Kimi arrived back at the mountain’s summit. She was now doubled over and gasping for breath. When The Passage was open it appeared as nothing more than a slight discontinuity in the scenery, as if a slit had appeared in space, blurred at the edges. In a blizzard, it would be impossible for anyone, even Kimi, to find it by sight.
Thank The Great Spirit that Kimi did not rely on her sight when it came to matters of such importance. In addition to causing a visual disturbance, however slight, The Passage caused an auditory one as well which was even more difficult to detect for most people. Kimi was an exception. The Passage did something to the air around it which caused a kind of auditory blur, similar to a visual one. Even in the howling wind that now surrounded her, she should be able to detect it.
Kimi straightened, her breaths coming easier, and tilted her head. She closed her eye. She was wet and cold, the driving snow finally beginning to penetrate her deerskin covering. Now sleet was stinging her face. She listened. Her hearing did not amplify every sound around her. It acted selectively, bringing sounds she wanted to hear to the forefront of her mind’s ear, allowing her to locate their source. She turned her head slightly, took three steps with her eye still closed, and stopped. She opened her eye and looked to the right.
There it was. She had to narrow her eye to see it, but it was there. A slim crack in space that blurred the snow falling near it, invisible to anyone who wasn’t looking for it. She had no way of knowing how long The Passage would remain open. In the past it had never stayed open for longer than one journey of the Sun across the sky. If it closed and she missed it, that would be bad. Really bad. Because in the past The Passage usually waited for months before reopening. That, also, would be really bad.
It could also wait years. And no one, not the Elders or Warriors or Achak or even her father had ever discovered how to open The Passage.
The snowfall continued to intensify. She could barely see twenty feet in front of her, and she was afraid. She hadn’t known what else to do, so she had gone back to The Passage, running the entire distance from where she had left the boy in the clearing. She had gone back down Lone Man’s Walk, onto the ice where the blood stains had already been covered with a fresh blanket of white, through the forest and up the mountain to where she was now. She had run as fast as she could, as fast as the storm and her ankle would allow her to run. Her ankle had started hurting again, but she had thanked The Great Spirit that it wasn’t enough to halt her progress. Her wrist still burned with pain, she was hungry, and she was tired.
And afraid. Very afraid.
Kimi had known it would be difficult to find Achak and the Totem, but she thought The Great Spirit would have guided her to at least one of them. That had not happened. The task now seemed impossible. She was at a loss as to what to do. She could try building a shelter like she did for the boy and wait out the storm. But what if it lasted into tomorrow? And what if The Passage closed before then? She had to leave. She had to go through The Passage before it closed. But if she did that, then Achak would remain in the New World, free to carry out whatever insidious plan he had concocted, unabated by her efforts to stop him from his madness. She was confused.
WHUMP!
Kimi’s head snapped up and her body reacted accordingly—arms positioned themselves in front of her in a defensive move, feet spread themselves apart, legs bent at the knees. Her body had readied itself for—
WHUMP! WHUMP!
—whatever was coming.
She knew what was coming. But…did she?
WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP!
As her head tilted up and her eye narrowed to peer into the spiraling whiteness, she did know. Not what it was, but who it was.
As her mind processed the revelation that could have come only from The Great Spirit Himself, and her eye searched through the storm for Achak, something slammed into her back, knocking her to the ground. The weight on her back drove the breath out of her lungs. She pushed against the weight, but it was too heavy. She pushed again, and pain flashed out of her wrist and up her arm, preventing her from trying again. But she needed to breathe. She needed to get up. She needed to—
Calm. Peace. Focus.
She closed her eye. She focused on her lungs. She heard them inside her body and commanded them to take in air. Nothing. She pushed all other thoughts—snow, wind, noise—out of her mind. She focused on her lungs. They opened. Cold air rushed into her mouth and nose, into her body, life-sustaining breath filling her being. She tried getting up again, this time strong enough to move, but not enough to move the weight off of her. She closed her eye, inhaled, and pushed again. The weight moved. It rolled off her back and onto the snow. She got to her knees, looked at what was next to her, and scrambled backward through the snow on her hands and feet and rear end.
Another body. Another boy, this one older than the others, lying in the snow on his stomach, head turned toward her. Red stains covered his upper back, holes torn out of the clothing at the shoulders. His chest moved. He was alive. Kimi crawled to him and reached out to roll him over, but as she was about to touch him her brother spoke from behind her.
“Are you sure you want to do that?”
Kimi jumped to her feet, flinching as she landed on the bad ankle, hiding her splinted, broken wrist behind her, not wanting Achak to notice she was injured. She couldn’t afford him that advantage of knowledge.
She raised her head, held her good hand in front of her, and looked at her brother through the swirling snow.
He was not the Great Eagle she had seen. The white head, brown and black wings, and silver-metallic talons were gone. What she saw was her brother standing before her, his arms crossed, long, black hair blowing in the wind and snow, brown eyes narrowed at her, his facial features reminding her of what she once looked like with two eyes.
She hated him. Ever since that day long ago. The day he cut out her eye.
Kimi spoke through clenched teeth. “He looks like he needs help, no thanks to you.”
Achak uncrossed his arms and held his palms out and shrugged his shoulders as if insulted. “What makes you think I’m not helping him?” Achak looked at the boy lying in the snow. “Oh. The blood on the back. You blame that on me.” Achak turned his attention to Kimi. Through the blowing snow she saw the grin on his face. “Why waste time on silly games? You’re right, sis. He does need help. But you’re not the one to give it to him.”
“Sis? You speak like one of them.”
Achak stepped to the side, toward the boy. “Way I figure it, if I’m gonna defend these people and protect their land, I might as well learn a little bit of their language and culture and have fun with it.”
Kimi opened her mouth to answer Achak, but then closed it. The Passage. It sounded different, the blurring now a deeper pitch than a few moments ago. It was getting ready to close.
Kimi switched her focus to Achak, hoping he didn’t notice anything. The Passage was about to close. What did that mean for her? She couldn’t go back and leave Achak here. And she could not stay here as she could not defeat Achak under the present circumstances. She was weakened. He seemingly had discovered the ability to skin-walk, and there was no way for her to fight against such power. Not without the Totem. Had Achak found it? Was that how he had gained the ability to skin-walk?
“Cat got your tongue, sis?”
Kimi summoned her strength and moved toward her brother. “You cannot win this, Achak.”
“My ever optimistic, yet clearly deluded sister, how wrong you are. Do you not know that the good guy always wins?”
“You do not have the backing of the Elders, you have no Warriors to fight for you, and The Great Spirit will not grant you success.”
The wind howled around them, kicking up snow at their feet and swirling it between and around them. Kimi was getting colder. Achak appeared to be unaffected by the drop in temperature.
“Allow me to correct you on a few points, Kimi.” Achak held up a hand and raised a finger. “One, I don’t need the backing of the Elders. I escaped from their hold and got through The Passage without their backing, didn’t I? Both those feats were supposed to be impossible. And yet,” Achak spread his hands out in front of him, “here I am.”
Kimi shook her head and looked at the boy on the ground. His hand moved. That meant he would be regaining consciousness soon and that meant more danger. There was no telling what Achak would do to him if the boy tried fighting back. She glanced beyond Achak. The sound of The Passage was getting deeper. Time was running out.
“Two,” another finger raised, “take a look around you at what’s happening. I don’t need Warriors when I have this.” He waved his hands above his head, but Kimi did not know what he meant. “Three,” a third finger, “I can do whatever I want without seeking the so-called Great Spirit’s permission.”
Kimi stared at her brother. She was at a loss as to the meaning of what he had said. He did not need Warriors? Take a look at what’s happening? All she saw around her was forest and snow. She could see nothing else in the storm except for—
The storm. But that’s impossible, Kimi thought. That would mean Achak’s knowledge was much deeper than Kimi had expected. That her brother had discovered ancient secrets even The Elders had doubted existed. That Achak, if what she was thinking was true, might indeed possess the power to do whatever he wished.
The air escaped Kimi’s lungs. She fought to get it back, bringing both hands to her chest. Calm. Peace. Fight The Fear. Do not let it defeat you. Fight it!
“I see that a sudden realization has come upon you, my dear sister.” Achak chuckled. He stepped toward her. “It’s truly amazing what one can accomplish by manipulating the elements, all by the force of one’s will. Truly amazing.” He took another step toward Kimi and extended a hand toward her. “It’s yours for the taking, sis. If you want it.”
Fight The Fear! Do not let it defeat you. Do not let him use it against you. Do not give in to it!
Kimi stepped back and shook her head. “No, Achak. No.”
“Yeah, I figured as much. What the hell, thought I’d give it a try, you know with me saving your life and all so many years ago. Thought you might finally be grateful. Guess not.”
Kimi couldn’t waste any more time. She had to decide quickly what to do. The boy on the ground moaned and moved a leg.
“Gratitude? For what. For this?” Kimi pointed to her empty eye socket. She looked to the boy, looked beyond Achak to The Passage, looked back to Achak. “You say you saved my life.” Kimi paused to compose herself. “You blinded me. You owe me my sight. You owe me the beauty I once possessed. Can you give those things back to me, Achak? Are those things mine for the taking?”
“I will forever regret what I did to you, Kimi, and I may even regret the day I saved your life, but save it I did. You cannot deny that. And if I had to do it again, I would. I would do anything, anything, to save your life, my dear sister.”
The boy started to rise. The Passage’s sound deepened and intensified. Soon, Achak would also be able to hear it and know what was happening.
“You will not twist the truth to fool me. I will not allow it, Achak. I will not give in to it.”
“Kimi, you mistake Truth for Fear. Do you not see that? The two often feel the same, but they are not. Your life is ruled by Fear, not Truth. It is you who have twisted the two so that you no longer can discern one from the other.”
She needed to decide. She needed to move. Talking with Achak was not doing anything but wasting time. She had to do something. Anything. But she was frozen, unable to think clearly.
From her left came a black shape out of the swirling gray whiteness. It slammed into Achak and sent him hurtling through the air and crashing into a tree. He fell to the ground. Kimi dove for the boy, got her hands underneath him, and praying to The Great Spirit, she used all her strength to lift and drag him toward The Passage. She cried out as her wrist flared with pain. Her ankle protested, twisted, and pain shot up her leg. She stumbled. She got up. She dragged the boy who was now moaning and trying to get himself free from her grasp.
“No!” Achak sprang up.
Kimi turned in time to see Achak’s arms and legs morph together into massive wings. His head became that of an eagle, brown and black and white feathers replaced his skin and clothes. Achak flapped his wings and shot toward her. With one last heave Kimi lifted the boy and dragged him toward The Passage, but before she could step into it Achak roared at her, ripped the boy from her hands, and flew into The Passage and disappeared. Kimi dove after him and the boy, but she was too late. The Passage had closed. She landed on the cold, crusty snow.