A sudden light of understanding dawned in his eyes, mem-
ories of stories told flickering; he breathed, "You—you're Heron?"
Through slitted eyes, she studied him, watching like the great white-headed eagle watches a fish. Carefully, she said, "Does she still bad-mouth me?"
"People said you were only a legend."
"Except Broken Branch, I'll wager."
He nodded, backing crablike toward the far corner of the shelter. She enjoyed the growing fear, the tension relining his mouth. Crazy kid, what did he think? That she'd witch him?
"You won't get far that way," she added mildly. "The only other way out is up there." She pointed at the soot-grimed smoke hole overhead. "Used it a time or two when Grandfather Brown Bear wasn't discouraged by fire or darts.''
He stopped, wetting his lips nervously. "Crow Caller said—'?
"And you listened? Not very bright, are you? Well, just to set your mind at rest, I don't eat babies."
Runs In Light didn't look reassured. "Broken Branch says you used to talk to animals, call them to you."
"Sure, every Dreamer does."
He swallowed convulsively, guilt creasing his gaunt face. "I can't."
"Well, you're young."
"Others said you talked to the spirits of the Long Dark and shared their Powers. That you can make dead men rise ... or suck the soul from a live man and blow it out into the wind to wail forever."
"Mouse dung!" she spat, irritated. Cocking her head, she studied him. "I do what any Dreamer does. Only I do it . better out here away from confusion and old women's spats and silly young lovers."
He didn't relax, eyes searching for the door, as if judging his chances. "Why are you out here all alone, then? If you don't do things the People would disapprove—"
"For the same reason you ought to be." She narrowed her eyes, seeing him flinch. "For the Dream, boy! Because being around people clouds your mind. Keeps your thoughts from being pure."
A trace of confusion shaded his eyes.
She nodded. "Oh, yes, I know you, Runs In Light. I saw
you the day you were born. The day you were conceived] You looked into my eyes. A Dreamer, even then. And your brother? What's his name?"
"Raven Hunter." It came as a pained whisper.
She nodded, the vision coming back. "Apt. He's still clutching black feathers? Still seeking blood? He was born that way, you know. In blood."
"He went with Crow Caller's band to face the Others. He—"
"Death there," Heron muttered. "Too many of them." She looked up. "Oh, I've seen them coming. Things in the world are changing, boy. The ice is melting. Animals are moving, humans following. Let me tell you something."
A little fearfully, he said, "What?"
"I used to cross to the salt water over those high mountains west of here. Used to sit out on a rock and watch the waves crash. You can see things in surf, you know. Good Dreaming there." She frowned, seeing it again in her mind. "Last time I was there was three years ago. Waves swirl up over my rock now.''
"So?"
"Means the water's rising, boy."
They held each other's eyes for a long moment, before he ventured, stricken, "Will it cover all the land?"
"How would I know?"
"Didn't you Dream—"
"Great Mammoth, no! I just saw the difference when I went there."
"Oh," he exhaled in relief.
"If I had Dreamed it, would you have gone and cast yourself in the waves to drown?''
"Might have."
She chuckled, slapping him on the arm. "I like you, boy. You got respect for your elders."
He smiled weakly.
"Anyway, getting back to the Others. Nobody can beat them." She made a gesture that caused him to start. "The People can do one of two things. They can fight . . . and die. Or they can join the Others, be absorbed by them like blood in fox hair."
"Absorbed? But Sun Father gave us the land and animals."
"Nothing's forever, boy. Not mammoth, not you, not me, not even the People."
His eyes went glassy as though seeing something far away. "The man from the White Tusk Clan said—"
"What man?"
"He was tall with graying black hair. He walked to me and I blew a rainbow out." He swallowed hard as though expecting her to call him a liar. "I told him I'd trade him a son for a son. I ... I asked him to choose between light and dark."
"You knew him?"
"No."
Heron stiffened, lips clamped into a white line. "His face, it was oval? His nose thin? Lips full?"
The boy's nod came slowly, warily.
Heron squinted into the distance, searching the past, seeing a lean-faced man as he raped a woman of the People there on the gray sand, the surf pounding in the background. A white hide rested on his shoulders.