Rain Bear sat across the fire with his teacup braced on his knee. Morning was breaking, sending a shallow light through the camp. It illuminated the low blue wreaths of smoke that hung in flat layers. Every muscle in his body cried out for more sleep, but he forced himself to sip his tea and struggled to come awake.
Little Tsauz sat across the fire, Rides-the-Wind and Pitch flanking him on either side. The boy’s dark eyes looked strangely luminous, as though some of Thunderbird’s light had suffused his young body. Rides-the-Wind had cleaned and treated his facial wounds, but a few of the deepest cuts across his forehead still oozed blood.
Rain Bear’s sleep-hazy mind wasn’t capable of rational thought this morning. Instead it kept clinging to memories of Evening Star’s body against his. He had never made love with a woman who fit so perfectly against him.
He glanced surreptitiously at her lodge, wondering when she had slipped away last night. Waking without her this morning had left him with a sense of desolation and loss.
He sniffed at the cold, sipped his tea, and forced himself to concentrate on the here and now.
“What happened?” Rain Bear gestured to the boy’s wounds.
“He flew through the treetops on Thunderbird’s back,” Rides-the-Wind answered matter-of-factly. “The branches scratched him.”
The branches scratched him? Rain Bear put more faith in good clubs and spears than he did in gods, but he didn’t exactly disbelieve.
Pitch handed Rain Bear a bowl of seal meat stew, and he nodded his thanks while he tried to sort this all out. As he stirred the stew, the mingled scents of seaweed and seal encircled his face. He took a bite. Tender and succulent, the seal melted in his mouth. Swallowing, he gestured questioningly. “I’m glad the boy had a vision, but why am I here?”
Tsauz clasped the bowl Pitch inserted into his hands and slowly let out a deep breath. “Chief Rain Bear, I spoke with Thunderbird.”
Rides-the-Wind gave the boy an intense look. “Did he meet you at the top of the ladder?”
“No. He grabbed the rope and dragged it away, but he made me climb to the middle while it swung through the air”—his lips parted, as though seeing it all again on the fabric of his soul—“and then we soared away.”
Rides-the-Wind leaned forward. A clean dry deerhide rested over his shoulders, but he still shivered periodically, as though the cold night had settled in his bones. “Where did you go?”
“We flew to Fire Village.” Steam curled around Tsauz’s face as he ate a bite of stew. He chewed it thoughtfully and swallowed. “I saw my father.”
That got Rain Bear’s attention. He perked up, studying the boy.
Rides-the-Wind asked, “Did you speak with him?”
“Thunderbird wouldn’t let me.” Grief strained his voice, but his eyes remained clear.
“Then Thunderbird had good reasons. Did you ask him to save your father?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
Tsauz lowered his bowl to his lap and fumbled with it. The words were almost too soft to hear. “He told me that I could either save my father, or save all of our peoples. One or the other.”
“Did he say why?”
“No.”
Rides-the-Wind’s gray brows slanted down. “How are you supposed to do that?”
“He wouldn’t tell me. He said he’ll come back and tell me more later. Right now, he just wanted me to get word to Matron Astcat.”
“Word about what?”
Tsauz ran his thumb around the rim of his bowl. “He told me how to stop the war.”
Rain Bear’s spoon stopped halfway to his mouth. He put it back in his bowl with a clunk. “How?”
Tsauz’s blind eyes drifted in his direction. “It’s not something for you, Great Chief. Only Matron Astcat and I can stop it.”
The hair at the nape of Rain Bear’s neck prickled. “Tsauz, I must insist—”
“No, you must not.” Rides-the-Wind gave a shake of his finger. “If Tsauz were to betray the trust of his Spirit Helper by revealing the Dream to you, it might anger Thunderbird. We would be worse off than we are now. At least we know there is a way to stop the war.”
Rain Bear set his half-eaten bowl on a warm hearthstone. “You mean that I’m supposed to trust Tsauz when tens of tens of lives are at stake?”
“Apparently. So let’s spend our time thinking about a runner. Who should we send with Tsauz’s message?”
“Just a moment!” Rain Bear glared back and forth. “You’re asking me to bet the future of my people, clan, family, and warriors on the vision of a ten-winters-old boy?”
Rides-the-Wind gave him a thoughtful appraisal. “Do you remember when we talked about why I came here? I told you that Power brought me here. Just as it brought you, Tsauz, and Evening Star to this place. I told you that you would have to make a choice. Do you trust Tsauz’s vision? Or prosecute your war in an attempt to exterminate the North Wind People?”
“I have no wish to exterminate the North Wind People.” He scowled at the old man.
In a gentler voice, Rides-the-Wind asked, “What will be the ultimate price of your alliance, Great Chief? What will Bluegrass, Goldenrod, and Talon demand in return for their service?”
Rain Bear started to shake his head, and then a cold realization sank in. Yes, that would be it, wouldn’t it? He might start out with the assurance that his forces were only going to break the Council’s authority, but once the warfare began, who would keep the pent rage from feeding on a desire for revenge?
“Ah, yes.” Rides-the-Wind read his expression. “Where will it end?” He turned back to Pitch. “Let’s see. We were talking about a way to get Tsauz’s message to Matron Astcat.”
Rain Bear was painfully aware of Tsauz. The boy was staring at him with such intensity Rain Bear would have sworn the boy could see him. It went against every fiber in his body, but he said, “Whatever we do must be done immediately. The next time Coyote prowls Sandy Point Village, he’ll kill Tsauz.”
Pitch’s beaked nose caught the gleam of firelight as he glanced uncertainly at his father-in-law. “It has to be someone special, doesn’t it? Carrying the message will be dangerous.”
“It has to be someone they wouldn’t kill right off,” Rides-the-Wind said. “Someone important enough that they would listen to him.”
“Someone like me.”
Rain Bear and Rides-the-Wind turned to Pitch, asking in unison, “You?”
“I’m perfect for it.”
Rain Bear placed a hand on Pitch’s shoulder. “What about your wound?”
“It’s healed enough. The swelling has gone down. I can do this. And, given my wound, I’m surely not intimidating to them.”
Rain Bear mused, “Roe isn’t going to like this, but if I’m stuck with this lunacy, you’re the best choice. Not only that, you’re my son-in-law—married to Astcat’s granddaughter, for what that’s worth.”
Rides-the-Wind smoothed his hand over his gray beard. “By sending you, they will know the value we place on Tsauz’s vision.”
Pitch muttered, “Tell that to the assassins who speared me on the trail home from Antler Spoon’s village.”
“Yes,” Rides-the-Wind said softly. “I’ve been thinking about that.”
Pitch frowned and looked back and forth between them. “But I thought we’d decided Coyote hired them, and Coyote was Ecan.”
Rides-the-Wind’s eyes glimmered. “If Coyote were Ecan, Evening Star would have recognized him the other night. No, this is someone who can play many roles. Someone smart enough to let other people believe him harmless.”
“If Dzoo was right, and he’s obsessed with her, why isn’t he trying to get her out of Fire Village?”
The old Soul Keeper’s smile was anything but friendly. “Oh, he hasn’t forgotten her. You see, when I say he’s clever, I mean it. How patient he must be, seeing her every day, waiting, knowing that the entire world is about to explode in warfare.”
“And in the chaos …”
“Exactly.”
Rain Bear pinched the bridge of his nose. “We must warn her.”
Rides-the-Wind was watching him from the corner of his eye. “Do not worry about Dzoo, Great Chief. She and Coyote are already Dancing and darting. They have locked themselves in a duel. What happens between them is out of your control.”
Rain Bear shot him a mistrustful look.
Rides-the-Wind replied, “Why do you think she let Ecan take her to Fire Village in the first place?”
Pitch rose. His red ritual cape swung around his long legs. “Let me get my pack. I’ll be ready in moments.”
Rides-the-Wind gripped Pitch’s free hand as the Singer walked past, and whispered, “Take the obsidian amulets to Dzoo. She may need them.”
“Yes, I will.” He sprinted away.
Rain Bear studied Tsauz. The boy had his chin up, bravely facing them, but his fingers had twined in his cape and hardened to fists.
What had Tsauz really experienced last night? Had he truly flown with the god, or was he just a very imaginative child? One touched by Power, to be sure, but the boy had been desperate to get a message to his father. And now I have given him a way to do just that.
Would the message actually stop the war?
Or start it?
His gaze returned to Rides-the-Wind, and he found the elder staring at him with dark penetrating eyes.
“Quite the unsettling decision, isn’t it?” the Soul Keeper asked.
“I was just wishing I was the only one I had to trust.”
A grim smile curled the old man’s lips. “Then you’d be in real trouble.”