California Woman (Daughters of the Whirlwind Book 1) (16 page)

The next time Miwokan appeared at the
cabin, he brought back the two spears, cleaned and repaired. He set and wrapped
them with unknotted rawhide in the form of an X, then hammered a triangle of
three wooden pegs upon which to hang the spears over the head of Esther's bed.
As he drove the last peg into a chink between two logs, he spoke over his
shoulder to Esther.

"Sunsister, you had a man with you,
and you sent him away. I know he was broken when he came to you, but he was
straight again after you healed him. Was he no good?"

Esther found herself flustered and then a
bit too eager to put the matter straight. "I didn't send him away,"
she said. "And he didn't come to me. And I don't know if he was good or
not. It was not that way."

Miwokan hung the spears up and turned to
her. "You need a man, Sunsister. You would be more happy with a man
here."

"I'm quite happy, thank you,"
she said, an edge to her voice. She immediately regretted the tone and tried to
make up for it. "You don't understand," she said more softly, wanting
him to comprehend. "I found him and I brought him here only because he was
injured, sick. It wasn't meant for us to have… closeness."

"But he passed many nights in your
cabin."

"He slept in the corner, after he
was well enough. Before that, I slept in the corner. When he was in the corner,
I was in the bed. In any case, I like
being
alone."

Miwokan shook his head. "I
understand what you are saying. But I do not understand him. Perhaps the
sickness took away his eyes."

"What do you mean?" Esther
said, as Miwokan noticed the stone on the table and walked toward it.

"Anyone can see that you would make
a fine wife. I have seen that and thought of it many times, Sun- sister."
He picked up the stone and studied it.

"Why would you think such a
thing?"

"If I did not know how much sorrow
it would bring to
Solana,
I
would lay many shells at your feet."

She did not know what to say.

"But I do not share the ways of many
of my people," he said, knowing she was uncomfortable. "One wife is
enough for me. If you were my wife, I would have to send
Solana
away, and I could not do that."

Esther finally found the words.
"Thank you," she said, not looking at him. "It makes me… happy…
and proud… to know that you think so much of me. Happier still to know that you
love
Solana
that
much."

He dismissed the subject with a wave of
his hand. "There are no more words to speak on it. You are my sister, that
is all." He put the stone down on the table again and thought for a
moment. "Where did you find this?"

"In the river. Do you know what it
is?"

He sighed. "Sit with me for a moment
while I think."

She took a chair opposite him and watched
as he gazed at the stone, then shut his eyes for a long time. "It is in my
mind," he finally said, "to tell you I do not know what it is, but
you are my sister and I do not want to be false with you."

"You do know what it is, then?"

He sighed again. "Yes, I think I
do."

"Then tell me."

"This is for your ears. No one else
is to hear it."

She nodded.

"I cannot be sure, but I think it is
gold."

Esther gulped. "Gold?" She
glanced at the armoire… "My God! I've got a drawerful of it!"

There was an expression of infinite
sadness on Miwokan's face.

"Oh, it can't be. It's probably
mica."

"It is not fool's gold."
Miwokan's voice was firm.

"Then it must be something
else."

"There is nothing else the eyes see
the same way," he said with double meaning.

"Well, I'm sure it isn't gold. Why,
the river near here is practically full of it."

"I know."

She caught herself suddenly becoming
excited, hopeful about something that couldn't be true, and she missed his
meaning. "It's probably some other cheap metal, made shiny by the
water." She had wasted enough time on the subject. She wanted to get back
to her preserves. "Well, I'll show it to Captain Sutter. He'll know, and
I'm certain he'll laugh at me when I tell him I thought it was gold."

"Sunsister, I ask you not to show it
to Sutter."

"For God's sake, why?"

"To stop what will happen, if I am
right."

"But you said you weren't certain.
And what do you mean—'happen'?"

"The heart you are wearing. Do you
think it is gold?"

"Of course. No other metal could be
pounded so thin, shaped so, marked so, without breaking."

"Then I am certain."

She fingered the heart hanging just above
her breasts. "This came from the river?"

"Yes. My people, my father's people,
and back and back have known of it, and picked more than a hundred hundred
stones like this from the sides of the river and in the water where it is not
so deep."

Esther felt her heart begin to race.
"A
thousand
or more stones? Miwokan, do you know what that means?
What did they do with it all?"

He could not bring himself to tell her
all of it yet. First she must have the knowledge, the legend. "They buried
it. It is the law of my tribe."

"They never used it? Never had it
tested?"

"No."

"Do you know where it is
buried?"

"Yes."

"Good Lord, Miwokanl Do you realize
what you have if it is truly gold? You and your tribe are rich beyond your
dreams. You can be the most powerful tribe in
Alta
California without raising a single
spear. You can have almost anything you want."

He sighed again. The weight of it made
him feel as if he had a mountain on his shoulders. "We do not want to be
the most powerful tribe. We do not want to be rich in that way. We are rich
now. We have everything we need."

"You don't understand…"

"It is you who do not
understand!" he snapped. "I am sorry for lifting my voice," he
added quickly. "But because my people, many of them, are simple, ignorant,
you cannot believe or understand what we be
lieve
and understand, what we know, and what
those before us knew, forever."

"You are
not
ignorant. You
are
not
simple."

"Then listen to me, Sunsister.
Listen until it is all told. First, remember that we have all we need because
we take from the earth only what we need. There is wisdom in that. Wisdom that
has been given to us since before any stories were told, by our fathers."

He saw she concurred with the idea,
shifted his weight, and leaned forward in the chair. "This wisdom first
came to us in stone pictures. Then in stories—myths, legends. I know of this
from the mission fathers' books. You have stories, legends as we do."

"Yes, many of them."

"You also know there is truth in
them."

"Yes."

"I must tell you of a story, a
legend. Perhaps then you will understand about the gold and why you must not
speak of it to Sutter or any other." He paused. "Once, before the
time when the people made their journey from the far side of the great waters,
across the islands of ice and white bears, and down two sides of the great
mountains to where the earth and the sun were more kind, to this place and
others like it, the sun became angry. His people were praying to other gods,
worshipping things the sun had made himself. The sun is a fair god, and he
wished to be sure of their misdeeds before he punished them.

"To do this, the sun made the most
beautiful thing. Gathering his fire into strong spears, he threw them to the
earth, to seven places in the great mountains that are a shield between the
great water and the long flat places. Where the spears bit into the mountains,
there was great fire. When the fires died, the mountains and rivers where the
seven fire spears fell were filled with gold. The sun knew that if his people
did not pray to something so beautiful, he would be Wrong and would not punish
them.

"His sister, the moon, laughed at him.
It was she who first spoke of the betrayal, of the other, tiny gods. To prove
she was right, she stopped between the sun and the earth and made the sky cold
and black in the day. From the cold sky she made seven spears of ice and hurled
them down into the same mountains. Where they cut into the earth and turned the
mountains white, there was silver. Some of them fell side by side with the
gold. She laughed again and told the sun to wait. His people, she said, would
not only make the beautiful gold their god, but the ugly silver also. Then she
made the people dream of a great journey to a land not so cold as their own.

"And it was true. They came to the
warm land beside the mountains, and they prayed to the gold and silver. The
moon laughed, and the sun cried. Then he punished his people. Only the sun and
the moon had spears before this. But now the sun gave spears to the people, and
great sickness, and war, and greed so the wars would not stop and they would be
punished forever.

"When the moon saw this, she cried
also. For she saw the people were changed. She wished to have things as they
were before she shamed the sun. He would not let her. In the night, when the
sun slept, the moon made the people dream of new ways to use the gold and
silver, hoping they would trade them for the things of life, and by doing this,
make their life kind. She also hoped this would make them worship the sun
again. And some of them who learned from the dream did. But not all of them.

"When the sun learned of what the
moon had done, he was even more angry. But then he remembered his power and
laughed. The sound made the people afraid. He laughed again and made the
mountains crack, rise and fall so the silver and gold would be hidden from the
people and make them want it more. He left only small bits of it shining in the
rivers so that his people would kill each other to have it for their own. Where
they prayed to it there would only be sorrow and death. He waited for the moon
to appear in the day, and then he punished her also. He took away the fire he
had given her for warmth and left her as cold as ice forever. He still laughs
when he remembers this. Louder when his weak sister stands between him and the
earth and hides the people from his eyes. Loudest of all when he places the
earth between himself and his sister, and takes away all the pale light and
warmth he lets her keep. His laughter still makes great fear in the people when
it moves the earth beneath their feet."

Esther smiled. "Earthquakes have
nothing to do with the sun and the moon, Miwokan. But what a marvelous
story."

"You must try to understand that in
such small stories of small people there are large truths."

"But surely, Miwokan, a man as
intelligent as you—"

"Think of the story for a moment.
You have read the books of the white man. Has the story not been true again and
again? My people have seen and heard proof of it in the time we can remember.
We do not pray to gold or silver. We have no war, and we are happy. We have
small battles, fights, one man against one man. But not so many. It is true of
most of the tribes in what you call
Alta
California.
In the south and across the mountains, where the Mojave, the Yuma, the Ute, the
Apache, and the Comanche worship gold, there is war. The whites worship gold,
and they have war. The whites from Spain came many winters ago, looking for
seven cities made of gold. They were fools. There are no seven cities. Only
seven places under the mountains. They all died on spears and swords or by the
fire of the desert sun."

He watched her face for a moment.
"Now do you understand?"

"Much of what you say is true,"
Esther admitted. "But are there no people who use gold and do not pray to
it?"

"Some would have you believe they
do. But in their hearts they pray to it also. That is why we bury it. That is
why I ask them to leave it in the river so the light will still dance on the
water."

She started to ask where the cache was,
but decided against it. "Someone will find it sooner or later."

"When they do, it will change my
people and be the end of us. I ask you not to be the one to tell them. I know
it will happen one day. All things must end. It is the sun's way. But perhaps
it does not have to be now."

Esther was torn by conflicting loyalties
and the conviction that what Miwokan feared for his people might not, need not,
happen if the metal was gold after all. She wanted to comply, but she also felt
she owed it to Sutter to reveal all this to him if it was true. If it was gold,
she could pay Alexander Todd back easily. And then it struck her. If it
was
gold, she would also have the wherewithal to have Mosby traced… track him down…
kill him. Or have him killed. Her pulse quickened.