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People of the Fire(164)

By:W. Michael Gear


Blood Bear whimpered as they picked him up, Tall Fir obviously nervous at touching the man.

"And don't drop him!” Tanager ordered, seeing the hesitation. She turned to Two Smokes. "White Calf said a Dreamer was coming."

Two Smokes nodded toward Fire Dancer where he huddled under the covers. "He's come."

She steeled herself as the guardian wolf turned attention to her. "But he seems so young."

Two Smokes took a breath and sighed. "And so incredibly old."

"You said something about the Spirals. So did White Calf. What did that mean?"

Two Smokes almost cried out, holding the knee Blood Bear had kicked, as he resettled himself against the rising wall of rock. "Look around you. The world's changing. We're in the last refuge from the drought. Even here it's come. This is an age of Fire. You wonder why Heavy Beaver could gain such Power? His people were starving. The buffalo have been dying off, their numbers ever fewer. When a man arises who has answers, the people will listen. And worse, they'll believe. By controlling the mountains, Heavy Beaver will have a supply of meat while his hunters continue to kill the last of the plains herds."

“And what can we do about that?" a woman asked.

“Nothing. Nothing but fight them off."

“Then there's no hope?" Tanager asked, propping her chin on a callused palm. An eerie sense of premonition haunted her. The remains of the headache slowly ebbed. Yes, she'd felt Power, awesome Power unlike anything she'd Danced during a fight. The aftereffects left a shiver in her soul.

“I didn't say that," Two Smokes continued wearily. "The rest is up to him. Up to the Fire Dancer . . . and the Wolf Bundle, if it isn't too late."

"Explain."

Two Smokes looked up through bloodshot eyes. "He, Fire Dancer, has to Dance the Spirals back. He has to go and face Heavy Beaver and Dance a new way for the Short Buffalo People."

She laughed. "And he's going to just walk in and do it!"

Two Smokes lifted helpless hands. "I don't know how he'll do it. I don't even know if he can. He's the Dreamer."

“So? Isn't that enough?"

His lips trembled. "Not even a Dreamer is proof against a dart in the back—and he's got to walk right into the middle of their camp to Dance and Dream. And he's going to take the Wolf Bundle with him."

Tanager could only stare, feeling her heart beat soddenly in her chest. The piercing stare of the wolf affected her soul like coals on bare skin.

White Calf's dying request echoed in her mind.

The Dreams wove and meshed, tightening until they became a knot. One by one the strands broke, parting again to weave into a new image. Hungry Bull laughed. Sage Root scolded him for touching one of his father's hunting darts.

Chokecherry slapped her leg and cried out at some imagined outrage. Heavy Beaver smiled, the flat features of his face going ever wider, dominated by that curl of lips that mocked and scorned and dared. The image split, tearing down the middle while Three Toes manufactured a stone point, his baton clicking rhythmically as it drove thin flakes from the stone. Throws Rocks grabbed his arm. Terror throttled his outcry as a heavy stone hammer rose over his skull.

Fire Dancer tried to pull away, struggling with the Dream that possessed him. Again he felt the Wolf Bundle ripped away from Two Smokes' grasp, pinched cruelly in strong fingers and thrown, the sensation sickening as the Bundle sailed through the air. Earth and water bruised when it landed in the grass.

Stunned, he lay aware of the soil, of the soul of the grass as it throbbed around him. The Spiral bent and quivered. Anger! Driving passionate anger filled the world, tremors spreading like ripples on a broad pond.

Elk Charm's voice called, urging him to come back. His daughters squalled from terror and loneliness. White Calf whispered from beyond the haze surrounding him. Love twisted within him like a bull snake choking on prickly pear, each spine burning with a powerful intensity. He whimpered, knowing he loved too much. "Come back to me . . . back to me. ..." Elk Charm's call beckoned, sweet as honey from a hidden comb.

"Fadder?" his daughter asked plaintively.

He cried out at the longing in her voice, hearing her need. "Let me go," he whimpered to the Dream. "She needs me."

Fire leapt up, a forest aflame burned around him, trees splitting in the heat. Branches torched, yellow-orange spires of flame tormenting the sky as reddish smoke rose in towering columns to threaten the clouds.

"An age of Fire."

''He's too young. His mind has no discipline. Feel the confusion ? He can’t free himself to reach the One. How do you expect him to Dance with Fire?"

"There's no more time. We have no other choice."