Some years back, in a rare moment when one too many lungfuls of rainbow-gra.s.s had got the better of his discretion, Mr Snow had hinted at a deeper relationship dating back to the time when he and Magnum had first come to the trading-post as young pupils of their predecessors.

A mutual attraction which he claimed had never been requited because of the strict taboo on s.e.xual relationships between members of different clans.

. Having recently discovered more about Mr Snow's early life, including the hidden cave which he allegedly used for illicit amorous liaisons, Cadillac was no longer sure that the old fox was any great respecter of tradition.

Magnum had survived the Battle of the Trading-Post and had seen Mr Snow lying grey-faced and totally exhausted on what many of his entourage said was his death-bed. Magnum had spent many hours by his side and had been close at hand when the young man she knew as Cloud-Warrior had had several whispered conversations with him. Later, when the first Plainfolk Council ended, she saw the Old One rally, and what remained of their two delegations had journeyed side by side towards Wyoming.

Mr Snow had been alive when they parted and one of the first things she wanted to know was his present state of health.

'Did you not hear of the great battle at Big Fork?"

'I have heard there was a battle with several iron snakes in which many of the Plainfolk perished,' said Magnum.

'One snake was consumed by fire, four more limped away with their backs broken."

Cadillac squared his shoulders. 'The blood that was spilt was the blood of the Clan m'call!" he declared proudly. 'And the Old One died leading them in battle."

The news left Magnum visibly shaken. She hung her head for a long moment and when she raised her eyes to meet theirs her face was streaked with tears. 'I shall miss him,' she said. And with that simple epitaph, she threw back her head, cleared her throat and became her brisk, no-nonsense serf. 'How can I help you?"

Cadillac explained the situation that he and Rain-Dancer found themselves in, and how he was hoping that the extended truce might permit their adoption by

the Clan M'Kenzi.

'For how long?"

'The foreseeable future."

Had they been ordinary Mutes it would have been out of the question, but it was not without precedent for wordsmiths who, for one reason or another, found themselves without a clan. Cadillac himself had been offered the chance of joining a D'Troit clan and had come close to getting himself killed for saying 'no'.

Magnum wiped the tear-stains from her cheeks with the back of her hand.

'You certainly don't believe in p.u.s.s.yfooting around."

'Neither do you." Cadillac shrugged. 'Rain-Dancer and I need a secure base. We won't be here all the time, but when we are we don't expect special treatment. We'll do our share of whatever has to be done like everyone else. You could benefit a great deal from what we know.

Always a.s.suming 'we get back in one piece from the Eastern Lands."

'Is that where you're going?"

'Yes. All will be revealed at the Big White Running Water."

The Mute name for Sioux Falls...

'And we'd like to go there as part of your delegation,' added Roz.

Magnum eyed them both in turn. 'That's kay as far as it goes but what's in it for us? What exactly are these benefits?"

'I'll be in a better position to answer that question when the Plainfolk Council meets,' replied Cadillac.

'But Rain-Dancer is a healer and I know the ways of both sand-burrower and dead-face. And I can make you one promise now. If I outlive you, and provided your people so honour and accept me, I am ready to become wordsmith to the M'Kenzi - unless, of course, you find a worthier apprentice between now and then."

The offer brought tears back to Magnum's cheeks.

'How strange life is! If Mo-Town's hand had caused me to be born in another's place, unfettered by the traditions which separate our clans, you might have been my son and Mr Snow might have been your father.

But it could never be. And now here you are..."

Magnum stood up. Cadillac and Roz followed. 'Welcome, my children."

She embraced them both in turn.

'From this day on, you shall enjoy the same rights and be held in the same esteem as the most favoured of our own sons and daughters."

'Thank you,' said Roz.

Cadillac could see that she was affected by Magnum's emotional reaction to the news of Mr Snow's death. He ran a comforting hand across her shoulders then turned back to Magnum-Force. 'Won't you need to clear this with the clan elders?"

Magnum's jaw-muscles hardened. 'When it comes to important decisions they usually end up doing what I think is best. But before I put this to them, there is. one thing. If you're serious about being our next wordsmith- '

'lam-' 'They will probably insist on you both adopting our clan name.

It means the end of Cadillac m'call. Are you ready for that?"

It was one of those rare occasions when Cadillac was at a loss for words.

Magnum-Force exchange an amused glance with Roz.

'No. Clearly not. Never mind. If the matter comes up - as it most certainly will - I'll suggest we postpone your formal adoption until you return from the Eastern Lands."

'Good thinking,' said Cadillac. 'I won't forget this."

'I don't intend to let you,' said Magnum.

That night, when they lay between the furs in their newly-erected hut, Roz said: 'They did .... ' Cadillac eased away from her. 'Who did?"

'Mr Snow and Magnum-Force."

'Did what?"

Roz hugged him fiercely and pressed her naked body closer to his.

'What we're doing now .... ' The first formally convened Plainfolk Council proved to be a rambling affair that spread itself over the first three weeks of September. With so many hatchets to bury, there was a great deal of argument, much of it bad-tempered. The general truce agreed by the shaken delegates after the Battle of the Trading Post had not been universally observed by the young bloods of their own clans, but that had not deterred them from sending representatives to Sioux Falls. As a consequence, the opening round of debates degenerated into a series of interminable slanging matches in which accusations and counter-accusations were hurled across the ring.

Cadillac and Roz were probably the only partic.i.p.ants not seeking redress for some real or imagined wrong.

After three days of verbal blood-letting had gone by without anything positive having been achieved he began to get a little impatient, but he was shrewd enough to realise that he stood a better chance of impressing his views on the a.s.sembly if he waited for the acrimony to subside.

It was in the second week that a constructive dialogue began to emerge, by which time Cadillac had had ample opportunity to discover how well or poorly each bloodline was represented, and to test the varying moods of the major delegations. As expected, the She-Kargo and M'Waukee were there in strength along with the San' Paul, the lesser bloodline who had stood with them against the D'Troit. There were a surprising number of C'Natti delegations and some from the San'Louis, but still less than half those who, in previous years, would have a.s.sembled at the old trading post.