“And who and what am I?”
“One of the most clever and remarkable men I’ve ever known.”
Red Dog chuckled at that. “You know, your flattery is worth more than all the North Wind People’s silly jewels.” He paused. “In all of my life, only two people have seen through to my soul.”
“Who’s the other one?”
Red Dog shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t have to lie to me.”
“I’m not. I’ve never seen him in the daylight, and at night, he wears a mask.”
“You’re joking.”
Red Dog’s expression turned flat, and his voice dropped to a whisper. “About him? Never.”
Rain Bear stiffened. “I don’t believe it—someone actually scares you.”
“Oh, yes, more than Ecan, Cimmis, or the Council. If they found out I was your agent, they’d just torture me to death in a most grisly fashion.” Red Dog’s eyes glittered. “He’d steal my soul and lock it screaming and terrified into one of his little chipped fetishes.”
Rain Bear cocked his head. “Coyote?”
Red Dog jerked. “You know him?”
“He’s after Dzoo.”
“After her how?”
“We think he wants to possess her.”
Red Dog looked uneasily out at the darkness beyond the ring of fire. “I’m supposed to deliver Astcat’s message. Then we’ve got to dicker over Ecan’s son. After that, I’ve got to get back. If Coyote’s after Dzoo, she’s in real danger.”
Do you believe it?” Evening Star’s voice held a tremor, and it angered her. Gruffly, she folded her arms and leaned against the dark trunk of a fir. This was either a dream coming true, or the beginning of a nightmare. She’d chafed and stamped when Dogrib wouldn’t allow her into the meadow where Rain Bear and Red Dog were talking, and now, in the morning light, as she heard Matron Astcat’s terms, she wasn’t sure what to think.
Rain Bear crouched before her and studied the ragged people moving around the campfires down the slope. He had a strange look on his face. “It’s possible. During her lucid moments, Astcat generally made good decisions. Do you think the Council knows about the offer?”
“I doubt it. Nevertheless, she is the matron of the North Wind People. She has the authority to make offers without their approval. I just don’t understand why she would wish to.”
“Perhaps it is simply an act of kindness.”
She shook her head. “Offering to revoke my slave status and give me a lodge in Fire Village is more than kindness; it’s very dangerous. My people would flock to me. Within days, I’d be confirmed as clan matron to succeed my mother. Potentially, if anything happened to Astcat, I would be a viable candidate for matron of the North Wind People. Surely neither she nor Cimmis wishes that.”
Rain Bear rubbed his jaw. “Nevertheless she has been ill.”
“Yes, but she doesn’t want me to follow her. She has a daughter, Kstawl.”
He propped his elbows on his knees, and she could see the red sash that belted his tan leather shirt. It accentuated the breadth of his shoulders and the narrowness of his waist. “Kstawl is very young, isn’t she?”
“Three and ten summers.”
Evening Star slipped her hands beneath her cape and rubbed her cold arms. The walk to the meadow had chilled her to the bone. “It is more likely that all this is a lie. Astcat wants to lure me back so that she can reward Ecan by returning his wayward slave.”
Rain Bear grimaced at the ground. Tens of feet had trampled the mud; then it had frozen with the fall of night, leaving a pocked, treacherous surface. “Well, we won’t let that happen.”
Evening Star’s throat suddenly tightened. She lifted a hand to rub it.
Rain Bear stood, and she saw the dread and hope that brimmed in his eyes. “But if there’s a chance that you might be able to safely take your position as clan matron …”
He let the words hang.
“I can’t.”
“Answer me truly: If Astcat were dead, and the remaining North Wind People asked you to return as the North Wind matron, would you do it?”
Horrifying images flashed across her soul. She squeezed her eyes closed to avoid them, but they only intensified. People crying, lodges on fire … her daughter screaming …
“During the attack on my village,” she said in a shaky voice, “I tried to plead with Ecan for the lives of the children. I had my two-summers-old daughter in my arms and five more children clinging to my cape. He was polite and understanding. He said of course he wouldn’t execute children. I let his warriors take them away to a ‘safe’ place beyond the burning village. But it wasn’t far enough. I … I … could hear …”