“I’m coming,” he gritted, roused to a strength he’d never experienced before. “I’m coming for you, Star Shell. You … and the Mask. I’ll have you both or I’ll never have anything again!” The canoe leaped forward, spurred by his rage.
And as to Woodpecker and his warriors, a curse take them!
He never looked back.
Forty-eight
If I gain the Mask for the whole world and lose one of my friends, will the world be richer, or poorer?
I grieve over this question.
I cannot imagine anyone who would want to live in a world that had been suddenly stripped of Otter’s kindness, Black Skull’s strength, or Pearl’s courage.
What would be the point?
And yet the Mask’s Power is very great. Many Colored Crow assures me that in the right hands, the Mask can do more than just bring glory and greatness to multitudes of people. He says it can perform miracles, cure disease and poverty, alleviate the suffering of thousands.
Even First Man agrees, says “yes.”
… Will it be able to cure my suffering when this is all over?
First Man tells me “no.”
And so I have become my own vulture. Every moment, I consume more and more of myself, picking, tearing, swallowing … Will there be enough of me left to make the necessary decisions by the time we reach the Roaring Water?
Otter sensed the quickening of the river even as he heard the first muted roar on the cool, spring-scented wind. Wave Dancer might have been a thing alive as he used his paddle to bear them toward the southern shore.
“The rapids!” Black Skull rose and braced himself behind the carved fox head.
“We’re putting over,” Otter called, edging toward the bank.
“The farther upstream you are, the less current you’ll have to fight on the way back. Listen to me, learn this! Absorb it into your souls. A canoe can make only so much speed. If the water runs faster, you must be pulled downstream, no matter how hard you paddle. Do you understand?”
“Yes, yes.” Black Skull stared at the rising bank. “But we’d better find a place fast, Trader. This river is down-cutting.”
“There!” A creek emptied down a rushing set of rapids, but it allowed them a landing. Together, they heaved Wave Dancer up on the bank, leaving her canted in toward shore. Otter ran his hand over the carving of the fox head. “You must see them safely back upriver, good canoe. Uncle and I, we put the best of our souls into your wood. Cherish Pearlj Black Skull, Green Spider, , my faithful friend Catcher as I have cherished them.” “What did you say?” Pearl asked as she walked up behind him, Wolf of the Dead’s atlatl in one hand, darts in the other.
“I told Wave Dancer to stay put and not to go exploring,” he lied as he walked back for his own weapons. Not knowing what might lie ahead, he added his pack and a coil of heavy rope—the rope that Four Kills had made himself and given him on that day so long past at White Shell. He took his flute, in the hope that he could fill the afterlife with music. Finally, he beckoned to Catcher. “You, too, old friend. Come. No one will bother the packs here.”
Loyal Catcher had the right to share this last adventure, as he had shared so many others through the years. To have left him behind would have been a betrayal. Catcher must see Otter die, or he would be forever waiting for him to return.
Black Skull and Green Spider had already climbed up along the broken black rock and into the green brush that choked the bank.
Otter held Pearl’s hand. They forced their way through the sumac and raspberries, each flinching at the scratches left by the thorns.
A beaten path paralleled the shore, and Otter looked at Green Spider, who now walked around in circles, hunched over, his nose quivering. Catcher immediately recognized the behavior and began sniffing on his own.
Black Skull’s face reflected dismay. “It’s my fault. I made the mistake of asking him if he could sniff out the way to the Mask.”
“I think we’d better sniff downstream,” Otter replied.
“Whatever is going to happen is going to happen at the falls.
Isn’t that the Vision, Green Spider? A woman in the water, a little girl, and the Mask, all of them at the edge of the falls?”
Green Spider looked up at Otter with love glowing in his eyes. He simply nodded.
That gaze felt like a physical blow. It made Otter’s heart ache.
He matched Green Spider’s nod and gestured down river. “We should hurry, then.”’
Together they walked through the shadowy forest, aware of the slanting light that filtered through the colored clouds above.
They walked in silence, their steps absorbed by the spongy ground. The smells of the forest, the sound of the rushing river, the brilliant colors of butterflies and flowers, the shafts of green tinged sunshine—all were amplified in the senses.