People - People of the Wolf Part 31

Raven Hunter looked up to meet his hot black eye. "Then we'd better be able to push the Others back."

"How can I help?" The question came low and resentful."The People have grown slothful. We have to harden them, make them tough and resilient so they have the heart to fight.

With your Dreams of our success to buoy spirits, we'll raid and win, living off the bounty of the Others' hunt, begetting more young men from their women."

"You upset the ways of the People." Crow Caller shook his head. "Killing and--"

"We don't have a choice." Raven Hunter exhaled on his dart point, breathing spirit into the stone, wood, and binding. "Until your Power returns and you can Dream another way out for us."

"I don't think--"

Raven Hunter slammed a fist into the hides he sat on, a crazed look welling in his eyes. He leaned close to Crow Caller, twisting his head curiously. "What if I do turn the People's way upside down? It'll be much worse if we give up and let the Others kill us. How will one of our women feel when some sweaty Other is parting her legs and making her his second wife?"

"I still don't like it."

"You know of another way? Tell me, I'll listen."

Crow Caller frowned, jaw propped on a fist. "We've no place to go but into the Big Ice. And Runs In Light? Well, I'll die of an Other's dart before I lend anything to him." He shook his head. "I'll tell the young men to go with you. I'll make Power for them. Make it so they know they'll go to the Blessed Star People if they die."

Raven Hunter nodded, a knowing glint in his eye. "I thought you would.

We'll do well together, you and I. Indeed, we'll do well And your Power will return, old friend. Just wait." Crow Caller resettled himself, fingering his beak nose. "You've got an interest in Dancing Fox."

Raven Hunter shrugged and shifted his gaze to stare at his spirit bundle, tracing the magical lines drawn on the hide with his eyes while he contemplated his answer. The old man's tone hadn't been hostile, only curious and maybe a little jealous. Their current alliance was fragile.

Could he risk the truth? Softly, he said, "Does that bother you? You threw her out."

"You argued for her life."

Raven Hunter looked up sharply. "One day she'll be my wife. I've seen it. I've also seen inlu a powerful child springing from her womb. I'm suit His voice faded, eyes going blank for a few moments I'm sure it's mine."

"You've Dreamed?"

Raven Hunter ignored the question "Besides, she amuses me. And despite her shame, there is no other woman who draws me so."

"Dreams? But you're nothing but a boy, just like that brother of yours!"Raven Hunter clenched the dart shaft, muscles bunching on his forearm.

"Beware, Crow Caller. There are worse things than the spirits of the Long Dark. The time when you could call me boy are long gone."

"I meant no harm," Crow Caller clarified quickly, a weak smile on his lips. "Friends shouldn't snap at each other. Not when so much is at stake for the People, eh?"

"And Dancing Fox?"

He opened his arms, shrugging. "What do I care? She would have left me to go with Runs In Light eventually, anyway. "

Raven Hunter nodded, looking half-lidded at Crow Caller. "Then we understand each other."

Chapter 37.

Sitting cross-legged in her shelter, a small crackling fire before her, Heron wearily rubbed the back of her neck. Wavering shadows crept over her collection of skulls, accenting the hollow eye sockets and glistening fangs of wolves and bears. The human skull studied her soberly, a macabre understanding in its empty orbits.

Yes, you know. The dead see so clearly. Only we who live constantly blind ourselves with trivialities. Tell me, n.o.ble dead, will I .. . will I be strong enough? Can I make the transition to the Dancer? Or will I fail again? Tell me, kind dead, what vision fills your Broken Branch ducked under the hangings, head c.o.c.ked as she looked at Heron. "He's gone I walked him down the trail to that big boulder."

She nodded, fumbling nervously with the hem of her caribou skirt as she looked away from the skull. Broken Branch followed the path of her gaze, jaw working uneasily as her eyes slitted. The old woman stiffened, hands going to her hips.

"I couldn't have him here. Not now. This is too important. I wouldn't want him to see."

Broken Branch shifted uncomfortably on her swollen feet. "You scare me when you talk like that." "I scare myself."

A long silence pa.s.sed while Heron studied her old nemesis, smiling at the dart-sharp nose and sagging flesh. "You know, I've almost forgiven you."

"Well, don't waste your time. I've never needed it."

Heron cackled, eyes gleaming. "You didn't, maybe, but I did. I've had a wound inside me for a lot of years. I feel better now that I sort of like you."

Broken Branch waved it away, waddling over to kneel by the fire, hands extended. "Save your breath. I loved Bear Hunter. If we could turn back time .. . Dream ourselves back there again, I'd do it all over. Had a lot of good years with him until he was killed." "Why did you come back?

You could be relaxing in some young hunter's lodge now. It wouldn't be a bad life. They'd feed you for the stories and for the raising of their young. Elders are respected--well cared for among the People." Heron rubbed her forearms, trying to loosen the muscles cramping with the increasing tension in her breast. "You've been quiet, gathering wood, cooking, preparing food for storage. Such things aren't like you, Broken Branch."

"Hah-heeee! What do you know of me? Not like me, you say? Hah!" She waggled a bent finger. "I saw his eyes, Heron. You understand? The Dream ... the Wolf Dream was there, powerful. It touched my soul. Wound me up and sent me falling into a Dream of my own." She shook her head. "It's for the People that I came back, for him. So you could teach him."

"Why me? You don't even like--"

"Hush, you old hag. No matter what's behind us, you're still the best.

The only Dreamer the People have left who can teach."

Heron ma.s.saged her forehead. The time was nearing and fear tingled inher belly. "He'll be powerful. Better than me one day ... if he lives."

Broken Branch's joints cracked as she pulled another section of willow from the pile she'd laboriously hauled in over the long weeks of summer.

"If? That got anything to do with that Dream you had last night?"

Heron stared sightlessly at the fire. "Sights. Sounds. Something bad's happening with the People .. . beyond the People. I ... don't know. But many are coming. Stragglers walking up over the hills by the Big River.

In front comes One Who Cries, Singing Wolf, and women I don't know.

Behind them, a dozen bands are following. All fleeing to us."

"Trouble?"

"Deep fear." Heron shook her head. "It hangs over them as they walk. In the Dream I saw something growing in the dark. Like Grandfather Brown Bear, it filled the clouds, hidden there in the blackness, reaching down, huge paws hovering in the air, waiting."

"The same thing Wolf Dreamer saw?"

"I think so."

"Can you drive it off?"

Heron lifted her shoulder. "There's more. Raven Hunter walks north, skirting around a huge pool of blood; many young men follow on his heels. As the Long Dark grows, so does his power over them. Even some of the young women go with him, their darts on their backs, singing chants while Crow Caller blesses them, filling them with his claims of Power and protection from the spirits of the Long Dark. And beyond, on the other side of the blood pool, lie the camps of the Others, lit by shafts of glowing light, bars of color like that shed by the Monster Children fighting in the sky."

"I don't understand."

Heron puffed out her cheeks and spewed an exhale. "I don't either.

That's why I woke Wolf Dreamer up last night. I had to talk to him."

"You told him more than just about the Dream. The yellow rock from the geyser. The white crystals from under the mammoth dung. The herbs for medicine."

"They might come in handy. He'll have to know one of these days. He's learned a lot, more than he can even imagine. I just hope he knows enough."

Broken Branch shifted, watching cautiously from the corner of her eyes.

"You act like you're not going to be around to finish teaching him?"

"Maybe not."

"What are you talking about!"

Slowly Heron shook her head. "All my life, from the time I left Bear Hunter, I've been in control of things--even if it was just observation.

But the world is changing, people are dying and I don't understand it."

"You can't understand everything in the world, Heron. Father Sun made--""Ah, but I can see the patterns, old woman." She squeezed her eyelids tightly closed before heaving a tired sigh. "At least I used to be able to, but they're all jumbled up now. Broken and scattered like caribou bones in the spring. The old Dream paths are blocked, the new ones terrifying. Something's coming. I won't sit here and wait for it. No, old woman, I'm a seeker. I'll know what it is before it comes to swallow me!"

"Spirit knowledge took the place of Bear Hunter, eh?"

Their eyes held, Heron's going soft and watery. "Yes."

"That's why you sent the boy away? You're going to fight this .. .

thing?" Heron paused, biting her lip, brow furrowed. "He'd distract me.

Maybe see something he's not ready for yet. Canny, that one, sees things too clearly for his years sometimes. No, he might be hurt by all this."

"What are you going to do?"

"Hush! I need to see, don't you understand?"

Firelight flickered over Broken Branch's taut face, her eyes fearful.

"You need to see. What of it?"

"You, you're of it." Heron arched her back, filling her lungs deeply, beginning the preparation. "I'm of it?"

"Unfortunately."

"What do you--"

"Go stay below the pool. I don't know...." She stopped when a quaver touched her voice. Gathering herself, she finished strongly. "I don't know how long it'll take, but don't come back until I call you.

Understand? If you were to interrupt, break my concentration ... I don't know what might happen."

Broken Branch got slowly to her feet, shaking her head. "You're a crazy old curlew, Heron. I'm going. Do your Dreaming, you old--"

"Broken Branch?"

"What?"

"About Bear Hunter ..."

Broken Branch pursed her lips, dropping her eyes. "I was young then, the juices of life ran hot in my body. My heart ached for him. What I did--"

"Did you make him happy?"

"He never bedded another. When he went hunting, he ran all the way home to be with me and our children. We talked . laughed. Our children all lived to have families of their own. He used to love to rock the grandchildren on his knees at night."

"How did he die?"

"It was quick. Mammoth swung his trunk, Bear Hunter lost his footing and couldn't get out of the way."Heron nodded in the long silence. "I could never have given him the things you did. Dreamers can never really love, Broken Branch. It's .. .

it's a curse, you see. Dreamers who love destroy themselves or those they love. It's a fatal flaw. I tried to tell Wolf Dreamer. I hope he understands."

"Either he did or he didn't. You tried."

Heron nodded, smiling wistfully. "Get out of here. Whatever you hear, whatever you see, leave me alone! Understand? Alone ... or you'll kill me."

Broken Branch's wrinkled mouth worked. "I'll not meddle in your Dreams, Heron." She lifted the hide flaps and disappeared into the bright midday sun.

Heron watched the flap wave slowly back and forth. She hesitated, dread making her hands tremble. "Get up, you old fool," she cursed herself for delaying. "There's no other way."

Jaw thrust forward, she stood, reaching for the mushrooms. Gently, she laid them near the fire, then grasped her bundle of willow stems, rich and red, and threw a handful into the gut bag hanging from the tripod near the fire. As they absorbed the water, their pungent scent filled the shelter.

She sucked in a shuddering breath and stared at the mushrooms, speaking intimately. "How long has it been? It was the night Wolf Dreamer called to me from the mists. You remember, don't you?"

The bag of mushrooms glowed darkly in the flames.

"We wrestled like two bears...." She swallowed hard, feeling the fear in her gut widen. Her voice came barely audible, "You almost killed me.. ..

Remember?"

She jerked her eyes from the bag and poked at the fire, getting the coals to even out. At the fringes of her consciousness, she could feel the presence of Broken Branch out below the pool. A distraction, still a distraction.