WINDWALKER (THE PROPHECY SERIES) (26 page)

“As do I, Naum said.

Chak hesitated. “As do I,” he said, but the hesitation was a moment too long.

He had lied and they knew it. And if a man lies about one thing, he will lie about another.

They were walking out the door as Singing Bird entered with a child.

They nodded cordially, anxious to get out of sight before Cayetano told her what had been said. If the truth be told, they were all afraid of her now; Chak more than the others, because he’d seen something in his dreams that none of the others had mentioned. She was with child, and it was going to be the ruin of their importance in Naaki Chava. That child needed to die, and if Singing Bird died with it, then that would be that.

Chapter Sixteen

The sight of Singing Bird sent the anger from Cayetano’s thoughts. He smiled at her, and then at the little boy hanging onto her hand. It was the first time since her return that he saw peace on her face. He was grateful, whatever the cause.

“Welcome. It is good to see happy faces.”

Layla arched an eyebrow. “Some are not happy?”

“Some are not, and it does not matter,” he said abruptly.

She stored the knowledge for when they were alone, and focused on the boy instead.

“So, love of my heart, I think you should know this boy. We both came into this place alone, and so we have decided to form our own clan.”

His smile widened. It was the boy Acat had been caring for. He had wondered how long it would take her to find him.

“Your own clan? Is this so?” he asked, looking down at the boy.

Yuma’s grip tightened, but he faced the great chief with a nod.

“How did you come to be alone?” Cayetano asked.

Yuma looked down.

Layla answered for him. “His father died even before the Last Walk began. He told me it was his time to be a man and so he made the walk alone.”

Cayetano’s opinion quickly shifted. The child was small, but he had a warrior’s heart. This was a big omen. He laid a hand on the top of the little boy’s head.

“That is a very brave thing,” he said softly.

Yuma nodded, but wouldn’t look up.

Cayetano decided it was time to change the mood.

“So, you and Singing Bird have formed a clan? What do you call it? Is there a place in it for me?”

Layla sighed. She should have known he would ‘get’ what was happening.

“Tell him, Yuma.”

“We are lobos. That means a wolf without a pack. We came to this place without our families so we made a family of our own.”

She quickly translated.

Cayetano felt a quick moment of pain knowing there was a part of Singing Bird he would never get back. She had given away a part of herself to Layla Birdsong, but he didn’t care. As long as he had just a piece of her heart, it would be enough.

“So, I, too, am a lobo,” he said. “My mother and my father are no more. I have no brother. I have no sister. I only have Singing Bird. Do you think I might join your clan?”

The boy’s eyes widened as Layla translated the chief’s words. The thought of the great chief being part of their clan was a big deal. He looked up at Layla.

She nodded her approval.

He puffed up his chest and threw back his head. “Yes, Cayetano, you can be in our clan.”

“Yuma says yes,” she said.

Cayetano tried hard not to smile. “I am grateful for the honor. Do you think we might walk to the marketplace and look for some sugarcane to celebrate?”

Again, Layla continued to translate for the both of them.

Yuma didn’t know what to think. “What is sugarcane?”

Cayetano shook his head. “You have much to learn about things that are good. It is a sweet food, like mango and berries.”

“I like berries,” Yuma said.

“Then you will like this, as well. Do we go?”

Layla felt like dancing for joy. Instead, she solemnly agreed.

“We go,” she said. “But with guards, I think.”

He frowned. So she’d already figured out something was wrong. He should have known.

“Yes, with guards.”

When the people in the marketplace realized that Cayetano and his woman were walking among them, it caused quite a stir. They had come with a child. Word began to spread that it was the boy Singing Bird had carried into Naaki Chava.

Cayetano went straight to the vendor who had chunks of the raw cane. The moment the man realized it was the chief, he puffed up with pride.

Cayetano pushed Yuma in front of him.

“See this boy. He is Yuma. He only has eight seasons, but he made the Last Walk all alone. He is a very brave boy from the wolf clan.”

The man eyed the boy. “All alone! That is a feat worthy of any great warrior. May I gift him with my cane, Cayetano?”

Cayetano smiled. “That is why we came. He has never had this treat. Show him how it’s done.”

The man grabbed a chunk and stuffed one end into his mouth, chewing on it until it was soft, then sucking the juice from the pulverized stalk. A single drop of the sweet liquid stuck on his lip as he smiled.

“Like that,” he said. “You try.”

Yuma took one of the chunks and poked it in his mouth. By now, everyone in the market place was watching curiously. Yuma chewed on the end and sucked off the sweet juice; his eyes wide with delight. The people around him laughed.

Layla laughed with them. It felt good to be happy.

“You like it?” Cayetano asked.

“Yes,” Yuma said.

“So, we go. Thank you,” Cayetano told the vendor.

The man was still beaming as they moved away.

Cayetano continued their walk, showing him monkeys stealing fruit from the tables and the colorful macaws with wingtips trimmed, tied to perches and begging for treats.

Layla watched Yuma’s face and knew this was right. Cayetano said he would never be able to give her a child, so she’d given him one, instead. They didn’t know it yet, but these two would be bound at the heart by a love far stronger than the bounds of blood.

****

Acat became Yuma’s nursemaid. He slept on a mat at her side each night, satisfied that he had a place to belong, and during the day, prowled the palace either with Layla or Acat, learning every alcove and every hiding place. During their times of rest, Layla taught him the language of Naaki Chava and it was good for Yuma, but she was also uneasy. The lost boys had not spirit walked to her again, and she had not received a sign. Her heart was heavy, fearing the worst.

When morning came, she woke up to find herself alone. Cayetano had already begun his day and she had not. She dressed quickly, and was on her way to get Yuma for their first meal when she began hearing birds - all around her - above her, singing, singing, and there were no birds in sight.

It was happening! She ran for the throne room, calling Cayetano’s name as she went.

****

Cayetano had begun his day settling arguments - petty squabbles that, if left undone, would cause bigger issues within the city. It tried his patience more than anything he did as their chief, but when he heard Singing Bird shouting his name, he was up and running even before she appeared.

As he met her at the door, she grabbed his arms, her fingers digging into his flesh.

“They are running. We go now!” she whispered.

He didn’t pause. He pointed at one of the servants.

“Send the guards!”

Then he turned to the people who had come with complaints for him to settle. They were watching curiously.

“Go home,” he shouted.

They had never seen Cayetano like this and didn’t ask why. “I want my weapons,” she said, and ran back to her quarters as he ran to get his own, then stopped a servant on the way down the hall. “Tell Acat she is to keep Yuma with her until we are back.”

“Yes, Singing Bird,” he said softly, and hurried away.

Layla was pulling off all of her jewelry as she ran. By the time she got to her room, she was naked. Regardless of the dress code, she wasn’t going topless into the jungle. She began digging through her things until she found the clothing she’d worn coming in here; the old gray sports bra and the last pair of jeans she owned that would stay over her hips. She abandoned her sandals for the hiking boots and tied her hair back from her face. She was about to go looking for Cayetano when she saw her father’s necklace and put around her neck. It had served her well on the Last Walk. It would do so, again.

When Cayetano walked in and saw her weapons and what she was wearing, it took him aback, and then he saw the wisdom of it.

“The guards are waiting,” he said. “Follow me. There is a way out of the palace that does not take us through the city. The fewer people who know we are gone, the better.”

“I am behind you,” she said, and ran to keep up with his long, hurried stride.

****

Adam and Evan knew how to get out of the palace without being seen, and they knew where they going and how to get there. They had been practicing their trip from the City of the Sun to Naaki Chava every night in a spirit walk. They knew the landmarks to look for, and the dangers they would face. They had stolen two knives days ago, and hidden them in their room, waiting for the moment when they could escape. Yet when the opportunity finally arrived, it was so unexpected they were unprepared for the hasty exit.

For the past few days, they had been giving Bazat information most pleasing to him. During the past week, they had told him of a tribe far to the east that was going to move across his territory with the intent of stealing women from the fields. They told him the right place to find the biggest tapirs he liked to hunt, that one of the women he slept with was with child, and that a Shaman in the palace was going to die.

Acting on their warnings, he set some guards in hiding near the women working in the fields, and when the warring tribe appeared as the little War-Gods had said, they not only stopped them from stealing the women, but brought them back into the city and offered them as sacrifices to the Sun God and to Mother Earth.

One after the other, the things they predicted came to pass, and Bazat’s opinion of them continued to grow. He no longer thought about killing them. Instead, he was thinking daily of more ways to use their power to his advantage.

And then the old Shaman died.

Bazat received word about the death just as they were to begin their morning meal and bolted from the room before he’d taken a bite, leaving the boys alone. Even the servants who attended the meals had run after him.

The boys took one look at each other, grabbed some bread and fruit from the table, and headed for Bazat’s quarters. They didn’t know where he’d hidden their crystal, but they wanted it back.

They spent precious minutes digging through his things until Evan found it on a shelf behind an idol. They put it in a small bag and headed for their room to get the knives they had hidden. Adam slung the bag over his shoulder and then they slipped down a hallway into an ante-room and took a back way out of the palace.

They didn’t talk, and they didn’t look back. They crept behind the dwellings, startling only the parrots tied to their perches, while sending one long frantic signal to Layla Birdsong, praying she would hear. Once they reached the jungle, they quit worrying about being caught and ran as fast as they could; headlong into a world they had seen only in their sleep.

****

It was morning in the City of the Sun and time to welcome the new day. Zotz was the oldest Shaman in the city, and the honor to welcome the sun was always his. He walked slowly up the steps, aching in every joint, but moving, nonetheless.

He paused at the top to catch his breath. The people were gathering below as they did each morning, waiting for the blessing, and so he began.

He was halfway through the ritual when the vision came to him. In his mind, he saw the Little War-Gods running through the jungle - running away. They had already usurped most of the Shamans’ powers, and the Shamans were already afraid Bazat would discard them. If the twins got away, they would be blamed.

In a panic, he turned to shout the warning, and then his brain exploded. He dropped where he stood as a seizure took control of his body; rolling him too close to the edge. He fell over, rolling down the steep steps, bouncing head over heels, and flopping all the way down.

By the time he landed, his neck was broken, his head cracked open; his eyes staring sightless toward the sun. But it was his mouth, open in a scream he never voiced that caused the fuss. Convinced he’d been trying to warn them of something dire, the other Shamans began praying for protection, which sent everyone into a panic.

The sun was directly overhead before Bazat returned to the palace. It had taken most of the morning to quell the riot that ensued. The death was a distraction but not a surprise to Bazat.

It was exactly what the Little War-Gods had predicted, and he was anxious to find out what came next. Were they in danger from some unknown enemy? Was the harvest going to fail? Would the rains come too soon? There were a dozen reasons to worry, but his were only beginning. When he sent a servant to bring the boys, he came running back in a panic.

“They are gone! They are gone! The Little War-Gods are gone!”

Bazat screamed out in disbelief, and then in rage. He slashed the servant’s throat for giving him the bad news, and then sent trackers to find the trail. When he received word they had found it, he took his warriors into the jungle, chasing little Gods and outrunning the fear he was leaving behind.

****

The boys were wet, both with sweat from the heat and from the dousing they’d taken after falling into a stream. Adam had a long scratch on the back of one arm that was stinging to the point of real pain. Anywhere they were bare, there were insects. Some were just hitching a ride, others were blood-suckers. They were so weary of swatting them that they were completely ignoring them now. Their food was gone and their bellies were hungry. They had fallen into water, tripped over exposed tree roots, and were so exhausted they were stumbling with every other step; too tired to pick up their feet.