They rode along through the grasslands, and Meriwether was surprised to see a puppy bounding through the high grass, but when he looked closer it became a young boy trotting toward them. Grinning, Coyote picked the boy up, swung him around, and set him on his shoulders. “My oldest son,” he explained, and ran ahead without diminishing his speed despite the squirming burden he now carried.
Soon the war party reached a village of tents and lean-to shelters. Coyote’s people came out to receive them, all acting very friendly. Young men took care of their horses, while other villagers led the members of the party to the central fire, where they were all told to sit. The tired men relaxed and enjoyed a fine meal brought to them, and then they enjoyed the flirtations of the young women of the village. Meriwether glanced at Coyote, wondering if these women might be among his wives, but the capricious deity showed only delight.
“Let them enjoy themselves, Captain Lewis,” Coyote said, “for who knows what lies ahead?” He rose from his seat and gestured for Meriwether to follow him. “But first, you and I have important matters to discuss.”
The two men left the large fire and walked among trees overshadowed by thick, arching branches that formed a deep tunnel. Meriwether wondered where they were going, but he held his questions inside, knowing that Coyote would explain when he chose.
“There is something I wish to show you,” Coyote said in his strangely British English. Meriwether found it odd that the creature could speak so clearly and so eruditely with such long teeth. “But first let me tell you a story. Many centuries ago there lived a beautiful young woman, of the same tribe as Sacagawea. She was married and had two children, but one day as she was bathing at a waterfall, Raven saw her. He was struck with a love so great that he pulled her into his own land, taking her into a waterfall that seemed exactly like the one in which she had been bathing. But now she could not get back home.
“This was long ago, when the world was young, but before the comet came and changed the magic. When I went to visit my friend Raven, I also saw the young woman. She was indeed the most beautiful woman ever born, and I fell in love with her at first sight. But despite Raven’s clear affection for her, and my own obvious interest, she remained a loyal woman, faithful to her husband. She just wanted to go home. After a long time, I couldn’t stand her unhappiness. I loved her, and so I helped her escape from Raven and let her go back to her home.
“I thought she would be reunited with her husband, but I had forgotten how time can run differently in our lands, and Raven had let his own world slide into different days and years. When she returned to her tribe, they didn’t know her. Her family was long gone, and many generations had passed. She could not endure the thought that her children had grown up without her, and that her husband was long dead. She ran back to her favorite waterfall, climbed to the top, and tried to throw herself down to be dashed on the stones at the bottom. But I was called by her anguish, and I arrived just in time. I took her, and put her…” His step faltered. “You’ll see.”
They emerged from the tunnel of tree branches and found themselves in a bright, starlit clearing, where a silvery waterfall poured over a ledge into a crystalline lake. A woman drifted on the water, her hair floating around her head. She looked completely at peace.
Meriwether started. “It’s Sacagawea!” But he realized it couldn’t be. This woman was younger, and seemed taller.
“The resemblance is great,” Coyote said, sadly. “Sacagawea is her many times great-granddaughter, I think.”
The floating woman hadn’t moved, hadn’t noticed them at all. “Is she dead?”
“No, she is in a deep sleep, frozen in time at this most peaceful place. I could do nothing to cure her anguish…but now I think there might…” He sighed. “We will see. But before the battle ahead, I wanted you to see why my friendship with Raven broke apart forever.”
“And you intend to use this young woman? For what purpose?”
“I don’t know yet.” He seemed unable to take his golden eyes from the motionless woman. “But I wanted you to know why Raven is so interested in the Bird Woman. He, too, knows the connection, the resemblance.”
After watching the waterfall and the pool for some minutes, the two men walked back in silence. Before they reached the camp, Coyote said, “Tomorrow we may be attacked in many different ways. I have been…rotating my home so that we emerge near places where I need to take you and the Bird Woman. If we are lucky, Raven hasn’t thought of this place yet, or this way into his lair. He is Raven and he thinks of the air, thinks of flying. And since you and Sacagawea, yourselves, manifest as spirit creatures of the air, I doubt he’ll expect you to approach the way I intend to send you. But until we can get to that place…” He looked away, turning his coyote face into shadow.
Meriwether grew worried. “Yes?”
“Once we emerge from my safe lands, we will be fully exposed to Raven’s attacks. I want you to be ready. Protect Sacagawea. If one of you dies, the other may not be able to win this battle.”
“But you are going to fight with us. Raven’s dragon almost killed us both already, and that was just a projection of himself. Now we will be faced with the whole manifestation, in the place where he is strongest. And he’ll have his monsters, his revenants, his thralls.” He felt sweat prickle on the back of his neck.
Coyote gave him a sideways glance. “You cannot hope to kill him in the air or out in the open, and there is no way you can kill him in his place of power. So I propose to divide our war party into three parts. The younger braves and the men of your expedition will attack frontally and distract the dragon. Meanwhile, I will find my way inside the lair and kill the human thrall, the trapper body he has possessed.
“And you and Sacagawea will have to kill the dragon.” He paused for a moment. “Since I won’t be with you then, you must tell Sacagawea that the only way to bind the dragon’s heads is with the hair of a powerful woman.”
Meriwether’s step faltered. “Heads? The dragon has more than one head? In the previous times I encountered him in my dreams or in my spirit form, he was like a dragon of Welsh legend.”
Coyote looked somber. “In his real form, the dragon sorcerer has seven heads, huge, powerful, and terrifying.”
Meriwether was not reassured. “And Sacagawea’s hair will bind them?” The idea seemed preposterous, as did the entire plan.
“A single hair will be like a powerful rope holding the heads still. Such a binding will put the dragon to sleep. That is how the magic works. I know it. Will you remember what I’ve told you? After all the battles we are bound to face tomorrow?”
“If it means our survival and the success of this mission, then of course I shall.”
They returned to the village, where the war party was enjoying the feast and hospitality. The revelry seemed jarring after what Meriwether had just seen, after the terrible things he had just learned. The young village women danced, while the Shoshone warriors and the expedition men clapped and laughed, and sometimes being bold enough to snatch and kiss one of the dancers.
Meriwether did not see Sacagawea, and he immediately felt concern. Coyote said, “I believe she has gone to bed.” He sat himself down near the young men and gestured toward a group of tents beyond the firelight. “If you need to sleep, you can choose any of those you wish.”