by Sharon Sala
She thought of her mother and Cayetano. Did they get the others far enough away before this happened or were they once again running from a world on fire?
Adam! Evan! Talk to me. What is happening where you are?
“We are running! I can’t find Evan. Can you see him? Help me, help me, help me!”
“No, no, no,” Tyhen moaned and then dropped to her knees and closed her eyes.
Yuma grabbed her, thinking she was going to faint, then realized something else was going on.
“What is it? What’s happening?”
“The others are in trouble. They didn’t get far enough away.”
Yuma groaned. “Can they still make it?”
“Wait. I need to help.”
She had never spirit walked except when her body was asleep and didn’t know if this would work, but she was about to find out. She grabbed Yuma’s forearms, fixing him with a look that nearly stopped his heart.
“Hold me. Don’t move me. And have faith I will be back.”
Before he could question what she meant, he watched her take a deep breath and close her eyes. A heartbeat later, she fell into Yuma’s outstretched arms. It appeared she had fainted, when in reality, her spirit left her body and was already gone.
He sat down on the ground with her, holding her firmly in his grasp. He didn’t know what was happening, but she told him to hold her, and they would have to kill him before he’d ever let her go.
***
She used her connection to her mother to find them, and she did easily because their tie was strong. One second she was in Yuma’s arms and the next she was with the others and shocked by what she saw. The New Ones who had been too old to go with her, were now running again for their lives along with the ones who had been born in Naaki Chava. The jungle was on fire behind them, and the burning rock was falling all around them. It was like running from Firewalker all over again.
Adam. I am here.
“Find him for me. Please! He wasn’t beside me when the volcano blew. We started running. I thought he was with us but then I couldn’t feel him. I know now that he’s not.”
My mother and Cayetano?
“Right in front of me, leading us to safety. Hurry.”
Yes, I will hurry.
She was hovering above ground as she looked behind her. There was nothing but smoke. She heard a high-pitched whine and looked up just as another burning rock flew over her head. Even though she knew she could not be harmed, it took everything she had to stay put.
Evan, Evan, talk to me, my brother. Where have you gone?
***
Evan woke, saw the sleeping camp around him and felt pressure on his bladder. He got up with the intent to relieve himself, which he did without incident, and was on his way back when the mountain blew. He turned around just as the first wave of burning rock spewed into the air. Then the ground rolled beneath his feet and he fell forward, hitting his head against a tree and knew no more.
He came to in a world on fire. There was blood in his eyes, smoke in his face, and no thought in his head but an inborn sense of self-preservation that made him run. But he was running the wrong way. While everyone else was running south, Evan Prince was running north into hell.
***
Tyhen knew that if he wasn’t with the others and that if he was still alive and able to move, he had to be running like the rest of them, trying to get away. She closed her eyes and said his name again and again, but he didn’t answer.
She went up higher to cover more ground, moving like smoke with the speed of light, scanning what was below. Just when she began to fear the search would end badly, she saw him, running in an all-out sprint, but in the wrong direction. She dropped down in front of him and held out her hands.
Stop, Evan! It’s me, Tyhen.
He ran right through her.
Chapter Eighteen
Shocked, she spun around and flew past Evan again and tried to stop him, and again he ran past. That was when she saw the blood on his face and the gash in his head. She groaned. It was the head wound. He had forgotten how to hear. He didn’t know how to see her anymore. What to do, what to do?
And then it hit her. She was the Windwalker’s daughter. Even in spirit, she was stronger than man and equal to weather. She put her arms up into the air and made the wind come, and then made it spin around her. Faster and faster it spun until it was alive on its own, sucking smoke and fire into the funnel as it took her up into the treetops and then flew above the smoke until it dropped down on Evan Prince. It sucked him up into the vortex in mid-step. He screamed, but it was only from fear. He could thank her later.
***
Adam was running with both his pack and Evan’s on his back and a four-year-old girl in his arms, so sick at heart he could barely breathe. Her mother was in front of him carrying her baby. They’d left the father a good half mile behind, crushed beneath a burning rock.
Adam saw it happen, heard the mother screaming and stopped long enough to grab the little girl who’d fallen out of her father’s arms. The mother didn’t even see him. She just kept screaming.
He slapped her. Pointed at the baby in her arms and screamed.
“Run, woman, run!”
Still reeling from the blow, she turned and ran.
He was right behind her.
***
Cayetano and Singing Bird were running hand in hand. He wouldn’t let her go, and she wasn’t about to stop. She couldn’t believe this was happening to her again and very angry with the Old Ones. They could have changed this outcome. They should have changed this outcome.
Her feet were burning and sparks were falling in her hair. More than once Cayetano gave her head a quick thump with the flat of his hand and she knew he was putting out fires. She could hear people screaming all around her. They were death screams. She’d heard them before. She wanted to scream, too, but was afraid if she did, she’d never stop.
She didn’t know where the twins were or if there would be enough people left alive after this to even make a new city, and right now she couldn’t let herself care. As long as Cayetano was beside her, she would bear what came to pass.
Cayetano felt like he’d lost his mind. This had to be a nightmare and when he woke up it would be gone. But the screams were too loud, the fire was too hot, and the falling sparks on his arms and legs were causing too much pain to be a dream.
The ground was moving beneath them with such force that it was difficult to keep his balance. Twice he had stumbled and gone to his knees, and both times Singing Bird had been the one who pulled him up. He didn’t know her like this. She’d fallen back into the woman who’d run from Firewalker. It was yet another thing to fear. If they lived through this, which woman would stay?
After a time, Singing Bird became aware that they were now ahead of the fire rather than caught in its midst. With that realization came another, that no fiery rocks had come this far. She wanted to look behind her, to see if they were actually outrunning the danger, but was afraid to slow down. Her chest was burning, her sides aching, and her muscles were in spasms.
Finally, she began slowing down from sheer exhaustion and was about to take a chance and look back when she caught a glimpse of movement to her right. Then she saw what it was, and when it sailed over their heads and kept going, she stumbled and fell to her knees.
“What was that?” Cayetano shouted as he jerked her upright.
She leaped forward again without answering, couldn’t bring herself to say the words that would break his heart. But the last time she’d seen anything remotely like it was when the Windwalker had rescued her from her attackers on the streets of New Orleans. Now she couldn’t slow down. She had to know if she’d been seeing things or if another miracle was about to occur.
***
Adam Prince was still a hundred yards behind and still
running with the little family that he’d saved, but with joy in his heart. He had never cried in his life, and up to this moment, he had been convinced he was incapable of emotion. But he was crying now and with his heart in his throat. Tyhen had just sent him a message.
I found him.
Despite the mortal danger they were still in, his heart was so full of joy he believed he could run forever.
***
Tyhen stopped the wind when she saw the ocean. She lowered her arms and dropped to the beach, then caught Evan before he fell. He was unconscious, which was just as well. She knelt beside him and heard his heart thump, although his skin was pale.
When he began to moan, she stood and moved straight into his line of vision. His eyes opened.
Evan, it’s Tyhen, can you hear me?
She watched his eyes widen as he began to look around in confusion.
Look at ME. See ME.
He crawled backward.
“Where are you? Who’s talking?”
She sighed. The blow to his head had played havoc with his psychic self.
It’s Tyhen. Adam is coming. Cayetano and Singing Bird are coming. You are safe.
“Adam! Where’s Adam,” he mumbled, then stood up too fast, staggered forward, and fell back down on his hands and knees.
He’s coming, my brother. Just wait.”
“Brother? I am your brother?”
Tyhen saw movement up in the trees beyond the shore and stood up as Cayetano and Singing Bird appeared, with hundreds of others close behind them. They ran all the way to the water and then fell into it in exhaustion, grateful for the cool wet relief on their scorched skin and aching bodies.
Singing Bird ran straight to Evan and fell to her knees.
“My son, my son! You’ve been hurt.”
The ache in Tyhen’s chest grew with each moment she waited. She was this close to her mother and Singing Bird did not know that she was there.
Mother, I am here.
Singing Bird didn’t react.
Tyhen sighed. There was too much dark energy from the sadness for her to hear.
Evan blinked, then reached for Singing Bird’s hand.
“You are my mother?”
Singing Bird looked at Cayetano with tears running down her face.
“He doesn’t remember us. It is the injury on his head. When he is well, it will come back. It has to.”
Cayetano got a cloth wet in the ocean and then carried it back to her. Singing Bird began to clean the wound with gentle strokes, but she hadn’t forgotten what she’d seen, and the only explanation for Evan being here ahead of them, was that he’d been carried within the wind, the same way she’d been taken off the New Orleans streets.
“Do you remember what happened?” she asked.
He shook his head.
“Do you know who I am?”
He blinked. “Mother?”
She sighed. She’d put that thought in his head when she’d called him son.
“Do you know your name?”
He frowned. “Someone called me Evan. She said I was her brother.”
Singing Bird rocked back on her heels and scanned the beach. Cayetano was doing the same.
Tyhen’s heart skipped a beat.
Look at me, Mother. I am here. I am here.
“She wants you to look at her. She keeps saying, look at me, Mother. I am here,” Evan said.
Singing Bird stood up.
“Tyhen?”
Tyhen wrapped her arms around her mother’s shoulders, and as she did, Singing Bird jumped, and then sighed and closed her eyes.
“I feel you, daughter. I cannot see you and I cannot hear you, but I know you’re here.”
Tyhen turned and put her arms around Cayetano.
He jumped like he’d just been burned. He felt of his chest, and his arms, and then looked at Singing Bird in disbelief.
“This is my daughter that I feel? How is this so?”
And in that moment, Tyhen felt Adam before she saw him coming, then when he ran out of the trees, she called his name.
Adam, we are at the shore. Straight in front of you.
He stopped. Even though the beach was filling up with more and more survivors, the moment they set foot on the sand, Adam had seen the light that was Tyhen.
I hear you. I see you.
He turned to the young mother who’d run with him. She was staring at the ocean with a blank expression.
“I am sorry that your man is dead,” he said gently as he put the little girl down beside her.
The woman blinked as she shifted focus.
“Thank you for carrying my daughter. Thank you for saving us.”
He nodded, touched her shoulder lightly, and then pointed toward the water.
“I have to see to my brother,” he said and started running.
Evan is hurt. He can hear me, but he can’t see me. He doesn’t know who I am and I don’t think he knows who anyone else is, either. Be patient. His memory will return.
Shocked, Adam stumbled.
“Where did you find him?”
Running toward the fire.
Adam groaned.
“I will never be able to thank you enough.”
Tell my mother and Cayetano that they are loved and not forgotten. Tell her that I see them in my dreams.
“Yes, I will. I will.”
And just like that, she disappeared.
By the time Adam reached his family, he was shaking. Exhaustion and shock had set in.
He threw his arms around Singing Bird and Cayetano without saying a word, and then dropped to the sand beside his brother.
Evan blinked.
Adam reached out and took his hand.
“Evan.”
Evan shuddered.
“You hurt your head, but you’re going to be okay,” he said.
Tears began to roll down Evan’s face. “I couldn’t find you,” Evan whispered.
Adam pulled him into his arms. “You were running the wrong way.”
Singing Bird couldn’t wait another second to ask what her heart already told her was the truth.
“Was that whirlwind I saw my daughter? Was that Tyhen?”
Adam nodded.
“She knew about the volcano. She sent me a message asking if we were alive. I told her yes, but that Evan was lost. I asked her to help me and she came.”
Cayetano’s grunt was pure shock. “That thing I saw was my daughter? How is that possible?”
“No. Your daughter made it. She was in it, and so was Evan. That’s how she saved him,” Singing Bird said.
Cayetano shook his head. “I do not think such a thing is possible.”
“It wasn’t her physical body that was here,” Adam said. “It was her spirit.”
Again, he shook his head. “No. I do not believe.”
Singing Bird lifted her chin and met the fear in his gaze. “It was her and it is possible because that is how the Windwalker saved me in the other world before Firewalker. Now that Adam is here to tend to Evan, we have much to do. Your people are suffering. We need to see how to help.”
Then she looked down and saw that his sandals had burned off his feet. He had been running barefoot and didn’t even know it. She pointed.
“It is a good thing I made the moccasins. I’ll unpack them later.”
He glanced at his feet and grunted.
She knew it wasn’t the end of it between them, but she took his hand anyway and led him away.
***
The New Ones had gathered around Yuma, afraid to move, afraid that the Dove would fly away before she had time to save them. Someone had begun a chant, singing to the Old Ones for healing mercy. They didn’t understand what was wrong with her other than she lay in Yuma’
s arms as if she were dead.
Yuma was anxious, but he had faith. He just wanted her back. Waiting like this without knowing what was happening was the worst kind of torture.
Almost an hour had passed, and during that time, Yuma had not moved so much as a hair on her head. He was looking up to see if the volcano was still erupting when he felt a jolt, like someone had jostled her. He saw the color and life coming back into Tyhen’s face, and when she opened her eyes, he held his breath.
They looked at each other for a long, silent moment and then she sat up in his arms.
“Evan is hurt but safe. Adam is alive and so are Singing Bird and Cayetano. The jungle was on fire around them. Many people died. I saw the ocean. I am thirsty. Could I have the water that is cold?”
The singing stopped. Someone let out a whoop of celebration that she was back, while the others heard her words and spread the story.
“I will bring the water,” a young boy offered and ran into the cave.
Yuma just held her, feeling her heartbeat against his own. “You flew a long way today, my little Dove. I am grateful you have returned without your feathers being singed.”
“I saw something today that I think you call a miracle.”
“What?” he asked.
“The twins were crying. Maybe the shell around their hearts has finally broken.”
“That is a miracle and I hope you are right,” he said.
The young boy came back with the water and handed it to Yuma. “For Tyhen,” he said shyly.
“Thank you,” she said and drank thirstily as Yuma held it to her lips until she’d had enough. “This cold is good,” she said, as she caught a drip on the edge of her lip.
Yuma nodded. “Yes, this cold is good.”
***
There was equal turmoil at the Hiaki compound on the Rio Yaqui, but it had nothing to do with the ongoing volcanic eruption hundreds of miles away. The bodies of Nelli and her husband had been found the day before.
Cualli, the medicine man, immediately blamed the unnamed witch who Nelli claimed had cursed her and was going from house to house on a witch hunt of his own, even though Nelli said the witch was not here.