People of the Fire (81 page)

 
          
 
The air roared and rushed to feed the
tremendous inferno. Entire trees cracked like thunder as the trunks split,
steaming and whooshing into the wall of racing flame.

 
          
 
The heat of it beat into him like a fist,
crushing him into the parched soil, grinding him down flat as the world burned
around him.

 
          
 
"Mother?"

 
          
 
In the heart of the roaring incineration a
figure moved, stalking the white ash like a shadow.

 
          
 
Heart pounding, Heavy Beaver watched as Little
Dancer walked through the flames, tongues of it licking around him.

 
          
 
“Why don't you burn? What are you?"

 
          
 
“I’m the Dreamer of the People." And the
figure blurred as a wall of flame swept past, searing an afterimage on the back
of Heavy Beaver's eyes.

 
          
 
Shielding his gaze with an uplifted arm. Heavy
Beaver squinted, expecting Little Dancer to have been
charn
sizzling grease and blackened bone. Instead, he stood t: tall, handsome, the
gaudy light of the burning world R
ing
on his smooth
skin.

 
          
 
“What . . . who are you?"

 
          
 
“I'm you, Heavy Beaver . . . and not you. I'm
the Dream and the reality. I've led you here. I'm that which is . . . and is
not. I'm the Dream you denied!”

 
          
 
Heavy Beaver blinked, feeling his skin
blister. In hoi he watched fire swirling around Little Dancer, watched him
Dance with it. Little Dancer reached down to sear Heavy Beaver's fat flesh.

 
          
 
Panicked, Heavy Beaver jumped to his feet,
charging headlong into the fire, feeling his flesh sear. His lungs scorched as
he drew a breath to scream He beat at his burning hair, stumbling, rolling in
the fire as pain crackled his charring skin.

 
          
 
A final gust from the Wolf Bundle scattered
the bits of his soul.

 
          
 
* * *

           
 
"The Spiral is glowing, changing,” the
Wolf Dreamer called from the golden mist.

 
          
 
"We have our Dreamer," the Wolf
Bundle Sang, its voice echoing the stars.

 
          
 
"And we are One." Fire Dancer
whirled in the Dance.

 
          
 
By ones and twos they came down the trails.
Some limped, some carried others burned too badly to walk on their own. As they
came in to the camp, Two Smokes bandaged them, sending women and children for
specific plants to make a poultice. Warriors sat stunned, vacant looks on their
faces. Soot-grimed, with hair singed here and there, they stared at the
smoldering mountain with empty eyes.

 
          
 
Tanager watched, impassive, as she guarded the
Dreamer's lodge.

 
          
 
Two Smokes finally hitched his way over and
settled next to Tanager. "I've asked many people. They say that as the
fire began, the
Anit'ah
disappeared like a raindrop
on a hot rock."

 
          
 
She nodded, a grim smile on her lips. "We
are the Red Hand. The mountains are ours."

 
          
 
"Yes, the mountains are ours."

 
          
 
"I've been keeping my guard up for Heavy
Beaver. What's happened to him?"

 
          
 
Two Smokes studied his callused hands.
"They found him over there. Where the fire burned up the juniper. I still
don't know why it didn't take the whole camp."

 
          
 
"Many things happened that night."

 
          
 
"But why did he run into the middle of
the fire? Why?"

 
          
 
She gave him a hard glance. "He abused
the Wolf Bundle once, didn't he?"

 
          
 
Two Smokes averted his eyes and nodded.

 
          
 
"You'd better be very careful of
it."

 
          
 
"How's Fire Dancer?"

 
          
 
"He woke up a while ago."

 
          
 
"And you could bring me food," a
weak voice called from within. Fire Dancer crawled from the lodge, gazing up at
the mountain. He looked wasted, thin, but his eyes glittered as though not of
this world.

           
 
Two Smokes sighed. "I thought hunger was
only illusion."

 
          
 
"It is. Only I must live this illusion a
while longer You and I, my friend, together we must teach these people a new
way. They must learn the secret of the grass from I must Dream for them, and
you must be the bridge."

 
          
 
Two Smokes nodded, knowing the way of it.
"And where will you do this?"

 
          
 
"I've been thinking of the
Warm
Wind
Basin
. There are no people who live there. And
your grass grows everywhere. At least, that's what Three Rattles said last time
he through."

 
          
 
"And that will take the pressure off the buffalo
for a while."

 
          
 
"Like men," Tanager said, pointing
to the exhauster warriors, "buffalo need time to recover."

 
          
 
Two Smokes laughed. "It could be more
difficult than that. One of the warriors started to beat his wife. She I him
with his own war darts. When he threatened to kill her, she told him Tanager
would get him. You should hear it. There are arguments all over. One of the
women insists on sitting in council. Seven Suns and Elk Whistle think the
warriors have missed the women."

 
          
 
Fire Dancer smiled weakly. "It hurts to
miss a woman." He looked away.

 
          
 
"Your time will come. The People are
quick, the

 
          
 
Fire Dancer shook his head. “You’ve Danced
with the One. You can’t go back, Two Smokes.
 
It would well, hurt worse. She'd never
understand. I'd only make her miserable. My way is different now. You're
berdaehe
, you understand

 
          
 
A silence passed.

 
          
 
"What of the Wolf Bundle?”

 
          
 
He gestured at Tanager. “She is the leader of
the Red Hand. It must go with her.”

 
          
 
"And us? What do we do?”

 
          
 
Fire Dancer smiled, eyes focused on the
distance. “You and I have the One. We Dance with fire.”

 
          
 
Beyond the hangings, wind wailed down the
canyon as snow fell in twirling wraiths. Even the dogs had come sneaking in,
cowering, fearful of being thrown out into the storm. In the center, the fire
crackled, lighting the faces of the young children who listened raptly as the
Trader talked.

 
          
 
"... So the Spirit Helpers came down and
gave Fire Dancer a Spirit Dream. They told him that Heavy Beaver had no Dream,
that only his greed and ambition made him claim Power. But the People didn't know
the difference. The world was changing and whose word should they believe?

 
          
 
"Wolf came and told Fire Dancer to renew
the Wolf Bundle. And he did this. And they Danced and Sang and made Power
together. In the midst of this, First Man came and Danced with them.

 
          
 
" 'Go to the People,' First Man said.
'Take them the new way and Dance the Spirals back the way they were before the
badness was let loose by Heavy Beaver.'

 
          
 
"And Fire Dancer did this. He walked down
from the high place and met Heavy Beaver. For four days they Danced and fought.
And once, Fire Dancer grabbed a handful of fire and threw it up on the
mountain, setting it all on fire. And they continued to Dance while Heavy
Beaver threw Curse after Curse on Fire Dancer. But each time a Curse was thrown
at him, he picked up fire and washed it away. You know, like you rub soot off
your skin.

 
          
 
"Finally, Heavy Beaver sent all his
warriors to kill Fire Dancer, but Fire Dancer had his own warrior, Tanager, a
woman from the mountains. He Sang Power into her and she killed all Heavy
Beaver's warriors one by one.

 
          
 
"Fire Dancer had about had enough of
Heavy Beaver and his Curses, so he Danced them up to the burning mountain, and
when they were in the middle of the fire, he left Heavy Beaver to burn up. And
Heavy Beaver did. You know why?”

 
          
 
"Because he didn't have Power!"
little White Stones answered seriously.

 
          
 
The children giggled.

 
          
 
"That's right," the Trader told
them, spreading his hands. "That's why now all people are told to go to
the high places and Dream. Everyone must do that to keep the Spiral the Wise
One Above made them. Heavy Beaver wanted the One all to himself. But if
everyone seeks his own way to Power, no evil man will ever take it for his own
again"

 
          
 
"And what happened to Fire Dancer?"
asked Busy Boy, talking around the finger in his mouth as he stared with big
brown eyes.

 
          
 
"Fire Dancer saw that the way of the
People had returned to right. That Buffalo Above and all the sp happy, and then
he rose to a high place and rode to the Star-web on lightning. And that's the
way it w

 
          
 
From where she sat in the back. Elk Charm
blinked her sightless eyes. The arthritis had knotted in her hands, making them
ache when the weather turned this way. She'd suffered through each of her teeth
abscessing and falling the time she'd fractured her arm, it had never worked
right.

 
          
 
As long as it takes . . . That pain so long
ago had I healed either. His laughter, the glint in his eyes, remained forever
fresh in the sunlit memories in her mind—no matter that her eyes had gone dark.

 
          
 
"So that's the story they tell nowadays.”
she whispered to herself, remembering. "Maybe it's better so.”

 
          
 
She curled into her robes, feeling the dull ache
in her joints. Snow always did that anymore. Tonight she would Dream of a big
black wolf and a Dream-ridden young man, and of the young woman who loved him.
And this time maybe, she'd let her soul go to the Power that called her.

 
          
 
In the background her
great-great-grandchildren laughed.