All that needed to be done was to go quickly down to the shrine and perform the rites that Silver Cloud seemed to think were necessary; and then the People could turn east again-getting away from this place and heading back into the flat cold empty country where the Other Ones rarely went-and go on with their lives. If there was in fact no need of sending the War Society down there first to sniff out the territory and make sure no Other Ones were skulking near the shrine, then Silver Cloud was wasting valuable time. The year was moving along. The days were shorter now. It would be snowing every day, soon. The People needed quickly to finish what they had come here to do, and find some safe place where they could settle in during the bad months that were coming.
But most likely Goddess Woman was right, and Other Ones uvre someplace nearby. And there would be war; and men would die, and perhaps not only men.
Keeps The Past, coming up behind her, said practically into her ear, "The Goddess is being very hard on us these days. We came here to worship Her; but first She takes the little boy, and then She brings us right into the midst of the Other Ones."
She Who Knows shrugged. "I see no Other Ones. We've been here two days and nobody has seen any Other Ones."
"But they're there. Waiting for us, hidden below, ready to attack. I know that."
"How do you know?"
"I dreamed it," said Keeps The Past. "They were invisible, like creatures of mist, and then they became half-solid like shadows, and then they were springing up out of the earth ail around us and they began to kill us."
She Who Knows laughed harshly. "Another dark dream."
"Another?"
"The night before last, Silver Cloud dreamed that he was a boy again and he went into the sea and when he came out of it he began to grow older with every step he took, until within a few moments he was withered and crooked and feeble. A dream of death, is what that was. And now you dream Other Ones waiting for us at the shrine."
Keeps the Past nodded. "And the Goddess has taken the boy Skyfire Face without giving us any sign of Her pleasure in return. We should leave this place, I think, without staying to perform any ceremonies at that shrine down there."
"But Silver Cloud says we must."
"Silver Cloud grows timid and weak with age," said Keeps The Past.
She Who Knows turned furiously to the chronicler. "Would you like to be chieftain in his place?"
"Me?" Keeps The Past smiled. "Not I, She Who Knows. I want no part of being chieftain. If there's any woman in the world who yearns in her heart to be a chieftain, She Who Knows, I think it's you. But I have no appetite for such burdens. -Even so, I think the time may have come for Silver Cloud to put down his wand and cap and mantle."
"No."
"He's old and getting feeble. You can see the weariness in his eyes."
"He's strong and wise," said She Who Knows, without much conviction.
"You know that you are saying that which isn't true."
"Am I, Keeps The Past? Am I?"
"Go easy, woman. If you hit me, I'll have you thrown down the hill."
"You called me a liar."
"I told you that you said that which isn't true."
"It's the same thing."
"A liar who lies even to herself is no true liar, but a fool. You know and I know and Goddess Woman knows that Silver Cloud is no longer fit to be chieftain. Each of us has thought it and said it in her own way. -And when the men begin to realize that too, the Killing Society will have to do its work."
"Perhaps so," said She Who Knows uneasily.
"Then why do you defend him?"
"I feel sorry for him. 1 don't want him to have to die."
"How tender of you. But the chieftain knows how things are done. Do you remember the days when Black Snow was chieftain, and he fell sick with the green bile and norfring could heal him, and he stood up before us all and said his time had come? Did he hesitate even a moment? And it was the same with Tall Tree before him, Silver Cloud's father, when I was a girl. You weren't born then. Tall Tree was a great chieftain; but one day he said, I am too old, I can no longer be chieftain, and by nightfall he was dead. As must happen to Silver Cloud."
"Not yet. Not yet."
Coolly, Keeps The Past said, "Even if he leads us into disaster? Which perhaps he is doing right now. It was a mistake to come to this place: I see that now, though at first I didn't. Why are you so strong in his defense? He means nothing to you. I didn't diink you even liked him."
"If Silver Cloud dies, who will be chieftain in his place, do you think?"
"Blazing Eye, I suppose."
"Exactly. Blazing Eye!" She Who Knows grinned vindictively. "I tell you, Keeps The Past, I'd rather stay with bumbling old Silver Cloud and die beneath the spears of the Other Ones than have to live another ten years with Blazing Eye as chieftain of this tribe!"
"Ah," said Keeps The Past. "Aha! Now I understand. You put your own little personal resentments ahead of common sense-even ahead of life itself, She Who Knows. How absurd you are! How foolish!"
"You're going to make me hit you, after all."
"But don't you see-"
"No," said She Who Knows. "No, I don't see at all. -But enough of this. Look, look, down there!"
While the two women had been talking, Goddess Woman had finished performing the War Society blessing and the men of the War Society, properly painted and outfitted, had descended the hill to take up positions around the shrine of the shining rocks. There they stood now in front of it, shoulder to shoulder, brandishing their spears and glaring defiantly in all directions.
And there were the Other Ones, materializing out of nowhere like the creatures of mist who had turned solid in Keeps The Past's dream.
Where had they come from? They must have been crouching in the dense bushes alongside one of the three rivers, down out of sight, perhaps hiding themselves in some magical way so that they had looked like bushes themselves until the time came for them to emerge.
There were eight or ten of them. No, more than ten. She Who Knows tried to count them, but she used up both her hands and there were still more of them to count. There might be at least another full hand of them besides. Whereas the War Society numbered only nine warriors.
It was going to be a massacre. Silver Cloud had sent all the young men of the tribe to their deaths.
"How hideous they are!" Keeps The Past whispered harshly, clutching She Who Knows' forearm so hard that her grip was painful. "Like monsters! Like nightmare things! When I saw them in my dream they were nothing as disgusting as this!"
"They look just like themselves," said She Who Knows- "That is how the Other Ones look."
"You've seen them before. I haven't. Foh, die flat faces of diem! Their skinny necks. Their arms, their legs -so long. Like spider legs!"
"Like spiders, yes."
"Look. Look."
Everyone in the tribe was clustering together now at the little overlook point above the shrine of the three rivers. All eyes were on the scene below. She Who Knows heard Silver Cloud's rough, heavy breathing nearby. A child was crying. A couple of the Mothers seemed to be crying too.
A strange thing was happening down below. It was almost like a dance.
The men of the War Society were still standing shoulder-to-shoulder, in a straight line in front of the shrine. They looked uneasy, but they were holding their ground, however eager they might be inside to bolt and run.
The Other Ones had formed a line facing them, perhaps twenty paces away. They too stood shoulder to shoulder: tall strange-looking flat-faced men, holding long spears.
But there was no attack.
The two groups of warriors simply stood there, glaring at each other across the area of no-man's-land that separated them. Nobody moved. The men didn't even seem to be breathing. They were as still as rocks. Could it be that the Other Ones were just as frightened as the men of the War Society must be? They were supposed to be such ruthless killers, the Other Ones were. And they outnumbered the War Society men by at least one hand's worth. But nothing was happening. No one was willing to make a move.
It was Blazing Eye who made the first attempt to break the impasse. He stepped forward one pace. A moment later everyone in the War Society line stepped forward one pace also. v
Blazing Eye shook his spear menacingly and glared across toward the Other Ones and uttered a sound, long and low, that came floating up the hill to the watchers above:
"Hoooo."
The Other Ones exchanged glances and frowns. They looked confused, uncertain, troubled.