magic among the People, other than that She and He give the shamans. Now what is your plan? Where do we go? what do we do? Will we find a homeland? Do we seek a new overlord?' He turned eyes upon her that were bleak and sad. 'I do not know,' he confessed. 'this land is torn and poisoned by magic turned awry; there is nowhere for us to go that we may claim without displacing someone else. Yet we cannot remain here-'
'We could,' she offered. He answered with a short bark of a laugh.
'What? And eat rock? Drink our own tears? Watch our little ones warped and changed by the magic gone wild and twisted in this place?' He laughed again, but the pain in his laughter tore at her heart. 'Is that all you can offer me, shaman of the Hawk?' He continued to laugh, but it was becoming wild and hysterical.
She silenced him with a single, open-handed slap. He stared at her-for in all her life, she had never once raised her hand to anyone, Clansman or not. She had been known as one of the softest and gentlest women in all the Clans-certainly among the shamans.
But the past days had hardened and toughened her; and the days to come would only mean more of the same. This she knew, though she was no Seer.
'You told me when you urged that we forsake magic, that we must trust in the Powers for our protection. Are you telling me now that you no longer believe that?' She let the acid of her words drip into the raw wound of his soul without mercy. 'If that is true, then perhaps I should take my beasts and ride out after my Sundered brothers!'
'I-' his mouth worked for a moment, before he could produce any words.
'I believe that... but... '
'But what?' Ravenwing looked down her long nose at him, from beneath half-closed lids. 'But you do not believe they would answer if we called on them? Or is it that you are not willing to pay the price they might put on our aiding?'
'Would they answer?' he asked, hope springing into his eyes. 'Have YOU done a Seeking, shaman of the Hawk?' She nodded, slowly. 'I have done a Seeking and a Calling, and I have been answered. But the price of their aid will be in blood.
He took a deep breath. 'whose?'
'the Elders of each Clan that is left,' she replied with authority. 'Yours, and the other three.' She watched his face change as her words struck him. It was not an easy decision that he was being asked to make. He was a relatively young man; as yet unmated, with all of his life before him. And that was part-and no small part-of the sacrifice. Yet when he had taken the Oath of the Elder, he had pledged just this thing; to lay down his life for his people at need.
But he had, no doubt, thought if it came to that, it would be in the heat of battle-not the cold loneliness of self-sacrifice.
His eyes widened in a glazed shock, turned inward, then focused on hers again. She nodded as she saw his attention return to her.
'It is not an easy question,' she said quietly. 'Your three brother and sister Elders are being posed the same question even now. We do not expect you to answer at once-but it must be soon. the People, as you pointed out, cannot remain here long.' ''And if I decline this-honor?' he asked, with a touch of painful irony.
'then I spill my blood in place of yours,' she replied steadily, having faced this possibility herself, and made her own decision. 'It must be one or the other of us.'
'Leaving Hawk without a shaman.
She shrugged. 'It must be one or the other of us. that is the Price the Calling named. We four chief shaman have spoken, and agreed. All of the apprentices have promise, but none is fit or trained to function on his own. If any of the chiefs must go, that Clan must live without a shaman until an apprentice is ready.' She stepped away from him, and turned to go. 'I will leave you to think on this. Come to me by moonrise with your decision.
He touched her shoulder as she turned away, stopping her.
'I do not need until moonrise,' he said, in a tone that made her heart usore. 'It is not all that difficult a choice to make,, after all.' He smiled, a smile sweet and without fear, and she held back her tears.
'When will you require me?' he asked.
It had taken a full moon for the Clans to position themselves about the glassy crater that had been their homeland, one to each prime direction. It had been hardest for Cat Clan; they had to make the half-circle around the rim to position themselves in the West.
At sunset-in whatever manner they chose-the four Elders gave themselves for their people. Silverhorse had simply stepped off the top of the ridge, vanishing into the darkness of the crater without even a sigh. Now Ravenwing stood above the place he had fallen, her arms spread to the sky, calling on the Powers with every fiber.
