People of the Fire(158)

Tanager woke before sunrise. She lay curled in her hide, body stiff as if she'd run and fought all through the long night. Desperately thirsty, she worked her tongue around the dryness of her mouth, grimacing at the sour taste.

Flames. The image of the Dream stayed with her. Spirit Power had come and she couldn't forget her appeal to the clouds at sunset the night before.

She sat up, stiff muscles twinging, and looked out at the predawn light graying the east. Yes, it would work. The Dream had shown her the way. Hunger gnawed at the pit of her stomach. She ran a fist across her rheumy eyes and stood, shaking out her hide before pulling it over her shoulder and picking up her pouch.

For the moment, she sat on one of the rocks, watching as the morning broke clear and cool. The dry air massaged her as the breeze rose up the canyon. Hunters knew that breeze. Rising in morning, falling back down the canyons with the night. She sniffed, enjoying the odor of the firs and dry grass.

"Only someone driven by anger could do what I must." She relived the images of the Dream, seeing the way. She needed only to revive those terrible memories of Short Buffalo warriors throwing themselves on her to rekindle the burning rage.

She watched as the sun rose to crest the peaks, illuminating the meadows with golden light. Already cookfires burned dry wood, the faint smoke dissipating through the trees.

Confident that no enemy lurked near, Tanager started down the steep slope, hesitating only long enough to strip a bit of fir bark and a handful of needles. With a thumbnail, she pressed the inside of the bark, learning what she needed to know. In one fist, she crumbled the needles.

Walking into camp, she greeted her warriors with jokes and spirit. A feeling of freedom blew through her soul with the biting freshness of a spring storm.

"Ramshorn? I want you and Hanging Rock to do something for me. You'll have to move fast. Each of you takes a different direction."

"How many people do we need?" Ramshorn trotted over to hunker down on his haunches.

"As few as possible. Last night, up on the mountain, I had a Dream. I know a way for us to survive."

She grinned at the sparkle that lit his eyes. "A Dream? A Power Dream?"

She nodded, feeling the certainty bursting within. "A Power Dream. A message from the Spirit World."

Ramshorn pulled at his ear and nodded. "What do you need?"

With swift fingers, she cleared a spot in the dirt and began lining out her strategy.

"Blood Bear!"

The call came from his right. He turned, seeing Warm Wind rise from behind a deadfall, darts in hand, another nocked in his atlatl.

"Warm Wind? What are you doing hiding like that?"

The young man walked carefully out of the timber, grinning. "You've brought the Wolf Bundle. We're whole again! But you ask what I do? I guard the trail. If you had been a party of enemies, I would have killed the last man in line and run back through the trees. There's an elk trail back there. Then I would have run to warn the camp. By the time the enemy quit thrashing around in the timber looking for my shadow, we'd have an ambush for them at the mouth of the canyon up there."

Blood Bear smiled humorlessly. "Then I take it Tanager's camp lies ahead?" He stared around, noting the narrow path through the trees. Afternoon light slanted down through the branches of the densely packed firs.

Warm Wind nodded. "It's the best place. From here, we can control the trails north. You go any farther east and you get all snarled up in those vertical canyons where One Cast had that bighorn-sheep trap. Too much farther west and you've got all those peaks to climb. This way, we've got the enemy in a bottleneck. They've got to go through us to get north."

"What about south?"

Warm Wind shrugged an insolent shoulder. "Most of those camps have been raided and the people have fled to Rattling Hooves and that bunch she lives with."

"Those Short Buffalo People, you mean?"

"White Calf liked them. Two Smokes went with them. Tanager's been sending everyone who can't tight there. But they're living on the west side—on the other side of the peaks."

Blood Bear nodded. "Then I can't miss Tanager’s camp?”

"No, go right straight ahead. When you come out of the canyon, you'll see the big rocky knob. That's it. From there we can see most everything. Tanager sent two men out this morning on some plan or other. She won't tell us what, just that we'll know in four days. I do know that she had a Spirit Dream last night up in the rocks. I've never seen her this happy before."

"I see."

"And Never Sweat took another bunch out to drive off a bunch of Short Buffalo warriors who had the nerve to try and hunt buffalo where we could see them. They ought to be back soon. We saw only six or seven. Never Sweat took ten men and women with him."