Shaxoa's Gift (20 page)

“Really, I don’t remember Dad ever giving you
one of these,” I said.

“He hasn’t,” Cole said. There was a hard edge
to his voice. “Dad doesn’t think I deserve one yet, and probably
never will.” Cole sat motionless while his anger dissipated. “Oh
well, it doesn’t really mean anything, just a tradition. Dad’s
hardly the one to pass judgment on me anyway.”

“You’ve already proven yourself to everyone
that matters, Cole,” I said. Even though Cole was often casual in
his attitudes toward relationships and his own future, he had
always been responsible and reliable when it came to family.

“Are you coming home anytime soon? Mom’s
afraid you’ll never come back. She’s ready to throw Dad out of the
house if it means you might come home.”

“Really? She would throw Dad out?” I
said.

Cole nodded. “Dad’s been stomping around the
house looking like he thinks the world is about to end. He hasn’t
even been to work since you collapsed, I guess. He’s pretty freaked
out.”

That was shocking. Yes, he had seemed upset
and a little desperate when we talked, but I had no idea what was
happening had consumed him so much. I had thought Lina would be the
easiest to get to talk. If my dad is really that wound up, I might
be able to find the one string to pull that will unravel all his
secrets. I always was pretty good at pushing his buttons.

“Look, Cole, I’m definitely not coming home
until Uriah is back. I think he’s trying to find a way to break the
bond, but until he does, I need to stay where I can remember him
best. If I don’t keep him in my mind every second, my memories of
him start to fade. I thought it would get easier, but it isn’t,” I
said. I was already feeling the desperation starting to creep back
in. “I’m trying so hard, but I don’t know how much longer I can do
this. I have to stay. I have to.”

I was crying again. Admitting how much I was
struggling brought a tide of emotions rushing over me. The weight
of them pressed against me, trying to break my soul enough to slip
in and overwhelm me for good. My breathing shortened and I fought
to keep from falling into another terrifying panic attack. Just a
few more days, I said over and over again in my mind. I could last
that long. I had to. Uriah would come home and rescue me from the
nightmare I couldn’t escape.

“Shh,” Cole said. His hand was stroking my
hair softly. “It’s okay, Claire. Everything will be okay.”

I wanted to agree, but I was sobbing so hard
I couldn’t even begin to form the words. I rocked back and forth
with Cole, letting the rhythm seep into me. I would have given
anything at that moment to hear Uriah’s lullaby. Instead, Cole’s
lighthearted voice broke the silence.

“I remember this time when I was about
fifteen,” Cole began. “I was in the locker room at school after
basketball practice one day. I got out of the shower, and a couple
of guys, I won’t say who, were standing around talking about you.
Usually they didn’t say crude stuff like that when I was around,
but they didn’t see me.

“I was about to tell them to shut the hell up
when Uriah walked up and grabbed one of the guys. Uriah just glared
at him, but the guy thought he was big stuff and started mouthing
off right to Uriah’s face, which was really stupid, because even
then Uriah was like a foot taller than him. Uriah picked him up by
his shirt and shoved him against the wall. He told him that if he
ever heard him say another word about you he would punch him in the
face. The guy got the point, and so did his friends.”

Cole laughed at the story. He would. While it
was not as endearing as some of the other stories I had heard about
Uriah since waking up, it did cheer me up. I sniffed a few more
times before I was finally ready to wipe my eyes and face my
brother again.

“With Dad badgering you every step of the way
and half the town supporting him, Uriah’s dad dying and his mom
getting hurt, the poison, and Daniel, you two have been through
more in the last year and a half than most married couples do in
their entire marriage. If you guys can survive everything you have
so far, you can make it through this,
nishiime
,” Cole said
with a final hug. “Now if you don’t mind, I’m exhausted. Let me
take you home, okay?”

“Home?”

“Back to Uriah’s, I mean,” Cole said.

“Thanks, Cole.” I climbed back into his
4Runner praying he was right even as the bond punished me for
it.

18: Laws

Their yellow eyes watched me warily. They had
surrounded me again, but this time I had let them. Careful
confidence surged through me. I had learned their secrets, some of
them at least, and I was prepared to use those hidden truths
against them. A cocked ear, a scratching paw were their signals,
but I didn’t have to pay attention to those small movements.

I could hear their thoughts as if they were
speaking them plainly. The largest monstrosity was the leader, as I
had expected. The chain of command was a tenuous thing with the
creatures. They were used to working alone. The Matwau’s call had
brought them together and forced them into their uneasy allegiance.
Their goal was to capture and maim, but not destroy me.

They were about to fail.

Scanning their thoughts, I easily located the
weakest creature in the pack. Its thoughts were balanced between
running away and waiting for the fight to ensue so it could merely
stand back and let the others do their assigned work. I made up its
mind for it.

Leaping at the cringing monster, I swung my
arm, brushing it away before it could even react. Its body slammed
into a nearby tree. I was hurtling away before it even slid back to
the ground. Howling and snarling followed me. I ducked under
branches and crashed through bushes as I raced toward the searing
desert I knew would appear.

The glaring sunlight, unbroken by trees, was
just ahead. Eager to meet my next challenge, I pushed myself for
more speed. The soft, wet sensation on my face was shocking.
Reaching up, I felt only dry skin. My pace slowed as the feeling
came again.

“Uriah,” my name came bursting into the
thicket. “Uriah, wake up.”

A sharp nudge finally jolted me awake. I
opened my eyes to find Talon hovering over me. I groaned. That was
what the wet feeling had been, cougar slobber. I brought my hand to
my face and wiped the wetness away. “Was that really necessary,
Talon?”

“Yes.” Talon never explained his actions
unless he felt the need to do so.

“Why did you wake me up?” I asked. The
bedside clock only read six-thirty a.m.

“You were acting strangely,” Talon said.

“I was dreaming about the fight again. You
shouldn’t have woken me. I think I’m actually learning how to fight
them better with each dream. I was almost to the Matwau that time.
If Kaya’s right about him coming after me soon, I need all the help
I can get. Even if it is from dreams,” I said.

“It is time to get up, anyway. Kaya is
coming,” Talon said.

Not two seconds later, Kaya’s knock sounded
on the door. “Uriah?”

“Yeah?” I pulled the sheet I had kicked onto
the floor up over my shorts in case Kaya decided to come in.
Thankfully she didn’t.

“Samantha just called. She wants us to come
over as soon as possible,” Kaya said.

“I’ll be right there,” I said through the
door. Lowering my voice, I turned back to Talon. “After I wash my
face.” Talon ignored my last comment. I quickly pulled my jeans
back on and rummaged through my backpack for a clean shirt. When I
finally found one, it was rumpled and creased, but I threw it on
anyway.

Stepping across the hall to the bathroom, I
quickly brushed my teeth and ran my fingers through my hair a
couple of times until I realized it wasn’t going to do any good.
Talon had already left me behind. Following the delicious smells
rising from the kitchen, I hurried after him.

Talon was hungrily eating a large slab of
meat off a painted pottery-ware plate. Kaya set two plates of warm
scrambled eggs topped with spicy green chile sauce on the dining
room table. I inhaled the scent of huevos rancheros hungrily. Kaya
sat down and waited for me to join her. I pulled the chair out and
sat across from her. One look at her, and I could see the sleep
still lingering in her eyes.

“How long did you stay up?” I asked. Her
exhaustion had me feeling more than a little guilty. I had tried to
stay up with her and help search through her many books on Tewa
history and mythology, but I had given in before she did. After the
third time I had dropped a book in the middle of reading it, Kaya
had insisted that I turn in.

“Just a couple hours after I sent you to
bed,” Kaya said. I had dropped off around two in the morning. If
she stayed up another two hours, she was only working on about two
and a half hours of sleep. No wonder she looked ready to fall into
her eggs.

“You can just give me directions back to
Samantha’s house. I’ll drive over, and you can go back to sleep,” I
suggested. Kaya had taken me to where I had left my motorcycle on
our way back from her sister’s house last night, so it would be no
problem for me to make the trip on my own. “I’ll just take my bike
and you can come over when you’ve gotten some rest.”

Already shaking her head before I was halfway
through with my suggestion, Kaya cleared her mouth of eggs. “Not a
chance, Uriah. I want to see everything that happens today.”

The old saying that curiosity killed the cat
made perfect sense when it came to Kaya and her sister. I shrugged
in defeat. “Fine, fine.”

Finishing my breakfast quickly, I waited
patiently for Kaya to finish as well. Scraping the last bit of
chile-covered eggs off her plate and into her mouth, Kaya carried
her plate to the sink in a rush. She looked worried that I would
try to sneak off without her.

“Now remember, Uriah,” Kaya said, “this may
take a few days. Sam didn’t know last night how long it would be
before the herbs were ready. She may have a better idea today, but
don’t be surprised if you can’t go home today. I know you’re
anxious to get back to Claire, but please try to be patient.”

“I will,” I promised. I had gotten used to
the dull, but poignant, prick of desperation in my mind and heart.
My mind was constantly counting the minutes and hours I was away
from Claire. I had no way of judging what the bond was doing to
her. I had felt its intensity and I was struggling to believe that
anyone could fight against it for long, if at all. Patience was not
what I wanted to practice, but I would do what I must for
Claire.

I had been running for so long, it was
becoming hard to remember what day it was. Quickly I counted the
days since I had first left Claire in Sophia’s care. Five. Today
was the fifth day since Claire had been poisoned, two days since
she was revived and bound to Daniel. It was already Monday.

Kaya stood to clear the rest of the dishes.
Monday should have been a work day for her. With my thoughts so
focused on my own needs, I hadn’t even considered that I might be
forcing Kaya to shirk whatever work she was supposed to be doing.
“Kaya, do you work?” I asked. “I don’t want to keep you from
anything you need to be doing.”

Kaya waved away my worry. “I’m a teacher,
Uriah. I don’t have to be back to work for a few more weeks,” she
said. “I sell my weavings too, but only when I want to. So no,
you’re not keeping me from anything. This is the most interesting
thing I’ve done all summer.” Gathering her keys from a small dish
on her counter, Kaya gestured at the door. “Let’s get going. Sam is
waiting for us.”

The drive to Samantha’s house began quietly.
My mind was filled with wondering. Wondering how long it would take
to make the potion. Wondering how well Claire was fighting the
bond. Wondering when the Matwau would attack my Twin Soul.
Wondering, but reaching no answers. That seemed to be the way of
things the past few days.

“Did you find anything useful last night?” I
asked Kaya. I had searched along with her, but I didn’t find a
single story, myth, or prophecy that sounded anything like Quaile’s
vision.

“I’m not sure yet. I didn’t find anything
exactly like what I was hoping for, but there were a few tidbits
here and there that might be useful,” Kaya said.

“Such as?”

“I found a very short story mentioned in a
book I inherited from the last shaman that mentioned the Matwau. I
should have read it already, but with taking over her duties, I
just haven’t had time for much else,” Kaya said. “Anyway, in the
story, the Matwau came across a pair searching for each other. The
man, Ahiga, beat the Matwau back and reached his Twin Soul. The
Matwau was angry that he had been beaten and remembered the
man.

“When Ahiga had a son, the Matwau returned.
Filled with a need for vengeance, the Matwau made a plan to steal
the child and kill it. Sneaking into the man’s house, he made his
way to the child’s room, but as he tried to lay his hands upon the
child, he was bound by the laws and couldn’t harm the infant. Ahiga
woke up and chased the Matwau away,” Kaya finished.

Turning onto another unmarked dirt road, I
saw a pair of rabbits dart from under a bush. I wondered if they
were running from something as well. Kaya continued by saying, “I
know that doesn’t help explain the dreams, but it does confirm that
there are laws governing what the Matwau can do. Now, either you
will come in contact with your Twin Soul very soon without the bond
actually forming, or there is something about you that allows the
Matwau to break the laws he’s bound by.”

“How could I come in contact with my Twin
Soul without the bond forming?” I asked.

“If you came very close to her, but didn’t
actually touch her, your souls would recognize each other, you’ll
feel a pull to be with her, but the bond won’t actually form,” Kaya
said.