People of the Fire(175)

That's when her gaze caught the glow high on the mountain. She stopped, frozen, staring up. The intervening ridges stood starkly outlined in the reddish tinge. Where the smoke rose high, gaudy flames lit the whole of the eastern sky. Never had she seen a fire like this.

An age of Fire. The words whispered through her mind. And Little Dancer is up there!

"Elk Charm?"

She jumped, clutching one hand to her chest. "Cricket? You frightened me."

Her friend materialized out of the night, standing by her to stare up at the mountain wall. "Snaps Horn is up there, fighting the enemy.''

"And so is Little Dancer. Gone to find his Dream." How much more of this could she stand?

"Let him be safe." Cricket shook her head. "I should have stayed. I should have fought with him."

"And who would have cared for your baby?"

"I could have left him. I could have brought him down and left him, My grandmother is here. Perhaps Rattling Hooves or you would have taken him. Then I could have gone back. With a lighter dart, I'm just as deadly as a man when I cast. Just have to be closer is all."

Elk Charm bit her lip. "I couldn't have done anything for Little Dancer. A wife can fight, can use a club, a dart, but I can't Dream for him."

Cricket's arm went around her shoulders. "Won't this ever end? Maybe Tanager's as Powerful as they say. She always saw things differently. Maybe she's the one. Maybe she can save them. She knows the timber better than anyone. She should have been a man."

Without thinking, Elk Charm supplied, "Maybe it t both. Little Dancer's Power and . . . hers." And a part of her whimpered, Why couldn 't I be the one to help him?

"Black Rock came today. He says that Tanager has become a powerful warrior. That no one can touch her in a fight, that she has Power she got from White Calf."

Elk Charm's gaze remained riveted to the blaze. "He supposed to Dance with Fire." She swallowed, falling to her knees, arms lifted to the night sky. "Take him if you will, but give him strength! Hear me! Help him Dance the Fire. Even if I never see him again, you must help him!" She blinked at the tears. "For all of us."

She glanced again at the raging inferno on the top of the mountain. Could even a Dreamer Dance with that 1

"Anything, take anything from me. But help him."

Fire Dancer awoke, blinking, staring up into the night. He lay exposed on his back, the stagnant air too hot for covers. Above him, the Starweb looked fuzzy, shrouded by the smoke, while over the mountains, the night glared en; Tanager slept to one side, barely distinguishable as a dark lump. Two Smokes lay on the other side.

Dreams had haunted him, scattered images refusing to come together as a whole. Troubled Dreams for troubled sleep. He'd walked again through the burning forest. Now in the reality raged above him.

Have I missed it? Was that trial only a warning in case I might have failed?

He stood quietly, missing the ghostly presence Always aloof, the animal had nevertheless become a companion in loneliness. What choice had there been? Wolf knew. His soul had been in tune with the need, become part of the Wolf Bundle. It had taken wolf to restore the power, make it new.

Wolf and man, their paths had turned from the distant past. Brothers, predators, who ate not only buffalo, elk, and deer, but berries and rodents and mice. Like men, wolves lived in their own societies. Like men, they sang to they stars and loved and raised their families. But, unlike most men, they shared souls with the One, perhaps less distacted by illusion.

He climbed up on one of the boulders, eyes to the reddened sky. "Fire Dancer."

They'd come down a tributary of Clear River along the northern end of the Red Wall. Less than a day's walk to the south lay Heavy Beaver's camp. This time tomorrow, he would have Danced Fire with Heavy Beaver—or he'd be lying dead somewhere, his soul drifting back to the One. Memories of the sensations of death, of the settling of the soul, clung like tufts of marten fur in the back of his mind.

With a pang, he realized the finality of it. Elk Charm would be left behind along with the daughters he'd never see grow to adulthood. He'd never know their joys and sorrows, see the expressions of delight on their faces, or dry their tears.

"Why?" he asked the night sky. "Why did you ever allow me to love? It hurts so much to give it up."

Hungry Bull would grow old, hair shot with white as his face lined. He'd die without his son to care for him, to Sing him to the Starweb where he could find Sage Root.

"Did you have to pick me?" A stirring resentment rose. Like a hoop in a child's game, he'd been rolled about this way and that. Callous spirits, like the children in the game, had cast their darts at him, some striking, others quivering as they landed in the dirt in his path. While they laughed and gamboled, none had cared about the bruises and cuts the hoop of his life had endured.