“Nice. Tadzi, are you fromMoosehide?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“How did you learn suchgood English?” When Kali had been a girl, it hadn’t been spoken atall amongst the tribe, and only a couple of men who negotiated withtraders and trappers knew any at all.
“I’ve been working at itreal hard,” Tadzi said. “I talk to any white people I can. Someday,I want to…” He chomped down on his lip and eyed the ground. “Ishouldn’t say.”
Maybe he was someone like Kali had been,someone who always knew he would leave someday. “Can you take usthere? Introduce us to the medicine man?”
Tadzi brightened. “Can weride there on
“There’s not room forthree,” Cedar said.
Kali gave him a frank look.
“Oh.”
“You’re tough,” she said.“You ran through that whole dog-sled course beside me.”
Cedar patted the boy on the shoulder. “Lookslike I’ve another reason to be jealous of you.”
Part V
Moosehide lay on a flat stretch of land nextto the river, with a tall, craggy ridge guarding it from behind.The fog had finally cleared, and a dozen canoes and fishing boatsfloated in front of the camp, several with nets stretched betweenthem. Square moss houses squatted alongside the shoreline, andthose people who weren’t fishing worked out in front of them,drying and cleaning the catch.
A few ornery nervestangled in Kali’s belly as her little group approached the camp.Would anyone remember her? Would anyone care that she had returned?She sniffed. Not that she
“Are they likely to be aproblem?” Cedar pointed at a trio of men lurking in the trees tothe side of the trail. He was running alongside the SAB while Kalidrove and Tadzi hung on.
“No,” Tadzi said, shoutingto be heard over the rumbling of the engine. “That’s my cousin andhis friends. They’re supposed to be hunting, but they’re likelyhiding from the chief and drinking again. When he finds out, he’llrustle up some punishment for them.”
“I’d be more concernedabout that fellow watching us with a shotgun in hand.” Kali noddedtoward the trail ahead of them. It was a foregone conclusion thatnobody here had seen anything like her steam-powered bicyclebefore. She didn’t think anyone would mistake it for some attackvehicle and shoot, but one never knew.
“He’s out in the open,”Cedar said. “Likely a guard for the camp.”
“Guards aren’t usual forthe camps. At least they weren’t when I was a girl.” Kali twistedher head around to ask Tadzi, “Is there usually a guard out whilepeople are fishing?”
“It’s on account of themurders.”
Now Cedar’s head whipped about, and hepinned the boy with a stare. “Murders? Have women been killed heretoo?”
“Not here,” Tadzi said,“but we heard about our people being killed in yourtown.”
“It’s not our town,” Cedarsaid. “We’re just visitors.”
Tadzi’s brow wrinkled.
“From the Han point ofview, all the white people here are just visitors,” Kali pointedout.
“Lots of visitors,” Tadzisaid. “I don’t mind. I like your people. And your shinycontraptions!” He patted the seat.
As the SAB drew near, the man with theshotgun stepped onto the trail to block their way. Kali did notrecognize him, though he was young enough that they should havebeen children at the same time. Maybe he had come from anothertribe through marriage.
He wore the same sort of wool britches asthe folks in Dawson, a derby hat, and a beaded caribou shirt.Though Kali had seen Han in town wearing a mixture of traditionalclothing with white man’s garb, it was strange seeing it here, in atrue Han setting. She remembered a few men in the tribe havingprize coats or dusters they had traded furs for, but everyone hadworn predominantly caribou or buckskin clothing when she’d been agirl. But the men, women, and children working and playingthroughout Moosehide wore a mix.
“Who are these people,Tadzi?” the man asked in the Han tongue.
“Friends,” Tadzi said.“They stopped the sky bandits.”
Kali thought she might get a curious look,since she had Han hair and skin coloring and wore her tool- stuffedoveralls instead of a dress, but the SAB itself captured more ofthe man’s attention. He walked about it, studying it from allangles, his shotgun drooping.
Cedar noted the lowered weapon and shook hishead with a soft, “Tsk, tsk” on his lips. No, not exactly amilitary-trained guard.
Kali supposed she should introduce herselfand let the man know she understood the language, but she couldn’tdecide whether to use her Han name or the one she had chosen forherself when her father hadn’t been able to pronounce theother.
“I’m Kali,” she said,deciding she wanted the name
The guard’s eyebrows disappeared beneath hishat. “Yes,” he finally said. “Wait here.”
“I’ll go with him,” Tadzisaid, still speaking in English. “I’ll tell the
“Understood,” Cedarsaid.
When they were alone, he came to standbeside Kali and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Are you allright?”
“Fine.”
“You seem tense. Andgrumpy.”
“I’m not grumpy,” Kalisaid. “This is my usual state. It’s probably caused by living herein a climate without enough sun. I really want to see that Floridaplace you mentioned.”
“There’s plenty of sunthere, but alligators and crocodiles too.”
“I’m still waiting for youto show me that scar,” she said.
Cedar kneaded the back of her neck, thumbteasing out the knots in her muscles. It felt good, and she had tokeep herself from making contented sighs or displaying otherobvious signs of pleasure. She had a notion a respectable girlshouldn’t lean up against a man like a hound getting a scratch.
He stepped closer and lowered his voice. “Iappreciate you coming along with me. I know it didn’t work out wellfor you the last time I talked you into coming on one of myadventures, and I can tell you’re not comfortable here.”
“It’s not that bad. It’sjust…” Under his continuing massage, Kali’s chin drooped of its ownaccord, and millimeter by millimeter her shoulders relaxed. Hereally ought to spend less time in the woods, chasing criminals,and more time with her. “I never fit in. I don’t fit in in Dawsoneither, but everyone’s a stranger there, and people speak alldifferent languages and look all different ways. You feel lessodd.”
“That’s all there was toit? Not fitting in? Or did they treat you poorly?” Cedar’s eyesnarrowed as if he wondered if he should smack someone around on herbehalf.
“They treated my motherpoorly, because of her powers. If she’d been male, she would havebeen a medicine man, but they called her a…you would say a witch.They blamed anything bad on her. She was young, too, when she hadme, and I heard…. I don’t know if it’s true, but some people saidthey’d seen her do things out of spite. Hurt people. She never hurtme. She was kind, and I hate that I doubt her, but somehow she gota reputation that spread amongst the different tribes. My fatherheard of her and sought her out because of her power. Hewanted-well, you heard what that Amelia woman said. I think he washoping for some powerful heir to carry on his alchemy legacy, tofurther refine flash gold.”