Pearl listened to Otter’s deep breathing, and with deliberate care, slipped out from under his arm. She rose and used the same piece of driftwood that he’d used to hold down the heavy blanket.
She walked a short distance and answered nature’s call. Only then did she wonder what had kept Otter, and why he’d left so furtively. The reflection of the fire on a dune face piqued her interest, and she was almost over the crest when she saw Black Skull, his hands moving with such an intensity that he seemed to be pleading with Green Spider. The Contrary, in contrast, appeared completely absorbed by some Vision in his head.
Pearl hesitated, then circled the camp, dropping to her belly and slithering forward on the sand until she could hear Black Skull’s words. The blood froze in her veins as she listened.
Otter had drifted away to buy her safety with his life? And now Black Skull, fool that he was, was trying to do the same?
She waited, truly touched, as the warrior ended his impas—
sioned plea and then hugged the Contrary. Green Spider’s eyes fairly popped from their sockets under the embrace.
Pearl allowed Black Skull’s broad back to vanish into the night, gave him a moment lest he return with some last words, and then rose, brushing the sand from her skirt as she walked up to the fire and squatted beside Green Spider. She turned her back to the wind so she could watch for either Otter or the warrior.
“They’re crazy, Green Spider,” she said calmly. “Are you sure that someone has to give himself up for the Mask? Tell me ‘backward’—was that part of the Vision?”
Green Spider’s unfocused eyes drifted this way and that, as if seeking an answer, and he ended up by placing another piece of wood on the flames. Sparks shot out and swayed upward in the gusting wind. “I flew with Many Colored Crow, and I saw someone in the swirling mist below the falls. A great many Spirits live there. This Spirit looked familiar, but the face was different … dark, misshapen.”
“Black Skull? You mean Black Skull?”
“Not a human face, but one more misshapen than Black Skull’s … surrounded by a black halo. A beautiful face, with large, dark, glowing eyes. Swimming, stroking through the mist like a fish in water. The shape whirled around me, almost teasing, and I tried to reach out and touch it, but it was too fast.
Afterward, I rose, spiraling like silver in the sunlight, twisting around, watching rainbows of color arching through the air, growing, circling me as I rose on high.”
“A black halo? A beautiful face with large, dark eyes?” She propped her chin on her fist, frowning into the fire. “Then there isn’t any reason why it couldn’t be me.”
“There isn’t any reason why it should be you, either,” he countered, reaching down thoughtfully to rub his dirty moccasins.
“Otter and Black Skull have both asked to be this Spirit.”
She closed her eyes, her soul aching. “They would, wouldn’t they? Well, they’re both fools.” She reached out, laying a slim hand on his arm. “Green Spider, if Power must have a soul in exchange for this Mask of yours, I’d rather that it had mine.”
He blinked, squinting as he turned to try to bring her into focus.
“I’m the obvious one,” she stated positively, aware of the lightness in her soul. “I’ve nothing left. No family, no clan, no place to go. Not only that, I can’t let Otter or Black Skull go in my place. I’d never forgive myself. Not for Otter’s death, not for Black Skull’s, and certainly not for yours.”
She leaned forward. “If someone has to go, I’m the perfect one. The Khota wouldn’t be here but for me. It’s my fault, don’t you see? None of this would have happened if I hadn’t drawn the Khota out on the hunt by bashing Wolf of the Dead over the head and burning his house down. It’s me they want. My part in this is finished. I’ve taught Otter all I can about deep water travel. He can read the stars as well as I can now. He knows how to weather a storm, how to read the swells.”
“And your love? It doesn’t mean anything to you?” Green Spider made a face, as if he saw something just over the top of her head that he didn’t like.
She whirled to look, saw nothing, and let out the breath she’d been unwittingly holding. “Green Spider, if Otter dies for me, my soul will die with him. How can I love Otter and you if I know that Black Skull died trying to protect me? In the end, that knowledge will eat at my soul like acid on shell. If either of them dies in my place, I am condemned.”
“And if you die? Are they?”
She glanced sadly into the fire. “Black Skull will mourn, but his soul is a warrior’s, accustomed to such loss. He’ll find it acceptable in the end to spend the rest of his life honoring me.