Spirit and the Skull

by J. M. Hayes

  The other thing he’d dropped was a scrap of leather. A piece of fringe torn from a woman’s skirt. That was as close as I came to a vision or a message from the spirits. When I saw how eagerly Hears Voices waited on me to share my experience, I invented an elaborate variation. It satisfied him. He gave me a secret name, but I’d decided my true secret name should be Visionless. At least until recently.

  Did I deserve this? Were the spirits repaying me at last for years of falsehoods? I’d only tried to protect myself. To fit in. As Spirit Man, I’d never intentionally harmed anyone. But now, I had these strange dreams about a time long after my death. I also faced a demand from Willow, or The Earth Mother, sacred embodiment of The Goddess.

  “You’ll do what must be done,” Willow said. She’d come up behind me as I sat on that flat rock. I hadn’t heard her, but I’d felt a sudden chill and known she was near.

  “What do you want of me?” I asked.

  “First, my son offered you this.” She held the little statue of herself I’d carved before I lost her, the one Bear Man had been wearing yesterday.

  “I made that for you,” I said. “Keep it, or give it back to Bear Man. I’m with another woman now. I may carve a different figurine.”

  She slipped the thing around her neck and tied it. “You already know what I want. You must extract vengeance on Tall Pine’s killer.”

  “If I go back to the band,” I said, “they may challenge and kill me. Stone is so angry, he might even challenge Down. It’s the kind of extreme purification a mind like his finds easy to understand.”

  “Yes,” she agreed. “But none of that matters anymore.”

  She stepped beside me and pointed down to the willows with her chin. Men boiled out of the brush and began climbing the slope toward us.

  “You don’t have to return to them, Raven. They’ve come for you.”

  Caught

  “Our band has better trackers than I thought,” I told Willow.

  “Not really,” she said. “Your dog went to get them about the time you fell asleep. He led them here.”

  “I don’t believe that,” I said. “Snow helped us get away. I can’t imagine Snow intentionally betraying us.”

  “He didn’t. I’m Goddess of the Animals. I sent him.”

  I didn’t accept what she told me, but it made no difference. No matter how it happened, the men of our band were here. Stone would challenge and kill me. He might do the same to Down. At the least, he’d punish her severely. I stepped in front of Willow and looked back into her eyes. She didn’t bother returning my gaze. Instead, she looked through me, at the men climbing the slope from the willows.

  “Please protect Down,” I begged her. “Don’t let them take her unless you’re sure she’ll be safe. I’ll turn myself over to them. They may satisfy their revenge on me.”

  Willow shook her head. “No. She’ll go with you. I’ve told you where your duty lies. Now I’ll persuade them to let you do it.”

  “How? Your band may be bigger, but it’s mostly children and old people. They have more fighters than you.”

  Her eyes turned cold and deep as the river I’d lost her in. “We’re prepared for them, Raven. Your life is safe enough…for today.”

  My reaction to her reassurance must have been clear.

  “I know what’s about to happen here.” She finally looked directly at me. “I always know.”

  Her voice was so calm and certain that I briefly wondered if it could be true.

  “Come with me,” she said. “Let’s talk to them.”

  She started down the slope. I thought about running back for my bow and arrows, but having them would only make it more likely that I’d be challenged—one at a time, if necessary, until they’d certainly kill me.

  “Leave your spear.” As if she’d read my mind. Reluctantly, I put it down and followed her.

  The men of Stone’s band, my band, formed a line to meet us. They strung bows and notched arrows as we came. They acted as if the two of us were a band of Enemies or dangerous beasts. With this new Willow, I thought, that second possibility might not be inaccurate. My Willow had been kind and sweet, so much like a less curious version of Down. But the gentle child I’d known had been replaced by a stranger, someone alien and dangerous.

  “Oh, I am dangerous, Raven. More dangerous than you imagine.” Her voice raised a nonexistent ruff along my backbone.

  Willow held open hands up toward Stone and his men, palms out. “Put your weapons away,” she said. She didn’t raise her voice for them, but the breeze suddenly ceased and her solemn tone carried with total clarity. I could tell by the stunned look on Stone’s face and the way the rest of the men turned to him to see what they should do.

  “I am The Earth Mother,” she said. “I’ve brought you to this sacred place. Your lives will be forfeit if you profane it. The man you’ve come for, Raven, is under my protection. I won’t allow him to be harmed.”

  Stone’s face twisted into a doubtful grin. “The Earth Mother,” he shouted. “You lie. The Mother doesn’t walk among us.”

  Willow’s icy voice silenced him. “I do when I please. When you chased Raven yesterday, I sent a great bear to stop you. Today, I sent a dog to bring you here. As you see now, I’ve just called another bear to protect Raven.”

  Her hands waved in front of her, as if pulling something out of the empty air. Bear Man in his bear robe rose up from behind a tumble of lichen-mottled rocks a few strides from us. From my angle, it was apparent he was only a very large man beneath the huge beast’s pelt. But I remembered how real he’d looked head on. The line of men fell back a few paces. He must have seemed real enough to them, too.

  Stone’s mouth moved, but nothing came out.

  Finally, Takes Risks spoke. “What do you want from us?”

  “There’s been murder among you,” Willow said. “It’s an affront to the laws of The People. An insult to the spirits. It’s unacceptable to me, The Mother, Goddess of Life and Fertility. A life I gave you ended before its time. The murderer must be found and punished. A life for a life. I’ve assigned the task of finding the murderer and returning harmony to Raven. I’ve rewarded him with the companionship of Down. These are my wishes and they shall not be thwarted. Raven and Down will return to your camp. You’ll accept them as my spokespersons. They are not to be harmed. If they are, I’ll smite your band—woman and child, man and dog. All of you will I smite until none remain and no other band shall ever speak of you again. Do you understand?”

  Takes Risks whispered urgently in Stone’s ear. Stone nodded and found his voice at last.

  “We already asked Raven to rid us of our murderer. And thought he had. We apologize for our failure to understand, Mother. We’ll do as you ask.”

  “I don’t ask,” Willow said. “I decree. I sense doubt, Stone. Resistance. Raven tried. Now he knows he was wrong and the killer remains to be found. I’m sending him back. And I’ll send the great bear along to see that my instructions are obeyed. So your women and children won’t flee in terror and so your men will understand my power, I’ll send him, not in the form of a bear, but as a man.” She gestured toward Bear Man. “Behold!”

  A boy lay unseen in the rocks at Bear Man’s feet. Bear Man threw the skin off and the boy hauled it down until it was hidden from the line of men below. To them, it must have seemed as if the beast had been instantly transformed. I heard moans of fear. Stone’s eyes grew so wide I thought they might pop from their sockets. It was a great trick, but hardly spirit magic. Was that the way with everything Willow did? Had I only failed to discover the gimmicks behind the rest?

  Bear Man stepped out of the rocks toward the men of my band. He rolled his shoulders and shook his head the way a bear might. He sniffed the air and showed them his antler club.

  “Hello,” he said. “You can call me Bear Man. I plan to see that The Mother i
s obeyed. While I’m doing that, I’ll protect your band. But I’m hungry. You have brought meat, yes? Meat would make me happy. And you do want to keep me happy, don’t you?”

  They did.

  ***

  Bear Man went down to be feasted, offered nearly all the rations the men of our band had brought with them. Willow led me back up to the hidden camp, then took Down and me aside.

  “You’ll be safe enough for now. I’ll send scouts to watch your camp. They’ll let me know if problems arise. There’s hardly any chance that will happen, but if it does I’ll put in another appearance and reestablish the fear of The Goddess in any troublemakers.”

  “I thought you knew everything that’s going to happen.”

  She gave me an icy look. “Close enough.”

  I nodded. A Goddess wouldn’t need scouts. I noticed Down didn’t seem awed by The Mother. That pleased and reassured me.

  “For now,” Willow said, “it would be wise not to mention the former members of your band who’ve come to join me. If any of the men recognized me as Willow, tell them the truth. That I am both Willow and The Mother. If they want more details, I’m sure you can create them, Raven, and make them believable. Down, you could do the same, but don’t call attention to yourself. You’re in less danger while they still think of you more as Stone’s child than Raven’s partner.”

  Down agreed and I didn’t argue. In this, at least, I thought Willow was right.

  “Raven, waste no time. Find the killer, prove it, arrange a confession in front of the band, then exact my revenge. When you’re done, I’ll reward you both. You’ll have a son. Your band will never want for game as it travels south into the new country.”

  Down smiled. “The first of many sons and daughters, Raven.”

  “There must be one before there can be many,” Willow said. “Now, gather your things and rejoin them. Return to your camp. Begin your work at once. This crime is a wound that might destroy your band and weaken The People if it’s allowed to fester. Go heal it.”

  ***

  Down and I stayed apart from the others on the walk back to our band’s camp. Not that anyone threatened us, or even paid us special attention. They were focused on Bear Man. At first out of fear, then out of fascination. He told wild stories of his life as a bear. Many of them about his encounters with men who’d tried to kill him. And how he’d made them suffer. Gradually, our men began to ask him questions. The sex life of bears was of particular interest.

  I stayed silent. My mind was focused on finding a way to satisfy Willow’s instructions. Doing so seemed the best way of fitting ourselves back inside the band’s structure—reestablishing roles that would prevent Stone and his friends from causing us problems later. But how?

  Down finally interrupted my deliberations. “What will you do to find the killer?” she asked. “I was your first and most logical guess. Who’s next?”

  “I have no idea,” I admitted. “How about you? Do you have any suggestions?”

  She chewed on her lower lip as she followed the path through the willows. “Not really,” she said. “If I had to guess, I’d say one of the women Tall Pine kept trying to couple with. One who refused and felt threatened, or one who let him have his way to keep someone else safe. A man she thought might lose a challenge if he found out, for example. Or, for that matter, a man who found out and didn’t think he could win a challenge.”

  “Are there rumors of who that might be?”

  “I think Tall Pine went after every young woman in the camp at one time or another. Add their men, and that’s most of the band.”

  “What about Slender Reed?” I asked. That could be painful for Down to consider. Slender Reed and Hair on Fire had expected to become man and woman. I didn’t think Slender Reed had been pleased at being given to Tall Pine instead. And she’d continued meeting Hair on Fire in the willows, competing with Down.

  She shook her head. “Nothing for her to gain. My father would have given her to Bull Hump or Takes Risks…or kept her for himself after she bleeds again. At least that’s what he’s planning, if he can persuade Blue Flower.”

  We hadn’t come up with a solution by the time we got back to camp. It looked peaceful enough as we descended the ridge toward the tents. Yet something was wrong. I caught up with Stone and put a hand on his shoulder, something I’d never have done before. He merely turned his attention toward me, and not his anger.

  “Stone,” I said, “you brought all the men with you, didn’t you?” I suppose I already knew that, but I had enough troubles and hadn’t felt in need of searching out more.

  “I wasn’t going to let you get away from us again.”

  “But that means you left the women and children unguarded.”

  He looked at me, puzzled.

  “Where are our dogs?”

  He swung around and faced the camp. “We brought many with us, but…”

  “The others should be running out to meet us,” I said. “The women should be calling greetings. But no one’s here. Not unless they’re hiding.”

  Stone let out a mighty bellow. It stopped the men where they stood. Stopped Bear Man in the middle of a story, too. Stone threw himself down the slope and began tearing open tent flaps. He howled Blue Flower’s name. And then he bellowed even louder when he found some of the dogs dead inside one of our tents.

  The men had stood in silence until then. As they realized their women and children were missing, they began shouting, too. And rushing down the stony slope, hoping they were wrong.

  I grabbed Down and Bear Man. “Follow me. Let’s circle around the camp. Find the raiders’ trail. Even if the camp was hit right after the men left, no one could have taken our people very far.”

  Snow came with us. My best friend again. He showed particular interest in the rugged ridge at the other end of camp.

  “Your dog’s right,” Bear Man said. I looked where he pointed and saw freshly disturbed rocks. Scuff marks, where a foot had slipped as they tried to climb up from our camp. Blood, even, where someone had fallen.

  “But there’s only tundra on the other side,” I said. Arguing against the evidence before my eyes.

  “They’ll be harder to track across tundra,” Bear Man said. “But while they’re crossing it, they’ll move slow.”

  He scrambled up the slope, using the power in his mighty legs to overcome its steepness. I had to climb at an angle and use one hand to help Down follow me.

  “Can you see them?” I asked as the two of us joined Bear Man at the summit.

  “How would I know?” That confused me until I looked across the rolling grassland on the other side. It was black with moving figures. Caribou, thousands, moving south. Bear Man shook his head. “The Mother makes this hard for us.”

  “Why would she do that?” Down said.

  Because she’s not The Mother and had nothing to do with it, I thought. Though I had to admit it felt as if someone were purposefully making life as difficult for us as possible. Instead, I called Stone as he desperately continued searching through the empty camp.

  “Up here,” I said. “They went this way. Bring everyone and all our weapons. No food. We’ll be able to harvest what we need. And no dogs. Tie them so they can’t follow us.”

  “There,” Bear Man pointed. “That’s where they left the ridge and started across the tundra.”

  I was in no mood to wait. I jogged down and began picking my way across the grass sedges. I’d only gone a few feet before I was assaulted. Mosquitoes—swarms so thick I could hardly breathe.

  Yes. This would be as hard as The Mother could make it. The real Mother, I thought. Probably because she was angry with us for paying heed to Willow’s claims.

  ***

  Our march across the tundra turned into a mindless slog. Our bodies were black with mud and streaked where perspiration washed away our protec
tion from the mosquitoes. We hobbled, because of the sedge grass. We no longer talked to each other. Too many mosquitoes flew in our mouths and choked us when we tried.

  The day had turned unnaturally calm and warm. Ideal for insects. Less so for us, and for the great herd that flowed around us, moving south. Moving the way we should be going if we hoped to find a suitable place to winter. But now we no longer existed, except as a hunting party. Our band had been broken, never to exist again unless we found our women and children and won them back.

  I stumbled against the side of a caribou bull that hardly seemed to notice me. I hadn’t realized he was there because we’d been swallowed up in thick fog. I paused and looked around for the others. Down paused, too, just behind me. She pointed and I picked out the towering form of Bear Man, and, less distinct though only a few paces beyond him, two other men I thought were Stone and Bull Hump. I couldn’t see the rest.

  Down cupped an ear and I realized I could hear voices. One sounded like Gentle Breeze, complaining. Were we nearing our destination? Or were the spirits playing tricks on us? I danced across the tussocks to catch Bear Man by the arm. I waved a hand at the mosquitoes swarming in front of my mouth and risked a whisper.

  “Hear that?”

  He nodded. “I think we’re close.” He reached out a long arm and tapped Stone on the shoulder with his club. Stone lost his balance and fell off a grass tussock, going knee-deep in the muck. He grabbed Bull Hump, pulling him over in the process. Bull Hump, I noticed, seemed to have forgotten the terrible pain of his wounded neck.