People of the Wolf(16)

"Huh!" One Who Cries snorted. "Go north and we're right in the lodge doors of those Others. You know they killed most of Geyser's band—took a lot of the women and destroyed the camp. Those who lived and got away barely stayed ahead of them last Long Light. Those Others, they're bad men. Got sick spirits."

"Raven Hunter wants to kill them," Singing Wolf mused. "He thinks there's a way to drive them back. Get them to leave us alone. I wonder if maybe he isn't right? I wonder if we couldn't—"

"Raven Hunter wants status," One Who Cries snapped. His thoughts drifted to years before. Runs In Light and Raven Hunter were always fighting, the latter always winning. "Let him go die. There are better places for darts than my belly." He tested the knife edge against the callused pad of his thumb. "I'm going to eat the meat. Wolf wouldn't let Crow Caller torment us. That's not His way."

"Crow Caller is afraid of the south," Green Water added;

eyes shifting back and forth between the men. Her gentle

expression urged them to think. Green Water had that manner

about her, strong yet sensitive, thoughtful, and composed.

"Yeah," Singing Wolf agreed, licking his lips. "What

scares a man with Spirit Power like his?''

"Ghosts," One Who Cries said. He looked steadily at Singing Wolf, waggling the resharpened dart point as he talked. "If he has any Power."

"Runs In Light is unafraid."

"Uh-huh. Fools are like that."

The burin in Singing Wolf's fingers scritched hollowly on the bone. The flint caught the faint gleam of light from the fire as it turned in his strong fingers. "Now me, I wouldn't look cross-eyed at Crow Caller. Next time I needed to hide from Grandfather White Bear, Wind Woman would blow my stink right up his nose because Crow Caller killed my medicine."

"Don't worry. With your stink, Grandfather White Bear would probably run the other way anyhow.''

Singing Wolf gave him a disgusted look. "Be serious. I don't care what Broken Branch says, that old man has Power.

And Runs In Light didn't even blink when Crow Caller called down his spirit magic. Didn't even blink! He looked over to where Laughing Sunshine hunched, eyes on the meat, sorrow creasing her expression.

He lowered his eyes, pursing his lips. The little bundle on the snowdrift weighed on his mind, too—heavy like an old bull's ivory tusk.

"So? What are you going to do?"

Laughing Sunshine interrupted, "When there is no game, no chance of finding food, what does anyone do? The question is to go south, or back the way we came. We don't know what can be found in the hills to the south. Maybe overwintered berries exposed by Wind Woman, if nothing else."

"And how long will those last? What if Runs In Light is wrong? What if his Dream was nothing more than a kid's imagination?" Singing Wolf asked harshly.

One Who Cries squinted at the floor. "Well, then, we can always come back. The Renewal meets in the same place every year. If Light is wrong and there's no hole in the ice, we can join up with Buffalo Back's clan at Renewal. He'll take us."

Singing Wolf swallowed and stopped his carving, looking down at the splinter of flint he held. "My child starved to death.'' He flipped the flat piece of bone in the air. One Who Cries caught it deftly and turned it to the light.

Singing Wolf looked quickly to Laughing Sunshine as he bent over the rear quarters of wolf that lay near the smoldering red eye of flame.

In the dull glow of the fire, One Who Cries stared at the bone while Green Water crawled to the meat. The best artist in the band, Singing Wolf had carved a, four-legged beast with a long snout and pointed ears. The etching might have lacked distinction—it might have been a fox or dog. But it wasn't.

"Wolf meat?" One Who Cries grimaced. "That's like eating someone's old sweaty moccasins . . . but moccasins taste better!'' Reluctantly, he crawled over next to Singing Wolf, using his new knife to cut long slices of rich dark meat from the haunch. With a weak smile, he handed slices to Laughing

Sunshine and Green Water as they moved to join him.

* * *

The two old women sat close, the deep folds in their wrinkled faces glistening with smeared fat in the light of the fire. Long shadows stretched across the warm shelter to climb the opposite wall.

With skilled hands Broken Branch cracked the thighbone down the middle, exposing pink marrow. Using a long curled thumbnail, she neatly scooped the channel clear. Twisting the marrow in half, she handed a portion to Gray Rock.

"So much for spirit meat, eh?" Broken Branch grinned wickedly.

Gray Rock licked her fingers. "Curses scare me less than starvation."

"I always knew you were a smart old witch."