People of the Wolf(146)

She waved a hand negligently. "It sounds like nonsense."

"Nonsense? That's a good expression. A place where sense isn't. No me or you. No black or white. The pulse of One— and None." He cocked his head sublimely, eyes going over her face tenderly. "Do you understand?"

"I understand," she croaked. But she didn't.

"I love you more now than I did before," he said softly, reaching out to touch her arm gently. "Because I don't . . . don't want you now."

"Don't want—"

"I know your soul for what it is. Pure and beautiful, and the same as mine." He spread his arms wide, taking a deep soothing breath. "The same as everything's. Humans only want what is different from themselves. You and I, we're one."

Defeated and confused, she sighed and stood. "I take it you'll agree to anything I say about moving the camp? About establishing chores for people? "

He nodded. "No one could do it better than you."

She walked to the hanging, staring back. "It snowed a little last night. The water that froze in the boiling paunches the other day never unthawed. I'm going to start the elders down to the hole. Will you lead them through?"

"I'll do anything you want me to."

A grim smile touched her lips, the ache intensifying to throb through her. "Hardly," she whispered, stepping through the flap.

A dead weight lay heavy on her soul as she started across camp.

* * *

The shelter stood dark, a musty smell wafting on the breeze filtering through the door flap. In the dim light of a dying fire, dozens of hostile, hurt faces shone sanguinely.

' 'I don't know what happened!'' Walrus defended sullenly. Standing with hunched shoulders in the far corner, he slapped his pants hard. "I felt fine and then—"

"And then you fell asleep and let an Enemy steal the Hide!" Red Flint raged, pacing before the fire.

Ice Fire gritted his teeth and knotted futile fists at the door where it flapped in the wind. "Of all the . . ." He shook his head violently. "You were fine when I left. We talked about the hunting, about whether or not the Enemy would raid with their war leader dead and buried, and I asked if you'd be all right. 'Sure,' you said. 'He's going to be no trouble.' And you laughed. So I went back to Red Flint's shelter and went to sleep."

Walrus's face fell, his defiance shattering like a skim of ice under a hammerstone. For a brief instant, Ice Fire's chest tightened, regret filling him. This doughty warrior deserved, better than the pain he was forced to give him.

"Walrus wasn't the only one," Yellow Calf reminded, glaring at the four young men who sat in the back of the shelter with their faces downcast in shame. Yellow Calf's arm shot out. "The finest of our young men? These ... these ..." He couldn't finish, he was shaking so hard. He turned his back to them.

Ice Fire paced up and down the narrow aisle in the packed shelter. "What happened isn't important anymore."

"Not important?" Horse Tracker thundered. "The White Hide's been stolen by an Enemy! You tell me what is important!"

"Getting it back!" Ice Fire roared. He looked around in the sudden silence. He shouted so rarely, it stunned people now. Every man, woman, and child in the clan stared open-mouthed at him. They waited, hearts and souls wrenched by the greatest tragedy to have ever befallen the Mammoth People. He cringed, feeling their pain touch his heart. But there was no other way to force them south.

Horse Tracker raised his hands, dropping his head. "We'll get it back."

"Of course we will!" Ice Fire slammed a fist into his palm, then turned pensively to Yellow Calf. "You represent Buffalo Clan. Horse Tracker speaks for the Round Hoof Clan and Ice Stalker speaks for Tiger Belly. Does everyone agree that I shall speak for White Tusk?"

Heads nodded all around the shelter. "Very well, I say this. Send the fastest runners we have to Buffalo and Round Hoof Clans. Ask for their best warriors." He raised a hand. "I warn you, only the best, the bravest!"

Horse Tracker threw his shoulders back, saying tersely, "All our young men—"

"Will all your young men be willing to walk under the ice through the ghost hole in pursuit of the Enemy? Do they have the courage to fight and die under the ice. In the blackness?" Ice Fire cocked his head, waiting.

"You haven't mentioned Tiger Belly in all this," Ice Stalker pointed out, his thin face grim.

Ice Fire nodded. "I don't think we can afford to have the Tiger Belly Clan weakened when the diseased peoples to your west would try and force you back.'' He gestured. ' 'If it does turn out that the water is rising to cover the world, it will meet between your lands and the far Enemy's. Do we want it to close behind them? Or in front?"