WINDWALKER (THE PROPHECY SERIES) (27 page)

Their physical conditions were a setback to the wisdom of spirit-walking for information. Since they had not been in their bodies, they had taken no notice of the possibility of physical discomforts. It was a huge reminder to pay closer attention, and they were exhausted.

“Wait. My side hurts. I need to rest,” Adam muttered, as he paused to catch his breath.

Evan dropped where he stood. He didn’t even look for a safe place to sit. Instead, he pulled his knees up and leaned forward on them, struggling for every breath.

“Are we lost?” he asked.

Adam looked up, then all around. It was thick and green in front of them and behind them. There wasn’t a path and they couldn’t see the sky.

“I don’t know for sure. I thought we’d see those green orchids by now.”

Evan closed his eyes, remembering the fall of green flowers spilling down the sides of a tree.

“I can see them in my head,” he offered.

“Yes, so can I, but I don’t see with my eyes open, which is what needs to happen,” Adam said, and then suddenly groaned. “I never thought, but some of that stuff might only bloom at night. We could have already passed important landmarks.”

Evan wiped the sweat from his face and looked up. “So, are we lost?”

“Maybe, but we know the general direction we have to go. All we have to do is keep moving. We should be halfway there, don’t you think?”

Evan’s eyes welled with tears. “I can’t tell. We move very fast when we are spirits. I think we should have practiced this in our bodies, too.”

Adam frowned. “You can’t practice running away, Evan. You just do it.”

Evan nodded. “Are we rested enough?”

“Yes, I think we are,” Adam said, and reached down to help his brother up when he heard a rustling in the leaves above them. He looked up just as a massive python dropped off of a limb onto the ground.

One moment Evan was in front of him and then he was disappearing within the snake’s giant coils.

“Adddaaammm! Help me!” Evan screamed. “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!”

Adam began stabbing and slashing at the snake with his knife - cutting it in dozens of places until both he and the snake were red with blood. He tried to stab at the head, but there was so much blood the knife slid off the bony plate. He was begging God to help him even as his brother’s face was turning red, but when his eyes rolled back in his head, Adam screamed. He felt Evan’s absence as surely as if it had been his own. His brother was dead!

A fear-fueled rage swept through him as he raised the knife above his head, stabbing it into the snake as far as the blade would go. When he felt it hit bone, he adjusted his grip and started pulling it through the flesh in a see-saw motion, laying the python open as he went.

Adam realized the snake was dying only after the coils began to loosen. He grabbed his brother, pulling as hard as he could, and suddenly Evan was free!

He laid him flat on his back, checked for a pulse then felt his chest, checking for broken ribs. He could do mouth to mouth, but the fear of puncturing his lungs with already broken ribs was a definite possibility. Still, he would rather take a chance than do nothing.

When they were younger, they had been fascinated by the concept of CPR, and bringing people back to life to the extent that they had play-acted saving each other’s lives for the longest time. Only now it wasn’t play.

Adam lost track of how long he’d been doing chest compressions and blowing air into his brother’s lungs, but the sun was nearly overhead. At any second Bazat could catch up with them and it would be over.

It was difficult to do CPR when you were crying between every breath, but he wouldn’t quit. He couldn’t give up. Evan was the other half of himself. He had just finished a round of chest compressions and was leaning down to put his mouth on his brother’s lips when he thought he noticed Evan’s eyelids suddenly flutter.

He blew into his mouth one last time, and when he heard Evan choke, and then take a breath on his own, he rocked back on his heels and let out a scream that sent the birds above him into flight. Evan was back from the dead! God had heard him after all.

****

The search team had been on the move for nearly two hours. Layla was in the lead following the boys’ voices, just as she’d followed the war drums on the Last Walk.

One moment she was running, and then all of a sudden she had stopped. The warriors stopped behind her, eyes wide with fright. They had never followed a woman into battle, and they’d never had an enemy they could not see. They kept their eyes trained on the jungle in fear they would be attacked at any moment.

Suddenly Layla groaned and bent double; in obvious pain and gasping for breath.

Cayetano immediately thought of the baby she carried.

“What?” he asked, as grabbed her arm to pull her up.

The look on her face was one of horror. “One of the boys is dying. He can’t breathe. It’s a python, I think.”

“How do you know this?” Cayetano asked.

“I don’t know. Could I not do this before?”

“No. Never,” he said.

“So things change,” she muttered. “We need to hurry.”

“Do you know how far away they are?”

“They are closer to us than they are to Bazat, but he follows.”

Cayetano’s eyes narrowed. The expression on his face grew grim.

“We go,” he said. “Show me and I will lead.”

“Straight ahead,” she said. “If it changes, I will tell you.”

He thought of what had happened to Singing Bird before and coming face to face with Bazat. If he killed the man again, the curse would not be broken.

“Stay behind me,” he said.

She didn’t argue. When they resumed their trek, Cayetano was leading the way, and she was running in the midst of the warriors who had surrounded her.

****

Bazat and his men were tireless. They ran to hunt down game. They ran when fighting their enemies. Their legs were strong, their muscles hard. The heat did not bother them and the mosquitoes fed on their blood and flew away without notice.

Bazat’s strength was rage-filled. His will should be obeyed and the Little War-Gods had disobeyed him. Gods or not, they would be punished.

He pushed his men without care for their condition. Their brown bodies were slick with sweat and their arms were covered with tiny cuts and scratches from the razor sharp edges of the leaves. They needed water and they needed to rest, but he would not stop. He had no idea how long the boys had been gone, where they were going, or if they were even still alive. They would rest, and they would drink, after the Little War-Gods were found.

****

Evan woke up with the sun in his eyes and his body aching.

Adam was leaning over him crying. The first things that went through his mind were that Adam was covered in blood and that he hardly ever cried.

“What’s wrong?” Evan asked, and then gasped when he tried to inhale. “My chest hurts. My stomach hurts too.”

Adam covered his face with his hands and began to sob. He couldn’t talk for the relief flooding through him.

Believing that Adam needed him, Evan managed to sit up but then he saw the python and screamed. It took a few seconds for him to realize it was dead. His focus shifted to the gaping wounds on the snake and the countless insects feeding from the blood.

“That’s why I hurt,” Evan whispered, and managed to get to his hands and knees, then crawled to Adam. “You saved my life, didn’t you?”

Still sobbing, Adam tried to pull himself together.

“Thank you. You are the bravest brother, ever,” Evan said.

Adam began wiping at the tears on his face. He had cried long enough. It was time to get back to business.

“Evan, do you think you can stand?”

“I don’t know. It hurts to breathe.”

He stood up and reached for his brother’s hand.

Evan looked up to grasp it, then saw beyond his brother’s shoulder to the jungle above.

“Look, Adam! It’s the green orchids. They’re just higher up than we thought.”

“Of course,” Adam cried. “I am such a dummy. When we spirit walk, we aren’t actually walking. We just move. We must have been moving higher off the ground and didn’t know it.”

He helped Evan get up, brushing away the ants and mosquitoes from his back and legs.

“Move your legs,” he ordered.

Evan took a step, but it hurt to breathe and move at the same time.

Adam knew Evan had internal injuries, but if they stopped, the worry would be moot. Bazat would kill them.

“We go slowly until you can do better, but we have to keep moving,” Adam said.

Evan grabbed hold of his brother’s arm to steady himself. “So now do you know which way to go?”

“Yes. That way to the waterfall and then we’re almost there.”

They moved slow at first, and then as they progressed from steps to a stride, began to cover more ground, but Adam could tell his brother was in trouble. He was bent nearly double, trying to walk and breathe at the same time, but it wasn’t happening. Adam was so afraid of what he had done to him by giving him CPR, but if he hadn’t, Evan would be lying dead beside the python.

Another hour passed as the pushed through the jungle. Sweat was pouring from Evan’s hair into his eyes, but he was too weak to complain about the sting. Then suddenly he staggered and would have fallen but for Adam.

Adam slid his arm beneath Evan’s shoulders, shifting the weight onto him instead, and they kept on going, putting one foot in front of the other. Adam was so tired that he didn’t realize he’d been hearing the rush of water, until Evan spoke.

“I hear water. Can I have a drink?”

Adam’s heart skipped a beat. The waterfall! They were almost there!

“Yes, brother, you can have a drink. Just a little bit farther.”

They came out of the jungle into a small clearing. About thirty-five feet above them, a small waterfall gushed out from between rocks, forming a pool at the base that fed the stream beyond.

A mist hung halfway between the trees and the ground from the constant spray of water. Flowering vines abounded as did large green and red parrots, squawking at the arrival of strangers.

The boys gasped at the beauty of the sight.

“Look, Adam! A rainbow. That’s a good sign, right?”

“Looks like it to me,” Adam said. “Just a little bit farther and we can get a drink.”

At that same moment they took a step, they saw movement to their right. Adam yanked them to a stop as a jaguar padded out of the jungle to get a drink.

They held their breaths, afraid to move, afraid to blink. Adam felt the weight of his knife against his thigh, but against a jaguar, this would be a far different fight.

The big cat had massive claws and huge fangs that curved downward on the outside of its mouth. It was fully capable of snapping the backs of their necks with one bite.

Suddenly, it stopped, lifting its head as to sniff the air.

Adam groaned inwardly. They must be upwind.

They watched in horror as the cat slowly turned its head until it was looking straight at them.

Don’t move, Evan.

Even if I wanted to, I can’t.

The cat’s ears went back. Its tail began to twitch. When it fell into a crouch and began to stalk them, Adam sent a last ditch message to Layla. Even if she didn’t get here in time, at least she would know what happened.

****

Cayetano stopped when they reached a stream. He wanted Singing Bird to rest, but she would not sit down. She dropped by the bank to drink and the moment her hand went in the water, she saw a waterfall, and then she saw the boys.

Cayetano was crouched in the middle of the water, drinking from the cup he’d made of his hand. The other warriors were scattered up and down through the stream, refreshing themselves as well when she suddenly sprang to her feet.

“Cayetano! Is there a waterfall that feeds this stream? We need to find it.”

One of the warriors pointed. “That way. Not far,” he said.

“The boys are there and they are in danger.”

Cayetano leaped toward her, grabbing her by the hand as the others followed. They were running without caution now, feeling the urgency of the mission without understanding the need. Weapons were out. Their stride was long. They heard the rush of water only seconds before they heard the screams.

Layla dashed forward, pulling away from the warriors as she ran. When they reached the clearing, she saw that they were on one side, and the two boys were on the other side of the water. One was sitting, and the other was in a crouched position in front of him with a knife held in his hand.

Then she saw the jaguar.

Cayetano leaped past her, dashing into the water in an all-out sprint to get the boys before the cat did, with the warriors right behind him.

She didn’t hesitate. She notched an arrow into the bow and launched it just as the cat leaped. There was a moment of deja’vu as she flashed on the cougar during the Last Walk. She’d had Windwalker’s magic to guide her arrows there, but in here, Windwalker didn’t exist.

Cayetano was only steps away from the boys when the big cat left the ground.

“Now!” he shouted, and his men drew back to throw their spears when a flash of movement caught the corner of his eye. When he looked again, the cat was on the ground with an arrow through its heart.

He turned abruptly. Singing Bird was on the other side of the water, her bow hanging loosely in her hands. He grinned, then lifted his spear and sent a cry of jubilation into the air. His warriors followed suit as she jumped into the water.

She came running, bypassing the men to get to the cat and pushed it with the toe of her boot. It was lifeless. She pulled out the arrow, wiped it on the grass, and dropped it back into her quiver as ran to the boys.

They had collapsed into a heap on the ground; visibly trembling, and covered in blood. She began scanning their bodies for wounds. From the amount of blood, it could be serious.

“Which one of you did the big snake get?”

“You
do
see with your mind, just like we do,” Adam said softly, and then pointed at his brother. “He’s Evan. I’m Adam. The snake got him.”