People of the Earth (99 page)

 
          
 
"Evil witch," her cousin hissed.

 
          
 
Still Water missed a step as he glared over
his shoulder. "Who was that? What did she say?"

 
          
 
White Ash shrugged it away, muttering,
"Nothing. Once she was my cousin. She's Three Forks. Her name is
Basket."

 
          
 
Still Water nodded. "Little Toe's sister.
I know her now. And she called you a witch?"

 
          
 
"It's nothing. We have more important
things to worry about." She winced at the torment that churned in her
belly. I'm not going to be sick again, am I?

 
          
 
Still Water stared off to the right. White Ash
could see
lthere
, staring at them from the edge of
camp. The boy stood hip-shot, his club hanging limply from a muscular arm.
Still Water waved. The young man lifted his chin in acknowledgment as he
watched them with a fierce intensity.

 
          
 
Still Water's eyes narrowed and White Ash
could see a new worry eating at him. He ground his jaws and strode purposely
forward.

 
          
 
She forced her gaze ahead, leaving Still Water
to his thoughts. Where had her strength gone? She felt weary, upset, and
confused. Why was this happening now, when she needed all of her clarity of
mind?

 
          
 
And if I can 't control the One when I face
the worst of my fears, I'll doom us all.

 
          
 
Pale Raven stood beside Brave Man and
inspected the runner from the Black Point. He stood resolute before them, a
handsome young man with curled shells tattooed into his cheeks. Sweat streaked
his dusty, muscular body. He wore only a breechclout, and his hair had been
pulled back into a simple braid. As his gaze held Brave Man's, he didn't waver
but stood with all the courage in the world. Only through the pulsing of the
artery in his neck could Pale Raven measure his true fear.

 
          
 
Broken Stones warriors pressed closely around
them, their darts easily at hand and an eager, predatory look in their gleaming
eyes. Behind them, on the northern slope, the main body of the clan traveled up
the gentle grade to reach the low saddle in
Green
Mountain
. On either side, the rocky, gray-green
slopes of
Green
Mountain
rose. Here and there, patches of rock
outcrop caught the sun. Juniper and scrubby limber pine dotted most of the
slopes, giving way to fir and spruce forests near the summit. An eagle lifted
in spirals on the breeze that rose up the mountainside.

 
          
 
She cocked her head, listening to the Black
Point.

 
          
 
"I am Snail Shell, warrior of the Black
Point. I have come to the Broken Stones with a message for Brave Man."

 
          
 
"Tell me your message." Brave Man's
smile might have frozen fire.

 
          
 
Snail Shell lifted his chin. "White Ash
sent me to tell you that she will meet you tomorrow night. There is a spring at
the bottom of the pass." Snail Shell pointed to the south. "There,
White Ash will face you."

 
          
 
"I won't go alone," Brave Man
announced. "Does she think I'm a fool?"

 
          
 
"She thought you might want to
take—"

 
          
 
"Five warriors," Brave Man stated.
He smiled. "And does the one-armed man accompany her?"

 
          
 
Snail Shell's jaw muscles tightened, as if to
stifle a trembling of muscles around his grim mouth. "Her husband
accompanies her."

 
          
 
Brave Man's satisfied smile widened. "If
her 'husband' goes with her, so shall my wife come with me and my five
warriors. Brave Man accepts this . . . and nothing else."

           
 
A glint of understanding flickered in Snail
Shell's eyes, and he seemed to gain confidence. "She brings five warriors
with her already. Does she have your word as Soul Flier of the Broken Stones
that this will be so? Only five warriors?"

 
          
 
Brave Man studied him through
slitted
eyes. In a loud voice he called, "Brave Man
gives his word that only five warriors and Pale Raven accompany him to meet
White Ash! It will be so."

 
          
 
The surrounding warriors shifted, glancing
back and forth. Flying Hawk smiled and nodded, while he inspected the Black
Point warrior the way he would a piece of prize meat.

 
          
 
"Five warriors?" Pale Raven asked.

 
          
 
Brave Man nodded. "The battle White Ash
and I will fight will not be won with darts and clubs." He tilted his head
back to catch the rays of the sun. "I have forced her to this. She doesn't
want my Power to grow. She felt my touch through the Dream—as I felt hers. The
time has come to break her. We will deal with the rest of the Black Point when
my Power is full. No one will stand against us."

 
          
 
Snail Shell's face hardened.

 
          
 
Brave Man laughed. "What? Black Point, I
know her. I know her strength." He paused. "And my own. Perhaps you
would join us now? You have courage to come to me like this. I always have a
place for a man with courage."

 
          
 
"But what of the clan challenge?"
Buffalo Tail asked from the side.

 
          
 
"I decide worth," Brave Man
announced as he pinned Buffalo Tail with a hot glance. The warrior took a step
back, lowering his eyes. Brave Man returned his attention to the Black Point.
"Would you join me, Snail Shell? Become a warrior of the new way? Or will
you place your trust in a woman?"

 
          
 
"I have my own honor, Soul Flier. Broken
Stones are not my people."

 
          
 
Brave Man fingered his chin. "I will
leave that offer open to you. I will leave it open to any Black Point who has
courage. And I understand loyalty. Yes, I understand and respect it. For the
moment, you have ties to your clan. After I break your Dreamer, after I make
her my wife, perhaps we can reach an agreement . . . your warriors and me.
Repeat this to your fellows; tell them that a new way has come—and Brave Man
leads it."

 
          
 
"I will carry your words." Snail
Shell's expressionless face might have been carved of weathered granite.

 
          
 
"Then we are agreed. I shall come to the
spring you speak of with five warriors and Pale Raven. White Ash comes with her
one-armed man and five. There we will Dream the future of the People. And I
will take her Power once and for all."

 
          
 
"I hear your words, Soul Flier. With your
permission, I will bear them back."

 
          
 
"Go." Brave Man pointed.

 
          
 
Snail Shell strode proudly through the ranks
of warriors that surrounded him.

 
          
 
"We should have killed him," Pale
Raven whispered.

 
          
 
Brave man smiled blandly at her. "And
outraged the customs of the clan? No, he came unarmed."

 
          
 
"But five warriors? Have you gone crazy?"
She gestured her dismay. "I wouldn't trust a Black Point to wipe an
infant's bottom!"

 
          
 
"It's not the Black Point I trust."

 
          
 
"Oh?" she demanded as they continued
over the saddle.

 
          
 
He hitched forward on his bad leg. "It's
White Ash I trust."

 
          
 
"White Ash? She'd like to see you dead

 
          
 
He grinned absently. "It will make her
defeat all the more
delightftil
."

 
          
 
"I don't think you understand what you've
..." Pale Raven swallowed the bile of fear that rose in her throat.

 
          
 
Brave Man glanced reprovingly at her from the
corner of his eye. "It's you who don't understand. The battle White Ash
and I fight isn't something for warriors. It's for Power." He swept his
arm around at the warriors who paralleled their path. "If I loosed all
these brave young men on White Ash, it would accomplish nothing. She's learned
enough of Power to see my action before I take it. She reads my soul through
the Dreams. And suppose they did kill her; what then? She has to be alive for
me to gain her Power."

 
          
 
Pale Raven
slitted
her eyes. "You know more about it than I."

           
 
"I do. Leave the seeking of Power to
me." He closed his eyes for a moment, never breaking stride. “I can feel
her. She's frightened, Pale Raven. Fear lingers in the gray mist." He
laughed happily. "She knows she must face me now, before I learn more
about the One than she has learned." He paused. "I could almost pity
her and her one-armed man."

 
          
 
Brave Man stalked onward.

 
          
 
Pale Raven lagged behind and considered the
options, one by one. She caught Flying Hawk's attention and made an innocent
gesture with her hand. He nodded, glancing furtively at Brave Man's back.

 
          
 
Good man, Flying Hawk. Yes, the Soul Flier
gave his word—but Pale Raven didn't . . . and you don't want him going into
Black Point hands any more than 1 do.