As Chayma Azi left on his mission, Gordon saw his spare underpants hovering just beneath his gaze. Looking down, he saw Kag Ati’s youngest widow. “Are you my husband now?” she asked, her eyes very large and filled with fear.
He looked up and behind her were the former Clan Father’s remaining two widows. More fear but no tears. He bent to the youngest one and said, “By what name are you called?”
“Misa,” she said. “Misa Hado. Do you want the headdress back?”
“No. You may keep the headdress. Come with me, Misa.” He turned her by her shoulder and they walked to where the other widows stood. Zibi Na at twenty-two was the eldest. The widow standing next to her, Tuieh, was eighteen. They were both quite beautiful. He regarded the trio and said, “I will be father to you all. Feed you, make shelter, help you learn skills, in time find good husband for each.”
Zibi Na reached out and touched his arm. “You be husband.” Raven haired, slender, delicate features, eyes of tourmaline green. It was the Temptations all over again.
Gently he removed her hand from his arm. “Father, Zibi Na. Father or nothing. Choose.” He looked at the other two. “Choose.”
Chayma Azi came and apologized for interrupting. “I have the riders together. Others are preparing the horses.”
“Good. My thanks and I’ll speak to the riders in a moment.” He turned to the three widows. “Well?”
“Can we keep Runner?” asked Misa. Kag Ati’s big black dog peeked out from behind Zibi Na. He looked like a cross between a black Lab and an Irish wolfhound. A shaggy black shadow with one yellow eye open on the right. His left eye had been injured sometime in the past and was missing, leaving the animal with a permanent wink. Sometimes, Trickster, a new joke. “Welcome, brother,” he said to the dog. “Keep Runner,” he said to Misa as he laughed and followed Chayma Azi to where the riders were gathered.
Early the next morning, Avak Tav and Gordon led a small column of riders down the North Trail, past Ghaf’s tent into the village. Gordon pulled up his mount before Pela’s house and sent Avak Tav to see Mahu and to ask him to call a meeting of whoever could attend at the clanhouse. Pela stepped from the door, her expression changing from joy at seeing Gordon alive, to distress that his head was bloodied, then to confusion at the number of additional wives he seemed to have acquired.
He explained to her Kag Ati was dead, he was responsible for the death, and that the three females were Kag Ati’s widows “If you will have them, Pela,” he said, “they will be your stepdaughters.”
Pela’s expression transformed by slow degrees into one of wonder as she looked up at her husband. “Tana has been good to me,” she said as she placed a hand on Gordon’s knee. “Two moons ago I was Pela Fur Maker, childless and alone. You come, God’n, now I have husband, son, and three daughters. We must have a bigger house.”
Gordon dismounted and saw Jatka running toward him from the east village. He put his left arm around Pela’s shoulders and held her tightly to him. When Jatka arrived, breathless from running, Gordon placed his right arm around his son’s shoulders. “There won’t be a bigger house,” he said to them. “Not here. We must leave Red Cliff. All of us must leave Black Mountain Country.”
Every place was taken in the clanhouse, each one sitting upon a tier had one or two others standing behind him, the great circular wall crowded with more standing. Gordon stood in their center from the edge of the sunken fire pit. Among the faces were Tonton Annajaka, Gordon’s eldest daughter Zibi Na, Avak Tav, and Pela. In addition were his two other daughters, one on the children’s tier, the other standing next to his son on the adult’s tier. Ghaf, Kom and his son Ta Avi, and Tonton Annajaka were there. Tonton nodded at Gordon and he nodded at Mahu. The Clan Father stood and told of putting down the Gift of Many Summers and the difference it had made to him and his wives. He called for others to attest to what he had said. There were others among the gifted who rose to speak on this subject.
Next Gordon had Avak Tav and Zibi Na describe what happened at Kag Ati’s camp, the disagreement as to what would happen if the Clan Father placed Gordon’s bag in his lap, how Gordon was shown to be telling the truth once again, and the terrible result.
Finally Gordon told them about an obscure dusty oven of a place in the western desert of a great nation where a brilliant teacher who studied the past wanted to see what was at the bottom of a red sandstone cliff. He told them of Ibrahim Taleghani’s possession of a miraculous machine that would peel away years by the thousands and bring them back in time. He told them as well of the fears the teacher had should someone go into the past and turn over the wrong grain of sand—how it could possibly change everything in the future. He told them about the crater that was once a great mountain and how it would be smashed, filling all of the lands of Black Mountain Country with fire, earthquake, and flood. He spoke on how this destruction made it safe to travel back in time to look at them for they would no longer be alive to affect the future. He saw looks of horror on some, skepticism on others. Gordon nodded at Pela.
Pela stood and described the night she met Gordon and buried his two companions. She described the lights, the sounds the vehicle made as it came to rest in the cedars, then crumbled to dust. She described the clothes they all wore—no furs—and she spoke the Arabic words Taleghani had spoken to her. There were fewer looks of skepticism. Pela resumed her seat and Tonton rose to speak of her inspection of the site, what she had found, what Gordon had told her, and what Gordon’s ghosts had told her. She spoke of Baltok, the man she had sent to Shayvi’s Hill to meet Pela, what he had said he witnessed. When she sat, all was silent.
Gordon rose again. “From Kag Ati’s camp I sent riders who witnessed what happened at the Cleft Mountain camp to go to all the clan houses in Black Mountain Country. They will assemble the people there and tell them what we have just told you. Those who would live must make preparations, pack provisions, and leave. The snows get heavier and the going will be slow, so we must leave soon. Red Cliff People will join with Big Tree and Many Horses and strike north away from the mountain. Cleft Mountain people will head west. Green Meadows and the plains clans will strike east. Yellow Claw, Big Snake, and Black Shoulders will go south. All clans will bring their adopted clans and any peoples they find along the way with them away from the mountain.”
Ghaf the hunter stood. “This can’t be true.”
“I have gone to a lot of trouble to show I speak truth,” answered Gordon.
“Here I know all the woods and streams, the game, the seasons—”
“We need you, Ghaf,” said Gordon. “We need our hunters more than ever for guides, for food, and for skins that shelterers and furriers can use to protect us on our journey.”
Mahu stood and turned to look at the old hunter. “We must last the winter, old friend, and the snows are just beginning. We need you and the other hunters to show us how to walk on snow, build shelters from ice, where to dig to find fodder for the animals, and to keep us heading away from the mountain.
“We can’t make horses walk on snow, or cows, or pigs,” protested Ghaf.
“We can pack the snow,” said Gordon. “I will show you how.”
Ghaf looked at Gordon. “How far must we go?”
“I don’t know. We may not be able to get far enough away in time. I hope we can.”
“Why did you not tell us sooner that we might have gotten an earlier start?” shouted a young man from the second tier across the fire pit. Several other voices muttered agreement.