“Leave this place! Get away from here!” shouted Red Hawk, waving his arms at the Thunder Being.
As lightning shot through the being, he laughed. “Come, make me leave.”
“You will not tempt me.”
“Do I not?” said the Thunderer. “If I do not tempt you, why are you here, when your wife is in danger?”
“You lie.”
The Thunder Being merely laughed.
Again, Red Hawk yelled, “You lie!” But he couldn’t be certain. “Haiya!” Was this frustration never to end?
Turning his back once more on the Thunderer, Red Hawk stalked away. But his parting words were, “One day, I will have my revenge.”
Again, the Thunderer laughed.
Red Hawk raced back toward the cavern. Had he been wise in leaving Effie alone? He had not scouted out the area before he left, nor had he looked for an enemy or an interloper. What if someone had followed them?
Could the Thunder Being have been telling the truth? After all, he was one of the Above Ones.
Urgency filled Red Hawk’s soul.
It seemed to take him forever to reach the cave, and when he did, he approached the place from the cliff above it. Coming down onto his stomach, he edged toward the end of the crag and looked down.
He could hardly believe what he saw. John Owens held a gun on Effie, who lay on the ground at his feet.
Worse, in Owens’s hands were the four artifacts, the means by which Red Hawk could end his people’s curse.
Help the enemy. Show mercy.
What? Show mercy to John Owens when he held a gun on his wife?
Yet wasn’t that what was required of Red Hawk if he meant to end the curse?
Then he heard Owens say, “I am going to kill you. Goodbye, Miss Effie.”
With those words, any confusion Red Hawk might have harbored left him. Curse or not, Grandfather be spared, Red Hawk would not let his wife die.
“I’m sorry, Grandfather,” he mumbled as he shot up from his hiding place. Speeding off the cliff, he bounded onto Owens, wrestling him to the ground.
In the excitement, the gun went off. Red Hawk hoped it had exploded harmlessly, for he could not pause to look. The two of them rolled over and over, onto the beach, into the water, first one of them on top and then the other.
Wet and struggling, they came up to wrestle further with each other, the water only thigh deep. Then they sank, as each one of them grappled for supremacy. Owens was oddly strong for a man his age, but as they fell farther and farther down into the water, looking into Owens’s face, Red Hawk realized at once that he had the advantage. Owens could not hold his breath underwater.
They continued to struggle, Owens now gone wild. At last, having no choice, Owens gulped, but instead of air he breathed in water. Not long after, his body went limp.
Grabbing hold of him, Red Hawk surfaced at once. The man was probably still alive and could be brought around if anyone cared to try. Since he had been a friend of Effie’s father, Red Hawk would let her make the decision.
As Red Hawk emerged from the water, leaving Owens’s body on the shore, the sea dog surfaced. It grabbed hold of Owens, and before anyone could object, the sea dog slinked away into the deepest part of the lagoon.
Tragic, yet it was hardly a loss, thought Red Hawk. He turned away. Only then did he look for Effie.
What was this? Was that Effie’s still body lying amongst the rocks and sand and mud?
No, it couldn’t be. Rushing toward her, he pulled her up into his arms. “Effie! Effie!”
Was she injured? Had she been shot? In her hands, she clutched two of the artifacts. Two others had fallen to the ground beside her. But he ignored them. Opening the top of her bathing costume, he felt for a heartbeat. There wasn’t one.
“No!” he cried out.
All at once, as though she would not let her life slip away so easily, she gasped in air, gulping. At last, her chest rose and fell.
“Effie!”
She opened her eyes and stared directly at him. “Are you all right?”
He laughed with relief. “I am fine. I do not think I can say the same for your father’s friend, however. The sea dog has him. And you, are you all right?”
“I think so, although I seem to have lost feeling in my left arm.”
Looking there, he saw she had been injured with that shot, but it hadn’t touched her arm. It was merely a graze on her chest, but it had come dangerously close to her heart.
He laid his hand over the injury, inspecting it closely. Yes, she would be all right.
She would be all right, he recited to himself again.
Laughing, crying, he took her in his arms.
So it was that he was unaware of his surroundings, when from behind him came a voice. “Poor Orphan, you have done what most of our people thought was impossible. You have broken the curse.”
Red Hawk knew that voice, and raising himself away from Effie, he said, “Grandfather?”
At last, Red Hawk looked behind him.
“Grandfather, it is you. It is you!”
“So it is. You have done well, my grandson.”
“Grandfather, I welcome you. Grandfather,” said Red Hawk, kneeling toward Effie, “this is my wife, Effie. Effie, this is Grandfather.”
All the people from the Yellow Shawl Band had gathered around Effie and Red Hawk. Had they been able, a council would have been held at once. But it was not possible. Though Effie, Red Hawk, Grandfather, the chief of the Yellow Shawl Band and White Claw were all present, all was still not well.
Thunder sounded above them. Lightning struck the ground to the right of them, to the left. Like fast-whirling storms, the black clouds rushed toward them, and in fear, the people retreated into the cavern.
“It is the Thunderer,” said White Claw, the tribal medicine man.
“I know,” said Red Hawk. “He has been following me and making trouble. Now that my people are freed, I will meet him. I will do battle with him. I will have my revenge.”
“No!” cried Effie.
But Red Hawk was steadfast in his belief, and he strode to the cavern’s entrance.
“You might do battle with him,” the medicine man addressed Red Hawk. “It is your right.”
“No.” Effie wiped away the stifling tears she had no intention of shedding. Though her voice shook, she continued, “No. I have had enough fighting for one day. I have not come through this only to lose you, Red Hawk. The artifacts are mine. I found them. And though I may incur your hatred and that of your band, I have decided I will give them to the Thunder Being.”
Red Hawk swung around to face her. Though his face was contorted with anger, all he said was, “I cannot let you do it. He will kill you, as he killed my parents.”
Rising to her feet, Effie paced toward the cavern’s entrance, coming up behind her husband. “And yet I have the right to do with them as I see fit. Do you remember me telling you that?”
Red Hawk turned his face from her. “So you did.” He paused. “But I cannot lose you either.”
“I don’t think you will.” White Claw had stepped up behind them. “Do not confuse the past with the present, my son. Had the Thunderer been inclined to kill you, he would have done so already.”
Red Hawk nodded. “Very well. It shall be done, as you want it to be done. But I would ask that you let me give the artifacts to the Thunder Being, he who is my enemy. I promise you I will do no more than that.”
Effie nodded, and without even a backward thought, she handed him the treasures.
Effie watched as Red Hawk stepped from the cavern, directly into the storm outside. Striding with purpose toward the shoreline of the lagoon, he set the four stones in a row. “Here they are, Thunder Being. Your children are returned to you. Take them, and go in peace.”
Some moments passed, and then came a powerful voice. “You would give them to me without a battle?” It was the Thunderer.
“Aa, I would,” said Red Hawk. “My wife found them. My wife has determined that they belong to you. I agree. Take them. Let there be peace between us.”
Nodding once, stepping toward Red Hawk, a gigantic man, half blue, half black, moved before the cave. Bending, he took up the artifacts, handling them as he might a precious child. And in truth, they were children. They were his children.
Effie watched the Thunder Being retreat into the blackened storm clouds and become a bird. As the clouds engulfed him, they retreated from the sky, leaving in their place a beam of light.
A thing that Red Hawk had once said came to her:
All must pay for their ill actions against others.
Indeed, she thought. The Clan had paid their price, the Thunderer had too.
Thank goodness that Red Hawk had not done anything he would regret.
Turning, Red Hawk took Effie in his arms. “I love you,” he said.
“And I love you too. Now, let us go find that preacher.”
Together they retraced their steps to the cavern.