“You don’t have to. You can still save yourself.”
Otter’s heart ached. “I suppose. But I think I finally understand what you meant that day at White Shell when you told me that to find myself, I had to lose myself. I have found love, Green Spider. The love of a man for a woman. Pearl gave me that. And I have discovered the love of friendship … through Black Skull.” He lifted his tightly clasped hands and pointed at Green Spider with that single fist. “And you have taught me a love for the Sacred, Contrary. But I think I see now that to protect these things, I may have to lose them—by giving myself up to save them.” Green Spider smiled sadly. “Power chose well.”
“Black Skull will attempt to thwart me.” Otter swallowed hard, seeing it in his mind. Black Skull would do everything in his power to save Otter. “It’s in his nature to think he ought to sacrifice himself to save others. But I do not want him to die, Green Spider. He’ll try to justify it through some eloquent speech about duty and being a warrior. But, Green Spider, you’ll see that it’s me instead, won’t you?”
“And if he seriously wishes to lose himself to save you?”
Otter rested his mouth on his clasped hands. “You and Pearl will need a warrior to lead you through the Khota. Black Skull is the only one who can do that. You need him to protect the Mask. So you see, I have practical reasons.”
“And Pearl?”
Pain constricted Otter’s heart like strips of wet leather tightening as they dried. Speaking became difficult. “I regret that we had so little time … ” He forced a breath into his lungs.
“When this is all over, Green Spider, when you have the Mask and have escaped the Khota, if Pearl and Black Skull should look at each other with love in their eyes, you’ll tell them that it’s all right, won’t you? That they should not forfeit happiness over thoughts of what I might be thinking or feeling in the City of the Dead.”
Green Spider twined his ringers in the fabric over his heart.
“Your words are here, Otter. I will tell them.”
“And yours are in my soul, my friend.” He paused, “Green Spider, there may not be time to say this when we get to the Roaring Water. I want to thank you … for everything. For all the gifts of laughter and delight, and for the lessons you’ve taught. I hope I learned them well.”
Green Spider met Otter’s eyes with a crystalline intensity.
“Knowing you has brightened my soul, Otter.” Ottef smiled and stood. The cool wind coming in off the water whipped his long hair back over his shoulders. He absorbed the bite of the wind, inhaling the watery fragrance of the lake.
The deal had been struck.
And all he felt was relief that the Contrary, Pearl, and Black Skull would be safe.
I’m sorry, Four Kills. But were you here, in my place, you’d do the same.
He dropped a hand on Green Spider’s narrow shoulder and squeezed, then turned, heading back to the woman he loved.
Black Skull lifted his head as the Trader disappeared over the dune. As he’d listened to his friend’s agonized words, his head had begun throbbing.
Catlike, Black Skull crept from his blankets, scooped sand over them to keep them from blowing away, then quietly headed for the fire, where Green Spider sat so placidly. The Contrary stared out at the vast indigo sea, lit only by silver waves that crawled relentlessly toward the shore.
Black Skull sidled up to the fire and squatted down next to Green Spider, oddly uneasy as the fool added another chunk of wood to the fire.
“Look,” he said straightforwardly, “I know what the Trader’s up to. If it hadn’t been for the wind, I’d have missed it, but as it was, enough words were blown to me that I could get the gist of what he had to say.”
“Isn’t it a funny thing about wind? How it changes sound, I mean. Don’t you ever wonder about that, Little Mouse?”
“Well, no, I guess not.”
“Air is something. You can feel it, breathe it. When the wind blows, a stillness fills the land.”
“Because the wind covers the sound?”
“Only the loudest of noises become complete silence.”
Black Skull’s brows drew together, and he heaved a sigh.
Flames licked up around the piece of firewood. “Otter thinks that he should be the one to drown. That’s silly, and you know it.”
“Why? Tell me, Killer of Men.”
“I’m the one to do this thing. Listen.” Black Skull could feel the muscles in his face jerking,” though no violent emotion lay behind the spasm, just a vague sense of desperation. “I wasn’t chosen to travel all this way just to kill a few Khota on that Levee Island. If so, I’d have drowned in the storm that night.