up four tents, a kid in glasses rounding up rocks to build a fireplace.
Ettie eased away from the crevice and made her way across the slope to the cave entrance. Turning sideways, she squeezed through the opening. The murky light inside seemed very dark after the brightness, but she saw the dim shape of Merle sprawled out on one of the sleeping bags. She sat down on the other bag. Sunlight from the fissure overhead made a hot band along her crossed legs. She leaned back slightly against the cool granite wall.
'You awake, Merle?'
'Just laying here. I sure like this sleeping bag. It's the softest thing.'
'We've got some folks down by the lake.'
He sat up so fast that it startled Ettie.
'Just stay put,' she warned.
He was almost to his feet, but he dropped down again as if his legs had gone soft. 'Can't I see 'em, Ettie?'
'Just sit still.'
'Who are they?' he asked.
'How'd I know that?'
'They snooping?'
'They're putting up a camp. One's soaking her foot in the lake. She came limping in pretty bad. I guess she hurt herself in the pass. I figure that's maybe why they stopped.'
'A girl?'
'Don't get your heat up. They got three men along.'
'Can't I just look?'
'I'll tell you when you can look. We're gonna stay put till I've got it figured out.'
'Well, how many are there?'
'Nine.'
'Nine, and just three of 'em men?'
'There's some kids, don't look older than twelve. And three women.'
'How old are they?'
'Never you mind.'
'Are they pretty?'
'Fetch me the coyote skin.'
Obediently, Merle crawled past the head of her sleeping bag. He rummaged through a dark pile at the far end of the chamber and came back with the pelt of a coyote he had snared two weeks before. 'What're you fixing to do?' he asked.
'Read the signs. Maybe these folks come here by chance, or maybe the Master sent them.'
'Think He wants 'em offered down?'
'I don't know what to make of it. Could be we're out of favor and He sent them to punish us.'
'Why'd He do that, Ettie?'
'Not saying He
She got to her knees and spread the coyote pelt on the sleeping bag. Then she unsheathed her knife. 'O great Master,' she intoned, 'Shadow of the Dark, give us a sign that we, Your servants, may know Your will.' With the knife, she carved a crescent on her left forearm. Blood spilled out, pattering on the coyote skin. 'Give us wisdom, Master, that we may abide by Your way.' She slowly waved her cut arm back and forth over the skin, then held it steady while she sheathed her knife. 'Count backward from thirteen,' she told Merle. Together, they counted down. When they reached one, she swung in her arm and tied a kerchief around the wound.
She stared down at the hide. The band of sunlight made a bright path across it, showing streaks and pools of blood on the pale skin. Except for the sunlit area, the rest was in deep shadow.
'What'd He say?' Merle asked.
'Get me matches.'
He dug a book of matches out of his jeans and gave it to Ettie. She plucked a match free, struck it, and bent low over the hide. By the light of the wavering flame, she studied the pattern of her spilled blood: its trails of shiny droplets, its loops, the way its shiny threads connected larger blotches, the shapes of the small puddles. A cold, sick feeling spread through her as the meaning became clear. She moaned.
'What's wrong?'
'Shh.' She shook out the match, lit another, and once again studied the map of blood. No, she hadn't been mistaken. She dropped the match. A spatter of blood killed its flame in a hiss.
'Is it bad, Ettie?'
She stared at her son. He was on his knees, looking down at the pelt. His face was a dim blur in the shadows. Reaching out, she patted his cheek. 'Nothing's gonna come of it, honey. It's nothing to fret over. We're just gonna stay hidden here till they go away.'
As Merle reached for the pelt, Ettie swept a hand across it, smearing the blood.
'Shit!' he cried.
'It's not for your eyes.'
'Wouldn't of hurt nothing,' he said in a pouty voice.
Ettie folded the pelt over. She pressed down on the fur with both hands, and rubbed it hard.
' 'Least you can do is tell me what it said,' Merle complained. 'Must've said more than just stay in the cave.'
'It didn't say to stay in the cave, I did.'
'Well, what'd the blood say?'
'Said we better not mess with the folks down there. They brought death.'
Merle was silent. He stared down at the pelt for a while, then picked it up and peeled it open and moved it through the path of sunlight, squinting at the red smears. 'Is that what it really said?' he asked, sounding doubtful.
'You calling me a liar, son?'
'Well, no. But maybe you didn't read it right.'
'I read it right. Now, you got any notions about the women down there, put them out of your head, or you'll get us both killed. Do you understand?'
'I guess.'
'That's not much of an answer, Merle.' She crawled along her sleeping bag to the dimly lit gap of the cave's entrance. There, she sat down and crossed her legs, blocking the only way out.
'You don't gotta do that,' Merle whined.
'I'll do it, just the same.'
With a sooty rock in each hand, Julie stepped over to the fireplace. 'Here's a couple more for you,' she told Benny, and dropped them to the ground beside him.
'Thanks,' he muttered. He didn't look up. He lifted one of the rocks and added it to the low, circular wall he was building.
'Don't look so pitiful,' Julie said.
'It's all my fault.'
'That's right, Bonzo. Look on the bright side. At least you didn't break her foot.'
'Thanks. You're real nice.'
'Ain't I, though?' Trying to brush the black from her hands, she walked toward the lakeshore. Nick was there, sitting on a rock beside his sister while she soaked her left foot. 'How's it going?' Julie asked.
'Fine,' Heather said.
