by Alan Smale
Kimimela bridled. “Sintikala, of course! You think Cahokia would rally behind Tahtay? Tahtay is an idiot.”
Enopay looked surprised. “Not the Tahtay I know. And Sintikala cannot be war chief.”
“You say so? Her father—”
“I say so,” Sintikala said. “Enopay is right.”
Marcellinus shook his head. “Then what—”
“Ashore,” said Enopay. “I will say no more until we are ashore. Nothing. Take me ashore. Come on.”
Kimimela eyed him, irritated. “Can you swim yet?”
He looked at her uncertainly and dropped his hands to hold on to the thwart.
“Down, Kimi,” Marcellinus said.
“Head for shore!” Sintikala called to Isleifur. “Today we will camp early and plan for what comes next.”
The rowers looked cheerful, and Enopay relieved, but Marcellinus knew from the strain at the corners of the boy’s eyes that he would not enjoy what Enopay had to tell them, news that was so important that the rest of the crew could not hear it.
—
“You trust this man?”
They had made camp and quickly assembled a series of fires from the underbrush in the nearby trees; the farther north they went, the sooner the evenings became uncomfortably cool. Now Enopay sat warming his hands with Sintikala, Kimimela, Akecheta, Marcellinus, and Aelfric, and it was Aelfric whom Enopay asked about.
“He is a Roman?”
“Pleased to meet you, too,” said Aelfric.
“He was one of my tribunes. I had no idea he had survived until he found us, and Isleifur Bjarnason, too.”
“From your legion? But you trust him with anything I might say? You are sure?”
“Yes. I’d be dead if not for Aelfric.”
“That is not an answer,” the boy said. “You would be dead if not for a lot of us.”
Marcellinus laughed. “Enopay, you can tell Aelfric anything you would tell me.”
“Very well. Now, again: What happened to Tahtay?”
Kimimela looked at Marcellinus. With some reluctance, Marcellinus said, “Tahtay took Great Sun Man’s death badly. And his shame at being mocked by Avenaka. He became…difficult.”
“Angry,” said Sintikala. “Broken.”
“Then you will have to mend him again,” Enopay said. “Cahokia loved Great Sun Man. And though young, his son threw himself into battle for Cahokia and nearly died for it.”
“Many Cahokians fought,” Kimimela pointed out, still grumpy with him.
“Yes, but Tahtay’s is the name everybody knows. I have spent a year talking about Tahtay and making everyone remember him and love him and long for his return. The young hero who fought for Cahokia in the front line and took a great wound in its defense, who lost his father in a cowardly murder. The great hope of Cahokia, who is banished. The last descendant of a noble line of chiefs that goes back to Ituha and beyond. Great Sun Man’s family and Sintikala’s family have provided the war chiefs in Cahokia for as long as there has been a Cahokia. Eyanosa, I cannot believe you just lost him.”
“I didn’t…” Marcellinus gave it up.
Kimimela made an explosive, wordless sound of frustration and walked away, but Sintikala nodded slowly.
“See?” Enopay called out at Kimimela’s retreating back. “Your mother understands!”
Marcellinus put his hand on the boy’s arm. “Give her time, Enopay. This has not been easy.”
“Easy? This is not about easy. We have no time, Eyanosa. We must find Tahtay, and very soon. Because…”
“Yes?”
Enopay met his eye. “Because the Romans are back.”
“Yes, we met some of them at the Market of the Mud. Enopay, what?”
Enopay’s mouth had dropped open. “At the market, too?”
A chill started at the base of Marcellinus’s spine. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, they are here, Gaius. They landed at your old garrison at Chesapica six moons ago. We received the smoke signals from the Powhatani, and our fleetest paddlers and runners have gone to see, and Demothi has flown to gaze down on their armies and returned to tell us.”
Marcellinus stared. Sintikala shook her head. “Chesapica? Demothi cannot fly so far. Only me.”
“He did not need to. The Romans march along your roads, building giant wooden castra as they go. Keeping up their, how do you say it, Eyanosa? Supply chain. They made it to Appalachia before the snows came down, and there they winter.”
“Another legion.” Marcellinus sat back and looked at Aelfric in shock.
Ifer had not told them. But perhaps he had not known.
Enopay shook his head. “Two legions.”
“Two?”
Aelfric found his tongue. “And how do you know that?”
“I am sure. If full strength can be five thousands, like you told me, there are probably twice that many. Usually the army builds two castras instead of one, on adjacent hills, because they are so many.”
Aelfric frowned. “And someone’s counted them all, lad? One by one?”
To Marcellinus, Enopay said, “Tell your hairy warrior I am not a fool. The Romans have between nine thousands and ten thousands of men in two legions. I have seen them myself, and I have spoken.”
“Seen them yourself?”
“Avenaka sent me with the runners. I was—” Enopay frowned in embarrassment. “—sometimes carried. Avenaka trusts my numbering. He wanted to be sure.”
“You work for Avenaka?” Aelfric’s voice dripped scorn.
“Avenaka thinks I do. But I work for Cahokia. Gaius? Please?”
Marcellinus was rubbing his temples, still mulling it over. Now he saw the pain in the boy’s eyes and said, “Aelfric, Enopay is one of the most brilliant people I have ever met, adult or child. Quick-thinking, too; we only escaped Cahokia because of his words when he pretended to align himself with Avenaka. Please trust what he says and respect him.”
“ ‘Brilliant’ is good?” Enopay asked.
“Not always,” Aelfric said darkly.
“It means ‘big clever.’ ”
Enopay nodded. “Also, the Romans have brought the four-legs you told me of, horses, many horses that they ride or that carry bags for them. I have seen those, too. They are much bigger than I expected.”
“How many?”
“That was harder to make a count. Many more than a thousand.”
Two legions from the east, plus cavalry. And the Sixth Ferrata to their south. “On which side of Appalachia are they camped?”
“They overwinter on the east side, closer to their, uh, supply chain. But they have established a path across the Appalachia and cleared out many Iroqua there. When I saw them, they were at castra on the west side.”
“Oh, dear God,” said Aelfric. “Over the mountains in a single season?”
“Damn it.” Marcellinus looked at Enopay. “Any other good news?”
“Good? Not really. How big is the legion in the south?”
“We don’t know. They were sending out small expeditionary groups to explore. They have many big ships they can row or sail up the Mizipi if they choose. Much bigger than your longship.”
Enopay looked at Marcellinus shrewdly. “And you did not go to them? Give yourself up? Try to talk with them?”
“Hmm,” Aelfric said to nobody in particular. “Perhaps he is clever, after all.”
“I wanted to. Sintikala talked me out of it.”
Enopay smiled at Sintikala, who, much to Marcellinus’s surprise, grinned back.
“So what is happening in Cahokia? How is Avenaka preparing for Roma?”
Immediately, Enopay sobered again. “Avenaka marshals an army. And builds Wakinyan.”
Marcellinus shook his head. “Aerial bombing cannot hold back such a massive Roman force. We must assume the Praetors of the new legions know what happened last time. The Powhatani know what happened to the 33rd, and so by now the Romans must know, too. They won’t be caught the same way tw
ice, and besides, there are at least three times as many of them as there were of the 33rd. If it comes to another battle, the Wakinyan will kill many Romans, but Cahokia will fall.”
“Yes, of course,” said Enopay.
“And you’ve told Avenaka this?”
“Avenaka knows he can win. Youtin and the other shamans have told him so, and so Avenaka has heard it straight from the gods. Cahokia beat the Romans once, so Cahokia can beat the Romans again. It is clear to him. I could speak and speak until my throat was dry and cracked and Avenaka would not believe me. Instead I tell my grandfather Kanuna, and Howahkan the elder, and Ojinjintka and Anapetu, and they all tell him, and he ignores them instead. Cahokia is strong, he says: Cahokia will destroy the Romans and eat their hearts, then take their weapons and their horses and march on the Iroqua, and we will have our revenge on them, too, and then Avenaka will be the greatest war chief Cahokia has ever known, second only to Ituha, who united the three Cahokias.”
Sintikala looked perplexed. “And Cahokia swallows this wild tale?”
“Some days I think Cahokia will believe anyone who stands on the Great Mound and speaks in a loud voice.” Enopay shook his head. “And now Cahokia has a fine palisade and Roman weapons and throwing engines. And in our past fights with the Romans and the Iroqua, the fight with the Romans was easier. Cahokia has been told to believe the second war with Roma will be won easily.”
Aelfric muttered something under his breath in his Celtic native tongue. It sounded profane.
“That war must not come,” said Marcellinus, and at the same time Aelfric said, “If it comes to that, we are all dead and our souls forever damned.”
“Yes, and so Cahokia needs you,” Enopay said. “All of you…and Tahtay. If we are to remake Cahokia as the city it must be, a city without fear, we must have Tahtay. And so, Sintikala, you and Akecheta must defeat Avenaka and his Wolf Warriors. Tahtay, son of Great Sun Man and of Ituha’s blood, must stand on the Great Mound. And then you, Gaius, and, uh, maybe you, Aelfric: you must help stop the Romans.”
Aelfric stared. “You don’t ask much, do you, boy?”
Enopay met his gaze, unblinking. “Tell me another way. There is none.”
“The other way is that I run like hell and don’t look back,” Aelfric said.
“Ah,” said Enopay, and nodded as if he had been expecting Aelfric to say that very thing.
“Take back Cahokia from Avenaka?” Sintikala said slowly. “That is really possible?”
“Perhaps,” Enopay said. “After the war with the Iroqua, the people were unhappy with the peace. They were unhappy with the Wanageeska and you and with Great Sun Man. But now that Great Sun Man is dead and they have seen how Avenaka rules in his place, they are unhappier still.” Enopay looked up at Sintikala. “The truth is that Great Sun Man and you were the father and mother of Cahokia, and now you are both gone. Now the father and mother are Avenaka and Huyana, and many are—” He stopped. “I have spoken badly?”
Sintikala was lost for words. Kimimela leaned forward and mock whispered, “Sintikala does not think of herself as a mother, Enopay.”
Sintikala glared at her. Enopay looked away hurriedly. “Oh. Well. Anyway…the stories have grown of your loyalty to Great Sun Man and to his son Tahtay, and also of the Wanageeska who stood between us and destruction at the hands of the Iroqua, and of his First Cahokian that turned around the great battle with the Iroqua and saved Cahokia, and then saved it again with your peace. Many speak of it around their fires.”
Marcellinus almost choked. “But that’s not true!”
“Is it not?”
Marcellinus remembered Enopay standing among the dead on the battlefield the morning after the sack of Cahokia. “And it is not what you said after the battle. You told me that the things I had done for Cahokia had brought only death.”
“The other thing can be true, too. The shamans tell people pretty stories. Why can’t I?”
Marcellinus thought about it. Stories could grow to become real. Stories had made the Iroqua the enemy for wanting to reclaim the Oyo lands that had been stolen from them in the first place. Rumors of imaginary beasts had run through his 33rd Legion like wildfire. Maybe it could work.
“You say that many speak of this,” said Sintikala. “How many? Enough?”
“That, we will not know until you march into Cahokia.”
The fire crackled. Everyone looked at everyone else. “Not me,” Aelfric said under his breath.
“No, of course not you,” said Enopay. “Cahokia knows the Wanageeska, but if they see an unknown Roman with him, it will just complicate things.”
Eventually Marcellinus said, “Three dozen of us? Against Wahchintonka’s thousand Wolf Warriors? You’re just hoping the rest of Cahokia decides to fall in behind us?”
Enopay grinned. “I have only one more thing left to say, and then I am done with everything I floated downriver to tell you.”
Marcellinus shook his head. He could not imagine what that might be.
“But you all look tired, and perhaps I will wait and tell you tomorrow.”
Marcellinus controlled his impatience. Enopay would have his jokes even when talking of matters of critical importance.
“Tell us now, shrimp, or we will smack you silly,” Kimimela told him.
Enopay idly played with a charred stick that had fallen from the fire, then looked at each of them in turn in the flickering light. “The last thing is also the first thing. What was the first thing I said on the longship? Well? None of you?”
“Enopay…”
“Iniwa,” said Aelfric.
“Yes,” Enopay said in surprise. “Very good, hairy warrior.”
“So?”
“So, Wanageeska, Sintikala, Akecheta: What if I could deliver you the warriors of Ocatan?”
Marcellinus shook his head. “Iniwa did not like me or trust me. I wasted a week or more in Ocatan doing nothing.”
“You? Iniwa loved Great Sun Man much more than he distrusted you. And he trusts Avenaka less. Too many good men have disappeared since Avenaka took power. Iniwa does not want to make war again on the Iroqua. Iniwa spoke out when Great Sun Man was killed. Now there is bad blood between Cahokia and Ocatan. Ocatan bows to Cahokia, but Avenaka and Iniwa are not brothers; they are far from brothers.”
Sintikala was staring up into the night, apparently studying the stars. Then she blinked once. “Who leads the Hawk clan now?”
“Demothi,” Enopay said.
“He cannot. He is a man.”
“Yes, but no woman of the clan will do it. I have spoken to Demothi. He does not want to lead either, but it is best to have a Hawk clan chief that people are unhappy about. Then when you return, the people will welcome you all the more.”
“You’re swallowing all this?” Aelfric said. “Gaius? Really? I mean, come on. How old is this kid?”
Enopay barely spared him a glance. “Old enough.”
Kimimela turned to Aelfric. In Latin she said, “You should shut up now. Everyone here trusts Enopay. If he says something, it’s true.”
“Except when he’s lying? Like he did to Avenaka?”
Marcellinus put his hand on the Briton’s arm. “Later, Aelfric. All right?”
“You’re all barking mad,” said Aelfric, but subsided.
Enopay leaned forward and looked into Kimimela’s eyes. “And so where is Tahtay?”
“She doesn’t know, Enopay!” Marcellinus said with growing frustration. “None of us do.”
Enopay continued to stare until Kimimela blew out a long breath. “All right. Wait here.”
Marcellinus turned in shock. “You do know?”
“Of course she does,” Enopay said.
Kimimela stood up. “No. And yes. Wait here. I will be back in a moment.”
“Here they come.”
Marcellinus turned. Kimimela was practically marching Hurit toward them, and Hurit was not happy about it. Behind them trailed Dustu, looking worried.
“Well?” Marcellinus said.
“Hurit needs to tell you something.”
Hurit shook off Kimimela’s hand. “I told you in secret. You promised!”
“And that is why you will tell the Wanageeska and I will not,” Kimimela said sweetly.
Marcellinus looked from one girl to the other. “Yes?”
Hurit sighed.
“She knows where Tahtay is,” Dustu said.
Hurit turned on him. “I do not know where he is. I know where he went. It is not the same!”
“He’s alive?” Marcellinus said.
“How would I know?”
“Juno’s sake, Hurit! Do you know something or don’t you?”
“He is not dead,” Hurit said in a quiet voice. “If Tahtay was dead, I would know it.”
Dustu grinned wryly. “So would I. He would be haunting me, letting me have no rest. Tahtay lives.”
Marcellinus shook his head. Superstition was worth nothing to him. “So where did he go? If not to Cahokia, where? The hill villages?”
“No, north and west along the Wemissori to look for his mother, Nipekala.” Hurit looked around in the sudden silence. “What? Where else would he go?”
“How could you possibly know that Nipekala is no longer in Cahokia? And where she is now?”
“Because we helped her, Dustu and me, before we came to join you on the longship. When we heard Great Sun Man had been killed, we ran to Nipekala to tell her to flee, and we ran with her to the edge of the city. If she had stayed, Huyana would have killed her.”
“I thought…” Marcellinus had assumed that Great Sun Man’s wives were friends. Obviously not. “But where is she now?”
“Wanageeska, Nipekala was not born in Cahokia. She was born among the People of the Grass, to the tribe of the Blackfoot. You did not notice the black moccasins she always wore?”
Marcellinus was in way over his head. “No, of course not.”
“And so she will have gone back to her people, and that is where Tahtay must have gone, too.”
“Up the Wemissori?”
“Of course.”
Marcellinus turned to Aelfric. “Blackfoot?”
“Yes,” Aelfric said. “Because of the moccasins.”
“I mean, you know where to find these people?”