Towards dusk he rose from the ground and walked out to meet the seven hunters, laden with meat, who were heading for the compound.
The leader, a tall broad-shouldered warrior with a broken nose and a scar across his lips, gave a crooked smile as he saw Feargol. He was carrying a small dead deer upon his shoulders.
‘Ha! Ghost Walker. Have you also come to marvel at our foolish visitors?’
‘Not to marvel, Saoquanta. You are carrying much meat.’
‘They are dying down there. They had one hunter, but he broke his leg. Now they have nothing.’
‘And you will feed them?’
‘It is a small thing, Ghost Walker.’
‘No, it is not, Saoquanta. It is a great thing. I have seen it.’
Saoquanta tipped the deer from his shoulder to the ground. The other six warriors laid down the meat they were carrying. ‘What is it that you have seen?’
‘I have seen the rivers boil and stink, and the air darken. I have seen the buffalo vanish and the land laid to waste. I have seen the tears of the mountains, and heard the cries of the valleys. The people in that compound will be the fathers and the mothers of the darkness. Their children will outnumber the stars. They will rape and mutilate the land until there is nothing clean left to destroy.’
‘These . . . fools will do this?’ said Saoquanta.
‘And others like them.’
‘These words are heavy. They sit like stones upon the heart, Ghost Walker.’
‘And upon mine.’
‘What is it that you advise?’
‘I do not advise, Saoquanta. I merely prophesy.’
The broken-nosed warrior nodded. ‘Your dreams are always true. It is well known you walk the spirit paths. The Great Spirit has blessed you.’
‘He has.’
‘He has blessed me also, Ghost Walker. He has told me to protect my people, and to nurture the land. He has made me a hunter of great skill, and a provider to my people. I need to think on what you have said.’
With that he moved away from Feargol and entered the trees.
For more than an hour the hunters waited. At last Saoquanta returned. He sat once more with Feargol.
‘If I walk into my camp and I kill a child with my knife that would be evil and the Great Spirit would be saddened by my actions. Not so, Ghost Walker?’
‘It is so.’
‘If I walk into my camp and a child is starving and I offer it no food and it dies have I not killed it?’
‘Yes,’ agreed Feargol, his heart heavy.
‘The fools have children with them. They are dying. I have food. If I walk away now will not the Great Spirit be saddened, Ghost Walker?’
‘The descendants of these people will have no understanding of the Great Spirit,’ said Feargol. ‘They will be thoughtless and greedy, merciless and vile.’
‘It seems to me you are saying that if I do this small evil then great good will grow from it. This may be a great truth. It is not a truth I choose to understand. I am Saoquanta. I am a hunter. I do not let children starve. This is not why the Great Spirit blessed me.’ Saoquanta rose and lifted the deer to his shoulders.
Feargol stood. Curiously the sense of unease left him. He felt free of the burden. ‘You are a great man, Saoquanta. I shall walk with you, for I know the language of these men.’
Together they walked down the hillside to the compound. There were no guards at the stockade and the gates were open. The hunters moved inside.
Several gaunt men saw them. One of them, seeing the meat they carried, fell to his knees and offered up a prayer of thanksgiving.