Meanwhile, Alex had another eighteen of the warriors he trusted who would skulk along quietly. He knew they would acquit themselves in a tight situation.
Alex had never been to Prata-ah, so he asked Senta-eh to lead them.
“It is more important that we see them first than it is to reach them quickly. It’s also possible that we will meet them somewhere along the trail. Slow and steady, stopping to look ahead is best.”
Senta-eh took the lead and they marched quickly until they got to the end of the forest trail, then used the move, pause, move, pause method. It made for slow going. They turned right—the same direction Alex had traveled when he had retrieved the plate from the rattlesnake long ago.
After making a mile’s progress in that direction, Senta-eh stepped around a large boulder on the right side of the trail. Immediately behind the rock was heavy foliage, but beyond that was another trail. Alex had walked by it a number of times and never realized the path was there.
Senta-eh knelt and pointed to the ground. There were stray footprints that looked fresh. Not a lot, and whoever it was had avoided crushing the foliage, but it appeared people had been on the path in the previous few days.
Alex leaned into Monda-ak and said one word. “Quiet.”
When he had been a puppy hearing that word would have made the dog bark or at least whimper with excitement, because it meant they were on the trail of something. As a more mature dog, he just stared back at Alex, panting.
Alex had no idea how far it was to Prata-ah, but their stopping and starting technique made the hike seem long. They spread out single file and did their best to step in the previous person’s footprint.
After almost an hour, Senta-eh held her arm out to stop the troop. She pointed ahead to where the forest opened up into a small glade. A stream ran through the rocks ahead and looked tempting to the thirsty warriors.
Softly, Senta-eh said, “If they have a lookout partway up the hill, they will be keeping watch on this clearing.” Without any further explanation, she left the path, skirted the clearing to the left and circled around it.
Alex watched her with pride, knowing how fortunate he was to find a woman who was both competent at everything she did, beautiful, and, most importantly, wanted to spend her life with him.
Senta-eh led them around the clearing and picked up the path through the forest again.
On one of their momentary stops, Alex said, “If they are paranoid, we will run into lookouts soon,” under his breath.
They did not come across any lookouts. Beyond the small collection of footprints at the trailhead, they hadn’t seen any sign that the Lasta-ah were in the area.
Finally, they came to the end of the forest. Standing back in the deep cover of the fir and pine trees, Senta-eh pointed ahead. Just a hundred yards ahead, the trail started up the side of a hill.
Alex estimated that the hill stood somewhere between a thousand and fifteen-hundred feet tall. From where he stood in the woods, he could see the greenery at the bottom gave way to shale rocks near the top.
A flat area was notched into the side of the hill just below the summit. From where he stood, Alex could see a small wisp of smoke curling up from a fire. It was small and thin enough that he knew he wouldn’t have been able to see it from any farther away.
Senta-eh leaned into him and pointed her finger along his line of sight. When he focused, he saw that she was pointing at a man standing, half asleep beside a tree. She moved her finger and pointed out another and another.
The Winten-ah blended back into the forest and formed a tight circle.
Sekun-ak deferred to Alex. “They are there. What do we do?”
Alex contemplated for a long moment, considering everything he saw in front of him.
“We still don’t know how many of them there are. Their guards aren’t alert, but the fact that they have them at all means they know they are not completely safe here. It doesn’t make sense to try and launch an attack at an unknown enemy up a steep hill. If they have any strength at all, they will slaughter us.”
Everyone remained silent, knowing Manta-ak was working his way through the problem.
“Before we do anything, we need to know what we are up against.” Alex turned to Senta-eh. “Is there any way to approach them from around the other side?”
She looked up and to her left, remembering. “Yes, maybe. It would be risky, but possible.”
“I am going to go scout them, then.”
“No,” both Senta-eh and Sekun-ak said simultaneously.
Alex hesitated. He had learned that when his two best advisors were against something, he needed to listen. “Why?”
“Does it make sense to send our leader on a scouting mission?” Sekun-ak asked. “Of course not.” He turned and looked at the assembled warriors in the circle. Finally, he said, “Wenta-eh. You are familiar with the area, aren’t you?”
“Yes. We gathered berries all over Prata-ah.”
“Try to get to a place where you can see how many of them there are without them seeing you.”
“They won’t be as alert to a scout coming from that direction,” Senta-eh said. “There’s no trail. You might be able to climb the summit on the far side and see down. I trust you to find the best way.”
Wenta-eh didn’t hesitate, just turned to get some distance away before moving toward Prata-ah.
Alex’s heart beat hard in his chest. Wenta-eh was the older sister or Werda-ak. They looked so much alike that as she walked away, Alex would have sworn they were one and the same.
“Don’t take any chances, though,” Alex said. “If you can’t get a good angle, just come back.”
Wenta-eh looked at Alex and laughed. “I know what I am doing.”
So she doesn’t just look like her brother, she acts like him too.
Until Wenta-eh
