Part 35 (2/2)
Mei spoke softly to Rider, while Monk Lin interpreted. Strained gazes holding empathy settled on the woman as Rider simply hung his head.
”Your first wife is in a better place,” Monk Lin said quietly, waiting for Mei to speak in slow, calm tones. ”You have a large family to care for, much yet to do, and she cannot go where you must... but her love lingers forever.”
Rider stood and walked out of the tent wiping his face. Carlos stood to go to him, but Mei held up her hand and spoke quickly, making Monk Lin nearly talk over her to keep up with her flurry of words.
”The spirits will heal him, but you, too, are a man with a good heart. It is different. The spirits are guiding you. What was sickness in you has pa.s.sed. There were two of you; one side dark, one side light. The Naksong had to be sure of this before teaching you,” Monk Lin said, stopping as Mei stared at Damali. ”You have lost a child, but it was sick. You will have many in days to come, but not today. Be patient. Be as one. Fight as one. Help fill the tent with goodness and love. The Naksong is ready for you now, because you are ready for the Naksong. My third husband will show you the way.”
”But the contagion,” Damali whispered, her eyes br.i.m.m.i.n.g with tears of compa.s.sion. ”You have to tell her, Monk Lin. We never meant for this to happen.”
Mei sighed and stood, making all eyes follow her as she spoke in a very calm voice and walked deeper into the tent.
”She says you have the tears of an angel,” Monk Lin said, his voice hitching with emotion. ”May they fall upon you at the Roof of Heaven and never hit the ground.”
”Tell her,” Damali said, choked up, ”that I wish I could find them so I could spread them to save her family and mine...
everybody's, really. Just tell her how sorry we are.” She looked at Monk Lin. ”She's an oracle and knows her family is infected, doesn't she?”
”Yes,” Monk Lin said, tears s.h.i.+ning in his eyes. ”She knows and is unafraid. The people here are very philosophical about the whims of fate.”
”It's not right, though,” Carlos said, swallowing hard and standing. The walls of the tent were closing in on him, and he knew Rider was about ready to pitch himself off the edge of any given cliff. ”Tell her we'll all pray for her family, and go do what we've gotta do to keep them whole... Tell her, man, that I'd open a vein if I could, if I had silver in it, anything to reverse what just went down.”
Mei turned and looked at Carlos and pointed to his eyes.
Berkfield nodded and stood. ”I'd open one, too, for this family. I got kids...” he shook his head as the Guardians slowly stood.
”Any of us would do that.”Mei murmured softly and closed her eyes.
”She says you have the eyes of compa.s.sion and good now. There is no more evil within you,” Monk Lin said to Carlos. ”Your eyes hold silver, their sacred metal.” He waited until Mei had spoken again. ”She said your brother has the sacred in his veins, and your mother-seer has the salt of sages. Your mate has cried many tears of heartbreak and worry... now she will give her tears to replace that.”
”Aw, man,” Carlos said, rubbing his jaw, unable to look at the family they'd polluted.
Rider stood at the door of the tent. ”I'm so sorry, lady.”
But Damali slowly broke away from the group and went to Mei. ”What did you say?”
Mei held out a small silver container no larger than a pillbox covered in coral and turquoise. Monk Lin rushed over and nearly swooned.
”The tears from Heaven.”
The members of the team shared confused glances.
Hot tears streamed down Damali's face. ”She said in the greatest temple of all...” Damali pointed to the tent door. ”Not a man- made structure, but these majestic mountains created by G.o.d. That's the most spectacular temple.”
Mei nodded and folded the box into Damali's palm, and began speaking quickly.
”Make the antidote,” Monk Lin breathed out in a rush. ”The tears, the Red Sea salt from Marlene's bag-held by the salt of the earth, wise team mother. Berkfield, get a blade and nick yourself. Do it now, in this tent, heal the team, then this family.”
Mei nodded as everyone crushed together to gather around Damali and Mei.
”She had to be sure first that whatever was in Carlos was no longer there. His call for prayer did it. Damali's tears of compa.s.sion confirmed it, and they were lead there with a man with a good heart and nothing left to give but his heart... and he did-Rider.
That was the test, and she'd been waiting for a sign.”
The group dropped down on the dirt floor and formed a circle while Damali carefully uncapped the delicate container. A thin layer of white substance like confectioners' sugar, barely covered the bottom of the quarter-size silver box. She looked up confused.
”There's so little, just enough to maybe do the people in this tent once we add the other elements-but the whole world out there needs the antidote. How will the Covenant get it out to cure everyone else who has been infected?”
”The antidote was for you so that you could complete the mission that will cure the others, once the dark energies are sealed away and the names released from the book,” Monk Lin said, his tone awed and reverent. ”They overturned temples and pillaged sacred places looking for this rare element, never seeking the humblest of herders, and a female who resided within the greatest temple of all.”
He closed his eyes. ”Profound and ironic, but so obvious that a shepherd family should be the keepers of this sacrament...
people with grace, humility, ordinary weapons, compa.s.sion, hospitality, and love enough to even share one another without struggles, so that no man in their group should suffer. This is why the Naksong would not touch you or teach you to find the Chairman's lair until this was learned and the antidote discovered and administered-not even the Covenant could have foretold this. It all depended upon the choices and statements each of you made as one. You all revealed your inner hearts, your willingness to selflessly give what you each had to protect people you didn't know, Mei's family, and did so within her inner sanctuary, the oracle's home. The man with a good heart, Rider, led the way when he parted with magic that covered his heart and had helped him for decades.” He bowed where he sat. ”I have learned much this day myself.””Very, deep,” Marlene whispered. She looked at Damali. ”Do you know the formula, baby?”
Damali nodded and swallowed hard. ”Yes, my angel-mother told me.”
The group filed out of the tent anointed and considerably sobered. They accepted bits of prayer cloth and tied them to their wrists and hair, anyplace that they would remain fastened. And they waited behind a sinewy young man, whose eyes blazed with an important mission within them. A small caravan of yak lumbered behind the group gently swaying with trunks of highly explosive ammo tied to their sides. Glances of concern were s.h.i.+elded beneath lowered hat brims as each Guardian mounted a horse and nudged the creature to follow husband number three.
Within an hour, one of Mei's husbands held up his hand, calmly stopped, dismounted, and motioned for the others to do likewise. He spoke in an unfazed tone, and began to unhitch the harnesses on the burdened beasts.
”He says, from here, the yaks cannot pa.s.s. The horses have difficulty. It is not the normal grazing lands. But the Naksong is wise.”
To their horror, Mei's husband dropped a trunk and wiped his hands on his coat.
Big Mike and Shabazz were off their mounts in seconds, going to help the man before he dropped another trunk. Carlos rounded a huge beast's side with the other men, as Inez and Juanita covered their heads. Marjorie practically fell off her horse, and it whinnied and s.h.i.+ed at the affront. Everybody quickly jumped down off the pony they were riding, and glanced around confused.
”He's gonna just leave us here?” Damali couldn't believe it as Mei's third husband smiled, waved, and called to his animals to follow him in the direction they'd just come from.
”He says to take our possessions to the clearing, and it would be best to pitch a tent. Sometimes Naksongs can be fickle, and may decide to change their minds if the signs aren't right.”
”Oh, my G.o.d,” Inez wailed, boxing the chilly temperatures away from her arms. ”Monk Lin, tell him to stop playing out here!”
”Be cool, 'Nez,” Big Mike said, hoisting down a trunk with care.
Damali went to the top of the ridge. ”There's a fairly flat valley here, a pocket we can set up shop on,” she said, looking at the small expanse of green around them.
”Lord have mercy,” Marlene said with a deep sigh. ”All right, folks, we know the drill. Mount up the equipment, we get it over the ridge and-”
”Leave it,” a crotchety voice ordered. ”It is unnecessary at this juncture.”
The team whirred around and a small, wrinkled face popped out from behind a rock. For an elderly man, he moved down the rocks with unusual grace to stand before the team with his arms folded. ”You are persistent. I suppose that has merit. At least you have been anointed and cleaned. Humph. Now I can work.”
No one moved a muscle as his beady little eyes surveyed the group.
”The first time I saw you, you were blind,” Carlos said, half-ready to draw a weapon, his nerves were so shot.
”Yesterday, so were you,” the old man said, and smiled. ”Things change.”
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