Almost involuntarily, Hana looked down at the fox tooth she still held in her palm. Yes, they were like that, only bigger.
The boy was filthy, caked with mud from the river, his blond hair ruffled crazily, his eyes staring wildly from side to side. There was blood on his mouth and chin.
"He's a demon, all right," one of the men said. Five men were standing around the crouching boy, several of them with spears, others with hastily grabbed rocks. "What else could have a human body with animal eyes and teeth?"
"A spirit?" Hana said. She didn't realize that she was going to say it until the words were out. But then, with everybody looking at her, she drew herself up tall. "Whether he's a demon or a spirit, you'd better not hurt him. It's Old Mother who should decide what to do with him. This is a matter for shamans."
"You're not a shaman yet," another of the men said. It was Arno, a very broad-shouldered man who was the leader of the hunters. Hana didn't like him.
And she wasn't sure why she had spoken up in favor of the stranger. There was something in his eyes, the look of a suffering animal. He seemed so alone, and so frightened-and so much in pain, even though there were no visible wounds on his body.
"She's right, we'd better take him to Old Mother," one of the hunters said. "Should we hit him on the head and tie him up, or do you think we can just herd him?"
But at that moment, a high thin sound came to Hana over the rushing of the river. It was a woman screaming.
"Help me! Somebody come help me! Ryl's been attacked!"
Chapter 5
Hana turned and hurried up the riverbank. The woman screaming was Sada, her mother's sister^ and the girl who was stumbling beside her was Ryl, Hana's little cousin.
Ryl was a pretty girl, ten years old. But right now she looked dazed and almost unconscious. And her neck and the front of her leather tunic were smeared with blood.
"What happened?" Hana gasped, running to put her arms around her cousin.
"She was out looking for new greens. I found her lying on the ground-I thought she was dead!" Sada's face contorted in grief. She was speaking rapidly, almost incoherently. "And look at this-look at her neck!"
On Ryl's pale neck, in the center of the blood, Hana could just make out two small marks. They looked like the marks of sharp teeth-but only two teeth.
"It had to be an animal," Ket breathed from behind Hana. "But what animal only leaves the marks of two teeth?"
Hana's heart felt tight and oddly heavy at once- like a stone falling inside her. Sada was already speaking.
"It wasn't an animal! She says it was a man, a boy! She says he threw her down and bit her-and he drank her blood." Sada began to sob, clutching Ryl to her. "Why would he want to do that? Oh, please, somebody help me! My daughter's been hurt!"
Ryl just stared dazedly over her mother's arm.
Ket said faintly, "A boy..."
Hana gulped and said, "Let's take her to Old Mother ..." But then she stopped and looked toward the river.
The men were driving the stranger up the bank. He was snarling, terrified and angry-but when he saw Ryl, his expression changed.
He stared at her, his wounded animal eyes sick and dismayed. To Hana, it seemed as if he could hardly stand to look at her, but he couldn't look away. His gaze was fixed on the little girl's throat.
And then he turned away, his eyes shut, his head falling into his hands. Every movement showed anguish.
It was as if all the fight had gone out of him at once.
Hana looked back and forth in horror from the girl with blood on her throat to the stranger with blood on his mouth. The connection was obvious and nobody had to make it out loud.
But why? she thought, feeling nauseated and dizzy. Why would anybody want to drink a girl's blood?
No animal and no human did that.
He must be a demon after all.
Arno stepped forward. He gripped Ryl's chin gently, turning her head toward the stranger.
"Was he the one who attacked you?"
Ryl's dazed eyes stared straight ahead-and then she suddenly seemed to focus. Her pupils got big and she looked at the face of the stranger.
Then she started screaming.
Screaming and screaming, hands flying up to cover her eyes. Her mother began to sob, rocking her.
Some of the men began to shout at the stranger, jabbing spears at him, overcome with shock and horror.
All the sounds merged together in a terrifying cacophony in Hana's head.
Hana found herself trembling. She reached automatically for little Ryl, not knowing how to comfort her.
Ket was crying. Sada was wailing as she held her child. People were streaming out of the limestone cave, yelling, trying to find out what all the noise was about.
And through it all, the stranger huddled, his eyes shut, his face a mask of grief.
Arno's voice rose above the others. "I think we hunters know what to do with him. This is no longer a matter for shamans!" He was looking at Hana as he said it.
Hana looked back. She couldn't speak. There was no reason for her to care what happened to the stranger-but she did care. He had hurt her cousin... but he was so wretched, so unhappy.
Maybe he couldn't help it, she thought suddenly. She didn't know where the idea came from, but it was the kind of instinct that made Old Mother say she should be a shaman. Maybe ... he didn't want to do it, but something drove him to. And now he's sorry and ashamed. Maybe... oh, I don't know!
Still trembling, she found herself speaking out loud again. "You can't just kill him. You have to take him to Old Mother."
"It's none of her business!"
"It's her business if he's a demon! You're just co-leader, Arno. You take care of the hunting. But Old Mother is the leader in spiritual things."