In that way, he will survive. As for Otter, he’s been crushed by love before. He will hurt, Green Spider, but he’ll have you to help him. They’ll both have you to help them—and you’ll do that for them, won’t you? You’ll help them?” “I never have any choice,” he whispered. “Front is back and the insides always come out.”
“Good,” Pearl said without quite understanding what he’d meant. “Now, there’s another thing we have to consider. This Mask of Many Colored Crow … ” She squeezed his forearm tightly. “Green Spider, look at me.” He did, though it seemed to her that nobody was at home in those eyes. She continued, “Tell me now, is the Mask wicked? And if so, why are we all talking about throwing away our lives to save it?”
“It is not evil, Pearl.”
A sigh of relief escaped her lips. “It’s worried me ever since the night at the Spotted Loon camp. I just couldn’t understand why you would … “
He tilted his head in a gesture so vulnerable that she longed to comfort him. “I’m doing the best I can, Pearl.”
“Oh, Green Spider, I know you are. I have always believed that.” She crumpled the hem of her skirt with nervous fingers.
“The Mask is the most important thing there is. But second is you. You’re Power’s chosen Dreamer. You know how to deal with the Mask, how to care for it, where to take it. Next comes Otter, and then Black Skull, each as vital as the other. Black Skull’s right. He doesn’t know the people or the rivers, or how to handle a boat. But without Black Skull, Otter’s completely vulnerable. He needs Black Skull’s muscle to speed Wave Dancer through deep water. Otter can get by on rivers, but that won’t save the Mask if someone pursues Wave Dancer after this business at the Roaring Water is over. And you know as well as I do that Black Skull can protect the Mask—as well as everyone else—until you can get it home again.”
She took a deep breath, fists clenching. “The Khota are here because of me. They want me. Well, all right, they can have me.”
Green Spider closed his eyes as though suffering. “And so the decision can be made without considering the passions of the heart: love, hate, despair. Is that what you would have me believe?”
She lowered her eyes, aware of a warmth rising along her cheeks. “No, my friend, I would not lie to you. I’m scared to death of what the Khota will do to me. It won’t be a pleasant way to die, but I’m strong enough and stubborn enough to buy you the time to rescue the Mask and make your escape, especially if you keep those two heroic fools from realizing what I’m doing until it’s too late. It would be just like them to rush off to rescue me … and have all three of us die while the Mask goes over the falls into oblivion, and while you’re … I don’t know, probably Dancing and Singing, or something silly like that.” Green Spider smiled. “Yes. Something silly like that.”
She added, “Green Spider, we can’t afford such a disaster, so you’ll have to help me. Cover for me. Tell them something, anything, to keep them from knowing until you’re all safely away with the Mask.”
Green Spider’s mouth trembled. He opened his eyes to stare at her. “But what of your soul, Pearl? The Khota will leave it homeless, angry, roaming forever.”
“I’m already homeless,” she replied, though she’d been hoping, hoping desperately, that perhaps she had gained one with Otter. “I’ll be very happy in the lonely places, talking to the deer, whispering to the juncos, and Singing with the crickets.
As a ghost, I’ll go see all the things I didn’t get to see while I was alive. Maybe drift back into Khota country and look up Otter’s Uncle.
“Besides,” she said with a wan smile, “I won’t be angry, Green Spider. I have freely chosen this death. There are seventeen Khota. They’ll all want to rape me as many times as they can. If I play my part right, I can buy a couple of days for you that way. Then Wolf of the Dead will spend another two days on different means of torture, and all I have to do is to outlast him, and … and, yes, finally I’ll confess to him that Otter and Black Skull are coming back in a couple of weeks, passing right back down the river with the Mask.”
She nodded, seeing it all in her head. The plan was simple, and she could outlast the Khota. “If I am strong enough, he’ll sit right there on the river, waiting for the Mask of Many Colored Crow until you are all far away.”
“Only a coward could be so brave,” he whispered.