Ash-colored rays streamed down through the ice cave’s narrow opening, accenting the sallow cheeks of the People pressed close together inside. Clutching robes tightly around them, they spoke little, or not at all, despair a palpable thing—all hope fled.
“Grandmother?” Red Star, a five-year-old girl with wide brown eyes and a cadaverously thin face, called. She weakly tugged the hood over Broken Branch’s head.
“Hmm?”
“Grandmother, I’m cold.” She tightened her hold on the fish-bone doll clamped in a death grip against her cheek.
Broken Branch roused herself, rubbing fists into her eyes
before staring down at the child. Red Star looked up, blinking slowly, lashes crusted with ice. She lifted her arms, begging to be taken.
“Come on, child,” Broken Branch murmured tenderly, picking the girl up and sitting her in her lap. She wrapped ice-stiff robes around them both and squeezed Red Star hard, kissing her forehead.
“Thank you.” The child sighed, leaning tiredly against the old woman’s chest. She took off one mitten to tuck a finger in her mouth, sucking softly. “I’m hungry.”
“I know you are. But it won’t be long now. Wolf Dreamer’s coming back real soon. He’ll get us out of this mess. He’s probably out talking to Wolf right now.”
Red Star frowned disbelievingly. “Are you lying to me because I’m little?”
“Of course not,” Broken Branch protested with hurt pride. “He’s coming back. You’ll see.”
“Maybe he’s dead and can’t.”
“Who told you that?”
Red Star tilted her head awkwardly as though hesitant about telling. “Well …”
“Come on. Who can you tell if not me?” Broken Branch wheedled.
“Singing Wolf said maybe Grandfather White Bear ate him and we were all going to die for following him.”
Broken Branch puckered her lips disdainfully. “Well, Singing Wolf’s a fool. You listen to me. I’ve lived twice as long as he has and I know the way the world works. Wolf Dreamer’s coming back.”
Red Star’s stomach rumbled and she dropped a tiny hand to pat it. “It’s been growling and knotting up.”
“Maybe one of the Monster Children came down and crawled in there, huh?”
Red Star laughed weakly, incredulous. “You know they never come out of the sky.”
“Don’t they?”
The girl shook her head. “No. That’s why we don’t have to be afraid of them. They’re trapped in the rainbow lights, locked there for all time.”
Broken Branch patted her frigid cheek, smiling. “You remember the old stories pretty good, don’t you?”
“You told me I had to. ’Member?”
“Did I?”
“Uh-huh. When I was little. You told me you’d beat my butt if I forgot any of them.”
“Good for me. It worked.”
Red Star nuzzled her cheek against the old woman’s furs, something else clearly on her mind. Broken Branch lifted a mittened hand to trace the furrows in the young forehead.
“What are these? You trying to look like me?”
The girl glanced up timidly, eyes dark and brooding inside her gray fur hood. “Grandmother, what’s death like?”
A tight band constricted around her heart. She spewed an exhale and hugged the child fiercely. She’d wondered that herself a time or two. “Oh, it’s not so bad. Unless some old—”
“But what if a bear comes and swallows me while I’m still alive?”
Broken Branch took the stone knife from her belt, twisting it so the obsidian blade glinted menacingly in the dim light. “If a bear did that, I’d slice his gut wide open to get you back.”
“But, what would it feel like … if … if the bear ran away and you couldn’t find me?”
“Well,” Broken Branch whispered, contemplating the cold blue shadows clinging to the irregular patches in the ceiling. “It feels like going to sleep. You know how you kind of drift off. One minute you’re awake and the next you’re not?”
Red Star nodded. “It doesn’t hurt real bad?”
“No, child, not for long.”
“Maybe it just lasts a minute?”
“Oh, less than that even. You’d hardly know.”
Red Star heaved a small breath of relief, sucking her finger again as she rubbed the painted muskrat fur of her doll’s face against her itching nose. “I was worried about it.”
“I could tell.”
“Salmon Tail said it hurt for a long time, that you screamed and screamed until the Soul Eaters came to get you.”
“He’s only seven,” she growled. “What does he know?” “Throws Bones was his uncle. He said he could hear him groaning for days after the bear got him.”
“Bah! Throws Bones was such a pain he probably gave
old Grandfather White Bear indigestion and that’s what Salmon Tail heard.”
Red Star sighed patiently, as though she was thinking about it while she blinked at Broken Branch’s hide-booted foot. “What happens afterward?”
“You mean after death?” The girl nodded. “Well, when you wake up, you’re flying among the stars, soaring just like Eagle. You get to—”
“’Cause I’m one of the Star People again?”
“Sure.”
She cocked her tiny head seriously. “Grandmother, do you believe Wolf really came to Runs In Light and gave him a Dream?”
“There’s not a doubt in my whole body, girl. I’ve seen Dreamers—real Dreamers … .” Her voice faded as her thoughts drifted to bittersweet days twenty-five years before. “Real Dreamers …”
Up the slanted tunnel to the opening, a sibilant rustling of furs sounded, dogs barking. Red Star jumped, a short cry of joy erupting from her bluish lips.
“It’s him!” she cried shrilly, scrambling up the tunnel.
“Runs In Light! Runs In Light!”
Broken Branch closed her eyes, offering a soft prayer of thanks to Wolf before dropping her head to her mittens.
“Hello,” she heard Red Star say, as if she didn’t know the person she spoke to.
“You hungry, little one?” an unknown woman asked.
“Oh, yes, my stomach’s been howling.”
“Well, here. You eat some of these and you’ll be fine.”
“Thank you!” Red Star moaned gratefully and slid back down the tunnel with a long stuffed rope of intestine.
What is it about that voice that stirs … With it came tremors of fear and regret, tears welling in Broken Branch’s wrinkled old throat. She swallowed with difficulty.
“Broken Branch?” the woman’s gravelly voice demanded. “You in there?”
“I’m in here,” she answered in shock. “Who—”
“Well, come out before I come in to get you.”
“Who are you?”
When no answer came, Broken Branch hesitantly threw off her robes and crawled on hands and knees up through the ice
opening. A haze of white blew around a hooded figure, stabbing at her eyes, forcing her to squeeze them closed. She pushed up to stand on weak tottering legs, trying to make out the ancient face in the caribou hood. The vast expanse of white encircling them seemed to swirl in Wind Woman’s grasp.
“I’ll be a cursed …” the woman grunted. “That pointed nose of yours used to be beautiful. Now it looks as sharp and ugly as somebody’s dart point. Makes me feel better.”
“Who are you?” she demanded roughly this time. “Do I know you?”
“You old bitch. Of course you do. How could you forget someone whose heart you broke?”
Broken Branch gasped a deep wheezing breath as recognition dawned, her hands fluttering wildly about the woman’s shoulders. Touching her to make certain she was real. Getting control of herself, she put a hand to her trembling lips and stared with trepidation. “Blessed Star People … it’s you.”
“Of course it’s me,” Heron snapped. “How many other people’s hearts have you broke?” Then, squinting in thought, she added, “’Course, I guess I wouldn’t know. Maybe you’ve stacked up quite a few by now.”
Reaching out timidly, Broken Branch grabbed the hide strings of Heron’s parka and clumsily pulled her forward before wrapping frail old arms around her and hugging her as though she were a vision that might disappear at any moment. “I thought you’d died long ago.”
Heron raised her own arms, patting Broken Branch’s back tenderly as she chided, “Couldn’t let myself. I always figured I’d see you again.”
Broken Branch shoved gently back to stare into the oval face of the Spirit Woman. Heron’s graceful features were still finely etched, lips full and nose turned up. “You still want to kill me?”
Heron slowly filled her lungs and held the breath as she scowled for a long moment. “Not as bad as I used to.”
“You just come to that conclusion because of my nose.”
“Mostly. I still might curse your joints, though.”
“You’re too late. Somebody else already did. I can barely walk most of the winter.”
“That right?”
Broken Branch nodded, bowing her head as guilt swelled in her breast. “You know, I never meant to hurt you. It was just that I—”
“Oh …” Heron shook her head sternly. “You did me a favor, really. I didn’t have the courage to become a Dreamer by myself. Needed some deep wound to force me to let go of the People.”
“I sure gave you that, didn’t I?”
“You did.”
“I never felt right about it after you left. There was always an empty place inside me.”
“After, sure. But it never occurred to you when it counted!”
Broken Branch’s eyes narrowed, jaw clenching. “Of course not. I didn’t like you.”
“Well, you weren’t exactly lovable. That sharp tongue of yours waggled all the blasted time. Why, I—”
“Grandmother?” Red Star’s young voice interrupted, a sweet timid face peeking out the opening to the cave. “Come and eat before this is all gone.”
“I’ll be there in a minute, child,” she called over her shoulder.
Wind Woman playfully tousled the ties on her parka, setting them to flapping across her chest. She chanced another look at Heron. A slow smile crept over her former enemy’s face, a twinkle in her eyes.
“Come on,” the Dreamer said gruffly. “I got just the thing for your joints.”
“What? You gonna do a spirit healing? For me?”
Heron shook her head. “No, I got something much more powerful.”
“What could be more …”
Heron went into a fit of hysterics as Broken Branch’s eyes jerked wide and her jaw gaped. “You’re not gonna cut them off, are you?”
“I might,” Heron said with a slight smile. Turning, she waved for Broken Branch to follow as she strode across the white windswept plain toward Runs In Light. People were crawling out of the ice cave to gather in weary joy around him. They were hugging him, and gratefully shouting that they’d never doubted him.
Broken Branch pursed her lips and lowered her eyes to stare at the wispy tendrils of snow creeping around her legs like ghostly fingers.
“Curse you,” she whispered to herself, squinting at Heron’s back. “You’re the only Dreamer I ever believed had Power.” Hearing the odd words, she quickly amended, “You and Runs In Light.”
Over the whistling wind, she heard Heron’s voice shouting: “Yeah, I found her. That old bitch never could leave well enough alone.”
A faint chuckle escaped Broken Branch’s withered throat. She inhaled a deep soothing breath, the first in days, and let her gaze drift over the joyful faces emerging from the snow caves. Around them, the icy plains gleamed with a pearlescent sheen. Drifting clouds seemed to glow brighter, their edges gilded with shimmering gold.
“Grandmother?” Red Star called. “I saved you some. But you’d better eat it fast before my stomach growls again.”
She turned to see the girl weakly handing out a loop of stuffed intestine. Broken Branch knelt and took the blessed food. “Thank you, baby. You’re a good girl.”
Red Star cocked her head against the brilliant sun, squinting up. “Grandmother? Does this mean Light’s Dream was real?”
“Of course, it does. Didn’t I tell you he was coming back?”
“So, no bears are going to eat us? We’re going to be all right now?”
Broken Branch took a bite of the delicately flavored meat and gazed back at Heron. The old Spirit Woman was waving her arms expressively, bullying everybody to get them organized. Her muffled words seemed to blend with Wind Woman’s, becoming one plaintive and powerful voice in the wilderness.
“We’re saved, baby,” Broken Branch said. A few tears had frozen on her lower lashes, glimmering like crystals. She wiped them away with the back of her sleeve. “Our souls are in the hands of a master Dreamer now—the most powerful Dreamer our People have had since Father Sun himself walked the earth.” She turned and patted Red Star’s gaunt cheek. “Yes, don’t you worry, baby. We’re saved.”