"Keep away from me." "Do not be afraid." "Do not be afraid." "Don't!" "Close your eyes and I will see for both of us." "All right, mister, we'll take her now." "It's time to go home, Gwyneth." "It's time to go." "Your tread must be light and sure as though your path were upon rice paper." "It is said a Shaolin priest can walk through walls." "Looked for, he cannot be seen." "Listened for, he cannot be heard." "Touched, he cannot be felt." "This rice paper is the test." "Fragile as the wings of the dragonfly." "Clinging as the cocoon of the silkworm." "When you can walk its length and leave no trace you will have learned." "It's time to go now." "Get her!" "We can't afford to lose her again." "She was in chains." "Of course she's in chains." "She's a patient from a mental asylum, and she has to be restrained." "Devil!" "Devils!" "What have you done with the priests?" "You think I don't know." "I heard the scratching in the wall." "You sealed the priests in the wall behind my room." "And now they listen to me." "They listen to me." "I can't sleep, thinking about it." "I can't sleep." "I will help you to sleep." "No!" "Poison!" "When you have rested, we can talk." "Master what besets that man?" "He has been marked to wander inward through and beyond a dark and terrifying land where no road exists and no signpost points the way." "But why?" "Who can say?" "Should he not be locked in his room?" "And prevented from his journey?" "If he can pass through the trackless land he will find peace, his answer, his cure." "As far as we are able, we must travel with him help him along his way." "But how, when there are no roads and no signposts?" "There are steps, his and ours." "We take them together." "This is our duty to all who are marked, as he is." "I should hope then never to meet another like him." "Very often, a wanderer in the trackless land finds that which he sought and more something of rare value for the one who shared his journey." "Could you risk the loss of such a benefit?" "Parker!" "Fight's all run out of her." "Get the horses." "You will lock her up in your asylum?" "Well, look at her, down on all fours like an animal." "She has a journey to complete." "I cannot let you take her." "Stand aside." "Get her." "Leave him alone." "He's crazier than she is." "You want her that bad, you can keep her." "Let's go." "They are gone." "Where have you seen these signs?" "In my dreams, and awake sometimes." "What do they mean to you?" "They're the mark of a devil that makes me see things that aren't there." "You see things that other people do not?" "Yes." "Didn't you hear Dr. Tracer say I'm crazy?" "These are herbs, medicine." "They will make your wrists heal without scarring." "Once I met a stone carver who had been blind from birth." "His carvings were of beautiful, fierce beasts." "No one with eyes had ever seen such beasts." "Yet he who could not see saw them." "He must have been crazy too." "He was gifted." "Why are you afraid of me?" "Have I hurt you?" "No, but you will." "You'll destroy me." "Why?" "I don't know." "Have I not just treated you as a friend?" "Shall I tell you why I will help you?" "Why?" "l will, in time, ask you a question which you may be able to answer." "What question?" "You are not ready to answer yet." "What's your name?" "l am Caine." "And you?" "Gwyneth." "It's a Welsh name." "Supposed to mean someone who's blessed." "It doesn't suit me very well." "You have a home?" "An aunt and uncle." "They have a farm north of here." "I wouldn't call it home." "We should go." "No, not there." "They will wish to know you are safe." "Can I just stay with you?" "Caine, please don't take me home." "We are close then?" "You'll take me there and leave me, aren't you?" "I have told you, I have a question to ask you. ln time, I will ask it." "Until then, I will stay with you." "All right." "There." "Isn't it beautiful?" "By Saint Asaph, she's taken up with a Chinaman." "That's my aunt and uncle." "What are we gonna do, Mr. Jenkins?" "She looks so thin." "Never mind how she looks." "I will not have her in my house again." "I understand your feelings, Mr. Jenkins but since your accident, we could use an extra pair of hands around the place." "He probably thinks you're crazy too." "Did they let you out of that place?" "l ran away." "Why did you come back here?" "You are her family." "Both look so hungry." "And the girl could do with a clean dress." "A Chinaman, eating supper at my table?" "The Bible says we must practice Christian charity." "Just a bite to eat and a place to sleep for a night." "We rebuilt the house down the road there." "You come along, and we'll have a talk." "They hate me." "No." "They fear you." "Do all your countrymen abstain from the eating of meat, Mr. Caine?" "No. lt is a personal choice." "How come you don't wear a long pigtail down your back?" "Uncle." "That too is a personal choice." "You are a choosing man, aren't you?" "l'll help you, Aunt Mary." "Sit down." "You're not right in the head yet, are you?" "I don't know how to answer that." "Your aunt and I have been thinking maybe you could stay." "We'd try it again." "Stay?" "Tell her to stop staring at me." "I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything." "You were staring at me with that evil eye of yours." "If you don't keep her away from me, you can get yourself another man." "Now look what you've done." "I won't have any of your funny business, now." "I'll send you back, you hear?" "What did you see?" "Nothing." "Trust me." "I didn't see anything. I swear it!" "Aunt Mary, I didn't." "You frighten me, child." "As God is my witness, you frighten me." "Frank!" "Where is she?" "Resting." "She can't stay here, Caine." "That's out." "You see, we don't even know if she's really our niece." "She came to our doorstep one morning, 20-years-old looking more lnjun than white." "She claimed that her father was my brother." "And she told me his name, and that the family was dead." "I don't know how she found us." "She cost Mr. Jenkins a great deal of money." "He had to buy her from those Indians she was with." "Well, I felt it was my duty." "But she was never right in the head from the day we got her." "And then, finally, she burned the house down." "You are certain Gwyneth did this?" "l am." "And that's not all." "There are other things." "Like, she tells you things before they come to pass." "She sees things, and then she makes them happen." "You can both stay here tonight, but you'll have to be gone by morning." "Watch out for her." "See she doesn't start anything." "What is it?" "Frank." "He's coming back." "Which way?" "Leave me alone." "You have seen something." "Look at it." "No." "Look at it." "I saw him falling from his horse." "Please stop me before I make this happen again." "Seeing something does not cause it to happen." "Where is Frank now?" "You she-wolf." "Who'll you murder next?" "It was an accident." "We'll see what the sheriff calls it." "Some food and my jar of money." "Take her away from here before my husband comes back with the law." "I cannot accept money." "It's for her." "A woman has needs." "How can you look at me?" "Something evil inside me, turning me into a monster." "We must go." "Mr. Caine." "There's peacefulness in you." "Help her if you can." "Caine." "What are you doing?" "Thinking." "What will you do now?" "Where do you wish to go?" "I don't know." "There's no place, no one but you." "You." "You tricked me." "I thought you were good, but you're evil." "Evil." "Evil!" "Evil!" "Master, why do such fearsome statues stand at the entrance to our peaceful place?" "These are the threshold guardians, grasshopper set here to keep away those not ready for the silence within." "Must they be so horrible?" "Those incapable of understanding the way see things divine as monsters." "Better for them never to enter here." "Yet, if a man is unafraid of stone, he may pass unhampered." "He may physically pass the guardian." "But if his mind is in the outer world, he will leave us, in time, to rejoin it." "Why did you follow me?" "Are you ready to ask your question now?" "Not yet." "It's an evil thing you'll ask, because you're evil." "Gwyneth." "You must stop running away from everything you do not understand." "You must give in to your dreams." "Listen to what they tell you." "I'm so tired." "Soon, you will come to the end of your journey." "You will go beyond your fears and find peace." "You saw these signs before we met?" "That was your deeper self giving you a message." "Can you take the dreams away?" "No." "I can help you to understand them." "Breathe slowly, deeply, as if you were floating." "I'm afraid." "Don't make me see this." "What do you see?" "It's an awful place." "It's dark and still." "It looks like people lying on tree branches." "Death is everywhere." "We shouldn't be here." "It's changing." "A place called Blue Ridge Pass, I think." "Mountains." "Caine, don't make me see any more of this." "I feel cold all over." "What is beyond the pass?" "I'm numb. I can't feel my body." "Caine!" "Beyond the pass, go there." "A wagon with settlers." "A big family." "Do you know them?" "No." "Someone's attacking with fire arrows." "Speak English." "This is my friend." "You know each other?" "He's my brother." "Black Horse is dead." "When?" "ln the Moon of the Snowblind." "By his last words, he wished this for you." "You always wanted it, you keep it." "Only those who have had thunder visions may act as heyokas." "There is sickness among us." "Meat is scarce." "The Grandfather punishes us for selling you back to your people." "I'm only woman, Tall Fire." "What can I do?" "Come back with us now." "We know of the life you had with the wasicus." "We offer you a life with honor." "I'd rather die first." "Who is Black Horse?" "Their heyoka, the sacred fool." "He was my father while I lived with them." "He adopted me when he heard of my dreams." "I'm sorry he's dead." "Where is the Blue Ridge Pass?" "l don't know. lt's only words." "You know." "That way, three days." "Perhaps we should go there." "There's something horrible there, Caine, something dark and terrible." "If I see it, I'll die, I know it. I feel it, like a chill all the way to my soul." "When a fear becomes strong enough, it is like another being within you who fights to stay alive." "It is not you who will die, Gwyneth, it is your fear." "Where'd you come from?" "Outside." "I know that." "The stage ain't due for a week." "I didn't hear any horses or a wagon." "We walked." "It's not possible." "Don't mind that. lt ain't real." "I got that done by a professional, back East." "Scares Indians." "Big medicine." "Keeps me safe." "What can I do for you?" "Can you tell us the way to Blue Ridge Pass, please?" "Day's ride, straight into the sunset." "Mountains rise blue on either side of the pass." "Lots of spruce up that way too." "But that's hostile territory, mister." "No one goes up there." "No one." "Thank you." "This was our winter campground." "I've never seen it this time of year." "A friend?" "My sister." "We lived as captives of the Sioux." "For a while, at least, we had each other." "When they learned about my dreams Black Horse took me to the lodge and made me his daughter." "Emily was treated like a slave, while I was privileged." "After a year she died from the hardship." "What of your mother and father?" "I don't know." "I remember being with them in Wales." "They must have died." "I kept her dress." "Nobody knew." "One night, I thought if I burned the dress I'd burn the memory." "The fire in your uncle's house?" "Yeah." "We're getting close." "I don't want to go any farther." "Caine." "l want to stop." "No." "I can't breathe." "It's like a weight pressing down on me." "I'm suffocating." "Caine, I'm suffocating. I'm suffocating." "Your heart beats too fast." "You must quiet it." "What frightened you?" "I heard the silence, master." "I felt my whole being diffuse, like a cloud." "Then rain fell from the sky through me." "I was part of everything, yet I was myself." "You have experienced oneness." "Yes, master." "But in this great joy I felt as if I was dying." "That is what frightened me." "You know the lesson of the silkworm?" "The silkworm dies, the moth lives yet they are not two separate beings, but one and the same." "It is the same with man." "His false beliefs must die, so that he may know the joy of the way." "What you felt in the silence was real." "Something in you is dying." "It is called ignorance." "This is sacred ground." "No one may enter but a holy man." "We can't go any farther." "After we have gone through perhaps you will be able to tell me what I must know." "No." "Oh, no." "My mother and father died here." "They tried to protect us with their bodies." "I could feel the weight of her body on top of me." "I couldn't breathe." "I knew she was dead." "I wanted her to be alive again." "The wagon in my vision, it wasn't in this train." "No wagon in this train had that many children." "Are you certain?" "Yes." "No wagon had that many children." "You cannot go through this way." "It's free open land, I'll go where l please." "Stop!" "Peace." "These people will not violate the sacred ground." "The daughter of Black Horse bids you let them be." "All right." "Kids." "Mister, I owe you an apology." "How did you know, and I didn't?" "Without fear, one sees more clearly." "Your vision is not a curse. lt is a gift." "It saved those people's lives." "I'm not afraid anymore." "You have come to the end of your journey." "You've walked with me step by step." "And now I've left my fears behind me." "I must go back and serve my people now." "You have found what you were seeking:" "Peace for yourself." "It was once said to me that if I shared a journey such as yours at the end, I might find something of value for myself." "Your question?" "Yes, it is time." "Since coming to this land, I have searched for my brother." "Now I wonder if my search is idle." "Tell me if he still lives." "Oh, Caine, after all you've done for me..." "..." "I can't answer your question." "Please try." "How?" "Think." "Look." "I need to know." "Oh, please, just this once." "Oh, Caine." "You've done so much for me." "If I could" "Nothing." "Nothing." "Oh, poor Danny, if I could just help you in some way." "I have not told you his name." "Yes, he lives." "And you'll find him." "Oh, Caine."