People of the Wolf(32)

"I don't know what you're—"

"That's what did it." She tapped the bone on his knee. "That's what broke your faith in Crow Caller and sent you following the Wolf Dream. And before that? What broke your faith in Sheep Whistle, eh? Maybe the fact that he didn't make you hunt leader when you thought you deserved it?"

Singing Wolf dropped his eyes, staring at the compacted snow polished to ice.

"You're all emotion, boy. You better think about that. You're always sniveling, never taking time to consider what you're doing or where you're going. If anybody will kill the People, it's you and your kind."

Singing Wolf's jaws ground so loud everyone could hear in the deepening silence. Heads bowed uncomfortably around the cave.

"And you want to be a leader?" Broken Branch clucked derisively. "You've got the makings deep inside, but you've always been too much of a coward to do anything with them."

"Grandmother, he tries," Green Water said softly. "This is a hard time for all of us. Singing Wolf—"

"He doesn't try very hard. The boy's got to get out and test himself—take some chances. Then he'll stop insulting people who try harder than he does."

Green Water smiled weakly. ' 'When we look about us and see so many empty places where familiar faces should be, all of our hearts are stung. It's hard to want more tests. Don't blame Singing Wolf. This Long Dark has been particularly hard on him."

Broken Branch gave Green Water a cool stare from the corner of her eye, then turned to Singing Wolf. He sat, head down, apparently cowed. "Is that right, boy? You've had it harder than the rest of us?''

In a sudden move, he crawled past the old woman and out the hole into the night.

Jumping Hare mumbled to One Who Cries, "Too much hunger. Makes the senses leave."

One Who Cries lowered his eyes. "None of us are all the way sane."

"Especially Runs In Light."

Broken Branch jabbed out suddenly with her bone, poking his arm. He yipped.

"What do you know of Dreaming? I saw it!" she growled, nodding, her battered hood creasing. "I saw it in his eyes." -

One Who Cries, frowning at his cowering cousin, put a restraining hand on Broken Branch's shoulder. "He didn't mean it, Grandmother. He—"

"Maybe you saw it!" Jumping Hare defended. "Then again, maybe he's crazy like Raven Hunter said."

Broken Branch scowled, looking down at the hand on her

shoulder. "Let me go, you empty-headed fool ... or you're next," she warned, waving her sharp bone. One Who Cries jerked his hand away as though burned. Glaring around the shelter, Broken Branch breathed, "We're not dead yet, are we?"

"No," Green Water softly agreed. "The Dream lives."

"Dream?" Singing Wolf called from beyond the crawl hole. "He's Dreamed us to death."

' 'No!'' Broken Branch shifted, bony fingers knotting in the nearest parka. One Who Cries tensed as she tugged feebly. "Didn't you see? Didn't you see his eyes?" Her gaze unfocused and she leaned back, grip loosening. "It was real."

"I believe, Grandmother," he said.

Green Water reached over, patting her reassuringly. ' 'I saw his eyes, Grandmother. He Dreamed."

Jumping Hare bit his lip, looking away.

Green Water stirred, blinking awake. Through her robes she felt the chill play across her flesh. Father Sun would be rising soon. She struggled to sit up, limbs shaking.

They hadn't moved for two days. People huddled in their robes, eyes sunken with famine. No one had the strength to walk.

Our final resting, she mouthed silently.

She glanced to Runs In Light's robes; he was still gone. Carefully, she crawled over sleeping people to the opening. Squeezing through, she peered at the landscape. Above, the Star People .twinkled while the long twilight grayed the southeast. Moon Woman's half-light gleamed from brooding peaks. Ponderous glaciers crept down their flanks, majestic mountains glowing blue in the clear air. Wind Woman, for a brief moment, had stilled her restless roar. To the east, a broad valley opened, stretching to rocky highlands beyond. Even in the poor light, Green Water could make out the piled mounds of glacial rock.

Turning slightly, she saw him.

He crouched, head slumped backward unnaturally. Snow had drifted up around him.

Heart in her throat, Green Water shuffled over, shaking him by the shoulder. He didn't move. She shook him harder, tears welling. "Wake up! Runs In Light?" Fear etched her

face as she looked at the thick frost lining his fur hood. Even normal breathing should have melted some. ...

"No," she whispered. A yawning gulf opened within.

Settling on her heels, she clutched a mittenful of snow and slapped it into his face. "Wolf Dreamer? We can't come to this."