Chapter 4

 

Chapter 4

“We must prepare to jump,” The Spirit told Diamondback without preamble.

Through Wahya’s eyes, Adanata watched Diamondback’s face—or at least the part of it he could see— as he processed that proclamation.  Diamondback always wore a blindfold in the presence of The Spirit, leaving only his lower face visible.

Because Diamondback never looked at Vgatahvi, he had no way of knowing how much alike they looked—though The Spirit had a gentler look than the man.  Adanata was convinced, as he had been from the start, that Vgatahvi was female.  Vgatahvi denied it and Adanata had been unable to gain confirmation, despite trying whenever the opportunity arose.  Perhaps Vgatahvi did not even know what she was.  He’d noticed that gender distinctions among gods, spirits and angels often were much less pronounced than among humans.  He thought all of them, in order to create, must carry some aspect of both.  Of course, the traits of the Creation Beings had existed long before those of humans and, quite likely, before full concepts of male and female evolved.

Both The Spirit and Diamondback had the look of thirty-year-olds.  The Spirit’s frame was more compact, less muscular than Diamondback’s.  She wore her hair long and loose, while Diamondback wore a topknot with shaved sides, which had become tradition for the men of his people.  The Spirit’s long, black hair also had silver streaks, one on each side.  Those had not been there before the Great Flood.  Her features were softer, less chiseled than Diamondback’s.  She did not have human eyes.  They had the same outward shape but were prisms of multicolored light.  And of course, she had an energy aura not present with humans.

All the Spirit Walkers looked like The Spirit, but not nearly as much as Adanata once had.  His form as a man had been passed to him by ancestors whose looks were almost certainly inspired by The Spirit, though he did not know if she’d formed them out of vanity or another Spirit had done it in tribute to her. 

In the old days, even before there were Spirit Walkers, all of Adanata’s humans had taken on aspects of his appearance as they aged.  He’d attributed it to his energies that flowed to them through Wahya.  Now, with the addition of The Spirit’s energies in close proximity, the Spirit Walkers looked even more like him and The Spirit.  Adanata had died at the age of twenty-one, but he could see himself at all ages when he looked at the Spirit Walkers.  Over the years, the pain of that constant reminder had subsided to a dull ache.

Even with the blindfold Diamondback wore, it was plain to see he was not pleased.  His mouth quirked and a muscle worked in his jaw.  All the Spirit Walkers got that same look when they were angry, as did a great many of Adanata’s other humans, but it was not a look of The Spirit, which meant it must have come from him. 

Lake Dweller, seated on the other side of the fire from Wahya, wore the same look.  He’d already unsuccessfully argued his case for David and was trying to let go of his anger.  Within The Spirit’s Sanctuary, he was as sane as any other man.  Adanata did not know how it was that the presence of The Spirit, the very thing that had caused Lake Dweller to go crazy in the first place, was now the only thing that restored his right mind. 

“I would prefer to have Edge prompt Unole to disarm his brother,” Diamondback said.

“In the current situation, with those particular two individuals, it would only lead to increased animosity,” The Spirit said.  “The two of them must work together.  Given this night’s events, I do not wish to waste time trying to salvage their relationship.  If Unole decides to act on his own to disarm his brother, we will give it time and see whether he can mend things.  But if Mark reaches the point of pulling the trigger and inflicts a mortal wound, we will let the Spirit Walker die.”

Diamondback growled.  That was something else all the Spirit Walkers did like Adanata.  When they were really angry, they even bared teeth the way Adanata did, just as Diamondback was doing at that moment.

“I am sorry, Diamondback,” The Spirit said. 

“I know he can fix this!”

“Given time, he likely could,” Vgatahvi said. 

“And you said it seemed like someone was influencing Mark.”

“It does,” The Spirit said.  “But the current Spirit Walker lacks the knowledge and experience to help Mark rectify that situation.  Beyond that, Mark does not appear to be of a mind to want his help.”

“But—”

“Think back to your own life, your broken relationship with your son.  Consider what you would have had to do to repair that.  And how many years it might have taken.  You had obligations.  You did not have the luxury of committing yourself wholly to repairing that broken relationship.  And neither does Unole.”

“He would if you and the other Spirits would stop making demands on him.”

“What good is he to us, living, if we cannot rely on him to do our bidding?”

“Spirit, I am only asking you for a little patience.  Just a little understanding.”

“I am not without compassion,” The Spirit said.  “If Unole saves himself, I will retain him as Spirit Walker.  But if he lets his brother kill him then clearly his priorities are not as they should be to accomplish his mission.”

Diamondback’s jaw clenched again.  “We would be much better at accomplishing your mission if you told us what it is.”

“That is a man’s perspective,” The Spirit said.

“I am only a man,” Diamondback said.  “Unole is only a man.  We cannot read the mind of a Spirit to divine what it is you want from us.”

“I reveal the answers as appropriate, Diamondback,” The Spirit said. 

In the beginning, Adanata had argued to try to convince Vgatahvi to tell the Spirit Walkers more.  As time went by and Adanata came to better understand what was expected of them, he’d decided they were better off not knowing.  No mere man would willingly go where The Spirit ultimately needed the Spirit Walker to take her. 

The Unoles were doubly cursed.  They’d already had a whole different impossible mission from The Spirits in the Mountain long before the decision was made to turn them into Spirit Walkers, and there was no one else to take their place for that.  Adanata feared The Spirits were putting more on the Unoles than any man could ever bear.

The Spirits were right to withhold information, letting men grow into the knowledge slowly.  Ultimately, their missions were going to take a man with an ego even bigger than Morning Star’s, one with an unshakable belief in himself as a god. 

The Spirit continued, “Go make your preparations for the jump.  We go to Raven Chaser.”

“Is there to be a new line of Spirit Walkers?”

“Go.”

“But—”

“The Spirit’s right, Diamondback,” Lake Dweller said, his eyes on the fire.  The old man swung to his feet with the careless ease of a child.  “We need to go get ready.”  Lake Dweller ushered Diamondback toward the door. 

Adanata thought it was no wonder Diamondback had failed to grasp The Spirit’s sense of urgency.  Through the entire exchange, The Spirit had spoken in her usual calm, measured, dispassionate tone.  It was understandable that Diamondback and others before him believed The Spirit uncaring, but Adanata knew Vgatahvi loved all of the Spirit Walkers for the unique individuals they were.  The Spirit was capable of great emotion.  Now and then it overcame her and signs of it showed before she managed to take herself up the stairs to her chamber, to hide.  Adanata knew Spirits’ faces were as expressive as humans’.  Their eyes made silver tears.  And sometimes they sobbed, when they thought no one could hear.

Just before Lake Dweller left, he turned and blew The Spirit a kiss, giving his best Humphrey Bogart.  “See ya on the other side, sweetheart.”

Once again, Wahya was alone with The Spirit.  “You are blushing,” Adanata said through Wahya.

“I am not,” The Spirit said.

If he was, Adanata saw no sign of it.  “I bet you’re blushing on the inside.”

The Spirit dropped to her knees beside Wahya, her eyes on the fire.  “I must determine when to go,” she said.  She scrutinized the fire for several minutes, deciding the destination for the jump.

Vgatahvi ran one hand down the back of Wahya’s neck, the way a human would pet a dog.  Adanata could not really feel the touch, only tiny hints of it.  While he relished the feeling, he did not like being treated like an animal.  Once upon a time, Vgatahvi had seen him as a man.  Of course, back then, he was a man. 

At first, as a wolf, he’d complained when Vgatahvi touched him that way.  After that, The Spirit had done it just to annoy him.  After all the years they’d spent together, he’d come to accept that The Spirit drew comfort from petting him.  It was comforting for him, too, as long as he didn’t think about it enough to let it bother him.

He lowered himself to the floor, looking into the fire, and Wahya did the same in The Spirit’s Sanctuary.  He let The Spirit continue her petting.  They both deserved some quiet moments to prepare themselves for what was to come.

 

“I didn’t want it be this way, David.  But it’s just, there’s some people too dangerous to be walking around in the world.  And I’m sorry.  But you’re one of them.”

“You didn’t used to think that about me.”

“You didn’t used to go around suckin’ in powers like they were baby milk.”

“I need the powers, Mark,” David said.  “I know they could be dangerous.  That used to worry me in the beginning, too.”  He swallowed.  “Still does, sometimes.  But The Spirits are leading me.  And they must have a reason.”

“There ain’t no reason but that you gone power-hungry!”

“Ask them, Mark,” David said. 

“They don’t talk to me no more!” Mark roared, raising the tip of the gun to David’s forehead.  “And that’s probably your doing, too, because you don’t want me to hear what they would tell me!”

“You think they would tell you to put that gun at my head?”

“Wouldn’t surprise me.”

“Well, maybe you oughtta give ‘em one more chance to talk to you,” David said.  “Go somewhere and pray, Mark.  It’ll give your arm a break, too.  It’s gotta be gettin’ tired.”

“Do not make fun of me!”

“I’m not,” David said.  “But this whole thing tonight, it’s just crazy.  I don’t know what’s gotten into you.  But I do know I don’t want to die tonight.  And I don’t ever want to die by your hand.  So I will thank you to put the gun away.  Get some prayer, some sleep, some food, whatever you need to get yourself right.  Maybe things’ll look better in the mornin’ and we can get started fixing us.”  He turned toward his bedroll.

Mark clamped his hand onto David’s upper arm.  “Don’t turn your back on me.”

A low growl rumbled in the night.  The brothers turned as the wolf lunged.

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