< 71 >

My fingers wrapped hard around the bark that hung like shredded fabric off the ancient cedar. Na Na had told me to follow the tree's roots. He had sent Angel and me into the wilderness with only a single skin of water, a buckskin bag of mescal paste and four buttons of peyote. We were to seek power from the earth and could not return until we had done so.

Angel sat across from me on a limestone ledge. He pulled his guitar over his shoulder, and began to pick at the strings. The music spilled softly over the lengthening shadows that crept slowly down the ragged mountainside. We had walked for two days towards the southwest, and climbed most of the afternoon. Water was scarce in this broken country but we had been lucky and stumbled upon an area in one of the ravines where a streak of green led to a hidden spring. We set up camp and began to explore the surrounding countryside.

It had been a hard climb, but after a short rest, I was ready for more. The amazing conditioning of my body no longer surprised me. In the five weeks of furious activity since we had entered Uzzen's keep, we had all reached a startling level of fitness. I took on tasks that would have daunted me even during my college years. James, Johnny Loco and the little chiefs were merciless in their demands. I complained, but for all my grumbling, I liked who I was becoming. As Angel played, I looked back towards where we had come. I was having a hard time recognizing the terrain from the high vantage point.

"They say nothing good comes from the north." He stood beside me, looking off into the gathering dusk. "When Killer-of-Enemies and his brother Child-of-the-Waters left their mother, and went to seek weapons from Father Sun to fight the monsters that plagued the land, their mother told them to go any direction but north. Of course that's the first place they went." He had the kind of smile that forces you to grin back at it. "Worked out okay though. They found Father Sun," He raised his eyebrows. "...even got to date his daughter."