“No. We wouldn’t want that,” Gunner said. He looked at Kelile, and then tapped him on his arm. “So,”—pointing at Morrigan—“what did you do to get a pretty little white girl like her to be your girlfriend?” Using his hand as a vise, he clamped onto Kelile’s arm.
“Well, you know, Gunner—” Piper licked his lips “—that once you go black, you never go back.” He smirked.
Gunner snickered. “That’s right, I’d forgotten that.” He yanked on Kelile’s arm. “You know, come to think of it, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen any blackies on this trail. Have you, Piper?”
“Nope, don’t believe so.”
Several things happened rapidly.
Kelile released Morrigan’s hand and jumped up, pulling Gunner with him and off balance. He punched Gunner in the stomach.
Lance flung dirt into Piper’s face.
Still gripping Kelile’s arm, Gunner jerked him forward and kneed him in the jaw as he let go of his arm. This knocked Kelile backwards.
Gunner lunged on him and slammed him to the ground.
Piper dived on top of Lance, shoving him over. He wrestled Lance underneath him.
Morrigan kicked Gunner in the head, giving Kelile a chance to wrench away.
Aishling grabbed a backpack and bashed Piper on his shoulders. He caught it and yanked her down.
Kelile leaped up and pushed Morrigan out of Gunner’s reach.
Gunner whipped out a bowie knife concealed under his jacket.
Lance heaved himself up and lurched for Piper. He missed as Piper rolled out of the way and on top of Aishling.
Piper twisted Aishling’s arms behind her back and pinned her beneath him.
Gunner squatted next to Piper. He jammed his bowie knife beneath her chin. “No one move or I slit her throat.”
Return to Beginning
and truth is what one yearns.
27
Piper got off Aishling and stood, pulling her up with him.
Gunner raised himself in pace with them, keeping his knife close to her throat.
“Okay, you kids move over to that tree and sit,” Piper said, still clutching Aishling next to him.
Reacting without thought, Aishling began chanting a strange, ethereal melody. “Mother Bride, protect me with your fire. Burn away all that would harm, leaving the light of your desire. Mother Bride, protect me with your fire. Burn away all that would harm, leaving the light of your desire.”
Piper wiped sweat from his forehead and harshly shook Aishling. “Shut up, girl!”
“Mother Bride, protect me with your fire. Burn away—”
Piper, now panting, slapped her. “I said shut up!” He shoved her down next to the others. “Are you hot, Gunner?”
When she hit the ground, she stopped chanting.
“Aish?” Morrigan whispered. She lifted Aishling’s chin and looked into her eyes. “You’re okay. Snap out of it.”
Aishling cleared her throat, sniffed, and wiped her eyes with her hands. “I’m okay.” She looked at Gunner and Piper and realized they were taking everything out of their backpacks. “They’re going to steal our stuff.”
“Shhh …” Lance took Aishling’s hand and whispered, “Calm down.”
“Hey,” Kelile whispered. “Do your thang, voodoo queen.” He jerked his head at the two men who were intent on scavenging through their backpacks, and he exaggeratedly blinked his eyes like a signal light at Morrigan. Opened them. Closed them. Opened them. Closed them.
Aishling looked at him blankly. Not understanding, she glanced at Gunner and Piper and realized they had taken Morrigan’s diary out of her backpack. Her eyes flashed wide open in recognition.
Morrigan nodded at Kelile. “Oh, please!” she said, looking at the others with a slight grin across her face. “Please don’t read my diary. It’s so personal. Please!”
Piper sniggered and set Morrigan’s backpack on the ground, positioning her diary steady in his hands.
Gunner shuffled close to him while saying, “How ‘bout that, Piper, the little darling doesn’t want us to read her diary.” When he reached Piper’s side, he watched him flip through it.
After creasing a page open, Piper read, “She doesn’t know where it is.” He flipped through more pages. “What else is in here?” He lifted his right hand and rubbed his eyes.
“There.” Gunner reached over and stopped him from turning any more pages. He read aloud this time, in a mocking tone. “Please don’t be mad at me. There really is a curse.” He stopped reading and rubbed his eyes.
Piper turned another page.
They read this time together, “I really do like him. He’s just perfect.”
Oh!” Piper screeched. “My eyes are burning!”
Almost simultaneously, Gunner moaned and dropped to the ground on his knees. His knife fell from his hands as he raised them and covered his eyes. “Mine too!”
Piper dropped the diary and grabbed his eyes, wailing. Blood seeped down his cheeks.
Morrigan hopped up. She hurried over to the two men and plucked the knife from the ground while dodging Gunner’s blind attempts to find it. “Get our stuff and I’ll make sure they don’t follow us.” She bent down again and picked up her diary.
Kelile and Lance scrambled to the backpacks, snatching up and cramming their scattered belongings into them. “What are you gonna do?” Kelile asked, glancing up at her.
Morrigan didn’t respond. Instead, she leaned over and used Gunner’s knife to draw a circle in the dirt around the two groaning men, all the while dodging their flailing hands.
Seeing her lips move, Aishling knew she was chanting a spell. She bounced up, ran to Kelile and Lance, and helped gather the rest of their things.
“I’m going to see if anyone left any food in the shelter. Sometimes they do,” Lance said. “Kelile, check their backpacks for food too.” He ran toward the shelter.
“Okay, that should hold them for awhile,” Morrigan said.
“What did you do?”
“Don’t worry, Aish,” Morrigan spoke softly. “It’s just the fire ant spell. If they move out of the circle, they’ll feel like ants are biting them all over.” Scanning left and right, she said, “Where’s Lance?”
“He’s seein’ if there’s any food around,” Kelile answered. “Get your backpacks on while I check these ones.”
“My eyes! My eyes! I can’t see!” one of the men yelled.
“Look what I found,” Kelile said as he stuffed several energy bars into his backpack.
Moments later, Lance jogged back. He crammed a can of tuna into his backpack’s side pocket and shifted the pack over his shoulders. “Ready?”
“Yeah,” the others answered.
“Help us! Please, help us,” Gunner yelled, turning around within the circle. “We’re sorry. Help us.”
“Oh, God!” Piper yelled when he stepped out of the circle. He grabbed, pounded, and clawed himself, screaming.
Morrigan smiled. “It’s working.”
“Piper! Where are you?” Gunner splayed his arms around.
Lance touched his mouth with his right forefinger and motioned for them to leave.
Once they cleared the shelter grounds and were back on the A.T., Aishling’s heartbeat slowed, and she stopped panting.
“What are we doing, man?” Kelile asked.
No one said anything.
“Lance! What are we doin’?”
“I don’t know. Let me think!”
Moments lumbered into minutes as they raced along the trail, and still no answer. Was Lance okay? Did he know where they were going?
“Morri,” Aishling said, “do you know how long your spells will last?”
“No.”
She had another thought, “Kelile, what happened when you went to the hospital?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did they do anything to stop the bleeding? How long was it before your eyes were okay?”
“I don’t know.”
�
��That’s it!” Lance stopped and turned. The others caught up with him. “I’ve been trying to remember where this trail was that would take us to Highway 19, a few miles above Topton. From there we could follow the railroad tracks down to Andrews. Kelile could see his mother, and we could get provisions. Then we could take the old Cherokee Trail of Tears road up to Robbinsville like you had suggested before, Kelile.”
He took a deep breath. “We’d have to stay on the A.T. until we got to Wine Spring Bald. I think that’s where we pick up that other trail. About three or four miles from here. It won’t be an easy route, and I hope I don’t get us lost.” He kicked at the ground. “I know we wouldn’t get lost if we used Wayah Road into Andrews, but then we’d be exposed to anyone driving by. Someone might put two-and-two together.”
“How long will it take us to get to Andrews using that trail?” Morrigan asked.
He stopped kicking and looked up. “Probably a couple more days plus today, a couple of nights.”
“That long?” Morrigan whined. “What if we take Wayah Road?”
“Probably one night. But, I don’t know if it’s worth the trade off.”
“Why can’t we stick to the original plan?” Morrigan persisted.
“You said yourself you didn’t know how long your spells would last. What if those two creeps head to the next shelter north and catch up with us?”
“Oh, why can’t we just hitchhike to Andrews? How long would that take?”
“Less than an hour once we get to Wayah Road, but do you want to take that chance? It would look suspicious for four teens to be hitchhiking together. And maybe authorities might be checking that road now, anyway.”
“Man, we let it be known that we were goin’ to Gatlinburg. And maybe they think we wouldn’t be stupid enough to go to Andrews.”
“I don’t want to take any chances. I can’t go back to Herald Home, not yet. What do you all want to do?” Lance hesitated, giving them an impatient look.
Reaching within to her intuition, Aishling concentrated on how her body and her energy reacted to each route. She was sure they shouldn’t continue on the A.T. She also felt they shouldn’t walk to Andrews along Wayah Road. But she wasn’t happy about taking the other trail. Hitchhiking to Andrews and getting there in an hour sounded great, but it didn’t feel good.
Aishling sighed. “I wish we could hitchhike, but I have a feeling we better take the new trail from Wine Spring.”
“What about you, Kelile?” Lance said.
“I think our little excursion—” he slapped his thighs “—has been nothin’ but a pain in my backside.” He puffed. “You’re the man with the plan.”
“Morrigan?” Lance turned again to her.
She scowled. “Oh … okay.”
28
Wednesday, May 1 (Beltaine)
“There it is!” Lance pointed to a narrow footbridge spanning a wide river. They’d been searching for it most of the afternoon. The train tracks they would follow tomorrow into Andrews were on the other side.
Posted above the bridge was a sign saying there shouldn’t be more than four people on it at once. Lance stepped on the wooden-planked bridge first, followed by Morrigan. Kelile walked on behind them, but jumped off when the bridge began jiggling and swaying. “I ain’t walkin’ on that!”
“You’re not scared are you?” Morrigan said and snickered.
“No! Just move along, voodoo queen.”
“Come on, Kelile,” Aishling whispered before moving around him and onto the bridge. But her heart skipped a couple of beats, and she understood his hesitation when he followed her and the bouncing intensified. To balance herself, she grabbed the waist-high chain link fencing attached on each side of the footbridge. The sound of water raging over the boulders below added to her tension. She paused.
“See what I mean, girl?” Kelile said from behind.
Trying not to look down, she focused on the other side and continued walking.
Morrigan began hopping on the bridge and laughing. “How about now, slave boy?” she said as the bridge bounced and swayed berserkly.
“Stop, Morrigan!” Lance said. “You could cause it to collapse!”
“Sorry.”
Once they reached the other side, they followed Lance south along the tracks while he seemed to be searching for something. Just when she started to ask him what he was looking for, he stopped. “Here’s a clearing off the tracks that’s big enough. We can set up camp here.”
He and Kelile strung the tent overhead between two holly trees, fixing it like a canopy. The girls unzipped the sleeping bags and spread them over the ground underneath. This is what they had done the night before. The next phase would be refilling their garbage bags with leaves and moss.
“Let me have your water containers,” Lance said, taking out his larger, collapsible container.
“Are we going to have a fire tonight so we can boil more water?” Aishling asked.
“No. I’m going to fill this up at the river and use pills to make another batch.”
Morrigan huffed and plopped on a sleeping bag. “I’m hungry. I ate my last snack an hour ago. Don’t we have anything else to eat?”
“Just that can of tuna someone left behind, but we’ll pass a gas station in the morning,” Lance said. “I have a little money, and I can get a few things.”
“Too bad it can’t be like last night.” Aishling handed him her water container. As she sat next to Morrigan, her thoughts drifted to the previous night. They had found a secluded area by a stream to set up camp. Using a couple of flat rocks, Lance had dug a pit in the ground and showed them how to build a fire in it, and they boiled more water. She smiled, remembering everyone’s excitement when he caught a trout using only a hook, a few feet of fishing line, and a worm he had found while digging the fire pit.
Last night’s dream intruded her thoughts, and she frowned. Certain it had been a premonition, she needed to write it down in her diary. But something else bothered her. She thought she had dreamed about the giant snake before. Writing about it might help her remember when.
“What are you thinking about, Aish?” Morrigan said. “You have such a dreadful look on your face.”
“Oh? … About a dream I had last night.”
Kelile flopped down next to her. “I had a weird dream last night.”
“Well, mine was a nightmare.” Lance placed his collapsible water container on the ground and sat cross-legged between Kelile and Morrigan. “I guess that’s why I was tired today. Sorry about getting us lost.”
“That’s okay.” Morrigan patted him on his knee. “Lance, you got us here.”
“She’s right. Sorry I yelled at you earlier. I had no right, man. There’s no way we would’ve gotten this far without you.” Kelile hesitated then chuckled. “Man, when you caught that fish last night, I wanted to plant a big, sloppy kiss on you!”
Turning red-faced, Lance grinned and leaned his head toward Kelile with his lips puckered. “Oh kiss me, Kelile. Kiss me.”
Morrigan interrupted the laughter. “What did you three dream about?” She looked at Aishling. “You go first.”
Embarrassed, Aishling hesitated. She hadn’t told the guys about her gift of prophetic dreaming. Would they understand the significance of her dream? They might make fun of her.
Kelile tapped her on her arm. “Come on, girl. Tell yours, and I’ll tell mine.”
Nodding, she studied her left hand as she crinkled the sleeping bag. “Well, for some reason, we were all in this cave.” Still playing with the sleeping bag, she hesitated again. “This gigantic snake with horns was chasing us, trying to bite us. It had a bright light coming out of the center of its forehead that lit the whole cave ahead of us. And parts of its body shined like armor. I wasn’t scared in the dream, though, until I heard it calling for Morri. We were running to where we had entered the cave; but when I looked back, all of you were gone. I was trying to create this circle of fire. I knew it would protect us from the serpent
. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t. That’s all I remember.” When she looked up, three faces stared at her, each with eyebrows arched and mouths opened.
“You’re kiddin’, girl,” Kelile said. “That’s sorta like my dream.”
“That’s like my nightmare,” Lance said.
“What happened to me?” Morrigan asked.
“I don’t remember.”
“What was your dream?” Lance said, pointing to Kelile.
“I was runnin’ from that sleazy dragon-snake—tryin’ not to look at it—and this annoying female voice kept yellin’ at me to get some kind of stone. I kept tryin’ to figure out what she wanted and how to get it. The dream reminded me of something I’ve heard of before.”
Lance spoke up, “In mine, everyone except Aishling was running deeper and deeper into the cave, into its den. I kept waking up before it got us. Every time I went back to sleep, it was chasing us again. It was the Uktena.”
Kelile slapped his thigh with his left hand. “That’s what it was. I couldn’t remember what that dragon-snake was called.”
“You two dreamed about the same thing I did? That’s not …” Aishling hugged herself, chills spiking through her body.
“Wait!” Morrigan pressed her hands on either side of her chin. “All of you dreamed about the Uktena and the Suti Stone?” She dropped her hands. “All of you know what the Uktena is?”
“Girl, everyone who’s part Cherokee knows about it,” Kelile said.
“Right, and you just happen to be an extra dark Cherokee,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“I’m a Black Cherokee. Mom traced our lineage back to the first slave in our family who was adopted into the tribe.”
“You never told me that,” Lance said. “All this time I’ve talked about being Cherokee and you never said a word.”
“Mom told me to keep my mouth shut about it.” He nodded once.
“All of you know what the Suti Stone is?” Morrigan asked.
Lance shook his head.
At the same time, Kelile said, “That’s what that female voice kept tellin’ me to get. But like I said, I didn’t understand.”
Dead Moon Awakens: A tale of Cherokee myth and Celtic magic (Mystic Gates) Page 12