People - People of the Wolf Part 41

They bring new blood."

"Only if they learn to accept their fate. Some never do like Moon Water."

"Well," Curlew Song sighed gruffly, "maybe if she'd stayed longer--"

"When did she leave? I didn't see her go." And I was up half the night, just like every night, weighing my future, trying to decide my path.

"Jumping Hare stayed out last night to watch his rabbit traps. Thought he'd try and get the wolf that's been raiding them. She was there when I went to sleep last night. When I got up, her robes were gone. She'd taken her pack, too. I just made a circle of camp. Thought maybe she'd gone out to pout somewhere."

Dancing Fox stood, wringing the cramps out of her fingers. "Well, I guess we know where the lamp went, don't we."

Curlew stared, wide-eyed. "You don't think she'd--"

"Of course. She's headed home. She'll need it." "To cross through the hole? Alone?" Curlew shook her head with disbelief. "No. She's not that brave."

Fox laughed dryly. "Oh yes, she is. I've been in her boots. I know what it's like to be a virtual slave. You know she hated us. Thought we were beneath her dignity. You can imagine what it's like to have some Other crawling on you, parting your legs."

"Jumping Hare isn't some Other! He's my husband--and hers!"

Fox grinned into the fiery eyes that burned down at her. "Yes, but you love him. Makes a difference to be split by the man you love."

"She could have, if she'd only given him a chance."Fox stiffened suddenly, realizing the horrifying implications. "Doesn't matter now. What does matter is that we're in trouble." Hurriedly, she cleaned the clinging tissues from her sc.r.a.per, flinging the fatty pink stuff into the berry bushes.

"What do you mean?"

"She'll bring the Others through the ice."

"Blessed Star People." A hand went to Curlew Song's mouth. "If they find the hole, we'll never be safe. They'll follow us across the face of the 'world."

"Exactly." Fox opened her pack, dropping the sc.r.a.per, several biface blanks, and a pouch of jerky inside. Curlew Song frowned, watching the packing process. "What are you doing?"

"Going after her."

"But you can't go through the hole! Alone? Without a light?"

"Wolf Dreamer did. Now Moon Water is doing it." She lifted a shoulder in a shrug. "Besides, I've got black spruce wood, under, I'll carry enough for a fire if I need it. Other than that, I practically went through it in the dark last time. I was at the end of the line." Her fingers flew as she tied wood to the hide.

"Fox." Curlew's eyes s.h.i.+fted uneasily. "Don't do this. You might lose your soul under there. Without Wolf Dreamer to protect--"

Caustically, Fox responded, "Crow Caller cursed me to be buried. Maybe the time is right." She looked longingly to the Big Ice. It s.h.i.+mmered beneath the gentle touch of Father Sun. And Runs In.. . Wolf Dreamer .

is on the other side. Maybe if I can just talk to him again.

"Crow Caller was an idiot," Curlew Song said cautiously, looking over her shoulder just to make certain his ugly spirit wasn't hovering there.

"Don't chance it!"

Dancing Fox slung her pack over her back, adjusting the tump line across her forehead. Playfully she batted Curlew on the shoulder. "Keep the fires going here."

Then she was off, working slowly to a ground-eating pace, feeling the st.i.tch in her ankle.

"Going to tell the Mammoth People about our hole, huh? We'll see," she growled.

Wolf Dreamer would be facing Raven Hunter and Crow Caller. Against them, for all intents and purposes, he'd be alone. She'd been chafing about that ever since he'd left to make the return trip.

As she approached the worn channel the next morning, she could see a trickle of water running out of the s...o...b..nks. The way in seemed to suck at her.

"So, it's begun to flow again." Her brow furrowed as she took a deep breath. "How long do we have before the hole is gone?"Gritting her teeth, she entered the channel, seeing a woman's footprints in the soft sand. No doubt of it, Moon Water had gone this way. Heart thumping, Dancing Fox entered the shadowed chasm.

The ghosts shrieked at her to go back.

The changing of the seasons, opposites crossed. The Long Light grew out of the south as Father Sun's rays pushed the spirits of the Long Dark into the far north beyond the northern salt water and its floating mountains of ice.

With the melt came rumors. Carried over the trails by fur wrapped hunters, the stories pa.s.sed from lip to lip. Stories of a Dreamer--a powerful Dreamer. The youth, Runs In Light--once scorned--had Dreamed a way to the south.

Not only that, but he'd walked beneath the world! Walked under the Big Ice and the People were reborn! Reborn in a land where no Others walked.

A land where the animals were truly brothers: unafraid. This Wolf Dreamer, they said he was born of Father Sun. Sent to lead the People to a new home.

Raven Hunter sat and squinted into the morning sun, ignoring the men who sat uneasily in a circle around him, waiting for his counsel. Their eyes on him made him consider. Over the last year, he'd hardened, handsome features tightening at the constant travel and the endless raids. His muscles had toughened, shoulders thickening while his belly tightened despite the better food. Now he walked like a young wolf, powerful, tall--a man without peers.

Fingering his darts, he contemplated the raids they'd made during the Long Dark. The Others remained, held at bay. Now the Renewal would be upon them. The spring hunt had begun. Piecemeal, they waited on the game trails to see what would move south with the melt, migrating into the Long Light feeding grounds. Only this year so many Others sat on the migratory trails they might get no food at all.

Would Buffalo guide his children through the ranks of Other hunters?

Would Caribou? Or would they have to chase the occasional sheep in the high rocks, pray they could kill enough of the spa.r.s.e mammoths to keep the People hale and hearty. How would the game react to the increased pressure of the Others? And how would the Others react? What if they didn't relent? Didn't take time for the spring hunt? What sort of Renewal could the People provide if their bellies were gaunted by hunger?

Raven Hunter shoved himself gruffly to his feet to pace. He pulled his new parka tight and smiled. A prize taken from the Others, the parka served as a symbol of his war prowess. Now, looking around, he realized how much they'd come to be like the enemy, stealing their clothing, eating food they'd hunted, bedding their women. Curious, he ran his fingers down the finely st.i.tched sleeve of the parka.

And, of all things, this year the elders had decided to break tradition and hold the Renewal far to the south--in Heron's valley. In the very home of his addled brother!

Worse, worse by far, how could he hold territory when his young men had to retreat so far south to Dance? The Others would flood to fill anys.p.a.ces they vacated.

"Do the old fools think the Others care for our Renewal?" he'd raged, stamping back and forth. "How long to get there? Weeks? And the Others are supposed to obligingly wait in their camps?"

Eagle Cries had lifted a shoulder. "But we must Dance. Remember what happened two Long Darks ago when we didn't? The Soul Eaters of the Long Dark punished us. Besides, don't forget the Others have their own clan gatherings. They, too, must Dance, trade, take care of their--"

"Then we should strike!" Raven Hunter smacked a knotted fist into a palm. "They'll be vulnerable at their Dances just as we are at ours.

It's the right time to sting them, push them back before they--"

"But the Renewal is--"

"I've heard enough!" Raven Hunter glowered about him. "Who'll stay?

Who'll fight for our lands?"

Around the circle, a few hands shot up. Some wavered hesitantly. The majority remained down.

A coldness worked along his spine. Careful. I can push them only so far.

While they'll follow me, they won't forget their precious Renewal. Is there an advantage in this ? Some way I can discredit the elders through their shortsightedness at holding Renewal so far to the south ?

He filled his lungs, spreading his arms as he exhaled wearily. "I know, I know. Without our Dancing, the souls of the animals may desert us." He chuckled dryly. "Quite a situation we're in, eh? If we don't pray and Dance the Renewal, the animals won't let us kill them. On the other hand, if we leave our territory and go south, we'll hand those very hunting grounds over to the Others."

He paused, searching their tight faces, seeing the blazing eyes, the grim mouths. Yes, these were warriors! His people! "So be it. We'll go south." He shook his head sadly. "And remember this next fall .. .

remember who held Renewal so far from our lands. Some of you will die retaking what we will give up tomorrow. I hope those old men sing your souls well, my brothers and sisters, for they'll bear the responsibility."

And besides, this way I can find out the truth of the nonsense that's circulating about my idiot brother. With the courage and stamina of her people, Moon Water trotted out into the plains, the horrors of the hole below the ice lending speed to her tired feet. She would never forget that pa.s.sage. The first time had been bad enough, buried there under the ice, only the faint bit of light ahead to guide her. The way back, alone with only the tremors of the ghosts as they groaned and wailed in the endless black, had been horror. No human word, no gesture had comforted her. When she stopped to sleep, it had been with fear, the whisperings in the dark growing louder around her as she cuddled the tiny fire to her bosom and prayed that the wretched ghosts would leave her be.

Now she ran, betting her speed and skill against the growing Long Light that she could reach the Mammoth People before the season of flies and mushy muskeg began.

Maybe the White Tusk Clan would be holding the White Mammoth Hide thisyear. Their war with the People certainly would have earned them honors among the clans. If they held the precious hide, clan leaders from the north and west would be flocking to Ice Fire's camp. A tingle of antic.i.p.ation taunted her. If they were there .. . they'd hear what she told the Most Respected Elder about the hole, and the Dreamer, and the way to the south with its wonderful valleys filled to bursting with game.

All she needed to do was find a village of the Mammoth People. From then on, she would be safe and greatly revered.

She trotted and ran and trotted again, eating the last of the fat from the fuel bag, the lamp she'd carefully hidden where she could find it again. A wry smile crossed her lips. Oh, they'd looked hard and long for that. But she'd foxed them all.

Where could Ice Fire be? Where would she find a camp of the Mammoth People?

Chapter 49.

Dancing Fox felt her way through the pitch blackness, her breathing echoing loudly from the icy walls. Water splashed around her feet, making the footing more precarious. Carefully, she placed her foot on a slanted rock and leaned forward. In a flash, her foot slipped off and she tumbled face first to the ground, groaning softly at the sharp pain in her ankle. The joint raged, but the bone hadn't broken this time.

Would she forever be favoring that four-times-cursed ankle?

The holes had filled with waist-deep water now. The pa.s.sage not only creaked because of the ghosts, but it echoed with dripping water. Her soaked feet had gone so cold they'd become totally numb. The only dry places to sit were on the larger boulders that she blundered into in the eternal dark. Of course her kindling and fire sticks were soaked; she had no way to dry them.

The light came faintly at first. Icy water leaving her legs awkward and fumble-footed, she splashed on, jaw muscles clenched.

"You'll never reach your people, Moon Water," she promised fervently.

"I'll find you."

The journey seemed to take forever. More than once she thought her end had come, that there had been a branching of the channel--a dead end leading her into the eternal bowels of the very earth.

Still, the light grew, the only sound her splas.h.i.+ng feet and the gurgle of the increasing current. Sky appeared in the jagged cracks overhead.

She flailed and splashed her way around the end of the opening, dripping water as she limped up on the rocks to blink out at a gray overcast day.

"I'd have never thought it was true!" a strange voice said from the rocks above her.

She whirled, fumbling for her darts with cold-stiffened fingers. Three Falls shook his head at her. He was dressed in a frayed parka, and his middle-aged face shone like burnished copper from long days in the sun.

"Dancing Fox? What are you doing coming back? I thought only--"

"Chasing an enemy." She s.h.i.+vered, cold eating into her flesh as the wind sucked the last of her body heat away.

"An enemy?"

"Yes," she said, trying to relax, too cold to do much else. "But first, I've got to warm up."

"That a proposition?" Three Falls raised an eyebrow, smiling as he saw her expression. "I've got some dry stuff. Not much, just a little dry dung and a bundle of willow sticks. Strip out of those wet things."

She shucked off her pack, teeth chattering as he led her to a sheltered place in the boulders, unslinging his pack, building a fire as she peeled her sopping hides from her body. She wrung out the leather while he bent, spinning his fire sticks with practiced hands. Smoke rose from the charred under. Three Falls bent down, blowing softly, coaxing the flame to life. He backed away, motioning her forward.She twisted her hair into a braid, couching gratefully over the smoking dung.

Three Falls sighed, letting his eyes trace the curves of her naked body.

"The other way would have been more fun."

Dancing Fox looked up at him. "I've seen you naked before. No thanks, I'm not up to you. I like my innards arranged as they are." She frowned.

"Besides, I thought you were one of Raven Hunter's admirers. He'd object, I'm sure, to your a.s.sociation with me."

"No," Three Falls grunted, working on her clothing, propping it to air out as much as possible. "His ways and mine are different."

"Are they?"

He tilted his head, brow lined with thought. "I'll kill Others. I'll fight for our land. But he's done things I think are crazy. He's taught the young men to torture the Others, cut them apart and eat the captives' hearts. There's something wrong with that. He's ... I don't know, kind of crazy. You can't tell what he'll do between one minute and the next."

"I know." She nodded, s.h.i.+fting her weight, placing one foot above the fire, gasping ecstatically as warmth caressed her flesh.

"How long have you been keeping watch here?" He filled his cheeks with air and exhaled furiously. "I'm not keeping watch .. . exactly."

"Then what?"

"I heard talk of Heron's valley and came here to look myself. I left Raven Hunter's camp in the middle of the Long Dark." His eyes were downcast. "I've kind of drifted here and there, hunting, trying to figure out what to do in my head."

"You deserted him?"

He gave her a sharp look. "I believed the tales of Runs In Light's hole in the ice. I came to join him."

A soft flutter of pride filled her chest. The People's faith had grown?

Perhaps everything would be all right. If ... "Did you see a woman come through before me? Moon Water? Jumping Hare's Other woman? Maybe two, three days ago?"

"No. I've only been here since yesterday."

"Well, maybe we can catch her."

"Let her go," Three Falls said softly, looking out over the piled rocks of the valley. "I've seen enough dead women."