People - People of the Wolf Part 13

like only half Dreams. He changed visions. Never let himself be free.

Takes freedom to Dream . solitude."

"Broken Branch said--"

"Broken Branch?" Heron gasped. "Is that traitorous witch still alive?"

The boy winced. "Last time I saw her."

Heron chuckled, slapping her thigh, then unpleasant memories came to the surface of her mind, hardening her heart. "I think maybe I'll curse her joints."

"You know her?"She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "I know her."

"I didn't think there was anyone in the world as old as her. She's been around since--"

"Well, don't get your hopes up. She may not be around much longer after I catch up to her."

He frowned. "I think she's my only friend right now. She believes in Dreaming, talks a lot about it."

"Does she? Used to be she called me crazy when I had Dreams. Said I had bad spirits in my gut."

Runs In Light held his breath, disbelieving. "You Dream?"

"I Dream."

"Is that why you hate Broken Branch so much? The things she said about your Dreaming?"

She paused, memories stirring again. "No .. . no, that's not it. Once, long ago, there was a man. A great hunter. He was known for hunting Grandfather Brown Bear. Taunted bears, made them chase him. He'd run past an ambush, circle back, drive a dart behind their shoulders just so. Killed a lot of bear that way. I loved that man. Would have stayed with him. Until Broken Branch--beauty that she was--wrapped her legs around him and turned his head. Besides, the Dreams--" A sudden light of understanding dawned in his eyes, them ones of stories told flickering; he breathed, "You--you're HeronT'

Through slitted eyes, she studied him, watching like the great white-headed eagle watches a fish. Carefully, she said, "Does she still bad-mouth me?"

"People said you were only a legend."

"Except Broken Branch, I'll wager."

He nodded, backing crablike toward the far corner of the shelter. She enjoyed the growing fear, the tension relining his mouth. Crazy kid, what did he think? That she'd witch him?

"You won't get far that way," she added mildly. "The only other way out is up there." She pointed at the soot grimed smoke hole overhead. "Used it a time or two when Grandfather Brown Bear wasn't discouraged by fire or darts."

He stopped, wetting his lips nervously. "Crow Caller said--"

"And you listened? Not very bright, are you? Well, just to set your mind at rest, I don't eat babies."

Runs In Light didn't look rea.s.sured. "Broken Branch says you used to talk to animals, call them to you."

"Sure, every Dreamer does."He swallowed convulsively, guilt creasing his gaunt face. "I can't."

"Well, you're young."

"Others said you talked to the spirits of the Long Dark and shared their Powers. That you can make dead men rise or suck the soul from a live man and blow it out into the wind to wail forever."

"Mouse dung!" she spat, irritated. c.o.c.king her head, she studied him. "I do what any Dreamer does. Only I do it better out here away from confusion and old women's spats and silly young lovers."

He didn't relax, eyes searching for the door, as if judging his chances.

"Why are you out here all alone, then? If you don't do things the People would disapprove--"

"For the same reason you ought to be." She narrowed her eyes, seeing him flinch. "For the Dream, boy! Because being around people clouds your mind. Keeps your thoughts from being pure."

A trace of confusion shaded his eyes.

She nodded. "Oh, yes, I know you, Runs In Light. I saw you the day you were born. The day you were conceived] You looked into my eyes. A Dreamer, even then. And your brother? What's his name?"

"Raven Hunter." It came as a pained whisper.

She nodded, the vision coming back. "Apt. He's still clutching black feathers? Still seeking blood? He was born that way, you know. In blood."

"He went with Crow Caller's band to face the Others. He-"

"Death there," Heron muttered. "Too many of them." She looked up. "Oh, I've seen them coming. Things in the world are changing, boy. The ice is melting. Animals are moving, humans following. Let me tell you something."

A little fearfully, he said, "What?"

"I used to cross to the salt water over those high mountains west of here. Used to sit out on a rock and watch the waves crash. You can see things in surf, you know. Good Dreaming there." She frowned, seeing it again in her mind. "Last time I was there was three years ago. Waves swirl up over my rock now."

"So?"

"Means the water's rising, boy."

They held each other's eyes for a long moment, before he ventured, stricken, "Will it cover all the land?"

"How would I know?"

"Didn't you Dream--"

"Great Mammoth, no! I just saw the difference when I went there.""Oh," he exhaled in relief. "If I had Dreamed it, would you have gone and cast yourself in the waves to drown?" "Might have." She chuckled, slapping him on the arm. "I like you, boy. You got respect for your elders."

He smiled weakly.

"Anyway, getting back to the Others. n.o.body can beat them." She made a gesture that caused him to start. "The People can do one of two things.

They can fight .. . and die. Or they can join the Others, be absorbed by them like blood in fox hair." 20"Absorbed? But Sun Father gave us the land and animals."

"Nothing's forever, boy. Not mammoth, not you, not me, not even the People."

His eyes went gla.s.sy as though seeing something far away. "The man from the White Tusk Clan said--"

"What man?"

"He was tall with graying black hair. He walked to me and I blew a rainbow out." He swallowed hard as though expecting her to call him a liar. "I told him I'd trade him a son for a son. I ... I asked him to choose between light and dark."

"You knew him?"

"No."

Heron stiffened, lips clamped into a white line. "His face, it was oval?

His nose thin? Lips full?"

The boy's nod came slowly, warily.

Heron squinted into the distance, searching the past, seeing a lean-faced man as he raped a woman of the People there on the gray sand, the surf pounding in the background. A white hide rested on his shoulders.

"Do you .. . know him?"

Heron nodded, exhaling slowly. "Your father."

Runs In Light's eyes narrowed in bewilderment. "Seal Paw was my--"

"Seal Paw adopted you. No, the man in the Dream is your real father."

Her smile twisted. "And you'd trade him a son for a son? Interesting.

What does that mean?"

"I don't know."

A long silence pa.s.sed.

"Perhaps." Heron pondered. "I'm missing something. A rainbow is the road of colors that leads to the Monster Children's world up north; it takes a Dreamer smack into the middle of their war. Is that what this is about? Good fighting evil?"

"Maybe.""You're helpful, aren't you?"

He blinked in embarra.s.sment. "I never understand my Dreams. They leave me ... well ..."

"We'll have to do something about that."

"What?" "We'll talk about it later. Right now, tell me how the Dream made you feel. Did you think that the People would die at the hands of the Others? At the hands of your father?"

"Wolf told me how to ..." He floundered, tilting his head uncertainly.

"How to what?"

Runs In Light s.h.i.+fted his gaze to the glowing coals of the fire.

"There's a hole in the Big Ice."

"Wolf showed it to you?"

He nodded tautly. "He said if we went that way, the People would be saved."

Heron's brow furrowed deeply. She puffed a long exhale. "Then you'd better get going. I've seen the Others coming fast. You don't have much time."

Chapter 15.

One Who Cries crawled up to push the drifted snow out of the shelter tunnel. Bad choice that, there hadn't been time to dig a dipped entranceway to act as a cold trap. Wind sucked the snow past, the world a cloud of white. He pondered the possibilities of moving. He might be able to keep his direction by the wind. But what good would that do?

They could walk over a cliff, flounder in a mora.s.s of soft-packed willows or larch. And where would they go? Worse, the children, the weakest, would fall behind .. . lost from the rest.

He slumped on the snow, staring blankly at the unending vortex of the storm. Cold leached up from the ice below. The storm might blow for days.

"It's over," he murmured.

With no strength to hunt, only another carca.s.s could keep them alive, render up the life it had once held.

"Maybe we should have gone north," he whispered, looking to where Green Water slept. Her broad nose barely moved with the breath of life. "I'm sorry, wife. So sorry. I led you out here, following a fool."

He reached out to caress her hand, feeling the cold, knowing it wouldn't be such a bad death. Better than rotting from some sickness, wasting away. The wolves would get them in the end.

A sudden ironic thought dawned. He looked back to the windswept white plain, eyes searching for movement. "Was that it, Wolf? Did you fool the boy, lure him here to feed your fleshly brothers?"

He braced his forehead against his arm, laughing softly. "I guess I'm willing. Everybody has to provide for their own."

"Because we're all one, my husband," Green Water said, voice taking on the awed speech-giving tone of the elders around the blazing night fires of winter. "We were stars once. Father Sun threw us out of heaven.

Muskrat saw us falling and dove into the sea, bringing up dirt so our landing would be soft. Then Father Sun blew life into us and other falling stars, making us brothers, all the same. We eat wolves; they eat us. It's alt the same life." "You're being awfully calm about this." She shrugged weakly.

He crawled back to lie beside her, slipping an arm beneath her head and nuzzling her cheek with his own. "But who will pray us back up to the stars?"

Wind Woman howled outside, snow flitting in to frost their hides and sting their faces.

"Maybe Wolf will."

"I hope so."

His mittened hand clutching Green Water's, he closed his eyes and dozed.

In the dream, he lived again, a young man. Green Water's shy smile and knowing eyes followed him as he strutted before her, a proud hunter, his first solo kill laid before the fire. Even then she'd seen through his laughter, seeing the man beneath. Green Water always knew. She alwayshad everything ordered, each event planned for and accepted. Not even the death of their first child--starving so early that Long Dark--had disturbed her poise. Death came. She grieved, and accepted, planning for the future.

Such a woman .. . wasted on him. Snow slid down on top of him. Had that much built up?

He sighed, wondering if there was a purpose in climbing back up, pus.h.i.+ng it away so they could breathe. Smothering would be a quicker death, a shorter suffering.