MUKUNDA Chapter 6–The Day We Walked Toward the River of Stones and the Weight of Three Spirits

The sky was stretched like a drum that had been tightened by the wind, the kind of sky that holds its breath and waits, the kind of sky that knows something is coming and is preparing itself to receive it. The sun was spreading its rays over the mountains of Magodo, over the hills and the valleys and the fields that had been tended by generations of hands, over the palace where I had been born and raised, over the place where the fire had spoken and told me that I was the one who had been chosen to carry the weight that had been waiting since before I was born. The wind was not the ordinary wind that had been moving through this land since before the first people came, not the wind that carried the scent of the wild sage and the rain that was coming and the earth that was waiting to be turned. This wind was filled with the smell of blood that had been shed and the smell of the leaves that had been burned, the smell of something that had been lost and something that was being found, the smell of the war that was coming and the prophecy that was being fulfilled.

I stood at the great gate of the palace, my spear resting on my shoulder in the way that a warrior stands when they are about to walk into something that they do not fully understand, when they are about to leave the place that has been their home for as long as they can remember, when they are about to go to the place where the spirits are waiting and the thing that has been promised will be fulfilled or will be broken. Taru was standing beside me, wearing the clothes of the warriors that had been made from the wood of the camp, the clothes that had been worn by the warriors who had gone before, the clothes that carried the stories of the battles that had been fought, the battles that had been won, the battles that had been lost, the battles that had been the thing that shaped the land that we had been given to protect. She was not just my keeper now, not just the friend who had sat with me by the river when we were children, not just the one who had promised to stand beside me when the fire was burning and the path was dark. She was something else, something that had been growing between us since the night the fire spoke, since the prophecy was told, since the light of the joining had risen into the sky and the elder Vengai had said that the second spirit had joined and that our love had become the thing that would not be changed, would not be turned, would not be stopped.

"We are walking to the River of Stones," I said, and I heard in my voice the weight of what we were about to do, the weight of the thing that had been given to me to carry, the weight of the fire that was burning in my chest and the water that was moving through my blood and the stone that was waiting to be joined. "But we do not know whether the spirit will rise or whether we will find the darkness that has been waiting for us, the darkness that the enemy has been preparing, the darkness that will be the thing that tests us, that breaks us, that makes us into something that we do not know how to be."

"The spirit does not rise without someone who is willing, without someone who has the desire, without someone who is standing in the place where the spirit is waiting and is ready to receive what it has been holding. But the desire, the willingness, the readiness, these things need a heart that is clean, a heart that is not carrying the things that would make the spirit turn away, a heart that is ready to be the thing that the spirit has been waiting for since before we were born," Taru said, and I heard in her voice the thing that she had been carrying, the thing that she had been holding, the thing that she had been waiting to give, the thing that had been growing in her since we were children, since the first time we sat by the river and let the wind carry away the things that were too heavy to hold.

The counselors and the people of the village were gathered around us, the people who had been watching and waiting, the people who had been hoping that the prophecy would be something else, that the fire would mean something else, that the daughter who had been chosen would be something else. Some of them were crying, the way that people cry when they are watching someone walk toward something that they do not understand, when they are watching someone carry a weight that they know they could not carry themselves, when they are watching someone leave the place that has been safe and walk toward the thing that has been waiting. Some of them were giving blessings, the way that people give blessings when they have nothing else to give, when they cannot walk the path that is being walked, when they cannot carry the weight that is being carried, when all they can do is stand where they are and speak the words that they hope will be heard by the spirits, by the ancestors, by the ones who are watching and waiting and hoping that the thing that has been promised will be fulfilled.

My mother came close to me, the way that a mother comes close to her daughter when the path that is opening before her is a path that she cannot walk with her, when the thing that is being asked of her daughter is the thing that she has been waiting for since the day her daughter was born, since the fire was lit, since the prophecy was spoken, since the night when the voice of Nyamunhu came and told them that a daughter would come who would carry the fire that would save the land or destroy it. She put her hand on my forehead, the way that she had put her hand on my forehead when I was small and the world was too big and I was not sure which way to go, the way that she had put her hand on my forehead when I was afraid and the darkness was too dark and I needed something to hold onto, the way that she had put her hand on my forehead when the fire spoke and I knew that I was the one who had been chosen and I was not sure that I was strong enough to carry what had been given to me.

"My child, when you meet the darkness, when you are standing in the place where the light does not reach, when you are not sure which way to go and the weight that you are carrying is heavier than anything you have ever carried, remember that your fire was not given to you so that you would lose your way, so that you would be lost in the darkness, so that you would be the one who fell when the weight was too heavy. Your fire was given to you so that you would make the light, so that you would be the one who showed the people where to go, so that you would be the one who carried the thing that had been waiting since before you were born and did not let it burn the things that should not be burned."

"I will remember, Mother," I promised, and I felt her hand on my forehead, felt the warmth that had been there since the day I was born, felt the thing that she had been carrying since the day she held me in her arms and knew that I was the one who had been given to her, the one who would carry what she could not carry, the one who would walk the path that she could not walk, the one who would be the thing that she had been waiting for since the fire was lit and the prophecy was spoken.

We walked away from the palace, away from the place that had been our home, away from the people who had been watching and waiting and hoping, toward the border of the kingdom, toward the place where the River of Stones was waiting, toward the thing that the prophecy had been waiting for since before we were born. Everything seemed to be encouraging us, the animals that were grazing in the fields, the trees that were bending in the wind, the water that was moving in the rivers, as if the land itself was being placed under the power of the spirit, as if the earth was speaking to us, was telling us that we were walking the path that had been prepared, that we were doing the thing that we had been sent to do, that the thing that had been promised was finally happening and the land was waiting to receive it.

The Journey Begins

The path took us past the great caves that were so deep that the wind that came out of them sounded like the voices of the spirits, like the words that the ancestors had been speaking since before the first people came to this land, like the thing that had been waiting to be heard and was finally being heard by the ones who had been chosen to hear it. Taru was looking at the side of the path, her eyes red from the nights that she had not slept, the nights that she had been watching, the nights that she had been standing between me and the darkness that had been waiting to take me. She had been carrying the weight of being my keeper, the weight of the promise that she had made to my father, the weight of the thing that she had said when she knelt in the court and told them that she would stand beside me and that if the prophecy failed, her blood would be the offering that was given to the spirit, the blood that would be paid for the thing that was promised, the blood that would be the price that was paid for the thing that was not done.

"Mukunda," she said softly, the way that a person speaks when they are saying something that they have been holding for a long time, something that they are not sure they should say, something that they are saying because the time has come to say it, because the path that we are walking is a path that we do not know and the thing that is waiting for us is something that we cannot see and I need to know that she will do what she promised, that she will stand beside me, that she will not let the fire burn the things that should not be burned. "The king gave me the command to protect you no matter what it costs, no matter what it asks, no matter what it takes. If the spirit of the stone takes your heart, if it takes the thing that you are carrying, if it takes the fire that has been given to you and leaves you with nothing, I will take my spear and I will drive it into myself so that I can free you, so that the thing that is holding you will let you go, so that you can be the one who walks away from this place and carries the fire to the place where it needs to go."

I looked at her softly, the way that a person looks at someone when they have said something that is too heavy to be heard without being held, when they have spoken the words that have been waiting to be spoken and the words that have come out are the words that will be the thing that we carry for the rest of our lives, the thing that we remember when the fire is burning and the path is dark and the thing that is coming is something that neither of us understands. I told her that if she did that, if she took her spear and drove it into herself, the spirit that was in me would leave me, would leave me empty, would leave me a wilderness, would leave me as a place where nothing grew, as a place where the fire had burned and there was nothing left to burn, as a place where the thing that had been given to me had been taken and there was nothing left to carry. I told her that I did not want to be alive in a world that did not have her in it, that the fire that had been given to me was not the thing that would keep me standing if she was not standing beside me, that the love that had been growing between us since we were children was the thing that made the weight feel like something I could carry and without it, there was nothing, there was only the fire burning and nothing to hold it, nothing to guide it, nothing to be the light that showed me where to go.

Taru was quiet for a long time, the way that a person is quiet when they have heard the words that they have been waiting to hear, the words that they have been hoping to hear, the words that they have been afraid to hear because hearing them means that the thing that has been growing, the thing that has been waiting, the thing that has been carried for so long without being spoken, is finally being spoken, is finally being seen, is finally being held by someone else, by the one who is carrying it with them. But her eyes, her eyes were shining with the love that she could hide, the love that she had been hiding since we were children, the love that she had been carrying without knowing that she was carrying it, the love that was the thing that made her stand beside me, that made her promise to protect me, that made her say that she would give her blood if the prophecy failed, that made her the keeper that my father had asked her to be.

The journey took three days, three days of walking through villages and valleys and plains that were filled with the animals that could not be seen by ordinary eyes, the animals that the spirits had put in this land to watch, to wait, to be the things that would be there when the time came for the prophecy to be fulfilled, when the fire had found the water and the stone and the wind, when the thing that had been waiting since before we were born was finally happening, was finally being seen, was finally being the thing that would save the land or destroy it. We passed through places where the people came out of their homes to watch us walk, to see the daughter of the king who carried the fire, to see the keeper who had promised to stand beside her, to see the thing that the prophecy had been waiting for since before they were born. Some of them gave us food, the food that they had grown in the fields that had been tended by their hands, the food that they had prepared with the hope that we would carry it and that it would give us the strength we needed to do what we had been sent to do. Some of them gave us blessings, the blessings that had been passed down from their mothers and their grandmothers and the women who had come before, the blessings that carried the hope that the fire would not burn the things that should not be burned, that the water would not rise and wash away the things that should be saved, that the stone would not break and crush the things that had been built.

At the end of the third day, we came close to the river that was surrounded by the great stones that were like the caves of life, the stones that had been standing in this place since before the first people came, the stones that had been watching the land that had been given to them to watch, the stones that had been waiting for the time when the fire would come, when the water would rise, when the spirit would speak and the thing that had been promised would be fulfilled. The water was clear, the kind of clear that comes when something has been waiting for a long time, when something has been held for a long time, when something has been kept pure so that it would be ready when the time came for it to be used. But the water was deep, deeper than any water I had ever seen, deeper than the river where I had sat with Taru when we were children, deeper than the place where the spirits had first spoken to me, deeper than the thing that I could see with my eyes, the thing that I could feel with my hands, the thing that I could carry in my heart. When a person looked into that water, they were not seeing the bottom, they were not seeing the stones that were at the bottom, they were not seeing the thing that was waiting at the bottom. They were seeing their own spirit, were seeing the thing that they had been carrying, were seeing the thing that they had been hiding, were seeing the thing that the water was showing them because the time had come for it to be seen, because the prophecy was moving, because the thing that had been waiting was finally happening.

"This is the place," I said, and I heard in my voice the thing that I had been carrying, the thing that had been growing in me since the fire first spoke, since the prophecy was first told, since the night when Nyamunhu appeared in the flames and told me that I was the one who had been chosen, the one who would carry the fire, the one who would join with the water and the stone and the wind, the one who would be the thing that saved the land or the thing that destroyed it. "The River of Stones, the place where the third spirit is waiting, the place where we will find what we have been sent to find or the place where we will lose everything that we have been given to carry."

The Third Prophecy

In that moment, the wind rose from the west, the wind that had been carrying the scent of the war that was coming, the wind that had been moving through the land since the fire first spoke, the wind that had been waiting for this moment, for this time, for the thing that was happening, and it wrapped the place in darkness, the kind of darkness that comes when the sun is taken away, when the light that has been there since the morning is suddenly gone, when the thing that you have been seeing is no longer there and you are left with nothing, with the thing that you cannot see, with the thing that you do not know, with the thing that is waiting for you in the place where the light does not reach.

The stones began to shine with a light that was blue, the color of the sky that had been watching this land since before the first people came, the color of the water that had been flowing through the rivers since the land was formed, the color of the spirit that had been moving through this place since the first ancestor walked on this earth. And from the water, from the deep place where the water was holding something that had been waiting for a very long time, a voice came, a voice that was deep, a voice that was asking a question, a voice that was the thing that had been waiting to be spoken, the thing that had been waiting to be heard, the thing that would decide whether we would be given what we had come to find or whether we would be turned away, whether the fire would be joined or would burn alone, whether the land would be saved or would be destroyed.

"Are you the one whose heart can carry the courage of the stones, the weight that has been waiting since before you were born, the thing that has been held by the spirits who came before you and passed to the ones who would come after? Or are you just seeking to praise yourself with fire and love, to be the one who is seen, to be the one who is known, to be the one who carries the thing that makes you more than the others, that makes you the one who was chosen, that makes you the one who will be remembered when the others are forgotten?"

I knelt, the way that a person kneels when they are standing in front of something that is larger than they are, something that has been waiting for a very long time, something that has been watching and waiting and hoping that the one who would come would be the one who was ready, would be the one who was willing, would be the one who could carry what had been waiting. I told the spirit that I was not seeking to praise myself, that I was not seeking to be the one who was seen, that I was not seeking to be the one who was known, that I was seeking to save my land, that I was seeking to protect the people who had been given to me to protect, that I was seeking to be the thing that the prophecy had been waiting for, the thing that would carry the fire and join it with the water and the stone and the wind, the thing that would be the light that showed the people where to go when the darkness was coming and the war was at the border and the thing that had been promised was either being fulfilled or being broken.

The voice came back, the voice that was deep, the voice that was the thing that had been waiting, the voice that was the spirit that had been holding the courage of the stones since before the first people came to this land, and it told me that self-control begins with letting go of love or death, that the thing that I was carrying, the thing that I had been given, the thing that I was holding, would be the thing that would be tested, would be the thing that would be asked to give more than I had ever given, would be the thing that would make me into something that I was not sure I knew how to be. It asked me if I was willing to let go of love, to let go of the thing that had been growing in me since I was old enough to know what it meant to carry something, to let go of the thing that had been the light when the fire was burning and the path was dark and I was not sure that I could carry the weight that had been given to me.

Taru looked at me, and I saw in her eyes the fear that I had been carrying in my own heart, the fear that the thing that was being asked was the thing that would take from me the only thing that had ever made the weight feel like something I could carry, the only thing that had been the light when the darkness was too dark and I was not sure which way to go, the only thing that had been the reason that I had stood when the fire spoke and the prophecy was told and the people looked at me and saw the one who had been chosen. She told me not to answer without knowing, not to answer without being sure, not to answer without understanding what I was saying, because this spirit, the spirit that had been holding the courage of the stones since before the first people came to this land, could take everything that had measure, could take everything that had been held, could take everything that had been carried, if I spoke the words that were not true, if I said the thing that I was not ready to mean, if I made the promise that I was not ready to keep.

But I stood, the way that a person stands when they have been carrying something for a long time, when they have been waiting for something for a long time, when they have been preparing for something for a very long time, and the spirit of fire that had been burning in me, the spirit that had been given to me by Nyamunhu, the spirit that had been waiting since before I was born for this moment, for this time, for the thing that was happening, moved through my body, moved through my hands, moved through the fire that was burning in my chest and the water that was moving through my blood and the stone that was waiting to be joined. My fingers were shining with light, the light that was the fire that had been given to me, the light that was the thing that had been waiting, the light that was the thing that would show the spirit that I was ready, that I was willing, that I was the one who had been chosen, that I was the one who could carry what had been waiting.

"If the spirit of the stone wants to see the truth, look at my blood, the blood that was given to me by my father and my father's father, the blood that has been carried through this land since before the first king sat on the throne, the blood that has been the thing that has protected this land when the enemies came and the borders were threatened and the people who had been given this land to protect were called to stand and fight for what had been given to them. This blood was not bought with love, was not given because I was loved, was not the thing that was traded for the fire that I carry. But it is not afraid of death, is not afraid of the thing that is coming, is not afraid of the darkness that has been waiting, because it knows that the love that has been growing in me, the love that has been the light when the fire was burning and the path was dark, is the thing that will carry it, is the thing that will hold it, is the thing that will be the blood that is spilled or the blood that is saved, the blood that is the offering or the blood that is the thing that lives, the blood that is the thing that the prophecy has been waiting for since before I was born."

In that moment, the water made a circle around the two of us, a circle that lifted us off the ground, that lifted us out of the place where we had been standing, that lifted us into the light that was shining, the light that was coming from the stones, the light that was the thing that the spirit had been holding since before the first people came to this land. The stones began to shake, began to move, began to do the thing that they had been waiting to do since the fire first spoke and the prophecy was first told and the daughter who would carry the fire was born. And from the middle of the stones, from the place where the light was shining, from the place where the spirit was waiting, a form came out, a form that looked like a person, that moved like a person, that spoke like a person, but that was carved with light, that was made of light, that was the light that had been waiting, that was the light that was the thing that we had come to find. It was the Spirit of the Stone, the one who had been holding the courage of the stones since before the first people came to this land, the one who had been waiting for the fire to come, for the water to rise, for the one who had been chosen to stand in this place and ask for what had been waiting.

"I am the Spirit of the Stone. I am the foundation of strength and self-control, the thing that holds the land together, the thing that keeps the mountains from falling, the thing that makes the rivers flow in the paths that they have been given. But this woman carries fire, and this man carries love. If you want my strength, if you want the thing that I have been holding since before your people came to this land, if you want to be the one who carries the fire and the water and the stone and the wind, then you will be helped, you will be given what you have come to find, you will be the thing that the prophecy has been waiting for since before you were born."

Mukunda and Taru joined hands, the way that they had joined hands on the hill where the sky falls, the way that they had joined hands when the light rose from the earth and the elder Vengai said that the second spirit had joined and that their love had become the thing that would not be changed, would not be turned, would not be stopped. The light that was the fire that Mukunda had been carrying, the light that was the water that Taru had been carrying, the light that was the stone that was waiting to be joined, moved between them, moved into them, moved through them, and became like metal that was being shaped, metal that was being formed, metal that was being made into the thing that it was meant to be. There was a sound, a sound that was like the mountains breathing, like the land that had been waiting for a very long time finally letting out the breath that it had been holding, like the thing that had been promised finally happening, finally being seen, finally being the thing that would save the land or destroy it.

In that moment, a dark veil wrapped itself around the place where we were standing, the kind of veil that comes when the darkness that has been waiting is finally here, when the thing that the enemy has been preparing is finally happening, when the spirit that has been holding the courage of the stones is doing what it was meant to do and the thing that has been promised is either being fulfilled or being broken.

The spirit laughed, the laugh of something that has been waiting for a very long time, something that has been watching for a very long time, something that has been hoping for a very long time, and the laugh was strong, was deep, was the thing that told us that we had done what we had come to do, that we had been given what we had come to find, that the prophecy was moving, that the fire and the water and the stone had been joined, that the thing that had been waiting since before we were born was finally happening, was finally being seen, was finally the thing that would be the light that showed the people where to go or the fire that burned the things that should not be burned.

"It is good! Fire, Water, and Stone, all of them have been joined, have been brought together, have been made into the thing that the prophecy has been waiting for. But remember, if one of you tricks in your heart, if one of you lets the thing that you are carrying be turned into something else, if one of you forgets what you promised, the strength that has been given to you, the strength that you have been carrying, the strength that you have been holding, will become a veil of death, will become the thing that destroys, will become the fire that burns and the water that drowns and the stone that crushes, will become the thing that the enemy has been waiting for since the fire first spoke and the prophecy was first told."

The light disappeared, the way that light disappears when the thing that was holding it has done what it was meant to do, when the thing that was waiting has been given, when the thing that was promised has been fulfilled. The river went back to the way it had been before, the water moving in the path that it had been given, the stones standing in the places where they had been standing since before the first people came to this land, the spirit gone, the veil lifted, the thing that we had come to find given, the thing that we had been sent to carry placed in our hands. And in my head, in the place where the spirit had spoken, in the place where the fire had been burning, in the place where the thing that had been given was now being held, there were the signs of the stone, three signs that had been placed under my skin, the sign that the spirit of the stone had entered me, had joined with the fire that I was carrying, had become the thing that would be the foundation of the strength that would save the land or the thing that would be the weight that would crush it.

The Return with Light

When we came back to Magodo, the counselors and the warriors were already waiting for us, had been watching the road, had been hoping that we would come back, had been waiting to see if we had been given what we had gone to find, if the spirit had joined, if the prophecy was moving, if the thing that had been promised was being fulfilled. King Magodo stood up from his throne, the throne that had been carved by the hands of the first king, the throne that had been held by the kings who had come before him, the throne that would be held by the ones who would come after, and he walked to his daughter, the daughter who had been born when the kingdom was waiting for a son, the daughter who had been chosen to carry the fire, the daughter who had been the one who had walked to the River of Stones and had come back with the light that the spirit had given her.

"The spirit of the stone has entered you?" he asked, and I heard in his voice the thing that he had been carrying since the day I was born, the thing that he had been hoping, the thing that he had been waiting for, the thing that he was not sure he would see, the thing that he was seeing now, the thing that was making him into something that he had not been before, a father who was seeing his daughter become the thing that he had hoped she would be, the thing that he had been afraid she would be, the thing that he had been preparing her to be since the day she was born, since the fire was lit, since the prophecy was spoken, since the night when Nyamunhu appeared in the flames and told them that a daughter would come who would carry the fire that would save the land or destroy it.

"It has entered me, Father. But it left a sign, a sign that this strength, the strength that has been given to me, the strength that I am carrying, the strength that will be the thing that saves the land or the thing that destroys it, can change, can turn, can become something else if the love that is carrying it is turned into something else, if the love that is holding it is turned into trickery, if the thing that was promised is not the thing that is kept."

My father looked at Taru, at the keeper who had stood beside his daughter, at the one who had promised to protect her, at the one who had said that her blood would be the offering if the prophecy failed, at the one who had been with her when the spirit spoke, when the water rose, when the stone joined, when the fire became the thing that was the light that would save the land or the fire that would burn it.

"So you are the one who has the strength to protect the love so that it does not change, to hold the thing that has been given, to be the one who keeps the promise that was made, to be the one who makes sure that the fire does not burn the things that should not be burned, that the water does not drown the things that should be saved, that the stone does not crush the things that should be built?"

Taru knelt, the way that she had knelt when she made the promise, the way that she had knelt when she said that her blood would be the offering, the way that she had knelt when she told the king that she would be the keeper, that she would stand beside his daughter, that she would be the one who would make sure that the prophecy was fulfilled, that the fire did not burn, that the water did not drown, that the stone did not crush, that the land was saved, that the thing that had been promised was kept. She told him that she did not have her own strength, that she had only love, that the love that she was carrying, the love that had been growing in her since she was a child, the love that had been the thing that made her stand beside his daughter, the love that had been the thing that made her promise to give her blood if the prophecy failed, was the only thing that she had, was the only thing that she could give, was the only thing that she would carry, but that she would fight for that love until the last spirit, until the fire had done what it was meant to do, until the water had risen and the stone had been joined and the wind had come and the thing that had been promised had been fulfilled or had been broken, until she had nothing left to give, until she was standing in the place where the offering was asked and she gave it, until she was the thing that the prophecy had been waiting for, the keeper who kept the promise, the one who stood beside the fire and did not let it burn the things that should not be burned.

The leaders of the warriors stood up, all of them, the men who had been carrying the weight of protecting the borders since before I was born, the men who had seen the enemies come and go, the men who had been watching the hills and the passes and the places where the land could be entered by those who did not belong, and they agreed, they bowed, they told the king that they would follow his daughter, that they would stand beside the fire that she carried, that they would be the ones who protected the land when the war came, that they would be the warriors who had been waiting for this moment, for this time, for the thing that was happening, for the prophecy that was being fulfilled, for the daughter who had been born when the kingdom was waiting for a son and who had become the thing that the kingdom had not known it needed, the one who carried the fire, the one who had joined with the water and the stone, the one who would be the light that showed them where to go when the darkness was coming and the enemy was at the border and the land that had been given to them to protect was waiting to be saved or to be destroyed.

I looked up at the sky, at the sky that had been watching this land since before the first people came, at the sky that had seen the things that the people of this land had done, the things that they had carried, the things that they had passed down to the ones who came after, and my eyes were showing the joining of the light and the shadow, the thing that had been waiting, the thing that was finally happening, the thing that would be the fire that saved the land or the fire that destroyed it, the thing that would be the light that showed the people where to go or the darkness that covered them when the enemy came and the borders were broken and the land that had been given to them to protect was taken, was lost, was the thing that the ancestors had built and the ones who came after had not been able to keep.

"Father, if this prophecy is true, if the things that have been spoken are the things that will happen, if the fire that I am carrying is the fire that will save the land or the fire that will destroy it, then the last spirit, the spirit that is waiting to be joined, the spirit that will be the thing that makes the fire complete or the thing that makes it burn alone, is the spirit of the wind. That will be the thing that finishes everything, that completes the joining, that makes the fire and the water and the stone into the thing that they were meant to be, that makes the prophecy into the thing that was promised, that makes the daughter who was born when the kingdom was waiting for a son into the thing that the kingdom did not know it needed, the thing that will save the land or the thing that will destroy it, the thing that will be the light that shows the people where to go or the darkness that covers them when the war comes and the enemy is at the border and the land that has been given to them to protect is waiting to be saved or to be destroyed."

My father smiled a little, the way that a father smiles when he sees that his daughter has become the thing that he hoped she would become, the thing that he was afraid she would become, the thing that he had been preparing her to become since the day she was born, since the fire was lit, since the prophecy was spoken, since the night when Nyamunhu appeared in the flames and told them that a daughter would come who would carry the fire that would save the land or destroy it. He told me that it would be so, that the wind was known to come down to those who had a clean heart only, that if I was the one who had been chosen, if I was the one who had been waiting, if I was the one who had been carrying the fire and joining with the water and the stone, then the land would know, the people would know, the spirits would know, and the thing that had been promised would be fulfilled, would be seen, would be the thing that the ones who came after would remember, would tell, would be the story that was told when the children were gathered around the fire and the night was dark and the elders were speaking the words that had been