Qaletaqa

by Gladden, DelSheree

  I paused, holding Claire’s gaze sternly. “I do not want any of you on the field. You’ll know as soon as the fight is over. Then, Claire, come to me as quickly as possible. Alright?”

  “I will bring Claire to you,” Talon promised. I felt that same queasy feeling that I was not getting the promise I wanted, but Claire’s voice stopped me from getting a better answer.

  “How can you think I’m wrong about this?” she demanded.

  I stared at Claire, daring her to bait me into this fight. “I’m not saying you’re wrong. I…”

  “You’re not? Then what are you doing?” she argued. “Did you even think about what we talked about?” Her features had not softened at all.

  “Of course I thought about it! I’ve thought about very little else since we split up. Especially after I talked to Quaile and she told me everything you just so happened to leave out!” My hands came up to my head. I scrubbed them through my hair, trying to rid myself of the frustration threatening to make me implode.

  Claire’s jaw dropped, and then firmed into a razor-straight line. “What?”

  “I have to break the bond completely in order to gain more power. You have to give me your power-which might kill you. Oh, and how about there being a whole other freaking vision you never bothered to tell me about?” I snapped. “Does that about cover it, Claire?”

  Her own anger suddenly spiked. She actually stamped her foot. “Of all the times for Quaile to suddenly open up! I thought if there was anyone I could count on to keep her mouth shut it would be her.”

  “You’re admitting it?” I asked, a little surprised. She just faced me down, silent. I glanced over at Talon, but he looked just as startled. He knew none of this, either. It made me wonder what he was hiding, but I put that thought on hold for the moment.

  “Claire, why didn’t you tell me all of this?”

  “Because you had enough to deal with, and I was afraid of how you’d react. I was scared that you’d try to stop me for real.” Shame crept into the corners of her expression, but determination kept it from gaining much purchase.

  “You promised you’d stay behind.”

  Now her head dropped. “I never said for how long.”

  Her sullen composure pulled at me, but not enough to make me change my mind. “You’re still staying back.”

  “What?” all three of them shouted at me.

  “I have to give you my power right before you face the Matwau, and if you have to somehow get out from under the bond at the same time, you’re going to need both me and Harvey there to help you and Melody turn away from each other. Nampeyo’s vision said you’d need me there!”

  I think Talon and Harvey were making their own arguments on top of Claire’s, but I tuned everyone out but her. “I can’t take the risk. Bhawana was the shaman, the one trained to receive these messages. I have to trust her over the vision of a child.”

  I actually did believe that. Whoever this other woman was, she was an apprentice. She came after Bhawana. Her version could have been tainted by any number of influences. “Me fighting the Matwau alone would have been a huge detail for Bhawana to get wrong. She saw me fighting alone and she saw me kill him. I can do this without anyone else’s power. I have to.”

  Tears glistened in Claire’s eyes. “Why are you arguing with me on this? The second vision, it added to the first one. It didn’t contradict anything. It gave you more of a chance to win!”

  “At what cost, Claire? Giving up your power will kill you. I won’t let that happen.”

  “Facing the Matwau alone will kill you!” she shouted.

  “I made this choice! I accepted the risks before I came down her. If I can’t beat the Matwau, my life is the only one lost. I won’t walk out there knowing I’m putting anyone but myself at risk. You’re all staying behind!”

  “I made the choice, too,” Claire said quietly.

  I pulled her close to me, burying any more arguments against my chest. For the second time today I felt tears slip down my face. “I’d rather see the Matwau go free than let you die, Claire.”

  Claire pulled away. “No you wouldn’t, Uriah. Think of all the lives he’ll destroy. You can put an end to all of that if you’ll just listen to me.”

  “If I fail, someone else will come along. Someone else will finish him. It doesn’t have to be me. Seeing you die isn’t worth it.”

  Her bottom lip started trembling. Burying her face in my shirt, I held her knowing I had finally gotten through to her. I may have made one choice before I came down to this mortal life, but I had made dozens of promises to Claire since then that I would never let anything happen to her. I failed her once, and it nearly killed me and her. I wouldn’t fail her again.

  I could feel in the way her body shuddered that Claire’s pain was real. She knew nothing was going to change my mind, and it clearly terrified her. But I had to make sure.

  My left arm slipped free of Claire, straying to my back pocket. The thin rope was easy for my fingers to catch. Slow enough so as not to alert Claire, but fast enough to keep Talon or Harvey from reacting, I hooked my hands around Claire's wrists and yanked them behind her back. The rope looped around them like I had done to dozens of sheep over the years and cinched tight before she knew what I was doing.

  The pinch of the rope on her flesh snapped Claire away from me. The fury in her face shocked me enough to make me step back. I expected a torrent of anger to spill out, but all she did was stare at me, her eyes boring holes into my flesh. It was ten times worse than any pain her touch had ever caused me.

  I saw Harvey move from the corner of my eye and grabbed him before he could do something stupid. Knowing what was coming, he struggled a bit more. For all his hiking and biking around Colorado he got his face smashed into the dirt and his hands tied behind his back just like Claire. I plunked him down behind her and tied them both together. When I stood up, my eyes fell on Talon.

  “If you try, you’ll be facing the Matwau with only one hand,” Talon warned. His razor sharp teeth reinforced the threat.

  “Did you listen?”

  He nodded.

  “Claire thinks she has to give up her power in order for me to kill the Matwau. Giving up her power will kill her. Every story I’ve ever heard of someone attempting it ended the same way. I won’t let her kill herself for me.”

  “Claire is not like others.”

  “Maybe not, but she’s had all of two days to develop her talents,” I reminded him. “Do you really think she can do it with so little training?”

  Talon didn’t answer, but his uncertainty filled the space between us.

  “Look, I’m not asking you to keep them here forever. Melody and I will both need them with us when we have to choose between them and the bond. Just give me some time to do this without anyone else getting killed. Losing Claire to the bond was one thing, leading her to her death is another. I’ll never survive it.” I walked over to him and gripped his face in desperation. “Please, Talon.”

  His eyes drifted back to Claire once, then met mine. The slow bob of his head was all I needed. Whether I was making the right choice or not, it was made.

  ***

  Riding my motorcycle into the trees without Claire was harder than I expected. I could feel her watching me leave her behind once again. I kept looking back to make sure she hadn’t found a way out of her bonds. I wasn’t sure if Talon would hold out as long as I wanted him to, but I was at least comforted in knowing Claire would never catch up to me on foot. It was more than ten miles over rugged terrain to the desert valley where the Matwau was waiting for me. I only had a few more hours to sunset, so making the trip on foot was out of the question.

  My motorcycle darted through the trees at a reasonable speed. I knew from the vision that I would face the Matwau before the sun set, and I refused to spend another night waiting to fulfill my destiny and find the true path of my future. Hoping that Claire would stay safely out of the way until I needed her, I tried to push her to the
back of my mind and pull Melody to the front. The bond was a steady beacon now, leading me straight into the Matwau’s hands.

  Dried pine needles spit out behind me as I rode, but my mind was carefully going over Ahiga’s lessons. The precise movements and techniques had been ground into my mind in that one short session. Knowing them all by heart did not keep me from wondering whether Ahiga had known about the Matwau’s advantages when he came to me. If he had then I was as prepared as I could possibly be. If he hadn’t… Shaking my head, I rehearsed my attacks again and again. Until the soft whispers of the Matwau’s creatures crept into my mind.

  “I hear him coming.”

  “He is on a vehicle.”

  “He must see us. We must lead him on.”

  Not slowing down went against everything that seemed reasonable. But if I slowed down they might suspect I knew they were there. Peering into the woods ahead of me, I kept up my speed as I searched the trees for the sentries.

  Their shifting grey coats among the last summer greens of the forest gave them away quickly. They were obviously not trying to hide. I was meant to see them. Waiting until I reached some unseen point on the trail, they suddenly abandoned their posts and lunged toward me. They quickly reached me and took up their duty to drive me forward.

  Grime coated teeth snapped at my legs while vicious snarls drowned out the roar of the engine. I would let them drive me, but I would not make it easy for them. Jerking the bike to the right, I crashed into the animal’s tough hide, the back tire rolling over the creature’s paw. Fury raged through its mind. An angry yelp escaped its jaws, but even limping he was quick to catch back up.

  Pulling a thick stick out of my pack, I flung it out toward the injured creature. The smack of wood on incredibly thick bone vibrated through the trees. Still the animal raced on. Trying to break from the path, I darted through the widely spaced trees. Wiry bushes slapped my legs and pushed the creatures a little further away. I burst through a thick mess of scrub brush and realized I had already come to the first trap.

  It was as if all of my senses had been heightened. I swear I could smell the blood on the shirt I had seen Melody wearing last night, pulling me toward it. What if it really was Melody’s? The dark stains were brilliant in the sunlight. I could feel the bike slowing, but I could not focus enough to do anything about it.

  “Wait! Not yet!”

  “He’s close enough!”

  “Wait.”

  I cold shiver ran through me, the waiting creatures’ words finally breaking the spell. I swerved away just as they leapt from the fissure in the rocks. One of the pair’s claws caught my ankle before I raced out of reach. It caught on my pants leg and jerked me to the side. My right foot hit the ground and was the only thing that kept me from toppling over.

  Shaking away the disturbing need to go back and check the shirt, I hunched over the bike and picked up speed. I swerved between tree trunks, missing some by mere inches, but the four creatures still trailed me close behind. I tried not to look back at them. They weren’t trying to kill me, only herd me where I already wanted to go. That thought hardly put me at ease. The forest blurred around me, but I kept a sharp eye out for the other traps I knew would be waiting for me.

  Minutes, maybe hours, I didn’t know which, flew by before a glimmer of copper caught my eye. I knew immediately that it held another trap. Expecting the compulsion to go and touch it, hold it in my hands, I didn’t try to fight. Instead I put it to use. The bond guided me as I listened for the murmuring thoughts of the next set of creatures.

  “He’s coming straight for us. The Matwau was right.”

  “He is too weak to resist.”

  “Be ready to drop.”

  I looked up into the trees. Wolves couldn’t normally climb trees, but these were no regular wolves. I was closing fast. The bait was hanging from a tree just ahead on my left. And right above it was a dark form barely visible through the thick leaves.

  Just a few more seconds.

  Slamming on the brakes, I swung the end of the bike around in a full circle. Dark masses leapt from the trees, landing exactly where I should have been if I had not stopped. They hit the ground hard and disoriented. Accelerating around their tangled limbs, I reached for the token and sped past them. Howls and snarls erupted behind me, but I barely heard them.

  I didn’t think the blood had been Melody’s, but in that moment there was no doubt this belonged to her. A twisted chunk of Melody’s auburn hair trailed out of my trembling grip. The roots tipped the end of the strands, proof that it had not been carefully cut away. That should have been incredibly painful. I should have felt it. But I didn’t. How was that possible? Had she found a way to hide her pain from me?

  Another strand of hair, one resting in my jeans pocket, gave me the answer. Quaile gave me the strand of Claire’s hair before I left San Juan the first time, saying all Daniel had to do was touch it and the bond would form. This wasn’t Melody’s, or the bond between us would have just been forged, and the Matwau didn’t want that.

  The hair had come from someone, though. What did that mean for the bloody shirt?

  So distracted by my own fears and questions, I failed to see the dark shape leaping from behind a tree in time. Heat and weight hit me, throwing me from the bike. My breath blasted out of my body and my vision swirled. I couldn’t move. My bike however had kept going without me and smashed into a tree. I heard the crash and groaned, knowing that I would never outdistance them now. It was time to stand and fight.

  Teeth clamping down on my leg made me thrash, waking me up enough to throw the beast off of me. It flew back and I scrambled to my feet in preparation for the next attack. They surprised me by holding back. Then they began forming that all too familiar circle around me. The four that had been trailing me were there, along with the two that had just attacked me. One by one the rest of the creatures joined the circle. Their faces glared back at me and their teeth dripped with fear and fury, but a small smile crept onto my mouth.

  “We must not let him escape,” one of the creatures hissed.

  My grin widened as I heard those familiar words.

  “The master wants him alive,” another one said.

  “Alive does not mean uninjured,” the one that I had thrown away from me said. Vengeance shone in its eyes. My clenched hands ached to give him the chance he wanted, but he was not the one I needed.

  Letting the creatures’ muddled thoughts wash over me, I listen for the quivering mind of the weakest.

  “Number One can finish this child. They don’t need me. I can’t leave, though. Master will know. He’ll punish me. Like last time.” He whimpered and shook visibly. “I can’t go through that again. I can’t take the pain. I’ll just watch. I can watch and let the others take care of this boy. All they have to do is subdue him. They can do that without me. I’ll just stand back. No one will notice. I’ll survive this. I will.”

  No, I thought, you won’t. I felt like a wolf myself as I leapt at him. Surprise flashed in its eyes, but his well-trained claws still came up. Sweeping them away, I grabbed him and flung his body into the tree I knew without looking would be there. I almost laughed when I heard the sickening crunch of its bones breaking. Almost.

  Claire had warned me about that one. Somehow its bones would knit back together, but I knew I had broken something else inside of that creature. It would come after me with death in its eyes. The image followed me as I streaked through the gap and ran deeper into the forest with howls and snarls trailing after me.

  I remembered running for what seemed like forever in the vision, but it was hard to tell how that would translate to real life. Especially after what had just happened. Sure, everything played out like Bhawana’s vision had said it would with me throwing the weakest out of the way to make my escape, but in the dream I had simply walked into the glade and found myself surrounded. There were no traps in the dream, no fighting before my escape. The differences haunted me just as much as the howls of my purs
uers.

  I looked up to catch sight of the sun between the trees. There could only be about an hour left before sundown. The desert had to be close. I had no idea what it would mean for me if I didn’t get there before the sun set. Pushing myself even harder, I searched the landscape in front of me for signs of the empty sands.

  The creatures were slowly inching up on me, less than ten feet away when I finally saw the bright patches of sand peeking between the trees. I knew the wave of heat would come. I prepared myself, not wanting to stumble at the shock like I did in the vision. Or was there some reason that I should? I wondered.

  There was no time for an answer. As I burst into the lingering summer heat, I stayed on my feet, barely, and darted into the middle of the small valley. Strange sensations washed over me immediately, some familiar and one that was completely foreign. Stronger than anything was Melody’s presence. That, more than the heat, threatened to send me to my knees. Desperation, fear, joy, longing, anger, and concern made the bond turn from smooth threads wrapped around me to jagged barbed wire. My breath heaved in and out at the strangling pull.

  Keeping my eyes down, I savored the feel of the other presence. Evilness and pure hatred pulsed out from his body. It seemed to float right through me, poisoning every part of me. My body begged me to cleanse it of the foul feeling. I pushed it away and focused on the one sensation I had no name for.

  Power. That was the only way to describe it. It settled over the valley, thick and heavy. My fingers curled inward as if they could grasp it and bend it to serve me instead of the Matwau. This had to be the residue of what it took to bring him into this world. I marveled at the strength it still bore. Thousands of years later the power still felt so cloying that it could have been only yesterday this monster had been born.

  I could feel it, but I wanted nothing to do with it. I was no creation of the dark gods. The Matwau had so many strengths already. How was I ever supposed to win against this? It didn’t matter, I told myself. Somehow I would do it. I had to.