People of the Fire (34 page)

 
          
 
Elk Charm glanced skeptically at the pile of
reddish-gray bark beside her. The hairy pile didn't seem to be getting any
smaller. As they talked, they worked the long thin strips of juniper bark Two
Smokes had laboriously stripped from the trees during the summer. Elk Charm's
quick fingers spun them into a strand, rubbing it between her palms like a fire
stick before twining the endless length. Two Smokes laced the strands back and
forth and knotted them neatly, creating a section of net the height of a tall
man.

 
          
 
Warm wind sighed through the weather-gnarled
trees around them. The delightful sun warmed the rocks and shot through the
fall-dried grasses in tawny colors. The late flowers turned yellow heads toward
Father Sun's gentle car

 
          
 
"It's not you. Normally, White Calf would
be talking your ear off trying to get you to learn all about the plants and
things. She'd be telling you endlessly how to do this and that. It's Little
Dancer she's worried about."

 
          
 
"He seems nice

 
          
 
"That's what she's worried about."

 
          
 
Elk Charm's fingers slowed. She looked up at
him frankly. "That he's nice?"

 
          
 
"No . . . it's that think so

 
          
 
"So

 
          
 
"So, he's a young man ... as you're a
young woman."

 
          
 
"That's bad?"

 
          
 
Two Smokes moved with the speed of a falcon,
slapping at the fly. He grinned, looking at the mashed body smeared on his
palm. "Not bad for an old
berdache
, eh?"
Then he got back to the subject. "Little Dancer has Power. White Calf
worries that if he gets involved with a woman—namely you, since you're the only
woman around here—he'll lose it."

 
          
 
"And she thinks he's interested in
me?"

 
          
 
Two Smokes smiled wistfully. "He's
interested. He just doesn't know it yet. You're interested in him. I watch you
glancing back and forth, playing the games that lead to giggles and finally to
the robes. You're a woman, freshly made in the manner of the Red Hand. It's our
way that you lie with a man to prove your womanhood. You're curious, wondering
what it's like."

 
          
 
"How do you know so much about
women?"

 
          
 
"You'd ask a
berdache
?"
Two Smokes laughed with genuine amusement. "We're the mediators, the ones
who know J the hearts both of men and women. We're half of each—and something
different. Not men, not women. You know that— I'm made that way by Power.

 
          
 
"Oh, I remember what it's like. But
things are a little different for a
berdache
. The man
I loved was called
Five
Falls
. I had gone as a youth to Cut Feather, of
course, and asked him to proclaim me as
berdache
. I
knew, even then, that I was
berdache
. I enjoyed the
games of little girls and not the rough and tumble of the boys. One shouldn't
fight what they are. To the body, it matters not what physical equipment we're
blessed with, the drive for coupling is always there.

 
          
 
"Five Fails and I had been friends for a
long time. To be
berdache
is never easy, even in a
society like the Red Hand. Generally the trouble comes when you're a child
before you— and others around you—have come to realize what you are. But
Five
Falls
had always seemed to know. He was older by
a couple of years, but he'd always taken care of me. When I was declared
berdache
, he took me for a second wife. He got great
prestige for that, and we'd always cared for each other anyway. Fallen
Aspen
was his first wife. She didn't particularly
like me, but then first wives can be jealous. It's not unknown," he added
dryly.

 
          
 
"She bore his children and I was his
lover. We were especially happy even if Fallen Aspen groused a lot. She had
little to complain about. I did the work; she got the status."

 
          
 
Elk Charm nodded. "Five Falls died in a bad
fall, didn't he? Hunting mountain goats, I heard."

 
          
 
Two Smokes stared into the distance.
"Winter hunting takes great courage. I'd told him not to go. Just one of
those feelings a person gets in his bones." He clapped callused hands to
his knees. "Well, no matter. That was long ago. Clear Water became my
friend after that. She, too, had problems with not fitting very well. We were
drawn together."

 
          
 
"You shared a robe with her?" Elk
Charm wondered.

 
          
 
Two Smokes nodded. "A time or two. I
suppose the reason for that came from the Power. A
berdache
lives between Power and the world. Love comes in many ways, that's all— and
spirit called us together. My real preference was always for men. But I lose my
point. I've watched young people for years. I see the attraction between you
and Little Dancer."

 
          
 
Elk Charm concentrated on the bark she worked,
feeling the prickly stiffness of it between her palms as she rolled it back and
forth. "He's got a look in his eyes that touches me inside. Like he's been
hurt. It makes me . . . well ..."

 
          
 
"Want to hold him? To help him? I know,
that's the way of humans. We wish to ease each other's hurts. Is that your only
reason?"

 
          
 
She smiled shyly. "I also think he
wouldn't hurt me. After Blood Bear and the thought of what he'd . . ." She
shook her head. "Oh, I don't know. I never thought it would be this
complicated."

 
          
 
"He's just passed his thirteenth
summer." Two Smokes
i
raised an eyebrow.

 
          
 
She considered. "He seems older."

 
          
 
Two Smokes nodded. "Life hasn't been kind
to him. I told you, Power walks with him. It fills his Dreams, and it's hurt
him in the past. Now he seeks to avoid it. Only I . . . well, I wonder what his
way will be in the end. A
berdache
is thought to be
touched by difference. That Power hasn't treated me kindly through the years.
The Short Buffalo People used to beat me. The men would rape me when they got
the chance. To them I was a freak, an accident of nature they couldn't
comprehend—and therefore dangerous. Some thought I'd ruin their children
somehow, like a contagion.

 
          
 
"But Little Dancer, he's different. He
has his mother's Power in him. Clear Water heard a voice, a voice she thought
was from the First Man, the Wolf Dreamer. Look where it took her and what
happened. That's why Power makes me nervous. I'm part of it; it rolls around me
and through me. I'm the bridge—the communicator—between this world we live in
and the Power. Power is why I am the way I am—but I don't see the reasons
behind the things that happen. I don't know where it's going or what it's
making of us. All I know is that Little Dancer is Powerful, and he's going to
be an important man one day. You may take the word of a
berdache
on that."

 
          
 
An important man? She felt a curious
excitement.

 
          
 
"Ah, interest, hmm?" Two Smokes
scratched the back of his ear. "Perhaps I didn't do anyone any service.
Listen, girl, and remember we're talking about Power. Little Dancer is the
important one ... the one Power is working on. Despite White
Calfs
worries, I think he can't avoid it. Someday, he must
follow the Power.

 
          
 
"Heed me, Elk Charm. Power might make a
man important, but it can also make him difficult to live with. Power tends to
use people like a hunter uses his tools. A dart is made with great skill and
effort. It is prepared, blessed, spirit is breathed into it. Then the hunter
uses it. He makes his cast. That dart, so carefully crafted, is loosed to land
we know not where. Perhaps it will strike a deer or an elk in the side,
piercing its lungs and heart, bleeding the animal to death so that people can
eat. Perhaps it will miss completely and smack a rock. The point will shatter,
the wood will split, and there it will be left . . . forever."

 
          
 
She looked up at him, a hollow forming under
her heart.

 
          
 
"Do you want to take that chance?"
Two Smokes asked gently, a sympathetic warmth in his eyes.

 
          
 
She swallowed hard, unsure how to answer.

 
          
 
"Hey! Hungry Bull!"

 
          
 
Little Dancer looked up from the bloody
buffalo quarter he bent over. Three Toes came skipping and jumping down through
the meadow, arms held high, a joyous laughter split in the middle by loud
whoops. Behind came Black Crow, a huge grin on his radiant face. Makes Fun
followed with Meadowlark and the children. Another woman walked before Black
Crow, her face anything but happy.

 
          
 
"Three Toes?" Hungry Bull
straightened, shading his eyes with a blood-caked hand. "It's you!"

 
          
 
A melee resulted as Hungry Bull, Three Toes,
Black Crow, and the rest shouted and danced and hugged and slapped each other
on the back.

 
          
 
Little Dancer turned to the woman first,
ignoring the babble of questions and laughter from the men. "You're not
Short Buffalo People," he noted in
Anit'ah
.

 
          
 
"No. I'm not." Her hard eyes bored
into his. Even in his youth, Little Dancer noted the handsome lines of her
face. She added a little testily, "They caught me yesterday." A wry
smile curled her lips. "Perhaps I'm getting older than I thought."

 
          
 
Little Dancer glanced sideways at the
backslapping mob centered around his father. "They didn't hurt you."

 
          
 
She chuckled dryly. "Outside of my
dignity, no."

 
          
 
"I am Little Dancer. I live at White
Calf's camp with—"

 
          
 
"I know who you are. Is my daughter
there? Her name is Elk Charm; she would have arrived a hand's full of days
ago."

 
          
 
"She's there. She's fine. You're Rattling
Hooves?"

 
          
 
She filled her lungs. "I'm Rattling
Hooves." She looked over at where the knot of Short Buffalo People still
danced and shouted questions in such confusion that no one could be heard.
"I didn't know what was happening. The warriors could sign in Trader Signs
for White Calf and ask directions. Since they didn't hurt me, I led them here.
But you should know that Blood Bear has found their tracks and is following
them with a war party."

 
          
 
Little Dancer's blood chilled.

 
          
 
"Father!" he called, waving to catch
Hungry Bull's eye. Despite the festive nature of the occasion, the tension must
have signaled him. Hungry Bull disengaged himself from Meadowlark's happy
embrace and walked over, one arm around Three Toe's shoulder.