Tears burned her eyes. “You mean Rumbler has a home to go to?”
Matron Dust Moon walked forward and knelt beside Blue Raven. She pushed back her hood, revealing glittering gray hair, and said, “Because of your courage, he does, Little Wren. Where is Rumbler?”
Wren wiped her nose with the back of her hand. Was this trickery? Uncle Blue Raven said a Walksalong war party pursued them, but he sat here in the company of two Turtle Nation people! How did such a thing come to be?
She studied the strangers, and her confusion increased.
She’d never heard of Matron Dust Moon, but people told frightening tales about Silver Sparrow. She could hear Jumping Badger’s voice the night of the council meeting saying, “Before Lamedeer died, he told me that old Silver Sparrow had come to Paint Rock Village to warn them we were going to attack and steal the False Face Child. He said that the False Face Child would be our deaths!” She’d heard other things about Silver Sparrow, too, and didn’t like the idea of Rumbler going home with a man who loped around at night in the body of a badger.
Wren eyed him severely.
Silver Sparrow glanced over his shoulder to see if she might be scowling at somebody else, then his bushy gray brows lifted. “What’s the matter?”
“I’ve never heard Rumbler mention you.”
“I imagine he’s had more pressing things to talk about.”
Wren tipped her head suspiciously. “I think he would have mentioned knowing a Powerful Dreamer like you.”
Silver Sparrow made a helpless gesture. “Well, I’m flattered that you think so, but people in the Turtle Nation aren’t nearly as impressed with my Dreaming skills as your people are, Little Wren. I—”
“We talked a lot about people we loved. I didn’t hear your name.”
Silver Sparrow squinted at her. “You’ve known me for less than one hundred heartbeats, and already you’re sure I’m a liar?”
Dust Moon groaned. “Yes, of course she is, Sparrow! You have that effect on women. Let me handle this.”
He kicked at one of the roots in the trail. “Please.”
Dust Moon leaned toward Wren with an intensity that frightened her. Wren instinctively pulled back, and Dust Moon sighed. “Forgive me, Wren, I’m just worried sick about Rumbler. You see, I brought him into the world with my own hands, and he and his mother lived with Sparrow and me for the first two years of Rumbler’s life. He is like a son to us. We love him very much. Please. Where is he?”
Bewildered and distrustful, Wren didn’t say anything. She just clamped her lip between her teeth to stave off the tears that swelled her throat. If these really were people who loved Rumbler, she should tell them, and quickly, so they could stop him before he’d climbed the hill and made it down to the lakeshore. But …
Dust Moon studied Wren’s expression, then touched her hands tenderly, and backed away. “Let’s give Little Wren some time,” she advised. “I imagine this has been a terrible day for her, too. I don’t know about everyone else, but I could use a hot cup of tea and some supper. Sparrow, why don’t you and I gather wood. Blue Raven and Little Wren will want privacy.”
She rose to her feet, and headed up the hillside into the trees. Silver Sparrow gave Wren a brief glance, then followed Dust Moon. As they climbed higher, their moonlit faces bobbed through the forest like bodiless ghosts.
Wren peered at her uncle from the corner of her eyes. “Are you going to let them take Rumbler?”
Blue Raven’s brows lowered, an expression she had seen a hundred times. She knew what it meant. “I thought we would let Rumbler make that decision.”
“R-Rumbler?”
Blue Raven seemed to be considering his next words with great care. He spoke softly. “I did not know Rumbler for long, but in the time that I knew him, I judged him to be a boy of uncommon valor and integrity. You know him much better than I. Is that how you see him?”
“Oh, yes, Uncle. I could tell you stories of things he has faced on this journey, and you would see his valor.”
Blue Raven nodded. Wren waited for him to say more, to finish what he’d—
“Wren, I believe that when Rumbler hears that you have been condemned to death, and that the only way to save you is for him to return to Walksalong Village and give himself up, he will—”
“No!” She lunged to her feet, her breast heaving. “No, Uncle, please, you can’t ask him to—to … he—he’s so frail, and he loves me, and trusts me. I won’t let you!”
“Wren. Please. Sit down.” Blue Raven held out a hand to her.