“What is it?” Acorn asked. “What’s happened?”
Elk Ivory subtly used her chin to point to the severed head that blackened the snow forty hands distant.
Acorn glanced at it, swallowed hard, and nodded as if in sudden understanding. “Well. If you need me … just … just call.”
“I will, Acorn,” Elk Ivory said. “Return to your tea. All is well.”
Acorn gave Jumping Badger a weak smile. “Good evening to you, War Leader.”
“Get away from me!”
Acorn backed up, then headed for the fire. When he arrived, he was barraged with whispered questions. Acorn knelt before the fire and shushed them.
Elk Ivory stood tall and calm. Observing.
Jumping Badger spread his hands. “I don’t know why he does that to me,” he said. “I think he’s trying to drive me mad.”
“Who? Acorn?”
“Lamedeer!” he shouted. “You have no idea what it’s like to have one ghost talking ceaselessly in your head, while another prowls the darkness waiting to get her hands around your throat. At least tonight the echoes are silent. They are always worse at night, right after I climb into my bedding. Like a hundred hearts pounding at once, they—”
“Jumping Badger?” Elk Ivory’s voice had gone low and concerned. “The Midwinter Dance is two moons away. Perhaps you should ask permission to participate in the ceremony. If you ask Sky Holder for his blessings, he might rid you—”
“You think I’m a cursed man, don’t you?” He knew the very thought terrified his warriors. “Don’t you see what’s happening here? I’m not cursed!” He gestured to the head lying in the snow. “One of Lamedeer’s souls still lives in his head! I’ve received a great gift, Elk Ivory. The gods have given me the ability to speak with that soul, to learn from it.”
Her eyes bored into him. “I think you need to see a Healer, Jumping Badger. People often do. It is not something to be ashamed of. All living things fall sick. A Healer will blow ashes upon your body to cleanse you of the evil that’s come to live in your souls.”
“There’s no evil in my souls, old woman! My Power grows daily. You’re just too blind to see it.” He glowered at her, then cupped a hand to his mouth and shouted at his warriors, “And so are you! You’re all as blind as moles!”
His Power had drained away to nothingness, and he knew it, but he couldn’t let them know it. It enraged him to think that that despicable old lunatic, Silver Sparrow, might be waiting outside Walksalong Village right now, and Jumping Badger had no way of reaching him to force him to remove his curse. If he could only …
“The prophecy will come true,” Lamedeer’s deep voice hissed from the shadows. “You will wind up treated worse than a mangy cur. I have seen it, your own relatives kicking you, and spitting upon you.” More laughter. “It’s a glorious sight.”
Jumping Badger scrambled through the deep snow, screaming, “You don’t know that! How could you? It won’t happen!”
His warriors rose to their feet, and stood nervously before the fire.
Jumping Badger pulled the head from the snow, and shoved his nose less than a handbreadth from the dead war leader’s. “I’ll kill anyone who tries to treat me that way. Do you hear? Anyone!” In a low, threatening voice, he added, “Even you, Lamedeer. Don’t forget, I hold your soul in my hands. If you don’t do as I say, I’ll never let you rest. I’ll …”
His warriors’ voices rose, and Jumping Badger spun around.
The sound of branches cracking came from the forest. The voices around the fire halted. Several warriors rose and sneaked to the north end of the camp, searching for the intruder.
Snowflakes started to fall. A wall of indigo clouds rolled overhead, gobbling up the lodges of the Night Walkers. Jumping Badger frowned.
“Oh, not another storm,” Elk Ivory said. “I hate—”
“It’s not a storm,” Jumping Badger whispered as his eyes opened wide. The black shape in the forest had grown. She stood leaning over the trees, two hundred hands tall! Her charred hair waved against the starry sky. “It’s her! She’s coming for me!”
A shrill keening began, angry, forlorn, as if the Forest Spirits were fleeing for their lives.
Jumping Badger rose to his feet. “Run!” he screamed. “Everyone run!”
The leading edge of the storm exploded around him, blasting bedrolls and packs, roaring like a wildfire. Warriors ran in every direction, screaming and shouting. The wind ripped Lamedeer’s head from Jumping Badger’s arms, and sent it sailing away.