by Sharon Sala
“I understand your surprise, some would even say shock at what you saw me do. If it was not for what has happened in Naaki Chava, I would never have spoken this truth because I honor Singing Bird and Cayetano as more than my parents. Like all of you, he was my chief, and Singing Bird was a special woman, marked by the Old Ones. I held them in highest respect and still do. But we are on this long and dangerous journey together, and there should be no secrets. Ask what you will. I will tell you what I know.”
Now it seemed intrusive to push their little Dove into revealing things that might be personal to her, and so no one spoke.
Yuma sensed their hesitation and embarrassment and because he knew this needed to come out, he slid off the rock and moved around to face her.
“If it pleases you, my Dove, I will ask the first question.”
Tyhen pointed at him. “See this? It takes someone with the courage and daring of an eagle to speak first.”
Everyone laughed. They already likened Yuma’s daring to the large birds that flew above the clouds, and it seemed fitting that such a bird as an eagle would become the protector for a little dove.
“So, great eagle, ask me a question.”
“How did you leap so far and so high, and then come down with such force to kill the crocodile?”
This was no more than she’d expected. Getting right to the heart of a situation was Yuma’s way.
“I could do that because of powers given to me by my father before he died.”
Everyone gasped. Some began to cry as others called out.
“Cayetano is dead? Is the great Cayetano dead? Did he die when Naaki Chava burned?”
Tyhen settled Patsy Two Bears a little closer to her heart. “Cayetano is alive and well,” she said loudly.
“But you said—”
“I said my father gave me my powers before he died. Cayetano is not my father. I was already in my mother’s belly when you began the Last Walk to escape Firewalker. I saw people begging for water and then running from the white people who wanted to be saved. I saw Layla Birdsong’s grandfather, my great-grandfather, die from the gunshot to his head. I saw the portal open and all of you running with your burned skin and bleeding lips. I saw canyons crumbling and bursting into flames. I saw people dying and saw those who were still alive running toward the Old Ones who held the portal open.”
Yuma took a breath, willing himself not to cry because he knew what was coming.
“I also know of an act of great courage. When the world was about to end, Layla Birdsong ran back into it after one who had been left behind, a little boy who would not quit, who refused to die.”
She put a hand on Yuma’s shoulder. “It was this one, a brave young boy who saved my life even before I was born, a brave man who still protects me today, putting my life above the safety of his own. He is part of the prophecy that guides us all, as am I. I am the Windwalker’s daughter, and he died in my arms, giving me his powers to make sure this quest does not fail.”
There was an audible gasp from everyone around her as the realization of what she said sank in. They took a single step toward her, pulled to her truth like a magnet.
They’d watched her grow up and had never known, never imagined she was not Cayetano’s flesh and blood. She’d kept the secret. Singing Bird had kept the secret. They wondered if Cayetano knew. And the moment they thought it, Tyhen spoke.
“Cayetano knew. He knew and did not care because he was also part of the prophecy. It does not matter how he was involved, but you can be certain he knew everything there was to know and helped all of us make it happen. And now we are here.”
Patsy Two Bears had been listening quietly, but most of what had been said meant nothing to her because she had never lived before Firewalker. She didn’t understand anything but Naaki Chava. She leaned back in Tyhen’s arms and looked up.
“Will people still die where we are going?”
“No one lives forever,” Tyhen said softly.
“I have one more question,” Yuma asked.
Tyhen met his gaze and not only knew the words before they came out of his mouth, but she knew why he was asking.
“Ask me,” Tyhen said.
Yuma’s heart was pounding. He was afraid he would not be man enough to hear the answer. “You once told me that a Windwalker never dies, yet you said your father died in your arms. Was what you told me untrue?”
Tyhen felt the fear in his words as physically as she felt her heartbeat. No wonder he was so anxious about letting her out of his sight. He was afraid that she would die through some fault of his own.
“Help me,” she said as she handed him the child.
When he put her down, the little girl scampered away, a little excited that she’d been so close to their leader, but happier to be back in her mother’s arms.
Tyhen stared straight into his eyes, her gaze as steady as her voice. “It is true that Windwalkers cannot die... unless they give away their power. So your real question is will I ever die?”
He watched her chin tremble and thought she was biting her lip to keep from crying when she surprised him with a smile.
“I will die one day when I give my powers to our child.”
Yuma forgot about the people all around them. He was still reeling from the thought of giving her a baby when the rest of what she’d said finally sunk in.
“You mean, there will always be a Windwalker to lead our people—not just now, but in the centuries to come?”
“So the prophecy was told to me, and so it will be.”
Yuma was speechless. He’d grown up thinking he knew exactly how his part would play out, and now he was struggling to find a foothold in what she’d said.
Tyhen knew he was in shock. She looked up at the people around her who seemed to be in varying stages of the same situation.
“Does anyone else have a question that needs an answer?”
A voice came from the crowd. “Tyhen, if you are a Windwalker’s daughter, does that mean you are a god?”
She laughed, and the joy in her voice rang out across the crowd, making them laugh along with her. When they finally quieted, she shook her head.
“No, I am not a god. I am like any woman among you. I have my strengths, and I have my weaknesses, but like any woman among you, I have put myself at risk for those I love, which is what I am doing for you.”
The cheer that went up was so loud it made the birds in the trees take flight and sent the monkeys in the canopy to climbing higher to get away from the noise.
She stood up on the rock, a tall young woman with the regal being of a queen and let out a war cry.
Yuma caught her as she jumped down into his arms.
The New Ones answered back with a cry that echoed from one side of the valley to the other.
Yuma’s dark eyes mirrored his emotion as he held her firm within his grasp. “It is good. No more secrets to keep.”
“No more secrets,” she said, even as she thought about the enemy she’d seen they had yet to face.
All will be revealed in its time.
She blinked. That sounded like Evan! Were the twins completely tuned in to everything that was going on? What did they know that she didn’t?
We don’t know anything more than you know and we are not tuned in to everything going on. It’s not our fault you send out such strong signals.
She sighed. And that was Adam, always making sure to lay the blame at someone else’s feet.
It’s because we’re never wrong.
She laughed and Yuma thought she was laughing with him. She’d tell him about the twins later. As for the other, they’d heard enough for one day.
Once they went inside, Tyhen prowled the layout of the cave for almost an hour before she found a site she liked and set up their bed on the far side of a large boulder with a wall at their back. It was as private as she could devise for some much needed love-making later.
Once she was through, she began moving throughout the cave, ma
king sure people had what they needed. Yuma was working with several of the younger men, helping the injured ones set up their sleeping tents and bringing fresh water to their fires, while a few of the best hunters left to scavenge for food.
For the first time since they’d left Naaki Chava, there was a sense of celebration. They had endured great hardships very early, but instead of breaking their spirits, it had pulled them closer together.
As sundown put the day to bed, they gathered in little groups around their fires to share food and trade their near-death experiences. Later, after their bellies were full and reality had reared its ugly head, they began speaking the names of those they’d lost and said a prayer for their souls. That sapped the last of the good feelings as they made their way to bed.
After a while, all was quiet. A few guards stood watch at the front, while the rest slept secure inside it. When it began to rain during the night, it only lulled them into a deeper sleep.
****
Tyhen and Yuma had fallen asleep early, but once everyone else had finally given up and gone to bed, they had roused, then turned to each other to make slow, sweet love.
Tyhen had been the first to wake, and her need for him was already stirring the air inside the cave. She couldn’t let it get out of hand, but she also couldn’t control it. She put a hand on the side of his face, watching as his eyes flew open.
“What is wrong?” he whispered and then saw her hair floating out around her like a halo.
Without another word, he rolled her onto her back and slid inside her. The wind stopped turning, and the few who noticed it attributed it to the rain outside.
Tyhen arched her back as she rose to meet his thrusts. Having him inside her was like holding fire. He made her hot. He made her hurt. He made her burn. Watching the changing expressions on his face as their bodies danced was a joy all on its own. She liked knowing she had the power to give him such pleasure.
Cayetano was so caught up in the feel of being inside her that he didn’t notice her intense regard. His focus was to hang onto his own sanity until he brought her pleasure to a peak, and so the rain came down as they came undone.
The shift from feeling good to climax came between one breath and the next. Tyhen was looking at the shape of Yuma’s mouth and remembering what it felt like on the nipple of her breast when she suddenly shattered. She closed her eyes to ride it out, letting wave after wave of the intensity roll through her until she was left weak and shaking beneath him.
Then she rode it all over again when Yuma let go and gave in to the explosion of pleasure that swept through him. When it was over, he collapsed on top of her in a shaking heap, too exhausted to speak.
Time passed. The guards at the entrance changed shifts. The rain ended. The sounds of the jungle came back to life as daylight hovered in the East.
She was still wrapped within Yuma’s embrace when the ground beneath them shook so hard it threw her out of his arms. He reached out and grabbed her to keep her from rolling away.
“It’s happening. Get up!” she cried as she jumped to her feet. She grabbed her shift and pulled it over her head as she ran, with Yuma right behind her.
People were on their feet, some shouting, others already crying.
“We are safe! We are safe!” she yelled as she ran toward the entrance to the cave. “It’s not here. It’s Naaki Chava. The mountain is dying.”
****
They weren’t the only ones awakened by the noise.
Little Mouse had made a shelter inside the palace rubble and when the ground began to shake, it rolled her off of her sleeping mat and across the floor before she managed to get to her feet.
She ran to the window, saw the horror of what had begun, and turned and ran. She ran out the back of the palace into the jungle as the burning rocks began to fall all around her. Twice she fell, and each time she got up, she left a piece of her burning clothing behind.
She wanted to scream, but that would have taken too much breath. Everywhere she looked, fire was falling. She paused once to look back and saw a running river of fire coming down the mountain and into the rubble of what was once Naaki Chava. She could not outrun that. Where to go? What to do?
And then she noticed that the fire was running with the flow of the land, which was toward the river, so instead of running away from the mountain, she would take a long way around and run toward it to get to the other side. Fire was still falling from the sky and everything was burning, but the river of fire was going the other way.
She didn’t call for help. She didn’t tell the fire god that she was Little Mouse, and that she was here running away from his might. She just kept slapping at the fire falling in her hair and ran as she’d never run before.
****
Even though the cave where the New Ones stopped was far below the tops of the tallest trees, they could see a bright red glow in the southern sky.
There were no words for what Yuma was feeling. They’d come into that place in fire. Now that the city had burned, it was being buried in more fire. Would the cleansing of the past never end?
Tyhen slipped her fingers through his as people crowded around them, some talking, others, like him, too shocked by what they knew was happening to speak.
“Oh no! Look! Look!” someone cried.
Suddenly the sky was awash in burning debris as the volcano began spewing burning rock and molten lava straight up into the air. The ground was shaking beneath their feet and there was a growing tower of smoke and fire silhouetted against the burgeoning dawn.
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 k
new 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.