People of the Wolf(155)

Time stretched. So many people moved so slowly. "I thought you said two days?" Four Teeth muttered nervously under his breath.

"With a small party, that's all. With this many people?" One Who Cries lifted his shoulder. "We're in good shape. We haven't used half the fire yet. The People are growing used to it. Now that the first fear is gone, it's not so bad.''

And the ghosts had been mysteriously, forebodingly quiet-just as Wolf Dreamer promised.

"For you maybe. You've been through before. But the rest of us—"

"Don't worry. We're protected."

As they continued on, he noticed people veering to the side to step around some obstacle; he eased forward.

Wolf Dreamer sat silently before an oil lamp, the moss wick fed by a preciously hoarded lump of fat. He stared at nothing, unseeing despite the activity around him. One Who Cries patted Four Teeth on the shoulder and went to crouch by Wolf Dreamer.

"Wolf Dreamer? Can you come back from the One and talk to me?"

The youth's eyes flickered slightly and slowly cleared. The Dreamer looked over, questioning. "Wh . . . what?"

"It's going pretty well. Everyone's happy. But we're moving a lot slower than I thought. Might take four days to get everyone out."

"It doesn't matter." He smiled. "Look at them, you can see their souls are healthy. I feel sorry for Four Teeth, though, he's dying."

One Who Cries squinted, seeing the old man talking in low tones to Buffalo Back. "Dying? He looks all right to me."

"A black spot is on his soul."

"A black spot?" One Who Cries shifted uneasily.

Wolf Dreamer smiled benignly. "The soul is a reflection of the body it inhabits. Four Teeth will feel fine. Then the life will ebb as his body fails. He won't feel much pain."

One Who Cries scratched under his chin. Maybe coming to talk to Wolf Dreamer hadn't been such a good idea. Half-hesitant, he asked, "Uh, my soul look all right?"

Wolf Dreamer chuckled softly. ' 'Yes, One Who Cries, your soul looks fine. See that you keep it that way."

"Uh . . . yes, I—I will." He shifted his feet, feeling the gravel crunch through the holes in the soles of his long boots. "Um, do you know how things are on the other side of the ice? I mean, well, Green Water and the baby. I haven't seen them in half a year. I've been worried."

"You didn't say anything. I could have told you."

"You could? I mean, well, everyone else had their own problems." He asked with trepidation, "How are they? Healthy?"

Wolf Dreamer's smile beamed like rays of light. "Very. Green Water misses you and the baby is growing, becoming stronger every day."

One Who Cries stifled the ecstatic abandon that filled his heart before he chewed his lip and looked over. "Uh, why haven't the ghosts been groaning at us?"

Wolf Dreamer cocked his head as if listening and then spread his hands. "I Danced with the ice, told it to be silent. The ghosts did as I Danced them."

"Uh . . . well ..." One Who Cries nodded uneasily.

Wolf Dreamer reached down by the lamp, drawing a spiral

in the gravel. "Look at this, One Who Cries. See what I draw. The ice is melting. The world is changing. Look at the spiral. See the way it's a circle on top of a circle? Like the Dance of the seasons, the years, and the lifetimes of a man, a mountain, and a world. Everything is One. It all goes around and around. An eternal Dance."

One Who Cries studied the spiral and realized the Power it held.

"Use it," Wolf Dreamer remarked. "Remember, it's the sign of the One. So is a cross, opposites crossed, like the Directions. Each symbol like that is a reflection of life. It's a drawing for what can't be expressed in words."

"Singing Wolf ought to be here."

"You'll tell him after I'm gone."

His heart stopped, breath stilled in his lungs. He stared hollowly into the Dreamer's serene eyes. "Gone?"

"Life and death; it's all the same."

As One Who Cries searched his mind for the right words, he watched Wolf Dreamer's eyes glassing over as he drifted away again.

"Wolf Dreamer?" Then more softly, "Wolf . . . Dreamer? Where are you going? Don't leave us."





Chapter 62



"Their women come first." Eagle Cries looked up from the rock he lay on, perplexed as he stared into the blowing snow.

"Looks like an entire clan on the move. Coming right for us. But I've never heard of the Others coming with the women first. And look, there's children with them."

"This will be a slaughter," Eagle Cries added with a grin. "Kill their women, and they'll never come so arrogantly to our land again."

Singing Wolf's hard face tightened, eyes far away, as if