Sisoka caught his expression and said, “You actually owe him a great debt. He saved your life from his pack brothers. Saved all your lives, actually.”
“He betrayed us, deceived us,” Ryan growled.
“It is no sin to betray a betrayer or to deceive a deceiver.” Sisoka’s tone was calm, neutral. “Touch-the-Sky is both, Ryan Cawdor.”
It sounded strange, the way she said his name, as though she took pleasure in the sound and taste of it.
“Is JoeTouch-the-Skyhere?”
Sisoka said nothing, but her long, sweeping lashes veiled her eyes for a moment.
“He escaped, didn’t he?” Ryan said. “What about my friend?”
“No.”
“No, what?”
“Neither of them escaped.”
Ryan didn’t reply, but he strained against his bonds.
“We allowed them to leave,” Sisoka said quietly.
“What?”
“You were unconscious and so was your friend. There was no way to capture Touch-the-Sky alive without more loss of life. We allowed him to leave, allowed him to think he had escaped. Between the time we brought you here, to our camp, and returned for your friend, he was gone. We could find no trace of him, nor did we care to track him down.”
Ryan began to question her again about J.B., but bit off the words. He had no choice but to accept her words. “Why didn’t you chill me?”
“Are you afraid of death?” Sisoka countered.
“I don’t want to die,” he answered levelly, “but I can manage it if I have to.”
Sisoka smiled faintly. “An honest answer, Ryan Cawdor.” Then her smooth, girlish face sobered. “However, it is not death you fear.”
Ryan forced a derisive smile. “How would you know, hiding in this valley, isolated from the rest of the world since the time of the caveman?”
Sisoka’s eyes narrowed in a way that reminded Ryan of Joe. “How do you know that?” she asked.
He started to retort, then shut his mouth. He had no answer.
“How do you know that, Ryan Cawdor?” Sisoka demanded.
He groped for a response. “I don’t know,” he faltered. “I must have dreamed it.”
“You dreamed it because I wished you to dream it.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I gave you a taste of the dew of Ah-badt-dadt-deah so you would understand.”
Ryan ransacked his memory, recalled the liquid slime being forced down his throat, and he snarled, “You drugged me. Made me high, made me hallucinate, tried to turn me into a jolt-brain so I’d believe any bullshit you spouted.”
Authority and arrogance were suddenly stamped over her face like an ivory mask. “You are here to be judged, outlander,” she said coldly. “Not I.”
Sisoka half turned away, stopped and spun to face him. “The visions you saw were true ones, plucked from the ancestral memories of all who dwell in Ti-Ra’-Wa.”
Her voice was strong with resolve and conviction. “For centuries beyond counting, our valley has been threatened by the outside world, by invaders. The Spanish conquistadors, the white explorers and, more recently, the group you called the Red Cadre. We must protect the valley and the cavern as it has protected us, the lives and traditions of its children. Now it is threatened from within.”
“How?” Ryan demanded. “Touch-the-Sky wants to use the power of your cavern to heal the Earth, the Grandmother, she who has shown mercy to the children who have ripped and burned and poisoned her.”
Ryan broke off, mind reeling at the words he had spoken. He glared at Sisoka. “You conditioned me to say that while I was doped up, didn’t you?”
“Don’t be a fool, Ryan Cawdor,” Sisoka responded impatiently. “The spirit of the Grandmother has touched you, using Blood-sniffer and myself as channels. I admit we entered and influenced your dreams a time or two”
“With one of those sender gadgets,” Ryan interrupted.
Sisoka acknowledged the correctness of his guess with a nod. “But,” she continued, “if your innermost self, your spirit, had not been open to the contact, you would have never remembered the dreams, let alone been influenced by them.”
Ryan nodded. “All right, I can’t say I believe or disbelieve you. But I can say that I don’t disagree with Touch-the-Sky’s dream of healing the earth, setting right what the nukecaust did to it.”