The Last Sundancer (18 page)

“You found water.” His words were a statement, not a question.  

Her eyes were wide with shock as she stared down at the body of the man that had sought to kill Kaichen and take her with him.   She shook with grief as she remembered his final words.  He had killed her mother. 

Amara did not want the man’s words to be true.  However, she had seen her mother fall and she had heard the silence that should have been full of her mother’s voice as she screamed. 

“I am sorry about your mother.” Kaichen’s chest heaved as he stood beside Amara.  He wanted to pull her into his arms but she held herself stiffly as if she would crumble at the slightest touch.

Amara raised sad eyes to look at Kaichen. 
“I have nothing to return to now.”

“I will keep you safe.  You belong with us now.” He knew that his words would offer little comfort in the face of her overwhelming loss.  

He saw her glance at him and then Antuk.  She simply nodded in acceptance as her eyes filled with tears.  Kaichen wondered how long it had been since Amara had felt truly and utterly safe?  He braced her shoulders as she swayed unsteadily.

Kaichen did not have to ask her if she was well, he saw her body go limp and he lifted her swiftly into his arms to keep her from
falling.  Her weight was a balm to his soul and he did not wish to release her but common sense told him that he needed to make certain that their enemy was dead.  

“Hold her.” Kaichen gave Amara over to Antuk’s safekeeping.  His friend murmured about butterflies and took Amara into his arms. 

Kaichen returned to the fallen warrior and he stood looking down at his enemy for a long time.  The man had refused to die, not once, but twice.  Kaichen could not risk the return of such a vengeful enemy. 

He knelt at the man’s side, while holding his knife ready to thrust and checked the man for signs of life.  There was no breath
left in the man’s body.  There was no thrumming beat of his heart when he placed his hand upon his chest. 

Kaichen stood slowly as he stared at the man covered in dust and grime.  He had been relentless and it was just as Amara said, the man would not stop until he had her in his grasp
or died in the attempt.   Kaichen took his weapons and broke the bow of his enemy.  

“If you rest in the world of timelessness, then you will do so without weapons to cause harm.” Kaichen backed away until he stood beside Antuk
and then he accepted Amara’s slight weight.   

“You brought the rain.” Antuk indicated Kaichen
and Amara. 

He was soaked from the chest down, after holding Amara close.  The woman in his arms was wet from head to toe.   Kaichen did not have the heart to disabuse his friend of his strange notions.   He was not the
one that his people waited for and he had not brought the rain with his dance. 

He accepted Amara’s gentle weight into his arms and he looked down upon her as she slowly awakened. 
Her luminous dark eyes reflected the moonlight as she stared up at him in confusion.

“You should not have risked your life for me, little one.” Kaichen stared do
wn into Amara’s upturned face.

“I could not let you die.” Amara whispered the words softly as Kaichen d at her.  He did not speak.  He simply held her closer to hi
s chest and continued walking.

It did not take Antuk long at all to re
turn to Kaichen with both waterskins brimming with life-giving liquid.  Kaichen thanked his friend for his efforts.  Antuk was skilled in the woods even in the dark, he had been able to follow Amara’s trail and find the place where she had fallen into a pool of water.

Kaichen poured a bit of water into his palm and pressed this to Amara’s face and neck.  She blinked
until her eyes opened fully as she took in their surroundings. Her body still trembled though she had grown calm and utterly still.

“I cannot return to my people.  If my mother is truly no longer amongst the living, I would only be a burden to
anyone that escaped the attack on our village.” Amara’s thoughts crashed into each other as she tried to determine her future. 

She panted softly as she tried to catch her breath.  If she closed her
eyes, she could still feel the press of the enemy warrior’s hand upon her throat.   Fear trickled through her body making her stiff and cold at the same time.  

She should not feel so cold when
the air was dry and warm.  Amara felt her knees buckle as she struggled to breathe.  She felt the furious pounding of her heart as she tried to fill her lungs with air.  

“I cannot breathe.” Amara gasped as she spoke to Kaichen.

“Take slow, deep breaths.  I have seen men react this way after almost losing their lives.” Kaichen’s voice was a soothing murmur.  

Amara tried to find comfort in the
silent confidence that he exuded.  Yet, deep inside, she knew that he was angry with her for risking her life. 

“You will not ever again put yourself in danger to protect my life.” Kaichen tried to wait until Amara was fully alert and no longer panicked and shaking before he spoke, but he could not.

Amara did not respond to Kaichen’s quietly delivered order.  His voice held something that she could sense but could not name.  Was it only that he had feared for her life or was it something more?

“You speak to m
e as a man speaks to his wife.  We were joined as lifemates by Azin, but I am not your wife in all ways.” Amara knew that she should keep her thoughts to herself, but her mind was a jumble of thoughts, sounds and words.   She could not stop herself from speaking. 

“You are correct. You are not my wife
in all ways.  But you are my responsibility and I will not let harm come to you.  If it is your wish, I will return you to your people.”  Kaichen waited without breathing as Amara’s eyes widened and she considered his offer.

Amara believed Kaichen when he told her that after he completed his quest he would see to it that she returned to her band
even though there did not appear to be any survivors.  He had considered his purpose so important at the time that he would not have turned back for anything and yet he offered to do so now.  For her.

“No.  I cannot go back.” And even if she wished to try she would not ask it of him.  Not now.  Not when she knew that he had a special purpose and that he felt honor bound to follow the path set out before him until the end.  

“Your blood would have been on my hands for all time.” Kaichen’s murmured words were anguished and they silently stared at one another with nothing more to say. 

“Twice now, you have saved my life. 
If you had not survived the fight with that vile man, Antuk and I would have still met death, only later.  We are not equipped to survive without you.  I knew that the land of my birth was full of dangers, but in truth, I have never faced those dangers until now.  You seem especially equipped to survive.” Amara studied Kaichen as she tried to find the courage to ask him for his help. 

“There is a question hidden
within your words.” Kaichen’s raspy voice was unyielding.  He would never forget the sight of Amara bathed in streams of water as she stood in the moonlight facing death for him. 
For him.
In that moment, he had wanted her more than words could express and he was struck anew at the way that she unintentionally drew tender feelings from him. 

“Teach us.  I ask that you teach
us how to survive, just as you have been taught, just as you have been trained.” Amara was certain that the ground would open up and swallow her whole for asking such a thing, but she boldly continued.  “Teach us the warrior’s way.”

Kaichen remained silent as he considered Amara’s request.   He could understand that her quest for knowledge was born of fear, but there was an eagerness and determination in her eyes that called to him.  Azin had given him much and he did not ask Kaichen to keep such things a secret. 

What she asked for was wisdom and Azin had given him more than his fair share. “I will share the warrior’s way with you and perhaps you will learn all that you can, but why did you include Antuk in your request?”

Amara was silent for so long that Kaichen thought she would not
answer and then she spoke.  “I think that Antuk has been underestimated by many throughout his life.  I ask only that he receive the same instruction as I do.  Will you teach us?”

“Yes.” Kaichen
was unwilling to question himself on the matter.  “But you are wrong about Antuk.  He is my friend and I want only the best for him.  He struggles when he is overburdened with too much at once.”

It was a kind way of saying that Antuk was not good at any one thing.  Amara’s full lips flattened as her eyes sparked defiance. 

“Perhaps he is simply capable of focusing solely upon one task at a time.  Perhaps that is his skill.”

Kaichen did not disagree with her, he simply nodded his head.  After a
moment, he took Amara’s hand and helped her stand.  

“We will leave now.  Daylight is just ahead.”

Amara accepted the waterskin that he handed her and she smiled encouragingly at Antuk who stood off to the side watching her as if he feared she would simply collapse where she stood.  

Amara wanted to collapse.  She wanted to fall to her knees and weep until she had no tears left
but the time for grief was not now.  

Kaichen
looked at her as if he searched for something within her that only he could see.  Amara could only hope that she met with his approval.  For he had offered her his protection when without it, she would have nothing at all.  

“You will feel more comfortable with our people if you learn the language.” Kaichen spoke to Amara interspersing the words of her language with his.
From experience, he knew that it was easier to learn the language of another by intermingling the two.

“How is it that you know how to speak my language so well?” Amara spoke because it was expected of her.  Her
voice was loud enough to carry to Kaichen but her heart felt wooden and empty. 

The sunlight that filtered
down from the sky above touched her but it did not warm her deep inside where her spirit had gone cold and silent.

“I learned your language from a man that was
a friend to both my mother and father.  Azin is the man that taught me the warrior’s way.” Kaichen’s response was brief and direct.  

Again
, he added words of his language with words known to Amara.  She quickly began to see that their languages were closely matched with different twists of the tongue and an emphasis on various sounds. 

“I will speak to you in the language of my people, the people of the red rock canyons.  Soon you will respond in kind.  This will be your second lesson.  The first lesson is one that you have already learned.  Never fight the desert, it will always win.” Kaichen’s face was set in a mask of determi
nation and Amara simply nodded.

What choice did she have? His silence told her that there was no choice, she had to learn to survive on her own without a family, without a band or village to lend her strength.  And so it began. 

“How old are you Amara?” Kaichen’s question took her by surprise.  Amara had been riding upon his horse lost in her own thoughts. 

“I have seen seventeen seasons of life.” Amara answered slowly.  Her tongue still stumbled over the sound of Kaichen’s words.  For the last several days, he had spoken to her with a mixture of both languages.  In this way, she began to pick up the cadence of his speech and to understand his words.  Antuk for his part had caught on to Amara’s language and enjoyed the challenge of speaking in first one language and then another.  

“You are younger than I imagined.”
Kaichen enjoyed the way that Amara’s eyes lit with fire as her gaze challenged him. 

Her beauty called to him and he knew that it would call to other men, men without honor and men with honor alike.  He tried to keep his eyes turned away from the loveliness of her face, but he found that he searched for reasons to look at her, speak to her and stand close to her if possible. 

The longer he was with her, the harder it was to remain unaffected.  She was graceful and fragile as women were meant to be but she was also deceptively strong.  

How else could he explain her ability to set her grief aside and continue on their journey?  He knew that she grieved for her mother.  He could see her grief plainly in the shadows that marked her eyes and the press of her full lips
whenever she held them together to stop their trembling.  At night, she wept but she did so quietly, so as not to disturb them. 

If only she knew that
he rarely slept.  His body remained alert well into the night and only when he was fully exhausted did he allow himself to drift into troubled sleep.  Kaichen never dreamed free of terror.