Her fierce words had given him back his purpose in life. He’d changed his name from Hehaka to Ohsinoh. She’d told him every place she’d cached rare Trade goods, and witch’s charms. Since that night, he’d often caught glimpses of her wandering soul light as it slipped through the shadowy forest.
His gaze returned to his enemy. Sky Messenger and his filthy friends had killed her.
Ohsinoh had been struggling for summers to avenge her. All of his life, he had worked and scraped to find every bit of knowledge he could about Power … and he had. His abilities had become the stuff of legend. People said that if anyone dared kill him, he would rise from the dead and torment his murderer for eternity. He’d become the most-feared man in the world … until today’s freak storm had turned Sky Messenger into an ethereal figure of awe, no longer quite human. Ohsinoh had heard warriors muttering that Sky Messenger was the long-awaited prophet, the reborn Spirit of Tarachiawagon. Sky Messenger’s newfound fame ate at Ohsinoh’s vitals like a fanged beast.
Tonight, old enemy, I will avenge my mother and show these fools that you are mere flesh and blood …
He inhaled a soothing breath, and the scent of the marsh penetrated the battlefield stench.
His eyes slowly panned to the west. Like a crescent moon, Reed Marsh curved around the charred villages, protecting them on the north and west sides. Its wet fragrance mixed oddly with the stenches of blood and smoke, turning it poignant and velvet. Birds perched on the tallest cattails, their eyes glowing.
A gust of wind fluttered his bluebird-feather cape. Ohsinoh pulled his hood forward to shield his face from the bitter cold.
Sky Messenger continued on his way, stopping often, apparently to gaze down into the eyes of the dead, now frozen in their skulls and sheathed in frost. As the dead bodies stiffened, they thumped and gurgled, teeth gnashed, and gasses hissed.
The old gray-faced wolf never left Sky Messenger. Gitchi kept scanning the tree line, his eyes shining in the brilliant light cast by the campfires of the dead. Tonight, the sky was a conflagration. The wolf stared directly at Ohsinoh and went rigid. He lifted his muzzle to sniff the air. Assessing the danger.
Ohsinoh went stone still.
Sky Messenger suddenly noticed his wolf’s gaze and stared out at where Ohsinoh stood.
Ohsinoh called, “It’s Odion, the boy who was always afraid.”
Sky Messenger responded with Ohsinoh’s boyhood name. “I’m still afraid, Hehaka.”
“But why? You are the great man now. Elder Brother Sun obeys Sky Messenger’s commands.” He vented a low mocking laugh. “Isn’t it enough?”
Sky Messenger appeared to be thinking about the question. After what seemed a long time, he answered, “I know where it is.”
Confused, Ohsinoh tilted his head. “Where what is?”
“Her pot.”
Ohsinoh took a quick step toward Sky Messenger, breathless, unable to believe his ears. A gust of wind flapped his feathered hood around his face. He had to be sure. “Which pot?”
“You know the pot I mean. Her soul pot.”
As though Ohsinoh was suddenly back in that terrible meadow, he could hear his own pathetic voice whisper, “She sucked out my soul.… she sucked it out with that eagle-bone sucking tube and blew it into the little pot that she carries in her pack.… She told me that when she kills me, my afterlife soul will never be able to find its way home. I’ll be chased through the forests forever by enemy ghosts.”
Gannajero had been the greatest witch who had ever lived. She’d stolen hundreds of souls—including his.
Losing your afterlife soul caused insanity. Before Ohsinoh realized it, tears leaked from the corners of his eyes, blurring his vision. Finding that pot and releasing his soul so that it could return and take its place in his body again had been one of his lifelong goals.
Suspiciously, he asked, “Why do you tell me this?”
“You’ve been searching for it for a long time, haven’t you? If I’d known, I would have told you sooner. Do you remember our last camp on the river where she ambushed us?”
“I do.”
“Walk due northeast about one thousand paces, and you will see a small oval clearing on a hillside surrounded by maples. There are three rocks in the middle of the clearing. That’s where she died. Just before Mother found us, Zateri took the soul pot from the old woman’s pack and buried it between the rocks.” Sky Messenger stared hard at Ohsinoh. “Do you want me to go with you?”
Ohsinoh didn’t answer for a time. He was thinking about the old woman’s death. He hadn’t been there, but the story had moved up and down the trails for many summers afterward. He’d heard it so often it was engraved on his soul. Baji, Odion, Zateri, and some other children he didn’t know, had killed Gannajero, axed and stabbed her to death like small rabid animals.