People - People of the Wolf Part 11

"Nothing! That's what we'll find. In another week we'll be starving again."

"You're in a good mood." Jumping Hare's sarcasm cut as bitter as the wind.

"I'm no fool. I know when I'm--"

"Stop it!" One Who Cries bellowed. "Wolf has provided for us. Quit trying to make everybody ..."

Singing Wolf's condemning laughter stopped him. One Who Cries glowered, then trotted ahead faster, not wanting the trouble he knew lurked just beneath his anger. If only Broken Branch hadn't goaded his cousin.

"If Wolf was really leading us," Singing Wolf yelled, voice undulating on the glacial wind, "you think he'd bring us a pitiful winter kill?

Huh? He'd call a whole herd of mammoth for us!"One Who Cries didn't turn, wading through a patch of swirled snow to the top of a ridge. His heart pounded with anger. If things didn't start going better, he'd end up slamming a fist into Singing Wolf's big mouth.

"I think I'll take my woman and go back. Why don't you come with me?"

Singing Wolf asked in sudden hope, racing forward to catch up. "We know what's behind us. We can--"

"Uh-huh." One Who Cries stepped over an outcrop of shale, surveying the gleaming country. "The Others."

"I'm not afraid--"

"I'm going to the plain," Jumping Hare murmured apologetically. "One musk ox died there. Maybe there's more."

As they descended the icy ridge, they saw the carca.s.s. The wolves stood, marking the sight, watching with wary yellow eyes.

Singing Wolf ran screaming into their midst. "Get away. Goon!" The animals scattered, whining and snarling their resentment.

"Why'd you do that?" One Who Cries shouted. "If you'd given us a chance, we might have shot one or two. Wolf's crummy meat. But it's meat."

Jumping Hare sighed, watching the wary animals now circling beyond dart range. "One of those wolves might have made the difference for some of the old people."

Singing Wolf opened his mouth, a hot retort on his lips. As if the reality had finally sunk in, he looked quickly away, shoulders slumping.

One Who Cries squinted at the remains. The ox had mired in deep snow, breaking through a hidden patch of larch. The wolves had taken their time. "No guts. Wolves got most of the fat. But it's life."

Jumping Hare licked his cracked lips. "People will call us stupid if we haul this all the way back to camp and then walk past this place on our way to some hole in the ice." He glanced sideways at his clan brothers.

"We are going that way. Aren't we?"

One Who Cries filled his lungs with air, then exhaled. "I'm not climbing all those ridges back to Mammoth Camp."

"Good!" Jumping Hare blurted, flapping his arms gleefully. "I'll go get the rest of our people and bring them here." He turned quickly, running back along their trail.

One Who Cries glanced to Singing Wolf. His cousin looked away, guilt bright in his eyes.

One by one, Crow Caller's band began to fail. Two Whistles wandered off during the march. Slate Rock stumbled and fell, refusing to get up.

Staggering on, they'd had no choice but to leave him. Crow Caller exhorted them, whipped them with words and blows, but the People had been pushed so far beyond their endurance they couldn't comply.

Dancing Fox plodded along, feeling how close she was to the edge, knowing that without Raven Hunter's extra donations, she, too, would have long since died from the cold or exhaustion. Determined, she heldon, marching at the end, trying to keep the stragglers moving. Sometimes succeeding, other times failing. Even Raven Hunter's face seemed empty.

Only his indomitable spirit kept him roving before the band. His periodic offerings of rabbits, ptarmigan, and the scavenged remains of winter kills kept them going. Many on the edge of death, they still stumbled on.

In her dreams, Runs In Light watched, his eyes ever filled with tears.

One Dream repeated over and over. Runs In Light stood high on a rocky hill. Below, Dancing Fox clambered over rough angular rocks, levering herself up, scrambling. The harder she climbed, the steeper the slope, the higher he seemed.

She called to him, reaching up, trying to touch the rock on which he stood. Again and again she tried, jumping, leaping fruitlessly. Yet he stood, face impa.s.sive, unaware of her as she tried so desperately to get his attention.

Finally, as she screamed her misery, he would turn, the Dream in his eyes, and walk slowly away in a shaft of light, leaving her in the empty darkness.

"Should have gone with Runs In Light," Talon mumbled weakly where she hobbled in front of Dancing Fox. "Should have. Wolf Dream. Broken Branch saw it. She knew a Dreamer when she saw one."

A chill lay around Dancing Fox's.heart. "Yes," she whispered. "She knew."

Talon looked back for a moment, the stigma of a cursed woman forgotten.

"Deep down, I knew Crow Caller's Power was gone. And he leads us anyway."

"He's a fool," Dancing Fox said. "And worse, he's killed people who trusted him--just to save face."

"Well," Talon gasped, breath puffing whitely before her, "he's killed me, too. I'm tired, girl. Tired and cold. I feel it in my joints. I s.h.i.+ver a lot now when I'm not moving. You know what that means? No fire in the body anymore. No fire, girl."

"You can make it," Dancing Fox insisted. "Here, lean against me."

The old woman shook her head, coming to a stop. "No," she said in a long exhale. "I'm just plain tired. You understand? I've gone over the edge."

Dancing Fox stopped, heart thundering. "Here, take my hand. I'll help.

You'll die if you fall behind. You won't make it to shelter after dark."

Talon chuckled dryly. "Take your hand? And have my soul soiled by yours?"

Dancing Fox withdrew her offered mitten, dropping her eyes. "I want you to live, that's all."

"I'm joking, girl. I don't care about his curses. His Power's gone. He can't hurt me or you."

They held each other's eyes for a moment, probing the other's soul.

"I'm sorry I spurned you," Talon whispered miserably. "I worried aboutwhat people would think of me. And now look." She gave a halfhearted wave. "Those I lived with stumble off and leave me. And who takes time to offer encouragement? A cursed woman thrown out by that idiot, Crow Caller."

"Come on." Dancing Fox smiled and put her arm around the old woman's bony shoulders. "Let's go. Raven Hunter will bring me something tonight.

I'll share with you. Just keep trying for me, all right?"

"Crow Caller will try to bury us both, you know?" As an afterthought, she added, "If he lives that long."

"If ..." Fox muttered, helping support the old woman, feeling the cold seeping up through her own legs, knowing how close she was to collapse.

"Sure," Talon grumbled. "With all of us hating him so much, it ought to kill him."

Silently, Fox hoped the old woman was right.

Snowshoes were unstrung from packs and tied with knots to long boots.

Warily, the People walked out into the open. Keen eyes scanning the snow, searching for tracks left by caribou, musk ox, or a rare moose. To the side, fox trotted close enough to identify them before hastening away. As the Long Dark grew out of the north, they dug into the drifts for shelter.

Runs In Light chewed a thin strip of raw frozen meat. The warm taste of ox lay lightly on his tongue, saliva running in his mouth. So little.

One hearty meal. Enough to keep them alive. Where was mammoth? A few of the beasts should have been sweeping the snow with their huge tusks.

Where were the caribou?

But the Dream had been so vivid. He reluctantly let his eyes drift over their shelter. Children already lay snuggled under robes in the corner, their mothers huddled together beside them. Men slouched bleakly against the irregular ice walls. No one met his eyes. They talked as if he wasn't there. All but Broken Branch, who ambled over, helping him scoop a place for his robes out of the snow.

"Am I an outcast, Grandmother?" he asked softly.

She sniffed in the darkness, a mittened hand resting lightly on his knee. "Wolf Dream, boy. It'll lead us."

"Will it?"

"Of course. Wolf's just seeing if we're worthy."

He bowed his head and long black hair tumbled down over his chest.

Fumbling with the laces on his boots, he asked, "What if it was just hunger playing with my mind?"

"Hunger--or a knock in the head--it doesn't matter what brings the Dream ... so long as it comes."

He glanced around the dimly lit shelter. "They won't look at me."

Her taloned fingers tightened on his knee. "So? You need their approval before you believe what Wolf told you?""I'm not cer--" "If you do, you 'we no business being here. Get out there in the darkness and call Wolf again!"

She mumbled incoherently after that, waving her arms in irritation as she waddled away on stringy legs, a gleam of stubborn faith lighting her old eyes.

Crazy old woman. What did she know? He'd tried calling Wolf a hundred times, but no answer came. And the memory of the Power that had supported him when he faced Crow Caller grew dimmer every day, hanging in the back of his mind like a vanished wraith.

"Wolf Dream," the old woman whispered gruffly as she nodded off to exhausted sleep. "Wolf Dream."

Runs In Light curled into a fetal ball and pulled his robes over his head, letting the warm blackness soothe his inner fears. He slung his pack over his shoulder the next morning and strode to where Jumping Hare and Singing Wolf talked animatedly. As he neared, their conversation died, their angry eyes accusing him. "I .. ." He fumbled for words, smiling imploringly. "Is everything ready here?"

"Of course," Singing Wolf told him stiffly.

He nodded, avoiding people's stares as he walked to the end of the line to stand beside Broken Branch. Jumping Hare took the lead, swinging out on his snowshoes. That day, and the next, forever, he limited his world to placing one step ahead of the next, calling Wolf with every breath.

In his memory the green meadows and glistening hides of the animals shone in that vast lushness.

Chapter 13.

Dark clouds roiled on the horizon, the scent of a storm riding the chill wind. Fading sunlight lay in streaks of rusty gold across Talon's ancient face. The old woman s.h.i.+vered in Dancing Fox's arms, her whole body spasming.

"Stay alive," Fox pleaded. "Live, Grandmother. Live."

She pulled the worn caribou hide around them, but one hide was hardly enough to keep them warm despite the insulating layer of snow. They'd wandered down from the heights into the flats. Here, they found no places where the snow had been blown free of the surface. No exposed dung, no caribou or sphagnum moss, no willow or birch.

Lumps of snow marked places where the People huddled together. This was the end. They all knew it.

"You're a good girl, Fox," Talon whispered. "My legs are feeling warm.

My feet feel like they're over coals. You know, comfortable."

Dancing Fox closed her eyes. "I'm glad."

"Freezing's not a bad way to go." Talon sighed. "It really isn't. A person just sleeps."

"Grandmother, you're not going to--"

"Yes, I am. I got a deep cold inside me. A killing cold. Odd that killing cold makes you ache all over--then makes you warm."

"Hush, save your strength."

"I'm going to sleep warm. Warm," she breathed, a faint smile curling her chapped lips.

Dancing Fox gripped her tightly, hugging Talon to her chest. The bones beneath the old woman's emaciated flesh felt as brittle as dried twigs.

"At least," Talon whispered, mittens stiffly tracing the patterns of light dappling their robes, "I won't die alone."

In the distance, she saw Crow Caller trying feebly to stand. Snow puffed from his robes. He struggled, weaving aimlessly, then fell back to the snow and tumbled to his side to lie still.

Fox smiled.

"A trail," One Who Cries said without emotion. He bent down, looking at the slashed snow, seeing the way it had drifted in. Moving a couple of steps, he kicked at mammoth dung, winter dung, thick with sticks.

Runs In Light glanced at the anxious faces around him. One of the children had been found, frozen in her robes. Singing Wolf supported a little girl who stumbled uncontrollably.

Mammoth? How could weak humans expect to kill a mammoth? Especially a full-grown adult? But the sticks in the dung proved that somewhere, at least, forage existed in the snow. Where enough remained to feed mammoth, perhaps a hare could be trapped? Perhaps caribou? Not even thathope penetrated the lackl.u.s.ter eyes of the People.

"We can't go further," Laughing Suns.h.i.+ne called listlessly. "I can't do it."

Green Water padded over, looking carefully into Laughing Suns.h.i.+ne's eyes, pulling a hand from her mitten to feel Suns.h.i.+ne's cheeks. "We've got to stop for a while. She's going to fall on her face if we push further."

"Me, too," young Moss agreed where he stood on trembling legs.