"Do you want to hear this?" he asked irritably.
"I'm sorry. You just seemed so ... Well, I thought maybe teasing would help."
Ice Fire slapped a hand to his friend's knee and paused for
a time, staring at the flames. "You remember me telling you about the woman I caught by the sea years ago?"
"The Enemy woman," Red Flint nodded, eyes gleaming. "Yes."
"The witch was there. Watching."
"I thought you didn't see anyone."
"I didn't. But I know the feel of the witch's vision. Like the way a dart shaft fits in the hand. Familiar. You don't have to look down to know your dart. It's the texture, the balance, the weight. She has that feel, this witch."
Red Flint scratched the side of his weathered face. "You think she's calling you? Maybe witched you? We could have a Sing, try and drive her off. Maybe we can throw it all back at her, hurt her—"
"No." He lifted a hand. "It's something else. Some awakening of Power that's stirred her . . . and me. Something's happening."
Red Flint stared somberly into the fire. Golden flickers reflected in his narrowed eyes. "You know the other clans aren't doing well. Tiger Belly Clan lost a lot of ground last-year. Hundreds of young men were killed fighting the Glacier People. To the west, the Round Hoof Clan was pushed away from the Great Lake. They've been chased clear into Buffalo Clan's area. Face it, we've been pushed out of all our old places."
"The whole world is changing and there aren't enough of us anymore to-push our enemies back."
"Is that what the witch is telling you?"
Ice Fire coughed and rubbed the back of his neck. "That's part of it, but there's more. She draws me south for another reason."
"What?"
"It has something to do with that Dream Walk I made years ago, after my wife was killed. I traveled many days' journey over difficult country. For two weeks, I went without food. I remember sleeping on a rocky pinnacle. The rock grew up out of the ground, rising so high I could look down on the birds. To the south, I saw a huge wall of white, and beyond it, a free land, full of animals but empty of humans.''
"But we have Enemy to the south," Red Flint pointed out.
"Now, but not then."
"Should we try to go to that land?"
"I'm not sure. The Dream was unclear and the next day I found the Enemy woman. We were to come together, she and I. I could . . . could feel the Tightness of it. A healing, if you will. Her long hair swirled in the wind. Water crashed about her feet. In a Dream haze, I walked up to her and she smiled. We coupled passionately, she and I, there by the sea, and I planted my seed in her."
"But that part was real." Red Flint's bushy brows lowered.
"Yes . . . and no." Ice Fire winced and ran hard fingers over his face. "The vision broke as I got up and looked . . . looked into the Watcher's eyes. And the woman ... I raped her. Left her broken and crying on the sand. She who I should have loved and cherished, I destroyed."
"And you think the witch who haunts your sleep caused this?"
"I'm not sure."
Red Flint shifted uncomfortably, retrieving a stick to prod the fire into crackling brilliance. "What happened next?"
"I turned and saw all the clans following in my tracks, chased by all kinds of enemies."
"That's how the Dream ended?"
Ice Fire blinked, shrugging lightly. "No. After seeing what happened on the beach that day, I ran. You know, getting away from the horror. That night I had nightmares . . . one after another. The woman in the Dream stood up and offered her hands to me. In one lay a piece of meat. In the other she held her dart."
"Life or death?"
"I read it so." He propped his chin on his palms. "Then I looked behind me and the sea was rushing in, trying to swallow us all. I took the meat and the woman smiled again, saying, 'You and I are one. We are one.' Then she took my hand and turned into a great bird, the Storm Bird, and flew with me, far to the south to the middle of the new land beyond the white wall."
Red Flint sucked at his teeth for a moment, thinking. "And that's why you've always forced us to move south, despite the dwindling game?"
"Not since I went on that quest have I felt the spirit move
so powerfully within me. Until now. It plagues me, keeps me from sleeping. I feel driven, as if the witch pushes me to bring all the clans south."
Red Flint squinted-at the firelight dancing across the ceiling. "But the rest of the clans won't come. They say there's no warrior's honor there. The Enemy scatters before us like seagulls from a thrown rock.''
' 'I know.'' He turned to search his friend's concerned face. "And what if I can't save our people before the sea comes to drown them?"