The Dawn Country(31)

“What are you looking at?” I squint hard, searching, and whisper, “The Dawnland People are letting us go. Father wants us to come right now.”

Tutelo hisses, “Odion. You’re not looking. Don’t you see him?”

“Who?”

With fear in her voice, Baji whispers, “It’s a Forest Spirit.”

Up the hill, beyond the juneberries, I can make out the dark triangular shapes of pines so tall they seem to pierce the belly of Brother Sky. My gaze lingers on the frost-covered ground. Against the white earth there is something utterly black—as though the object absorbs all light. A boulder? No. In the moon’s gleam, even the rocks glitter. What …

Odion.

I feel the whisper like fire in my lungs. I can’t move.

Tutelo smiles. “See, Odion? It’s Shago-niyoh. He’s back.”

For a long while, the only sounds in the night are the soft hissing of Tutelo’s breathing and the slamming of my heart against my ribs. The Darkness turns, and there is a sustained glow, as though it is staring at me with one silver eye.

I don’t know what it is. There are many supernatural creatures that inhabit the forest. This may be one of the Faces. The Faces are Spirits who control sickness. They can cure or kill. They often appear to Healers in their dreams and instruct them in the usages of sacred plants, or confer upon them the power to cure diseases afflicting people, animals, or crops. Our people carve their images upon trees, or posts erected at gates, but most importantly upon masks—False Face masks.

“I don’t see anything,” Hehaka says, annoyed. “What are you looking at?”

My gaze slides to Hehaka. He is my age, eleven summers. He has a face like a starved bat’s, all ears and flat nose, with black beads for eyes. Shoulder-length black hair hangs over his cheeks. He was Gannajero’s favorite slave. I know he has seen many horrors, and I should feel sorry for him, but I don’t. I can’t. I fear that if he could, he’d run back to her and tell her exactly where we are, maybe even lead her to us.

Tutelo says, “Shago-niyoh came to warn us that Gannajero is looking for us.”

Hehaka lifts his head and stares at us. His beady eyes glint. “She is coming. She’s coming for me. Soon.”

“What are you talking about?” Baji asks. Her hands clench to fists.

Hehaka whispers, “Gannajero will never let me go.”

“Why not? You’re just a boy,” Baji says harshly. “Just another boy. She has new boys now.”

“It doesn’t matter! Every time I ran away, Kotin hunted me down and dragged me back. She’s coming for me. You’ll see. There’s a warrior on the trail right now. Gannajero will recapture all of us again. Then she’ll punish the three of you. She’ll sell you to bad men.”

An enraged sob constricts Baji’s throat. She starts shivering and can’t stop. Tutelo keeps watching the Face, but I glare at Hehaka. He lifts his chin arrogantly, proud that the old witch wants him.

“Go away, Hehaka,” I order.

He lifts his nose and sniffs our scents like a curious predator, then tramps away down the hill toward Father and War Chief Cord.

“Are you all right, Baji?”

She sucks in a halting breath. “Yes. Thanks for making him go away. I was on the verge of strangling him with my bare hands.”

“He doesn’t know any better,” I say. “His souls are wounded.”

I return my gaze to the Darkness. The frost beneath it has ceased to twinkle, and as Grandmother Moon rises, the shadows around it do not move. How can that be? It is as though the Spirit exists in a bubble where time has stopped.

Very faintly, the pines rustle, and I’m sure there are dark wings amid the shadows.

None of us breathes. The frosty pines and leafless hickories glitter. This Darkness that calls me by name seems to have the ability to step inside the forest shadows and hide, waiting. But when we need him, he’s always there. I don’t und—

Father shouts, “Odion? Tutelo? We’re almost ready!”

We each take one last look at the dark moonlit forest, and Tutelo hisses, “Shago-niyoh says Wrass and Zateri are alive.”

Baji glances at her. “Is he talking to you? Can you hear him? Right now?”

Tutelo nods.

“Ask him—” Baji begins.

Father’s shout interrupts her, “Odion, bring the children now!”

“We’re coming, Father!”

The other children run away.

I take one last look at the moonlit forest. He’s still out there. I know he is. I feel his presence moving through the trees. In some strange way that I don’t understand, he has become my Spirit Helper.