People of the Owl(214)
“I don’t understand.”
He raised a sympathetic eyebrow. “I don’t think anyone wants to be a Dreamer. The cost is so high.”
“Why can’t you stay just the way you are?”
“Because black clouds are gathering—among the spirits as well as among the clans. It is all coming together, Pine Drop.”
A frown pinched her forehead as she nodded. “I know. Uncle is up to something. I think he’s going to accuse you of witchcraft. I think he’s been making deals.”
“He thinks Snapping Turtle Clan will finally become preeminent.” Salamander ran his finger down the side of her cheek. “It isn’t going to happen that way, Pine Drop.”
“How do you know?”
“I’ve seen that part of the future.” He could see doubt firming her expression, and added, “You must trust me on this.”
“Trust you?” Irritation tugged at the corners of her mouth.
“Have you done so poorly on those occasions when I asked you to trust me?”
“Snakes, no. But it leaves me wondering how someone as young as you can always be right. You’re three summers younger than I! Where did you learn all this?”
“In the Spirit World,” he replied uneasily. “The things I’ve seen—”
“You’re not using those mushrooms again, are you?” Warning flashed in her eyes.
“No. Not recently. I don’t have to. Bird Man showed me things.”
“Bird Man? The Bird Man?”
“Before I choose one way or another, however, I have to go see someone in the Spirit World.”
“You’re not making sense!”
He let himself look into her eyes, seeing her souls as they tried to comprehend him. “She is older than the Hero Twins. She saved my life that time.”
“The old woman you talked about?”
“Yes.”
She shook herself, stepping away, looking at the fish as they gasped and flopped in the net. “I don’t understand this, Salamander. I just don’t want to lose you. I’ve come to love you. Do you understand? I’m afraid!”
“So am I.”
“Well, let’s stop it! Let’s find a way to save you.”
He hesitated before testing the idea on her. “Would you give it all up?”
“What?” The question had taken her by surprise.
“All of it,” he insisted. “Could you give up Sun Town? Give up being Clan Elder someday? Your position in the leadership? Your clan? Would you just go away with me? Knowing that we could live the rest of our lives in peace? Raise our daughter?”
She gave him a blank look. “Just leave? Everything?”
He nodded.
“The clan is everything, Salamander. It’s who we are. What we are. The clan is our blood and bones, our heart and lungs and souls. It is the air we breathe and the food we eat. It is our warmth and protection. Everything, the whole world, is determined by the clan. What we own, where we go, who we marry. The clan gives us our place in the world.”
“Yes, it does.”
“So, you’re asking, could I give up the whole world?” He could see the confusion behind her expression.
“That’s right. Can you give up everything for nothing.”
She slowly shook her head. “I don’t think I understand you. I don’t think you can give up the world, Salamander. To do what? Just go off and live at the edge of the Earth? Be alone?”
“Totally.”
“In other words, you’re asking if I could give up being a person.”
“It’s a hard question, isn’t it?” The answer—the one he had expected—was in her eyes. He smiled reassuringly at her and indicated the fish. “Come on, we’d better stun the ones that haven’t died yet and lug them to the canoe. The thing about a big catch like this is that work is just starting.”
But a great sadness lay between his souls. If Pine Drop, the bravest person he knew, couldn’t even comprehend the question, how could he find the courage actually to do what she thought unimaginable?
Fifty-seven
Night Rain tried for all the world to look normal. Belted at her waist, she wore a fabric kirtle with a prominent turtle design on the front. A square bark hat perched on her head with two long brown pelican feathers stuck into her hair above her ears. A single round ceramic pot hung from the net bag over her shoulders.
Ceramic vessels were light, easily made, and reliable containers. For a people who practically lived in canoes, they served many purposes. Placed in a fire, they could be used to boil liquids and cook soups. By preheating cooking clays, they could become a portable oven for the baking of foodstuffs, and when traveling, fire could be built inside, and the pot changed into a portable heat stove. Finally, when collections of nutmeats, dried seeds, and other foodstuffs were stored, pots could be sealed so that rodents and insects couldn’t gain access. Generally it was for the latter purposes that people carried ceramic vessels. The trouble with boiling water inside them was that given their poor firing, the food often acquired grit and tasted muddy as the inside of the pot began to flake away.