Zadayi Red (12 page)

Sunoya watched on tenterhooks. The Medicine Chief looked so decrepit that he might drop the boy. At the end of the song she clasped the child to her breast.

Ninyu raised his voice above the hubbub. “I have something to say.”

People stopped talking. The Red Chief took Sunoya by the sleeve, strode to the middle of the circle so everyone could see them and hear him.

“Tensa has been murdered by the Red Chief of the Tuscas. That will lead to war between our villages. I tell you, though . . . I tell you that my son’s death has awakened my heart. I will not lead such a war. Here and now I retire as Red Chief of the Socos.”

He put his hand gently on Dahzi’s forehead. “My new grandson is a medicine bearer. I hope that he will be able to turn every Soco’s
zadayi
back to victory.”

He walked to his own house with Sunoya, his wives, and his children trailing.

He waited until after supper to spring his next surprise on Sunoya. He took her out into the night air where they wouldn’t be overheard. Su-Li rode on her shoulder.

“Sunoya,” said Ninyu, “I want to ask for a great act of kindness from you.”

In the darkness she couldn’t read the eyes in his white face.

“I have spent my life on war, and it has brought me to grief. I am forty winters old. I’d like to follow the path of my own grandson. I want to spend the rest of my life learning medicine. Will you be my teacher?”

Sunoya was stunned. “I am much younger than you.”

“Please.”

She was taken aback to hear the word
please
from a great man. “Of course.”

The moon caught his eyes, and she could see the light in them.

During the next moon, the Moon of Short Days, by ancient custom the villagers would have gone to the Grandmother Sun Dance at the Cheowa village. However, the White Chief, Red Chief, and Medicine Chief talked it over and decided to stay home this year. After all, a War Chief of one of the villages had actually killed the son of their War Chief.

Instead of attending, the village sent a delegation of the three chiefs and well-armed men to register their protest at great council. If they did not get satisfaction, they would declare war on the Tuscas.

For Sunoya it was a horror. Here was what her dream had
predicted, the ruining of the Cape of Eagle Feathers, and all the misery that would follow.

Yet it was inevitable. She herself could not have gone and danced, drummed, and sung with Inaj, the murderer of her child’s father. She would not have exposed the baby to the wrath of his vengeful grandfather. Inaj’s spear had set these consequences in motion.

When the three chiefs and the soldiers left for the ceremony, she was already sure that she and the Galayi had only one hope, that the child of prophecy would somehow save them.

So she spent the Moon of Short Days tending to her son. She was not the Medicine Chief here, and did not bear the daily obligations of that position. True, the Soco Medicine Chief was not a shaman of Sunoya’s power. In his lifetime he would make only one journey to the Land beyond the Sky Arch. By the beat of her drum and with the help of the
u-tsale-ta
, Sunoya could soar to the land above and seek the counsel of the Immortals.

Sunoya was satisfied with her position—she felt honored. As the second most powerful medicine person in the tribe, behind only Tsola, she was given responsibility not for her village but for the medicine bearer. In him, and through the blessings of the Immortals, her special abilities would bear fruit.

For now, she enjoyed the routines of taking care of Dahzi. When he wet himself or soiled himself, she changed his blankets and stuffed the inner bark of the cedar tree in them as an absorbent. She played with him. She babbled with him, napped with him, held him.

She also reveled daily in commonplace activities she had missed during her years devoted to training as a shaman. She played sister to Ninyu’s grown children, and co-mother to
their children. She gossiped with his wives, especially about who was courting who, which woman was pregnant, and which man was slipping around with whose wife. She helped prepare food, sew clothes, clean the house. She mended cuts and scrapes, soothed feelings, settled squabbles, and helped make their home a happy place to live. Though she was forbidden to love a man at night and start a child in her own belly, she took pleasure in the sounds that told her that other women were doing that. She happily watched the children grow, especially her own son.
Son
—that word rang in her heart.

Before the end of the Moon of Short Days the delegation came back with the inescapable news. They had demanded that Inaj cover Tensa’s bones, that is, make lavish gifts to his family as recompense. Inaj had defied them. He had declared to the council that he wasn’t the murderer—Sunoya was. She killed his daughter and stole his grandson. Publicly, loudly, he declared that he would kill this evil woman and reclaim his progeny. If he had to shed the blood of all the Soco villagers to get justice, he would do it.

The council ended in acrimony, the ceremony in disarray.

“Don’t worry,” said the White Chief. All three chiefs were sitting with Sunoya, Ninyu, and the entire family. Detala had served the adults sassafras tea. “Socos stand up for each other. We will fight Inaj if we have to, however we have to, for as long as we have to.”

The Red Chief put in, “We do think you should take some precautions. I’m sorry to have to say this. Inaj will sneak first, attack second. One of your relatives, men you trust, should stand guard on Sunoya and the baby every moment of every day. When Sunoya walks through the village, when she sleeps, even when she goes to the river to pee. Every moment.”

“Agreed,” said Ninyu.

The Medicine Chief said, “What can your spirit guide do to help?

Su-Li said,
Tell them I’ll keep watch from the skies. Anything else is between you and me.

Sunoya said, “He has the eyesight of an eagle and a nose that’s even sharper. He can smell enemies from the tops of mountains. He’ll keep a sky watch for us.”

“Good.”

Sunoya smiled at her buzzard friend. He’d also enjoy being aloft, not sitting around trapped in a hut.

When the chiefs left, Ninyu said, “It’s all right, Sunoya. We are honored to take care of you and the child.”

She thought,
No, it’s not all right being watched every moment. It’s like being in prison.
She said, “You’re very kind to us.”

Within a week a Soco man out hunting deer got a spear through the belly. Though the killer took the spear away, no one had any doubt who was responsible.

Within a moon two women gathering rose hips along the creek were kidnapped. One moon later they straggled into the village. Their tale was rape. They said their bellies could be full of children by any number of men, Tusca men. One added, “Probably Inaj.”

The chiefs of the Socos did the inevitable. They declared that Inaj’s acts demanded much more than satisfying the cry of Tensa’s spirit for redress. This was no longer just a matter for Tensa’s clan or the need for balance in the world. “We are at war,” they declared, “with the Tuscas.”

That meant their new Red Chief was now the village governor. No Galayi band had ever been at war with another.

Sunoya and Su-Li conferred quietly with Ninyu. “Do anything to stop this declaration of war,” Sunoya said. “It will delight Inaj. It will make him all-powerful.”

Ninyu said, “I am no longer a chief—this was bound to happen.”

Word spread as fast as storms blew across the land. A runner came from the Cheowa village, begging the Socos to revoke the declaration.

“Did you tell Inaj the same?” the Red Chief asked.

“Yes.”

“What did he say?”

“Inaj mocked me.”

A runner from the Cusa village came with words even more urgent. The Cusa village was traditionally a place of sanctuary. They never entered into war for any reason, and offered refuge to any person being threatened. The messenger reminded the Soco chiefs of the great commandment of the Immortals when they created the People of the Caves, that no Galayi might ever shed the blood of another. He begged them to consider what punishments the Immortals might rain down upon the tribe if two bands made war on each other.

The chiefs told him to go home without even repeating this foolishness to the Tuscas. The Red Chief said, “The land is already aflame with war.”

“Now Inaj is laughing,” Sunoya told Ninyu. “He’s laughing at us, laughing at the world, laughing at the Immortals.”

Ninyu asked Sunoya, “How long will Inaj go on?”

“As long as we don’t turn Dahzi over to him. You’ve got to do something.”

“There’s nothing I can do. For the moment, Ahsginah, the Evil One, reigns.”

W
hen spring came, the two warring villages risked going to the Planting Moon Ceremony. It was the dance that brought full bellies to the people for the entire year—the corn crop, ground, was a staple during the winter. Besides, no one would dare violate the truce of these sacred dances.

“Still,” said Ninyu, “we’ll keep two guards on you and the Hungry One all the time.”

As soon as they made camp along the river above the village, an old man brought Sunoya a message. “Tsola wants to see you tonight. You and the child.”

Sunoya smiled. She knew this old man for what he was.

She had made a full day’s travel carrying Dahzi already today, but for Tsola she could walk another hour up to Emerald Cave. “Eat with us and we’ll go.”

“We’ll wait until dark,” said the old man.

The two guards were mystified when Sunoya told them she and the child would be going to the Emerald Cavern that night with the old man. They were more scandalized when she said she’d be taking the child, and petrified at the edge of the camp when the old man began to change. Fingers to claws. Arms to forelegs. Skin to fur. Face to muzzle. Teeth to fangs.

The panther turned to the guards. “Just follow and keep calm. I see well in the dark.”

In the middle of the night, though the Cavern knew neither day nor night, Tsola held the Hungry One, the child of prophecy, and giggled. Sunoya laughed. She wasn’t used to seeing the Wounded Healer act this way. Tsola even held the
child toward the fire, for his sake, though she preferred the cool of the Cavern, and the darkness.

Sunoya reached up and stroked Su-Li’s feathers. He still disliked caves, especially this vast one, and he could travel to the spirit world without Tsola’s help.

Tsola got an extra blanket, wrapped the child tighter, and sat a few steps from the embers. “I have something on my mind.”

“Talk her out of it,” said the panther, Klandagi.

Sunoya frowned at him. She was used to Klandagi’s voice, human with a hint of growl, but this was abrasive.

“I’ll take this tone with her if I have to,” said Klandagi. “It’s my job to save her. The people need her.”

“Let me tell Sunoya,” said Tsola.

When Tsola finished her proposal, Sunoya was rigid with fright. Tsola uncovered the child’s face and looked at it, waiting for Sunoya to say something.

After a long pause, Klandagi spoke instead. He howled like a beast, a wail of woe. Then he said, “If you do this, the clansmen of the chiefs you offend will rise up and kill you.”