Daughter of Destiny (25 page)

“That's not much,” Kai said tensely, looking at the indicator. She'd never been so glad to be on the ground, if only to stop that buffeting wind. Looking through the cockpit Plexiglas, she saw several men on horseback riding toward them at high speed. “Well, I'm sure they weren't expecting us to drop in.”

Jake grinned sourly and flipped off the engines. “No, but I think they'll be glad to help us.” The blades slowed; the shaking and vibration began to ease off. Wiping his sweaty brow with the back of his hand, he watched the men galloping toward them. Within the next ten minutes, he knew, the sandstorm was going to hit.

Pulling the vest that held the crystal mask a little tighter around her, Kai climbed out of the helo. Jake opened the door on his side and got out in turn. The first of the four riders was a large man with a gray beard and a floppy, sweat-stained brown bush hat. He was riding a big, rangy bay gelding at least sixteen hands high.

Moving around the front of the helo, Kai joined Jake. “What kind of story are you going to tell them about the missing door?”

He turned and grinned at her. “They're going to see bullet holes in the fuselage, too. But we'll tell them as little as possible.”

“Mike said he'd be getting a Perseus flight crew out of Adelaide to come for us as soon as the sandstorm passes by. They'll be flying a Blackhawk helicopter.”

“Sounds good to me. Well, let's go meet our station folks. I know they'll give us food, water and shelter.” Looking up at the wall of the red storm approaching, Jake added, “This is a helluva way to spend a morning….”

“T
his…this is just so wonderful,” Ivy said softly to Kai and Jake as she sat at her rough-hewn kitchen table with them. The morning was young, the sun barely having risen. Heat from the roaring fire took the chill off the room where they sat, cups of steaming coffee in front of them. Patting the black leather pouch that she'd made specially for the return of the Paint Clan crystal mask, Ivy lifted her hand and wiped her damp eyes. “We have the first of the three stolen totems back for our people. I think my heart is gonna explode with joy.” She glanced fondly at Kai, her voice wobbly.

Touched, Kai reached out and patted her grandmother's work-worn hand. “I'm just glad we could get it back.” She tugged at the dark blue, mock turtleneck she wore, then rubbed her sweaty palm against her black corduroy pants. It was turning out to be a very cold autumn. Upon their return to the Great Smoky Mountains, Kai had borrowed a pair of Jake's thick black socks to wear with her boots to keep her feet warm. She found it a shock to go from a burn
ing Australian desert to a cool autumn in North America. It had snowed lightly the night before, but Kai was sure that, here in North Carolina, the snow would melt soon. It wasn't lost on her that the extremes of weather mirrored her life.

“We made a good team, Grams,” Jake murmured. He took a sip of his coffee. This was the first time he'd been back to the Quallah Reservation since he'd left so long ago. It was a bittersweet journey to this beautiful place nestled deep in the Great Smoky Mountains. Gazing out the frosty cabin window above the sink, he could see the early morning “smoke” that the mountains were named for. The fog reached halfway up the mountain at the end of the valley where the cabin sat, surrounded by snow-dusted evergreens.

“I thought I could do it alone, Grams, but I was wrong.” Kai gave Jake a warm, proud look.

Ivy's dark brown eyes sparkled. “It's good that you young'uns have peace in your lives now.” She looked down at the pouch holding the crystal mask, and stroked it gently, as a mother might a baby. “Our family will be spoken of with respect and honor from now on. You've done much, Kai, to rescue our good name. I'm proud of you, child.”

Kai looked across the table at Jake. He wore a blue plaid, long-sleeved flannel shirt, jeans and a pair of boots. His golden eyes were filled with humor, and his mouth curved upward.

Kai felt heat in her cheeks as her grandmother looked at her with a glint in her eyes. “Thanks, Grams. It means a lot to me to clear our family name. At least I've done something right, for once.”

“You've done a lot right, child. Just don't let your experience with the Navy stain your life any longer. The Great Spirit moves in mysterious ways. Maybe you were needed here to bring this totem home to us more than the Navy needed you. Have you ever thought of that?”

She hadn't. Kai shook her head. “I loved my life in the Navy, Grams. I'm a warrior, and I'm good at defending people. Helping out that way makes my heart sing.”

“I know, child, but you were all those things on this quest for the mask, too. I'm sure another door will open to you soon. The Navy is in your past. You've got to look forward now.”

“I know….” Kai whispered, her throat aching with unshed tears. The Navy had been her life, the one good thing she could point to that had come out right.

“The world needs warriors like you,” Jake told her gently. “Your skills won't be wasted, Kai.”

“She certainly hasn't wasted them so far!” Grams said, holding up the pouch. “She had a vision and look what happened! Now, we wait to see what woman will be contacted in the dream state to get the second totem back to us.”

“I've told Mike Houston about that,” Kai said. “I keep wondering if I'll get another vision, or how it will unfold….”

“Tut, tut, child.” Grams reached out and patted her hands, which were resting on the table. “Don't fret about this. The Great Spirit showed you the whole thing. Don't you think that, at the right time, you will be contacted again? Dreams are our connection to one another through spirit. Have faith.”

Kai had more faith than she'd started out with. “Just
having my dreams about Ooranye come true blew me away, Grams.” Kai touched her head. “I thought I was crazy, maybe. But I know there are medicine people who have dreams like this all the time.”

“Yes, and those people help others through their dreams, too—” she smiled kindly at Kai “—just as yours brought the first totem back to us. You'll have another vision. You'll see the woman, just as you saw Ooranye. You'll be led to her, and who knows? She may well have a dream about it at the same time you do! Among medicine people, it's a common occurrence to dream the same dream, at the same time.” She grinned at both of them. “That's one way we communicate. A secret one.”

Jake smiled. He knew his mother was a lucid dreamer, someone who could move in and out of that state with ease. He recalled how she'd often dreamed of a certain herb or ceremony to help someone, and then did just that. “I can confirm that, Grams,” he told her, giving Kai a reassuring look.

“That's right, your mother was very famous for her dreams, often finding just the right herb to help someone. And she certainly wasn't crazy.”

Holding up her hands, Kai murmured ruefully, “Okay, time out. I hear both of you. I'll stop gnashing my teeth, worrying about having another dream to help find the next totem.”

“You're always too hard on yourself,” Jake murmured.

Kai sighed and held his gaze. “I was a little hard on you from time to time on this mission, too.”

Shrugging good-naturedly, he answered, “You were just testing me, was all. I tried to be a good sport about it.”

Ivy studied him for a long moment. “Jake Stands Alone, you have always been different from any little boy I knew on this res when you were growin' up. You're still different, and I don't know why. But I like your heart. Kai's lucky to have had you on this mission.” She held the crystal mask, which she had wrapped gently in rabbit fur and placed in the roomy leather pouch in her left hand.

Feeling heat stealing into his face at Grams's words, Jake moved the cup gently between his hands. “Not different, Grams, just being myself is all.”

Kai saw her grandmother's face grow solemn. Grams could see auras, and Kai knew she was looking at Jake's. This morning, Grams wore an old yellow robe made of fluffy polyester. It made her look like a fuzzy yellow duck, or maybe Big Bird. This picture of her grandmother, with her steel-gray hair in two thick, long braids hanging down the front of her yellow robe, was one Kai wanted to impress into her heart's memory forever. She loved Grams fiercely, for all she had done for her throughout her life.

“I remember your daddy saying you were different, too,” Grams murmured, giving Jake a sly look as she sipped her coffee.

Chuckling, Jake said, “Oh, that…Well, I was pretty rebellious in my younger years. I'm sure that's what he was referring to.”

“Maybe…maybe,” Grams murmured. She smiled, reaching out and patting Jake's arm. “You're a good man. I like what you've grown into.” She glanced down at the pouch again. “I'm going to take this over to the medicine people of the Paint Clan later on this afternoon. I know
there will be a celebration ceremony planned for the whole nation because of its return.” She looked at Kai. “You said someone was stalking you? That there's a white man involved in stealing our totems?”

“Yeah,” Kai muttered, “the latest we heard from Mike Houston, who helped us get over to Australia to find the mask, was that a multimillionaire named Robert Marston is probably behind the theft of all three objects. And he sent us a photo of him and it's the same man I saw in my dreams. We can't prove anything yet, legally, though. I'll let you know when we find out more, though.”

“Hmm. Marston? That is the man I suspected. I talked to Mabel Red Fox over at the Cherokee Museum about the thefts when they occurred last year. You remember her, don't you? She's taken care of that place forever and done a right good job of it.”

Frowning, Kai searched her memory. “Mabel…yeah, I think I do. She's real old now, isn't she?”

Chuckling, Grams raised her steel-gray brows. “She's the same age as me, child.”

“Oh…sorry.”

Grinning, Ivy said, “Mabel is the curator of the museum, in case you forgot. She's steeped in Eastern Cherokee history and lore. I went to her right after the theft and I remember her saying that there was a list of rich men around the world who want our sacred ceremonial objects. I just betcha Marston's on that list.” Grams frowned. “He's well known to all the Indian nations. He pays medicine people big sums of money to get artifacts and sacred things for his collection, from what Mabel told me. You know, there are
a number of people in the world that hunger for power objects, and we have our fair share of such things.” Her hand caressed the pouch that held the crystal. “It looks like this Marston fella set it all up.”

“Sounds like a good probability,” Jake murmured. He looked over at Kai. Today, she'd left her hair hanging free. Kai had a natural beauty that few women could match.

“Yes…I think I'll get Mike on the phone and give him this info. I'll also give him Mabel's name.”

“Child, even if it was Marston who carried this off, how could he do this? Try to kill the two of you?”

“We can't be naive about this,” Jake said quietly. “I've heard about rich folks who have the money to buy anything they want—and all they want is power. Who knows? This guy has hired a bunch of goons to go after us, with orders to do whatever was necessary to get the crystal totem, would be my guess.”

“Great Spirit, help us,” Grams whispered. “If this mask, or any of the other clan totems, falls into the wrong hands, there could be
real
trouble.” She frowned and studied the pouch. “Each one of these totems is so very powerful. If someone knew the ceremony, which we keep secret, they could use this crystal to do whatever they wanted. If this Marston fella got his hands on the totem, he could use it to kill someone.”

“Wow!” Jake said quietly. “I didn't know it could do that.”

“Well, it depends upon who is handling these things, Jake, as to how they respond.” Grams gently touched the pouch. “A medicine person with a good heart can ask the spirit of the crystal to do good things for others. A man like
Marston…well, he might use it to harm someone if he was angry at them.”

“I didn't know the crystal had that kind of power,” Kai murmured, staring at the pouch in utter surprise.

“The information is known only among medicine people, child. But weasels like Marston have gotten inside information. He must have. Otherwise, why would he try so hard to steal our clan totems?”

“Could he have paid off a medicine person to tell him about the ceremony and other information?” Jake wondered.

“Humph! It hurts to think that he might have been able to do that, but you know, two days after the theft, John Otter, who was a trained medicine man, suddenly ended up dead.”

Kai raised her brows. “Oh? I remember Otter. He was a drunk just like my old man was.”

“I'm afraid so, child.” Shaking her head, Grams said, “I just don't want to believe that John would sell out his nation's sacred totems to Marston for money.”

Jake reached out and patted Grams's arm. “People with that kind of addiction would sell their souls for another drink. Otter might have found himself desperate enough to give Marston the information.”

“Yeah,” Kai said, “He might have told Marston exactly where the Ark of Crystals was kept. Marston is rich enough to hire anyone to come and take them. They knew where to look. Who to go to.”

Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, Jake looked up at the ceiling of the log cabin. “And if Otter did sell out, it would make sense that Marston had him killed. Why have a drunk
raving about it?” Jake looked over at Grams. “Was any cause of death determined?”

Shrugging, she said, “He was found dead on a back road. The res police said it was a hit-and-run. They never found out who did it. There were no witnesses.”

Kai gave Jake a worried look. “You think Marston had Otter murdered?”

“Sure, why not? It would make sense to keep him quiet. A drunk never keeps a secret. You know that.” Jake gave Kai an apologetic look. Seeing the momentary pain flit across her eyes, he placed his hand on her arm and gave it a slight squeeze. When she nodded her head, Jake withdrew his hand even though he didn't want to.

“What's even more troubling,” Grams murmured, “is that John may have given Marston the ceremony for these totems. I just now thought of that.”

Frowning, Kai asked, “Would Otter have known those ceremonies?”

“Of course he would.” Tapping her chin, Ivy sighed. “Oh, if he did give that secret away, that means we're in a heap of trouble. If Marston gets his hands on any one of the totems, he can wreak havoc on earth.”

 

“What did Mike find out, Kai?” Jake asked as he sat with her the next morning at the Blue Heron Hotel restaurant, plates of scrambled eggs, bacon and grits before them. They'd taken two rooms under assumed names just outside the res. Yesterday she'd given the info about Marston to Houston, and they'd chosen this restaurant, which wasn't busy, so they could talk without others overhearing their conversation.