People of the Fire (51 page)

 
          
 
Finally satisfied, she stopped and wheeled,
hands on trim waist. "Sit down!"

 
          
 
"Don't you go—"

 
          
 
"Sit!" She thrust a straight finger
down.

 
          
 
Despite himself he settled to the cushion of
the duff and she dropped to face him.

 
          
 
"I just saved you from the worst mistake
of your life."

 
          
 
"Worst mistake! I almost—"

 
          
 
"Ruined yourself!" Tanager shook her
head, eyes flashing. "What did you think? That you'd kill him and Elk
Charm would come running into your arms? You've got less sense than a bull elk
in rut!"

 
          
 
Snaps Horn glared at her.

 
          
 
"Listen," she explained, hands wide.
"Elk Charm loves him. Yes . . . loves him."

 
          
 
"How do you know?"

 
          
 
"Because I've watched her. You were
looking too high. They're way down on the south end. In a shelter in one of the
canyons."

 
          
 
"I knew he'd come back to White
Calf's."

 
          
 
"And then what? You'd kill him? Elk Charm
would hate you for the rest of your life! She loves him. And if you killed the
man she loved, then what? You think she'd ever look at you?"

 
          
 
"How would she know who killed him?"

 
          
 
"How would she know?" Tanager
laughed, a slim hand to her mouth. "Who else has spent the winter out
roaming around the timber like a fool? You're the only one, foolish calf!
That's how she'd know. And every camp of the Red Hand is talking about it,
speculating."

 
          
 
Through the mist of his anger and confusion,
it made sense.

 
          
 
"Yes, you finally understand." She
grinned at him. ten, we've been friends for a long time. I couldn't see you
ruin two lives because your penis has overloaded your brain."

 
          
 
"How do you know so much, girl!"

 
          
 
An impish look crossed her face. “Because I
might be strange. But I watch. I watch everything—animals, people. I know what
makes people act the way they do because I've always lived apart. While most
people are all wound up in their problems, I'm watching, learning why they do
what they do. Like animals."

 
          
 
He tried to figure out what to do next. The
dominant urge was to stomp away. Then she grinned at him again and destroyed
his line of thought.

 
          
 
"And I haven't been a 'girl' for three
months now."

 
          
 
"But . . ."

 
          
 
"No, I haven't been to the menstrual
lodge either. I'm Tanager. When the signs first came, I left for the timber.
When I'm ready, I'll go let them fawn over me and paint me up. But I'm not
ready yet."

 
          
 
He shook his head, baffled. "But that's
the most important thing that happens to a woman. It's special!"

 
          
 
"And I'm Tanager. I'm special in my own
way."

 
          
 
"You don't want to worry about avoiding
Blood Bear?"

 
          
 
"Blood Bear?" She giggled to
herself. "He'll have a merry chase catching me. No, I'll vanish when the
ceremony is over. And I think most people will expect it. Even Mother's given
up on me."

 
          
 
Snaps Horn rubbed his face with a cold hand.
"So I'm supposed to let Elk Charm go?"

 
          
 
"Of course. You weren't meant for her
anyway. You're too different. She wants more than you could give her. And
that's not a slap in your face. She daydreams too much. You need a woman more
practical."

 
          
 
"Oh? Who?"

 
          
 
"Cricket. She's dying of love for you.
She's been pacing around the camp staring down the trails practically dying
inside. She's always loved you. And you've always been out of her reach."

 
          
 
"Cricket?"

 
          
 
"Yes, Cricket. And here you are out
trying to ruin your life and Elk Charm's and Cricket's! If you killed Elk
Charm's lover, Cricket would have been miserable."

 
          
 
"But she's just a girl!"

 
          
 
"That's because you've only had eyes for
Elk Charm's body. You've blinded yourself."

           
 
"What about you? Maybe you're jealous
because I want Elk Charm?"

 
          
 
Tanager gave him a level look. "I'm not
sure I want to couple with you. For one thing, the elders would whisper about
incest. We're too closely related, second cousins. And besides, you couldn't stand
me. It's fun to play tricks on each other, but you'd want a wife that was
always home with you. You know me. You know what I like to do. Can you see me
as a wife?"

 
          
 
He shook his head.

 
          
 
She looked up at the threatening clouds that
dropped low. "Listen, we're not going anywhere. I know a place close to
here. This storm's going to be bad. Let's go build a fire. I've got some jerked
meat in my pack. Enough to hold us. We'll have plenty of time to talk."

 
          
 
She shot to her feet, leading him out of the timber.

 
          
 
Was she right? Would it have been a mistake to
kill the Short Buffalo youth? Would Elk Charm have hated him?

 
          
 
Worse, had he been that much of a fool?

 
          
 
"Hope that man of Elk Charm's has enough
sense to head for cover," Tanager muttered as she stepped out of the
trees.

 
          
 
Snow. Weaving patterns like wraiths of wind,
it fell in sheets. Flakes half the size of a woman's hand came tumbling out of
the opaque gray of the sky, whirling, piling up on the land, mounding into
humps over the tall sagebrush, and capping the rocks like curious giant
mushrooms until the caps themselves disappeared—melding with the increasing
depth. Where Hungry Bull's group huddled in the shelter, they could hear the
patter of flakes on the hide hangings.

 
          
 
"
Lot
of snow," Three Toes offered,
expounding on the obvious. "And it's come so late." He whistled like
a mead-
owlark
, as if that plaintive trilling would
somehow bring an end to the monotony of waiting out the storm.

 
          
 
"I hate to be the one to remind you, but
the wood situation is getting a little worrisome." Black Crow scratched
behind his ear and walked over to pull the hides apart, allowing only a sliver
of gray light into the shelter. He craned his neck, he inspected the falling
flakes and let the hangings close.

 
          
 
"I'm not up to it," Hungry Bull
groaned.

           
 
"Lazy!" Rattling Hooves chided from
the side. "Makes Fun? Meadowlark? Do we go stumble around and get wet and
cold while these tough men shiver and shake?"

 
          
 
"Men do have that frail streak in their
constitutions," Makes Fun agreed, a devilish glint in her eye as she
studied her husband.

 
          
 
"And we went for it last time."
Meadowlark pursed her lips over her sewing while the children argued about
something in the back of the shelter. For the moment, they'd snarled themselves
in a loud game that involved crawling through the bedding while holding on to
each other's legs to create what they called a monster worm.

 
          
 
Meadowlark shook her head. "If that's the
only time I have to cover for my lazy man, I suppose it'll be as much a miracle
as a white buffalo riding me to the
Starweb
for a
visit." She set her awl and sinew aside, reaching for her sheep-hide coat.

 
          
 
"All right!" Three Toes exploded,
leaping to his feet. "We'll go find wood! Maybe that big blown-down fir
across the canyon. It's in the middle of the trail anyway."

 
          
 
"Great idea!" Hungry Bull crossed
his arms over his chest. "You go hack it in half and give us a call when
you're ready to move it."

 
          
 
"How about something a little less
ambitious, like a couple of loads of small stuff?" Black Crow suggested,
pointing a finger at Three Toes and lifting an eyebrow.

 
          
 
"I'll bet Heavy Beaver doesn't gather any
firewood in the middle of snowstorms."

 
          
 
Meadowlark's musical voice chimed, "You
can always go live with him. I'd never try and keep you from something like
that."

 
          
 
Three Toes finished pulling on his outer
moccasins and grinned at Hungry Bull, hooking a thumb back at his wife.
"Is that gratitude? After all the years I looked out for that woman, kept
her from—"

 
          
 
"Yes?" Meadowlark leaned forward,
lips parted, waiting. "You did what?"

 
          
 
Three Toes hopped lightly to his feet,
whirling a sheep hide around his shoulders and pulling a fox hood over his
head. "Nothing! You two hunters coming on the chase? Or are you demented
enough to sit around here with this bunch of sage hens?"

 
          
 
“Ah, the sacrifices we make in the name of
family
tranquillity
!" Hungry Bull slapped Black
Crow on the shoulder and ducked out into the storm.

 
          
 
Two Smokes chuckled from his place in the back
where he stitched his incomparably tanned leather into a new pair of moccasins.
No one, not even the best, could compete with Two Smokes' work.

 
          
 
Rattling Hooves kicked at a high-piled bundle
of bedding. "Hey! Girl of mine. Wake up!"

 
          
 
The furs rose and shifted, Elk Charm's sleepy
face poking out from under the mass. "Huh?"

 
          
 
“We just sent the men out for wood. Since
they're bringing a bunch back, we might want to take some of that biscuit root
we dug the day this storm started and turn it into something
roastable
. You know, make a deep pit fire and cook it
good."

 
          
 
Elk Charm yawned, rubbing at her eyes.
"Still snowing?"

 
          
 
"Like you haven't seen for all your
years."

 
          
 
“Little Dancer didn't come back?"

 
          
 
"Now," her mother replied gently,
"you wouldn't want him traveling in weather like this. Think about the
footing, how you can't judge the surface. Walking in this, a chance misstep
could leave him . . . And there's ice and thinly crusted snow that would . . .
Well, you'd want him safe, that's all, daughter." Rattling Hooves lowered
her eyes, looking away as she fumbled with the hem of her skirt.