People of the Sea(32)

“Why, they’d become witches and go searching for living women to kill so they could be whole again. I have been Dreaming about witches a lot lately. Maybe that’s all this illness is—male witches killing women, female witches killing men. Nobody’s happy with only half a soul.” Good Plume pinned him with a hawkish eye. “You should know that. Where’s that square of deer hide you always carry around? The one with the maze on it. Haven’t you Dreamed your way through the maze to find out what’s causing this sickness?”

Sunchaser folded his arms and hugged himself. A Power like the crushing fingers of Above-Old-Man tightened around his heart. “I wanted to talk with you about that, Aunt. I… I’m having some trouble. With the maze. Day after tomorrow, I want to go to the Dream Cave near the coast.”

“Trouble? Since when?”

“Just since yesterday. I tried to Dream last night, when I went out into the forest. But I… couldn’t. I discovered a new… turn. A path I’ve never been on before. I keep getting lost.”

“Ah.” She shook a finger. “That’s a good sign. At least you haven’t lost the ability to recognize that you’re lost. Because if you did, you really would be lost.”

He looked at her through the corner of his eye. “But I end up going in circles that lead nowhere, Aunt. I fall into Darkness. I think I need to be alone. So I can rest and think about it.”

“So what’s the problem with Darkness? What happened to your eyes, Mole?”

He smiled faintly. “Maybe I’m just tired.”

“And,” she said with a quaver in her old voice, “maybe you’ve finished with the work of the eyes. Maybe it’s time for you to do another kind of work.”

“What other work?”

“You’ve been laboring for cycles to see a way out for the mammoths so they can stay here with us. Maybe it’s time you gave up your eyes. You must now work on not seeing. Learn to feel your way around.”



Wearily, he examined her. “You mean like the tribe of invisible people?”

“Yes.”

“And what am I supposed to strive not to see?”

“Your lover’s face.” He laughed and dug his fingers into the leather of his pack. “Once I’ve figured out what that means, I promise to work on it. Then you don’t mind if I go and Dream before the sickness ends?” “Of course I mind, but I can do the Healings that need be done. And I think I understand what’s wrong with you,” she replied. “I had a Dream. I just didn’t know what it meant at the time.”

“A Dream?”

“I saw you walking. You were on the hard, black road of difficulties that begins in Dawn Child’s belly and arcs across the roof of the world to the home of the Thunderbeings. All humans walk this road while they’re alive, of course. But you were very fortunate. You had stumbled onto the crossing that leads to the heart of the maze. Monster Rock Eagle perches in the rocks at that crossing. Very few Dreamers ever see him. He frightened you. You didn’t know which direction to take. So you sat right down in the path and cried. It made me ashamed. I thought you were wiser than that.”

Sunchaser’s brows lowered. “You think the crossing is the new turn in the maze?”

“More likely it’s the heart. Only you can figure that out.” “But I want you to help me.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

Good Plume grinned, showing toothless gums. “Because I don’t know what it means… except that you’re in trouble. Don’t you think that if I knew, I’d tell you?”

“Not necessarily.”

She chuckled. “Come on. We’d better Sing for those half souls right now, before the entire village has been witched and there’s nobody left to Sing any of us to the Land of the Dead.”

She linked her arm through his and headed him toward the sweat lodge in the forest outside the village.

“You know, Sunchaser,” she said as they walked, “I remember when you used to be happy. It wasn’t that long ago, either. Remember how you used to let out those bloodcurdling shrieks when Power swelled your chest? Ah, those screams warmed my heart.”

“I’ll be happy again someday.”

“Of course you will, once you’ve Healed everybody in the world who’s sick, saved mammoths, dire wolves, camels and all the other animals who look like they’re dying out—and, most important of all, gone back to Dreaming seriously.”

Sunchaser shook his head. “Blessed Spirits, I need to sit down. Even if only for fifty heartbeats.”