"It is," Singing Wolf asserted. "And who knows what we'll find in that valley running to the south?"
"Maybe a land without starvation?" the old man asked, a glow coming to his eyes.
"A place where the game is everywhere and we can raise our children without hunger," Singing Wolf whispered. "I remember Heron talking about a new plant that the People would eat. I can see myself growing fat in a new land. Yes, I can see that with little effort."
"Another Dreamer?" Four Teeth asked cynically, a haze of reserve in his eyes.
"No, I'm not brave enough," Singing Wolf added earnestly. "But we've got to do something. Look around. I see our people falling apart like an old parka when the gut thread rots. I don't like that hole in the ice. I can't see how Wolf Dreamer could have ever walked into it.''
"Crazy! People with Spirit Power are all crazy," Four Teeth pronounced, pounding a fist against his knee.
"But he did. And found the path Wolf promised. Everything he said to us at Mammoth Camp has come true."
The rain increased, a gust of wind slapping the soaked hide overhead. Four Teeth reached behind him to drop another couple of twigs into the fire. The cheery crackle and additional light vanquished a bit of the storm.
Dancing Fox pulled her wealth of hair back where the breeze teased it. "We've got three choices. Stay and starve, push north and fight the Others, or go through the ice. I follow Wolf Dreamer.''
"We all do," Singing Wolf agreed. "We have to if we want to survive."
She searched their eyes. "On the other side, it won't be easy either. All the People coming to Heron's valley have hunted out the game. Those hunters we don't need to scout the Others will have to search out every animal left up here to give us enough food for the trip."
"Not the old bull mammoth!" Singing Wolf insisted sternly. "He's Heron's. Dead or not, we don't need her wrath."
Dancing Fox scowled. "We don't have a meat supply to go into the Long Dark."
"Heron protected that old bull. I say save the old bull. More than that, Wolf Dreamer would save the old bull."
She threw her hands up. "All right! The old bull's saved!
He's life for the People, but I'll concede—which means that 'starvation food' is going to be very important. No time must be lost. Maybe the game will be as plentiful on the other side as it was this year. Maybe not. We all know animals move. We won't have as much to make do with. Like the horrible Long Dark, this could be a terrible year. Our clothes are worn, the insulating hair is falling out, the .leather's abraded to holes. It'll be hard. One of the hardest things we've faced yet."
"Our last chance," Singing Wolf whispered. "Do you agree, Grandfather?"
Four Teeth nodded, a sigh rasping in his throat. "I've heard Dancing Fox. If it will save the People, I'll do it. Let us hope the Others wait—and the game will favor us south of the ice, in this new land."
Chapter 55
The rolling hills were hazy, a green yellow that couldn't obscure the gray tones of rock. Wildflowers sprinkled the land in irregular patterns of yellow and blue, the blossoms already faded from the growing berry bushes. But no animals grazed within sight. Ice Fire sat cross-legged before a small fire, his gaze restless and flickering with disturbing thoughts. In the harsh white light, the muscles of his square jaw quivered.
Behind him, soft footfalls rustled in the grass; hide pants swished against the dew-covered blades.
"The farther south we go, the drier it gets, the higher it gets, the scrubbier the plants are." Red Flint shook his head nervously. "I don't like it."
He took two more steps forward to gaze down at Ice Fire. "I've heard complaints. The hunting's not so good here. The elders are talking about moving north again to be where more game winters through the deep cold."
1
"But the Enemy have found a way through the ice."
"Me? Travel days through some hole?" Red Flint exploded. "Do I look like a ground squirrel?"
Ice Fire cradled his chin as he looked out across the hills. Curlews chirruped on a nearby tumbled pile of boulders, beaks pointed to the drifting clouds.
' 'You heard what Smoke had to say? More hostile peoples are pushing east, filling the territory left by the Glacier People. It's the disease. Some horror is loose far to the west. I wonder how much time we'll have before they come to kill us. If the water keeps rising, the ghost hole might be our only hope."
Red Flint studied him through slitted eyes. ' 'I think it's more than that, old friend. I think you're driven . . . obsessed by this vision of yours and that witch, the Watcher. Oh, yes, I saw you the other day. Your eyes went shiny, you didn't hear what was said to you. And then when you finally mumbled, you said, 'My son's coming.' What son? You have no son."