Eliot Pattison - Eye of the Raven

"The road to Philadelphia," Rideaux said with foreboding.

Van Grut began stuffing his belongings back into his pack.

"It is too dangerous," Duncan said to the Dutchman.

"If you don't tell them I'm a surveyor," Van Grut said with a tentative grin, "I won't tell them there's a bounty on your head."

Duncan offered a grim smile and gestured to the other sleeping forms, flanked by the dog and orphaned bear, which was snuggled against the girl. "Tell Hadley and Mokie to wait for us here," he told the Frenchman.

As they carried their canoe into the water a tall figure emerged from a path through the alders. "If you go," Moses warned, "what you see will visit your nightmares for years."

Van Grut hesitated, growing pale as he gazed at the Moravian Indian. There was something wilder, less civilized about Moses. The day before he had been another mission Indian, but today he seemed more the warrior crusader.

"I will not allow Skanawati to be hanged," Duncan said as he followed the Dutchman into the canoe. "There are secrets only his family knows, secrets that might save him yet."

"That village," Moses sighed as he stepped toward their vessel, is worn out. Soon it will be no more."

It was, Duncan realized, all the explanation the Indian would give. Without another word Moses shoved the canoe from the bank and climbed in behind them.

As the sun rose toward the zenith they pulled hard against the current of the narrowing river, paddled fiercely, into the rugged lands the tribes called the endless mountains. It was early afternoon when Moses began to turn the canoe toward the north bank. Duncan could see no sign of habitation but with relief spied a cluster of beached vessels that included the large one Conawago had left in the night before.

They had progressed only fifty paces up the worn trail that rose along a shallow creek when Moses halted. He seemed to sense something that his companions could not. His face sagged. "It is what I feared most. This is not the day to be here. We need to leave, make camp until tomorrow."

"Is his family here or not?" Duncan demanded. In the distance he now heard the sound that had stopped the Moravian Indian, the soft, steady throbbing of a drum.

Moses gave a melancholy nod. "There are too many dead here today."

Van Grut's face darkened, and he retreated several feet down the trail before seeing Duncan's determined expression. He grimaced, checked the priming of his gun, and pushed past Moses to follow Duncan up the trail.

They emerged at the edge of a large field that lay below a cluster of five longhouses surrounded by a decrepit stockade fence. The village appeared to be empty except for a ragged dog that barked once and fled. Duncan walked slowly toward the buildings, searching in vain for any other sign of life. Van Grut nervously lifted his gun as they passed through a gate of rotting logs. A smoldering fire sent up a wisp of smoke from the front of one of the longhouses. The only living creature to be seen now was a solitary raven on a log watchtower.

Duncan paused at the entrance to each of the longhouses. Two, with gaping holes in their elm bark roofs, appeared to have been abandoned. The others held the meager belongings of an impoverished people, arranged along the hearths reserved for each family. Tattered clothing hung from pegs on roof posts. Rattles of dried, folded bark lay beside a rotting water drum. Dried apples hung in strings from rafters beside haunches of venison. Birch buckets with bark lids were caked with the drippings of the maple syrup the Iroquois prized. In the dirt lay a tattered doll made of cornhusks that had been cleverly bound and knotted. In the largest structure of the ghost village most of the belongings appeared to have been wrapped in blankets and tied with leather straps as though for travel. In the distance, beyond the second gate, the low drum sounded like a heartbeat.

A shadow on the wall caused Duncan to spin around, his gun raised. Moses lifted a hand as if to restrain him. "The village has had great pain this past year, lost many children and old ones. The fields are no longer fertile. They begin moving soon to a new village, but first they must say their farewells."

Still not comprehending, Duncan stepped slowly to the far gate, pausing to look up at the silent raven, which seemed to be intently studying him. In a flat below the village he at last saw its inhabitants, no more than fifty men, women, and children. They seemed to be engaged in some sort of rhythmic motion, bending, lifting, digging as one of the few young men beat on an immense hollow log.

"It is the ancient way," Moses explained. "Many of the Iroquois have stopped the practice, but Skanawati was adamant that they do it this year. It is easier when platforms are used, but that is not the way of these clans. They have been waiting for his return, but they know they can wait no longer if crops are to be planted at the new site.

Van Grut shaded his eyes with his hand, trying to see the villagers better. "Christ in heaven!" he moaned as he finally understood what they looked at. The Indians were digging up their dead.

"There is a solemn feast," Moses continued. "The names of the dead are revived. The bones will be cleaned and lovingly wrapped for a new group grave. Gifts will be offered to the dead. Final leavetaking must be made, for the dead will no longer be near the calls of the women and the laughter of the children. Skanawati helped dig the new grave before he left, helped trap furs all winter to line it."

"How do you know these things?" Duncan whispered.

"My brother married a woman of this village."

"He is here?"

"He was killed fighting with the British at Fort Niagara."

No words of greeting met Duncan as he advanced, his gun and pack left at the gate. As he approached he realized he knew the drummer. Johantty, covered with soot, frowned as he saw Duncan. The oldest of the women, clearly in charge, shot up from where she sat and began shouting at him, the words unintelligible but her gestures unmistakable. Every villager straightened, eyes on Duncan. One man lifted his iron shovel like a weapon, another raised the sharpened stick he was using to pry at the earth. Then an energetic voice called out, and Duncan's would-be assailants hesitated as Johantty left his drum and ran to the woman's side, pointing at Duncan, speaking in low, hurried tones. The woman scowled then uttered a few low syllables that sent the villagers back to their sober task.

"Stone Blossom," Moses explained at his shoulder. "She has been the undisputed head of this village for decades."

Duncan watched uneasily as Moses stepped forward and spoke in quiet, earnest appeal with the sturdy, aged woman. She frowned again but did not object when the Moravian began to help arrange the old bones in fur bundles. Though somber, the atmosphere was not altogether mournful, more like that of a reunion of friends who had suffered much since last meeting. The only ones looking disturbed at all were the women who worked with knives to clean lingering flesh from bones of the freshest graves. Duncan clenched his jaw and approached them, hand on the hilt of his own knife.

"Tell them, Moses," he said, "tell them that in my country I am considered a friend of the dead."

The women stepped back warily, surrendering their task to Duncan. It was no different than working with the cadavers in his Edinburgh college, he told himself as he put his blade to the first muscle.

He watched as Van Grut inched away, poised to flee at any moment, and saw how the Indians watched the Dutchman with angry suspicion. Van Grut approached with a sideways motion when Duncan gestured for him, clearly repulsed by Duncan's chore. Duncan rose and leaned into his ear.

Van Grut sighed in exasperation as he heard Duncan's suggestion. "Do it," Duncan said, "or return to the canoe. This is no place for an onlooker."