Alex grinned. “I don’t mind that at all. I couldn’t have stood to just leave them the way they were. It’s kind of beautiful this way. What do you need from me next?”
“Nothing, for a time. I will come up here every day, but I won’t need you for that at first. I know Monda-ak doesn’t like to leave the two of you, but do you think he might come with me?”
“That is up to him. Monda-ak,” Alex called. “Lanta-eh wants you to come here with her for a few days, but Sanda-eh and I won’t be here. Can you do that?”
Monda-ak stood still, his intelligent eyes considering. Finally, he woofed once.
“There you go,” Alex said. “You have a companion.”
Early the next morning, Lanta-eh opened the door to Alex’s house, and Monda-ak bounded out without a word.
They were gone all day, returning just after sunset.
That pattern held for the next few weeks, day after day.
On the fifteenth day, when Lanta-eh returned Monda-ak at the end of the day, Alex had to ask.
“What does he do all day? Run around, chasing rabbits and birds?”
“Oh no. He sits in the doorway and never moves. Well, he might fall asleep occasionally, but that’s to be expected.”
She started to duck away, but Alex stopped her.
“Can you come in for a minute? I’ll get you some water.”
Lanta-eh sat at the small wooden table and Alex poured her a cup of water from the only indoor plumbing in Winten-ah.
“That is still something of a miracle to me.”
Alex sat down opposite her, Sanda-eh climbed up into his lap and both stared at Lanta-eh for long moments without speaking.
“I don’t think you look well. Is it this schedule? Is it too much?”
Lanta-eh glanced down at the table. “It’s not that. It’s not the walk back and forth. It’s just that what I am doing takes a little part of me every day. It is all right, though. I knew this was what it would take.”
“I think I should take you from now on.”
“I don’t want to steal any more of your days. It is quite boring on the mountain. I sit quietly while Monda-ak farts.”
“I won’t need to stay with you. I can have a horse ready first thing every morning. I will ride you to Prata-ah, walk you to the top, then come back and get you just before the sunsets and bring you home.”
Lanta-eh sighed. “I suppose it is time for that. Thank you, Manta-ak, my brother.”
For several more weeks, they kept to that routine. Sanda-eh rode in front, Alex in the middle, and Lanta-eh behind, holding on. At first, Alex made two round trips, but eventually he didn’t feel right leaving Lanta-eh and Monda-ak there alone, so he and Sanda-eh simply stayed and whiled the day away.
One morning, Alex lifted Lanta-eh up and stopped cold. “I know it’s not possible, but it feels like you don’t weigh any more than Sanda-eh does.”
Alex brought progressively more food with him, but while she was on top of Prata-eh, Lanta-eh would not eat. Even when the sun was setting and they were riding back to the cliffside, when Alex tried to get her to eat, she preferred to just lay her head against his back and rest.
Finally, a month after they had finished the walls atop the hill, Alex could not take it anymore. When he walked up to the cave to get her, he saw that two of her sisters were having to help her walk to him. She could not stand upright on her own.
“This is killing you. It’s not worth it.”
“Would it be worth it if our mothers stopped dying? I think it would.”
“I just don’t want to be a part of this. I can’t stand seeing you like this.”
“Today will be the last day, I promise. But, today will also not be as easy as the rest have been. Today, you should leave Sanda-eh with someone.”
Lanta-eh’s sisters rushed forward, saying, “We will watch her until you come back.”
Sanda-eh, who had become a little bored with spending every day, rain or shine on the hilltop said, “Can I Dadda?”
“Of course,” Alex answered and Sanda-eh ran to the two teen girls.
“Do you have your weapons?”
“This is Kragdon-ah. Of course I do. Do you know something? Is someone going to ambush us? I can take more men with me to get us there safely.”
“No ambush. An obstacle. An immovable obstacle. But you will be my unstoppable force.”
“I don’t like the sound of that, but standing here won’t make it any better.”
Alex lifted Lanta-eh onto the back of the horse where she normally rode, but saw that she was not able to hold her balance there. He turned to her sisters. “Do you want me to take her when she is like this?”
“Of course,” they answered as one.
Alex mounted the horse and said, “Then lift her up to me. After today, this will be over, and she can rest.”
Alex kept one gentle arm around Lanta-eh, keeping her on the horse. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against his chest, resting.
It was a quiet ride to Prata-eh, but Alex was on edge, constantly scanning in all directions, waiting for trouble—or an obstacle—to arrive.
When it did, he did not need to seek it out. It was waiting for him.
When his horse cleared the edge of the forest, the path to the top of the hill was blocked.
Godat-ta sat quietly on the trail, looking at him with one good eye.
Chapter Thirty-FiveGodat-ta Redux
Alex sat stock still on his horse, staring at the mountain of a bear.
The bear sat equally still, showing no inclination of moving.
“I can’t kill that. No human can kill a godat-ta. Can we just wait until he moves?”
“We can wait, but he will not move. This is the last challenge we must face to succeed.”
Alex contemplated asking how we were going to be facing the tons of bear that
