People of the Fire(80)

"I make my own rules and Power. As I control the Wolf Bundle, I control the Red Hand."

"Stupid, ignorant fool! Not even the Wolf Bundle allows you to take the ways of the Red Hand into your . . . Yah!" White Calf's eyes went big as she started to raise her hands to protect herself.

Moving like lightning, Blood Bear shifted, his arm a blur as he pulled the dart back, pivoting on his heel. He thrust Elk Charm violently away. His atlatl whipped back, for that brief instant before the cast Rattling Hooves gasped a cry, aware even as she moved that she'd acted too late. She lurched forward, off balance, desperately clawing for him. Blood Bear threw his weight behind the cast.

She had trouble sorting it out later. Blood Bear had whooped in triumph as he released the dart. A shout. A clacking sound. And Hungry Bull leapt in from the side. The hunter stood braced, his atlatl gripped like a club. White Calf remained propped on her walking stick, eyes wide. She stared, first at the broken dart Hungry Bull had batted out of the air, and then at Blood Bear, where he fumbled for footing, trying to nock another dart.

"Hold it!" Rattling Hooves shouted, seeing the other warriors, muscular arms reaching back, stone-tipped darts glinting in the bright sun as their atlatls balanced. "What are we doing?" They hesitated for a moment while Hungry Bull turned his back, arms raised to stop the sudden advance of Three Toes, Black Crow, and Meadowlark, all with darts ready to cast.

"Insanity!" Elk Charm cried, running up to the warriors, pleading particularly to Snaps Horn. "What's happening?"

White Calf ambled forward, waving her hands. "Stop it! You fools!" She whirled, pointing a finger at Blood Bear. "So, you'd kill me before we could talk this out? And you call yourself a leader? You think you have the brains to keep the Wolf Bundle? Idiot!"

The warriors froze, looking back and forth uncertainly. From long experience, Rattling Hooves could see the change in Blood Bear's expression, instantly aware the situation had shifted. He lowered his nocked dart. The old cunning light glinted in his eyes as his brain raced.

"How did I know, old woman? How did I know you weren't plotting with these"—he indicated the Short Buffalo—"to raid our camp again? You keep strange company."

"Like Rattling Hooves?" White Calf demanded dryly. "You don't-"

"I don't what? My people have been killed! Raided by Short Buffalo People." He turned, chin up, glancing at his warriors through slitted eyes. "How do I know where the next raid might come from?"

“Surely not from an old woman who Dreamed and bore children for the Red Hand/'

“Or from her?" Blood Bear indicated Rattling Hooves with his dart point. As quickly, Hungry Bull's atlatl knocked the point aside.

“Use your finger next time. It's polite," Hungry Bull insisted, meeting Blood Bear's burning anger with his own.

“This woman is one of my people. You take chances, hunter."

Hungry Bull barely nodded. “So do you." They bristled as they glared into each other's eyes.

Rattling Hooves shot Hungry Bull a quick glance. Why? Why did he intercede? He could be killed on her account.

“Enough!" White Calf bulled between the two men. 44 Put your darts down. There will be no killing here."

Uneasily, the warriors lowered their weapons.

“O1d Woman, I'm the Keeper of the Wolf Bundle." Blood Bear half crouched, glaring anger and frustration.

White Calf met him eye to eye. “And you still haven't learned anything, have you? Remember when you killed Cut Feather? Eight years you spent wandering homeless for that. And now you want to kill me? You keep wishing for Power, and then you spit in its very face! You act like it doesn't exist without you."

The final resistance drained from Blood Bear's warriors. They shifted now, looking uneasily at each other, wetting lips, fingering their darts nervously. Only Snaps Horn stood firm, a grimness to his features as he shot searching looks at Elk Charm.

Blood Bear stiffened, a quiver eating at the corner of his lips. “Watch yourself, old woman. You push me too far.”

“And I'll keep pushing, fool." She caught the end of his dart with her frail fingers, lifting the point to the hollow under her ribs. “Go ahead, push, Blood Bear. I've made it easy for you. But before you kill me, want to make a bet? Want to gamble on how long you'll have before you're wandering the plains again, hungry, in tatters, looking for a snake or a toad for a meal?''

He swallowed hard.

Heart thumping in her throat, Rattling Hooves reached around and pushed the dart down with the flat of her hand. "I think that's enough for all of us."

Hungry Bull took the old woman by the shoulders. "Come, Grandmother. Come and sit and let us all talk this out. With Heavy Beaver making war in the plains, we can't have the Red Hand breaking into factions in the mountains. The whole world may die if we do."