The Broken Land (55 page)

“You’ve become quite the politician,” I praise. “Thank you for helping me.”

She tightens her arm around my waist. “I’ve been listening to Grandmother speaking with the other matrons. You’re going to need a good politician. Keeping this alliance together is going to take a miracle. And
I
am going to make sure it happens.”

I stop for a moment. Her eyes are filled with determination. I run my hand over her soft hair. “I believe you.”

Sixty-six

Sky Messenger

A
round midnight the Cloud People part and the campfires of the dead become a conflagration. The light is so brilliant every branch casts a shadow.

As I walk the battlefield, I unconsciously stroke Gitchi’s gray muzzle. He licks my palm. Across the meadow bright lights bob and sway. Many cluster near the villages, moving in and out of the palisades, perhaps saying good-bye to loved ones. Others roam aimlessly, confused, waiting for the deer.

There is a sound on a battlefield that’s hard to define. The dead are not silent. As muscles go rigid there are thumps, whispers. Teeth grind in tightening jaws. Wings. Wings flap as night birds feed.

I study the wide cold eyes on the ground. I will keep them in the space between my souls, the place I keep all terrible things, to be taken out and contemplated when I think I cannot go on, because it’s too hard, or I’m too tired, or the loneliness has become too much to bear. These men and women will remind me that the nearness of death is grace on fire, and I must learn to live the flames. I, at last, understand Bahna’s words.

A warning growl rumbles Gitchi’s throat.

I turn. In the trees to my right, the moonlight seems to shudder. A man stands out there, in the cold darkness, all alone.

There is a low insidious laugh. “It’s Odion, the boy who was always afraid.”

His feathered cape whispers. I can’t tell if he is coming toward me, or just shifting positions. When I dropped my war club today, it was truly for good. I have only my words to protect me now. Words and an old wolf whose life I will not risk, not even to save my own.

“I’m still afraid, Hehaka.”

“But why? You are the great man now. Elder Brother Sun obeys Sky Messenger’s commands.” His laughter is mocking, filled with disbelief. “Isn’t that enough?”

I tilt my head. Enough? All night long—in glimpses—I’ve been reliving the horror of War Chief Manidos. I’m grieving, feeling wounded; it clouds the thoughts. What is enough? I pause to consider. In a man’s lifetime, is it enough to forgive just once when one did not have to? Or perhaps “enough” is only reached when a person makes forgiveness his Road of Light, and spends every day walking to the Land of the Dead, expecting nothing more.

I say, “I know where it is.”

He doesn’t answer at first. Then, “Where what is?”

“Her pot.”

He takes a quick step forward. I see wide eyes shining in his hood. His voice replies from the midst of rustling feathers, “Which pot?”

“You know the one I mean. Her soul pot.”

The witch twists his head in a birdlike manner, observing me through one eye. He must be trying to figure out why I would tell him. We have never been friends. Even when we were in agony together as children, he was never one of us. Never one of the trusted few for whom we would have willingly given our lives. And perhaps that is the reason to choose the Road of Light.

“Why do you tell me this?” he asks.

“You’ve been searching for it for many summers, 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?”

His voice is soft. “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.” I turn to look at the darkness in his hood. I can’t see his face at all now. “Do you want me to go with you?”

Silence, for a long time.

“No, Sky Messenger.”

I nod and lift my eyes to study the star-silvered heavens. The dead ferns beneath the trees thrash. He is gone, vanished like a shadow eaten by utter darkness.

I continue my walk across the battlefield, periodically petting Gitchi’s head or halting to study a frozen face before I continue on. One hand of time later, when I finally look up, I discover that my feet have taken me to a high point above the Flint camp.

As I gaze out over the sleeping warriors rolled in blankets, I try to imagine where she is. Moonlight gleams from hundreds of upturned faces.

Tomorrow, I will find her. Tomorrow, we will talk.

Somewhere ahead of me there is a black sun and a crack like the sky splitting. Will she be there with me? I have not seen this. She isn’t in any of my Dreams.

But I believe in things seen and unseen.

I pray the Spirits will show me the path.

BY KATHLEEN O’NEAL GEAR AND W. MICHAEL GEAR FROM TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES

NORTH AMERICA’S FORGOTTEN PAST SERIES

People of the Wolf
People of the Fire
People of the Earth
People of the River
People of the Sea
People of the Lakes
People of the Lightning
People of the Silence
People of the Mist
People of the Masks
People of the Owl
People of the Raven
People of the Moon
People of the Nightland
People of the Weeping Eye
People of the Thunder

People of the Longhouse
The Dawn Country: A People of the Longhouse Novel
The Broken Land: A People of the Longhouse Novel
The Black Sun: A People of the Longhouse Novel

THE ANASAZI MYSTERY SERIES

The Visitant
The Summoning God
Bone Walker

BY KATHLEEN O’NEAL GEAR

Thin Moon and Cold Mist
Sand in the Wind
This Widowed Land
It Sleeps in Me
It Wakes in Me
It Dreams in Me

BY W. MICHAEL GEAR

Long Ride Home
Big Horn Legacy
Coyote Summer
Athena Factor

The Morning River

OTHER TITLES BY KATHLEEN O’NEAL GEAR AND W. MICHAEL GEAR

The Betrayal
Dark Inheritance
Raising Abel
Children of the Dawnland

www.Gear-Gear.com

In
The Black Sun,
the fourth and final book of the People of the Longhouse saga, the ravages of war have left the Iroquois standing on the precipice of self-destruction. The eerie holy man, Sky Messenger, along with his cherished friends, will manage to pull four warring nations into a fragile peace alliance. There is only one holdout: A very powerful faction of the People of the Hills, led by the insane sorcerer, Chief Atotarho. Atotarho has another agenda. He seeks domination of the Iroquoian world, and will stop at nothing to attain it.

Sky Messenger and his friends will risk everything to stop Atotarho.

It is only at the end, after the great forces are aligned, and the earth-shattering final battle is about to begin, that they will, at last, understand the true, unbearable cost of peace.

The truth will appear in a single blinding instant when the Great Face shakes the World Tree, and Elder Brother Sun blackens his face with the soot of the dying world … .

Glossary

Flying Heads—Just heads with no bodies that thrash wildly through the forests. These fearsome creatures have long trailing hair and great paws like a bear’s.

Gaha—The soft wind. She is spoken of as Elder Sister Gaha.

Gahai—Spectral lights that guide sorcerers as they fl y through the air on their evil journeys. Sometimes gahai lead their masters to victims, other times to places where they can find charms.

Hadui—A violent wind.

Hanehwa—Skin beings. Witches sometimes skin their victims, enchant their skins, and force them to do their bidding. Hanehwa warn witches of danger by giving three shouts.

Hatho—The Frost Spirit.

Haudenosaunee—The People of the Longhouse, called “Iroquois” by the French.

Ohwachira—The basic family unit. An ohwachira is a kinship group that traces its descent from a common female ancestor. The ohwachira bestows chieftainship titles and holds the names of the great people of the past. It bestows those names by raising up the souls of the dead and requickening them in the bodies of newly elected chiefs, adoptees, or other people. In the same way, if a new chief disappoints the ohwachira, after consultation with the clan, it can take back the name, remove the soul, and depose the chief. It is also the sisterhood of ohwachiras that decides when to go to war and when to make peace.

Otkon—One of the two halves of Spirit Power that inhabit the world. The other is Uki. Don’t think of these as good and evil, however. Both powers share equally in light and dark. Otkon and Uki form a unified spiritual universe that must be kept in balance. Otkon has a trickster-like character. It’s unpredictable and can be either beneficial or harmful to human beings. Its half of the day lasts from noon to midnight. Otkon is often associated with the Evil-Minded One, the hero twin also known as Flint.

People of the Flint—The Mohawk nation. However, the word
Mohawk
is an Algonquian term meaning “flesh eaters.” They call themselves the Kanienkahaka, or Ganienkeh, meaning “People of the Flint.”

People of the Hills—The Onondaga nation. The word
Onondaga
is an Anglicized version of their name for themselves,
Onundagaono
, which means “People of the Hills.”

People of the Landing—The Cayuga nation. Including People of the Landing, several other possible derivations have been offered for the word
Cayuga,
including, “People of the Place Where Locusts Were Taken Out,” “People of the Mucky Land,” and “People of the Place Where Boats are Taken Out.”

People of the Mountain—The Seneca nation. They call themselves the
On-ondowahgah.
Their name can also be translated “People of the Great Hill.”

People of the Standing Stone—The Oneida nation. The word
Oneida
may be a rather poor Anglicization of their name for themselves,
Onayoteka-ono,
meaning “Granite People,” or “People of the Standing Stone.”

Requickening Ceremony—The raising up of souls for the purpose of placing them in other bodies, such as those of adoptees. This concept does not exactly correspond to the eastern religions’ concept of reincarnation. For example, there’s no idea of karma to be accounted for. Being reborn is neither punishment nor reward. Instead, there is a strong concept of duty to the People. Only strong souls were requickened, usually within the same maternal lineage. The ceremony was performed in the hopes of easing grief and restoring the spiritual strength of the clans, but a returning soul also had an obligation to help the People in times of crises. Many “Keepings” of the Peacemaker story say that Dekanawida was the returned soul of Tarenyawagon (also spelled as Tarachiawagon), the cultural hero also known as Sapling, the Good-Minded One, who served as the Creator. Those same traditions identify Atotarho as Sapling’s troublesome younger brother, Flint (Tawiscaro/Tawiscaron), who was called the Evil-Minded One. Jigonsaseh, similarly, was the returned soul of Sky Woman’s daughter, the Lynx.

Uki—One of the two halves of Spirit Power that inhabit the world (see
Otkon
). Uki is never harmful to human beings. Its half of the day lasts from midnight to noon. Uki is often associated with the Good-Minded One, the hero twin also known as Sapling, or Tarenyawagon.

Selected Bibliography

Bruchac, Joseph.

Iroquois Stories: Heroes and Heroines, Monsters and Magic.
Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1985.

Calloway, Colin G.

The Western Abenakis of Vermont, 1600–1800.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990.

Custer, Jay. F.

Delaware Prehistoric Archaeology. An Ecological Approach
. Cranberry, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1984.

Dye, David H.