The Mountain Cage Read Online Free PDF Page B

looked back at me. “My father and the brother he brought to me,” he continued, “would help us stand against the coming storm—this was the Great Spirit’s promise. When my vision passed, I was able to rise. I left my house and went through the village, telling everyone of what I had been shown. Now you are here, and the people remember what my vision foretold, and yet I see no brother.”
    “You have a brother,” I said, thinking of Ajiragha. “I left him in Yeke Geren.”
    “But he is not here at my side, as my vision promised.”
    “He is only an infant, and the Inglistanis are the storm that threatens you. More of them will cross the Great Salt Water.”
    “A war against them would cost us many men. We might trade with them, as we do with you. Peace is what we have always desired—war is only our way to prove our courage and to bring that peace about. You should know that, having been one of us.”
    “The Inglistanis will make false promises, and when more of them come, even the Long House may fall before their soldiers. You have no treaties with the Inglistanis, so you are in a state of war with them now. Two of the spirits who came to you bore weapons—the Great Spirit means for you to make war.”
    “But against whom?” Dasiyu asked. She leaned forward and shook her fist. “Perhaps those who are on your island of Ganono are the storm that will come upon us, after we are weakened by battle with the pale-faced people you hate.”
    “Foolish woman,” I muttered, “I am one of you. Would I come here to betray you?” Despite my words, she reminded me of my own doubts.
    “You should not have come back,” she said. “Whenever I dreamed of your return, I saw you alone, not with others seeking to use us for their own purposes. Look at you—there is nothing of the Ganeagaono left in you. You speak our words, but your garments and your companions show where your true loyalty lies.”
    “You are wrong.” I stared at her; she did not look away. “I have never forgotten my brothers here.”
    “You come to spy on us. When you have fought with our warriors in this battle, you will see our weaknesses more clearly, the ways in which we might be defeated, and we will not be able to use your pale-faced enemies against you.”
    “Is this what you have been saying to the other women? Have you gone before the men to speak against this war?”
    Dasiyu drew in her breath; our son clutched her wrist. “You have said enough, Mother,” he whispered. “I believe what he says. My vision told me he would come, and the spirits held the weapons of war. Perhaps my brother is meant to join me later.” He got to his feet. “I go now to add my voice to the councils. It may be that I can persuade those who waver. If we are to follow the warpath now, I will set aside my office to fight with you.”
    He left us before I could speak. “You will have your war,” Dasiyu said. “The other sachems will listen to my son, and ask him to speak for them to the people. The wise old women will heed his words, because they chose him for his position.”
    “This war will serve you.”
    She scowled, then pushed the bowl of hommony toward me. “You insult me by leaving my food untouched.”
    I ate some of the dried corn, then set the bowl down. “Dasiyu, I did not come here only to speak of war. I swore an oath to myself that, when this campaign ends, I will live among you again.”
    “And am I to rejoice over that?”
    “Cursed woman, anything I do would stoke your rage. I went back to speak for the Long House in our councils. I asked you to come with me, and you refused.”
    “I would have had to abandon my clan. My son would never have been chosen as a sachem then. You would not be promising to stay with us unless you believed you have failed as our voice.”
    Even after the years apart, she saw what lay inside me. “Whatever comes,” I said, “my place is here.”
    She said nothing for a long time. The warmth inside the