Raven Mocker by Don Coldsmith Page A

accusations.”
    The other woman was quiet for a little while.
    “You have heard the stories of the Raven Mocker?” Snakewater finally prompted.
    “Of course. He steals unused life-years at the death of a young person. Or any person. Adds them to his own, to become immortal.”
    Snakewater nodded. “Did you ever hear how he
becomes
a Raven Mocker?”
    A look of alarm, almost of horror, settled on the face of Spotted Frog. “You want to
become
a Raven Mocker?”
    “No, no! Not that at all! It is only… Ah, how can I say it? I am the one who has been accused.”
    The woman rose and stepped back, as if there was a danger in the nearness.
    “I cannot help you!” she snapped.
    “Please!” pleaded Snakewater. “I mean no harm to anyone. I do not know how this started. There has been an attempt on my life. There was a hearing in our Council.”
    Quickly she told about the snake, the outcome of that episode, and of finding the sack in which the snake had been tossed, and of the details of the hearing.
    Spotted Frog’s face softened. “I am made to think,” she pondered, “that your heart is good. Yet I do not know how I can help you.”
    Snakewater’s eyes welled up with tears. “Could I be a Raven Mocker without knowing?” she blurted.
    “Who knows? But I would not think so. No, surely one would
feel
the change when new years were added, no?”
    “
Wado.
Thank you. That was my thought too. But I have no one to talk to… no one to understand.”
    “Ah, we may never understand. Maybe it is not meant that we should. But I have heard that your medicine is good.”
    “I have thought so. I have tried to make it so. But no one comes to me now. They are afraid.”
    “Yes… afraid enough to try to kill you, no?”
    “I fear that is true.”
    “You may have to move, Snakewater. Another town?”
    “I had not thought of that. I have never lived anywhere else. Never
been
anywhere except here.”
    Frog nodded sympathetically. “I will conjure a spell for you. I wish that I could do more.”
    A t least it was comforting to know that there was someone who could understand. Even if she was no closer to understanding the whole thing, here was something to cling to. Spotted Frog, a powerful medicine woman, did not believe that she, Snakewater, could be a Raven Mocker. That was reassuring.
    As she walked along, she fingered the protective amulet that Frog had given her. It was a medicine bag on a thong, a tiny buckskin pouch no bigger than her thumb. The woman had placed tiny pinches of several substances in it. Snakewater did not know what …. She preferred not to know, and her trust in Frog and her medicine was strong.
    She was somewhat stiff and sore from the long journey yesterday. That, she thought with wry humor, was probably good. If she were really a Raven Mocker, her limbs would be young from the young lifetimes she had absorbed. It amused her to think so. It had been a good thing, to share her concerns with another medicine woman, and she was thinking more clearly now.
    It was a matter of concern that Frog had suggested that she move to another town. Such an idea had never occurred to her, but it might be the most practical solution. Another town, a fresh start. It was something to think about.
    She knew that there were Cherokees moving westward, building towns in a place called Arkansas. There would be need for a person with the medicine gift. But how could she find the town where she could settle, one with the need for the skills she could offer?
    I t was well after dark when she reached home. She had refused Frog’s kind invitation to spend the night. She had been away for two days, and it would be good to be home. This thought made her uneasy again about the possibility of moving. Well, she’d think about that later.
    The town was quiet and dark. The moon had risen to help her find her way, and the squat outlines of her modest dwelling had never looked so welcome. She was tired, as she shuffled the last few