"Too late?"
"Yes, before the salt water rushes down from the north to flood all the land and the hole closes up again."
Chapter 45
Dancing Fox grimaced as she hobbled along the pool, thick streamers of white steam rising into the gray mist overhead. A dull pain still grated in her ankle. That she'd broken the thin bone along the outside of the calf was apparent, but it
seemed to be healing all right—even if it left a lump. Too long Green Water had made her lie on her back.
She'd put off this meeting. Put it off in the hopes he'd come to her. In the long days since he'd returned, she hadn't parted Green Water's shelter flap, waiting in an agony of indecision.
As if by magic, Green Water appeared at her side. "Going to see him?"
Dancing Fox swallowed and nodded, perhaps too curtly. "What should I say to him? Start out with, 'My heart is glad to see you again'? Or how about, 'Your cursed Wolf Dream ruined my life. What're you going to do about it?' "
Green Water's kind eyes chided. "I don't think the last will help the situation any."
Fox shook her head. "I know. I'm confused. I've been scared to death ever since he returned. One minute I was afraid he'd show up and crawl into my robes. I'd close my eyes and hope, imagining how it would be. The next, I hated the very thought of seeing his face." She shifted off her healing foot, wincing in the process. "Everyone's in awe of him". It's a scary thing. Do I even know him now?"
Green Water crossed her arms, staring thoughtfully at the gravel underfoot. "I don't know, but you've changed as much as he has. No one knows either of you anymore. Perhaps you've both taken the responsibilities of leaders."
"They'd never let a cursed woman be a leader," she scoffed.
"A lot of people respect what you did out there, the way you handled Raven Hunter. They talk of the honor you showed by staying with Talon and how you traveled so far with a broken ankle. Some are even whispering that you have Power. That you can hunt on your own, maybe even Dream in animals the way Heron did."
"That's because they didn't see me eating rancid bone marrow, or shivering in my parkas, drenched with fear sweat that Grandfather Brown Bear would find me."
"You were scared when you stayed with Talon?" Green Water's benign eyes didn't waver.
Dancing Fox looked away, memories of the old woman's death too tender to deal with. "Terrified. She was my friend—
my teacher. I'll always be frightened to tackle life without her."
"But you will."
"Of course." She glanced apprehensively at Heron's shelter.
"You've heard enough from me. Go and see Wolf Dreamer. He'll help you find out what you want next." Green Water nodded encouragingly and walked off about her business, humming under her breath.
Dancing Fox sucked in a deep and anxious breath, then strode hurriedly, stopping before the door flap. Clearing her throat, she called, "Runs In Light? You in there?"
"I've been expecting you."
The familiar voice touched her, while some subtle quality set her on guard. She ducked through the caribou-hide hanging, looking around, seeing him on folded wolf skins, a white bear hide pillowed behind him.
Their eyes met. All the carefully prepared words vanished like mist in the morning sun. Her heart beat powerfully, a tingle in her limbs.
"I hear you tried to follow.'' He spoke softly, as if burying a deep hurt.
She smiled, oddly shy, looking away, seeing the skulls, the drawings, the holes in the rock filled with bundles of tied grasses and stuffed fox hides. A Dreamer's place. A place she could never share.
"Wolf didn't take very good care of me." She smiled uneasily. "It turned out to be a difficult trip."
He nodded, gesturing to the hides beside him. Hesitantly, she complied, sitting cross-legged on the soft caribou furs.
"You've changed. You're stronger."
' 'Your brother saw to that. But then, you've changed, too. More confident, possessed. Being a Dreamer suits you.''
He looked away, face paling. "It also costs a great deal."
"Most things do."
They sat in silence. Her heart roiled in her chest. She wanted to throw her arms around him, declare her love—but found herself afraid.
"Why is this so difficult?" she asked. "I came, Runs In Light. I followed you. Why weren't you at Renewal? I waited there, keeping myself for you. All those things you told me,
about marriage and love, they kept me going all through this miserably long year."
He swallowed hard, pain glittering in his eyes.
"Won't you speak to me?" she pleaded, sensing a wrong-ness between them.
He closed his eyes, his entire body trembling.
She reached across, grabbing him by the parka and tugging gently at first, then harder, until he opened his eyes and met her gaze.