People of the Sea(79)
“You’re a good grandson, Horseweed,” his grandmother said in a shaking voice. She wiped her tears on her sleeve. “Your grandfather is going to need you in the days to come. Badly. I want you to remember that.” “Why, Grandmother? I’m not even a man yet. Why would Grandfather—”
“Because Oxbalm sees things no one else does. He thinks you’re a man.” She waved a hand weakly. “Anyway, you might have killed a mammoth. Nobody knows what happened to that cow Sunchaser followed into the forest. If it died with your dart in it, then you’re a man.”
The possibility had never occurred to Horseweed. His eyes widened. Sunchaser himself had called him a man. “What do you mink Grandfather will need me for?”
“To help him.” Sumac lifted her wrinkled chin to the Dance circle. “You can feel it, too, can’t you? The people
are turning against Sunchaser—even though your grandfather still supports him. Unless Sunchaser does something to turn this tide, Oxbalm will go down with him.” She pinned Horseweed with faded old eyes. “All the people Oxbalm has depended upon in the past will start falling away—start turning toward Catchstraw and his idiot babble. You, my grandson, will be the only man he can depend upon.”
Horseweed patted Sumac’s hand nervously. “You know I’ll help Grandfather all I can.”
“Yes. I do know that. That’s why I say it to you. And you’ll be doing me a great favor if you keep this conversation to yourself. Your grandfather would not take kindly to my interference in his affairs.”
A spider crawled across the sand near Horseweed’s left moccasin. It was a big gray spider, with the longest legs he’d ever seen. When he moved his, foot, the spider leaped a good two hands away and scurried with lightning quickness into a crevice in the rocks. “He may not take kindly to interference,” Horseweed observed, “but he’ll accept solid advice. Which is what you’ve always given. Mother used to talk about it. She said that you were the rock upon which Grandfather steadied himself and gained his strength.” Sumac’s lips trembled as she slipped her arm through his and held it tightly. “Blessed Spirits, I miss your mother. She’s the only woman I could ever open my soul to. When she died, I lost a part of myself.”
“You can talk to me, Grandmother. I would never repeat anything—”
“No, I know you wouldn’t.” A somber expression creased her face.
Catchstraw fell out of the circle and shook himself like an antelope trying to shed its horns. “Listen!” he shrieked. “Listen, everybody!”
The Dance circle slowed to a stop and people began to mutter fearfully. Balsam cast a glance over his shoulder, looking for Horseweed and Sumac. Horseweed nodded to his
brother and gestured to Catchstraw, indicating that Balsam should listen, too. With distaste, Balsam turned back. He disliked Catchstraw as much as Horseweed did.
Under her breath, Sumac said, “I wonder what he’s up to now.” Catchstraw grabbed his skull between his hands, pressing hard and groaning. “I see death! Death and destruction! Oh, it’s terrible!”
“Some news,” Sumac commented blandly.
Dizzy Seal left the broken circle, mumbling irreverently as he went to slouch beneath the trees. Horseweed noted that that made three elders against three: Yucca Thorn, Maidenhair and Cheetah tail on Catchstraw’s side, and his grandparents and Dizzy Seal on Sunchaser’s side. Catchstraw raised his voice to a bellow. “Sunchaser is the cause of this! I told you so. Mammoth Above is speaking to me, right now! Don’t you hear her voice? It’s so loud!” He pressed his fists over his ears and reeled on his feet. People gasped and fell back, staring. “I can’t stand it. Oh, make it stop!”
“It’s probably your bad gut!” Sumac shouted. “It’s babbling so loud, you can’t hear yourself. You’ve always had a weak stomach, Catchstraw.” >
Old woman Yucca Thorn turned to glare at Sumac, then called, “Go on, Catchstraw. What’s Mammoth Above saying?”
“Oh, the pain! She’s saying that Sunchaser was never her Dreamer. That he claimed the honor unjustly and now he’s being punished for lying. For lying!”
Oxbalm left the circle and limped toward Sumac and Horseweed. Balsam trotted behind him, his eyes wide and fearful.
Horseweed’s eyes narrowed. “Do you really think they believe he’s Dreaming, Grandmother?”
“Yes, Grandson. They believe. Right now they’d believe anything that might guide them through this terrible time. No matter what—”