Chapter 14: Imsikwatash in Foresthold
Imsikwatash kept Spring Wind at a trot, slow and steady. He did not want the horse throwing a shoe or breaking a leg in a gopher hole after the tanner had survived the travails of the Forevergreen. He felt the decision prudent when Foresthold emerged from the horizon. The trip home had been blessedly uneventful.
As he approached, he waved hello. The village was a ways off, but he knew Nuka would have seen him by now. The Eagle Spirit had blessed the boy with amazing eyesight. He was the village's de facto lookout, spending all day on a platform next to the signal bell. The villagers thought it quaint given that the boy had only been two the last time the bell had been rung. The Faceless had not raided the village in nearly a decade.
Hail Imsikwatash, the conquering hero! he through to himself. He imagined the street lined with villagers cheering his return. He would ride triumphantly to his home where Apothecary Kaneonuskatew would have a boiling pot waiting. Imsikwatash would jump from Spring Wind and throw the root into the mixture. Jaci would drink a spoonful and get better. Then he would tell her of his adventure in the Forevergreen and she would gasp at the terror of it.
He waved again and could not help but give Spring Wind a little kick to quicken their pace. Nuka was gathering the village right now. Come see Tanner Imsikwatash save his wife.
Nuka had seen him approach. The boy was a wonder. He had climbed from his perch and run down the street yelling, just like Imsikwatash knew the boy would. Beyond that, things were not as expected. Children wanted to run about his horse's feet, but their mothers held them close, watching from doorways. No one cheered. No one even said hello. They stared at him as if he were a ghost.
"Hello Itzel. Hello Nina, little Rayen," he said. The children squealed at the attention, but their mother only nodded. Her behavior was so strange. She and her family had shared many meals with Jaci and him. Why would she be so cold now?
Where was her husband? Where were any of the village men?
Imsikwatash received his answer when he turned the corner to his home. Quanah's mare still lay outside his door. Gathered all around were the men of the village. They were not inspecting the horse, but waiting for Imsikwatash as he approached. He lifted the root triumphantly. The group did not react.
"I have it," he cheered. Still nothing. "Kaneonuskatew, I found the root." The apothecary stepped forward as Imsikwatash slid from the saddle. Hokolesqua and Tumecsah came forward as well.
"Let me see the thing," Kaneonuskatew demanded. His voice was stern. Imsikwatash recoiled instinctively.
"No, let me see it," said Horse Master Tumecsah.
"Give it here," said Soldier Hokolesqua.
The three men all grabbed for the root at the same time. Imsikwatash tried to pull it away. All four men had ahold of it.
"I am the most qualified."
"It is dangerous."
"I have dealt with such things before."
"What are you doing? Stop!"
Apothecary Kaneonuskatew pulled hard and the root burst open. All the men covered their mouths and noses, running away from the yellow mush that spilled onto the ground. Quanah's mare began to shriek, flopping its head and legs, trying to stand up. It shrieked again. Imsikwatash was reminded of the creature in the forest. He looked at the horse and saw her rear leg lifting and the nose of a foal peaking out.
The village men fled away from the stench but turned to look at the horse once they could breathe again. The mare stood unsteadily. Her legs shook violently. The foal's nose was covered in blood and viscera, more than any foaling they had witnessed before. The mare shrieked a third time, and the head fully emerged. The men gasped in unison, backing away. The foal's skull was exposed, lacking flesh or muscle. The horse screamed a fourth and final time, pushing her baby all the way out. Her hindquarters tore open and her entrails spilled out. She collapsed dead to the ground.
The men stood silent, their faces ghost white.
Then the foal stood. Its eyes, wide pools of blood in an empty skull, looked at them, one by one until it found Imsikwatash. Its neck straightened as if it wanted to bleat, but it had no muscle to works its jaw. The sound echoed from within the bone, the sound Death made when it laughed.
The foal fell over dead on top of its mother, if the thing was ever truly alive.
No one moved. No one spoke. What should one do after witnessing such a thing?
They could hear children crying from around the corner.
"Horse Master Tumecsah," Imsikwatash whispered, "what do we do?" He looked to the elder for guidance. The old man, his hair gray with age, stood rigid, his eyes wide. He did not answer. In fact, he was so still that Imsikwatash watched his chest to ensure the man was still breathing. The horse master's necklace of rare rocks, bones, and feathers rose and fell shallow and slow.
"Tumecsah!" Kaneonuskatew said more forcefully, snapping the old man back to his senses.
"Spears. We must gather spears," Tumecsah stammered. "We must pull the corpses out of the city and burn them. The spears too." He continued to watch the pile of dead horse as if he expected them to stand back up and walk. "Gather buckets of water. We must cleanse this place immediately. And pray for rain. It will drive away the evil spirits that have come here."
The call went out quick and furious. Women were sent to draw from the well and ferry buckets along a human chain. The adolescents of the village took the children south to play a game on the plains. The men grabbed their spears. All these people came and went to Imsikwatash's home, but none of them spoke to him. They could not meet his eye. The worked diligently, whispering to each other when they stood shoulder-to-shoulder but otherwise remained silent.
Imsikwatash stood there, watching. The horses had died in front of his door. He would not have wanted to step over them to retrieve his spear even if Tumecsah would have allowed it. He felt a pit growing in his stomach. Was this somehow his fault?
The men used spears to drag the bodies onto a wooden sled and then dragged the thing northeast where they were closer to the Forevergreen but far enough east that the wind would not blow back on the village. There they burned the horses, the spears, and the sled. The fire reached for the sky. It was well known among the People that evil spirits caused fires to burn higher and hotter than was natural. The worst spirits might even turn the fire blue.
If he had his way, he would not have watched the fire at all, but he needed to speak to the apothecary, and the man lit the fire himself. So Imsikwatash stayed for the entire thing. With every spark, every pop, every hint of blue within the fire, he felt the divide between him and his neighbors grow. How could they hold him responsible for this? It was Quanah's mare. Quanah's mare that lay outside his home and died on his return from the Forevergreen from which he had taken a mysterious root and where it was broken open before them.
How was it not his fault?
Kaneonuskatew took insufferably long. After giving instructions on how to dispose of the ashes, he spoke to Quanah then Tumecsah then Hokolesqua. Not once did he even look at Imsikwatash. But the tanner would not be deterred so close to his goal. His wife's life was at stake as well as that of his unborn child, a fact at the front of his mind after witnessing that unholy foaling. His time in the Forevergreen seemed shorter than this endless wait.
Finally it was too much.
"Kaneonuskatew, please!"
The apothecary lingered still, but Horse Master Tumecsah looked over the man's shoulder and made eye contact with Imsikwatash. His face was grim. Kaneonuskatew nodded. Tumecsah rubbed his chin and grimaced. Hokolesqua stormed off. He looked at Imsikwatash as he passed; remorse wrought his eyes. Tumecsah followed but could not look at him a second time, only watched his own feet as he walked.
Kaneonuskatew approached. His eyes were impassive. He had that face he always made after consulting his books. This could not be a good thing.
"I am truly sorry, Imsikwatash," he began. "The baja root is ruined. I need an unblemished sample. There is not enough time for you to return to the Forevergreen and for me to brew the elixir. I cannot save your wife."
"That is okay," Imsikwatash said.
"It is?"
"Of course, Apothecary Kaneonuskatew. I brought back a second root. It is undamaged and should suit your purposes nicely." He smiled happily. Kaneonuskatew stood there stunned.
"Well then, that is good news. We should begin immediately."
Imsikwatash smiled larger. "Yes please. I left the second root with Spring Rain." The tanner turned and trotted back to his horse. The People's fears would abate when Jaci healed and gave birth. Good spirits always came to look over newborns. They would chase away the stain of Quanah's dead mare.
Kaneonuskatew followed, shouting after the tanner when he headed home rather than to the apothecary's kitchen where the medicine would be brewed. He took the leather wrap and unfolded it, finding an unmarred baja root within, just like Imsikwatash had described. He smiled and dropped it in the pot. Imsikwatash was disappointed. He had expected a roiling cauldron and the air to be thick with herbs perhaps even a dance or song before throwing the baja into the water. Kaneonuskatew started the fire after depositing the root into a small bronze pot filled with tepid water. He added garlic, cloves, some pressed leaves, and a fist full of pine needles, none of which was fragrant enough to overpower the stink on their hands. Otherwise, it felt more like a soup than a remedy.
"Now there is only one last ingredient," Kaneonuskatew said.
"Well, let's put it in," Imsikwatash answered, clapping his hands together. Kaneonuskatew gave him a sour look.
"I don't have it."
"I don't understand."
"I don't have it," Kaneonuskatew repeated.
"I don't understand."
"I. Do. Not. Have. It."
…
"I don't understand."
"Can you be more specific? Which word in particular do you not understand?"
Imsikwatash levered his arm up and down toward the bowl. His mouth opened and closed in unison until he finally found the right words. "You sent me to the Forevergreen for the bbaja root. You said that was the special ingredient you needed to save my wife. I went to the Forevergreen, braved its perils, and returned with what you asked. Now you say you need another. Why did you not tell me before?" He wanted to take the man's books, throw them on the ground and stomp on them. Or better yet, take them and throw them into the fire to heat the potion faster. It would serve the apothecary right for his heartlessness.
"Truthfully?" Kaneonuskatew said slowly. "I had doubts that you could enter the Forevergreen and return. Of the two, it is far simpler. If you could not succeed at the one, what reason did I have to presume you could accomplish the other?"
"Simpler?"
"Yes. But here you are, returned and triumphant."
"So…"
"Your wife's elixir will be ready in three hours. I will administer it over the next three days. At the end of those three days, she will be cured."
"Then why do you-" Kaneonuskatew lifted a hand, stopping him.
"Once cured, she will fall into a deep sleep. Your child will appear stillborn, but will live. They will be trapped in the Dream Land. This last ingredient will draw your wife and child back to us. It will help them find their bodies again. Without it, they will be trapped there forever."
Imsikwatash struggled to know how to feel. He was elated that his wife would be healed but angry that the apothecary had kept such a vital secret from him. Who would think it appropriate to hide such a thing?
"What do you need?" he finally asked.
"I is a stone, but it looks like glass-white from a distance but clear up close. It is sharp, sharper than your knife. I need a piece large enough to lay on your wife's tongue and a second for the newborn."
"What is it called?"
"You could not pronounce it nor can you read. There is no word for it in our language."
"Our language?" Imsikwatash asked, astonished. "Who but the People have language? You claim to be a learned man, and you pin the life of my family on children's stories?"
"We will find out, won't we?" Kaneonuskatew answered.
"What do you mean? Where is this glass rock?"
"Follow the Great Father as He begins His journey across the sky. Look for the island at the edge of the world. You will find the stone there."
As he approached, he waved hello. The village was a ways off, but he knew Nuka would have seen him by now. The Eagle Spirit had blessed the boy with amazing eyesight. He was the village's de facto lookout, spending all day on a platform next to the signal bell. The villagers thought it quaint given that the boy had only been two the last time the bell had been rung. The Faceless had not raided the village in nearly a decade.
Hail Imsikwatash, the conquering hero! he through to himself. He imagined the street lined with villagers cheering his return. He would ride triumphantly to his home where Apothecary Kaneonuskatew would have a boiling pot waiting. Imsikwatash would jump from Spring Wind and throw the root into the mixture. Jaci would drink a spoonful and get better. Then he would tell her of his adventure in the Forevergreen and she would gasp at the terror of it.
He waved again and could not help but give Spring Wind a little kick to quicken their pace. Nuka was gathering the village right now. Come see Tanner Imsikwatash save his wife.
Nuka had seen him approach. The boy was a wonder. He had climbed from his perch and run down the street yelling, just like Imsikwatash knew the boy would. Beyond that, things were not as expected. Children wanted to run about his horse's feet, but their mothers held them close, watching from doorways. No one cheered. No one even said hello. They stared at him as if he were a ghost.
"Hello Itzel. Hello Nina, little Rayen," he said. The children squealed at the attention, but their mother only nodded. Her behavior was so strange. She and her family had shared many meals with Jaci and him. Why would she be so cold now?
Where was her husband? Where were any of the village men?
Imsikwatash received his answer when he turned the corner to his home. Quanah's mare still lay outside his door. Gathered all around were the men of the village. They were not inspecting the horse, but waiting for Imsikwatash as he approached. He lifted the root triumphantly. The group did not react.
"I have it," he cheered. Still nothing. "Kaneonuskatew, I found the root." The apothecary stepped forward as Imsikwatash slid from the saddle. Hokolesqua and Tumecsah came forward as well.
"Let me see the thing," Kaneonuskatew demanded. His voice was stern. Imsikwatash recoiled instinctively.
"No, let me see it," said Horse Master Tumecsah.
"Give it here," said Soldier Hokolesqua.
The three men all grabbed for the root at the same time. Imsikwatash tried to pull it away. All four men had ahold of it.
"I am the most qualified."
"It is dangerous."
"I have dealt with such things before."
"What are you doing? Stop!"
Apothecary Kaneonuskatew pulled hard and the root burst open. All the men covered their mouths and noses, running away from the yellow mush that spilled onto the ground. Quanah's mare began to shriek, flopping its head and legs, trying to stand up. It shrieked again. Imsikwatash was reminded of the creature in the forest. He looked at the horse and saw her rear leg lifting and the nose of a foal peaking out.
The village men fled away from the stench but turned to look at the horse once they could breathe again. The mare stood unsteadily. Her legs shook violently. The foal's nose was covered in blood and viscera, more than any foaling they had witnessed before. The mare shrieked a third time, and the head fully emerged. The men gasped in unison, backing away. The foal's skull was exposed, lacking flesh or muscle. The horse screamed a fourth and final time, pushing her baby all the way out. Her hindquarters tore open and her entrails spilled out. She collapsed dead to the ground.
The men stood silent, their faces ghost white.
Then the foal stood. Its eyes, wide pools of blood in an empty skull, looked at them, one by one until it found Imsikwatash. Its neck straightened as if it wanted to bleat, but it had no muscle to works its jaw. The sound echoed from within the bone, the sound Death made when it laughed.
The foal fell over dead on top of its mother, if the thing was ever truly alive.
No one moved. No one spoke. What should one do after witnessing such a thing?
They could hear children crying from around the corner.
"Horse Master Tumecsah," Imsikwatash whispered, "what do we do?" He looked to the elder for guidance. The old man, his hair gray with age, stood rigid, his eyes wide. He did not answer. In fact, he was so still that Imsikwatash watched his chest to ensure the man was still breathing. The horse master's necklace of rare rocks, bones, and feathers rose and fell shallow and slow.
"Tumecsah!" Kaneonuskatew said more forcefully, snapping the old man back to his senses.
"Spears. We must gather spears," Tumecsah stammered. "We must pull the corpses out of the city and burn them. The spears too." He continued to watch the pile of dead horse as if he expected them to stand back up and walk. "Gather buckets of water. We must cleanse this place immediately. And pray for rain. It will drive away the evil spirits that have come here."
The call went out quick and furious. Women were sent to draw from the well and ferry buckets along a human chain. The adolescents of the village took the children south to play a game on the plains. The men grabbed their spears. All these people came and went to Imsikwatash's home, but none of them spoke to him. They could not meet his eye. The worked diligently, whispering to each other when they stood shoulder-to-shoulder but otherwise remained silent.
Imsikwatash stood there, watching. The horses had died in front of his door. He would not have wanted to step over them to retrieve his spear even if Tumecsah would have allowed it. He felt a pit growing in his stomach. Was this somehow his fault?
The men used spears to drag the bodies onto a wooden sled and then dragged the thing northeast where they were closer to the Forevergreen but far enough east that the wind would not blow back on the village. There they burned the horses, the spears, and the sled. The fire reached for the sky. It was well known among the People that evil spirits caused fires to burn higher and hotter than was natural. The worst spirits might even turn the fire blue.
If he had his way, he would not have watched the fire at all, but he needed to speak to the apothecary, and the man lit the fire himself. So Imsikwatash stayed for the entire thing. With every spark, every pop, every hint of blue within the fire, he felt the divide between him and his neighbors grow. How could they hold him responsible for this? It was Quanah's mare. Quanah's mare that lay outside his home and died on his return from the Forevergreen from which he had taken a mysterious root and where it was broken open before them.
How was it not his fault?
Kaneonuskatew took insufferably long. After giving instructions on how to dispose of the ashes, he spoke to Quanah then Tumecsah then Hokolesqua. Not once did he even look at Imsikwatash. But the tanner would not be deterred so close to his goal. His wife's life was at stake as well as that of his unborn child, a fact at the front of his mind after witnessing that unholy foaling. His time in the Forevergreen seemed shorter than this endless wait.
Finally it was too much.
"Kaneonuskatew, please!"
The apothecary lingered still, but Horse Master Tumecsah looked over the man's shoulder and made eye contact with Imsikwatash. His face was grim. Kaneonuskatew nodded. Tumecsah rubbed his chin and grimaced. Hokolesqua stormed off. He looked at Imsikwatash as he passed; remorse wrought his eyes. Tumecsah followed but could not look at him a second time, only watched his own feet as he walked.
Kaneonuskatew approached. His eyes were impassive. He had that face he always made after consulting his books. This could not be a good thing.
"I am truly sorry, Imsikwatash," he began. "The baja root is ruined. I need an unblemished sample. There is not enough time for you to return to the Forevergreen and for me to brew the elixir. I cannot save your wife."
"That is okay," Imsikwatash said.
"It is?"
"Of course, Apothecary Kaneonuskatew. I brought back a second root. It is undamaged and should suit your purposes nicely." He smiled happily. Kaneonuskatew stood there stunned.
"Well then, that is good news. We should begin immediately."
Imsikwatash smiled larger. "Yes please. I left the second root with Spring Rain." The tanner turned and trotted back to his horse. The People's fears would abate when Jaci healed and gave birth. Good spirits always came to look over newborns. They would chase away the stain of Quanah's dead mare.
Kaneonuskatew followed, shouting after the tanner when he headed home rather than to the apothecary's kitchen where the medicine would be brewed. He took the leather wrap and unfolded it, finding an unmarred baja root within, just like Imsikwatash had described. He smiled and dropped it in the pot. Imsikwatash was disappointed. He had expected a roiling cauldron and the air to be thick with herbs perhaps even a dance or song before throwing the baja into the water. Kaneonuskatew started the fire after depositing the root into a small bronze pot filled with tepid water. He added garlic, cloves, some pressed leaves, and a fist full of pine needles, none of which was fragrant enough to overpower the stink on their hands. Otherwise, it felt more like a soup than a remedy.
"Now there is only one last ingredient," Kaneonuskatew said.
"Well, let's put it in," Imsikwatash answered, clapping his hands together. Kaneonuskatew gave him a sour look.
"I don't have it."
"I don't understand."
"I don't have it," Kaneonuskatew repeated.
"I don't understand."
"I. Do. Not. Have. It."
…
"I don't understand."
"Can you be more specific? Which word in particular do you not understand?"
Imsikwatash levered his arm up and down toward the bowl. His mouth opened and closed in unison until he finally found the right words. "You sent me to the Forevergreen for the bbaja root. You said that was the special ingredient you needed to save my wife. I went to the Forevergreen, braved its perils, and returned with what you asked. Now you say you need another. Why did you not tell me before?" He wanted to take the man's books, throw them on the ground and stomp on them. Or better yet, take them and throw them into the fire to heat the potion faster. It would serve the apothecary right for his heartlessness.
"Truthfully?" Kaneonuskatew said slowly. "I had doubts that you could enter the Forevergreen and return. Of the two, it is far simpler. If you could not succeed at the one, what reason did I have to presume you could accomplish the other?"
"Simpler?"
"Yes. But here you are, returned and triumphant."
"So…"
"Your wife's elixir will be ready in three hours. I will administer it over the next three days. At the end of those three days, she will be cured."
"Then why do you-" Kaneonuskatew lifted a hand, stopping him.
"Once cured, she will fall into a deep sleep. Your child will appear stillborn, but will live. They will be trapped in the Dream Land. This last ingredient will draw your wife and child back to us. It will help them find their bodies again. Without it, they will be trapped there forever."
Imsikwatash struggled to know how to feel. He was elated that his wife would be healed but angry that the apothecary had kept such a vital secret from him. Who would think it appropriate to hide such a thing?
"What do you need?" he finally asked.
"I is a stone, but it looks like glass-white from a distance but clear up close. It is sharp, sharper than your knife. I need a piece large enough to lay on your wife's tongue and a second for the newborn."
"What is it called?"
"You could not pronounce it nor can you read. There is no word for it in our language."
"Our language?" Imsikwatash asked, astonished. "Who but the People have language? You claim to be a learned man, and you pin the life of my family on children's stories?"
"We will find out, won't we?" Kaneonuskatew answered.
"What do you mean? Where is this glass rock?"
"Follow the Great Father as He begins His journey across the sky. Look for the island at the edge of the world. You will find the stone there."