TCB

In the lofty ideals of  America's originators freedom  was  the self-evident right  of  all  men, but  some  of  the   colonies imagined they depended on coerced labor so they forced an  ugly compromise. "All men" was interpreted  to be  all males   with means and a certain complexion. For a human lifetime the union stumbled along under this fatal contradiction.

The sort of agriculture the southern states  had fastened  upon steadily  depleted  the soil,  so they  looked to   extend  the practice to new lands in the west. But inevitably the northern states  with their  sheer  numbers pre vailed. They chose   a president who said the founders had it right all along.

Hijinks ensued. Secession led  to a  naval  blockade. Shore batteries in South Carolina opened fire upon  Old Glory  flying over a fort. Virginia became two states. The Federal army spent a year assaulting the southern capital of Richmond, and failing that, withdrew back north  of the Potomac  River. Then it  was Lee's turn. But a written copy of his  maneuvering orders  fell into enemy hands and he was forced to abort his invasion. High water foiled  his plan  to  ford  the  river, so,  like  a cor- nered  animal,  he  turned to  fight. What followed  was   the bloodiest single day of the war.

Muskets fell like rows of  dominoes atop stone walls  built  on the banks of a quiet creek. Reaching the horizontal they fired, burning eyes with the pungent smoke of spent powder. Downstream the walls  became the  rails  of  a  stone bridge. Union  and Confederate soldiers  converged  on  foot,  shouting  as   they merged. The fighting deteriorated to bayonet  thrusts and  even fisticuffs. The federals  had  greater  momentum  and   nearly reached the other side of the bridge before the rebels  bounced them back.

Under fire the boys  in blue trod  in reverse over  a layer  of  bodies  one  deep. Some were dead, others writhed  with  broken bones or lead balls lodged in their innards. Some of the fallen had survived the battle of Shiloh where the war first  attained this level of savagery.

A tube loaded with canister shot lined up on  the long axis  of the bridge and mowed down counterattacking rebels like grass  to form a  second layer of bodies. Some of these men in gray  had survived the artillery hell of Malvern Hill in Virginia.

Two guns on the rebel  side of  the creek upstream  maimed  the Union gunners  with  bursting shells  and another   tube  fired solid shot. The Union gun became a pile of splinters and dented steel. Then followed a Rebel counter-assault. Quickly the men in gray  gained  most  of  the bridge,  which  had  become   an abattoir.

A colonel on the Union side was shot, but to the wonder of  his men he stood up again  with a lead  ball lodged in  his  Bible. With this divine sanction the officer led yet  another  attack. Men standing on  the  mounting pile  of  bodies swapped   empty muskets for loaded ones handed up to them like water in a  fire bucket brigade.

In the end the rebel  infantry ran  low on gunpowder  and  they knew the bridge was  lost. They pulled  back their  two pieces of artillery with fresh  troops firing in a  rearguard  action. The federal general commanding the corps assaulting the  bridge saw retreating gray backs. He ordered a  lieutenant  to  ride to headquarters to report a bridgehead had been secured.

But the junior officer tasked  to be  a messenger saw  how  the bridge was stacked with  bodies and  refused to  desecrate  the dead of either side. Instead he dropped to the creek  bed  and splashed across the stream on foot, bypassing  all the  carnage on the  bridge. In so  doing  the  officer  suffered   little hardship. After all, as the local farmers well knew, the  water in the creek was only knee deep.

By the end  of the day the Army of  Northern Virginia was  bot- tled up against a wide bend of the Potomac. All the next day the federal commander watched  from a long slope rising  north   of  the river  and  refused  to advance  on  Lee,  even with  a two- to-one numerical  advantage. Were the  numbers  ten-to-one  he  would yet wire Washington to say he didn't have enough men. The two sides glowered at each  other but struck no further  blows. The river subsided a bit and Lee managed to pull  his  battered army out of Maryland. MacClellan's inaction sent President Lin- coln into a tizzy and cost him the top job in the army.

Three days prior, when they first heard the sound of  artillery on South Mountain,  the farmers in the area thought it  prudent to  move their work  horses far from  the men  of  either  army who might want  to  requisition them. Now, upon   their  poor leftover mules, they rode out to bury the dead. For this  task the United  States  government paid  a dollar  for  every   man they  laid to rest. There was a rumor going  around  that  one fellow who  was not one of the German  Brethren  dropped  sixty dead men into a dry  well and took the money.

The Brethren found their labors to be a hateful thing, but more bitter was   seeing their beloved  meetinghouse turned  into  a  bullet-riddled  slaughterhouse. Hundreds of bodies  lay  near their  house  of   prayer. The Long Table  was   covered  with blood. The east door, where  the menfolk  entered,   and  the south door,  where the  womenfolk entered,  had  been   removed from the hinges and used as extra operating  tables. Naturally the expensive Bible  owned by the congregation as a  whole  had gone missing.

Elder David Short inspected the  meetinghouse thoroughly.

DAVID: [Do not grieve overmuch, my friends. We shall bury  the dead  and make our  meetinghouse like new. If the people  have willing hands, soon  all  this will  be  but an  unhappy  memo- ry]

Deacon Josef Lange remained unmoved by Apostle Short's words of hope.

JOSEF: [Nothing  will stop the same thing from  happening  once more, Brother David. Virginia lies just over yonder river  and last month there was a second battle of Manassas]

DAVID: [I can do  nothing  to remedy  that unfortunate  circum- stance, Brother Josef. This stretch happens to be an easy place to get across the Potomac]

JOSEF: [We should at the very least build a temporary  meeting- house at the B'nei Hannebim farm to  the north. By their leave our horses have  already  been  moved there  as  surety against thieves."

Some of the people in the congregation murmured at this. To be sure,  the  B'nei Hannebim had been quite generous  to  take  in their animals, but no one could quite wrap their head around the idea of Christians who were also Jews. Why, they didn't  even call Jesus by his right name of Jesus. They referred to Him as "Yeshua" instead.

DAVID: [For  a decision of this  import we must let  the   Lord make his  will  known. So let us pray on it, each one  of  us. And there is no prayer better than work]

After  the congregation  finished burying  the  dead   soldiers Elder Short  declared he  would  stay  in  Maryland, as   would the Heinrich family who had donated the land for their meeting- house. They were intent on restoring the family farm that  the two armies had  demolished. The deacons who  were  originally deeded the plot  for the  meetinghouse  also chose to stay.

But Lange sold  his  corn field  for  pennies on  the   dollar, as it  was now  little more than a  battlefield  cemetery. Ten other families joined Lange in  seeking a quiet  new  life  far from the threat of war, or so they hoped.

Before the battle the  horses of the  Brethren had  been  taken north by the men and boys of the various familes at the invita- tion of the B'nei Hannebim, who had initiated a  correspondence with Deacon  Lange. Now as they prepared to move  the   horses were returned. It was a young woman of the Bene Hannebim named Hadiya Shalom who brought all of them back, and this  she   did entirely by herself.

Hadiya's own horse was groomed  better than she was, yet  Josef fell stone in love with her at first sight.

On the road up north when the weather turned bad Hadiya let her horse have  the tent  while  she  slept  outside. At home   in  Pennsylvania  she  spent  more  time cleaning  her  horse   than helping her  mother clean the  house. Josef thought the  house was a pigsty but the barn was neat as a pin.

When her mother said Hadiya  needed a male companion  to  quiet some of the rumors going  around she got a  stallion. Hadiya's father  looked  askance when Josef  began courting her  but  her mother was clearly overjoyed.

One time he grew jealous at finding a strange hair on her  coat but Hadiya was easily able to  produce the horse to  match. At her  bridal  shower Joanna  received a large number   of  gifts. Most of these were actual bridles.

When the happy day finally arrived and it was  time to show  up  for her wedding  Hadiya came in late because she  took too  long cleaning the stalls. Josef married her anyway.

The following summer the Army of Northern Virginia crossed  the Potomac  River once more,  but federal movements   in  response forced the Confederate commander to concentrate his  forces  at Gettysburg, which  was a  dense node in  the road  network,  and this brought on the biggest battle of the war.

Elder Josef Lange of Five Corners Free Congretation  was  fear- less. During a lull in the battle he walked to his meetinghouse and found all the pews scattered outside. Union officers  were seated upon   them idly smoking  cigars and  playing   tic  tac toe on them with  pocket knives.

Lange was dressed much more neatly than the local farmers. None of the lounging army officers stopped Lange to ask who he  was. Inside the meetinghouse the general commanding all the  federal forces poured  over maps laid on the Long Table  and  tried  to divine  where  the next hammer blow would  land. When he  saw Lange standing in his headquarters he angrily demanded to  know who he was.

JOSEF: [I'm the the pastor of this church]

MEADE: [The hell you say, sir! This is the headquarters of  the Army of the Potomac! Now get out of my sight, parson, or  I'll put a  musket in your hand and stand you up on yonder stone--]

His tirade was interrupted by a crash as the church filled with flying wood   splinters. Confederate artillery had   opened  a furious  barrage but the first volley was aimed too high and the rounds converged on Lange's meetinghouse.

The general had an answer to his earlier tactical question. He ran out  of  the structure picking splinters out of   his  skin and barking orders. His officers on the pews began to scatter as shells burst nearby.

Union artillery was brought up to answer  Confederate guns  but Lange remained  inside. Solid shot made gaping  holes  in  the walls. Two shells from the rebel's main battery burst over the roof of the church and completely demolished it with Josef Lange still inside.

No one among the Brethren disputed the house of  prayer of  the Five Corners Free  Congregation was  demolished by  two  shells that  burst overhead  while  Josef Lange  huddled within. But after he crawled out from  the pile and  told them it  was  the will of God to lead his flock away to settle  far in the  west, many in the congregation came to  believe some  of the   timber in their  ruined   meetinghouse had perhaps  fallen   on  Elder Lange's head.

Once more the hateful task of burying the battle dead  fell  to the people of Lange's congregation. They were adequately compen- sated by the United States for their labor, if not for the loss of much of their farm land to many hundreds of burial plots. But two such battles less than a year apart was too much for Josef. The following  Sunday when the congregation met  in a tent   on the grounds of their  ruined meetinghouse Josef read  aloud from a hand-written   book  he  called the   Printer's   Manuscript. The codex was an English translation of Laylah's White Scroll.

The Sunkel,  Clark, and Martin families decided he  was  trying create new scripture from his own mind. A new bible was  some- thing they simply could not accept. These three families  re- turned to Sharpsburg, Maryland where Elder Short welcomed  them home as prodigal sons and daughters.

After the work of  burying the fallen  soldiers of  both  sides had been  completed the  nine  families  who remained  in   the congregation made preparations to  sojourn west. Some of  them sold their homes outright, while others deeded them to kin  who would remain behind. It took until the end of the war for  the Porters, Bergins, Henrys,  Zinters, Hillings,  and Krauses   to provision themselves for the pilgrimage. But the Savitts and the Brannens dwindled in  their  ardor. After Atlanta fell,   just before the presidential election, they deemed it safe to return to Maryland, and this they promptly did.

Josef  Lange  took  his  flock  first  to  the  state   capital in Harrisburg, a  little  to  the northeast,  and  thence by  a hodgepodge of  rail lines across the  Appalachian Mountains  all the way to Pittsburgh. These railroads were laid  of  wrought iron, and the  maximum  speed  permitted on  them  was a   mere twenty-five miles per hour, lest they wore out in just one year rather than ten. And setting aside the fact the mountains  were a barrier to east-west travel in general, there were many stops along the way. It took most of the night and the better part of the next morning to cross Pennsylvania.

At Pittsburgh the congregation switched from rail to steamboat, which, despite moving with the current down  the upper  reaches of the Ohio River, made no better speed than a sustained  brisk walk. But unlike the train, there were staterooms to occupy  on the  upper  deck. The ladies  were  segregated to  the   stern. Lange's group was  not  so  destitute as  to  be relegated   to sleeping on the  first deck amid the bales of  cotton and  other cargo, as many of the walk-ons did while the steamboat made its way downriver.

From their rooms the members of Lange's flock  looked out  with contentment upon the ever-changing scene along the river as  it sliced  through  the  forested  hills. They spent  three   days steaming first north, then south and west, stopping at times to board and disembark  passengers or to take on  firewood for  the boiler that churned, ever so precariously, it  seemed to  them, under the very flammable decks.

At  Cincinnati  Josef  Lange's   group  disembarked  from   the steamboat and again took to rail, as they had  come to the  end of the mountains and had passed  through an odd corner  of  the country where terrain and circum stance had not yet conspired to make the  railroad  network complete. But again, at  East  St. Louis, after crossing the  states of  Ohio, Indiana,  and Illi- nois, they briefly took  to the water  once more. At that time the only bridge across the Mississippi lay far to the north  in Davenport, Iowa.

Once the travelers and their luggage were safely on the western shore of the Mississippi River  they resumed riding  rail  once more. The track  in  Missouri was  laid  of  Bessemer   steel, permitting travel at a breakneck forty-five miles per hour. The line going  west  came  to  an  end  just  a  few  miles   past Independence, Missouri.

And Josef Lange,  glancing at the train platform  even as  they were rolling to a stop, saw a woman waiting  for him, one  that Josef and Hadiya recognized: Elin. He raced up to her as soon as he disembarked.

ELIN (smiling):  [I  greet you, Hadiya! We meet  again,  Josef Lange, and  this time in much better  circumstances  than   the first! At least, I trust  your journey has gone well  to  this point?]

JOSEF: [Very   well indeed, Elin. It is wonderful to  see  you again]

Josef greeted the newcomer by gripping her forearm in the custom of Kemen. By this time all  of Josef's  followers had   gath- ered around. This was the nucleus of hardcore believers   who never wavered in their faith, yet they found it  comforting  to meet an outsider allied with their group. For her part Elin was pleased to have been given a mission that did not call for  the use of her talent as one of the B'nei Elohim, the  talent  that earned her the nickname of the Angel of Death.

ELIN (to Josef's little flock): [Did you  fear you would  reach the end of the line and find yourselves to be castaways?]

HADIYA: [I knew you would not break faith, Elin, yet we  cannot foresee everything. Hard looks and harder questions would  fol- low, had we arrive here with no one to greet us, and perhaps  I feared  if  something  made you tarry at the  Field  Station  it  would be a sore test for all of us]

ELIN: [The journey you have embarked upon is  the test of  your faith, and that you are here,  all of you, says  everything. I hope these seven wagons will suffice  for  you and   all   your people, and of  course  your luggage. Come, Josef, ride  with me  with   your wife  in the  lead coach and I  will  speak  of  the place that  will be your  home for this fall and winter]

One summer head up the Big Muddy to St. Louis and hang a  left. Now you're on the Missouri, the longest river in North America. Go upriver past Sioux City, Iowa and hang a left again  on  the Niobrara River. Head west until you're walking in a dry  river bed. You missed it. Back up. The Squaw River is a shorter tribu- tary of the Niobrara yet it has a year-round flow despite  wind ing across the most arid grasslands of the high  plains. Bison used to congregate at the edge of the river to drink.

The Kuwapi  people  were  little more than  a  band  of  nomads scratching out  their existence on the Great  Plains  of  North America. They did not have the numbers to make them a tribe. The Kuwapi began as outcasts from among the Oglala Sioux, and indeed their name literally meant, "They Who Follow". The Oglala them- selves had  broken away from the Lakotas who  held  the  entire Black Hills. The Kuwapi named the Lakotas the northern raiders and if the Oglalas helped fend them off from time to time it was more to ensure their own food supply than to do the Kuwapi  any favors.

In the richer grasslands eastward the Kuwapi had the Pawnees to con tend with. To the south the Kuwapi were buffeted by the Ara- pa hoes plus they also ran the risk of encountering white  set- tlers rolling west and the army troops who protected  them. In the scrubby furrowed lands westward they had the  Cheyennes  to fear. The whole northwest was put out of their minds by dread of the Crow and Blackfeet. But in the ever-moving sliver of mea- ger grasslands left in the wake of the Oglala the Kuwapi hunted.

One time when the People were feasting on a bison one of  Chief Tatanka's women  pinned the animal's horns to his  shoulder  as though he had actually departed the tipi where he roiled in wom- anflesh and killed the animal himself. Briefly Tatanka and Wani- ca eyed each other, but there was with no mutual respect whatso- ever.

TATANKA: [There are five tales how this one animal was taken]

Wanica looked away and blew a ring of smoke.

TATANKA: [About the hunt, then. What say you, Squaw Who Hunts?]

Wanica ignored the stupid insult and gave a detailed account:

WANICA: [Plenty  Lice stood watch. Before dawn he saw  a  star dancing on the top of Lone Mountain and roused us from sleep. We all saw the dancing star and knew Wakan Tanka blessed our hunt. We tied off the horses and worked our way toward a herd drinking water. I stood up and loosed an arrow. It hit a cow in a flank but it  was not lethal. It made a cry and all the animals  pa- nicked. The other men made their shots but they all missed. The animals fled uphill and reached the cover of a cloud  bank. We followed but we could see nothing. We turned our bows left and right, but none of the animals were visible. Further uphill the fog cleared. Three of the bison were isolated and exposed. We struck home. Two surviving bison ran down off the hill into the fog. The other men began to carve up the meat. I went  higher to seek the dancing star. I stood alone over a sea of clouds as though the peak were an island in the sky. There I built a cairn for the Great Spirit]

Tatanka pulled out a steel knife he frequently claimed he  took from a white man but most likely he lifted it from a corpse. He drew  near  to Wanica.

TATANKA: [You built a cairn of lies. There was no dancing star!]

He flicked the tip of this blade across Wanica's face. Bad Heart Bull was satisfied to draw just a little blood. Maiming his best hunter wouldn't  do, but he laughed and insulted the  man  once more.

TATANKA: [I name you Hole In Cheek!]

Wanica used  his hand to staunch the bleeding and  walked  with dignity out of the range of the fire's light.

Wanica's wife  Yuha followed her man to their tipi. While she dressed his wound his son his son Shy Bear spoke.

SHY BEAR: [Father, did you truly see a sign from the Great Spir- it or did you just want to annoy the chief?]

Wanica shifted his eyes to the boy and appraised him but he did not answer until Yuha finished dressing the cut. At length  he spoke  to his wife.

WANICA: [Yuha, what we spoke about before, now it is time]

Yuha nodded that she understood and retrieved a  leather  pouch with pigments and the means to apply them.

Wanica drew  out  a ceremonial dress made of  bison  skins  and feathers and many beads. Shy Bear turned his head to see  this but he smeared some of the facepaint. His mother gave a  sharp rebuke.

YUHA: [Stand and be still, son!]

Wanica laid the ceremonial dress on Shy Bear and fastened it as his wife continued to work.

WANICA: [You will receive no answer from me]

He put the boy's own bow in his hands.

WANICA: [I will give you no morsel of food]

Yuha finished painting her son's face and stood apart from him.

Wanica opened the flap door of the tipi.

WANICA: [No longer do I lend you the name Shy Bear. Go now, into the night, nameless one. Kill your own food, if you can. And if you  cannot?]

He shrugged.

WANICA:[Perhaps in your hunger Wakan Tanka will give you a  vi- sion]

Shy Bear's  eyes traced along his father's arm  to  the  finger pointing outdoors and he nodded with understanding at last. This was the Vision Quest. But he saw his mother Yuha did not under- stand, not really. She spoke under duress.

YUHA: [The boy will go out from us. The man will return]

Shy Bear sincerely hoped the look of worry on his mother's face was not rooted in another one of her well-known premonitions.

He stepped out into the night and stumbled across  the  prairie under a  moonless sky until the fires of the People  were  like flickering stars  far behind him. By midnight he  reached  the first slopes of Lone Mountain. Reaching the summit at  sunrise Shy Bear  sat to let his shadow fall upon  his  father's  stone tent.

By dusk Shy Bear had received no vision from the Great  Spirit. There was a strong breeze so when the sun sank below the horizon he grew cold. He gathered brush growing on the summit and cut it with the edge of a flint scraper, which he also used to spark a fire to burn them. But the flame and smoke kept changing direc- tion. The boy took the changing winds to be an  invitation  to spend  the night within the little lodge that his father  built. He removed stones from one side to gain access.

Shy Bear was awakened by the smell of smoke. Outside he saw how his fire  had become glowing coals, but earlier the  wind  must have carried embers halfway down the slope and kindled a  brush fire that threatened to form a ring around the whole  mountain. Small game ran up and over the summit to flee the fire. The boy could have shot his dinner then, but with every wasted moment he risked being  roasted himself. When he tried to reach the  un- burned area a chasm intervened. He could hear water.

The fire  spread to cut off any escape north. Shy Bear  looked down into the canyon and there he saw the dancing star his  fa- ther spoke of, a tiny light of purest white bobbing  along  the west slope as though it were walking. It switch-backed upslope until it reached the rim and there the boy saw how the light was worn on the head of a human figure. The prairie fire behind it outlined  an  hourglass shape. A female voice spoke words in  a tongue unknown to him, but they sounded quite urgent.

She turned  and went back the way she came. Shy Bear  followed her, if anything to reach the creek where he knew he could stand a chance of surviving when the wildfire reached the canyon. He also admired  the patterned skintight leather she  wore,  which made her ass look like a big ripe plum.

The sound of the water grew quieter the closer they approached. Shy Bear thought this was strange. By the time they reached the creek the  water wasn't flowing at all. The stream was  a  wet staircase.

The source of the river was a hole in a wall of dark shale. The girl crouched to splash her way inside the cave and the boy fol- lowed. Inside Shy Bear saw a pool of water with a narrow stone ledge all around it. The light from the girl's headband filled the space and he saw that that she looked very much like a young Kuwapi woman, but taller, and not very much older than he  was. She laid her hand on her chest and spoke Lakota Sioux.

LAYLAH: [I am called Laylah]

He replicated the gesture.

SHYBEAR: [My father has named me Shy Bear]

He neglected to mention that his father had withdrawn that name from him. It seemed unimportant now. The sound of his  name seemed to please the girl. She removed her headband light  and dropped it into the water. It faded as it sank. Shy Bear saw the water itself began to glow with a pale light.

LAYLAH: [You need to follow me, Shy Bear, or you will burn, and we both know it]

Then she jumped into the water, turned turtle, and  disappeared from view.

Shy Bear waited long minutes but Laylah never returned  to  the surface for air. Then the water in the pool began to stir  and rise and even overflow its bounds. Some of it covered his ankles and he  realized it was not cold at all, but  comfortably  body temperature. He also saw the prairie fire had reached the  en- trance of the cave and though it would not enter the cave it was consuming the  good air he needed to breathe. Shy Bear took  a leap  into the unknown and followed the strange girl.

When Shy  Bear reached the surface again there  was  much  more light than  the alcove at the source of the Squaw  River. Many hands reached  down offering to pull him from  the  water. His ceremonial dress was soaked and it weighted him  down  greatly. Two of the hands were those of Leliel.

Shy Bear saw that he was standing next to a large pool of water surrounded by a seamless floor of stone, and beyond this  there was a circle of small huts. Behind the huts was a sparse forest of strange trees and a large house of glass and wood stood on a rocky hill overlooking everything. The sun was warm, but Laylah was just as wet as he was. She took his hand and led him  into one of the huts on the perimeter of the pool.

Shutting the door, she disrobed both Shy Bear and harself. This she did one garment at a time, first his, then her own. Laylah opened the  door once to pass through his ceremonial  dress  to waiting hands. Shy Bear saw that her legs were sculpted far more than he would expect a woman's legs to be. She was obviously a runner.

Laylah in  turn took in the sight of Jashen as  she  thoroughly dried both herself and him with linens. She held a ribbon with strange markings  against Jashen's body, here and  there,  then opened the door to speak some words to those were waiting  out- side. Dry clothes folded neatly were handed off to her  inside the hut, specked with brown and black markings. Laylah donned these garments.

By the time she was fully dressed, the servants outside  passed another set of identical clothing through the door of the  hut. They were selected to fit Jashen perfectly. Taking mute encour- agement from Laylah, he slipped into the new clothing. And Shy Bear saw there was wisdom in the color and pattern of the cloth- ing. With face and hands painted green and  black,  a  warrior would be almost invisible in trees. He wondered if women in this strange place were accepted as warriors.

Outside of the hut, seated near the water, a woman in the  same garb as Laylah spoke in the tongue of his people.

LILITH: [Welcome, Shy Bear. I am called Lilith. Everything you see around you is the lodge of my spouse, who is known to  your people as Wakan Tanka]

Lilith fell silent and Shy Bear felt he was invited to speak.

SHY BEAR: [Teacher, why am I come to this place?]

LILITH: [My daughter Laylah has written a history of this place. I would have her read it to you in your tongue, and at the same time teach you the language of the people who also live in your land, the people you call the whites.

SHY BEAR: [Why must that be?]

LILITH: [In the days to come my mother will bring a man of  the whites to this place. He is named Josef Lange. By the time he arrives  you  will know his tongue and his marks as  though  you were reared as one of them. The book Laylah has made is for him. Then you will return to your own home and teach all the  Kuwapi people to speak his tongue as they are able]

SHY BEAR: [But when I return speaking the tongue of the  Whites the People will grow afraid, and whip me, or try to put  me  to death, thinking I am Coyote come in a human shape]

LILITH: [Do  not fear those things, Shy Bear. Even before  you came to us Laylah gave your father the means to protect you]

SHY BEAR: [It is truth! He said he saw the dancing star]

LILITH: [After you return he will become chief of the People. A group of Whites will meet the People in three years. They will have many  animals and they will be led by a  man  named  Josef Lange. Wakan Tanka has decreed that these white  settlers  and your people should live together in peace]

Already Shy  Bear had seen wondrous things beyond  any  of  his dreams, and he longed to stay in that place and experience even more wonders, and here he stole a quick glance at  Laylah. But his desire to see his father Wanica and mother Yuha again proved the greater.

SHY BEAR: [I will learn this tongue as you bid, Lilith,  and  I will return home to teach my people the tongue of the Whites]

LILITH: I am very pleased. No more shall you be called Shy Bear. Jashen shall be your name of manhood. Yet do not think I  will send you  home very soon. It will take perhaps ten  or  twelve moons here in the Lodge of Wakan Tanka before you are ready  to return]

SHY BEAR:  [But soon my father and mother will think me  to  be dead]

LILITH: [Take no thought of that, Jashen. No matter how long you remain here, when you return to the land of your people it will seem to your mother and father that you have been gone for less than a single moon. Not even Coyote knows this trick, but  one day you will see how this is not even magic]

SHY BEAR: [Such a thing would always be strong magic to me]

LILITH: [When  we teach, great magic becomes small,  and  small magic becomes a known thing, not even magic at all]

In the days that followed the wonder of the small magic had most assuredly worn  away. Laylah was relating the passage  of  the Council of Royals in Rumbek and he was briefly overcome by  an- noyance and unbelief.

SHY BEAR: [Were you really this running girl?]

She told Jashen to fetch his bow in one hand, took him  by  his other hand, and led him through the woods to a large flat clear- ing. The place served as a kind of parade ground  in  Haaretz. There Laylah stood twenty paces from Jashen.

LAYLAH: [Fire an arrow at me]

Jashen howled in dismay that she was wasting his time.

LAYLAH: [I am serious. Do your very best to try to kill me]

He released the dart. Leliel's muscles exploded into motion. She ran backwards across the grass of the clearing faster than  the arrow could  follow,  until the arrow  itself  dropped  to  the ground.

She retrieved the arrow and fitted it to her own bow as she ran forward to get within range of Jashen. For a brief moment Jash- en thought  the girl had gone mad. She stopped and loosed  the arrow in a well-practiced arc that would certainly have  struck Jashen, did he not shunt the dart aside somehow, as  though  it struck  an  unseen shield. Then Jashen knew that he, too,  had become one of the talented ones of Wahkan Tanka.

Laylah turned and disappeared into the thick wall of  trees  at the far side of the open space.

In short order she came to her mother sitting alone on a fallen log by woodland paths well known to her. When she saw Laylah he made a gesture of welcome and bade her to sit also.

LAYLAH: [I  know you have put Jashen in close proximity  to  me that  nature might take its course, and this nature has  already done. But I have already recited my scroll nearly to the war of the dragon and Jashen now seems to be cooler toward me]

LILITH: [Do you find Jashen to be pleasing to your eye?]

LAYLAH: [He is a vision to drink in. I could imagine  spending more than one lifetime with him. Yet I do not think he feels the same way about me]

LILITH: [Jashen feels as though he is swimming in water over his head. He's felt that way ever since he jumped in after you  at the mountain. I've given him a new name to acknowledge his man- hood, but he still lacks the full confidence of a  man. Jashen was whisked from the land he knows to this place, which is still surpassingly strange to him. He is wondering if he has any agen- cy at all. But I think, most of all, he just misses his mother and father]

Some days after that, as Lilith had once promised,  Jashen  was witness to something that would always seem to him to be  great magic. A pile of fallen timber came into existence next to the same pool of water that was his door to Kemen. There was a man within the debris and Jashen marveled that he did not appear to be  injured. The heavy beams should have crushed him and  the splinters should have pierced his flesh.

Lilith asked  Jashen to help her move the collapsed  wood,  and this he could do with an ease that surprised him. By the end of the task he was tossing heavy beams without even touching them.

The man buried within was the one Lilith said was called  Josef Lange and later that day he shared a meal with Jashen and Laylah and Lilith  near the pool. This he did, said Lilith, so  that Jashen and  Laylah would know him by sight when they  met  once more in the lands where the Kuwapi hunted.

Josef seated himself and unrolled a map before he began to speak to Jashen.

JOSEF: [I am bidden to take my flock from the farms near my home and go west. Indeed, to go as far as anyone can go by river and rail, and then even farther on foot]

Jashen followed Josef's finger as hy traced out a course on the map down  the Ohio River to lands in the west. The map had  no political  boundaries, only cities and rivers and  uplands. His finger stopped at one mountain. Jashen saw that the feature was marked with words he could now read.

JASHEN: [The Lone Mountain. We have heard that trappers call it by the name on your map, Green Dome. My father calls it the Is- land in the Sky, but it is really an island in a lake of hostile tribes. Wheresoever my people roam out of sight of this  high hill, we are attacked] JOSEF: [Then it is well that I come to you soon. We will teach you how to live as our people do, without wandering. In this way the Kuwapi will weather the coming storm when the tribes all around you  are themselves hunted, and marched  off  to  places where they do not wish to go]

JASHEN: [And our way of life will come to an end]

JOSEF: [That is true, and it is an evil, Jashen. I will not hide that from you. But with many such evils arrayed before you, set- tling with us is I think, is an evil you would choose]