Red bone's Arc

Chapter 3 of 12

The forty knelt for Red bone, but they did not mix with his old band. Two days later the camp split in two. His first warriors kept the high ground near the great bear-shaped house, its carved snout looming over the snow. The new men camped below, by the gate. They cooked apart. They ate apart. Berry found Red bone watching both fires and said what Red bone already knew. "One cup of mead and you lose half your force," Berry said. He scratched his braided beard. "They don't hate the enemy yet. They hate each other." That night it almost broke. A new warrior shoved an old one over a stolen blanket. Fists flew. Axes came out. Men poured from both camps, shouting, and the two bands faced each other across the trampled snow. Red bone heard the noise and ran. A white dog reached the fight before he did. It darted between the two lines, barking, teeth bared at both sides. The men flinched back from it. For one breath nobody struck. Red bone used that breath. He stepped into the gap the dog had opened and planted his boots. "Put them away," he said. No one moved. He drew his own axe and threw it down in the snow between them. "I said put them away. The man who swings next swings at me." The white dog trotted to his side and sat, ears up, watching the warriors. Red bone pointed past the gate, toward the dark hills where the rival fires burned. "Five chiefs are coming to kill us," he said. "They don't care which camp you slept in. They'll gut the old band and the new band the same." He looked at the man with the torn blanket, then the man who had shoved him. "You want to fight tonight? Good. You'll fight them. Side by side. Any man who won't stand with his brother can leave now and freeze alone." No one left. The dog stood and crossed to the new warriors, sniffed the blanket, and lay down on it between the two lines. A new man laughed, short and rough. An old man reached down and righted a spilled pot. The axes went back into belts. Red bone split them anew before dawn. He mixed the bands into fighting pairs, one old man to each new one, and set them to drill together with the white dog running the lines. By midday they shared the same fire. They did not love each other. But they ate from the same pot, and they laughed at the same dog. Berry came to him as the drills ended. "They're one force now," he said. Then he nodded at the hills. "You'll need them. A rider came in. The next chief isn't coming to challenge you." He paused. "He's bringing his whole clan to burn this camp."