People of the Lakes(324)
When they looked at each other, warm smiles played about their lips. Here are the finest of friends. That message passed between them in a shared glance, the familiar gesture, the glint of an eye.
The roaring increased. At a break in the trees, Otter looked out at clear water rushing in a smooth hump over a rock.
“Look.” He pointed. “See how fast the current is? You couldn’t paddle a canoe out of that.” “What would you do?” Black Skull asked. “Just go over the edge?”
“No, head straight downstream and point for the closest bank.
I want you to remember this for the journey back. You’ve got to keep steerage. The canoe must move faster than the water or you’ll just spin. And in waters like these, if you spin, you spill.”
He illustrated with his hands. “If you can, drive your boat ashore. If not, bail out when you’re next to the bank: You’ll lose the canoe, true, but if you’re close enough, you can climb ashore. That way, you lose everything but your life.” The roaring continued to build as they walked along. Otter chewed at his cheeks, aware that he hadn’t expected it to look like this–such a. huge roaring river, cascading rapids, and country so wild! Now, as he looked out over the crashing white water, he couldn’t, help but wonder how Power could hope to save anything from this roiling chaos.
Star Shell and Silver Water cleared the southern tip of the island, only to find the river veering westward. The sun had slanted into eventide, throwing gaudy bars of orange and purple light across the sky in a majestic starburst display.
Every muscle in Star Shell’s body ached. She had never worked so hard.
Desperation, she told herself. That, and the lurking awareness that as soon as she relented, Pale Snake’s words were going to crush her soul the way a stone mallet flattened a hickory nut.
My father … Tall Man. Incest? No, not me. Never! She battled the oar, trying to speed onward, rushing to the final reckoning.
Save the Mask! Pale Snake’s final order burned within her.
Whom did she trust? Had Tall Man really lied through those six long, cold moons of winter? Had he been hiding his own misdeeds as they slogged through the rainy mud of spring? Or did Pale Snake’s hatred of his father speak now?
“Are you evil?” she asked the Mask, throwing the query over her shoulder. “I must know!”
“No, Mama.” Silver Water’s frightened voice ate at Star Shell’s soul. “It’s not evil.”
“I want the Mask to answer me!”
“It won’t, Mama. It … it says talking to you would do no good.”
“Tadpole? That last night in Greets the Sun’s house. Do you remember? The night we left?”
“I remember.”
. “Did Tall Man ask you to talk to the Mask?” Silver Water paused. “Yes.”
“You’re sure?”
“Mama, he opened the pack, even pulled back a flap of the wolfhide. He said it would be all right, just that once.”
A fist closed on Star Shell’s battered soul. “I believe you, baby.” But did that mean that Tall Man was malicious? Or just trying to save her from committing incest? And if she’d conceived a child? The horror of the thought sent shivers through her. She licked her dry lips, wishing she could slow down and drink, but she was afraid to lose even that much lead on Robin’s closing canoes.
No matter how, Tall Man had been right to drive her and Greets the Sun apart. Sacred ancestors, she’d slept with her brother!
“Silver Water?”
“Yes, Mama.”
“No matter what, I want you to know that I’m sorry. I wish … I wish you could have been spared all this trouble. I wish I hadn’t been so hard with you. I only wanted to protect you.”
“I know, Mama. I love you.”
“I love you, too, Tadpole. Now, I want you to keep a lookout.
Tell me if you see any canoes behind us.”
“I will.”
Star Shell glanced at the wooded shores, wishing she could land, hang her head and cry. Above, a flight of crows circled, cawing to each other as if amused by her plight.
“Mama,” Silver Water called unhappily, “a canoe is back there.”
relieved to see but one canoe bearing down on them. In that hull sat a lone man, his muscular arms stroking as if he were enraged.
The relief vanished. She could recognize him despite the distance: Robin!
She shot a pleading look at the color-streaked clouds and the whirling crows. “Help me! Please!”
The rest of her effort went to the paddle, and she flew past the big canoe on the southern bank. The barest of thoughts flashed in her mind … beautiful craft … oddly canted on its side.