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must guard our son. It is not an easy thing to prepare the way for the one who comes."
She rose and put her arms about him, her head against his shoulder. "I will pray for your success. I will
pray that you meet no enemy people, for the Long-Heads live among the mountains to the west. Do pray
for my welfare as well, my husband, for there are times when birth goes hard and neither child nor mother
survives."
The thought chilled him to his heart. "Your grandmother is here, your sisters, my own people. The healers
of all the clans share skills. They know much, and they will be at hand if there is need.
"But I had not thought of the danger. I will pray, indeed, as I go, E-lo-ni. Both of us must hold good
thoughts and strong hearts. I will return in late summer, when you hold our son in your arms."
Despite his brave words, the memory haunted him as he moved away from the village across the rolling
plain. Ahead the mountains made dark smudges against the sky, and underfoot, from time to time, the
ground groaned and shook. To the south, he knew, fresh mountains had risen in the time of his
grandfather. Now he wondered if the earth itself were trying to give birth.
"Will there be a new mountain born to make a companion for my son?" he asked the sun, now growing
almost warm on his face. But that, too, was a frightening thought. What payment would be demanded of
a man whose son was brother to a mountain?
He walked for three days, without hurry but also without tarrying. From time to time he paused to eat
dried meat or seed bread, but he made no fire. He rested only as much as required to keep himself
strong and alert, as the mountains began to take shape ahead of him.
Now there were trees pines and junipers and, along the lowlands and the occasional creeks, willow
and cotton-wood. Following such a stream, he came at last upon the first of the series of great cliffs,
thrust upward into the sky and outward in rugged angles that pushed into the flanking valley. Those were
striped with ochre, brown, rose, and white.
Moving between two ranks of cliffs, he traveled forward, seeing no human being and few animals. The
roughness of the land through which he traveled was something that did not trouble him, for it was all he
knew. His dogtrot pace covered ground for hours without tiring him, for instead of thinking of his body,
he was thinking about his son-to-be and the quest for a dream or a totem that might safeguard that child
in his life to come.
It was midday on the third day of his journey when Do-na-ti became aware that there were other men on
his trail. Someone was stalking him, and only the Long-Heads hunted this land.
They had raided eastward before this, rampaging into the villages of all of the tribes of people on the
plain, taking women and stores of dried meat. If they were on his trail, it was for no good purpose.
He had reached an area flanked by cliffs at some distance on each side. Between ran a shallow river, and
a dependable source of water was always a good thing to have at hand, though there was still snow to
melt as needed. The trackers were behind him, and to his left that series of angular cliffs jutted into the
valley along which he traveled.
To the west the other line of cliffs seemed to veer away, but the country was fairly level and offered too
little cover for one pursued by the Long-Heads. Making a swift decision, Do-na-ti began to run steadily,
keeping close to the nearer heights. There were many ravines cutting between the prowlike promontories,
as well as tumbles of boulders fallen from above, offering places for concealment.
He needed no conflict, for his was a sacred duty and a journey that posed no threat to anyone. However,
the ones who followed were persistent. They were also trackers who seemed able to follow even the
wind through the sky. He used every trick he had learned in his short lifetime, yet before dark he knew
that he would not shake those who came upon his track.
They would not hunt him in the dark, he knew, for ail men understood that the night held terrible beasts
that devoured men and one another without distinguishing between them. And there were stranger things,
spirits that howled in the darkness and devoured anyone who risked himself to the night.
Do-na-ti took shelter under a boulder, high on the side of a narrow slot beyond a sharply thrusting cliff. A
cluster of rattlesnakes that also occupied the hole beneath the great rock rattled irritably, but the day had
been cool and the night was almost cold. The snakes were too stiff and slow to trouble Do-na-ti, and he
knew they would give warning if anyone peered into the crevice through which he had crept.
With a small prayer of thanks and apology, he caught one of the reptiles for his nightly meal. Eaten raw, it
was not tasty meat, but it would give him the strength he needed.
Below, in the rough-bottomed valley, great creatures howled and grunted and sang their spring mating
songs to the half-moon. In his cranny, Do-na-ti snugged his knees to his chest and slept soundly, knowing [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]