We tuck away from the bright sun in the shade of tall spruce trees on the riverbank. Isi's eyes are dark and thoughtful. For once, he stands still. It is Matisa who paces, her moccasins whispering back and forth along the needles and grasses. Tom stands beside me, silent.
The scouts reached the Keep: the newcomer settlement Isi and I rescued Kane's brother from during our journey here. They brought news that the first group of scouts is being held captive there.
The Keep was built by men from a place in the east called the Cormorant Bay. They're laying claim to a bunch of land out here without the Dominion's say-so and killing people who challenge them. My skin crawls, thinking on the man in charge: Leon, with the handsome face and dead eyes.
The scouts aren't the first people he's imprisoned. He's keeping women from the east against their will, and he's enslaved some of the abandoners from this place—sohkatisiwak. Our rescue of Kane's brother was successful because more sohkatisiwak showed up and laid siege to the Keep to free their kin.
"That is not all," Isi says. "They found a young man—pale and blue-eyed. He was alone and did not look well. He was searching for the Keep."
Blue-eyed …
"Charlie," Tom says.
Charlie.
I picture his ice-blue eyes pleading with me before I turned away and left him in that grove, tied to a tree. I left him not knowing if he'd survive.
Don't know if I'm relieved or dismayed that he made it.
"He asked for their help in finding it."
"And did they help him?" Tom asks.
Isi shakes his head. "They did not like the look of him."
I feel a pang. I know what Charlie's after. His sister, Rebecca, was taken to the Keep. He's probably thinking to free her. But knowing the kind of man Leon is … well, Charlie's got little chance of that.
Tom touches my arm. "Charlie's not our concern," he says.
I square my shoulders. "I know."
"Any sign of sohkatisiwak?" Matisa asks. "I wonder how they fare."
Isi's brow darkens. "What do we care for those who abandon our people?"
"Their desertion worked in our favor," Matisa reminds him.
She's speaking on the fact that Leon's brother, Julian, waited for sohkatisiwak instead of taking us straight to the Keep. He'd caught wind of their belief about some woods up north harboring something powerful—he decided it meant a cure for the Bleed—and planned to trade Matisa to them in exchange for directions to those woods. The whole idea was foolish—the woods they were speaking on are just the ones around my settlement—but Julian believing it probably saved our lives. It gave Tom a chance to find us.
"That was only luck," Isi insists. "Their dealings with the newcomers could have ended in disaster for us."
"I only wish to know the situation."
"Whatever it is, Huritt will lead a rescue for our scouts. We will not leave them to Leon's mercy."
Matisa shakes her head. "I do not think Huritt will agree to such a thing. Not now."
"Why?"
"Because this valley will require all the protection we can muster." Quick, she tells Isi and Tom what we've discovered. I watch Isi's face grow troubled as she speaks.
"So you can no longer negotiate?" Tom asks.
Matisa nods.
"But can we be sure the Dominion comes to fight?"
"If they do not, they will turn to it once they realize our valley appears safe from a sickness that ravages them. And without being able to provide them the means to settle safely elsewhere and leave us in peace, we are at risk."
Isi's jaw works. "We must tell Huritt about the remedy," he says.
Matisa nods. "I have been in talks with the circle. Sokayawin will be the one to share the news."
We are silent a moment.
"Come," Isi says to Tom. "We will be needed at training."
"We?" Tom asks in surprise.
"Huritt has a great appreciation for good aim. And we will need every able fighter." He crosses toward Matisa and puts his hand on the back of her neck. She leans into his touch. The gesture shouts their love for one another.
He and Tom go.
I turn to Matisa. "What did the circle say about the rest—about telling your people what the remedy plant is and how it came to be a secret?"
"They have protected its origins for decades," she says, "and we have only been speaking the morning. They need time." Can't tell if she sounds hopeful or defeated.
"But if it no longer works, you no longer have a secret to protect," I say. "Why are they so against the notion of sharing the knowledge?"
She sighs. "I believe it has more to do with admitting deceit. Sokayawin tells me that years ago, when our wise ones discovered the remedy, not all of them agreed that our people could not be trusted with the truth. But louder voices prevailed; they cloaked the remedy in secrecy and encouraged people to believe that only those chosen for the healers' circle could create it. We changed our story; we misled our people."
"And now you think you have to restore the truth to see your way forward?"
"Our world is changing," she says. "The arrival of the Dominion guarantees that. I feel, deep down, that we must know our true history and pass on those stories. Or risk losing ourselves in the changing new world."
She turns to face the lake. "I love this place," she says. "I cannot bear the thought of it being taken from us."
I reach out and take her hand. We stand in silence a long while, gazing at the bank where two domed structures sit—willow crossed in a web that creates a kind of shelter—used for important ceremonies I haven't yet seen.
"I'm needed at the circle," she says. She turns to start back to the village.
I can't help myself. "Matisa?" She stops. "Did the scouts say anything about wihkwetinaw?" I use the name the scouts gave the village where Kane and his brothers now reside, instead of naming Kane, like it will mask my true question.
"They did not pass by that way."
I nod, fighting a wave of disappointment as I watch her hurry back to the village.
Don't think about it.
A tiny flurry of movement draws my gaze to the ground: a blur, hovering at an orange flower near my feet. It's a bird, about the size of my thumb, with a bright red throat, its wings beating so fast, they're near invisible. It dips its bill into the throat of the flower once, twice. It ignores the bloom of another orange flower nearby and buzzes away.
mopiyes?s. That's its name. Isi told me the boys called Matisa that, on account of her being so busy she couldn't be bothered with them. He was wrong. She stayed still long enough to notice him. They haven't declared their feelings in public—there's been no time for that sort of thing—but their love for each other is plain. Reminds me of what I used to have.
And just like that, my heart goes inside out. I sit and pull my knees to my chest. Images of Kane wash over me. The way he looked when he was teasing me, his mouth pulled up in a telltale smile. Or when he was listening to someone else, bending his head to their talk. Or when we were alone: his eyes dark pools of desire, his breath coming quick.
I vowed I'd go back for him, but nothing has been easy since we arrived. And lately I've been wondering if he'll be waiting for me when I finally do return. The image of Genya, the settlement girl who was kind to us but who blushed whenever she looked on him, crowds into my mind. Glossy hair, a glow about her that comes from being loved.
Will he have moved on?
The thought starts a panic in my heart so strong, it feels like physical pain. And now I'm angry with myself. I'm being foolish—not because there's no chance Kane has moved on, but because there's nothing I can do about it if he has.
Still, right now, with Almighty knows what news coming our way, I'd give anything to have him near. I throw a desperate glance west, toward wihkwetinaw, where I left him.
The village was safe from the Bleed and well guarded; the journey forward, to Matisa's home, was risky. Kane was no longer willing to risk his brothers' safety, but I couldn't leave Matisa, not when I was so close to the valley of my dreams, not when she and I had risked so much to stay together.
It was the right thing to do.
I need to make sure it wasn't for nothing.