"Big, isn't he?"
"Yeah," Three Toes breathed.
For long moments they watched; then, as if by magic, the wolf disappeared.
Three Toes blinked and rubbed his eyes. "I didn't even see him move."
"Me either." A shiver went up Hungry Bull's back. "Did you notice the . . . Oh, never mind. Must be the light."
"You mean the way he looked just like the wolf drawn on the rock in the shelter?"
Hungry Bull nodded, staring at the place where the wolf had stood. "Just like the wolf in the shelter. Just like that ..."
"The buffalo are worried!" the Wolf Bundle cried. "You can feel it. Confusion, frustration, starvation, they're half mad. One by one, they die. A species facing oblivion spreads terror through the Spiral. They know their time hasn V come. But what can they do? The soul of the land cries out. Feel death? Feel it drawing close, choking the warmth from the earth? Is this our future? Feel the fawn antelope in their need? Thirst. The land cries. What can we do? I’m tortured . . . dying with the land. Thirst, heat, what can we offer them?"
Wolf Dreamer's weary voice settled in an evening frost. "Hope."
Chapter 17
"You look worried, girl."
Elk Charm met her mother's eyes before gazing back down the valley. The slopes now had a faint green tinge that had begun to challenge last year's brown. Sagebrush gleamed bluish green against the tan of the sandstone. Overhead, the crystal sky stretched into a blue infinity that threatened spring.
"I was thinking of something Two Smokes told me . . . about Dreamers."
Rattling Hooves sighed and settled herself in the warm sun next to her daughter. "I've caught you looking into nothingness more than once. You sneak those faraway looks whenever you think no one is watching. Want to tell me about it?"
"I always thought it would be Snaps Horn. Then I met Little Dancer. I love him with a feeling like a fire's inside me. I never knew I could love a man this way. He's so . . . well, he's gentle, always thinking of me, and he holds me like I'm the most precious thing in his world."
"I've seen."
"But he frightens me. There's part of him I can't share. Something that's beyond me."
"And Two Smokes? You said he told you something about Little Dancer?"
Elk Charm shook her head, lip clamped in her lower teeth. "He told me once about how Power uses people . . . like humans use tools for a single purpose, and then discard them. He talked about a dart as an example, how it was so carefully crafted and finally cast at an animal. You know ^what happens to darts. Sometimes they miss and land in the rocks. When that happens, the point shatters, the shaft cracks. All that work for nothing. Sometimes they get lost in the snow or thick grass, forgotten. Left behind to rot away." The image lived inside her, haunting, painful.
"And you think the Power's that strong in Little Dancer?"
She filled her lungs, enjoying the sensation of air rushing through her throat, holding it to savor the full feeling. "Yes, Mother. I think he's more Powerful than he knows. The day at the mountain sheep trap was only a hint. I've watched trappings before. You know as well as I that they were about to bolt the wrong way. He Dreamed them in.
"Since that day, I've watched Two Smokes. He sits in the back of the shelter, not saying much, but his eyes are always on Little Dancer. Not only that, but when Little Dancer has Dreams late at night, he'll wake up, and stare at the spiral on the back wall of the shelter—or at the wolf. And when he has those Dreams, I wake up. So does Two Smokes, even though he sleeps across the shelter. I don't think Little Dancer notices, but TWo Smokes is watching him, staring through slitted eyes.
"I asked him about that. He smiled funny—as if his heart were tearing—and told me that a berdache can feel Power, that they live in the halfway place between the worlds." Elk Charm lifted her shoulder. "And he won't tell me more. He just places his hand on my shoulder, like a reassuring brother, and walks off."
Rattling Hooves put her arm around her daughter's shoulders. "Yes, I suppose Little Dancer does have Power. But as far as I'm concerned, he can take care of himself. It's my daughter I'm worried about. What do you think? Is he worth the trouble? Will you be all right?"
Elk Charm looked up into those warm eyes. "I. . .1 think so. He's going to be a great man, Mother. I can feel it. Maybe as great as First Man was when he brought the People up from the First World to this one."
"But the legends tell us that First Man avoided women." Rattling Hooves lifted an eyebrow as a reminder.
Elk Charm settled her vision on the distance where the ridges rose against the skyline one after another until dun earth and tan rock met cerulean sky. "And if he's called, I guess I've had my warning." She cocked her head. "I can prepare for that day. And when it happens, I'll have had what time with him that I've had, won't I? I mean, if you could have known what would happen to Father—you'd only have so much time—what would you have done? Turned away from his robes?"