by P. C. Cast
“The Tribe of the Trees has boats,” Nik said. Everyone turned to him. “Small ones. A lot of them.”
O’Bryan nodded. “They’re in the Channel. Dozens of them.”
“They’ll be guarded,” Antreas said.
“Actually, they probably won’t be,” Nik said. “There is only one lookout post near the bridge to Farm Island, and I would bet no one is manning it. Not so soon after the fire.” Nik looked away, pain flashing across his face.
Mari touched his shoulder. “I remember. Like the little boat we rowed away in.”
Nik collected himself and nodded. “Yes, and more, smaller boats, too. We call them kayaks. I … I don’t like to think about stealing from the Tribe, though. There is just no honor in it.”
“Then let’s not steal the boats. Let’s trade for them,” Mari said.
“What?” Nik said, though he sat up straighter, his eyes lighting.
“I have an idea.” Mari looked to Sora. “When I was in the Tribe, I saw how much the people value beauty and art. Is there any way we could repair the tapestry of the Great Mother over the next few days?”
“We could. I know we could,” Sora said. “That’s a wonderful idea, Mari!”
“Wait, what?” Nik said.
“I saw the beauty in your City in the Trees,” Mari said. “Well, we have beauty here, too. You’ll see, Nik. And I assure you, the tapestry our women will leave in place of the boats will make it clear you didn’t steal anything.”
“I can live with that,” Nik said. “So, it’s decided. We’ll travel down the Umbria River to Lost Lake, and from there we’ll go through the Rocky Mountains to the Plains of the Wind Riders.”
“Dawn, six days from now,” O’Bryan said.
“In six days.” Mari nodded her head. She turned to Antreas. “What else do we need to do?”
“Everyone takes only what they, or their canine, can carry. We’ll need those cocoons you Tribesmen use when you’re traveling. Sometimes we can tie together and stay on the river all night. That’ll be a good night. Most times we’ll have to beach and find somewhere to sleep. And that somewhere needs to be up, away from bugs.”
“Mari, can the women weave large rectangles of strong plant fibers into cloth-sized cloaks?” Nik asked.
“Yes, no problem. Right, Jenna?” Mari said.
“Right. I’m on it, Mari,” Jenna said. “Easily done.”
“Lydia and Sarah can help braid rope and can show some of the others how to put the cloaks together to make our traveling cocoons,” Nik said.
“Good idea,” Antreas said.
“We’ll need some kind of pack we can use to strap on the canines,” O’Bryan said. “That’ll increase our supply load substantially.”
“We can do that,” Jenna said.
“Impressive,” O’Bryan said.
“Basically,” Sora said with a quirk of her full lips, “if you can describe it, our women can weave it.”
“Then weave some floating packs, too!” O’Bryan said. “Those boats are small. It’ll help if we can float supplies beside them.”
“But we have to be able to carry the supplies. Don’t make the mistake of getting bogged down by too much stuff,” Antreas said.
The small group nodded and studied the map.
“So, five days to do all this, huh?” Sora said.
“Five days, then we leave,” Mari said. “Let’s get to work.” As everyone started to head to the door, Mari took Nik’s hand, holding him back. “Let’s talk.”
He waited until everyone else had moved outside earshot. “Sounds serious.”
Mari raised her brow. “Of course it’s serious. Nik, if we’re leaving at dawn, six days from now, when do you think you’re going back to the Tribe to get the Mother Plant?”
“In four days I’m going to sneak into the Tribe, harvest a young Mother Plant or two, and then return here to you in time to leave at dawn on the sixth day.”
“But you know Sora said you wouldn’t be healed yet. You promised.”
Nik threaded his fingers with hers and she reluctantly came with him to a pallet close to the hearth fire. “Here, sit with me.” He waited for her to sit, her face turned from him, and then, still holding her hand, said, “Mari, don’t do this. I know you’re worried for me. I’m worried, too. I don’t want to go back—not to steal a sacred plant, not like a thief in the night! But we must leave this place quickly. What would you have me do? Wait? Tell Antreas to push back our departure? And if that one or two or three days cause us to get trapped in the pass?”
“No, I know you can’t do that. I’m just afraid, Nik. Thaddeus will be out to get you. If he catches you there, he’s not going to let you leave, no matter what anyone like Wilkes says.”
“Then what’s my other choice? Not to go at all? Not to get a Mother Plant? I must do it for the future of our Pack and our children, Mari. Can you imagine an Earth Walker who does not get Night Fever? Wouldn’t that be amazing?”
“It would—it will be. Just promise me you won’t get caught.”
“I’ll do my best,” Nik assured her. “I go back to the Tribe. In four days. And then we leave this place. All of us. Together.”
Mari drew a deep breath, nodded, and opened her arms to him. “Do what you need to do. I have your back.”
* * *
“So, did you talk him out of it?” Sora accosted Mari as she was leaving the burrow.
“It?”
“Going back to the Tribe of the Trees. You know it’s a suicide mission, don’t you?”
“No, it’s not! He knows that place like we know our burrows. He’s going to sneak in, get the Mother Plants, sneak out, and join us here so that we leave together at dawn. We’ll be down the river and well away before the Tribe even knows he’s been there.”
“Um-hm,” Sora said sardonically. “His wounds will actually be almost healed. I added an extra day or so for your stress level. To lower it, I mean. Though I guess it doesn’t matter since he’s going back early anyway.”
“He’s going back because he has to. Sora, what if he’s right? What if we wrap our babies in the Mother Plant and it makes them immune to Night Fever?”
Sora sighed and put her arm around Mari. “Then it’s worth it. Hey, how about you come with me? You need a break and Danita needs training. I told her to meet me a little way downstream. You know, by where the Clan always plants winter kale.”
“Yeah, I know where you mean. What are you going to have her do?”
“Practice dancing her name, of course. That’s one of the first lessons you taught me.”
“What about Isabel and Jenna?”
“I sent them off to harvest more…” Sora paused and held up a finger for each plant she ticked off. “Yarrow, goldenseal, dandelion, and cow parsnip.”
“Excellent herbal choices, but definitely not as fun as dancing out their names. Are you becoming a mean teacher?” Mari asked, lifting a brow pointedly.
“No! Isabel and Jenna want to be Healers. They can do that without drawing down the moon,” Sora said.
“But their skills will only go so far if they don’t learn to use moon magick,” Mari said.
“Well, yes. Which means Jenna can only go so far—and maybe Isabel, too. I think Danita has shown the greatest aptitude for drawing down the moon.”
“Yeah, I think so, too. But that doesn’t mean Isabel and Jenna can’t be a lot of help. Especially Isabel. She does have gray eyes,” Mari said.
“True. But you can understand why I chose to single out Danita, can’t you?” Sora said.
“Makes sense. Okay, so you’re right. Let’s go. It’ll be nice to watch you dance your name with Danita,” Mari said.
“Me? But you’re the real teacher. You taught me. I thought you’d want to show her how to do it,” Sora said.
Mari shook her head. “Nope. It’s your turn. Pass it along. And someday Danita will be teaching another young girl how to dance her name to the moon.”
“
It’s a lovely ritual, don’t you think? I’ll always remember the night you taught me how to do it.” Sora and Mari shared a smile.
“And I’ll always remember that night, too, as well as the night Mama taught me.” Mari blinked hard to keep tears from spilling from her eyes.
“How are you doing? You and I really haven’t had time to talk.”
“I’m good. Better every day. I still miss Mama, though. A lot. How about you? What are you going to do if Jaxom comes back?” Or doesn’t come back, Mari added silently to herself.
Sora moved her smooth shoulders restlessly. “I don’t know. I thought he was going to be my mate, and now…” Her voice trailed off sadly.
“You can’t forgive him for what he did?”
“I can forgive him. I already have. But I see him differently now. He’s not that young, sweet guy who worked so hard at courting me that it was almost embarrassing.” Sora paused and smiled slyly. “Well, no. I wasn’t embarrassed. I liked him working that hard. But now he’s the guy who attacked and almost raped me.”
“He was sick when he did that,” Mari said as the two Moon Women walked along the stream, waving occasionally to the groups of women who were already busy repairing the Earth Mother tapestry as they listened to Nik, O’Bryan, and Davis describe what they needed for the traveling cocoons or were harvesting vegetables and herbs from the birthing burrow’s garden. Mari noticed that even Lydia and Sarah were moving slowly among the herbs, pulling tender basil leaves.
“My mind knows that. My heart and body don’t seem to. Mari, I don’t think I could stand to ever be with him again—not as lovers.” Sora sounded miserable.
“Well, that just means there’s someone else who’s meant for you. And for him, too.”
“What if he doesn’t come back? Are we going to look for him?”
Mari considered her answer carefully before speaking. “Jaxom knows where we are. He should return on Third Night to be Washed. If he doesn’t…”
“If he doesn’t he’s chosen to live like a monster.”
“Sora, it was the Skin Stealer sickness that made him a monster. You know our Clansmen can be violent during Night Fever, but they don’t suddenly turn into rapists and killers. Most of their aggression is turned on themselves, just like our women turn within themselves with depression if they have no Moon Woman. I was thinking that if he doesn’t show up he found other Clansmen who were sick, and it was too late to get them to listen to him.”
“And they killed him,” Sora finished for her.
“Or reinfected him,” Mari added.
“Either way, going to look for him doesn’t make sense.”
“No. But you know what does make sense? Teaching our friend how to introduce herself to the moon.” Mari jerked her chin to the right of the stream they’d been following. Danita was there, sitting on a mossy rock, chin in her hand, staring up at the sky as if it held the answers to all of life’s mysteries.
“You’re right. Would you hold Chloe for me?” Sora pulled the sleeping ball of pup from the front of her tunic and handed the yawning, complaining creature to Mari.
“I had no idea she was down the front of your shirt,” Mari said, cradling the baby close to her, shushing Chloe as she started to whine in earnest.
“She’s always next to me. Well, unless she’s eating.” Sora kissed Chloe on her little black nose. “Be good for Mari. I’ll be right back.” She started to walk toward Danita and then paused. “Hey, where’s Rigel?”
“He and Laru went with Davis and Cammy. Seems Rigel wants to learn how to hunt, which surprised Davis, especially when Laru joined in. Apparently Shepherds don’t usually lower themselves to being Hunters.” Mari rolled her eyes.
“Those are Tribe rules. This is a Pack. It’s different,” Sora said.
“You mean different like a Terrier choosing an Earth Walker as her Companion?” Mari grinned at her friend.
“Exactly!” Sora blew another kiss at Chloe before she went to Danita and began teaching her how to spell out her name for the moon.
Mari looked around and found a comfy-looking spot under a young maple tree. She brushed leaves from the bed of moss beneath it; then with a sigh she sat, leaning against the bark as she rearranged Chloe. The pup was fat and warm, and her breath had a wonderfully distinctive scent Mari already thought of as “puppy breath,” and it wasn’t long before she had Chloe arranged on her lap, fast asleep again.
Mari tipped her head back, gazing up at the afternoon sky that was the exact shade of diluted blueberry dye. “Looks like it’s going to rain again,” she murmured to the sleeping pup, mostly just to hear her own voice. “That’s good for the harvest…” she began, and then trailed off, realizing for the first time in her life she wouldn’t be here, in Clan Weaver lands, to harvest summer crops.
The realization had her feeling sad and excited at once. “What’s going to become of us, little Chloe? I know we have to leave, but sometimes I feel like I’m leading my people, my Pack, to a path on a moonless night that might end at the edge of a cliff that we might all be hurling ourselves over.” Mari sighed. “Know what I mean, little girl?”
“She might not, but I do.”
“Great Goddess! Antreas, you scared the breath out of me!” Mari snuggled Chloe close, as the pup had been startled, too, and was whining fretfully. “S-s-sh, it’s just Antreas.”
“Put her next to Bast. She’ll quiet down and sleep.” Antreas pointed at his Lynx, who had somehow soundlessly found a spot not more than a couple of feet away from Mari and was grooming herself meticulously.
“Really? She won’t, uh, bite Chloe or anything, will she? Sora will be over here in a heartbeat if anything happens to her pup.”
“Well, I could repeat myself, but why don’t you just ask Bast?”
Mari looked at the big feline, who paused in her grooming and met her gaze.
“Bast, may Chloe lie beside you?” Mari asked the Lynx, feeling slightly foolish.
To Mari’s surprise, the feline instantly got up and padded over to her. She sniffed at Chloe, who lifted her head and sniffed Bast right back, wriggling her fat little body along with her wagging tail and licking the Lynx on her nose. She sneezed indignantly, then made her coughing noise before curling up at Mari’s feet and looking expectantly at the pup.
“So, I’m thinking that’s a yes,” Mari said, sending Antreas a look.
“A definite yes,” Antreas agreed.
Mari plopped Chloe down close to the Lynx, and Bast set to grooming the little canine as the pup wagged her tail, flopped over on her back, and yawned mightily.
“Thank you,” Mari said to the Lynx. “I had no idea you were a good babysitter.”
Antreas laughed. “She is—but only when she wants to be. That’s how felines are.”
“She’s really very beautiful,” Mari said, taking time to study the Lynx. “I especially like all that fur around her face. And those black things on her ears are pretty.”
“Ear tufts,” Antreas explained, “actually serve a purpose. They help catch sound. Her hearing is almost as sharp as her eyesight.”
“It’s interesting. I thought Mama and I knew so much about the world. I was wrong, though.”
“Wait till you meet the Wind Riders and their equines. They’re unexpectedly beautiful.”
Mari heard a change in Antreas’s voice, and she shifted her attention from his Lynx to him and saw that he was staring downstream where Sora and Danita were beginning to dance out the letters of their names.
“Unexpectedly beautiful, huh?”
Antreas turned his gaze back to Mari. His smile was wry. “Yes. Unexpectedly.”
“You know, I believe Danita has the power to draw down the moon, and not just channel it like she did last night,” Mari said.
“Of course she does.” Antreas didn’t miss a beat.
“Well, you sound pretty certain, especially for a guy who’s never drawn down the moon,” Mari teased.
“I am.” Antre
as didn’t so much as crack a smile.
“How?”
“Bast told me. And Bast is never wrong.”
“Never wrong, huh? What about the fact that she obviously has chosen Danita as your mate?”
There was a long pause, broken only by Bast’s rolling purr.
Finally Antreas spoke. “Like I said, Bast is never wrong. Annoying, yes. Wrong, no. Now, if you’ll please excuse us, my Lynx and I were on our way for a run. We should get to it.” He picked up the complaining Chloe and deposited her on Mari’s lap before disappearing into the forest.
Bast stood more slowly. Mari was almost certain she heard the big feline sigh. She padded to Chloe and gave her one more lick, then licked Mari’s hand, too. Mari grinned and, tentatively, reached out to stroke the Lynx’s head.
“Wow, you’re even softer than you look,” Mari told her.
Bast chirped happily, licked the pup again, and then silently melted into the forest after her Companion.
Mari resituated Chloe, this time tucking her inside her tunic, like Sora had taken to doing. Almost instantly the pup fell asleep. Mari felt her eyelids get heavy as well as she watched Sora and Danita dance, lifting their arms joyously to the sky.
Oh, Mama, Mari thought sleepily. I wish you could be here to see this—all of these different kinds of people and animals coming together to make a Pack. Mari closed her eyes, and as she drifted to sleep the wind blew through the tree boughs above her, whispering, I am here, sweet girl.… I am watching.…
* * *
Mari’s dreams were usually disjointed snippets of pieces of her life, mixed with bizarre things—like Rigel sprouting wings and flying—that could not exist in the waking world.
This dream was different. From the beginning the entire texture of it was unlike anything Mari had ever experienced. It seemed to Mari that she was watching her dream through a soft, beautiful light from a great distance away. She saw herself then, standing on a high ridge, overlooking the Tribe of the Trees. Half of it was a blackened mess. She could see Companions, who should be working diligently on rebuilding the city in the sky but were instead shuffling about the forest floor as if they were characters in a walking nightmare.
Then there was a terrible darkening of the sky, and like a tidal wave, painted Warriors descended upon the Tribe, overwhelming them, destroying them. Sickened by the slaughter, Mari was trying to wake herself when from the middle of the battle a single dove, as silver-gray as a Moon Woman’s eyes, flew frantically away from the carnage—and straight to Mari!