The Cave Artist--Chap. 28

Chapter Twenty-Eight

         "Maggots eat their flesh.”  Deadwon cursed.  "Death, take them, send your sweet smell.  Take Chupo first.  I will deliver Raven into your hands.  Wyana, I will use and then she too will die."  He brought the opossum to his ear and listened to the maggots.  Sometimes they told him their desires, but he heard only the wet movement of their mouths feeding on rot.

*  *  *

         "Red deer watches for Deadwon," Wyana said, as she put her hand on Raven's chest to feel life's steady beat.

         Chupo put a twisted oak branch into Fire, and glanced towards Deadwon's lair.  "Yes, but red deer does not speak.  He will not warn us if Deadwon comes, or if Deadwon sends the dead to take our bodies."

         Wyana's eyes widened and her face paled.  She had seen rotted dead, often in vivid nightmares that pulled her back into the forest when she was twelve winters old. 

         On hands and knees, she searches through wet leaves for mushrooms.  The air hangs heavy in the constant drizzle from stagnant gray clouds.  Even the birds remain still and silent.  Rain drips from limp leaves to torment the dismal silence.  She brushes sodden leaves aside, and her fingers touch…  The rotted flesh of a man’s face parts to her touch.  One dead, lidless eye stares into her mind, and the other lies open, a raw, foul pit sunken between exposed bones.  Rot's foul stink billows into her nose.  She scrambles away through thorns and thicket, over sharp rocks and logs, and in a blind, senseless terror, she tumbles into a ravine.  As if clawed by vicious beasts, she staggers in a daze.  Death's stench clings to her and the dead eyes follow. 

         Torn found her that day long ago and had carried her home.  That odor of rotten flesh still haunted her.

         Wyana put her hand on Raven's cool forehead.  Her eyelids drooped and for two soft breaths, she paused on sleep's edge, but Raven moaned and her eyes flashed open.  "No fever," she whispered.

         "He is special to you?”  Chupo asked.

         Wyana smiled.  "Yes.”  Stubborn shadows rolled across Raven's rugged face as Fire flashed.  She brushed hair from his eyes and looked at Chupo.  "Is he special to you?"

         Chupo thought about it for a moment.  "Raven is a special man.  No others are like him.  He sees things not as I do, but as I would like."

         Chupo and Wyana spoke in guarded whispers of Raven, of life and death, until dawn weakened the shadows in the cave entrance and its light fell across Raven's ashen face.  His lashes fluttered and his eyes opened. 

         He groaned and whispered, "Water.”  His mouth twisted in pain as he tried to lift his head.  His eyes darted right and left.  "Deadwon?” 

         “He fears your magic and hides.”  Wyana put a small lump of snow to his lips and examined the raw wound on his neck.  Snow had kept the swelling down but torn skin had left a gruesome black mark.  "You will have pain.”  She brushed back his hair.

         Raven squeezed his eyes shut as he swallowed.  His throat burned, and his pain throbbed with greater intensity than even the injuries he had suffered during his Rabbit Trap escape.

         "Help me, I must stand."

         Wyana winced in sympathy as he groaned and struggled to rise. 

His head throbbed as if a noose still tightened around his neck.  To avoid unnecessary painful movement, he kept his arms stiffly at his sides as he struggled to his feet.

         "Raven, you live because your magic protected you,” Chupo said.  "You defeated Deadwon's death.”  He grabbed his spear.  "Now, we kill Deadwon."

         "No!”  Raven raised his hand, palm out, and stifled a moan.  "We will not kill him.” 

         They looked at him in disbelief.

         A small smile touched Raven's lips.  “We will not touch him but… he will die.

         Puzzled, Chupo and Wyana looked at each other, both hoping the other understood.

         "Bring everyone here.  Tell them good magic will rid them of Deadwon.  He will not be able to bring dead ones.  He will become a cloud, a mist, and he will vanish.  No man or woman will touch him.  Also, warn them.  Those who do not come to be part of magic may be the target for Deadwon's anger."

         Raven followed Chupo outside and watched him enter the woods.  He held his hand above his red-rimmed eyes to shield them from Sun's glare.  His head ached and the sky seemed to spin through a haze that blurred his vision.  He leaned heavy on Wyana as they re-entered the cave, but she did not complain. 

         Raven stared into darkness where Deadwon might lurk, but he saw only his familiar black-furred beast.  His heart pounded and pain roared in his ears as he held his spear ready.

         "No!”  Deadwon whimpered when he saw Raven.  "Death take him."  No longer was Raven just someone in his way.  His reasons for wanting him dead had become more complex.  Raven had defied death, and planned… his death.  He saw Raven's spear, and did not show himself.  He thought Raven feared him, but he also thought Raven might kill even if he feared.  "I will make the people kill him.  If they do not, dead ones will take their bodies.  They will see the mark around his neck.  They will fear me."

*  *  *

         Chupo knew the importance of Raven's message and his delivery.  Fear, strong, I must lessen fear with words.  Make them know Raven's powerful magic.  But I don't understand Raven.  He says Deadwon will die but we will not touch him. He shook his head as he entered Horse Chamber.

         Time played its game, knowing man waited, and slowed.  Raven wondered if Chupo would ever return.

         They came silently through the forest as if to bury the dead.  Chupo had made them choose between life and death.  He had told them, "Do as Raven says and death cannot take you.  Obey Deadwon and his stink remains, brings rotting spirits to steal your flesh, your bodies.  Raven battled Deadwon's bad magic.  He lives.  His magic protected him.  It will protect you."

         They gathered below death's doorway at the foot of the slope.

         Raven stood above and did not appear as if from battle; his furs were not torn and they saw no blood.  He stood unbowed, without evidence of death's intimate touch.  He had pulled his coat high to hide Deadwon's mark.  The pain that cut into his throat did not show.  He spoke calmly, "I brought life into this cave as I said I would.  Good is in this cave.  Come see life on wall.  Chupo, show them the color of life."

         Chupo was quick to grasp the importance of timing, and knew fear must not have time to grow.  First, he encouraged those who trusted him, and most did.  "Come see, Pug.  See life on stone, a wonderful sight.  I will show you Rim, and you too, Torn.  It is as Raven says, a good thing, something you will not want to miss." 

         Some of them trusted Chupo, and followed.  He coaxed and herded the others to enter.  They moved forward without speaking, eyes darting right, left and above from where they thought the dead might slither or drop.

         "Good magic.”  Chupo pointed to the red deer.

         The red from Deadwon made it appear alive.  Firelight made its antlers nod, its hooves lift, and their pliant imaginations gave it breath.

         Deadwon heard feet shuffle.  He peered around the corner as Chupo spoke.  He quickly deepened the black around his eyes with black ash, and added black to his cheeks.  He smeared red clay and fat to his brow where sweat had etched greasy paths, threw his regal red cloak over fat shoulders, and checked his maggots’ health.  With his cloak flowing and his staff thrust forward, he leapt from the dark and screamed, "Death!  Rotting flesh, you made the dead angry.  They come.” 

         He paused, tilted his head, raised a finger as if listening, and whispered, "I hear death's wet footsteps.  I hear their bones rattle.”  He widened his eyes and rolled them up until only white caught light like a dead man's eyes.  He lifted his head, sniffed, and screamed, "I smell death from all your shadows.”  He raised his staff and pointed it at Raven.  “That one brings death to you.”  His voice softened, as if in sympathy.  "But you can save yourselves.  Kill him!”  He screamed, "Save yourselves!"

         It was a sudden, unexpected command, one not easily obeyed, for it dropped upon them too quickly.

         "Death man.”  Raven yelled and lifted a flaming branch above his head.  "I show you death.”  He leapt at Deadwon and whipped the flame near his face.  "Chupo, Wyana, the good of Fire will turn this dead one into a red cloud.  Torn, help Fire make this stench be gone.  Crooked Arm, the good of Fire, of red deer and horse protects us.  Pug, let Fire become your weapon.  She destroys rot.  Help us, Rim.”  Raven shouted words that rang with conviction and the surety of Fire’s might.

         Fear widened Deadwon's eyes.  He thrust his staff forward like a weapon and backed toward his pit.

         Many torches blazed and set eyes aglow.  Chupo and Wyana followed Raven, while Old Man stalked Deadwon with a torch that turned his eyes red.  Crooked Arm came beside Raven, Stone and Owl.  Rim ran forward with a flaming brand thrust forward, his crooked grin frozen on his face, and his wild eyes flashed below his straight black brow.  “Fire is good; Fire will eat your rotten flesh.”

         Fire advanced in a horde upon Deadwon.  He shuffled backward and waved his putrid staff.  “I bring the dead now!”  Everyone heard the terror in his voice.

         “Bring your dead,” someone yelled.  “Fire is good.  Fire will eat your dead, and you.”  From all corners of the cave, hysterical screams worshiped Fire’s life and damned Deadwon.

         Raven stabbed his torch into Deadwon's belly, and skin fried, as red smoke from clay and grease spewed a sick odor.  Deadwon's shrill scream echoed from the walls.  He dropped his staff, and someone piled flaming wood upon the opossum.  They did not hear the maggots scream.

         "Fire good, Fire clean, Fire life," Raven shouted.

         Deadwon’s screams rose and continued as he turned from the mad advance of flames.  Smoke rose from his red cloak and from the black, bubbled crust on his belly.

         "Fire good, Fire clean, Fire life," Chupo shouted.  His words became a chant that others repeated to feed their wrath.  It rang in fevered rhythm from the walls.  "Fire good, Fire clean, Fire life."

         Fire leapt up the tail of Deadwon's cloak, and his shrill, terrified scream ripped from the walls and pierced the shadows in every corner.  He leapt into the narrow entrance to his chamber.  Grease, sweat, and red clay streamed from quivering fat.

         Raven stopped and yelled above the chant, "Bring wood, bring wood, bring wood for many days of Fire.  Fire burns her good magic, makes Deadwon a red mist.  We do not touch him.  Fire cleans away his stink.  Fire burns away his life.  Throw it inside," he said as Wyana ran forward with a load of oak and elm in her arms.

         The old hobbled, the injured limped, and the young and the agile ran back and forth.  They all brought wood and threw it into Deadwon’s lair.

         Deadwon screamed hysterical threats.  "I call them.  I bring all the dead to take your bodies.”

         The attackers hesitated, intimidated by his shrill curse that rose above the roaring flames.          

         "They are only words," Raven shouted, and threw his torch onto the mountain of wood.  "Only words.  We do not touch him.  Fire does the work of good.  Fire good, Fire clean, Fire life."

         Many torches followed Raven’s onto the heap of branches in Deadwon’s lair. 

         Raven's heart pounded as Fire flashed from his eyes, and he forgot his pains.  He knew of nothing but Fire's magic and Deadwon's death.

         Deadwon knew nothing but flames and terror.  Fire grew tall and spread wide.  He found a narrow crevice and a chance for escape, but Fire followed.  She roared and Deadwon screamed.  Blisters rose on his skin, and the fat and red clay on his body smoked and bubbled.  Fire raged, her tongues found his flesh, and he screamed no more.

*  *  *

         Raven stood at the foot of the slope below the cave mouth, as smoke rolled out and up along the cliff face.  He searched the black cloud for Deadwon's eyes or red claw-tipped fingers. 

Grim, soot-blackened faces, smeared by tears, watched him and waited as if for some command.

"Fire destroyed the man of death.  Fire's black breath cleansed the walls and red deer stands guard."  His words lifted the burden of uncertainty from their shoulders, and smiles appeared, like spring after winter. 

         I have moved people as Whoosh moves clouds.  They have done what I said, even as they did what Deadwon commanded, but what good did that power do for him?  He had only his maggots.  Raven shuddered at the thought.  Women were his when he wanted them, but not as I have Wyana, and she has me.  He had no…

         Raven rolled a concept within his mind that he had never understood.  He had no…love.  He had power, but no friendship or trust--only hate, fear, and his maggots.  If I can move people to do as I say, I can have whatever I want.  I would not want maggots.  I would want more.

         Wyana came beside Raven, and touched his arm as she looked up into his gray eyes.  When she spoke, it was not only to Raven, but also to all who would listen.  "Raven, you are a special man.  There are no others like you.  Your magic strong, your magic good."

         Chupo agreed and let everyone know.  "Raven is a special man.  His magic strong, his magic good.”  He sang his praise loud, each word drawn out.  With a wide grin, he threw his arm around Raven's shoulders.

         Chupo and Wyana's broad smiles joined others.  They echoed Chupo's song.  "Raven is a special man, his magic strong, his magic good."

         They laughed to the joy of singing and the pleasure of life.  As if the trees behind them and the rocky slope above shared their spirit, they echoed their cheer.

         Raven looked upon the pleasure and knew the truth of power. Power is empty and useless without friendship and love.