Runs In Light seemed to sag. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm sorry."
"So am I. Listen, there's still time. We'll get Crow Caller to sing a healing for you, claim you're—"
"And make your status that much higher? Allow you to demonstrate your compassion for your poor foolish brother?" He shook his head, smiling wistfully. "I'm afraid not... as if Crow Caller could be persuaded to such in the first place."
"Oh, he can. I have him firmly under my control. He's no fool. He sees where his best interests lie."
"No wonder you see Dreaming as a sham."
"Of course it is. Like all the other charades of healing, Dreaming, and magic. The purpose is to make people feel better. Lay the silly superstitions in their minds to rest. Like ice on a burn. The rest is simple. Drain pus, set broken bones, change diet so the right things get into a person's blood. I've learned a lot since I started mending hurt warriors."
And there are the visions which haunt me. Those I'll believe, addled brother. I've seen Dancing Fox—and her child. But nowhere do my visions show rosy futures.
"Heron said you were unschooled. But there's still time. Let me help you learn. I'll teach you everything she taught—"
"Don't be ridiculous." Raven Hunter got to his feet, looking around. So many fascinating things. He'd have to come back here sometime. Perhaps some of this might be useful in keeping his warriors motivated. "Yes, unschooled. Well, I'll leave you now and let you turn your thoughts to how you'll discredit Crow Caller when he unmasks your games."
"Tell him . . ." he whispered desperately. "Tell him I don't wish to destroy him."
"I'm sure he'll find your warning most entertaining."
He stopped at the flap. "Sure you don't want me to send Dancing Fox to you? She'd willingly fall into your arms, you know. I can tell you honestly, she's most ardent on a man's staff. Tight, passionate, worth your-—"
Runs In Light jerked up clenched fists, shouting, "Get out!"
Raven Hunter smiled, not moving.
"Get out before you force me to do something I don't want to!"
"Really? Show me!"
Runs In Light trembled, crossing his arms tightly across his breast. He murmured, barely audible, "Please . . . don't make me, brother. I don't want to hurt you."
Beneath the azure vault of the sky, the huge straight mammoth tusk jutted up from the center of the cairn the White Tusk Clan had built to support their totem. From the top, mammoth tails hung down in each of the cardinal directions, swaying in the breezes. Bright feathers in turn decorated the tails, flicking color about the polished white-brown ivory.
Large tents of cured mammoth hide sprawled across the grassy flats. Supported by split mammoth bone and propped by anchored tusks, the tents provided relief from the constant sun. Long hours of labor had scraped the once-thick hide thin to allow a translucent yellow light to filter into the interiors. Before the doorways, a shimmering cloud hovered. The gentle breezes couldn't keep the flies from collecting in tall pil-
lars, their myriad wings humming in a dirge fit to drive man and beast to insanity.
"We need more smoke pots," Ice Fire muttered under his breath. Black flies and mosquitoes as well as occasional hideous beasts—the gaudy yellow and black bott flies—all seemed attracted to this clan council.
"Seems the farther south we go, the worse the flies. Should have stayed down by the Big Water," Red Flint agreed, batting arms in defense. "Something about that salt water. The flies aren't as bad there."
Ice Fire rubbed his face, shooing the swarm before ducking into a smoky cook tent where the old women gathered around long pits laboriously excavated with their digging sticks.
"Safety." Ice Fire sighed, glaring at the swirling winged beasts beyond the opening. He looked around at the four mammoth tusks propped to support the low shelter. The heat from the fires ate into his backside. "Out there we're eaten alive. In here we roast."
"Take your pick." Red Flint laughed dryly, crouching down on his heels to avoid the heat and still remain in the protection of the smoke.
Ice Fire hated the sound of his cracking joints as he lowered himself.
"You've done well, old friend. This year you've returned the White Hide to the White Tusk Clan. How long since the last time?"
Ice Fire shook his head, white-shot hair hanging free over his shoulders. "More years than I have fingers on two hands. Where did we find honor? Only this year did these Enemy finally raise a leader who would challenge us." He chewed his weathered lip. "Even then, I could almost pity them. They're so few, we'll sweep them aside soon." He waved a callused and battered hand. "Look, look south. See those rocky hills up there? That's where they've run. I've been up there. Seen what the land is like. It keeps climbing. This river, so big and full of water, runs out of the ice that blocks the valley. That's where they've gone."