'What else do you have in there?' Fat Crack asked.
'Nothing much,' Lani said. 'My people-hair charm. A finger from a bat's wing. And a piece of Betraying Woman's pottery.'
'Bring it,' Fat Crack said. 'The piece of pottery, I mean. After we have the Peace Smoke, you and I will study the pottery together.'
Using Looks At Nothing's old Zippo lighter, Fat Crack carefully lit the wiw. And then, one puff at a time, they smoked the bitter-tasting wild tobacco, passing the lit cigarette back and forth, saying 'Nawoj' each time it changed hands.
'How is Quentin?' Lani asked.
'Out of the hospital,' Fat Crack replied. 'But he checked himself into a drug and alcohol rehab program.'
'Will he be better?' Lani asked.
Fat Crack shrugged. 'Maybe,' he said. 'He has let go of the secret of his brother's death. Secrets like that can be very bad. They eat at you. Perhaps now, he'll be able to get better.'
'Perhaps,' Lani agreed.
They were quiet again. Far off to the east, flickers of lightning touched the horizon. The summer rains were coming. They would be here soon-by the end of the week at the latest. In a way, Lani was sorry that when the deluges began she would be living back inside the house in Gates Pass with a regular roof over her head rather than a canvas tent.
Lani Walker wasn't a smoker-not even of regular cigarettes. By the time the last of the wild tobacco smoke had eddied away into the nighttime air, she felt light-headed.
'Have you ever heard of divining crystals?' Fat Crack asked. His voice seemed to come to her from very far away.
'I've heard of them,' she said. 'But I've never seen any.'
Fat Crack reached into the medicine pouch and pulled out the chamois bag. Untying it, he held open Lani's hand and poured the four crystals into it.
'Looks At Nothing said I should keep them until I found a successor worthy of them,' he said. 'It was through using these that I knew to look for you near Rattlesnake Skull that morning. Now I want you to try it.'
'Me?' Lani asked. 'But I don't know what to do.'
'Take your piece of pottery,' Fat Crack directed. 'Look at it for a time through each of the different crystals and tell me what you see.'
One at a time, holding them up to the firelight, Lani examined the pottery through each of the first three crystals. 'I'm not seeing anything,' she said, when she put down the third. 'It's not going to work.'
'Try the last one,' Fat Crack urged.
This time, instead of putting the crystal down, Lani continued staring at it for a long time. First a minute passed, and then another. Finally she looked up at him.
'The Apache warrior- Ohb-s-chu cheggiadkam-came back here looking for his lover, didn't he? He came looking for Betraying Woman. Somehow his spirit found its way into Andrew Carlisle.'
Fat Crack nodded. 'That's right,' he said. 'And into Mitch Johnson as well.'
'And now they're free?'
'Yes,' Gabe Ortiz answered. 'When you broke Betraying Woman's pots after all this time, you set all of them free.'
Gabe reached out. One at a time he picked up each of the four divining crystals and returned them to the bag. When the bag was tied shut, he placed the crystals-chamois bag and all-inside Lani's medicine basket.
'They belong to you now, Bat Meeter,' he said with a smile. 'They are a gift from Looks At Nothing to you, from one wise old siwani to a young one. Use them well.'
