“I’d say we’ll be there by the solstice.”
“That long? You said it was at the east end of the lake.”
“It is.”
“How big is this lake?” “Like you said, all the water in the world.”
She struggled to keep her concentration while gulls whirled around, inspecting them for fish or other treats. “But this is the Upper Lake. Wind Lake is this big, too?”
“It is. I live on the north side of it. I told you it was a long trip.”
“Tell me about it.” Anything to keep my mind off of where I am—and how soon I’m going to drown! “The place where you live, I mean. Is it like Starsky, or Many Paints?”
“Something, yes. But we have more lakes … lakes everywhere.
Lots of ducks and loons, and more game. The people there are different. It takes some learning to understand the dialect they speak, but it’s very close to ours. The rituals and beliefs are quite dissimilar, though. We worship a Sky Mother instead of a Mysterious One, and we don’t follow all of the ceremonies with the slavish intensity that the Serpent Clans do.
Among my people, the lineage is more important and more influential than the clan is.”
“Do you have societies?”
“Yes, sort of. But the societies aren’t as strong or as established as the ones you’re used to. Think of them more as social clubs.”
“It sounds like chaos. How do you get anything done?”
“With a lot more fun than your people do. I even built a serpent—a mound like the one you’ve heard about. Everyone pitched in and built it.” He paused. “I suppose I did it in defiance of my father. He’d scream if he knew that uninitiated hands had dared to erect such a mound.”
“He can’t scream, Pale Snake,” Star Shell said. “Robin pulled his guts out.”
“You’ve been around me too long. My fabled sense of humor is rubbing off.”
Star Shell peered at him through narrowed eyes. “Don’t be insulting … So lineages run things, not clans. And you don’t have real societies, just social clubs. What else is different? Who tends to the fields? Decides the planting?”
“Star Shell, we don’t have that many people. It’s not like the Moonshell or the Starsky country. We see the land differently; it doesn’t belong to a lineage or a family. If you want to plant goosefoot, you just go clear a field and do it. If anything, we put more emphasis on survival than on rules. That extends to our Trade, too. Most of the silver comes through our centers, as do the fine northern furs, bears’ teeth, and caribou hides.”
“And sacred chert?”
“Among us, it doesn’t have quite the reputation that you are used to. We don’t use it for bloodletting or sacred carvings.
Most of our chert comes from the clans on both sides of the Roaring Water. Bear Clan for one. In fact, while I’m there, I’ll Trade for some.”
He stopped paddling long enough to push hair out of his eyes.
“I guess I’d have to say that we don’t take status quite as seriously as people do farther south. Maybe because we don’t plant as much of our food. We trap and net fish, dive for shellfish, and collect rice from the lake and berries and nuts from the forest. Through fall and winter, we spend more time hunting, especially when the deer yard up in their large winter herds. It leads to … I guess you’d say to fewer interests in politics. I like to think we’re a little more flexible.”
She had picked up the rhythm of the open water now, and as they’d made it this far without capsizing, she began to hope for survival. “If you’re so happy up there, why do you return to the Serpent Clans? Why not stay forever with your undisciplined northerners?”
“I’m one of the few who don’t have a family, and no one misses me while I’m gone. It’s not like the south, where Traders follow the rivers and bring you things. We have to travel back and forth, do our own Trading with the Serpent Clans, as well as with the Stone Hunters to the south. Silver is especially important.
We Trade for the nuggets and pound them into shapes for Trade southward.” “Mama?” Silver Water asked. “Can I go hunting when we get to Pale Snake’s clan holdings?” Star Shell almost said yes, then paused. What are you going to do when you leave Roaring Water? To Silver Water, she gave the response that every mother uses to frustrate her children to the point of tears: “We’ll see.” “You can hunt all you wish,” Pale Snake told Silver Water in a kindly voice. “I even have a little friend about your age.