The Dove (Prophecy Series) (32 page)

“We know of this, and I tell you they will come back, each time taking more and caring less about what you think, and they will still find you and take your belongings and your women, and no matter how many times you run away, their numbers will increase and the day will come when there will be no place left to hide. That is why we
will
live near the water—to stop their thievery before it can begin.”

Teya stared, his lips parted in shock. “This is what our shaman predicted.”

“And he was right.”

“How do we fight such people?” he asked.

Singing Bird thumped her chest with a fist. “We will conquer them with wisdom and power. Walk with us and I will tell you how.”

And so they walked with Teya’s warriors leading the way while others were sent ahead to hunt and set up camp.

It was only a short time before sunset when they arrived, led by the scent of wood-smoke and cooking meat. Cayetano’s people began to set up their camps and wash their bodies in the surf, while others began refilling water bags and bottles from a nearby spring.

Teya’s men had deer, wild pig, and many birds cooking on the fires, and banana leaves spread out on the ground covered with coconuts and fruit.

He had walked every step beside Singing Bird, riveted by the story of Firewalker and what their people had endured to make the change. As they finally sat down at their fire to eat, Teya’s focus shifted from Singing Bird to her man.

“Cayetano, I would ask, as one chief to another, how will you battle these people who will come? How can we stop them?”

“Singing Bird says they cannot be stopped.”

Teya frowned. “Then there is nothing to be done?”

“We do not kill them to stop them,” Cayetano offered. “But as a people, if we stand as one, keeping our tribes as we wish, but united as a people, then when the strangers come again, they will be greeted, but with caution. There will be many among them who will wish to live here for their own personal gain, and that is when our power as a united nation matters most. We can grant them the right to make their home here if we wish, but they have to understand from the start, that the land is already claimed. That it is not free for the taking, and that we will not be moved from the places that are our homes.”

Teya’s eyes widened as understanding grew. “The strangers can live within it, but they cannot claim our world because it is already taken.”

Singing Bird sighed. She’d been saying the same thing a dozen ways as they had walked, but Teya had not grasped the full scope of how it would work until now. Sometimes a man-to-man talk made everything better.

“Yes,” Cayetano said. “Now we eat. I am hungry and my ears are tired of hearing words.”

Teya grunted in assent.

Singing Bird blinked. Now they were saying she talked too much? She glanced over and Adam and Evan, who were grinning. She frowned at them, struggling not to laugh as she reached for some food. She hadn’t been hungry in days, but now everything felt different. She’d had her first taste of success and it was good.

****

Three days later:

Teya and his warriors parted company the day before, but their trip together had cemented what would become a life-long bond between the two chiefs. By the time he and his warriors returned to their city, the story would be told and retold a thousand times, and it would set Singing Bird’s place into their history.

Cayetano guessed they would reach their destination today, and when he had seen the last landmark a short while ago, he began moving the people faster. He knew they were trail-weary and heartsick, but so was he, and in the end it would all be worth it.

And it was.

When he found himself walking out of the jungle onto the broad white sands bordering the water of the vast ocean before them, he knew they were home.

He threw his hands up into the air and let out a cry of jubilation that was heard all the way back to the last people in line.

They started laughing and crying as they ran forward, because they knew what it meant. This was where new roots would go down, and the next time a ship full of strangers came to their land, they would be waiting with a whole new set of rules.

Singing Bird saw Cayetano’s joy and smiled. She felt nothing but relief. They had come home. Now all they had to do was build it.

Mother, it’s me. I felt your joy.

Singing Bird’s heartbeat kicked so hard against her chest that it caused her pain. She grabbed her chest as her vision blurred.

“Tyhen! My daughter! I hear your voice. We have arrived at the place where we will build our new city.”

I can see it through your eyes. Yuma sends you a message.

Singing Bird began to laugh through tears. Hearing from both her children at once was a joy she thought was lost to her forever.

“I listen. What does he wish to say?”

He says Adam and Evan have a new map Cayetano needs to see. He says they have given a new name to what was once called North America and South America. Do you understand?

Singing Bird was entranced that she could communicate so perfectly. It was like talking by telephone in the world before Firewalker.

“Yes, I understand.”

And he says to tell you one thing more. If you have not already named the new city, that you should call it Boomerang. He said you would know what that means.

Singing Bird gasped as her throat tightened with even more unshed tears.

“Yes, yes, I know what that means. It was an object that when thrown, no matter how far or how high it went, always found its way home. I love it. I will tell Cayetano that his first son has already named our new city, but I have a question, my daughter? Why have you not talked to me before?”

We have had troubles, but they are mostly over now. I have felt your sadness, but your heart was so heavy you could not hear my voice. What happened that made you turn your heart away?

Singing Bird hated to say the words aloud again because they hurt her tongue as deeply as they hurt her heart.

“We lost Little Mouse. I think we left her behind.”

What? No! Oh Mother, no! How did this happen?

“We are not certain. Acat said she was in the jungle gathering roots for the trip the day the earth shook. We don’t know if she never came out of the jungle or if she had already come back into Naaki Chava and died in the fire, or if we just left her behind. It was an accident if we did. We waited and waited for people to gather before we finally left.”

And that is why you cry.

“Yes, that is why I cry.”

I am sorry. My heart had been sad, too. Wesley Two Bears died the day the earth shook and Naaki Chava burned. I saw the vision.

Singing Bird glanced back toward the ocean and the people dancing about on the broad stretch of white sand.

“That is done. We cannot hold onto that which we could not control.”

I know. I’m learning.

“I love you, my sweet child. Come and see me in your dreams.”

You have to be listening for the sound of my voice.

“I will listen.”

Go now and tell Cayetano he has a city named Boomerang to build. I love-

And just like that, the voice was gone.

Singing Bird sighed, then wiped the tears from her eyes and went to look for Cayetano to give him the news.

****

Little Mouse was clean. She had food in her belly, medicine on her wounds, and for the first time in many days, clothing on her body. There was nothing she could do about her hair. Either it would grow back or it would not.

Meecha was ready to take her to her new home and had bluntly explained why it was vacant.

Little Mouse thought about living in a house where people had died and then decided they would not mind since they had Yaluk in common. Just because she had survived Yaluk and they had not had nothing to do with her.

Meecha led the way up out of her home and into the sunlight.

Since Little Mouse was no longer facing death by dehydration and starvation, when the sun hit her face, she took the greeting as positive.

“Are you strong enough to walk now?” Meecha asked. “It isn’t far.”

“I can walk,” Little Mouse said.

They started across the compound in silence, but soon Meecha began to talk.

“Chiiwi has no woman,” she offered.

Little Mouse frowned. The man carried her to the river when she was weak, not offered to lay with her. She did not like Meecha’s curiosity. Still, she was new and she thought it best to know all she could so she would do nothing wrong.

“What is wrong with him?” she asked.

Meecha frowned. “He just never chose a woman.”

Little Mouse shrugged. “Maybe he does not want a woman. Maybe he would lay with men. It is the same only different.”

Meecha sighed. “No, not that. We call them two people and he is not one of them.”

“Then it is his business,” Little Mouse said. “Am I allowed to tend to the dead woman’s garden and call it mine?”

“Yes, yes, Cualli said all that was hers is now yours.” Then she eyed Little Mouse closer. “But her clothes will not fit you. She was very fat.”

“I can fix,” Little Mouse said.

Meecha tried to think of something else to say, but they had arrived.

“Here is your new home. If you have need of anything, you must just ask. We always share. When you are well, people will call on you for healing.”

Suddenly, Little Mouse looked anxious. “I have no ointments or herbs to heal with, and what if the things I know do not grow in this place?”

Meecha thought about it and then smiled. “Chiiwi knows. He can help you.”

Little Mouse shrugged. She didn’t care who showed her as long as she could resume what was her passion and her trade.

Then a thought occurred. “Who did you use as a healer before me?”

Meecha shrugged. “We didn’t have a healer, but sometimes Chiiwi knew what worked.”

Little Mouse felt bad, like she was stepping into shoes that were already filled. “Then he was your healer.”

“No. He is our best fisherman. He makes nets and hooks and knows where the best places are to hunt and fish.”

The news lightened Little Mouse’s heart. “Then I will ask him to show me... when I am well.”

Meecha nodded. “It is good.” She glanced toward the doorway to the dugout. “Do you want me to go in with you?”

“No. It is best I go in alone,” Little Mouse said.

Happy that her duties were over, Meecha made a hasty retreat as Little Mouse opened the door, shoving it wide to let in the light, and then walked down the steps into the room.

There were dark places in the dirt floor at the foot of the steps. She thought it was blood. But the rest of the place appeared as if someone had just stepped away. The pots and dishes were sitting on a shelf. Dried herbs hung from the ceiling above a table with two stools. A bucket had been made from a short piece of a hollowed-out log and had rope for a handle meant for carrying water from the river, she guessed. The bed of skins and furs on the floor at the back of the room was large, made to accommodate two people. It would be the best bed Little Mouse had ever had.

She reached down and touched the dark earth, and then straightened.

“I am Little Mouse. Thank you for this home.”

Like everyone else in the region, Yaluk now knew the story of the medicine woman with great powers who was supposed to change history. He also had heard she walked with many people and that they were coming through his land. But he wasn’t concerned with the future. He just wanted more power with as little effort as possible.

He sent eight of his best men out to scout the area. He wanted to know how many people there were with her and which direction they were moving. If the medicine woman was as powerful as he’d heard, then she would likely have great wealth to go with it, and that was his goal.

He’d been waiting for hours now for his men to report back, but so far without success. Frustrated and more than a little bored, he gathered up twenty more of his warriors and left camp. If he found them lazing about without the answers he’d sent them to get, he would gut them where they stood.

****

Tyhen’s relief in knowing her parents had reached their new location was dampened by the news of Little Mouse. The little healer had been so much a part of her life in Naaki Chava that it hurt to think of what must have happened to her. And like her mother, the thought that she might have been left behind was horrifying. Little Mouse would have been so afraid on her own when the mountain died, and there was no way she would have escaped it.

And so she walked with that heartache added to all the others, barely aware of the hot sun on her face or the sweat running down her back. Heat was a constant where she’d grown up.

But when a child stumbled and fell a few yards ahead of her and she saw how red his face was and how dry and dusty his feet and legs were, it made her realize that while it was still hot, it had not rained on them in days.

She was thinking about finding a place to stop for a rest when the mother scooped up the little boy and settled him on her hip without missing a step. As she did, the child tucked his head beneath his mother’s chin without a whimper. The sight of such acceptance touched her heart. Even the children seemed to know this march was unavoidable. She had witnessed tears, but they were few and far between.

However, seeing this little boy fall made her think of Yuma. He hadn’t been much older than this one when they’d run from Firewalker, and he’d been on his own. A rush of emotion swept through her at the thought. He’d been so young, but so very, very brave.

She looked up to see where Yuma was at and remembered he’d told her earlier that he was going to walk ahead with the Nantay brothers, but she didn’t see them anymore, and at first she thought nothing of it.

The people had just begun a climb up a long slope of land, and since she didn’t see him ahead of her, she turned to look behind, didn’t see him there either, and then her gaze locked on the view of where they’d been.