People of the Fire(88)

"Then you'll let me?"

"According to my people, a man is made when he kills his first big game. You killed buffalo."

He nodded, wishing his heart hadn't started to pound again.

"You've never coupled with a woman before?"

He shook his head.

"White Calf didn't want me around you. She thought I might affect your Power."

"I know."

"Is that why you want to couple with me?"

He grinned nervously. "Maybe a little. Then, too, I Dreamed of you in the night—of what it's like."

"And we've coupled?"

He nodded.

"And planted seed?"

He nodded again.

She smiled to herself. "Among our cousins, the White Crane People, it's said that a Dream like that twines souls together. That if the people involved don't couple in life, it makes the soul sick with longing, and eventually you'll die."

"I get this warm feeling inside every time I look at you."

She giggled, pulling him to his feet. "Come on. Let's go down in the trees. I think I'm ready to be a woman in all ways. And I certainly don't want to take the chance of your soul sickening."

She didn't let go of his hand as they clambered off the rock and made their way into the limber pine.

Tanager enjoyed being right. She stepped out in the trail, blocking Snaps Horn. "Quite a pack. You going on a hunt?"

He started, lifting his arms in frustration. "You know, one of these days you're going to scare someone and they're going to drive a dart right through you."

"Want to bet?" She crossed her arms and grinned. "You couldn't hit me with a dart if you wanted to. I may not be as strong as you, but I'm quicker."

He worked his mouth, shaking his head. "Maybe. All right, I'm going on a hunt."

She narrowed her eyes at the grim look he got.

"And now let me by. What I'm doing is none of your business."

She nodded, a flutter of worry building. "It's Elk Charm, isn't it? You're going after her."

"Maybe."

"It's not like you, answering short like that. You're planning something else, too."

"What if I am?"

"You're in love with Elk Charm?"

He kicked at the dirt in the trail. "What if I am?"

Tanager studied him curiously. "You've been angry ever since you got back. You and Blood Bear."

"Leave him out of this."

"That's who you remind me of. Is that how you want to be? Like him?"

Anger burst. "Look! You're always poking around in my affairs. I put up with it because we're friends. But no more. I'm going to go get Elk Charm away from that Short Buffalo boy and that's it! You hear? Now get out of here!"

He shouldered by her, trembling with rage.

Tanager stared at his broad back as he left at a trot. Short Buffalo boy? The one who lived with the witch?

Tanager squinted after him, pulling at her hair. She nodded to herself. A burning anger she'd never seen before had been goading him, something dangerous and deadly. If Snaps Horn caught the Short Buffalo boy, he'd kill him. Elk Charm might be widowed before she got married.

* * *

Two Smokes watched from where he sat in the shade. They had stretched out every hide they had under the limber pine. Now Hungry Bull, Three Toes, and Black Crow whacked the branches with long poles, flailing. From the shivering limbs, a wealth of pine nuts and needles cascaded onto the hides.

"Does that look like all of it?" Hungry Bull called out to Rattling Hooves.

"Enough for this one," she called back, scrambling on hands and knees over the hides, checking the size and quality of the harvest.

How many winters had passed since he'd heard that spirit in Hungry Bull's voice? How long since he'd seen the light of laughter in those pained brown eyes?

"Two Smokes?"

He craned his neck to find Little Dancer picking his way down the rocks from where he and Elk Charm had been hunting for packrat middens in the rimrock above.

"Yes."

Little Dancer came to squat next to him, hands locked in his lap, watching the men and women picking through the hides, lifting the edges to pour the harvest into a skin bag.

"Blood Bear is my real father, isn't he?"

Two Smokes froze in mid-gesture. Stunned, he looked over at the boy. "Where did you hear that?" Little Dancer's wry smile didn't reassure him.

"One of the problems of living with Red Hand people is that they know the history. Clear Water married Blood Bear. When her bleeding missed, she left with you for the plains."

"Yes, that's the way it was." He felt old.

"Then Blood Bear is my father?"

"He is." Two Smokes winced at the censure in Little Dancer's voice.

"Why didn't you tell me before? You're the berdache, the man who lives between the worlds. A berdache understands and mediates. He knows both sides." A pause. "And you didn't tell me."