At the sight of him, a sensation of wonder came over her. He was right there. The prophet. As the truth filtered through her body, her muscles relaxed and her breathing slowed down.
For a timeless moment, she felt as though she’d crawled through a badger hole and emerged in a strange sanctuary nestled in the calm heart of the world. The fear that the Hills People would attack and kill everyone she loved had receded into nothingness. I must be Dreaming. Soon, I’ll wake and the terror will return.
The savory odor of wet leaves met her nostrils. She inhaled deeply and hugged herself. Another rock clacked! Taya silently walked down the deer trail to the place where Sky Messenger must have climbed up, for the rounded stones resembled steps. The rocks were cold and damp as she ascended. She couldn’t see him for a while. Then when she glimpsed him at the top, she felt almost euphoric.
He was the human False Face.
When she emerged three paces away from him, he turned to her. Bathed in starlight, with black hair dancing around his broad shoulders, his gaze made Taya’s heart stand still. A gust flattened his cape across his muscular chest. She carefully stepped across the slick boulders to reach him. He smelled faintly of crushed grass and forest-scented winds.
Sky Messenger said, “You should be sleeping.”
When she tried to sit down next to him, her moccasins slipped on the wet rocks and she grabbed for his arm to steady herself. The hard muscles beneath the soft buckskin felt comforting. “As you should. What are you doing up here?” She eased down beside him.
“Throwing rocks.”
“That’s what woke me. Why?”
He shrugged. “It seems to ease the Dreams.”
She gazed out across the sparkling pond to where a flock of geese paddled. The white feathers on their throats flashed as they bobbed up and down on the waves. “I missed you. The blankets grew stone-cold after you left.”
He hesitated for a while. “I was too anxious. I couldn’t lie there any longer.”
She squeezed his hand. “How strange. You’re anxious, and I feel so happy. Too happy. I’m sure I’m Dreaming.”
“Well, if you’re happy, I suggest you don’t wake. What I see coming will certainly ruin it for you.”
Taya gazed up into his starlit eyes. “Tell me what you see. Please?”
Sky Messenger’s eyes tightened. He kept staring at her, his gaze intense, searching. Probably measuring her sincerity.
Taya heaved a sigh and explained, “I believe you now. I didn’t. I didn’t believe any of it—until four days ago when you met with War Chief Hiyawento. I’m sorry. It’s taken me a few days to come to grips with the truth that you’re actually a great Dreamer and not a crazy man, but I think I have. I would like to know what you see coming. If you wish to tell me.”
He looked out across the pond. As the trees swayed in the night breeze, the black limb shadows moved across the silver water.
Finally, Sky Messenger replied, “The beginning is almost upon us. In the depths of my souls, the air is cooling off, and the colors are leaching from the forest. My heart already sees that gray and shimmering world. And that world is the start of everything.” He heaved a breath. “I feel like … like my heart is crumbling, sifting through the cracks in my soul a grain at a time, vanishing into eternal stillness.”
His tone of voice, the lilt of the words, seemed to cast a spell upon her. Softly, she asked, “How long do we have before Elder Brother Sun covers his face with the soot of the dying world?”
The muscles in his arm went hard, as though straining against what was to come. “I don’t know. The way the Dream plays out, I can’t tell if the events occur over a single day, or several years. The images jump around, rearranging themselves in a different order. I—”
“‘As though not even the Spirits know the final shape of the story,’” she repeated the words he’d said to Hiyawento.
The Power in his haunted eyes stunned her. “Yes, that’s right.”
The breeze that blew over the pond batted at Sky Messenger’s hood where it rested upon his back. Taya nodded and said, “How may I help you?”
He inclined his head uncertainly, or perhaps it was suspiciously. “I don’t wish to place you in danger.”
“I’m already in danger. I’m with you, aren’t I? You may as well let me help.”
He hurled another rock, which splashed in the darkness. “As I get closer, I suspect I’ll have a better idea of what each of us can do. But right now, I honestly don’t.”
“All right. I’ll be ready.”
He frowned at her from the corner of his eye. “I think, perhaps, you’ve grown up some.”