Chapter Eleven
Three weeks later
I watched anxiously from the cover of some shrubby trees. Far Horizon would not hear of me accompanying the others on the mission to plant bombs within the settlement so I was stuck here to be nothing more than an observer to what took place this day.
Anxiously I watched and waited. As was customary the different camps of the prairie people had brought the tribute items required of each of them monthly by the off-worlders. Noticeably absent in this year’s trade was that of slaves, usually women, that had been a common custom in times past.
What the settlement dwellers by the sea didn’t know was that for the past three weeks the people of the prairie had been involved in little else, but the creation of more gunpowder. There had been a few mishaps and some close calls, but thankfully no one had been hurt seriously.
Even now several tons by my calculations of black powder was being placed throughout the city. Timing all the charges to go off together would be difficult, but not impossible thanks to an ingenious idea one of the prairie women had come up with in the form of a slow burning fuse made of twisted hemp fiber saturated with a reduced potency of black powder. The slow burning fuse burned at a predictable rate, which made timing an overall consorted explosion possible by varying the lengths and times when fuses were lit.
The woman’s addition to the war effort for liberation had only strengthened the resolve by the men of seeing their women in a new light. Slow burning fuses or not it was going to be difficult just the same to avoid detection.
For the thousandth time I wished that Far Horizon had let me tag along. I’d slowly found out as our relationship deepened that I could usually get my way if I tried hard enough, but in this matter he’d been unshakable and respectfully I was obeying him by doing as he had commanded.
Most of all I did not care for the part of the plan were it involved him. He had the other warriors acting out a charade of delivering him up to the settlement dwellers as a sign of their good faith, but in return they were bartering for more settlement goods than usual. Such a bargaining process promised to take a while and while all eyes were on the deal in process warriors were slipping into the settlement from all corners to drop off payloads of black powder.
The sign for everything to go up would be when the sun reached mid sky. I felt a tap on my shoulder.
Glancing back I saw all three of the warriors who had delivered me up to the settlement a month ago standing there.
“Falling Water, Storm Tree, Golden Horse how can I be of help?” I gently inquired of the three men, who looked almost guilty to be alive.
Finally Golden Horse burst out with, “How have you not told Far Horizon who it was that did the dishonor of delivering you up to the outsiders?”
“Why should I?” I asked inquiringly.
“Because we deserve punishment!” Golden Horse exclaimed loudly, as if driven from some internal angst. The other two nodded affirmatively.
Turning fully from the city to them I approached and put my hands on the shoulder of each warrior and verbally forgave them for what they had done. When I got to Golden Horse it was to see tears in his eyes.
He shook his head, “It is not right what you do!”
“Yes it is Golden Horse. Even as the Creator has forgiven me of my trespasses even now do I so forgive you, but promise me something and that goes for all three of you. Never treat your women as something of lesser value than yourselves.”
All three men nodded and I started to turn away, but I heard Golden Horse mumble, “It is still not right for us to be left off so lightly. We delivered you up and look now how you are even freeing us this day from the tyranny of these outsiders who have oppressed us for going on three generations!”
“Golden Horse if you had not delivered me up then I would never have met Far Horizon. He and I would not have escaped and even now your people would still be caught within the grip of tyranny with no hope of a better life. Sometimes it is better to just accept forgiveness whether deserved or not even as you realize that the Creator has been at work the whole time despite your wrong actions toward me. I can forgive and now it’s time for you to forgive yourself and stop living under the curses of yesterday and accept what your Creator has in store for you today, which I pray will soon be freedom. Now it is almost midday, hurry and take your positions with the others.”
The three men turned to go as I’d ordered, but Golden Horse turned back at the last and said, “Thank you! You are very wise.”
“You’re welcome and my wisdom is only because I’ve listened to the Creator. You should do the same in your own life. He’s earnestly waiting to hear from you.”
He nodded and hurried off to join the other warriors massed around their horses that were hidden from view of the city. I only hoped the bombs would prove successful in terms of paving the way before them.
The sun reached mid sky and with a discordant theme explosions erupted throughout the city. It was hard to judge the overall success of them as dense black smoke overwhelmed the settlement at large.
Warriors screaming at the top of their lungs plunged toward the blasted apart settlement on horseback, until it seemed that I alone was left. The dense smoke covered everything and in a way it seemed like it had devoured the city and all that it held within it. Had anyone survived?
The wind blew and columns of smoke drifted in toward me. I coughed on the acrid smoke, even as I’d tried to peer through it. “Oh dear God keep him safe!” I whispered, but it was as loud as a scream in my heart.
I was beginning to see more of the city thanks to the wind. The settlement in its entirety was in flames and riders were pouring out of it as fast as they could ride. They were giving up the fight so soon?
I’d expected the confrontation to last for a while. Rising quickly I went back toward the holding area and the big stallion trotted forward. He was too tall for me to mount and so I climbed onto a lower branch of a tree and shimmied on to him from there.
He took off for the rise overlooking the settlement and there he safely stopped as I didn’t know how I could compel the animal to do even anything except through prayer to God. Warriors were in a strung out column fast approaching my position. It was not a look of victory that lay upon them.
The city appeared destroyed so why the angst as if they had suffered defeat of some kind?
Warriors raced by me on horseback and then in relief I saw Far Horizon. He looked roughed up, but seemed able enough despite the visible injuries. He drew up and slid from his horse onto the stallion behind me.
“What’s going on? Why are we running?”
He shook his head negatively and pointed.
I looked to the city and I saw it now. A huge object was rising up into the air from the flames of the settlement.
Far Horizon wheeled the stallion with his knees and we took off in hot pursuit after the other warriors, who were already gone from view. Looking back over his shoulder I saw the large vessel hovering over the settlement start to coast towards us. What had I done?
I’d only done what I felt led to do. Things weren’t supposed to end out like this!
We didn’t stand a chance against the technology that thing back there hovering in the air was in representation of! Didn’t God know that?
He had to and knowing that gave me a measure of peace to help quell the panic that had begun to grow within me.
The stallion ate up the distance faster than the wind it seemed. We gained the top of a rise and with a startled grunt Far Horizon brought the stallion to a raging halt.
There in the low lands before us was the entire body of prairie warriors likewise drawn up as if paralyzed to do anything else because of what lay before them. Another vessel, one only half the size of the one overtop the settlement, hovered above the ground before the startled horsemen.
With a droning whine a dark shadow fell over both Far Horizon and I and looking up I screamed at the sight of the vessel from the settlement directly over top of us. We were trapped!
I watched as mechanical apertures moved on the vessels underbody and I screamed, “We need to move now!”
Far Horizon must’ve reached the same conclusion as he had already begun to urge the great stallion forward. With one great lunge we were several horse lengths from where we had just been and good thing too, because the ground erupted with explosive force as beams of lightning slammed into it.
Far Horizon didn’t look back and neither did he ride in a straight line or else we would have been doomed. The vessel behind us seemed to have it out for us in particular as they seemed to ignore the thousands of other riders on the prairie in order to concentrate on us.
I don’t know how we weren’t hit as the ground all around us was being blown to bits. The stallion leapt over craters or swerved past them, how much longer such an effort could be maintained was anybody’s guess. My guess though was that it wouldn’t be long.
Despite the violence of the moment and the need for concentration I felt myself on the verge of crying hysterically. I didn’t want the new life I felt sure that lay nestled within me even now to die anymore than I wanted to die right now.
The riders of the prairie scattered before our approach as the surface of the planet was torn apart all around us by the vessel’s guns that seemed eager to blast us into utter annihilation. Strangely the other vessel had yet to fire upon us and as it was we were headed for the moment right at them.
“Oh God help us!” I cried out.
*****
Logan shook his head in extreme disbelief, “Taran are you seeing this?”
“Doesn’t seem fair does it. I never liked the way these alien half breeds treated the indigenous population of this world and right now never more so. How does a simple fly in to trade for some horses turn into a complicated affair such as this?” Taran asked to no one in specific.
“I don’t know brother. Hey, does that girl on the stallion have red hair?” Logan exclaimed pointing toward the lone horse’s occupants that seemed to be somehow dodging certain death a thousand times over with the passage of each second.
“Red hair?” Taran breathed out before shouting out, “Zoom up on her!”
Logan did so and both men gasped at the sight of the familiar resemblance as large as life portrayed on the screens before them.
“Is that Tara?” Logan exclaimed, as he saw a living vision of his older sister only in younger form.
“Take that ship out now!” Taran responded with in answer and Logan did so while calling out in reply, “How on Earth did she get here?”
“We can ask her ourselves, when she’s safe! Now push your buttons and get that thing destroyed!”
“Their geometric algorithms, not buttons.” Logan gritted out even as the ship of their ancestor’s design rocked about roughly as all of its considerable ordinance fired off at the same moment.
Explosions appeared all over the enemy vessel in a terrific scene of mass effect, but it itself didn’t go up in flames. The attack however on the double ridden horse on the prairie stopped, as the opposing vessel brought everything to bear on Taran and Logan.
Logan peeled the ship to the left and then dramatically upward in an action that damaged Taran’s ability to keep his breakfast down. He didn’t complain though as his brother masterfully eluded the enemies power bolts even while maintaining the heavy barrage of destruction upon the other vessel.
Something changed within the amphitheater of war and the other vessel now trailing smoke heavily broke away from the fight to limp toward the horizon all the while fighting to gain altitude.
“They’re going to jump!” Logan called out with deep dissatisfaction, as he did his best to pump the enemy vessel with enough damage so that it would explode before it could escape.
“Let them go and land this thing before I throw up everywhere!” Taran ordered demandingly.
Logan reluctantly broke off pursuit of the enemy vessel and dryly commented, “You’re rather bossy you know.”
“Sorry, it’s a habit I picked up somewhere.”
“Yeah, like from birth!” Logan exclaimed sarcastically.
“So what’s wrong with it? I get the job done.”
Logan shook his head, “I don’t know how Zayri puts up with you. I certainly couldn’t!”
“Just get us landed will ya!”
“As you wish master.”
Taran gave Logan a dirty look to which Logan chuckled in response to. The Thanglarin VX4 craft touched down softly, but Taran was already out of his seat and moving aft towards the rear hatch.
Impatiently he waited for all systems to clear and then he hit the button that made the door open. He jumped free of the craft too impatient to wait for the stairs to unfold and hurried on through the kneelength grass toward the woman streaking across the ground toward him.
*****
With a squeal of delight I launched up and wrapped my arms around my uncle’s neck. His strong arms came around me just as I had remembered as a young girl.
I lost it in a mixture of joy over being still alive and the joy of seeing him mixed with hysterical tears as I hung on relishing the moment for all it was worth. I still had family. Family that cared for me. I wasn’t alone of all my kin in the world anymore.
“Thank God you came to be here Taran! You’re an absolute answer to prayer! I thought we were going to die! I thought you were just more of the enemy, but you’re not and now you’re here and everything’s great and I don’t have to worry…….”
Laughing Taran exclaimed, “Come up for air Tara, you’ll pass out!”
“I don’t care! I’m just so happy!”
Wiping at his eyes Taran let go of her and looked his niece over that was already the spitting image of his sister. Tara being off-world and with what Logan had learned before coming off-world all echoed strongly to the fact that his beloved sister was no longer among the living. It was a bittersweet moment for him.
Looking past Tara he noticed the tall muscular form of a man that had warrior written all over him. “And who is this?” He asked already knowing in part what kind of relationship was between this warrior and his niece.
I turned and pulled Far Horizon up beside me and gesturing to Taran and Logan, who’d come up alongside of his brother, I said in Cherokee, “These are my two uncles Taran and Logan!”
Turning back to Taran I said proudly, “This is Far Horizon and I’m his wife.”
The two brothers glanced at each other and then sized the big Cherokee up. It seemed to be an unspoken consensus between the two of them that they wanted no part of any trouble with the man, who looked able to take them both on at the same time.
Taran made the hand gesture for peace and then in the Cherokee language that he’d learned as a kid in the mountains he said, “Peace to the man who holds the heart of my beloved niece.”
Far horizon signed back, “Who can hold the brightness of the Creator’s love for that is what she symbolizes to me and not only me, but to all my people. Welcome men of my wife’s family. My land is open to you. Thank you for helping to restore it to us.”
As I wiped at my eyes emotionally I glanced from Far Horizon back to Taran and said, “He can’t talk because his tongue was cut out, but somehow he says an awful lot anyway.”
I stepped closer to Far Horizon as I watched Taran and Logan share a curious look between the two of them. Logan stated for the two of them it seemed, “Can’t talk huh? We might know someone who would be able to help with that.”
“What?” I breathed out with.
Taran said, “I’ll explain later. What are you going to do now that his people are free? Our world, the world of our ancestors that I wrote to you about is real and it’s becoming more beautiful with each passing year. You’re welcome to come Tara.”
Smiling I shook my head no, “My place is here…..” Glancing up to Far Horizon I added in Cherokee, “With my people.”
Glancing back to Taran I said, “But I’d love to come visit.”
Taran smiled broadly, “That can be arranged.”
Looking past me he admiringly gazed at the stallion, which stood in regal profile beyond Far Horizon and said, “I actually came to buy some horses. I don’t suppose there might be a colt or filly sired by that grand old boy behind you running around that your people would be willing to part with, would there?”
I laughed and interpreted his words to Far Horizon who smiled and turned to the stallion that he had seemed to bond with on some deeper level. No words were spoken, and yet the stallion suddenly reared up on its hind legs majestically and screamed out as only a stallion could.
His hooves crashed down to shake the ground beneath all of our feet, but the ground continued to shake. With a gasp of astonishment both Taran and Logan watched the horizon light up from the dazzling array of colors of the horse herd without equal that even now streamed down into the valley like a river of flowing purity.
Far Horizon signed, “Take as many as you wish.”
Taran looking truly humbled glanced to the tall Cherokee and said in Cherokee, “Thank you for your gift, but I wish to return a gift to you. I will return and when I do I hope to give you something precious, even as you have in part fulfilled my need to once again see my world populated with the beauty to be had in the Creator’s creation of these animals.”
Far Horizon held his hand out and the two men shook.