Jamestown (The Keepers of the Ring) (37 page)

She was small again, for her thumb slid easily through the ring that hung about her neck.
She clutched it in her hand, loving the soft coolness of the golden circle against her skin, and a light voice called from an English house of wattle and daub. “Gilda,” the voice called, then a dark-haired woman appeared in one of the shuttered windows. “Where have you been? Your father and I have been worried about you.”

The lady walked out of the house and gathered the child into her arms, swinging her in a circle as the girl laughed and nestled into the softness of the woman
’s embrace. Mother smelled of warmth and bread and honey. Her dark hair, soft as a rabbit’s fur, curled into ringlets at her temples and the nape of her neck.

“
Your father wants you to find the boys,” Mother said, planting the child’s feet firmly on the ground. “Noshi and Fallon are down by the river.”

S
he stood at the river’s edge, and the ring had shrunk again to its usual size. Two boys knelt in the soft sand, building houses of mud and sticks. One boy was dark-haired and honey-colored like herself, the other was tall, thin, and pale, with hair the color of burnished copper. ‘Twas Fallon, without a doubt, in the gangly throes of adolescence.

Fallon saw her and stood up, shading his eyes with his hand.
“Who are you?” he asked, backing away from her. “I don’t know you.”

“
I am Kimi,” she said, moving toward him, but the name seemed to fill him with fear. He backed away, closer to the edge of the swirling river.

“
I am Numees,” she offered, smiling as she moved closer, but again he moved away. “I am Concheta, a stranger,” she said, offering whatever names came to her mind. “Or you may call me Taima, woman of thunder.”

With every name she offered he trembled and moved
closer to the water until he teetered on the edge, his arms pin wheeling, and she felt something in her soul give way. “I am Gilda,” she cried, thrusting out her arms to catch him. “Father sent me to find you.”

The ridge of soil beneath the boy
’s bare feet cracked and broke, but Gilda’s hands caught his and pulled him to safety. He gave her a smile as bright as sunshine. “I thank you,” he whispered, pillowing his head against her shoulder. “You have saved me.”

Reality returned in a rush and she sat up, as wide awake as if she
’d just drunk a cup of the conjuror’s strongest tea. Brody dozed by the fire, the two ministers snored steadily in the dusk of twilight, and Fallon lay motionless under an oak.

‘
Twas only another dream. For a moment she relaxed in relief, then felt a fierce pang of loss for the smiling woman and the boy who had nestled in her arms and whispered his gratitude.

Thirty

T
he distance they had traveled two days in the canoe would take at least four to recover on foot. Kimi was grateful that despite the bruising beating they had endured at the hands of the children, none of the men in her company proved to be of a complaining nature. She had seen many Englishmen who shuddered at the sight of snakes and griped about their bunions and sore feet with every step, but Fallon, Brody, and the two ministers maintained her pace through the woods and made only casual conversation when they talked at all.

But their casual conversation revealed much.
Brody, the tall one with golden hair, asked Kimi if she had seen the veins of gold reported to lie deep under the banks of the rivers. He shook his head in regret when she said she had seen no gold save the ring around her own neck. Later she heard him tell the ministers that as soon as he was able, he would lead an expedition into the interior to open those golden veins for England’s share of the riches the Spanish had been plundering for years.

Brody was observant, charming, and independent, she had to admit, but now that they were well out of Opechancanough
’s immediate territory, he grew more brash than she thought wise. He talked of the infallible escape plan he would have effected if Fallon had been killed, and bragged that the savages would never have placed his head on the rock of execution—he would have died in battle before willingly kneeling before the chief.

Fallon listened to Brody
’s blustering without rebuttal, and Kimi wondered that he did not smack the younger man for his impudence and be done with him. But Fallon bore his friend’s comments with no sign of ill-humor, and Kimi decided that the friendship between them must be very strong and deep indeed.

The two ministers spent most of their conversation with each other, and once they asked Fallon what had brought him to Virginia.
Fallon told them of his school in England and the London Company’s request that one hundred boys be brought for indenture. “So I came, hoping to find them good homes and places of service,” Fallon explained, tossing his words over his shoulder as they hiked along the narrow trail. “But I was greatly dismayed when I finally came ashore to find that the boys had already been dispersed throughout the settlements.”

The clergymen promised to help Fallon visit the settlements if he wished to, and as she walked Kimi pondered the nature of a man who would cross the great ocean to care for such a number of boys.
Such a man would be patient and temperate and true. He must of certain be honest, for children had the gift of clear sight, and knew when men were false-natured. So how, then, could he tell her such a preposterous story about her childhood? And how had he known about the inscription of the ring?

Because Reverend Whitaker told him.
And her dream?
A lie unleashed by the story he told you.
Her mind skated away from the unsolvable dilemma and she quickened her pace along the trail.

They had not eaten in two days.
As the darkness came on at sunset the air along the riverbank seemed to vibrate softly in a great rush of noise. Kimi held up her hand, stopping in her place, and Brody darted forward to question her. “What is it?” he whispered, naked fear in his eyes.

Fallon gave the answer.
“Dinner.”

Without a word, Kimi pointed upward.
Branches of the trees above them sagged beneath the weight of an enormous flock of roosting passenger pigeons. At short intervals a swarm launched themselves into the sky, blocked the lingering rays of sun, and returned to the trees that rustled heavily with the bodies of the birds. Kimi had often seen the huge flocks, and their migrations would sometimes take days to pass overhead.

“
Your God hath smiled upon us,” she said, glancing over her shoulder to the two ministers. “We shall eat today, and carry meat for tomorrow.”

The gigantic flock had begun to settle down for the night,
and their chirps and cries echoed eerily across the stillness of the water. Kimi motioned for the men behind her to stand still, then she looked at Fallon. “I will need your doublet,” she whispered. Without hesitation he slipped it from his shoulders and handed it to her.

She walked quietly into the woods until she stood under a tree whose limbs sagged with the weight of the birds.
Standing as motionless as a statue, she gave an abrupt whistle, and half a dozen birds flew to the ground to peer at her, cocking their heads as if she had spoken. She murmured to them in a low, soothing voice, and while they sat transfixed by the sound, she slipped the doublet over the closest bird, trapping him underneath.

“
That’s a very good trick,” Brody called from where the men waited. “And that’s about two mouthfuls for each of us.”

Ignoring him, Kimi lifted the jacket and caught the bird
’s body in her hands, still soothing him. “Do not fear, little brother,” she whispered, “for you will fly again.”

The beauty of the graceful birds had always awed her.
The creature that cooed beneath her hands was a male, brown with streaks of blue upon his body. His mate, a tall female with a beautiful cinnamon-rose colored breast, perched on a low branch and jeered at Kimi. “Patience, my sister,” Kimi crooned, trapping the male beneath the doublet again so she could rip a strip of fabric from its lining. “Your mate will come home.”

Quickly tying a loose knot in the fabric strip, she eased the bird
’s head out from under Fallon’s coat and fastened the noose over the male’s head, effectively blinding him. With the bird imprisoned beneath the heavy fabric, she uprooted a vine, stripped it of its leaves in one swift motion, and tied one end of the supple plant around the bird’s foot. After looping the other end around a broken branch on a fallen log, she carefully lifted the doublet and backed away.

The hooded bird hopped uncertainly in the clearing, then beat his wings in distress.
His cries and frantic signaling carried through the silent forest, and others of his flock descended to watch his agitated movements. When the birds covered the ground as thickly as a living carpet, Kimi turned in triumph toward the astounded men behind her. “Use your doublets to capture as many as you can,” she whispered, tossing Fallon’s torn coat back to him. “But do not hurt the hooded bird.”

The men swarmed forward, cheering in their excitement, and the distracted birds flew into each other in a frantic
attempt to flee. Each man caught at least three birds, and when their necks had been wrung, Kimi set the hooded pigeon free.

“
By heaven, that was a good trick,” Brody crowed with delight as Kimi led them back to the river where they could roast their catch. “Why don’t you come with me when I go inland? I could use a girl who knows her way in the wilderness.”

She gave him no answer, but pointed to the place where they should build a fire.

After a filling meal they stretched out in a clearing to sleep. Kimi sat with her eyes fixed upon the dancing fire, lost in thought, and shifted in annoyance when Fallon sat down beside her. “You have saved our lives more than once,” he said, his eyes sweeping over her with a tenderness no one save Pocahontas had ever shown her. “If we had not eaten, I doubt we would have had the strength to make it back to Jamestown.” His forehead crinkled. “I used to know how to call the animals, but I have forgotten so much . . .”

She did not know what he expected her to say, so she remained quiet and stared into the fire.
Her silence did not dampen his desire to talk. “I once took care of you, Gilda, though I doubt you remember it. You and Noshi were such little things. I fed you with eggs I found on the river, do you remember? I took care of you then, and I’ll take care of you again when we get to Jamestown. After we find Noshi, if you want to go to England, we can, or if you want to live in Jamestown, we could do that, too—”

She recoiled from his words.
“Go to England?” she said, her soul flooding with horror. “John Rolfe took Pocahontas to England and she did not come back. Why would I want to go to such a place?”

Fallon shrugged.
“I cry you mercy, if you don’t want to go, we won’t. It doesn’t matter where we go. But I’m here to take care of you now, Gilda, just like I promised.”

She stood and angrily brushed the dirt from her tunic.
“I do not need your help. I am taking you to Jamestown as my chief commanded, and then I will return to my village.” She lifted her chin in defiance. “The chief hath promised me to Askook, a fine warrior.”

“
Promised you?” Fallon’s lips pursed suspiciously.

“
I will become his wife.”

“
Oh no,” Fallon answered, a smile playing briefly upon his face. “Your mother and father would never allow that. I can’t permit it. If you marry at all, you must marry a Christian man.”

“
You mean an
English
man!”

“
Nay,” Fallon shook his head and smiled again as if her anger amused him. “I care not whether he be English or Indian or French. Even Spanish, if he is not a popish Catholic. But you and I are of Ocanahonan, and by the laws of that city, you must marry a believer in Christ. ‘Tis a principle of the Bible, God’s Holy Word—”

“
I am not of Ocanahonan!”

“
Then what are you?” he asked, and the simple question caught her off guard.

Tears of frustration filled her eyes as she searched for an answer.
She was not of the English, nor was she truly of the Powhatan. Opechancanough had not trusted her, and by rescuing these men she had proved that she harbored tender feelings toward the English and their God. But an Englishman had taken Pocahontas and the baby, those she loved the most—

“
I belong to myself,” she finally whispered, her eyes falling again on the devouring fire.

Fallon stood up, and his hands fell upon her shoulders.
She caught her breath at his gentle touch and lifted her eyes to his. “You and I, Gilda, were born into a place where God, not an earthly king, established laws and justice,” he said, his voice like a warm embrace in the chilly air. “We were born to people who measured men by the love in their hearts, not the color of their skin. In Ocanahonan English and Indian worked and lived together, all were joined in a common service to God and their fellow man—”