"Maybe." Singing Wolf paused, looking thoughtfully into the distance. "Maybe Runs In Light was his way of telling us there's another way.''
"Runs In Light! Runs In Light! Enough of him."
"No one died but one little girl. My wife and I lived." Singing Wolf shook his head. "Brought us to Heron. A Dreamer. A real Dreamer. Not someone like Crow Caller."
"Crow Caller," Fox murmured in a low savage voice, closing her eyes.
"What he did to you was wrong," Singing Wolf agreed softly.
"Don't forget that Raven Hunter helped."
"And you think he's mad?"
She nodded quickly. "Something's tormenting his mind. He says Dreams. But I don't know."
One Who Cries sighed, looking at Fox with a thoughtful set to his wide mouth. "Seems like it always comes back to those two brothers, huh? Trouble in both of them."
"At least Runs In Light hasn't suggested you go off to get a dart driven into your belly," Green Water answered with a lifted eyebrow. "A leader should keep the health of the People foremost in his mind. I can't help but believe we'd be better off just avoiding the Others."
"Runs In Light doesn't want us to fight," Laughing Sunshine agreed, "he just wants us to go get eaten by the ghosts in the Big Ice." She pulled the knot tight with her teeth, inspecting the new boots she'd made.
"Raven Hunter comes back tomorrow. Most of the young men are planning on going with him. All ready to stick darts into the Others." Singing Wolf lifted his ivory, scratching furiously with the burin in his hand. "If it had to happen, it's a good time. Lots of meat now. The Renewal's about to break up. Won't have to make the fall hunt for a while yet."
"I'm not going," One Who Cries decided, looking to Green Water, seeing the relief there. "I have a family here'. Young one on the way."
Singing Wolf looked at his wife. "Maybe . . . maybe I'll go."
Laughing Sunshine straightened, a horrified look in her eyes. "No, not you."
"I want to see. Maybe someone like me ought to be there. As a witness to what happens."
"No," she whispered again, reaching out to take his hand.
Singing Wolf looked soberly into his wife's eyes. "Maybe it's time I started doing what Broken Branch and Heron said. That's why we keep elders around. To make us learn. And I need to know, to see both sides. Someone with sense should come back and tell the People what really happened. I don't trust Raven Hunter."
He looked up at One Who Cries as a long silence lengthened. "If I don't come back, will you pray my soul to the Blessed Star People?"
Laughing Sunshine clamped her jaw tightly, looking away in dread.
"We'll pray you to the Blessed Star People." One Who
Cries nodded, gravity in his eyes. "But, look, there's no good in-"
"You'll take Laughing Sunshine? Make her a wife along with Green Water? Raise my-child?"
One Who Cries bit off his next protest, nodded, and exhaled. "I will. You and I, we've been together a long time, eh? Hunted mammoth, saved each other's lives. I'll do this thing for you as you would for me. I'll take Laughing Sunshine as my wife. Your child will be as my own blood."
Singing Wolf looked down at his hands. "Maybe I can learn the truth of these brothers. One must be right."
Laughing Sunshine chewed her lip, eyes bright with worry. Dancing Fox moved to grip her hand, squeezing it reassuringly.
"And maybe," Sunshine moaned, "find out if Heron was right about you."
Chapter 31
Singing Wolf crouched warily in the gray morning mist, looking over the rim of the rocky terrace at the camp of the Others spread across the sandy plain below. A broad river skirted the lodges, its soft roar loud in the predawn silence. He turned slightly, glancing at Raven Hunter. A keen light filled the warrior's eyes. He stabbed his dart at the waking Others as if they would magically fall over. Two children— up before the adults—flitted around the lodges, laughter pricking the cold breeze.
A haunting hollowness throbbed in Singing Wolf's chest. They'd kill children?
Below, a tall man ducked out of the lodge, yawning to the horizon. The east glimmered in waves of red and orange.
"Ready?" Raven Hunter whispered, bracing himself to leap, to charge down the bluff.
Young men nodded impulsively, wetting dry lips. Singing Wolf's heart shriveled.
"Let's go!"
Raven Hunter shrieked a war cry and leapt over the bluff, racing down into the Others' camp. The People's warriors boiled out behind him, screaming their wrath.
Singing Wolf followed Strikes Lightning into a dark lodge, watching in horror as the man raised his dart, using it like a spear to puncture the throats of huddled old people and newborn babies.