People of the Earth (69 page)

 
          
 
"I'm going to keep that promise to Left
Hand," Still Water told her. "I don't know how, but I'll finish the
Trade. Return his favor."

 
          
 
The smells of rain and damp earth hung rich
and musky in her nostrils. Her fingers still carried the scent of the hapless
jackrabbit they'd run down. Their good luck had been to catch him. His bad luck
had been a previously broken hind leg.

 
          
 
I have to do something or I'll go mad. White
Ash plucked yet another stick from the packrat nest and asked, "What are
you thinking?"

 
          
 
"Until I die, I'll never forget the look
on Left Hand's face when he walked away. It broke his heart to leave this
land." Still Water reached for his pack and carefully stowed the Wolf
Bundle.

 
          
 
White Ash sighed as the tendrils of its grip
loosened on her soul. Still Water drew back and rubbed his fingers together as
if a presence lingered on them.

 
          
 
She looked out at the falling hail. The
shelter had grown colder. "Has the world gone mad, Still Water? Does it
all snap and snarl like a skunk with the foaming-mouth disease? Will it bite
us, too, and make us that way?"

 
          
 
He huddled closer to the fire. "I don't
know. I don't know what to think anymore. Once I told you the world was full of
puzzles. Now I'm afraid of the answers."

 
          
 
"You didn't sleep well last night."

 
          
 
He shook his head. "I thought a lot about
that necklace. When I finally slept, I had another of those visions. I was an
antelope—free, my soul Singing as I ran. Then men came and drove me into a
trap. They put ropes on me and led me far to the east—over rolling plains and
through countless drainages—to a big river. They put me, and many other
animals, on a wooden thing that floated on water. We floated for days through a
land filled with trees, and the air smelled of mud and rot. The food they
brought wasn't good. My soul sickened and turned black within. Finally we
arrived at a huge camp with walls of wood and giant wooden lodges higher than
trees. There they carried me off the floating thing and into the crowded
streets." He paused, staring into nothingness. "So many people."

 
          
 
"And then?"

 
          
 
"They put me in a tiny square place,
where I couldn't run. People came to stare at me constantly—and my soul
withered. Finally my lungs filled with the damp air and I died in that horrible
place. I never ran free with the wind again."

 
          
 
White Ash squeezed her eyes closed, trying to
blot out the image. Antelope lived to run over the prairies. She hugged her
knees close to her breast. "And Brave Man will make that Dream come
true?"

 
          
 
Still Water gave her a sideways glance.
"That's what the Wolf Bundle tells me will happen if we don't Dream a new
way. Other Dreamers will have to keep the Spiral in balance after we're gone,
but first we have to set it right."

 
          
 
She reached for another few sticks to drop on
the fire and winced as a cactus thorn pricked her finger. "Packrats—they
always have to pile cactus in their nests."

 
          
 
"Coyotes don't like cactus either,"
he observed, and shivered slightly. "That's why packrats put cactus in
their nests in the first place."

 
          
 
Thunder boomed and rolled across the land.
White Ash said, "Doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon."

 
          
 
Hail had laid a mantle of white over the
ground. "I don't think the Broken Stones are going to be chasing us."

 
          
 
"Maybe that's just as well. I'm tired,
Still Water. All we've done is run and worry and run some more."

 
          
 
He reached around and undid the ties that held
the one robe they had between them. "Let's sleep. When the storm stops, we
can run again."

 
          
 
She dropped more of the dried wood on the fire
to build up the coals. No Broken Stones would see the smoke in weather like
this. She curled herself around him as Trouble came over to drop in a heap and
place his nose on the curve of her waist. She patted him and heard a grunt of
canine satisfaction for her efforts.

 
          
 
Distant thunder growled, and as the hail
lessened, rain pattered down in its place. Drips slapped the ground in a steady
pattern.

 
          
 
“
StillWater
?"

 
          
 
"Hmm?"

 
          
 
"Why did you come after me?"

 
          
 
He lifted a shoulder awkwardly. "I had to."

 
          
 
She hugged him close. "Still Water, I ...
No matter what happens, I'll always love you. With all my heart."

 
          
 
He turned, searching her eyes. "White
Ash, my soul Sings when you're around."

 
          
 
Lightning flashed hot white in the sky,
followed immediately by a blistering crack that sundered the world.

 
          
 
"That was close," she whispered.
"Maybe Power guided it and it got Brave Man."

 
          
 
"We can hope." He blinked
thoughtfully. "You know, I can't understand it. I hit him real hard across
the knee, but not on the head. That second blow just glanced off."

 
          
 
"You hit him where the Black Point did.
He has a nasty scar there on his scalp. The hair covers it most of the time. He
says the blow killed him and sent him to the Camp of the Dead. According to
him, he escaped and came back to life."

 
          
 
"Wish I could have sent him there for
good. I'm just glad I found you in time. What was he saying to you?"

 
          
 
She took a breath, then growled, "He
thinks that by possessing me, he'll gain my Power and make himself more Powerful."
She shivered with revulsion, remembering how she'd lain bound and bared to him.
"You came in time."

 
          
 
"It was my fault that you got
caught," he told her. "I shouldn't have gone to look for
Trouble."

 
          
 
"And I shouldn't have slowed us down. It
was my own fear, Still Water. I'm sorry."

 
          
 
He reached up and ran gentle fingers down her
cheek.

 
          
 
She pulled him close, breathing deeply to fill
herself with his scent. "I've been foolish. Frightened of the wrong
things."

 
          
 
"You're brave. Braver than anyone I
know."

 
          
 
His smile warmed her, and she remembered the
hole that had emptied in her soul when she thought he might die at the hands of
the Broken Stones. Now she lay with his arm around her—safe, if only for the
moment. How long did they have? How long until this rabid world reached out to
bite them with evil, foaming teeth again? She gazed longingly at Still Water.

 
          
 
An image of Three Bulls flickered in the
depths of her soul.

 
          
 
Will you let Three Bulls continue to foul your
life? Or will you defy him—prove that you can conquer even him and what he did
to you ?

 
          
 
The lingering chill of fear curdled her
insides as she relived those moments when Brave Man had lowered his muscular
body on hers.

 
          
 
She chewed her lip and hugged Still Water
closer. Her heart began to pound as she sat up and slipped off her shirt,
taking a moment to admire the stitching she'd used to mend the split leather.

 
          
 
“What are you doing? You'll freeze," he
protested.

 
          
 
She smiled at him, joy mixing with the anxiety
in her heart. She stood up and slipped out of her pants, movements quickened by
the chill in the air.

 
          
 
"Get up," she told him.

 
          
 
"You've lost any sense you ever—"

 
          
 
"Get up. Quick. Before my nerve
fails."

 
          
 
He shot her a quizzical glance and rose,
letting her undress him. Trouble watched with curious eyes, his tail patting
the ground.

 
          
 
White Ash pulled Still Water down and
snugged
the cover around them.

 
          
 
"You'd be warmer if you'd . . . What are
you doing?”

 
          
 
"Loving you." She watched
understanding dawn in his eyes.

 
          
 
"Are you sure? What if . . . if . .
."

 
          
 
She felt him respond under her touch.

 
          
 
"I'm sure, Still Water. I almost lost you
once. I see the worry in your eyes. I'm going to cover up the memory of Three
Bulls. Bury it with something wonderful."

 
          
 
He closed his eyes. "What if I
can't?"

 
          
 
She rolled on her back, pulling him with her.
"Then we'll try again. People do this all the time. It can't be that
difficult."

 
          
 
Rain fell in silver veils beyond the shelter.
Still Water's regular breathing told her he slept. A fragile contentment filled
her. Why couldn't they stay like this forever—loving each other, sharing their
souls? Did they have to go out into the world again? Did they have to face the
terrible storm that brewed so violently around them? A storm of Power and
Peoples more threatening than any weather.

 
          
 
Lingering traces of the One drifted at the
edge of her soul. She could close her eyes and feel the ghost of that gray mist
and the promise of the golden haze beyond.

 
          
 
The lurking presence of the Wolf Bundle pulled
at her.

 
          
 
A shaft of sunlight penetrated the sleek veil
of rain, and the brilliant colors of the rainbow glowed to life in the sky.