Eagle Mother
? Chapter Seven
THE STORY SO FAR: Turned down by Dalton when she asks him to sneak up the mountain with her to see the mighty Eagles, Rainera decides to go it alone – but first stops at the Gathering Hall, where she hopes to receive some sign that what she is about to do is right.
As Rainera walked into the ancient storeroom, the ceremonial dance masks hanging on the walls seemed to wake up and look down at her. In the gray dimness, they appeared to breathe and live. “An illusion,” Rainera told herself as she stepped past them. “Only an illusion.” Still, she really felt that the masks’ eyes were following her.
Which was unnerving. “What,” she thought, “will it be like to stand alone in darkness, in front of Her, whose power is so great? Of course, Eagle Mother is just a kind of mask, too. Just a gigantic puppet.” Though true, this was not entirely comforting. Masks and puppets could have an eerie power. And Eagle Mother had haunted Rainera’s dreams since she was a small child.
“But that’s why I’m doing this,” she told herself. “I feel I know Eagle Mother.” Although Rainera was scared, she did trust Eagle Mother. “Who else can help me?” she thought, and then answered her own question. “No one. And facing Her will be a test, a way to find out if I have the courage to face real, live Eagles on the mountain.” Rainera had felt so confident in front of Dalton. “But how much of that was just show,” she now wondered, “meant to convince not just him, but myself?”
Rainera hoped no one would come in and find her before she was done. While she was no longer a child, and so was permitted to see Eagle Mother on her own, there was a right way to do it.
This wasn’t it. You had to make an official request. You had to prepare by fasting and clearing your mind. You had to have an attendant with you, someone who would make sure the proper respects were paid. Rainera had done none of this. She was taking a risk, but she knew that time was very short. Maybe she was being unwise, even childish. But she had to be sure. “It’s what any adult would do,” she told herself. “Test it out, think it through, and be sure.”
Rainera put her hand on the curtain at the rear of the storeroom. The cloth felt thick and dusty between her fingers. She took a breath, exhaled, and drew the curtain aside.
Eagle Mother stared down from her perch on the oak tree. Her head seemed as massive as the head of a bull. The powerful beak looked capable of snapping Rainera’s leg in two. The wings must have easily spanned twenty feet or more. The eyes were as big as dinner plates. Each of her claws was longer and thicker than a man’s finger. Puppet or not, Eagle Mother was fearsome – and terribly real.
The scar on Rainera’s finger began to throb. Her heart pounded like a drum. What had that woman said at the Gathering? What to do when a story becomes real? “Steady, steady,” Rainera thought. “You go steadily and calmly, Rain. Keep your head. Take your time.”
Rainera bowed her head humbly and said, “Dear Eagle Mother, I have come to you wrongly, I know. But if I didn’t come now, I might act wrongly, and I don’t want to do that. But I want – oh, I want to see the Eagles! The real ones. You and the others. And tomorrow may be my only chance. I can trail the Elders who have been selected to meet you. I can follow them unseen. I know I can. But should I? Please give me a sign.”
Her words hovered in puffs of breath in the cold, dusty air.
The great eagle’s amber eyes remained wide open, unblinking. Not a feather stirred, not a claw lifted. The beak remained curved in its unchanging half smile.
Rainera saw a pile of old, faded ceremonial cloths on a shelf. She went over and selected several. As she lifted them, dust rose in clouds, causing her to sneeze loudly. She paused, held her breath, and stood still, her heart in her throat. Had her sneezes drawn attention? She listened, but heard nothing. She put the folded cloths down before Eagle Mother, making a pad on the cold, hard, earthen floor. She draped another cloth over her head and shoulders like a shawl, for she was starting to shiver. Then she sat on the cloths.
From this low angle, Eagle Mother seemed even larger. The great wings extended out, disappearing into the darkness on either side. The great daggerlike claws hovered just above Rainera’s head.
“I will wait until I know what you have to say,” Rainera proclaimed to the darkness.
She waited. Her knees began to ache, and her head throbbed. As time passed, she nodded back and forth and slowly slipped into a half sleep, at the edge of a dream.
Rainera was flying. The village was far below. She rose higher, and the village became smaller until it was so small it looked like a toy. Soon even the mountain’s peak, cloud wrapped and pulsing with lightning, dropped beneath her.
Rainera heard a sound – creeeeaaaaak!
Her eyes flew open. The cloths fell from her. Dust swirled, and she felt a draft of air. “That creaking sound! This dust!” she thought excitedly, wide awake now. “Eagle
Mother’s wings have opened and closed! They caused these things. Which means … why, it means that my wish has been granted! Eagle Mother is about to speak!”
• NEXT WEEK: Good Signs and Bad