Trader laughed as he puffed reflectively on his pipe.
Old White sat with a buffalo robe around his shoulders, his hands extended to the flames. Firelight played across his aged features. Was it just the exhaustion, or was his face more drawn, his eyes sadder? Trader drew from his pipe and wondered.
“Storm is coming,” Old White noted, glancing up at the clouds.
“Cold wind from the north, dark clouds moving up over it from the south.” Trader gave the sky a slit-eyed appraisal. “My guess is freezing rain come morning. Should make travel miserable.”
Old White grunted in humorless agreement.
Trader suspected the old man wanted nothing more than to sleep for three days straight. Then he, too, looked up at the night. Dark and tortured, it threatened rain. Heavy clouds—menacing and swollen—were rolling up from the gulf. The air carried the scent of moisture, and here, so close to the earth, it had grown thick, cold, and still after having blown down from the north that entire day.
The three of them sat around a crackling fire, backs to logs that other travelers had drawn up at the terraced campsite. Their two canoes rested at the edge of their vision, where the creek flowed. Thick ropes were tied from the bows to the trees in case rain raised the creek waters high enough to float the craft.
The morning of their departure from Rainbow City, the canoe landing had been packed with enough people that the crush knocked over a ramada. Too many volunteers came forward to pull them upriver. A lottery had to be held. They hadn’t pushed the canoes out into the Tenasee River’s water until almost midday, but the paddlers made up for it, arriving at Cane Break Town just after dark. Then it all started again.
Trader laughed as he stared at the fire. “I don’t think a single Yuchi has what he started out with. We could have saved a lot of work if we’d just told everyone to switch households.”
“I’ve never seen such a thing,” Old White agreed as he reached for his own pipe. “They’ll be talking about us for years. Kind of pleasing, actually.”
The Yuchi men who were traveling with them had a roaring fire a stone’s throw to the south. They, too, looked exhausted, having expended unflagging energy towing the two canoes upstream. Word had traveled upriver like a wind-borne leaf, and as the party passed, people would appear on the banks, waving and calling greetings. The Yuchi paddlers had waved back, then expended their efforts against the current, making a show of their strength and energy for the spectators.
They had been on the river for four days, now. Travel had been slow because it seemed that a Yuchi town lay at the end of each day’s journey. And, at each, they had been honored, feasted, and kept up late into the night, telling stories. Mostly, it was Old White who related his adventures as the Seeker. Night after night, the old man stood beside a fire in some crowded Council House, his sonorous voice eliciting gasps of disbelief from his listeners. But Two Petals had drawn her own crowds, evoking awe and reverence as people asked her questions, listened intently to her backward answers, and then struggled to interpret the Power behind her words.
Trader glanced down at Swimmer, flopped on his side, paws twitching as he chased something in his Dreams. Then Trader looked out at the Gray Fox River—their route up to the portage that would take them to the headwaters of the Horned Serpent.
“I have a question.” Old White lit his pipe and puffed.
“For me or Two Petals?”
“I am Contrary, now,” she said through a yawn. “You no longer see Two Petals.”
“Right,” Trader replied. “I forget. It will take a while.”
Old White blew smoke toward the fire. “That last cast at the chunkey game. You gave me a look, trying to tell me something. I thought you were going to miss on purpose.”
Trader expelled a weary breath. “Honestly, I didn’t know what would happen. I was torn, Seeker. Born-of-Sun made me a very good offer. We could have stayed at Rainbow City, Traded from there, built lives. They would have made Two . . . the Contrary welcome among them.”
“It surprised me that you didn’t look worried. From the way you and the high chief were talking, congratulating each other, I wasn’t sure that you had your heart in it.”
“Oh, I did, Seeker, believe me. When I’m on the chunkey court, I play to win. I really wanted to see which of us was better.” He laughed at himself. “The night before the match, I was all tied in knots. Worried like I had never been worried before. Then, when I went out to practice, Born-of-Sun joined me. We talked, and I suddenly realized, the best thing to do was enjoy myself. So I did. I gave myself over to fate. If I were to lose, it would be the will of Power. And as a result, I played brilliantly. I can’t remember enjoying a game more.”