People of the Nightland(120)
“Yes. Me, too.”
Silvertip was vaguely aware of Ashes, still haranguing people to stay back.
“You Dreamed the One,” Windwolf said reverently. “How long have you been doing this?”
“Since I died, and Wolf Dreamer showed me the way.”
“And you told no one?”
“Who would have believed me?”
“Come, let’s get you back to your bed.”
Silvertip stood on wobbly legs, his vision still swimming. He could make out Bear Boy, tears running down his face as his mother dabbed at his head with the hem of her dress. Ashes looked like a warrior, brandishing her war club, keeping people back. Then he noticed the expressions, people in the crowd staring, struggling to believe what they had just seen.
Silvertip almost made a full step before he bent double and threw up.
Fifty
Windwolf glanced across at Dipper, where she hovered beside Silvertip’s bed, a stricken look on her face. Then he glanced at Lookingbill. The old man’s lined expression and distant eyes reflected sober thoughts. Ashes looked oddly cowed as she sat with her war club across her lap.
Outside, Fish Hawk said yet again, “The chief is in Council with Windwolf. You may not go in. We will send news when they have finished.”
More questions were called, to which Fish Hawk replied, “Silvertip used the Wolf Bundle to Dream the boy’s soul back into his body. Beyond that, I don’t know.”
Windwolf ignored it, turned his attention to the roast haunch of beaver, and took a bite. With this new development, who knew when he’d get to eat again. He chewed the sweet dark meat, swallowed, and looked at Ashes.
“Tell us the whole story. How long have you known?”
She glanced nervously at him and then Lookingbill. “Since the night he woke up. He was different.”
“We thought that was due to the wound,” Lookingbill said. “People are often introspective after such a blow to the head.”
“Tell us everything,” Windwolf coaxed.
“He says he died.” Ashes fingered the handle of her war club. “That he watched his body laid out on the high rocks, and then Condor came and ate him.” She made a face. “He told me it was horrifying as it pulled out his insides and swallowed them. Then, when the bones were picked clean, he watched them fall apart, and then everything went gray. That’s when Wolf Dreamer came to him and told him he was dead.”
Lookingbill nodded. “Great Dreamers often have to die to be reborn. What did Silvertip come back as?”
“Condor. Wolf Dreamer taught him how to fly, and then they flew west, along the Ice Giants. He saw big lakes, and then, the biggest of all, somewhere beyond the Southwind People.”
“I know the lake,” Windwolf said. “A huge thing—to skirt it takes moons of travel.”
Ashes nodded. “Silvertip saw a great ice dam, a place where the water is backed up.” She looked up at him with a piercing stare. “He says the ice is melting. Sometime soon, this entire country is going to be washed away.”
Lookingbill frowned. “That’s impossible!”
“Our world is ending,” Ashes snapped. “I believe Silvertip.”
“But Raven Hunter whispers in your Dreams,” Lookingbill snapped back.
“We are opposites.” She narrowed an eye. “Silvertip and me. That is what is going to make our marriage so Powerful.”
Windwolf raised a hand, stilling Lookingbill’s response. “Your ear is bleeding. Did that happen this morning?”
She shook her head. “It’s for my mother.”
“But you don’t know she’s … Did Silvertip tell you she’s dead?”
Ashes pursed her lips, then shook her head. “He said that she would come back, but the mother I knew wouldn’t be there.” She raised her eyes. “By offering for her soul now, it won’t be as hard when she comes back.”
“So you’re saying she survives this flood?” Lookingbill asked skeptically.
“Silvertip does.”
“What about the rest of us?” Windwolf asked. “Did he tell you anything about the people?”
“Only that they have to go west. Some will follow him to safety; others won’t.”
Windwolf nodded. “What about me? What does he say I’m supposed to do?”
Ashes shook her head. “I don’t know. He just said that you, Kakala, and Keresa were struggling over the future. Something about bargaining between Wolf Dreamer and Raven Hunter.”
“I see.”
“Well, I don’t,” Lookingbill muttered. “He’s just a boy!”
“One who carries the Wolf Bundle,” Windwolf corrected. “And apparently speaks with it.” He took another bite of his breakfast. Swallowing, he added, “I was there this morning. Bear Boy was dead. What I felt …”