by Rada, J. R.
If they could kill the old man and subdue the woman for To´chi, then they could wait for Pahana to return to the camp and kill him.
Perhaps the woman would be the prize they needed to get the dark kachinas to spare their lives. The dark kachinas desperately needed women to breed with the Bow Clan now, and this woman would birth strong children...strong Bow Clansmen. The dark kachinas might even forgive Kel´hoya and To´chi for their partial failure if they could return with a woman for the breeding chamber.
Kel´hoya smiled. Yes. Yes, they would forgive him. He would not have to die. He and To´chi would lead the Bow Clan to the Outlanders and destroy them all.
David sat on his couch and unsuccessfully tried to watch the ten o’clock news. Failing that, he stood up and paced around the well-lit room. He went to his back window and looked out into the back yard. He couldn’t see anyone out there, but for some reason he felt that Sheriff Harding or one of his deputies was parked in a car down the road watching and waiting for David to try and leave.
David was uncomfortable with the speed at which events were moving. The questions were coming at him very quickly, but the answers came much more slowly. There was no happy medium.
He turned back toward the television to hear the weather report and froze. He saw the desert in front of him. Then he saw the fire with the old man sitting in front of it. He knew it was Adam immediately. However, it took a few seconds for the fact that if he was seeing Adam sitting in front of the fire, David must be having another of what Adam called visions.
That meant the Bow Clan was watching the camp. The only way they could know where Sarah and Adam were staying would be if they had seen the camp through David’s eyes this morning. He had led the Bow Clan to Adam and Sarah just like he had led them to Terrie and Randy.
David couldn’t let them be killed. He didn’t want two more deaths on his conscience.
He had to get out to the desert before they attacked Adam and Sarah. If the sheriff or one of his deputies wanted to follow, all the better. He didn’t know what he would do when he got there, but at least if he had the sheriff with him, he could point out the Bow Clan and let the sheriff do what the people elected him to do.
He ran out of his apartment without even turning off the television.
Kel´hoya and To´chi screamed together as they flew from behind the scrub brush on their pa´tuwvotas. The female rushed into the tent, but the old man remained unmoved as if he had not heard the Bow Clan war cry.
To´chi’s pa´tuwvota tilted away from Kel´hoya as the younger Bow Clansman ventured after the woman. As To´chi passed the old man, though, the Outlander suddenly came to life. His hand moved quickly grabbing onto the edge of the pa´tuwvota and flipped it over. To´chi went sprawling face first into the dust. Adam let go of the saucer and picked up a small log from the fire. He held onto it with both hands, and as To´chi started to rise off the ground, Adam hit him in the face with the burning end of the log. To´chi screamed falling back onto the ground.
Adam turned toward Kel´hoya, but then from behind the old Indian, To´chi started to move. He stood up swaying back and forth. Kel´hoya could see his companion was surprised at his instability. To´chi staggered toward the old man. Adam stood holding the burning log and faced To´chi. There was no fear on Adam’s face, at least not yet. He waited patiently as To´chi approached, but To´chi never reached him. He fell on his face again and lay still.
David saw the pale-skinned warrior fall and smiled. At least Adam had a chance to defend himself. And if David was any judge of character, Sarah wouldn’t be hiding waiting for someone to help her.
He looked in his rear-view mirror and was disappointed that he didn’t see a deputy following him. He hoped that the fact he was speeding would also attract some attention, but there didn’t seem to be anyone on the highway at all.
He was forced to slow up because he couldn’t see the road clearly when a vision appeared. David pumped the brakes lightly as he waited for the image to fade. Just before it did, he saw the Bow Clansman whose eyes he saw his visions through move toward Adam.
And David was still two miles away from the camp.
Adam turned back to Kel´hoya. Kel´hoya could not believe the old man looked so relaxed. Did he have no fear of the Bow Clan at all? Pahana had chosen his protector wisely when he had chosen this one.
As he neared the old man, the woman rushed out from the tent and flipped over his pa´tuwvota spilling him hard onto the ground. Before he could stand, the woman kicked him in the side. She jumped on his back holding onto his braid with one hand and trying to scratch his eyes out with her other hand.
Kel´hoya swung his elbow backwards and managed to knock her from his back. The woman grunted and fell away. He spun around with the intention of killing her, but it was not her he wanted to kill.
Adam advanced on the Bow Clansman with the burning log that had probably killed To´chi. Kel´hoya grabbed the woman and held her in front of him. The old man froze with his arm poised to swing the log.
Kel´hoya pushed the woman in front of him toward the old man. Adam’s hand dropped slightly away from Kel´hoya as he tried to catch Sarah from falling.
Rushing forward, Kel´hoya tackled the old man in the chest. He grabbed for the log, but Adam would not relinquish his grip. Instead of trying to pull the log away from the old man’s hand, Kel´hoya turned it inward and used his strength to control the force of the log. The old man was strong, but Kel´hoya was a member of the Bow Clan. He slammed the log into Adam’s face, and the old man released his grip. Kel´hoya took hold of the log and pounded Adam’s head until he heard bone break.
The old man gasped and then lay still. Kel´hoya rolled off the old man’s body. The woman screamed. As he started toward her to silence her, he felt the ground tremble beneath him. Behind him, he saw one of the Outlander’s vehicles approaching.
Should he stay and fight more Outlanders? He had managed to kill the old man, but the woman would fight him and so would the Outlanders in the vehicle.
He saw To´chi’s body lying nearby. Should he hide the body so that the Outlanders wouldn’t see it?
What would the dark kachinas have him do?
David slammed on the brakes of the Corolla. He threw open the door and jumped out of the car.
“Adam! Sarah!” he screamed.
He saw the Bow Clansman rise up and stare at him.
David wished he had some sort of a weapon to fight with. He didn’t know how strong the Bow Clansmen were. As skinny as they were, they certainly didn’t look too powerful, but that didn’t mean anything.
David saw Sarah kneeling over Adam, and he wondered if he was too late again. He ran toward the Bow Clansman and dove at him as the pale-skinned man began to rise up. As he felt the man’s fingers close around his throat, David punched him in the face.
Turning, he saw Sarah charging at the pale-skinned man with a knife in her hand. The Bow Clansman managed to roll out of the way just as she reached him. The remaining Bow Clansman hooked an arm under his dead companion’s arm and pulled the body onto a saucer made of a reptilian skin covered with feathers. He sat next to the dead man as the saucer rose off the ground. It was the same type of flying saucer David had seen the Bow Clan fly on the night they attacked him in the hospital.
Before David could move toward it, it flew off with both of the Bow Clansmen on it.
David heard sobbing and spun around thinking Sarah might be in trouble. Sarah was kneeling over Adam. When David walked up beside her, he could see Adam’s eyes were wide open staring at the night sky. Part of his skull was dented inward and he was bleeding from his nose.
David had been too late again. Adam was dead.
Part II
Oraibi
“Many miles away in every direction, Oraibi now established shrines or altars marking the furthest limits of the land claimed by the Hopi.”
Book of the Hopi
“Her house is the way to hell, going down to the c
hambers of death.”
Proverbs 7:29
CHAPTER 32
The land on the reservation was flat and barren. If David hadn’t known better, he would have sworn that nothing could have lived in the area. Yet, his headlights caught in their glare the rabbit brush and juniper scattered among the rocks that were near the highway. He knew there were animals he couldn’t see, too. Most of them prowled and foraged far from the highway for their evening meal. And then, there were the Hopis.
David saw their small tourist stands, not much more than wooden stalls with tables, spaced along the road. The Hopis sold turquoise jewelry, pottery, and hand-woven rugs to the tourists who stopped at the stands. They were bare now. Even the Hopi didn’t do business in the night.
David saw the brake lights on the truck in front of him go on and he slowed his car. He was following Sarah back to Oraibi. They had driven down Highway 191 until they hit Highway 160. Following that road to Tuba City, they had turned onto State Road 264. Now Sarah was starting up the side of Third Mesa on the Hopi Reservation. Oraibi was somewhere on top of the mesa.
How had he let Sarah talk him into coming with her? He was a fugitive from the law now. At least that was what Sheriff Harding had implied he would be if he left the county. Not only had he left the county, but he had left the state as well.
David started to blame Sarah for his troubles, but she had not charmed him into accompanying her at all. Liking white men was not one of her personality traits. David’s own guilt and fear had forced him to risk making himself look like a suspect to come with Sarah back to Oraibi to bury Adam. He felt guilty because he had been unable to reach Adam in time to save him from the Bow Clan. He felt fear because he was afraid of being left alone while one more member of the Bow Clan still hunted him. So he had decided making Sheriff Harding angry would be safer than waiting for the Bow Clan to attack and kill him.
They passed through a town of pueblos without stopping. He hadn’t even realized they were pueblos until he was inside the town. From a distance, and in the dark, the town looked like a part of the mesa.
David parked next to the truck and waited for Sarah to get out. She sat for at least five minutes in the truck just staring out the window over the edge of the mesa. She silently climbed out, glanced in the truck bed at the body of her grandfather wrapped in the tent they had been camping in, and walked into a nearby room.
David followed Sarah through the open door into the room. There were no curtains on the small windows of the house, and the front door was ill-fitted for the frame. Whenever it rained, the door probably swelled so much that it would be impossible for anyone to open it. Not that it rained much on the reservation.
The main room had a hand-made wooden bench against the far wall. To the right of the bench was a wooden rocking chair, also hand-made. Two small kegs with a plank laid across them served as a table. And, on the table was an eight-by-ten picture of Adam and a group who David assumed were Adam’s wife and children. The little bit of light in the room came from the small window above the table. Only now that it was dark, the light came from an oil lamp, which Sarah had lit.
Sarah sat down in the rocking chair. The lamp light accentuated each small crevice and curve on her face making her look much older and tired. David sat down on the furthest end of the bench.
“You look like you need some sleep,” David said. “I know I do.”
Sarah shook her head. “I can’t rest now. I must bury my grandfather before morning. Then I will need to sit with the body until the sun rises,” Sarah said.
“You can bury him tomorrow. Right now you need rest. You’ve had a very rough night.”
Sarah stood up and started for the door. “I can’t. I have a responsibility to my grandfather. This is the Hopi way.”
“It won’t do him any good if you kill yourself in the process,” David warned her.
Sarah smiled weakly at him. “Thank you for your concern, but I must do what my grandfather would do in my place. I just came here to show you where you can sleep tonight.” She stood up and walked to the door. “I’ll probably be back before you rise in the morning. We need to talk about the Bow Clan tomorrow.”
She went out the door and left David sitting alone in the poorly lit room.
CHAPTER 33
Jared aimed the spotlight at Gary, Christine, and Lou as they checked the hoses and fittings on each other’s dive gear. He called out each piece of equipment he wanted them to recheck. When he told Lou to check the seal on the waterproof flashlight for the third time, Lou scowled and flashed the light in Jared’s eyes. Even Gary, who knew why Jared was so careful, was getting a little annoyed.
Among the six-person team, Jared was the only one who refused to dive within a cave. Five years ago, his primary and two secondary lights had gone out while he was diving, and he barely found his way back to the surface before his air had run out. He might not have made it back if Gary hadn’t hung a light stick in the water to act as a beacon. The odds against all three light sources failing on a dive was high, but Jared had never been able to work up his nerve to make a cave dive after that, and Gary really couldn’t blame him.
Gary looked at Jared’s concerned face, and immediately felt bad for feeling annoyed with his friend. He slapped Jared on the shoulder and said, “Don’t worry. We each have two flashlights and a handful of light sticks.”
Jared blushed. “Sorry, Gary.” He pointed to the sump, a small pond about fifty feet in diameter, completely filling the downward-sloping tunnel. “I don’t consider that part of the cave system. I think it’s a death trap. You couldn’t pay me enough to get me back in one of those.”
Gary chuckled. “I’ve seen you hang over a two-hundred foot chasm on a thin piece of nylon, any you’re saying this is a death trap?”
Jared flashed a broad smile. “Well I guess I ought to know, shouldn’t I?”
He bent over and tied the lead line to the stake he had set into the ground. When the knot was tied, Jared gave it a hard tug and then leaned on it to see if the knot would slip. It didn’t. As Gary watched Jared work, he thought at least he wouldn’t have to worry about safety. Jared was fanatical about making sure every precaution had been taken to ensure the safety of the divers he supervised.
They had found the water-filled tunnel yesterday evening just before they went back to the RV for the night. It was the first source of water anyone had seen since they had started exploring the caverns. The first thing they did was drop a small amount of yellow dye into the water to see if there was any current in the water. If the dye had begun to move in one direction, it would have indicated an active stream, but there was no current. The dye simply spread out radially on the ripples the small splash had caused. The small pond appeared to be only a sump, a low section of tunnel that had flooded. It also happened to be the first source of water they had seen since entering the cave.
Gary cleaned out his mask and slipped it over his head. Lou and Christine did the same. As they moved toward the water’s edge, Gary unclipped a flashlight from his belt and turned it on. When the light came on, he moved into the water. He could stand in the water up to his waist by standing on a submerged ledge. Lou and Christine unhooked their own flashlights and joined Gary in the water. He bit down on his mouthpiece and turned on his air tanks.
“Check your pressure gauge!” Jared called from the shore.
Gary glanced at the gauge, noted that it was registering correctly, and waved to Jared. Gary turned to Lou and Christine and nodded to them. Then he rolled onto his back and sunk below the surface of the water.
When all three of them were in the water and had their flashlights turned on and aimed in the same direction, Gary could see about fifteen feet. He signaled to Lou and Christine and began to swim deeper. He needed to find the other side of the sump. The passage took a sharp drop for about seventy feet. It narrowed until Gary thought they would have to turn back because he wouldn’t be able to fit through the passage. Just as he was about to
give the signal to return, the passage widened enough for him to swim through.
Gary glanced at his pressure gauge. He still had plenty of air left.
He looked around himself and suppressed a chill. It was easy to get claustrophobia while cave diving, especially when he remembered there was no way to escape if he ran out of air. He didn’t blame Jared for not wanting to dive. It was too easy to get trapped or get lost in the dark water. Too easy to die. But, if he wanted to see what lay beyond the sump and finished exploring the cave system, he needed to go through the water to the other side.
Gary rose gradually, and he turned to make sure that Lou and Christine were behind him. He saw Christine close to him, but he couldn’t see Lou. Gary pointed behind Christine. She turned to look, and then she turned back and shrugged.
He started to swim back the way he had come following the guide wire Christine was holding. After a few moments, he saw Lou’s light. When Gary swam closer he saw that Lou had jammed himself in between two rocks while he was trying to go through the narrow passage at the bottom of the sump. Gary pushed on Lou’s shoulders to dislodge him.
Once free, Lou moved backwards and quickly checked his equipment to make sure he hadn’t damaged his tanks or valves. When he was satisfied, he signaled OK to Gary. Gary nodded and watched as Lou carefully turned on his side and slid through the passage at the widest area he could find. He snagged himself again, but it lasted only momentarily and then he was through.