“Hurt much?” he heard the familiar voice call as his leather britches hit him in the face.
“A-ho, Tes Qua. Ne chitela a yeaho e alo,” Tyoga responded with a smile.
Tes Qua took two steps toward the mound of buffalo hides that had been Tyoga’s bed for the past two days, and knelt down just as his friend extended his arm.
The two clasped hands like they had done since they were children. The force of their grasp conveyed the arrogant confidence that solidifies male friendships in a baptism of forgiveness, understanding and uncompromised fraternity.
“I wish you had told me what you were up to, Ty,” Tes Qua said with a sheepish ‘you-left-me-out-of-this-one’ tone of voice. “She is my sister, you know.”
“I know, Tes. But I wanted to keep you out of this mess, and to tell you the truth, I didn’t think I was gonna come out of this one with my hair,” he said as he ran his fingers through his thick brown mane. “Besides, if Yellow Robe had the slightest notion that you or any member of the tribe was involved, we wouldn’t be talkin’ right now.”
“Did you kill him, Ty?”
Tyoga shook his head. “I was on my way to kill ‘im, but someone got there first. I thought maybe you?”
“Nay ya. Silver Cloud had a difficult time keeping a war party from striking out to rescue Sunlie. He even posted guards around the village to keep anyone from sneaking off to get her. He gave his word to Yellow Robe, and he meant to make sure that his word was kept. Works out pretty good this way, though. Silver Cloud kept his word. Payment was made.” Tes Qua paused. “But now we have all lost Sunlie.”
Tyoga slipped on his leather britches.
Tes Qua handed him his freshly laundered shirt.
As he was lacing it up he asked, “How did you know that I was here? Nobody knew that I would return. I didn’t even plan to come back.”
“Prairie Day,” Tes Qua replied with a nod of his head in her direction. “She came up here every evening and would sit until after dark. She said that you would return. She was right.”
“Any word?” he asked.
“We know that Walks Alone delivered Sunlei safely to the Chickamaugua. At least that’s what Lone Elk said he heard on his way back from the Holston grade. Ty, they say that Wahaya is with her. Is that true?”
“Yeah, it’s true. I sent him with her.” Recalling the sad eyes that looked into his as he sent Wahaya away, Tyoga said, “He didn’t want to leave me, though. I had to send him along to keep her safe ‘til I can get to her.” He put his hand to his chest to grasp the tiny brown leather pouch filled with Sunlie’s totems. “He left this for me. I found it lying on the ground at the entrance to our secret hollow. I reckon he figures its magic will watch over me until he returns.” He paused before adding, “I’m gonna miss him.”
“What are you going to do now, Ty?”
Prairie Day called them to come out of the lodge for something to eat before he had a chance to answer.
Stepping out into the sunshine, Tyoga looked over at where she squatted by the fire to tend to the trout that were cooking over the searing heat of the hot coals. Smiling, he remembered Green Rock Cove.
“I was gonna go east for awhile, Tes,” he said. “Spend some time out of the mountains. Go to Middletown, Fredericksburg, maybe all the way to Hampton Roads.” As if answering the questions racing through his head, he stopped to shake his head.
“I had it all set up,” Tyoga told them. “I told the People at council that I would be leaving Tuckareegee, and as far as everyone in the village knows, I have. Only you and Priarie Day know that I am here now. But I can’t leave the mountains now. I thought that going away for awhile would keep the People of Tuckareegee safe. Yellow Robe couldn’t accuse you of hiding me. With me and Wahaya gone, he would have no cause to make any trouble. But I think now that my notion of leavin’ the mountains may have been just a selfish way of keepin’ me safe. That’s a coward’s way out—and I may be many things, Tes A, but a coward ain’t one of ‘em.”
“No one would ever call you a coward, Tyoga,” Tes Qua insisted. “You are the most courageous brave of all of the Ani-Unwiya. All of the People know that to be true.”
“Just the same, I think that I was just takin’ the easy way out.”
Prairie Day was listening to the two men speak. In the tradition of the Ani-Unwiya, she kept her counsel to herself, but she wanted to know more. “Eh ya, Dihitil. Eh ya ta ha ni gi?”
“I’m going after Sunlei,” Tyoga said.
Prairie Day closed her eyes for the briefest of moments. Then, she stood and walked over to them with two plates filled with trout, beans and squash, a mash of corn and lima beans and corn bread.
In the late afternoon, there was a great deal of activity in the village below. Tyoga stayed close to the lodge so that he could not be seen by the people milling about the grounds of Tuckareegee. Used to seeing Prairie Day at the campsite at all hours of the day and night, the villagers paid no attention to the smoke coming from the outcropping.
In horror, Prairie Day and Tes Qua listened while Tyoga described the methodical murders of the Shawnee war party. He disclosed unnecessary details of their demise and described the slaughter with neither pride nor shame. Watching his gentle hazel eyes as he told the story with a matter-of-factness that seemed to mitigate moral responsibility for the atrocities he had committed gave them both pause. Prairie Day and Tes Qua exchanged inquisitive glances while Tyoga told the tale. Each of them was sure that the other was thinking the same thought.
Tyoga had killed as deliberately and with the same degree of cunning and stealth as the wolf the legend said he had become. Perhaps there was more to the legend than either was prepared to accept.
Prairie Day took the shallow wooden bowl from Tes Qua’s outstretch hand. She paused and turned toward Tyoga. He held his bowl out for her to take from his hand, but she did not reach for it.
Looking him straight in the eyes, she said, “Tyoga, you cannot go after Sunlei.”
Tyoga raised his eyebrows and looked over at Tes Qua for confirmation that Priarie Day had spoken boldly and out of line.
Tes Qua did not return his look of surprise. Instead, he was staring intently at Prairie Day, which granted her silent permission to continue with her thoughts.
Without taking her eyes off of Tyoga, she said, “You must not go searching for Sunlei. Not yet. Not now. Chief Yellow Robe will not rest until you are found. If you go looking for Sunlei, his braves will know and they will allow you to draw them nearer to her. Your search to find her will only bring her harm. They will follow you and capture and kill you both.”
“Prairie Day, you do not know these things to be true,” Tyoga replied incredulously. “Another truth may be that I find her and take her far away from here. We will go to the Powhatan and live in peace.”
“No, Tyoga!” Prairie Day demanded as tears welled in her eyes. “Hear me, Ditihli. You must listen. If you go searching for Sunlei now, neither one of you will remain alive to see the spring.” She paused to wipe her eyes and regain her composure.
Tyoga stared up at her gentle face. He had no words.
“There is more, my brave one.” She referred to him as only Sunlei had in the past. She waited for him to reply.
“Tell me, Prairie Day.” Tyoga looked down into the dirt between his crossed legs.
“Did you see Seven Arrows’ dead body?” she asked. “Did you look upon it with your own eyes?”
Knowing what she was implying, Tyoga sprang to his feet and shouted at her as she turned to walk away, “I didn’t need to see his dead body. I heard his warriors screaming of his death. Over and over I heard them say ‘He is dead, he is dead’.”
Prairie Day spun around to face Tyoga and planted her feet firmly to stand her ground. “He is not,” she shouted back at him. She turned away, walked toward the fire, and repeated more softly, but no less firmly, “He is not dead.”
At this, Tes Qua stood up and looked back and forth between them.
Tyoga reached out for her and turned her around by the shoulders. His eyes asked the question to which she replied, “There are things that a woman knows that you cannot understand. I tell you that his spirit lives.”
“Tyoga, if Prairie Day is right, you cannot go after my sister. They will let you lead them to her and kill you both,” Tes Qua said.
Turning away from them, Tyoga took several steps toward the shelter. He stopped to gaze into the woods.
Prairie Day saw the fabric of his shirt begin to tighten across his back. His breathing became deep and slow. She walked over to him and laced her arm through his and rested the palm of her other hand on his growing biceps. “No, Tyoga,” she said quietly. “Now is not the time for Wahaya. Now is the time to think and act wisely.” She stroked his arm lovingly and waited until she felt the tension drain away before leading him back toward the fire.
“Prairie Day is right, Tyoga,” Tes Qua said. “You must do what is best for everyone. But, my brother, it will not be easy.”
“And what is that, Ditihli?” Tyoga asked. “What is it that I must do?”
“Leave,” Tes Qua replied. “You must leave this place and disappear into the wilderness like Wahaya. You must go where no one will find you, and you must not return until I come for you.”
The sun was setting over Keyser’s Ridge. The first evening stars twinkled to life. The village of Tuckareegee was swallowed in stillness and calm. The forest came alive with the sounds of the night as the blackness enveloped the three friends—each lost in silent thought.
Once again, Tyoga was at a crossroads.
Feeling the coolness of mother earth through the boulder upon which he sat, Tyoga threw his head back to look up into the heavens.
Closing his eyes, he remembered once again that glorious moment on Carter’s Rock when the awakening changed his life forever. Feeling his spirit meld with the blackness of night, like it had done in the brilliant light on that frosty morning so many years ago, he wondered if the promise had forsaken him when he needed it the most. He intuitively understood that when circumstances force us to make decisions that hold in the balance the choice between life and death, perseverance and renewal is the promise of nature’s way. To choose otherwise is to be deaf to the whispers and blind to the subtle cues.
When fighting for Tes Qua’s life in his battle with Wahaya, he had chosen mercy when the balance between life and death was held in his hands. Yet, he had callously dismissed compassion and had chosen death for the Shawnee braves.
Had the spirit of Wahaya muted the wisdom and truth of the promise so profoundly that I am no longer able to hear? Is the price to be paid for my savagery the loss of the whispered truth?
Wait. Perhaps I have heard. Maybe I did listen. Perhaps the murder of the Shawnee braves was no choice at all, but decreed by the truth of the promise. Maybe their murder and desecration was the path set forth for them from the moment of their birth. Maybe, just maybe, I was simply the instrument in nature’s orchestra which understood the true commands of the maestro’s baton.
His mind was flooded with the confusion of loss and the regret of compromise. Placing his hands on either side of his head to quiet his mind, he drew his knees to his chest and felt the tears stream silently down his cheeks.
Prairie Day stoked the fire with dry hickory logs and went over to where Tyoga was sitting. The smoke from the rising flames, caught in her current, followed her gentle sway and clung to her form while she leaned over to kiss the top of his head.
When she walked away, the smoke did not follow but swirled around his head and stung his eyes with its pungent bite. A puff of wind from the northwest cleared the smoke and blew the sandy locks of hair from his eyes. He blinked to stem the flow of salty tears, straightened his back, and rubbed both eyes with the palms of his hands.
Dropping his hands between his knees, he gasped when his eyes regained their focus. Putting his knuckles on the stone, he lifted himself up ever so slightly as if the heightened point of view would reset the focus of his eyes.
Looking across the gorge at the trees lining Wilfer’s Ridge, he could see the individual leaves of massive oak trees in stunning clarity. He rose to his knees as the scent of the water running through the trace two hundred feet below was as clean and crisp as if he were standing on the bank.
The rising moon electrified his skin, and the hair on his arms and the back of his neck stood on end when he felt the wings of an owl cut through the evening shadows.
He was the night. He was the smoke and the wind. The water in the trace was the blood in his veins.
He smiled when he recognized the promise’s embrace.
The answers were all around him hiding in plain sight. They drizzled from the granite walls and danced in the flames of the coal and ash. The answers rose in the smoke, condensed in the morning dew and were passed from pine to pine on the silent breeze.
He remembered.
In all things there are but two outcomes—and each is in keeping with nature’s wondrous plan.
His choice was to kill the Shawnee or be killed by them. He would find Sunlei—or he would not. He would make the right decision now—or he would not.
In either case—the journey would end exactly as it was meant to be.
His decision would be right.
Tyoga stood and turned to face his friends who were sitting by the fire. With a clear, calm determined voice, he said, “I will leave this place. I will go tomorrow and stay away until you come for me.”
Tes Qua and Prairie Day looked at each other with resignation in their eyes. The decision had been made. “Where will you go, my brother?” Tes Qua asked.
“Northwest, toward the land of the Iroquois. They will never suspect that I have headed for the lands of our enemy. I must lead those seeking to kill me far away from here,” Tyoga replied. “There is much to do before sunrise. I must get ready.”
Tes Qua went over to Tyoga. The men embraced.
Prairie Day rose, stepped into the shelter, and came out holding her leather travel bag. She folded the red blanket neatly and placed it inside the doeskin a-do-da.