"Is he in that tree, too?"
"Oh, yes," Wanderer responded positively. "He's there."
"Well, why can't he just come out and talk without me killing First Woman's tree?"
Wanderer lowered his head and gazed contemplatively at her small bow. He plucked the tightly braided hair bowstring and canted his head to listen to its responding thrum. Lichen watched his bushy gray brows raise and lower expressively. "Well, at least your bow knows why."
Lichen scowled at it. "It does? What is it saying?"
"It said that you have to prove your courage to Bird-Man before he'll talk to you face-to-face. You do want to talk to him, don't you?"
"Yes, but . . . well . . ."
"Lichen?" he asked reprovingly.
"I do," she announced against her better judgment. "All right, Wanderer. How do I hunt First Woman's tree?"
His dark eyes narrowed. "She's just behind that rock. When you go in, you have to shoot straight into her branches. Don't aim at her trunk, or Thunderbird will feel the tree shudder and send lightning shooting out the ends of the branches to get you."
"Because he'll think I'm trying to disturb his nest?" Lichen asked reasonably. She had been pecked in the back of her head once when she'd reached into a finch's nest to steal eggs. The mother finch had chased her all the way home, twittering and diving.
"Yes, that's right." Wanderer lifted her bow and handed it back. "Can you do it?"
She felt as though maggots were crawling around in her stomach. "I guess so," she admitted morosely. She took the bow and nocked an arrow. "Just one arrow will be enough?"
"It should be. But if she comes after you, shoot her again."
Comes after me? "Sure.**
Wanderer sat on his haunches and lifted his voice in a strange Song that had no words, just beautiful, lilting sounds.
Lichen bravely stalked toward the rock. She eased around the gritty side, and a shadow fell over her face as a dark cloud wandered over the bluff.
Lichen edged farther, then jumped back. The cliff fell away in a sheer drop of a hundred hands. Wanderer, there's no tree here. But when she craned her neck to explore over the edge, she saw a tiny cedar tree clinging to a patch of soil no bigger than her foot. The tree couldn't have been taller than her knees.
This was Furst Woman's tree?
Lichen didn't see any of Thunderbird's eggs in the top. She frowned over her shoulder at Wanderer, then sighed, lifted her bow, and shot into the branches. The tree flailed mildly, as though trying to dislodge her arrow.
She turned. "Wanderer, I did it. What should ..."
A flash of lightning crackled through the air, striking the bluff a thousand hands away. Chunks of stone exploded like huge hailstones. The roar of Thunderbird that followed shook the ground so violently, it knocked her off her feet.
"Lichen!" Wanderer shouted.
"I didn't hit the trunk!" she yelled.
Thunderbird's growl subsided, rolling away into the setting sun. Lichen lay panting, staring up wide-eyed at the cloud. A drip of sweat tickled her neck. "I didn't," she vowed. "I didn't hit the trunk."
Wanderer ran up and clutched her tightly against him. "Are you all right?"
"Yes, but I don't know what I did wrong."
"Oh, Thunderbird is contrary. Sometimes he just does that to scare people. Did you kill the tree?"
"I think so."
He released her and slithered forward on his stomach to see. "Oh, yes. You did very well. Why don't you sit in the shade while I cut off her top."
Lichen slumped down against the rock and wiped her drenched forehead. Hunting Spirits took a lot of strength. "Just the top? Why don't we take the whole tree?''
She could hear a soft zizzing as Wanderer sawed with his knife.
"It takes only a very small portion to open a tunnel through which you can speak to Bird-Man."
"A tunnel?"
"Yes. These branches are like hollow reeds. They connect the Underworld with humans and the sky."
"Do I have to crawl into the tunnel?" That possibility frightened her more than Thunderbird's wrath.
"Oh, yes, just like Snake. Tonight we're going to prepare you to die and—"
"What?"
Wanderer looked up with sudden surprise, his knife halted in mid-motion. "Didn't I tell you?"
"No!" she protested. "You didn't tell me anything at all about having to die!"
"I'm getting so forgetful." He shook his head and turned back to finish sawing. When the very top of the tree came off in his hand, he placed prayer feathers near the trunk and Sang a soft Song of thanks to First Woman.
Gingerly, he used his toes to pull himself backward. He grinned as he extended the fragrant branches to Lichen. "Well, anyway, we have a lot of work to do. Let's go home. We have to build a death litter and prepare food for you to take on your journey to the Underworld."