People of the Wolf(10)

"As I've killed Grandfather White Bear," said Raven Hunter, "I'll kill Others, too."

"You're a young idiot," Broken Branch snorted disgustedly. "Go sit down somewhere and don't bother anyone."

"Hush, old woman," Crow Caller croaked. "The People don't care what you have to say. Leave us!"

Broken Branch shook her head. "This is what we've come to under your leadership? Snapping among ourselves when we're praying for this baby's soul?" She gestured toward Laughing Sunshine.

"Go!"

But she stayed, eyes hard as obsidian. Behind her, old Talon nodded agreement.

Crow Caller surveyed the anxious faces in the gathering. Some looked down at the snow. Others watched him hopefully, remembering earlier warnings.

"I'm going to finish telling you about the south this old woman wants you to seek. My grandfather and his people hunted there," he cried harshly. "For days they found nothing but cold and rock and gravel and impassable lakes. Like us, they starved. They followed the ice wall for many days, eating their clothing to keep strong. Many, many died. They turned back to the north, thinking they might find mammoth, or even seal or fox.

"They walked until they came to the salt water. But there, too, the ice continued, stretching far out into the water. Desperate, they started back west for the Big River. They knew they'd find food there." He raised his voice, shrieking into the wind. "They found seal and shellfish and caribou. They lived and my father's father told my father, and he told me, 'Don't go south. A wall of ice is there . . . death is there.' "

"Then we must go north," One Who Cries agreed. "Maybe we can cut west, follow along the mountains to—"

"Wind Woman will catch us," Gray Rock interrupted, mouthing her toothless gums. "Don't forget, this is the middle of the Long Dark. Wind Woman will laugh and call Cloud Mother. What chance will we have out there? Eh? You tell me. What chance in the middle of a storm? Wind Woman will freeze us as we walk. Our bones will—"

"What chance have we here?" Crow Caller asked. "Remember when I looked inside Seagull? I saw then that we needed to go north. I saw—"

"You saw nothing!" Broken Branch cried derisively, a fist pounding air. "You've seen nothing but darkness for years. And now you would lie to keep up the sham. Lie . . . and lead us all to our doom!"

From the corner of her eye, Dancing Fox saw Jumping Hare start suddenly, then run, weaving through the mass of dead bodies to fall on the ground, eyes widening.

"Look!" he shouted. "Blood. Here, by Flies Like A Seagull's foot."

Men shuffled forward. Dancing Fox ignored them, dropping beside Sunshine to comfort her in the turmoil. "Come on, I'll sing with you," she assured in a soothing voice. "You and I can sing the baby to the Star People by ourselves." She lifted her sweet voice in the haunting melody of death, Sunshine weakly echoing her words.

"Wolf tracks," One Who Cries grunted, stilling the women's eerie song. "Wolf jumped here." He lowered his head, studying the snow at an angle. "There, see? He landed and ran." On all fours he scrambled along, head bent to the crusted snow. "Aieee! Blood here, too! Wolf is hurt bad."

Raven Hunter looked around, searching faces. "Where is my brother, Runs In Light?"

Fox took a quick breath, heart pounding. "Runs In Light?" Patting Sunshine's arm, she struggled to her feet and slid down the drift toward the shelter.

Ice gleamed treacherously as she hurried. Even that exertion took her breath and left her legs trembling. At his shelter, she crawled under the flap, wide-eyed in the darkness under the mammoth hide. Some of the old people and a few of the weaker children looked absently back at her. Runs In Light's robes lay empty, his weapons gone.

Slipping back outside, she hurried up the slope, panting, "He's gone. He's taken his weapons and—"

"One wolf," Singing Wolf said through gritted teeth. He pulled off his mitten, placing the urine-soaked snow to his nose to sniff. "Hungry wolf. Like us ... he's starving."

"And Runs In Light shot him!" One Who Cries sang out. "Perhaps Light didn't make a good wound—but it'll kill! I smell gut juice in this blood.''

Like Wind Woman in the willows, a ripple of relief went through the People. Dancing Fox smiled, a lightness caress-

ing her heart. Runs In Light would save them. Her pride at his—

A hard hand clamped her shoulder. Crow Caller bent her head back to glare into her eyes, hissing softly, "Happy, eh? Happy that Runs In Light has killed wolf?''

She twisted, but he held her tight. "Of course, I'm happy. You think I want to die?"