'.'I couldn't have him here. Not now. This is too important. I wouldn't want him to see."
Broken Branch shifted uncomfortably on her swollen feet. "You scare me when you talk like that."
"I scare myself."
A long silence passed while Heron studied her old nemesis, smiling at the dart-sharp nose and sagging flesh. "You know, I've almost forgiven you."
"Well, don't waste your time. I've never needed it."
Heron cackled, eyes gleaming. "You didn't, maybe, but I did. I've had a wound inside me for a lot of years. I feel better now that I sort of like you."
Broken Branch waved it away, waddling over to kneel by the fire, hands extended. "Save your breath. I loved Bear Hunter. If we could turn back time . . . Dream ourselves back there again, I'd do it all over. Had a lot of good years with him until he was killed."
"Why did you come back? You could be relaxing in some young hunter's lodge now. It wouldn't be a bad life. They'd feed you for the stories and for the raising of their young. Elders are respected—well cared for among the People." Heron rubbed her forearms, trying to loosen ,the muscles cramping with the increasing tension in her breast. "You've been quiet, gathering wood, cooking, preparing food for storage. Such things aren't like you, Broken Branch."
"Hah-heeee! What do you know of me? Not like me, you say? Hah!" She waggled a bent finger. "I saw his eyes, Heron. You understand? The Dream ... the Wolf Dream was there, powerful. It touched my soul. Wound me up and sent me falling into a Dream of my own." She shook her
head. "It's for the People that I came back, for him. So you could teach him."
"Why me? You don't even like—"
"Hush, you old hag. No matter what's behind us, you're still the best. The only Dreamer the People have left who can teach."
Heron massaged her forehead. The time was nearing and fear tingled in her belly. "He'll be powerful. Better than me one day ... if he lives."
Broken Branch's joints cracked as she pulled another section of willow from the pile she'd laboriously hauled in over the long weeks of summer. "If? That got anything to do with that Dream you had last night?"
Heron stared sightlessly at the fire. "Sights. Sounds. Something bad's happening with the People . . . beyond the People. I ... don't know. But many are coming. Stragglers walking up over the hills by the Big River. In front comes One Who Cries, Singing Wolf, and women I don't know. Behind them, a dozen bands are following. All fleeing to us."
"Trouble?"
"Deep fear." Heron shook her head. "It hangs over them as they walk. In the Dream I saw something growing in the dark. Like Grandfather Brown Bear, it filled the clouds, hidden there in the blackness, reaching down, huge paws hovering in the air, waiting."
"The same thing Wolf Dreamer saw?"
"I think so,"
"Can you drive it off?"
Heron lifted her shoulder. "There's more. Raven Hunter walks north, skirting around a huge pool of blood; many young men follow on his heels. As the Long Dark grows, so does his power over them. Even some of the young women go with him, their darts on their backs, singing chants while Crow Caller blesses them, filling them with his claims of Power and protection from the spirits of the Long Dark. And beyond, on the other side of the blood pool, lie the camps of the Others, lit by shafts of glowing light, bars of color like that shed by the Monster Children fighting in the sky.''
"I don't understand."
Heron puffed out her cheeks and spewed an exhale. "I
don't either. That's why I woke Wolf Dreamer up last night. I had to talk to him."
' 'You told him more than just about the Dream. The yellow rock from the geyser. The white crystals from under the mammoth dung. The herbs for medicine."
"They might come in handy. He'll have to know one of these days. He's learned a lot, more than he can even imagine. I just hope he knows enough."
Broken Branch shifted, watching cautiously from the corner of her eyes. "You act like you're not going to be around to finish teaching him?"
"Maybe not."
"What are you talking about!"
Slowly Heron shook her head. "All my life, from the time I left Bear Hunter, I've been in control of things—even if it was just observation. But the world is changing, people are dying and I don't understand it."
"You can't understand everything in the world, Heron. Father Sun made—"
"Ah, but I can see the patterns, old woman." She squeezed her eyelids tightly closed before heaving a tired sigh. "At least I used to be able to, but they're all jumbled up now. Broken and scattered like caribou bones in the spring. The old Dream paths are blocked, the new ones terrifying. Something's coming. I won't sit here and wait for it. No, old woman, I'm a seeker. I'll know what it is before it comes to swallow me!"