Fox laughed dryly. "Oh yes, she is. I've been in her boots. I know what it's like to be a virtual slave. You know she hated us. Thought we were beneath her dignity. You can imagine what it's like to have some Other crawling on you, parting your legs."
"Jumping Hare isn't some Other! He's my husband—and hers!"
Fox grinned into the fiery eyes that burned down at her. "Yes, but you love him. Makes a difference to be split by the man you love."
"She could have, if she'd only given him a chance."
Fox stiffened suddenly, realizing the horrifying implications. "Doesn't matter now. What does matter is that we're in trouble." Hurriedly, she cleaned the clinging tissues from her scraper, flinging the fatty pink stuff into the berry bushes.
"What do you mean?"
"She'll bring the Others through the ice."
"Blessed Star People." A hand went to Curlew Song's , mouth. "If they find the hole, we'll never be safe. They'll follow us across the face of the world."
"Exactly."
Fox opened her pack, dropping the scraper, several biface blanks, and a pouch of jerky inside.
Curlew Song frowned, watching the packing process. "What are you doing?"
"Going after her."
"But you can't go through the hole! Alone? Without a light?"
"Wolf Dreamer did. Now Moon Water is doing it." She lifted a shoulder in a shrug. "Besides, I've got black spruce wood, tinder, I'll carry enough for a fire if I need it. Other than mat, I practically went through it in the dark last time. I was at the end of the line.'' Her fingers flew as she tied wood to the hide.
"Fox." Curlew's eyes shifted uneasily. "Don't do this. You might lose your soul under there. Without Wolf Dreamer to protect—"
Caustically, Fox responded, "Crow Caller cursed me to be buried. Maybe the time is right."
She looked longingly to the Big Ice. It shimmered beneath the gentle touch of Father Sun. And Runs In . . . Wolf Dreamer . . . is on the other side. Maybe if I can just talk to him again.
"Crow Caller was an idiot," Curlew Song said cautiously, looking over her shoulder just to make certain his ugly spirit wasn't hovering there. "Don't chance it!"
Dancing Fox slung her pack over her back, adjusting the tump line across her forehead. Playfully she batted Curlew on the shoulder. "Keep the fires going here."
Then she was off, working slowly to a ground-eating pace, feeling the stitch in her ankle.
"Going to tell the Mammoth People about our hole, huh? We'll see," she growled.
Wolf Dreamer would be facing Raven Hunter and Crow Caller. Against them, for all intents and purposes, he'd be alone. She'd been chafing about that ever since he'd left to make the return trip.
As she approached the worn channel the next morning, she could see a trickle of water running out of the snowbanks. The way in seemed to suck at her.
"So, it's begun to flow again." Her brow furrowed as she took a deep breath. "How long do we have before the hole is gone?"
Gritting her teeth, she entered the channel, seeing a woman's footprints in the soft sand. No doubt of it, Moon Water had gone this way. Heart thumping, Dancing Fox entered the shadowed chasm.
The ghosts shrieked at her to go back.
The changing of the seasons, opposites crossed. The Long Light grew out of the south as Father Sun's rays pushed the spirits of the Long Dark into the far north beyond the north-em salt water and its floating mountains of ice.
With the melt came rumors. Carried over the trails by fur-wrapped hunters, the stories passed from lip to lip. Stories of a Dreamer—a powerful Dreamer. The youth, Runs In Light—once scorned—had Dreamed a way to the south.
Not only that, but he'd walked beneath the world! Walked under the Big Ice and the People were reborn! Reborn in a land where no Others walked. A land where the animals were truly brothers: unafraid. This Wolf Dreamer, they said he
was born of Father Sun. Sent to lead the People to a new, home.
Raven Hunter sat and squinted into the morning sun, ignoring the men who sat uneasily in a circle around him, waiting for his counsel. Their eyes on him made him consider. Over the last year, he'd hardened, handsome features tightening at the constant travel and the endless raids. His muscles had toughened, shoulders thickening while his belly tightened despite the better food. Now he walked like a young wolf, powerful, tall—a man without peers.
Fingering his darts, he contemplated the raids they'd made during the Long Dark. The Others remained, held at bay. Now the Renewal would be upon them. The spring hunt had begun. Piecemeal, they waited on the game trails to see what would move south with the melt, migrating into the Long Light feeding grounds. Only this year so many Others sat on the migratory trails they might get no food at all.