The Dawn Country(104)

My gaze shifts to Father, who paddles in the bow of our canoe while Towa steers the canoe from the rear. Sindak and Hehaka sleep on the packs just in front of me, and Wrass sits in front of them. Every time I turn, I find Wrass watching me with glistening eyes.

I shift my aching shoulder. Wakdanek bandaged it and made me a sling, but it hurts badly. Father says he doesn’t know if I’ll have the full use of it when it heals. Right now, I don’t care. I’m alive. So are my friends.

Gitchi growls in his sleep, and his feet twitch. I whisper, “You’re safe, boy. You don’t have to run anymore.”

And for the first time in over a moon, I think maybe I can stop running, too.

Father turns and frowns at me for several moments; then he ships his paddle and carefully climbs over the packs and around sleeping people to get to me. The lines at the corners of his eyes crinkle as he scans my face. “You are a man now, Son. A warrior,” he says with pride in his voice. “There’s something I want to give you.”

“What is it, Father?” I sit up straighter.

Father pulls a False Face gorget from around his throat and drapes it over my head.

In awe, I say, “This looks just like the one that Towa—”

“It’s not the same. It’s just a copy, but it has Power. I’ve felt it. I want you to have it. Perhaps it will protect you in the days to come.”

Father smiles again, then makes his way back to the bow and picks up his paddle.

I reach down to trace the stars with my fingers. When I look at Wrass, he’s still staring at me. I nod to him.

He nods back and calls, “I didn’t think you’d get that so soon.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing.” He shakes his head. “It’s beautiful.”

A strange sensation filters through me. It is as though I have just awakened from a long sleep and discovered that it is winter and the trees are bare and coated with snow, and I realize I am cold and very tired.

Wrass’ gaze shifts to Baji and Zateri. They are talking and smiling. A sad smile creases his face, and my heart aches. Wrass must feel the same sense of loss that I do, dreading the moment when our friends go away. I don’t even want to think about it.

For now, I’m safe. They’re still here. We’re still together.

I curl my body around Gitchi and watch the endless trees pass by.





Fifty

As they were escorted across the village by Nesi and twenty warriors with war clubs, Odion’s gaze drifted over the broad plaza. Zateri walked close beside him. She kept licking her lips and staring around as though this was just another dream, and it might disappear at any instant. Ahead of him, Koracoo and Gonda walked, and behind him, Hehaka clung onto Towa’s cape as though he feared he was about to be eaten alive. Sindak had insisted upon staying outside to guard Tutelo and Wrass until they returned.

The four longhouses were arranged in a rough oval around the plaza. Odion studied them. This was a huge village, perhaps the largest village anywhere on earth. On the eastern side, near the forty-hand-tall palisade wall, four smaller clan houses and another house, probably the prisoners’ house, stood. The magnificent longhouses—surely the biggest ever built—were constructed of pole frames and covered with slippery elm bark. The house they walked toward stretched over eight hundred hands long and forty wide. The others were shorter, two or three hundred hands long, but still stunning. The arched roofs soared over fifty hands high.

Laughing children raced by, followed by a pack of dogs wagging their tails. Zateri craned her neck, trying to see faces, but the group of warriors was packed too tightly around them. Odion could barely glimpse eyes. People began to run across the plaza, coalescing into a large crowd. They surrounded the warriors, calling questions, trying to see who was being protected inside the circle.

“Is that Zateri?” a woman cried. “Zateri?”

“Aunt Dinaga! I’m here, I’m right here!”

“Thank the Spirits, you’re all right! We had feared the worst.”

Aunt Dinaga tried to force her way into the warriors’ circle to get to Zateri, but War Chief Nesi shouted, “Stay back! The chief wishes to speak with them first. You can all talk after the chief is finished.”

Aunt Dinaga faded back with a heartbroken expression on her face. Then the grumbling began. People shouted curses at Koracoo and Gonda. Someone threw a rock at Gonda. He ducked and glared.

Zateri whispered, “Odion, stay very close to me. I won’t let anyone hurt you.” She grabbed his hand and held onto it, dragging him forward.

The big war chief, Nesi, must have sensed that the mood was changing. He picked up his pace and led them forward at a run.