“White Calf!" she hissed, reaching to pluck at the old woman's sleeve.
"What?" The ancient eyes seemed to clear. She shook herself, as if to rid her mind of a dream. "Yes? What?"
Blood Bear reminded haughtily, "The Short Buffalo People .. . if you'd care to make some comment. If not, I'll solve this one way or another. Maybe you don't understand the forces at work here, old woman, but the future of the Red Hand is-"
"Fool!" she snapped, taking a step forward. "What do you know of the Powers at work? You think you're here because of Three Toes and Black Crow? Idiot! This is a turning ... a day just like the one when Heavy Beaver threw the Wolf Bundle into the dirt. Hah! And you're worried about a few Short Buffalo People?"
"But I-"
"Be quiet, Blood Bear. You’re almost finished. Oh, you've some time yet. You'll be able to delude yourself a while longer and enjoy your status." She turned, cocking her head to stare at the nervous warriors of the Red Hand. "Go home. Trouble is coming, but it isn't here yet. Not this year. The storm's brewing out on the plains. You'll need to guard the trails ... but not this winter. Go. Get on with you. Hungry Bull here killed some buffalo. Take what you can pack with you. My blessings on you."
Ramshorn stared back and forth, desperately seeking a solution. Hanging Rock reached up, pulling Ramshorn back, and the rest faded, backing away. Snaps Horn stood resolute, and only Hanging Rock's unsubtle tug got him to move.
White Calf shooed them along, getting them moving before Blood Bear could figure out what had happened. But what had that look of frustration in Snaps Horn's eyes been for?
Blood Bear stood, filling his lungs to shout. White Calf banged him on the shin with her walking stick, causing him to jump, the order lost on the wind.
"What? You want to make a fool of yourself again?" White Calf asked.
The anger flooded back. "Beware old woman! You're—"
"Bah!" She spat at him. "You had one chance today. Hungry Bull took it from you. So long as you killed me with the first cast, you could have saved something, maybe changed the Circles and affected the world. But you've lost. Power's not with you, Blood Bear. You've done something I don't understand. You offended the Power so completely it's left you like an old blind bull run out of a buffalo herd."
As he gaped at her, she shook her head. "I don't envy you. You're a tool whose life is past. Like an exhausted obsidian core. Only you've cut too many of the toolmaker's fingers to simply be left behind. Even being around you scares me—like standing on a high peak in a lightning storm. That kind of scared."
"And what of the Short Buffalo People?" Rattling Hooves looked at the last of the Red Hand vanishing up the trail, the warriors happy to be going away from White Calf and the trouble brewing in her camp.
"They'll stay." White Calf sighed, as if deflating. "Not here. I can't handle so many people. But I know of a shelter down on the south slope of the mountains. Two Smokes can take them."
Rattling Hooves glanced at her daughter and then back at Blood Bear. He watched her, a threat in his eyes. At the look, her heart thumped dully. He'd make her . . . and Elk Charm, suffer for this day.
White Calf tapped her stick on the rock behind him. "You have anything else to say?"
Blood Bear gave her a wicked smile. "No, old woman. Not this time. But one day soon, you'll wish my dart had passed right through your heart."
White Calf laughed. For a brief instant, the years seemed to fall from her ancient body. "You'll never know what you've given me this day, Blood Bear. You'll never understand the depths of what you've let loose." She laughed again and clapped her hands together, almost dancing as she rocked back and forth.
Blood Bear straightened and lifted the Wolf Bundle from the rock behind him. Without a glance he turned and began running up the trail, legs pumping powerfully.
Rattling Hooves exhaled, feeling suddenly weak-kneed. A strong hand at her elbow led her to the rock where Blood Bear had sat. She looked up, seeing the concern in Hungry Bull's eyes.
"It's been a hard journey for you. Thank you for acting when you did. It took courage."
She blinked up at him. "Why did you stand up for me?"
He looked away, a pain stealing into his soft eyes. "You were brave. You spoke for my friends. Once, long ago, no one stood up for my . . . Well, I wouldn't see that happen again. I wouldn't have your husband feel what I did that day."
She spoke without thinking. "My husband's dead." She cocked her head, wondering what One Cast would think to hear that. But she knew. She'd always been outside the circle in One Cast's lodge.