stopped at the thud of the blow.
Blue Water Woman fell to her knees. The warrior raised the rock to hit her again, but she pitched to the ground, unconscious.
The warrior threw the rock aside.
Relief washed over Lou, but it was short-lived. The next moment the warrior had her in his arms and threw her over the pinto. He swung up and lashed the reins.
She was being abducted.
From the heights to the west, the valley was a green gem rich with life, the lake blue turquoise at its middle.
The seven Tunkua gazed down at the brown dots that were the lodges of the invaders.
“We still have a long way to go,” Splashes Blood said.
Skin Shredder grunted and continued their descent. He did not care how far it was. He had come to avenge the death of his brother and nothing would stop him, save his own end.
They passed through ranks of tall firs, somber with shadows, and came on a grassy shelf and a spring. Skin Shredder hardly gave it a glance and was halfway across the shelf when Splashes Blood cleared his throat.
“We walked all day and we walked all night and now you would have us deny our dry throats?”
Skin Shredder stopped. “Drink if you want.”
“We have not eaten, either.”
“You have your deer meat.”
All of them had bundles of dried venison, which six of them now unwrapped. Splashes Blood bit into a piece and smacked his lips. “You are not eating.”
“I am not hungry.” Skin Shredder began to pace, his gaze on the lake and the lodges.
“You think of one thing and one thing only. It is not good.”
“When I want someone to tell me how I should think, I will ask them.”
Splashes Blood stopped chewing and frowned. “We have been friends since our mothers took us from our cradleboards, yet you talk to me with so little respect.”
Skin Shredder stopped pacing. He frowned, too, and then raised a hand to the scarred ridges on his face. “I am sorry. Killing the Bear People is all I have thought of for many sleeps now. I want them to suffer. I want them to suffer more than anything.”
“They killed my brother, too,” Splashes Blood reminded him. “We must not underestimate them. We must be rested and have our wits about us.”
“It is hard to rest when your heart burns with the need to slay.”
“You must try,” Splashes Blood insisted.
Skin Shredder slung his bow across his back. His meat was tied by a deerskin thong to his wolf hide belt. All of them wore such belts.
The Tunkua rite of manhood required three things of every warrior: that he scar his face with the symbols of their clan; that he fast for five days and five sleeps and have a vision; and that he hunt and slay a wolf and forever wear its hide.
“I have been told there is a girl among the Bear People,” Splashes Blood mentioned. “Those who have seen her say she looks to be but fifteen winters.”
“You and your girls…” Skin Shredder sank his teeth into a piece of meat. “Maybe the Bear People do not age as we do. Maybe they look younger than they are.”
“No matter how old she is, I want her first.”
“You can have her. I want only to spill blood. The rest does not interest me as it once did.”
Another warrior had moved to where the shelf fell away into pines. He now pointed and called out to the others. “Come see. I do not know what it is, but it was not there the last time I spied on them.”
Skin Shredder and Splashes Blood went over.
“Where is this thing, Star Dancer?”
“Look at the east end of the lake, close to the trees. I think it is a lodge. But it is not like the other lodges. It is longer and round at the top.”
“I see it,” Splashes Blood said.
“It is too far to tell much,” Skin Shredder declared. “But you are right. It is different from the others.”
“What can it mean? Have more Bear People come? Or have other people come to the valley?”
The question caused Skin Shredder to clench his fists. “It is as it was by the bay. First a few came, and then more and more, until we were driven from our home.”
“The world has too many people.”
“Will we move again?” Star Dancer asked.
“No.” Skin Shredder was emphatic. “This time we will not let them drive us off. This time we kill them as they come.”
“But if they come in great numbers…” Splashes Blood did not say the rest. They all knew his meaning.
Skin Shredder gloomily ate. That was the problem. The Tunkua were a small tribe. Never had there been more than several hundred of them, and since being forced from their home, their numbers had dwindled. Battles with other tribes, wild beasts, and disease had taken a toll. “They are not in great numbers now. We will kill all those who are here and burn their lodges as a warning to any who come later.”
“And if some come anyway and stay?”
“We will kill them, too. We will be ghosts in the night and stalkers by day, and they will fear us. We might even let some of them leave to tell the rest of their kind that this valley is bad medicine.”
“I like that idea. Fear is more powerful than blood. Fear will keep them away. Spilling their blood will only make them mad and they will want vengeance.” Splashes Blood grimly smiled. “Look at us.”
“Fear is good,” Star Dancer agreed.
“We will talk it over with the Old One when we return to our village,” Skin Shredder proposed. “He is wise in all things and will help guide our steps.”
Refreshed by the meat and the water, they were soon under way. Skin Shredder was in the lead, studying landmarks. To the north gleamed a glacier high atop a mountain. To the south was a cleft peak. To the east, barely visible on the far valley rim, was the gap that led out of the valley into the world beyond.
Splashes Blood cleared his throat. “I have been thinking. We should not burn everything.”
“No?”
“They have many wondrous things, these Bear People. They have thunder sticks that spew fire and death. They have knives made of a new kind of metal. They have blankets much finer than ours, and who knows what else in their lodges.”
“The Bear People own much that we do not.”
“What is to stop us from owning it? After we kill them, why not take all that we want?”
“It will not be much,” Skin Shredder noted. “We can take only what we can carry.”
“We can take a lot if we pack it on their horses.”
Here was a thought that excited Skin Shredder. The Tunkua never had horses of their own. It put them at a great disadvantage when waging war and in moving about.
Star Dancer said to Splashes Blood, “It is a fine idea. I am for it.”
“But we do not know how to handle horses,” Skin Shredder reminded them.
“If the Bear People learned, we can learn.”
“They are animals and we are men,” Star Dancer declared.
“It will be a great thing we do,” Splashes Blood said. “Our people will praise us. Songs will be sung around the campfires about what we have done.”
Skin Shredder tingled with excitement. It was a very fine idea, indeed. He couldn’t wait to start the slaying. Not only would he have his revenge, he stood to stand high in the councils of the Tunkua. “We should thank the Bear People before we kill them.” And he did something he rarely did—he smiled.
