People of the River(46)

Lichen blinked at her knees. The bruise had turned into a black knot that felt hot. "But Bird-Man told me I had to learn to fly . . . so I could go talk to First Woman in her cave."

The rope continued to Sing, sounding more and more like a swarm of grasshoppers sawing their legs in the weeds. "Yes, the rocks say that's true. But to do it, you first have to empty yourself of your humanness, so you can be Snake, who lives in the dark Underworld, and be Hawk, who roams the brilliant light of the sky. When you can unite all three worlds in yourself—Snake, Bird, and Human—then First Woman will let you enter her cave."

"Well ... but ... I don't know how to do that. Can Bird-Man come and help me?"

Wanderer frowned. His bushy gray brows drew together as he listened. "The rocks say that he's never left you."

"So, where is he?" Lichen looked around warily, searching the dark cracks in the rocks for any hint of shiny snakeskin or the flutter of feathers.

Wanderer pulled down the hair rope and quietly coiled it in the shaft of light. "They stopped talking."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"They didn't want to tell me?"

"Perhaps Bird-Man won't let them. And then, rocks don't know everything, though they're always listening and learning when people least suspect it."

Lichen squinted one eye to peer up at the sky, visible through the rent overhead. A puff of cloud sailed across the space, its edges tinged with the palest of pinks. "We should be going, Wanderer. It'll be sunset soon. We can't be late for the Beauty Way. It took my mother half a day to convince the people in the village that it was all right for you to come."

His face darkened as he looked down at his rope. "It was kind of Meadow Vole to ask them. And kind of you. Lichen, to ask her for me."

She patted his arm affectionately and crawled out of the rocky fortress into the waning daylight. The crimson face of Father Sun hung a handsbreadth from the horizon. In the purpling stillness, she could hear voices climbing the slope— soft, reverent voices, as if tiie approach of the ceremonial turned the world as frail as a plum blossom, so that it had to be treated gently.

"What were you and the boys doing up here?"

"Playing chase. But then, when the boys got to the top, Screechowl wanted to look down on the women painting themselves. I said it was wrong, and we got in a fight."

Wanderer's mouth puckered like a corded bag pulled tight. "Bad blood! Well, I pray Power is lenient with him."

"Lenient?"

**Yes. Power always gets back at people."

Lichen looked at the boulder, and a tickling feeling grew in her stomach.

Wanderer—his mask tucked under one arm—came up beside her, and they took the trail down to Red weed Village, twining around clusters of vine-covered stone. A coolness had climbed onto the shoulders of the air, so heavy that Lichen shivered. When Wanderer noticed, he lifted his rabbit cape and spread it around her to shield her from the coming night.

"Wanderer," she asked, "what am I going to do? About learning to enter the Cave, I mean?"

"Do you want to enter it?"

"Yes. Bird-Man told me I needed to, or First Woman was going to abandon the world and let us all die." She looked up into that long, beaky face with its unruly frame of gray hair to see if he wanted to make fun of her. Grown-ups usually did when she told them about Bird-Man coming to her. Even her own mother laughed at her.

"Well then," he said, "I guess we just have to teach you how to turn into Snake and Hawk, so you can go searching for Bird-Man."

"Will I have to give up my human soul, like you have?"

"Yes, for a while."

Lichen grabbed onto the fringe of his deerhide sleeve while they maneuvered through a thorny bramble of rosebushes. Her heart had started to jam against her ribs. "Wanderer?"

"Yes, Lichen."

"What if Tm scared?"

He smiled. The growing bonfire of sunset cast such a lurid halo over his face that his wrinkles stood out like dark cobwebs. "Oh, don't let it trouble you. Being human isn't all it's made out to be. You might be surprised at what Hawk can teach you about Earthmaker. I just wish . . . well, I wish you could come and live with me for a while, so I could teach you all the little things about changing souls." A pause. "But I doubt your mother would ^prove of that."

Lichen stepped over a rock and tried to imagine what it would be like to live with Wanderer instead of with her mother. She didn't know if she liked the idea. She had always hved with her mother, beneath the watchful eye of the Stone Wolf, and close enough to Flycatcher to hit him with a rock if she wanted to. But she loved Wanderer just the same. Maybe she could do it. "Am I allowed to pick the kind of bird and snake whose soul I get? Like maybe I could get Water Snake's soul or Falcon's soul?"