. When night came she cried silently, because once more her dream had failed to come true and the flame in her burned a little less brightly. And for all that, a few hours later her hope would be renewed with dawn. She would live that eternal cycle until she died.
Yakumo would come for her someday. He would. Her heart was certain.
“Let me check, Asur White Wolf,” she said, without daring to look him in the eye. He watched her, impressive on his piebald horse.
“Let’s hope you find the medicinal plants the tribe needs so badly. We run a great risk, coming into this territory.”
“But it’s here that the Sky Weed we’re looking for grows.”
“We are far from our own people, in the land of the Thousand Lakes. This is a territory in dispute between the kingdoms of Zangria to the North-East and Erenal to the South-East. We might very well come upon troops of both kingdoms at any moment.”
“We must keep looking. Unfortunately, these aren’t the Sky Weeds we need either…”
“Very well, Iruki Wind of the Steppes, we’ll keep looking. I’ll keep you safe, ride beside me,” said the warrior.
“Thank you, I appreciate that,” Iruki replied, lowering her head.
“There’s no need to thank me. It’s my duty to protect you. Your uncle, Unco Lake Owl told me to. But even if he hadn’t, I would anyway…”
Iruki looked into his eyes and saw that this magnificent warrior would sacrifice his life for her without the slightest hesitation. Such was Asur’s heart. The discovery filled her with a sense of security, but at the same time, it made her feel uncomfortable because she knew it sprang from the warrior’s feelings towards her.
“Which way shall we turn?”
“East, deeper into the Thousand Lakes,” she replied confidently.
Asur imitated a cuckoo’s call, prolonging the sound by using his hands, and two dozen Masig warriors appeared from nowhere on their piebald mounts.
“Four scouts, two East, one North and one South,” he ordered his men. They left immediately.
Iruki watched the riders go. They were all young, strong warriors, chosen by her uncle for that difficult mission. She felt proud looking at them: all brave, well-trained, carrying spears and short war bows. She felt safe in their company.
They marched for three days, always towards the east, bordering the bright, peaceful lakes, as blue as the sky above, which Iruki never tired of admiring. She had heard her father and her uncle talk about that area, but she had never dreamed the landscape would be so beautiful. The combination of the green and brown of the forests around the lake, and the blue, intense as the clear summer sky, left her breathless. Her ancestors’ sacred lake was overwhelmingly beautiful, surrounded by the steppes and under the Fountain of Life. But that landscape of interconnected lakes and thick forests did not pale in comparison. With a tiny sting in her heart she had to admit this might even be more beautiful.
The second day of their journey something out of the ordinary happened, something that left Iruki in a state of worry. She was riding beside one of the lakes, when suddenly the Ilenian medallion she wore around her neck gave off a bluish flash. Iruki, startled, thought at once that the other two bearers, the warrior with the emerald eyes and the pretty girl with the big blue eyes, were trying to communicate with her.
Iruki waited, anticipating the link…
But it did not come.
Instead, the medallion gave off a beam of bluish light pointing towards the east. This perplexed Iruki. What was going on with the medallion? Was it showing her the way? The way to… what? But her questions remained unanswered, hanging in the cool breeze of the early evening. As they were already following the course the medallion had pointed at, Iruki shrugged and went on with her search, which was what really hung heavy on her spirit.
During the night they camped in silence, not daring to light a fire at all. Asur did not want their presence known to any enemy patrol. The Masig warriors were used to sleeping out in the open, coping with the night-time fall in temperature but not Iruki. The second night in the lakes was colder that the first, and she began to shiver. Asur came to her with an honest smile and offered her a colorful blanket.
“Here, don’t catch cold.”
“Thank you, Asur.”
“We can’t allow our future Healer to fall sick and fail in her mission. None of us would be able to find those strange weeds. We warriors were born to fight, we know nothing of medicine.”
“I won’t get sick, Asur, don’t worry.”
The warrior looked into her eyes. His was a noble gaze, honest, and Iruki smiled at him with unusual shyness. The look became more intense and Iruki saw desire shining clearly in his eyes. She looked away and wrapped herself in the blanket.
At dawn they marched swiftly again, this time bordering a smaller lake shaped like an apple. One of the warriors came up to them at a gallop.
“Plants and weeds on the shore ahead,” he said, pointing with his spear.
“Good,” said Iruki, “let’s go.” She urged her piebald mount towards the place he was pointing at.
She jumped off and began to collect and carefully study the weeds, which were a new species, unknown to her. The wide variety of lush water-plants in those lakes was incredible. For a Masig of the steppes it was an unimaginable natural world.
“Could it be these?” asked Asur with interest.
Iruki shook her head.
“Mother Nature is playing a cruel joke on her children of the steppes,” said the warrior.
Iruki’s spirit was beginning to flag in disapp
ointment. They were not finding what they were searching for, and they had already been among the lakes for days. But she could not give in to pessimism. She would find the Sky Weed: her father’s life and that of the whole tribe depended on it. Oni Black Cloud’s vision would never happen, the Vulture would not feed on the corpses of her people, not while she had a breath left in her body.
“Do you really believe that Sky Weed exists?” Asur asked. He too looked a little disappointed.
“We have to hold on to that hope. Otherwise we’re all doomed.”
Asur nodded. His face was worried.
One of the scouts arrived at a gallop.
“Erenal soldiers, to the South, coming close,” he told Asur.
“How many?” the leader asked.
“Light cavalry, a column of fifty men.”
Asur remained thoughtful.
“What shall we do?” said Iruki, worried. The last thing they needed was an armed conflict.
“We’ll go on towards the North-East and get close to Zangrian territory. Their yellow and black banners will soon flutter on the horizon. We’ll have to move with the stealth of a gazelle so as not to be discovered. Further on is the great lake, the biggest of all. They say it’s as big as an ocean. You can’t see one shore from the other, only the horizon. It’s as if Mother Nature had set a sea in the middle of the woods.”
“Have you seen it?” said Iruki, intrigued.
“I haven’t, but Oni Black Cloud has. He told me of its existence. Few Masig have dared penetrate so deep into the territory of the Thousand Lakes. And still fewer have come back. We must be as cunning as foxes, or we shan’t survive to say we saw the endless lake.”
Iruki caught the concern in the leader’s rough voice, and felt a pang of fear in her breast.
They rode in silence all day, wary of the presence of enemy troops, sending scouts every now and then. When night fell they camped beside a small waterfall which was fed by a crystal-clear stream which came down from a wooded mountain behind it. Beside them an enormous lake extended towards the east. The landscape was idyllic, with the waterfall behind them and the placid lake in front. Iruki relaxed completely, allowing the exhaustion of the past days to leave her body as if it were a bad spirit. One of the warriors brought her some dried meat and a full water-skin. She gulped the meal down and fell into a reverie.