Page 9 of The Flame

“Thank fuck,” Steel muttered. “I was about to get the hell down there. Our men almost didn’t get them out.”

Rissa growled and moved closer to the edge of the wall. Everyone could see her growing rage as she stared down at the clubhouse.

Finally, Winsome came over to her mother and asked, “What or who is that man?”

“It can’t be who I thought it was. He died a very long time ago,” Rissa muttered. “It can’t be him.” She turned and stumbled back inside the mountain. Making her way over to a sofa in the room, she sat down.

Everyone followed her back.

Winsome sat beside her and asked, “Are you all right, Mother?”

Rissa nodded. “A memory, a bad memory.”

“What do you mean? Do you think you know one of those men down there, attacking the clubhouse?”

Rissa shook her head. “It can’t be him, it just can’t be.”

“Can’t be who?” Luther demanded to know.

Rissa looked up at the men and women standing around her. She swallowed hard and knew in that moment she had to reveal her thoughts and her actions of the past, a very distant past.

Chapter Five

Rissa sighed as she began to tell them the story, “Back when I was a young maid, the Shaman in our tribe was getting old. Maybe he was about four hundred, I think? So he wished to begin training the next Shaman. He had picked out several of us that he thought would do well in the training and he began to teach us the basics. I was one of the chosen, but there was another in the small group too. His name was TankaTae. He was a fine warrior but no one liked him, as he was a cocky young man. He often boasted of his accomplishments and in the tribe that was frowned upon. In our tribe, you gave back to the whole but you didn’t boast of it. He was a bold young man though and thought he was better than the rest of us. He didn’t do the actual work required then got mad because the Shamna showed him up time after time. When he began doing what the Shaman asked, the Shaman allowed him to stay in the group. Then one by one, the group went from seven to just the two of us. When the contest was just between him and I at the end, the head Shaman knew who would win. But to be fair, he had to go through the final tests.”

Winsome took her hand in hers and squeezed it to encourage her to finish the story.

Rissa hung her head. “One of those tests was to look into the eyes of each other and tell what we could see in the other person’s soul. I looked into TankaTae’s eyes and at first, I could see nothing, then to my horror, I could see red eyes looking back at me.”

“Red eyes?” Luther asked.

“Yes, the red eyes of a demon.” Rissa nodded. “I stepped back in horror. The Shaman stepped forward and when he looked into Tanka’s eyes, he was horrified as well. He began a spell of eviction but the demon wouldn’t be evicted. Instead, he blasted the Shaman in a red light that blinded him. The Shaman was almost mortally hit but as TankaTae ran off after the attack, before he got too far, the Shaman finished the curse and TankaTae’s demon was revealed to everyone. It was the Coyote, a greedy trickster. When TankaTae’s form began to change into that of a coyote, the Shaman melded his soul into that being. Thus, Tanka became a coyote shifter. They became one and they couldn’t be separated. He was then banned from the tribe for the rest of his life, the elders of the tribe chased him out, but he had learned enough magic to use it to his advantage. To let the people know this demon was present, the Shaman made his coat a bright red.” She looked toward the window of the mountain. “The wolf charging the clubhouse today was red in color.”

“What happened to the Shaman?” Amira asked her grandmother.

Rissa shook her head. “I was able to save him by using healing magic I had but his eyes had been burned by the demon and those I couldn’t heal. He named me his successor and in a short amount of time, he managed to teach me what I needed to know. The demon shortened his time on the earth and when he died, I felt I’d lost a good friend. He named me as a Watcher of the Maiden and when the mountain was moved, I went with her.”

“Wait...Wait up here, the mountain was moved?” Swag asked.

Steel nodded. “How can you move a whole damn mountain?”

Rissa shook her head at them. “That knowledge has remained an absolute secret for many and I mean, many years now.”

Winsome knelt beside her. “Mother, that happened a long time ago. Are you sure this TankaTae is still alive?”

Rissa nodded. “The Coyote is a demon and as such, he has great magic of his own. He lives by tempting mere mortals into great sin. The Shaman’s curse bound him to TankaTae’s soul and in order to live, he has to keep his body alive.”

“So he would be as old as you are?” Winsome asked.

“TankaTae would be, the Coyote is much older,” Rissa admitted. She looked over at Winsome. “The tribe had many secrets that not everyone in the tribe knew. Only the Chief and the Shaman knew about the gold, I was only told of the mountain's secrets because I became the next Shaman. But the Coyote is as old as this mountain. He’s heard about this place but he needed the humans he infected to find it. I’m sure by now, Coyote has figured out the secrets of this mountain and he won’t leave until he has some of the gold.”

Winsome gasped and her hand covered her mouth. “No one can disturb the gold. That would kill the Maiden.”

Rissa nodded. “Yes, it would. Her spirit has survived for centuries because no one has disturbed the gold, but the Coyote is a trickster and a demon of greed. He is immortal, although I had assumed that his host body would die and he would move to another.”

“But you said the Shaman welded his soul to TankaTae’s,” Amira stated.

Rissa looked at her. “Yes child, I did but that works both ways. I realize now, the demon is keeping TankaTae alive as well. As a wolf shifter, he cannot see the mountain but he can smell the gold is near. He also knows the only way he can be free is to get his hands on the gold and kill the Maiden.”

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