She reached out to him, and he pulled her into an embrace. “My wife!”
The air rang with a fluttering of wings, and suddenly the young man shattered into a multitude of ravens that flew together, lifting the woman, raising her up and carrying her through the opening at the top of the dome, and out into the open sky.
“Well, that worked,” Coyote said, sounding surprised, which did not reassure Meriwether. Then the trickster focused on him, sounding urbane and civilized, much like a lecturer whom Meriwether had once heard explaining the mysteries of mesmerization. “It is possible to rewrite memory. It merely takes much patience or a great shock. The woman took a long time…and I gave him a great shock. All of Raven’s madness was intensified when he merged his mind with that of the trapper. A form of insanity occurs when trying to make one mind out of two very different souls.”
Coyote looked in disgust at the pieces of monstrous river serpents strewn across the floor. “All of his pain and destruction came from that. He and I are creatures of dream and myth, and Raven had several, contradictory dreams and myths in his head. He could not reconcile them or cause them to fit together. When you two killed the dragon form and I killed the trapper he had absorbed and possessed—that freed my friend Raven. It caused him to fall back into himself, but his recollection remained hazy.” He grinned, showing more of his long, sharp teeth. “That allowed me to rewrite his memories about the last several hundred years and fix the error I made centuries ago. She always should have been with him, except for my interference. Now they both know it.”
“Won’t Raven find out it was a trick?” Sacagawea asked. “Will he not wish to seek vengeance?”
Coyote laughed. “I hope he is too happy with his wife to worry about that. We have been friends and fought each other, as friends do, since the beginning of time. It will make no difference, but it is better if we don’t involve humans in our disputes. Especially in this changed world, where the magic is far stronger and using it has greater consequences.”
He sighed, glancing at the wounded form of the spirit dragon still crouched against the curved chamber wall. “And speaking of humans, little Bird Woman, we need to drag Captain Lewis’s body in here. I don’t think he has the strength to push his dragon back into a body that isn’t close to him.”
Moments after the two pulled Meriwether’s unconscious human form into the sunlit cavern, he released his hold on the spirit dragon, let himself flow back into his human shape…which then slumped in utter pain and exhaustion. He was done. All he wanted to do was sleep, heal, dream…
When he woke up some time later, maybe days—he had no idea—he found that he was being carried on a litter into a very nice camp with beautiful tents, tall grass, and women and children celebrating all around. He saw men from his expedition, including the grinning face of York, as well as more Shoshone warriors, all happy to be back at peace.
“Welcome to my home again,” Coyote said, leaning over the litter so he could stare into Meriwether’s eyes. “You will rest here, until you are fully recovered. You’ve been burned very badly, you know. Bruised, broken, slashed. But don’t worry.” He placed a pawlike hand on his forehead. “It doesn’t matter. Everything will be fine now. The land heals. You heal.” Coyote leaned closer. “After all, you still have a very long journey to go.”
Meriwether let himself fall back into unconsciousness, thinking of vast wilderness and long journeys. Yes, he would need his strength.
My Dearest Julia,
It seems I must wait a while yet, before I head back east to deliver my letters to you in person. Our great expedition is once again afoot! The terrible evil force that corrupted the land and used its arcane forces against us has now been defeated, thanks to the efforts of our war party, especially Captain Lewis and Sacagawea.
I had led a large party to safety back to Fort Mandan, and we waited, hoping for news of our friends—victory, we hoped. Just as we had given up all hope and were preparing to make our way back to St. Louis in retreat, on the very morning when we’d packed everything and saddled our horses, we heard a cry from our sentinels.
At first, we thought the dragon sorcerer had sent some new horror against us, rotting revenants or monstrous creatures. And then I realized that I was hearing cries of joy. Captain Lewis and the war party had returned.
The group of brave fighters we sent against the dragon was smaller. Six men total, three from each group, had been killed, including, alas, Pryor.
The actual plan for the army to go face the minions of the dragon sorcerer was merely to distract the evil force. He expended his energies by hurling terrible arcane creatures against them. The men, even my former slave York, who is quite level-headed, tell wild tales of giant tornado demons and a rain of scorpions. While the dragon sorcerer was thus occupied, however, Captain Lewis and Sacagawea were able to enter the chamber of the dragon and slay his physical body.
Neither of them wish to tell details of that awful confrontation, though my friend has some new and disturbing scars across half of his chest and down his right arm.
As for Dosabite, the shaman of the Shoshone, he will give no answers at all, not even when his chief Cameahwait demands it. The shaman simply goes sullen and says he remembers nothing because a spirit named Coyote made use of his body.
I know this may sound strange, my dearest, but here in these wild, arcane territories, even such fantastic claims must be taken seriously.
On more mundane matters, you should have heard the cries of joy with which my little Pompy greeted his mother. I have promised Sacagawea to give every possible help in raising him, but I’m glad she is back with him. He belongs with his mother, and we still have a long distance to go. Perhaps in the fullness of time, she will not need my help because she may eventually choose another husband. In fact…but that is speculation I’d rather not commit to a letter.
For now, our expedition heads onward to the Pacific, as we meant to. Now that the magic of the land no longer fights against us, we expect to have a much easier time. If we are lucky, once we find the western ocean we can seek a passage to the rest of the world by that far route. Who knows, maybe some intrepid Russian or Spanish explorers have already found the far coast of America. I cannot wait to learn what the rest of the world has done with nearly half a century of restored magic, thanks to the comet.
Although I’ll warrant that no one else will have a wilder tale than the one we’ve just lived through.
Captain William Clark
The End of the Journey
Once they had returned to their canoes and pirogues, with the expedition resupplied with new clothes and new equipment thanks to the help of the Shoshone, Meriwether experienced great relief. To be moving again! To see the unexplored continent and see what the vastness had in store for them!
It was strange to make their way to the Pacific Ocean facing only natural dangers…but there were enough of those.
They’d left the Snake People behind, with much sadness from Cameahwait because his sister insisted on accompanying the expedition, and especially Captain Lewis, as far as they might go. Sacagawea said she must do what she had promised and see the explorers to the end of her journey, which warmed Meriwether’s heart. He was surprised she made such a decision, though he certainly would have released her from any obligations. She had certainly done enough. But her mind was made up, and she promised her brother and her people that she and little Pomp would be coming back.