“Stupidity?”
“Taking those mushrooms you found in the Serpent’s lodge. That first time the old man gave you just a taste. Only enough to allow your souls to drift up and glance the Spirit World. The second time, you ate too much. I thought all of our problems were over—and by your own hand, too.”
“Problems?”
“What did the old woman promise you? That you would become a great Dreamer? Is that what you intend to do? Just when everyone needs you the most, you are going to bundle yourself into a canoe, paddle off to some secluded isle, and Dream for the rest of your life?”
Salamander frowned. “The One calls to me.”
“It calls to everyone,” Bird Man said irritably. “Just because it has a certain lure, you’re set to abandon all of your responsibilities to your wives, your children, Water Petal and Yellow Spider, your lineage, and Owl Clan. How noble of you. You will spend the rest of your life eating bugs and leaves, trying to escape yourself in an attempt to find nothingness.”
“But to Dance with the One—”
“Means disappointing people who love you and depend on you.”
“Then why is it there?”
“An accident of the Creation. You answered your Serpent’s question, didn’t you? When the sky was separated from the land it was to create duality, otherness. Opposites, if you will. Do you really think a young man like you can Dream them back together? What you feel, fool, is the hole that was left, and it’s trying to pull you in.”
“It is?”
Bird Man cocked his head. “Think about it, Salamander. I remember my idiot brother trying to tell me once, long ago, that I was unschooled, but that I could still find a way to the Dream.” His lips quirked behind the mask. “Now, having been part of the Spirit World for so long, I can tell you that the One isn’t all that there is.”
“It’s not?”
Bird Man spread his feather-clad arm to take in the huge vista of Sun Town. “Look down there, Salamander. Do you realize the majesty of this place? Nothing else like it exists in our world. It is from here that the vision will spread. You and your brother have spurred it. Hazel Fire and his companions have taken the bait! So, too, have so many of the others. You have set fire to their imaginations, like blowing on a dying coal. Even Striped Dart is beguiled. Your impulses are correct, Salamander. You can grasp the future!”
“As my brother did with his seeds?”
“Yes, my friend.” A thoughtful brown eye studied him. “I could do nothing to save him.”
“Masked Owl killed him.” Salamander frowned. “I don’t understand it. White Bird would have made a brilliant Speaker, the greatest ever.”
“You are wrong.”
“I am?”
“You could make an even greater Speaker, Salamander.” Those piercing brown eyes were taking his measure. “That is one of the things Masked Owl doesn’t want you to know. As Speaker you can change the People forever. You can start them on a path of greatness that will rival anything in the world.”
Bird Man smiled at Salamander’s surprise, and said, “Salamander, you have been agonizing over your visions of the future. You caught glimpses, but not a full picture. You saw the grand ruler, high above the river. Do you remember?”
“Yes.”
With a swirl of his feathers, Bird Man outlined a burning circle against the sky. Within its ring Salamander could see pointed pyramids of stone, people beyond count laboring in fertile fields alongside a winding brown river. Giant stone buildings stood above the sun-baked shores. Square stone spears thrust into the sky like giant awls.
“They are already building marvels over there,” Bird Man whispered.
“Where is that?” Salamander gasped, trying to understand the scale of the buildings and pyramids. Was it his imagination, or did they dwarf Sun Town?
“In another world, my friend. Far to the east, across a huge ocean of water.” Bird Man shrugged.
“We could do that? Here?” Salamander marveled. “We don’t have the stone!”
Bird Man laughed again. “Just because you live on a low ridge of windblown silt, do not worry about stone. I can teach you to think in grander terms. I can help you to break the petty politics of the clans. Smash them once and for all. You can begin the process of molding the People into a new direction. You can do it the same way you shape your little red owls. It won’t be easy, it won’t be painless. But you could do it! You could sit atop this mound and control this entire river! Generations of your descendants will speak your name with awe as they rule from on high.”