4232. ALBUQUERQUE

ALBUQUERQUE

At the synod the wild eagle flew like a man

would if a man would fly as a wild eagle. That

was all I knew. The shaman-master was speaking

in a tongue as wild as that too : like words from a

cistern wise and afire. All around the camp, others

nodded, listening intently to what I did not hear.

Apparently struck deaf and dumb for those hours,

I again was a stranger on planet Earth. The

signet ring was being cooked in fire, annealed

and procured and brought back to the wizard,

or wise one, or whatever that figure was called.

'It goes like this often,' my spirit guide said. And

then he spoke these words, 'Almays emno toti

ru' - had I asked, he later explained, what

he was saying, I would have, right then,

been struck dead on the spot.

And again the eagle flew.