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folk of the Crystal Lake and become a warrior, and Laikkimi had gone east
to the city of Skyeggo and there met a man who loved her, and by him bore
two children, a girl whom she named Tekkelé, and a boy named Ruha, after
his father s father. Both her children had golden hair.
It is not clear when Tekkelé of Ippa first became known as a sibyl. But
as time went on, men and women would come to the village by the lake,
approach her, and beg her to instruct them if such and such an act would
be pleasing to the gods. At first Tekkelé thought this funny.  You are fools,
she said,  to think that the gods care for your petty problems! But whatever
she said, people would repeat it, and take it to heart. They left the village
telling each other how wise she was.
That spring Shiro and Laikkimi returned, as they did every spring, to
visit their mother. They rode into Ravenswood on two tall horses. But when
they entered Tekkelé s hut, which stood where the old lean-to had stood,
they found it empty, and the hearthstone, when they touched it, was cold.
They sought out the headman of the village.  We are looking for Tekkelé of
Ippa, they said.
The headman answered,  She is gone.
 Gone where? said Shiro, ever fierce. The headman spread his
hands and shrugged.  Do you mean that she s dead?
 Oh, no, the headman said.  Not that. She was very wise. Now the
gods have taken her.
 I doubt it, said Laikkimi dryly. Neither of the twins, being part-devine
themselves, had much use for the gods. They searched through
Ravenswood for traces of their mother but found nothing, and no one who
could tell them anything, except one girl who admitted that the day before
Tekkelé s disappearance she had heard the old woman standing beside
the lake, whispering to herself.
 What was she saying? Laikkimi asked.
 I did not understand it she spoke of faces, many faces, answered
the child.
Shiro and Laikkimi turned this over in their minds, but could make no
sense of it. Puzzled and sad, they decided that Tekkelé who was very old
by now had lost her footing and fallen into the lake. Lovingly they spoke
the death ritual for her, that her soul might not fly continually through the vast
caverns of the Void.
At the last moment, as the twins made ready to leave the peaceful
valley, Shiro said,  Wait.
 What is it? Laikkimi said.
Shiro pointed toward the mountaintop.  What if-? Laikkimi nodded. It
had been many years since they had left the cave in which Tekkelé had
borne them; they did not miss it. But perhaps, they thought, Tekkelé the
stargazer had chosen to return there, to die amid the rocks, listening to the
wild music of the winds and the hawks shrill cries.
They started up the mountain trail. But they had not gone very far
before they heard above them the rustle of wings. A red hawk female, by
the size of it, and gaunt with age soared toward them from the
ever-present bank of cloud that surrounded, and still surrounds, the Gray
Peaks. The sun glinted on its wings. Silently it circled once, twice, three
times over their heads.
Laikkimi lifted her arms to the bird.  Mother!
The red hawk screamed in assent, confusion, challenge? Its yellow
eyes gleamed. Then, veering, it flew north. Laikkimi and Shiro waited on the
trail, hoping that it would return. But it did not. At last they retraced their
steps to the hut where they had left their horses grazing, and, mounting,
turned their faces away from Ravenswood.
But as they rode, Tekkelé s daughters smiled, for they believed they
knew what had become of their mother. And no one has seen or heard of
anybody who has seen Tekkelé of Ippa since that time. [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]

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