People of the Fire(78)

The Wolf Dreamer's voice conveyed worry. "Wait. Perhaps White Calf can save it. If not, we lose everything. If we act, we 11 prove his mother's words. If we don y t act . . ."





Chapter 14




What's going to happen? Three Toes wondered as they all were seated before White Calf's shelter.

Little Dancer watched. He could feel the tension, flashes of Dream images disrupting his concentration. Why? Why did he feel so worried? Thoughts not his own seemed to whisper at the edge of his consciousness.

The sun continued to beat down, friendly and warm, despite the anxiety reflected on each face and in the nervous postures that bespoke unease. A late grasshopper clicked in the still air, its sound rising and falling to the beat of its yellow and black wings.

White Calf hobbled out, braced on her old walking stick.

Little Dancer almost winced at the way she looked, ancient, frail, as if any rapid movement might cause her to snap and collapse. When had she grown so old? A tingle of guilt ate at his stomach.

"So, Heavy Beaver's driven you out?" Her scratchy voice wavered.

Old, so old. And if she dies? What then? What do I do? A sudden uncertainty gripped Little Dancer's heart. Have I been right to fight her so?

"He's gathering the People," Black Crow said unsteadily as he stood and faced White Calf. "He's begun a new way. He's teaching a Dance of Renewal and Blessing. Since he's become leader, the rains have come back, and with them the buffalo are a little more plentiful. It seems to the People that the more Power he gets, the better things are.”

"Fools!" White Calf hissed. “All young fools. I've watched all my life. You get these spells—a little wetter for a couple of years, but the world's changed slowly for as long as I ... or the legends, can remember. Does water run in Monster Bone Springs? Is the Moon River up to its old banks running so deep a person can't wade?"

"No." Black Crow looked around uneasily.

"Then the drought's still with us. Some years it's wetter. Other years it'll be drying. We live in an age of fire, not water. When you see the water in Moon River run clear, you'll know the age of fire has passed. Meanwhile, the earth is being washed away. Have you seen any of the arroyos filling? No? They're still cutting into the earth? I thought so. People will be starving again soon. They'll be pushing the last of the buffalo into extinction like they did the monsters. Heavy Beaver's a fool."

"He may be a fool, but he's a powerful one," Black Crow answered. "When Seven Suns' camp decided to go to his Blessing, we argued against it. We've had war with the Fire Buffalo People to the east. The Cut Hair People to the south are warring with Heavy Beaver. The old peace was broken when Heavy Beaver took warriors to raid the Cut Hair. Fire At Night and Throws Stones have become great warriors. They've taken parties of young men as far south as the lands of the Squash Rock People and killed their men. They've brought back women captives—all carrying their weight in dried meat, fine robes, and tool stone. Last spring, Throws Stones raided the White Crane People, killing many and burning one of their camps to the ground. The women, dogs, and children he brought back carried many wonderful things."

"And these women? They don't make trouble?" White Calf wanted to know.

Meadowlark shook her head. "What woman would make trouble? If they refuse a man's orders, they're beaten. If they beat a man back, they're killed. Sometimes a woman who objects is Cursed by Heavy Beaver himself. And if a captive woman tries to escape to her people, she's hunted down like a wounded buffalo cow, and a dart is driven through her." Meadowlark lifted futile hands. "What good does it do to fight back? What's better? To live or to die? That's the choice—and the men believe it. Women among the Short Buffalo People live in terror."

White Calf nodded thoughtfully in the silence that stretched. "So that's how he kept the People from vanishing like smoke. And I'll bet the captured women are kept pregnant? Their children are the new People?"

"Uh-huh." Makes Fun grimaced. "And I argued with Chokecherry when she said this could happen. Now, here I am, chased from my people by something—this madness— that I still can't believe is real."

"The world's changing." White Calf wet her lips, spreading her hands wide, palms up to catch the sun. "Heavy Beaver wanted to make the People strong again. That happens when things go bad. You always find somebody's getting up dancing and singing about returning to the old ways, the ways of the fathers ... as if they remembered what the old ways were really like. Heavy Beaver did that—and blood and spit take you if you remember different old ways than he does!"