envisioning his own wife and child facing darts. Dancing Fox squinted into the growing storm.
"There's one man walking in the front," Big Mouth called softly from the side. "See? The one with the white cloak slung about his parka. That's a man. Why only one?"
"Ice Fire." Dancing Fox sat up. "Not only that, but see, he comes to the place where we turned back their advance scouts. No, I think this is more than an attempt at taking our land. If it was war they sought, the young men would come first—alone."
"You're not going to trust Others?" Eagle Cries looked up.
Crow Foot and Full Moon grumbled to each other on the other side of the defile. Dancing Fox shot a hot glance in their direction. "Eagle Cries, if any of the young men start something, your first cast is into them."
"Into our own ..." His mouth dropped open.
Dancing Fox tilted her head, knowing all eyes had gone to her.
"That's what she said," Singing Wolf supported. "I heard, the Dreamer put her in charge of the warriors. He came out from a Dreaming and told me. Act against Dancing Fox, and you act against the Dreamer and the People."
Eagle Cries dropped his eyes, a sullen expression on his face.
"You can always follow in the footsteps of Crow Caller," Dancing Fox reminded casually. "No one forces you to obey the Dreamer."
The warriors stared uneasily back and forth as she crawled back from the edge.
"What are you doing?'' Singing Wolf cried, trying to keep his voice down.
"I'm going to see what Ice Fire—if that's who that is— wants. I'm going to see why he's come like this, leading women and children."
"It's a trap," Eagle Cries sputtered angrily. "These are Others, woman. The ones who drove us from our lands. You'd talk with such maggots?"
She stared at him, a cool control asserted in her crossed arms. "It's time to see what can be done about all this. The Others know the way to the hole in the Big Ice. What do we
do? Try and stop them? Just the handful of us who remain on this side of the ice? If we try and stand up to them, we'll die. You, me, our families. Moon Water knows the way. Our old people can't outrun their young warriors. We can't close the hole through the ice. So, what will we do? Here, at least, we have an opportunity to talk.''
"Go." Singing Wolf motioned, eyes on Eagle Cries. "It's time for sense instead of anger. Perhaps words will do what darts have failed to."
"Cover me from above. If they didn't come to talk, I'll try to kill Ice Fire and escape up the trail. Our position is strong enough you should be able to keep them off.'' She hesitated. "Assuming a dart from above doesn't skewer me."
Eagle Cries' jaw ground loudly, muscles knotting in his cheeks as he lowered his eyes. "You'll be safe from above," he mumbled. "I swear by the spirits of the Long Dark." He looked meaningfully at the rest of the warriors where they crouched in the rocks, watching.
Nodding sharply, she took the trail.
Her ankle pained her, sending stitches up her leg. But then,. it always did now when a storm was blowing down.
She stepped down the rocks into the narrow defile, winding around the bend where they'd ambushed the Other warriors. That event, too, had strained her authority. Perhaps, however, it now paid off. Perhaps the lives of those warriors had brought Ice Fire.
She stepped around the corner, seeing the Others climbing up from below. Snow had begun to fall from the darkening sky, big fluffy flakes landing on her shoulders, sticking to the fur at the side of her hood, melting coldly on her bare hand where she gripped her darts.
The man in the front looked up, stopping. A young man ran up from behind, pointing to the cleft where she waited, chattering excitedly to the leader before running nimbly back down through the gathering Others. A visible tension rippled through the group as they shaded eyes against the snow, staring up at her from under the flats of their hands.
She stepped forward, anxiously bracing her feet apart. The man continued his walk up the trail, now less than a dart's throw away.
As he closed, she studied him. Tall, lean, he wore a dou-
bled parka, hood thrown back to expose his long graying hair. A white fox-skin cloak lay over his shoulders. His feet moved surely on the trail, each step light.
Her heart began to pound again as she looked into his knowing eyes. A Power lay there, a Power like the one she'd seen in a young Runs In Light's face. A longing restricted the base of her throat. She'd loved the man who'd once looked at her out of those eyes.
"Ice Fire?" she asked when he finally stopped, no more than a body length away.
He nodded, studying her. His handsome face hardened. "Dancing Fox."
She stared intently, going over his every feature. He looks so much like Runs In Light.